Road to Rwanda---A Touching Christmas Surprise

 I try to tell a story of some sort every place I live at Christmas.  Last year and this year I am telling the story to the 3 separate chapel services we have for the students. Today was the first chapel and it was for kindergarten through grade 2, maybe about 40 kids. This year I am choosing to pretend that I am a shepherd to whom the angels announce Jesus' birth.  I started as the shepherd sounding very poor and discouraged.  To my surprise one of the little kindergarteners in the front row, stood up and came and gave me a hug! I don't know when I have been more touched.  Tears came to my eyes, and I looked at the teachers who were present who were covering their mouths in equal awe at the tenderness of the student.  As the story progressed and I acted out terror at seeing the angels, 4 more of the kindergarteners stood up and gave me a hug.  The teacher had to motion for his students to stay seated!  The PE teacher says that when she gives the younger students time to plan t

Road to Rwanda----Staffing and Bible Study

 I just inherited 7 more hours of teaching per week.  One of the Rwandan teachers just got accepted to a school in Ottawa for her masters degree and is leaving at the end of next week.  We have to divvy up her classes and that means I get 7 extra hours of 7th grade English. This is the second staff who has left this year for further education.  And the grade 5 teacher is recuperating from health issues in Kenya (her home) and will not return this year.  The director and his wife are in the States just having had surgery for breast cancer.  We are SHORT STAFFED.  Don't you feel like one of these positions is the place God wants you?  It is a lovely school in a lovely country with really great kids ....most of the time.  (Can you tell that all of us are just kind of hanging on until Christmas break, waiting for a bit of a rest.) And then you have those high points.  There are a group of 3 girls who last year had online high school classes here at VVA.  I had devotions with them in th

Road to Rwanda----When we visit the US

  Elisabeth Godbold Arnold quotes  From Marilyn R. Gardner: "When my mom and dad first moved overseas, they would travel by ship. Instead of frenzied airport arrivals and departures, they would wave from the balcony of a ship. They would wave until those they loved faded out of sight, and all that was left were tears on their faces and a wide ocean that would be their landscape for the next six weeks. They left slowly, and they entered slowly. Those long days and nights at sea prepared them for their next steps on land. It was a good way to travel. For six weeks you were literally between worlds, without expectations from either. Sometimes I wish it were still that way. We move so quickly between countries that it is hard to breathe. Currency, language, food, and customs change in a short plane ride. The cultural lines get blurred, and we have high expectations of how quickly we will adjust to whatever culture we find ourselves. No wonder we find ourselves exhausted, collapsed on

Road to Rwanda----Changes in Teaching

 We were very surprised and saddened to be told two days ago, that this would be the last semester that we would be teaching online for the Asian Mainland University (trying to be obscure in my writing)that we have been contracted to for six years. For three of those years we lived there and then after covid we have taught for an additional three years: oral and then written Engish.  Although this means that we at times have been overwhelmingly busy with about 100 essays a week to grade, it also has filled a place in our lives that we are having trouble imagining letting go of.  Evidently this decision is being made on the government level, and the university has no choice but to comply.  I understand that it is MUCH better for the students to have inperson teachers, rather than the rather poor substitute of online teaching.  Still, written English involves more grading of and reflection on papers than actual interaction.  It means that the limited amount of Christian witness we could

Road to Rwanda---Peace Is Out!

  Peace has finally been released from the nursing home. It was suppose to be for 90 days.  We left her in the nursing home the second week of July, 2022.  All of the funding stream, paperwork, appointments, protocols are finished and she was released today to live with a lovely and experienced family in Leominster, MA.  Everyone is excited.

Road to Rwanda-----"Give me money."

I have continued to struggle since returning with knowing how to handle children who accost us and ask for money.  This is a perpetual moral issue for me. When does one give to beggars and when does one not?  How much do you give to beggars? I have not a doubt that I will bear blood guiltiness for not being sensitive to the Lord's leading in this.   As I walked home from school on Thursday, it was particularly difficult.  Many, many children, even if they know no other English words know, "Give me money." Even some adults seem to think it is a way to greet one.  (A bus driver that I waved at as he drove past most mornings last year, leaned out of his window one of the last school days and said, "Give me money." This was an adult, employed man with a bus full of children behind him who heard his statement.)  Thursday as I walked, first one boy about 10 came up behind me and said, "Give me money." His clothes were dirty and ragged, but he also was not st

Road to Rwanda----Matresses

 So we slept 2 nights on our bed that we have just returned to after a summer on US beds.  We have slept on this bed for a year. Last fall we went to the capital, 2 and a half hours away, and bought an expensive fluffy mattress cover.  The original mattress is only slightly better than a soft board.  We survived the year by using the mattress cover, but perhaps "survived" is the best description.  So, after 2 nights, and feeling like we were bruised in the morning, we decided we had to do something else.  We knew that there are form rubber mattressess downtown here and we decided we would go look at them.  Before we even left we discussed how we would get a mattress home.  We have memories of 30 years ago in Taiwan finding a good kingsize mattress left out for giving away.  We were young and adventurous and took our motorscooter and as Rick drove the scooter, I rode behind him with the mattress balanced on my back and held it by the tip of my fingers while we jockeyed it home

Road to Rwanda......Home again, home again...

 Just want everyone to know that we arrived back home in Rwanda last night at 11 p.m.  It was a good and easy trip....and I can't always say that.  I slept a great deal of the way.  Rick did not, but he was able to stretchout and relax.  Of course when we arrived at our house at 11, the electricity had been turned off.  Good country where we can just go on our phones and pay that way and it was reinstated within about 10 minutes.  Our propane was out, but used up the very last available penny to replace the tank at 8 this morning...and then went to the bank, so we are fine again, now.  The internet cannot be turned back on until Monday, but I am up here at school using their wifi.  I promised myself that I would walk the mile to and from school for the next 2 weeks to work on those US pounds....but I just could not face in the middle of jetlag that walk up hill to get here. I will walk the mile down hill.  It is so tempting not to because I just have to step out my door and hail a

Road to Rwanda---Dentists

 I had two teeth pulled today.  It started in Rwanda with intermittent pain.  I went to the dentist in Musanze.  He took x-rays and gave me antibiotics and said maybe it would be OK, but if not, then get it looked at.  Peter was able to get me an appointment with his lovely new dentist.  The young dentist was just so caring....and had been for Peter's children earlier after Peter had been through many, many dentists finding someone who would care for his youngest's teeth. The dentist had been on a dental missions trip to Quito, which was a nice connection.  The young detnist was concerned enough about my teeth to get an oral surgeon to look at me immediately. The dentist then prayed with me and sent me on my way, with a large discount for his services.  The surgeon was also a Christian.  We had good conversations while he was working on my teeth.  When I went to pay for the procedure, there was no charge.  Brought tears to my eyes.  God blesses.  We have had a good vacation so

Road to Rwanda---Therefore go and make disciples of all nations

  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations,  Matthew 28:19 I was reflecting on this verse this morning.  You know our lives have been much more about "making disciples" than about "saving the lost".  Perhaps only in Beijing did we actually have a "seekers" group with people who really did not know Jesus.  But, instead, our lives have mainly been spent with kids.  Kids, who need to be taught what it means to grow up to be Christian adults.  Yes,  we have also taught a great deal about English and social studies and math and science, but absolutely the underlying theme has always been, "How does this relate to being a Christian?"  I can honestly say that where we are now in Rwanda, I believe every one of my 25 middle school and high school students are believers.  That does not mean that there are not daily lessons in honesty, and integrity and moral purity, intensively sometimes. I have tasked the whole group with sharing during assembly on

Road to Rwanda----Mudslides

 We are safe here in Musanze but very near here 130+ people were killed in floods and mudslides on Tuesday night.  It rains a lot in April, but for Monday and Tuesday nights, every time I woke in the night I could hear torrential rains on the roof.  Part of the problem of course was that the flooding came in the night with no real warning, and people were literally swept away in their beds.  This is known as the land of a 1,000 hills, and so the mountainous terrain is particularly prone to these types of problems. I am sure the school will do something to help of a relief nature.  A web site : https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/rwanda-uganda-flooding-1.6830728?utm_source=join1440&utm_medium=email&utm_placement=newsletter P.S. Around my eye is now blistering.  I think it will start peeling soon.  I have never had my eyelids peel before. 

Road to Rwanda---Insects

 We are very blessed to live at 7,000 feet and thus have many fewer insects than if we were at a lower altitude this close to the Equator (3 degrees south latitude).  One of the most deadly insects that we have very few of are malarial and dengue fever mosquitos.  Although our bed is built with 4 high posts for mosquito netting, it is not necessary here.  We also do not have tse-tse flies which cause deadly sleeping sickness and whose presence often helps dictate where game reserves are located. (We saw them in our latest safari trek.)  Nor do we have putsi flies like we did in Zambia.  When they are present any clothes which have been hung outside to dry (which means everything) has to be ironed before use, or the putsi flies burrow under your skin and lay eggs. (Unpleasant.)  We have very clear memories of what ironing does to underpanties and bras. I am astounded at the kids' reaction to insects in the classroom.  If anything flies in, but particularly a bee, many of the student

Road to Rwanda----Peace's Placement

 The following poem was in my devotions this morning. I did not understand it at first, but it was paired with the Scripture about Thomas's doubt. The poem is a poignant reminder that we think we need religious trappings to communicate with God....or He needs them to communicate with us.  But He is all around us and speaks in every circumstance, detail of nature, prayer fulfilled.  Yesterday we received an email from Peace's supervisor for receiving her funding: " Peace is a 'pending participant', which means she will be assigned an MFP-RS slot soon as well as a service coordinator from DDS."  This means that soon, hopefully very soon, Peace can leave the nursing home after almost 9 months being there.  When we started the process of moving Peace to Massachusetts I talked directly to one of the head supervisors for DDS. I was told she would never qualify for the resources provided through DDS in MA, and that we could not even apply. We would need to apply f

Road to Rwanda----Rwandan Genocide against the Tutsi

Starting today we have the next week off from school.  You might think that it is Easter holiday, and that is certainly one factor, but more basically here it is a week (really 100 days, until July) of remembrance for the Rwandan genocide against the Tutsi in 1994.  When we started to hear about this in the wider international community in 1994, we were utterly horrified....but delayed any response until almost a million Tutsi and moderate Hutu were massacred.  I remember.....and the mourning I felt particularly because of its relationship to the  people group in my beloved Zambia, where we lived and loved from 1981-1984.  Today, now, it is a moving factor in what modern Rwanda is.  For most of the year we are forbidden (it is actually illegal) to concentrate on the genocide or to identify tribal connections.  But for the next month, every April, the nation is to mourn and commemorate the genocide victims.  Rwanda is recognized as a nation that has successfully grown past or perhaps in

Road to Rwanda----"The Day When I Lost My Frogs"

  The assignment for my Ph.D. students at Peking University was to write a narrative/descriptive essay about an impactful experience from their childhood.   I have no idea where this student got these ideas, but I thought you might be as entertained by his essay as I was.   The Day When I Lost My Frogs A giant vat was in the yard when I was about 8 years old. One day, my brother advised, “Let's catch some frogs and fill them into the vat for pets.” Catching frogs was not been forbidden by China. It was my first time doing this kind of thing even though it’s normal in the countryside. We were so excited about this advice and started moving. The primary step was to prepare the tools. We imitated the process of the television show we had seen before. We burned a needle with the candle and twisted it into a semicircle as a hook. And we broke off a stripe of wicker from the tree for the rod. Finally, we tied the hook to the rod with a segment of cotton string. We dug s

Road to Rwanda-----Safari (Eat your heart out)

 To celebrate our 70 th and 75 th birthdays we went on safari.  How many people do you know who can say that?  I am writing this sitting in front of a breath taking view down the mountain to lakes and islands below me just outside the gates of the Acagera National Park.   We have been fake charged by a hippo (with huge open mouth and lots of teeth), watched a baby zebra be aggravated by a bird trying to perch on his ear, seen a herd of 40+ elephants, traveled through a village of baboons, sat while a large herd of buffaloes crossed the road in front of us on a night trek, and encountered 4 rhinos just standing beside the road as we were leaving the park last evening.   There were also countess numbers of antelope/deer animals (elands, topi, impala, etc.), exotic birds, and sleeping crocodiles.   About the only thing we did not see was a lion and a leopard.   Our guide was the director from our school who initiated the trip as a birthday present to his 16 year old daughter, who is a

Road to Rwanda---Dentist

 Going to the dentist anywhere is always an unwanted adventure.  I went today and the biggest take away I had is the mixture of new and old.  A friend at school had called the dentist for me.  No appointments, just go and wait.  I was the only one really in line at 9 a.m. when the dentist came.  He took me to his office with a nice modern chair, etc.  He asked if I was familiar with this set-up. I said yes.  It seemed a strange question to me, but he proceeded to tell me before he moved the chair up, down, or to lie down.  I suddently realized that many patients would never have sat in a chair that moved like that before and he was used to warning people before he gave them that sensation.  We then moved to the radiology room.  This chair was very old and outdated, and although he tried to use the machine with me sitting in the chair in the correct position, it did not work.  I had to sit sideways in the chair leaning up against the wall.  I also had to  steady the x-ray machine with m

Road to Rwanda----Prayer Request for Our Daughter, Peace

 We need prayer for Peace's placement.  We moved Peace, our youngest daughter, from Florida where she has been in care for 13 years, to Massachusetts this past July.  Her caregivers in FL had warnd us that the funding and available caregivers were sadly lacking in FL and that we should move her to a State with more secure funding and also closer to family.  The Lord led to move her to MA.  We were told that it might take a year for a place in a nursing home to open up for her before they could begin the process to access the funding stream for her placement.  God opened the doors and after concerted work on our part she was able to go to a small nursing home in Fitchburg, MA after only 3 weeks.  Miracles! We left her there in July.  She has been well cared for and has had good times visiting with her older brother and his family who  live in Fitchburg.  However, it is now 219 days since she has been in the nursing home. It is wearing on her and also she has increasingly become inst

Road to Rwanda----Teaching English on the Other Side of the World

 And so begins our second full time job!  Peking University is ranked as about the 17th university in the world.  It is considered a very deep privilege to teach there. In fact sometimes faculty takes a pay cut to be a professor at PKU just because of the prestige.  I have heard various statistics about acceptance level.  One was that 2 million students take the college entrance exam in China every year, and PKU accepts 2,000.  In one of the journal entries my students write every semester, I ask in the autobiography about their acceptance to PKU.  To a man/woman, they gush about what an unbelievable, dream-come-true privilege it is to be attending this university.  Having not been raised here, I do not have the full visceral reaction.   Our lectures are on PPT, so we only talk face-to-face via WeChat, Asia's social media app, about 4 times in the semester.  This happens when they gather in the classroom to peer review their 4 major essays.  They are always very nervous to talk to

Road to Rwanda---- Home for Disabled Students

 Yesterday we visited a home for disabled students with the preschool teacher from our school.  She had attended a Baptist church at the invitation of one of her students, and at this church was a group of handicapped students.  When she mentioned wanting to visit the home, we said we would go along.  What a blessing.  There are about 20 students ages 6 to 35, but most of them were teenagers.  After a horrifying ride over roads as only Rwanda can produce, we came to the gates with an English sign outside: "Disability does not mean inability".   The buildings were crude and some of the rooms were open air and tent like structures. But the kids swarmed us to give us hugs and greetings.  The older client, a 35 year old abandoned lady with no family, greeted us with "God bless you" in English.  They then sat down in an open air classroom, crowded onto benches and very quietly waited as we were shown the bedrooms, and other classrooms.  The pastor's wife from the chu

Road to Rwanda----Being a Street Seller

 I won't do that again....although it was funny.   Yesterday was the children's fair at school.  I was waiting on the main road by our house for my ride to school. I had a small box with packages of brownie bites that I had made to donate for sale.  I set the box on the ground in front of me.  As people walked by and looked at me and looked at the box, I realized that they thought I probably wanted to sell the brownie bites! Eventually there were 6 or 7 ladies standing in front of me asking me something in Kinyarwanda.  I speak not a word of the local langauge, although I could guess what they were asking.  I laughed and shook my head, but they continued to politely stand in front of me and talk. I finally opened one of the packages and started to hand out the brownie bites. Some readily started to eat them. Some took teeny tiny crumb bites, not sure if they were good. One much older lady with front teeth missing took hers into her hand and then proceeded to hold it out to me a

Road to Rwanda---Ecuadorian Babies Memories

  What a fun time and blessing this week.   I got an email from a name I did not know, but I opened it up. It said, “ My name is ***, adopted from Ecuador and according to my papers, I was in Ann and Rick Marklunds care the first months of my life before I ended up in Norway. You fit the description of my foster parents.”   Although the name was different, I was certain as to which of our babies this is.   During our first overseas missions assignment, from 1976 to 1980 in Quito, Ecuador, we had 13 foster babies.   Our house was empty and we wanted babies so very much.   One day walking down the street we saw an obviously expat lady with an Ecuadorian baby in her arms.   We stopped to admire the baby and talk.   Yes, the lady was a Swedish missionary   working with HCJB Radio Station in   Quito.   She had found an orphan baby that she wanted to facilitate sending to her friends in Sweden, but she did not have any way to care for the baby as the adoption process progressed.   I was ra

Road to Rwanda----Peace has covid

 Last night at about 2:30 a.m. I woke from my dream with someone calling me, "Momma!"  Now and then I hear one of the children calling me like that, but generally it is only God reminding me to pray. I stayed in bed for about an hour waiting to go back to sleep.  When that did not happen, I got up and checked social media.  There were messages waiting for me on Facebook Messenger from Paul and Peace.  Both were letting me know that Peace has covid.  She says it is a mild case with just a stuffy nose and maybe some coughing that just started this morning.  She has been waiting in a nursing home since July for all the paperwork to be completed for the funding stream in Massachusetts for her to access services such as an apartment and support.  As said, she is in a nice friendly nusing home (but who wants to be in a nursing home, and the time has been LONG for her), so I know she will be well cared for,  but we still would appreciate your prayers.  In the middle of the night I w

Road to Rwanda----Hair Salons

 I just came home from my weekly hair appointment.  The price is $3 USD for a wash, set, dry, comb out.   It takes about 2 hours, and I sit and enjoy my Kindle while I wait.  I usually leave $5, which is a huge tip relatively, but  it seems so little, and the gentlemen appreciae it very much.  Because of the bad arthritis in my shoulders it is hard for me to get my arms above my head any more to wash my hair and I have no seemingly good options to set it, etc.  It is a relaxing time and a cheap way to sit still for a while and also be a slight part of the community.   The hair salon (which might be a euphemism) is just around the corner from our apartment. In some ways one might consider it a "hole in the wall".  It is one room with about 10 older chairs in it.  There is a corner of the room blocked off with a head level plywood wall around a sink to wash your hair. There is no hot water, so the water is heated over a propane burner after one has arrived, which adds 10-20 min

Road to Rwanda---Medical Procedure 2

 So, we had a phone call yesterday (Sunday) afternoon saying that Rick had an appointment for Monday at 10....but then a few hours later got a text saying that the doctor was called away for the week to an emergency situation. (What emergency situation lasts a week?) That they would call us next Sunday.  Although disappointing that Rick cannot see the doctor today,  he is much better. If he eats slowly with small bites he is able to keep food down.  He is still thin, but not going further downhill.   It is also a good thing that he is better, becasue I came down with the same flu last night.  It started a downhill spiral for him, but I am not very sick really.  Not that writhe-in-the-bed pain that Rick experienced.  He is feeling well enough that he went to school to cover my classes for me today.  It is a shame I am not there to welcome the students back after our 3 week break, but they can write a five paragraph essay for Rick on what they learned last semeseter! haha. So we still ne

Road to Rwanda---Medical Procedures

   Rick had the "flu" on New Year's Eve.  He was in excruciating pain and if I could have figured out how to get to an ER, we would have gone.  He is over that, but it seems to have triggered his long standing problem with his esophagus.  It is restricted where it enters his stomach and he spontaneously vomits very often.   In discussions with   a pair of Physicians Assistants visiting our director,(God sent) it was decided we should go to Kigali and get a CT scan to rule out anything more serious.   At best medical anything is scary and complicated.   Try that in a country in which the procedures are foreign and often are not even available. We were trying to do the CT scan before school starts next Monday, but when we called 3 places Tuesday night all three CT machines were not working.   I had some hope that one of them would be fixed by Wednesday morning and after calling numerous times on Wednesday we were told that yes the machine was fixed and we could come on ah