A Twin Update

I have continued to have many opportunities to learn more about the endeavors of my twin readers. I just realized that I have not shared their names yet. The older is named Jean Dideiu Bukuru, and the younger is named Jidier Botoyi. In Rwanda, the "last name" is given at birth and is what the mother feels in her heart when they first look at the baby. But for twins, the first one born is always given the name Bukuru and the second one is always Botoyi. I have no idea what the names would be for triplets. :-)

Yesterday, we got the wonderful opportunity to go out into Kigali and have lunch with the twins. In addition to crops, the twins work with a group that goes to hospitals and visits orphans and widows and those infected with HIV. They pray with them and see how they can help them get jobs when they leave the hospital. We ate at the home of a woman with AIDS who was helped by them and now lives a very hopeful life. It was a traditional African meal, and it was delicious.

While we ate and talked, I learned that they also help sell greeting cards that are made locally from banana leaves. The profits go to help starving families here in Rwanda. Jean Dideiu told me that they didn't want to just beg for money but wanted to provide a service, which is a very refreshing attitude here. I will be bringing some back with me so that people at church will have a chance to help out if they want to.

I'm attaching a picture of me and another reader, John Baptiste. He is currently in a preaching school and is enjoying the opportunity to improve his English. I don't have a picture with the twins yet, but I will get one soon.

-Chuck

Nathan's notorious nine

Meet Joseph, Jackson, Kwizera, Jules, Osward, Cedrick, Innocent Ntwali, Dady, and Innocent Ndayisaba. All of my readers are young men whose ages range from 16 – 26, with varying vocations and backgrounds. One is an electrician in Kigali. Several are secondary school (high school) students that will soon graduate and possibly attend a university. Another is a former security guard and now is a head trainer of local Kigali security guards for mental and physical endurance. Most are from Rwanda and some from the Congo. Several of my readers are quite educated in social sciences from school, so we've had some interesting discussions on Rwanda/US higher education, economics, employment, and even the two candidates for US President. I was even asked to compare them to Rwanda's President, Paul Kagame, but I dodged that one! In the picture is Cedrick and Innocent Ntwali who attend together.

 

The violence and having lost many or all of their family members in the 1994 genocide is one thing most young Rwandans have in common, as they represent the young children that survived and are growing up to become adults. However, there are many hopeful and positive lessons in light of the tragedy. Osward taught me an ultimate example of forgiveness. A long story short, he and his surviving siblings found his parent's killer in prison to pray with him, forgave him, and now they have adopted him as part of their family since the killer's family was also killed. Oswald smiled as he told this story, explaining God's love and showing forgiveness is the only way for the country to re-unite together.

 

Nathan

Uno, Soda, and Snakes, oh my!!

Last night we had our second LST party. The parties are meant to connect our readers with people from the church in hopes that they will begin to feel comfortable and welcome in the church building. We also use the party as another opportunity for readers to practice their English with people other than us. LST suggests that you plan your party around a theme, but we decided to go with a simple game party instead. Originally, we thought most of our readers would be business women who have very limited free time. We didn't know if our readers would even have time to attend a party. We did not expect to have so many young readers. After spending a week here we realized that an kind of party would go over very well with the younger readers.

We started the party with a very lively game of "Take A Hike." This is a great icebreaker game because it gets people up and moving around. It also helps the players learn different facts about each other including things they have in common. Did I mention that our large group of young readers is primarily male? Try to imagine 50+ young adults running around the room fighting each other for chairs. It was quite humorous.

Next, we broke the large group into 3 smaller groups and moved them through a rotation of game stations consisting of Bunko, Uno, and a paper airplane throwing contest. Everyone was so wound up from running around in the first game that when we split them up into groups they all raced to their stations as fast as they could. At this point, they must have thought that the entire party would be a competition. I was in charge of the refreshments. We had a table of cookies and bottles of coke, fanta, and sprite. When one group came down for freshmen's they were chanting "soda and snakes, snakes, snakes!" I said, "snakes, why are you talking about snakes?!" I quickly realized they meant SNACKS. Many things seem to get lost in translation... fortunately, I have not consumed any snakes while in Rwanda.

My favorite part of the party was the airplane throwing contest. Katie works for Southwest Airlines (my personal airline of choice). She brought some inflatable airplanes that you wear on top of your head. As part of the airplane throwing contest the thrower was required to wear the airplane on his or her head as he tossed his paper airplane over the balcony towards the target. It was hilarious! The hat went over very well.

I spent most of the party running around taking pictures. Most people would ask me to take their picture. Gildas asked me to take his picture and he posed very seriously, which I think is a cultural thing. Holly mentioned that the people here are taught to make serious faces when they have their picture made. As Americans, it seems we have our picture made so often that the goal has become to look as weird as possible in photographs (perhaps this is not the case for everyone... I am speaking from my own experience!). I asked Gildas if he would smile for another picture and he did. I showed Erin the picture and asked her which she liked better. She chose the smiling picture and replied, "You look like President Kagame when you smile." Gildas seemed VERY pleased by her conclusion and proceed to smile for the remainder of the party.

-Emily

My Intelligence is Pregnancy

On Thursday, as Jean-Boscoe, my 5 p.m. reader, was leaving, he turned to me with a bright look in his eyes and a big smile on his face and said "Teacher, thanks to you, my intelligence is pregnancy!" I think somewhere, somehow, though a little lost in translation, this was meant to be a complement about how he was learning.

Our reading sessions are going well. We usually start out with just simple conversation, I ask how their day is going and we talk about Rwandan or American culture or customs. Then, it's on to the lesson. With some readers, we can do two or even three lessons in each session depending on their level of English and their understanding of the Bible. A couple of times, we haven't even opened the workbook, but instead have just talked about the Bible and God.

From Jean-Boscoe (a 50-year old father of 8 who lost several family members in the Genocide), to Francine (whose husband works for the Belgian embassy) to David (an orphan who had to dropout of secondary school because it was too expensive), to Eric (a computer-technology student who amazes me with his questions), each of my eleven readers has such a distinct story.

I'm so blessed to be here these two weeks. For me, my heart for these people is pregnancy. Here's a picture of me with Francine.

-Katie

Better late than never...

Our Internet wasn't working at the house last night, and it could be that we have scarce access for awhile. I know what you're thinking. "How is this going to affect the contest?" Well, you're just going to have to write a lot and be extra funny, because our posts probably won't come as regularly.



In my last post I mentioned the twins that are starting an agriculture company. A couple of days ago, they took me out to the farms they're working with. They are building greenhouses and experimenting with crops to see which seeds have the best results. I was hoping to have pictures from the field trip, but that is not possible at the moment. Hopefully I'll be able to get them up later.



Next week we will all go to lunch with the twins. Another of my readers invited all of us to his house one morning next week. There have been so many cultural experiences we have been able to have, as well as many relationships formed. The people here continue to amaze me.



That's all for now. Hopefully our Internet will work tonight and we'll all be able to write more. If not, we'll write when we can.

Meet Topista

Greetings. It is time for a state-of-the-mission-trip address. We all wanted you to meet our Chief of Staff, Topista. If you haven't been reading the blog, maybe you think we have been "roughing it" here in Africa. I will give you a debriefing on the current status of things.

 

Topista has been tending to our every need while at home during the trip. Seeing as how we leave the house at 7am and come home around 7:30pm, the days have been busy so this is appreciated even more. Since I arrived Saturday, we've had waffles, crepes, fresh fruit, cinnamon rolls, passion fruit juice and coffee for breakfast ready for devouring as soon as we can get to the table. Every night when we arrive home from church, a Topista-esque dinner is ready. We have had Mexican tortillas w/ fresh guacamole, pasta, meat casserole, mixed veggies, pizza and other cuisines. Not to mention a whole china bar stocked with cookies, bananas, and other fine goodies. She and another helper promptly clean up afterwards. Topista also washes our clothes daily if needed and returns them ironed. Finally, she sleeps. We think.

 

Topista lives at the Jenkins household and has assisted them for thirteen years in Uganda and Rwanda. Doug Jenkins and his family also reside as missionaries in Kigali, and Doug is the pastor at Christ's Church in Rwanda. They are currently on furlough in the US, so we are enjoying their large and comfortable house during the trip. Topista's favorite food to cook is potroast and her favorite food to eat is motikas, green banana-like fruits grown in this region. In fact, her favorite thing to do is cook. So, we decided to make sacrifices and let her enjoy herself in practicing her hobby. She is Ugandan and speaks fluent Lugandan and English.

 

Disclaimer: This post is not meant to spite all of you at home with no on-site 24/7 cook/cleaner/launderer/cheerleader. We are so thankful to the Jenkins for the use of their house and to Topista for taking care of us. The trip has been wonderful so far, and God is rewarding us in all kinds of unexpected ways. My next post will be about all of my reader buddies I have made this week!  -Nathan

 

 

These are a few of my favorite things...

One of my favorite things about international travel it the constant sense of your own vulnerability. What better way to be reminded of my need to constantly rely on God? He is blessing us in so many ways, most notably through our readers. Each reading session is as different as the individuals we are working with. We are able to share the truth of God, learn about the culture, and build friendships that we will remember for perhaps the rest of our lives. I'm having trouble remembering what I've ever done to deserve such blessings. Thankfully, God doesn't work that way!

In recognition of my love of adventure and surprise I'd like to make a short list of things I've experienced thus far:
1. Avocados the size of small child
2. A ginormous lilac bush that is as aromatic as it is large
3. Beautiful handmade baskets for about $8
4. Waking up at 4:30am to a flooded bedroom floor (and suitcase)
5. Baby sized bananas that are VERY sweet
6. Leaving my purse at a restaurant and finding in the exact same place I left it 2 hours later (God is good).
7. Having a Rwandan friend pray that God will wrap His arms around me.
8. Fabulous 4th of July celebration at the American Embassy
9. Poisonous black fuzzy caterpillars
10. Learning that Moses's (youth minister) grandfather had 45 children (that he knows of)
11. Never ending source of chocolate chip cookies, cinnamon rolls, banana bread, pizza, waffles, tostadas... etc. made by a brilliant Ugandan woman.