Road to Rwanda----Haircuts and Machettes

 Rick's hair was getting really ragged. He won't let me touch it....for good reason, but on the way home from downtown tonight, I made him go into the hair salon (euphemism) that is about 100 yards from our apartment.  He did not want to do it. And it is a little scary because how many white people's hair would anyone here ever have dealt with, but I just insisted.  They were really, really nice and competent.  A lady was obviously in charge, but there were a couple men working for her that did all the hair.  As I sat there waiting, a student from our school with her mother came out of the little area where they wash hair. They proceeded to put curlers into her straightened hair.  I realized they could do that for me, so I asked if they would.  No running water.  They brought in water in big buckets and heated it over a burner.  The man then carefully, oh so very carefully, washed and set my hair.  I do not have any access to hot rollers or curling iron and my hair has been

Road to Rwanda----Prayer Request

 We caught our mouse.  The first man-sized trap we tried was too big and we just fed the mouse 3 meals of peanut butter and cheese, before we traded it at school for the live mouse trap.  That worked within about an hour of putting it down. ....but then we were stuck with a live  fairly large mouse.  We realized that we had no idea how to kill the mouse, open the trap, nr dispose of the body? We just set it outside on the back step for the night since it was late.  When I left in the morning, the mouse had rolled in the circular trap to the other side of the porch and was still squeaking and we still did not know how to handle him/her.  The guard rescued us....I did not ask the details...but we brought the guard a pizza just now to say thank you.  We reset the trap, but after 3 days, no more mice, so I guess we are again rodent free. Yay! We had parent/teacher conferences at school this week.  That meant very long days talking to people after teaching all day and not much prep time. Bu

Road to Rwanda---Theft, Mouse, Mountains

 Our garbage can was stolen 2 nights ago.  When I was leaving in the early morning, our garbage was dumped on the ground outside our back door and the can was gone.  The surprising thing is that we live in a walled apartment complex.  The gates and doors are locked.  Most of the walls have barb wire strung over them. One section it might be possible for them to climb over, but with difficulty.  We also have a night guard on duty.  It is a bit of an uncomfortable feeling.  It was the only thing available to be stolen as far as any of us can see.  The other apartments are even more inaccessible than ours.  As far as actual loss, a garbage can is pretty unimportant. It is the safety factors that weigh on us a bit, particularly after the home of a family with children at school was broken into a few weeks ago.  The teenage brother scared the thieves off when it looked like they were going to harm his older sister.  These things are not really common here and overall we are very safe, but i

Road to Rwanda---Saturday morning walk....and Ebola?

 My computer cord was left at school yesterday after the movie night in the gym (Zootopia).  So I was up at 4 to make food for company at supper tonight, (I was up because I just can not seem to sleep in....but I can nap again after awhile.) and then at 6, I walked to school to get my computer cord.  I am so thankful to be able to walk like this. I have not walked these distances since leaving Panama in 2017. As always, the mile to school and the mile back was interesting.  It is Saturday morning, but being so early I could only hear one Seventh Day Adventist service.  Later in the morning, you can hear many congregations as you walk.  I also encountered two groups of 50+ people running in cadence to militaristic chants.  I felt a little uncomfortable with this.  In some places I have lived you stay away from this type of groups. I was also the only foreigner I saw on my whole trip to and from school (not that I ever see foreigners on this trip.) But I asked a passerby what the groups