Here the girls (left to right: Alice, Marie Rose, Kayitesi and Betty) demonstrate water is carried on your head. Our kids don't have to do that, but they wanted to show you. And below is where one of the Auntie's sits to do the dishes.
(For some reason I can't get paragraphs to appear in the posts...I know these can get hard to read without them...but...)
For the Children
Many of you have written me to share that you are reading my blog to your kids so this update is dedicated to them.
Hi kids,
Thank you for loving our kids so far away in Rwanda. Ask your Mom or Dad to show you where Rwanda is on the map. Can you find it? It’s a very very tiny country, in fact it is the tiniest of all the countries in the entire continent. But, I think tiny is wonderful. Some very wonderful things come in tiny packages. Can you think of some?
My favorite is your heart which is tiny but can do amazingly big things when you love someone. Thank you for loving our kids.
Rwanda has many many hills, that’s how it got its name the land of 1000 hills. It’s very green in much of the country. We are in rainy season now so the rain helps keeps it green.
Rain is especially wonderful as it gives people lots of fresh water. Many of the people get their water from a stream each day…not the faucet. Kids as young as 3 years old learn to walk sometimes miles to get water and bring it home. Most people carry heavy things on their heads including water. Water gets very very heavy so they must be strong to carry it. Imagine if you just had one jug of water for your whole family each day. Maybe two. How would you use the water? Would you drink it? Would you use to wash your clothes? Would you use it to boil some food? How much would you save to take a bath at night? These are things that people in Rwanda had to think about every day. Imagine how excited they would be to turn on a faucet and see the water just flow freely. I bet there would turn if off every single time quickly to save it. Can you think of ways to save water in your house?
Another smart thing people do is to put funnels on their roofs so the water comes down to a bucket. Kind of like a gutter. My friends the Kittleson’s collect rain from their gutters into a big barrel and use the water for their flowers. That’s a smart idea don’t’ you think?
Water from the stream here isn’t often clean water so they have to boil it before they drink it. That is if they have enough money to buy charcoal to heat the water. If they don’t have enough money then they drink it as is. Sometimes that means that they get very sick tummies.
At New Hope Homes we have a bit barrel in the back yards and collect form the roof, but we have a lot of people so we usually need more water. One of the men takes a wheelbarrow with about 6 big jugs in it and walks about a mile or two to a well and gets more.
Another thing that is very different is how we get milk. You go to the store or the refrigerator to get yours right? It takes a lot lot longer here. First we had to buy some cows. Good cows cost about $2000 each. Those are the cows that produce a lot of milk each day. Then we had to buy land to put the cows on. Next we had to build a shelter as it’s very hot here. Then we had to find people to care for the cows. We have 3 men that do that and one of them sleeps with the cows so no one takes them in middle of the night. Cows need to eat so the men had to plant crops and feed the cows. In the dry season they have to come to town and buy the cows food. Next we had to built a house for the men to stay in. It’s a very simple house, but needed. Then they milk the cows. AND THEN…someone from New Hope Homes gets on a bike and goes up and down and up and down over the hills to get the milk. It takes 45 mins each way. Then they deliver the milk to us. But wait…we’re not done. The Mommies and Aunties boil the milk AND then and only then…do the kids get to drink the milk. They drink it warm here as few people have refrigerators so the kids each get two cups or a couple of kids get two cups and pass it around. Here’s how they do it. The Mommy puts the hot milk in a cup and the other one is empty. The bigger kids pour the milk back and forth between the two cups to help make cool down. When it’s cool enough to drink then they pass the extra cup to the next kids. The bigger kids help the little kids because it’s hard to do and we don’t want them to get burned. Can you try it with two cups and pretend that it is hot? Pour it back and forth at least 1 0 times.
It’s a lot more work that just going to refrigerator and getting a class of milk isnt’ it?
When we built our 1st house we could only afford to give the kids a half of glass of milk a day. Thanks to some friends of mine (Bill Dunlap and his wife Jo-Anne) they bought 2 cows for the kids, they can have all that they need and we can sell some to raise money.
We also just put in a chicken coup at the 1st home. We have 100 chickens and think they will start laying eggs by the end of January. The kids are excited to have more eggs now too as most of the food is rice or a dough-like thing.. We try to get them protein about 3x a week. Do you know what foods have protein? Ask your Mom or Dad if you have the right answers.
Our kids LOVE getting pictures of your kids. They are hanging on the wall in all 3 homes. I brought more with me, but right now there are pictures of all the kids from Abbott Street in a big group picture, and individual photos of the kids like Alice, Max, Henry, Adam, Ben, Cameron, Zander, Meredith. And kids from Viriginia named Matt and Kate, From NY named Nina in a cowboy hat. And lots of family photos like the Kochs and a bunch more.
Send me your photos and I will bring them with me next time.
I also will take photos of the kids today with the photos you sent me on this trip and your letters so you can see how excited they are.to have them.
Laundry here is a big job. With nearly 30 kids it takes a good portion of the day to do the laundry. The Mommies and Aunties sit on a small wooden bench and the take a small bar of soap that is made for washing clothes by hand and scrub scrub scurb. It’s all time for them to talk to each other as sometimes 2-3 people will sit around a bucket and wash it. Then the laundry is hung on a clothes line or put in the grassh for the sun to dry it.
I will tell you more things in another update. Did you think this update sounds like like is hard in Rwanda? I don’t want you to think that. It’s just different. What you think might be sad, could be a good thing if you really think about it. If people don’t have a lot of money to buy lots of stuff…guess what…they have to use their imaginations to think of fun games. They get to spend lots of time with their family just loving each other. Sometime in America we get so busy working and talking on the phone, sending text messages and chatting on facebook that we forget to play or to laugh or to just be a family. So, can you think of some other things that are good about Rwanda?
I will tell you a bit about the fact that 3 homes produce literally zero garbage in another update. Can you figure out how that could be? Send me your other questions on this blog or via facebook and I”ll try to answer it soon. I will also tell you about how we do other things.
Until then “da-ga-coon-dah”….I love you.
Here the girls (left to right: Alice, Marie Rose, Kayitesi and Betty) demonstrate water is carried on your head. Our kids don't have to do that, but they wanted to show you. And below is where one of the Auntie's sits to do the dishes.
(For some reason I can't get paragraphs to appear in the posts...I know these can get hard to read without them...but...)
For the Children
Many of you have written me to share that you are reading my blog to your kids so this update is dedicated to them.
Hi kids,
Thank you for loving our kids so far away in Rwanda. Ask your Mom or Dad to show you where Rwanda is on the map. Can you find it? It’s a very very tiny country, in fact it is the tiniest of all the countries in the entire continent. But, I think tiny is wonderful. Some very wonderful things come in tiny packages. Can you think of some?
My favorite is your heart which is tiny but can do amazingly big things when you love someone. Thank you for loving our kids.
Rwanda has many many hills, that’s how it got its name the land of 1000 hills. It’s very green in much of the country. We are in rainy season now so the rain helps keeps it green.
Rain is especially wonderful as it gives people lots of fresh water. Many of the people get their water from a stream each day…not the faucet. Kids as young as 3 years old learn to walk sometimes miles to get water and bring it home. Most people carry heavy things on their heads including water. Water gets very very heavy so they must be strong to carry it. Imagine if you just had one jug of water for your whole family each day. Maybe two. How would you use the water? Would you drink it? Would you use to wash your clothes? Would you use it to boil some food? How much would you save to take a bath at night? These are things that people in Rwanda had to think about every day. Imagine how excited they would be to turn on a faucet and see the water just flow freely. I bet there would turn if off every single time quickly to save it. Can you think of ways to save water in your house?
Another smart thing people do is to put funnels on their roofs so the water comes down to a bucket. Kind of like a gutter. My friends the Kittleson’s collect rain from their gutters into a big barrel and use the water for their flowers. That’s a smart idea don’t’ you think?
Water from the stream here isn’t often clean water so they have to boil it before they drink it. That is if they have enough money to buy charcoal to heat the water. If they don’t have enough money then they drink it as is. Sometimes that means that they get very sick tummies.
At New Hope Homes we have a bit barrel in the back yards and collect form the roof, but we have a lot of people so we usually need more water. One of the men takes a wheelbarrow with about 6 big jugs in it and walks about a mile or two to a well and gets more.
Another thing that is very different is how we get milk. You go to the store or the refrigerator to get yours right? It takes a lot lot longer here. First we had to buy some cows. Good cows cost about $2000 each. Those are the cows that produce a lot of milk each day. Then we had to buy land to put the cows on. Next we had to build a shelter as it’s very hot here. Then we had to find people to care for the cows. We have 3 men that do that and one of them sleeps with the cows so no one takes them in middle of the night. Cows need to eat so the men had to plant crops and feed the cows. In the dry season they have to come to town and buy the cows food. Next we had to built a house for the men to stay in. It’s a very simple house, but needed. Then they milk the cows. AND THEN…someone from New Hope Homes gets on a bike and goes up and down and up and down over the hills to get the milk. It takes 45 mins each way. Then they deliver the milk to us. But wait…we’re not done. The Mommies and Aunties boil the milk AND then and only then…do the kids get to drink the milk. They drink it warm here as few people have refrigerators so the kids each get two cups or a couple of kids get two cups and pass it around. Here’s how they do it. The Mommy puts the hot milk in a cup and the other one is empty. The bigger kids pour the milk back and forth between the two cups to help make cool down. When it’s cool enough to drink then they pass the extra cup to the next kids. The bigger kids help the little kids because it’s hard to do and we don’t want them to get burned. Can you try it with two cups and pretend that it is hot? Pour it back and forth at least 1 0 times.
It’s a lot more work that just going to refrigerator and getting a class of milk isnt’ it?
When we built our 1st house we could only afford to give the kids a half of glass of milk a day. Thanks to some friends of mine (Bill Dunlap and his wife Jo-Anne) they bought 2 cows for the kids, they can have all that they need and we can sell some to raise money.
We also just put in a chicken coup at the 1st home. We have 100 chickens and think they will start laying eggs by the end of January. The kids are excited to have more eggs now too as most of the food is rice or a dough-like thing.. We try to get them protein about 3x a week. Do you know what foods have protein? Ask your Mom or Dad if you have the right answers.
Our kids LOVE getting pictures of your kids. They are hanging on the wall in all 3 homes. I brought more with me, but right now there are pictures of all the kids from Abbott Street in a big group picture, and individual photos of the kids like Alice, Max, Henry, Adam, Ben, Cameron, Zander, Meredith. And kids from Viriginia named Matt and Kate, From NY named Nina in a cowboy hat. And lots of family photos like the Kochs and a bunch more.
Send me your photos and I will bring them with me next time.
I also will take photos of the kids today with the photos you sent me on this trip and your letters so you can see how excited they are.to have them.
Laundry here is a big job. With nearly 30 kids it takes a good portion of the day to do the laundry. The Mommies and Aunties sit on a small wooden bench and the take a small bar of soap that is made for washing clothes by hand and scrub scrub scurb. It’s all time for them to talk to each other as sometimes 2-3 people will sit around a bucket and wash it. Then the laundry is hung on a clothes line or put in the grassh for the sun to dry it.
I will tell you more things in another update. Did you think this update sounds like like is hard in Rwanda? I don’t want you to think that. It’s just different. What you think might be sad, could be a good thing if you really think about it. If people don’t have a lot of money to buy lots of stuff…guess what…they have to use their imaginations to think of fun games. They get to spend lots of time with their family just loving each other. Sometime in America we get so busy working and talking on the phone, sending text messages and chatting on facebook that we forget to play or to laugh or to just be a family. So, can you think of some other things that are good about Rwanda?
I will tell you a bit about the fact that 3 homes produce literally zero garbage in another update. Can you figure out how that could be? Send me your other questions on this blog or via facebook and I”ll try to answer it soon. I will also tell you about how we do other things.
Until then “da-ga-coon-dah”….I love you.
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