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