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 it still is a bit unsettling.  Prayers.

We also have a mouse...I think.  Both of us have seen something dash past the spare bedroom door where we spend our time sitting and studying.  It must be of a reasonable size for us to see something whiz by.  We put out a huge, huge rat trap with peanut butter.  ( I mean one of those that would break your finger if it snapped on you.) Nothing.  But we did not see the mouse yesterday either...if it was a mouse.  But what are the other choices? I remember one really, really smart and capable mouse in China who plagued us for a long time. It was big enough that it could knock things off the counter.  We had no luck catching it either.  My main memory is Rick trying to unstick himself from the mouse sticky paper we were using.  If I am reporting it here, the theft and mouse have been the high point of the past few weeks.

Other than that, we are in the midst of the end of the nine week period, which means report cards, comments, parent teacher conferences, etc. etc.  Not the most fun of times, but moving towards the end of this period.  I do feel kind of old and beleagured a bit.  I can do the teaching, (and continue to love it) but the other stuff that is involved with teaching (and truly are necessities) weigh heavier and take more time than they used to.  It did not help that it coincided with 99 narrative descriptive stories from China, but I am almost done with them.  Rick says he has 40 left...but he is not responsible for grades.

We are in a weather period here where we can see the mountains much more clearly than we have previously been able to.  We are surrounded by 5 huge and gorgeous volcanoes.  Since we are close to the equator they are tree covered, except for one that has snow on cold days, but if I am living at 7,000 feet, then I think these are like 13,000 feet.  We truly live in a pretty place.