Avocadoes, volleyball, and cultural exchange...

It is again the end to a very full, yet fantastic day. I just finished washing dishes in the buckets outside. My hands are wrinkled from the amazi and sabune (water and soap.) While washing, Lionel and Innocent were break dancing to the music on Sarah’s iphone. They seriously have some mad talent! Sarah and I also each took a short ride down the driveway on the coffee bike after dinner tonight. These bikes have huge racks on the back to carry hundreds of pounds of food, coffee, or anything else needing transportation. The uncles at the houses (Claude and Everest) use the bike or a rickety wheelbarrow to transport pretty much anything on these roads with deep ruts and potholes. Their job has to be incredibly hard, as they are also the night watchmen. Imagine staying up all night and then doing hard labor half the day. They even have time to play a mean game of volleyball in the afternoons. It is becoming a favorite past time for everyone!

Today was a mix of teaching and learning, playing volleyball, bouncing toddlers on laps, eating good beans, rice, and avocados (!), reading, getting slobbered on by toddlers, singing songs, and cooking on the charcoal stove. This morning the kids came over to have school. We read books, learned about syllables, and hunted for words. One of the girls’ favorite past times is to write stories on the erasable boards they have. Alyce’s story was about a girl named Alyce who was number one in her class at school. All of the kids seem so motivated to do well in school. First in class is the goal. The great part is, many of them have achieved it at Sonrise School or the school in Remera!

This afternoon at home number one, ministry partners from Kansas City came to visit the kids. They brought incredibly beautiful, handmade quilts for each child. Each quilt was intricately made with their names stitched into the corner. The kids loved them and are sleeping covered with the quilts as I type. It is amazing to think about all of the people involved in the kids’ lives. So many people have given time, resources, money, and prayers. It really is true that it take a village to raise a child.

One last story and it’s time to say goodnight... Donna started teaching English to the staff on previous visits, so we are continuing to do so this time. It usually consists of one or two of us sitting in the living room with 7-8 of the staff. Last night included greetings, colors, parts of the body, and clothing. Being two city girls who are committed to cultural exchange, Sarah and I ended the night teaching the tantines (aunties) and tantos (uncles) “pound it”. It was a hit. (Literally).

Muramuke! (Goodnight!)

Abby

Washing hands before a morning snack Lionel and Sande - brothers by design, not dna :) Morning Band

Here are the kids that go to the local school. Some kids in my neighborhood raise money at a lemonade stand to send 3 to school each year. It cost $310/year if you would like to sponsor one of our angels...or support the lemonade stand efforts which was a total wash out this year.

One of our 'Uncle's' Taking a Bed to Market for repair

Sarah and some of the Aunties Here's a great photo that "Sande" took took of Sarah and Esther

Volley Ball Circle with a ball from the Big Ball Donations!

Life is so sweet in Rwanda.

It was a good day. The kids are so blessed to have Abby and Sarah here. Oh my, what a gift to have teachers in our midst that love our kids so much. They come from a trained professional background and balance that with just lovin’ on our kids. Abby is magnificent working with the kids. She teaches young kids so we turn it over to her. This is the 1st time we’ve had our little, middle and big kids in our school house all day and it’s quite a feat to keep it all going. Abby and Sarah know just the right balance of playing, learning, singing, drawing etc. Sarah has taken on the task master role…can I tell you how it is to give up that job. She does it effortlessly. Playing with the kids, while measuring their feet, inspecting their clothes sizes and learning special things about them like their favorite colors etc. She makes it look like she’s playing the whole time and then emerges with another spread sheet of info. What a blessing! I ran errands today. In Rwanda a 1 hour errand is usually about 4 or 5 hours so when I left this morning, I told them they shouldn’t worry if I didn’t come back for a long while. I was able to get some things we needed in the house for volunteers, try to assess the internet situation as ½ of the country is down and we happen to be on the wrong ½. Every the tech head, we found a solution and appear to be back on line with a pay as you go plan. I am much the local now with my Rwanda cell phone and modem. For the kids today was a transition day back from School. We wanted to give them school time, but just time to play with their brothers and sisters whom they miss so much when the big kids are at school. It was so wonderful to see how the big kids are so good to the little kids playing around with them. I was also able to skype with Bob Safford and Kristen Cavallo. The kids were so excited to see Kristen. We had a terrific connection and it was wonderful. Kristen was here with me in January and it was a mutual love affair. Today was a day to step back and see how far we’ve come in just 4 years. The kids are thriving and people have been so generous in meeting our financial needs. One of the biggest has been medical expenses, but I can tell you they are paying off. Deborah our girl with Cerebral Palsy has made SIGNIFICANT strides since I last saw here. Physically and mentally the change is VERY apparent. Thanks to people who had donated to New Hope Homes. We’ve used some of the money to get her physical therapy and medicine. One of the Desami twins has struggled all of his 2.5 years of life. His brother is active and running, but the other has a foot that is badly curled and is a bit crossed eyed with some sight limitations. In January we started him on physical therapy and then put a cast and now a boot with brace on the bad leg and he’s making progress. I know the Janssen family will be especially happy to hear the news as they pray for him and have helped me some of his needs. I have never seen his leg straight…but it is. He is not yet walking, but tonight I let him stand up and he could hold his own weight for a bit. Praise God….I believe he will one day walk. Other fun parts to the day were Sarah getting a game of volley ball going with some very special soccer balls (yes Kate and Charlie…your balls…more about that in the next post). The kids were so excited about the balls that after they played soccer (football) they decided to play volley ball tool. The “uncles” and “aunties” joined in with Sarah, Abby and some of the big kids. Laughter could be heard throughout the grounds. It’s almost time to teach English to the adults, so I must sign off. Speaking of…my goodness. I looked at Fabiola’s report card. WOW…Terrific grades in English, French and Kinyrwanda. To think 4 years ago she didn’t understand the “concept’ of another language…much less be conversant in 3. Thank you for following along in our journey and we thank you for any support you can give. Remember your donation is tax deductible and 100% of the money goes directly to the care of the kids. You can donate on the ‘donate’ botton on this page or my facebook page (lower left corner) or calmministries.org At times I feel like I am a begger…but when I know it’s going to a good place, I know the ‘ask’ is important. Every dollar matters…$5, $20 or more…we promise to make good use of your resources. Big plans are coming: Movie Night BIG BALL PROJECT UPDATE Road Trip to Kibeho Let us know if you want to try to skype with your kids. We're taking ‘reservations’ ☺ For Saturday morning US tme.

Sonrise Kids with Miss Donna

Sonrise Kids with Abby and Sarah

Sonrise Kids

Basket weavers from the church near Chantal's new home

Chantal and her beautiful daughter Erica. She's been living in Rwanda since Feb.

Sonrise kids leaving school for a quick break. Sonrise Kids loading car for the holiday.

Peaceful sleep The beginning of the drive

Ruhengeri adventure

Sarah: Pancakes. I opened my eyes this morning to the news that we were eating pancakes. After realizing I slept in to an embarrassing hour I quickly put clothes on, contacts in, and headed to the breakfast table. Pancakes . . . the size of my plate and of quality equal to those found at Maria’s Café, one of my favorite Minneapolis breakfast spots. I was surprised, but at the time too distracted to put any more thought between those cakes and my belly. While I was finishing my meal (coffee, bananas, pineapple, passion-fruit juice) I began to contemplate the incredible gesture that was behind it all. Abby, Donna, and I had left Kigali yesterday for Ruingeri. We were staying with Chantal (founder of New Hope Homes) for a night while we were picking up the older kids from Sonrise Boarding School. Chantal and her husband have just recently moved from Kigali to Ruingeri as Mbanda, her husband, was consecrated to be the new Bishop of the regional Diocese. Chantal has had her hands more than full with moving across the country, unpacking, managing her family, running the 3 children’s homes, and coordinating its volunteers. Not to mention the constant stream of visitors that requires her time, food, and beverage. If this was your life, would you have risen early to cook for three pesky visitors from the states? I doubt it. This meal was emblematic of the magnanimity of Chantal’s compassionate heart, her self-sacrificing nature, and the passionate love for God that cannot help but flow through her hands. I remember sitting back, astounded by all that Chantal has done for the children of Rwanda. She loves these kids deeply and well, and is always trying to think of how to better serve them. She is savvy, a little sassy, and always just. I have SO much respect for this woman. After breakfast we went to Sonrise to pick up the kids. Chantal and Donna found the kids. Abby and I were paparazzi. You’ll see the picks and love them! There was much hugging, smiles, kissing and celebrating as we loaded all 12 of us, plus luggage, into the minivan and drove back to Chantal’s for lunch. Our lunch numbers grew to 17 as more visitors stopped by. After lunch, Chantal gave us a tour of the church compound. We ran into a group of women who were gathered together to weave baskets. From the sounds of things, they had organized a sort of microenterprise where they sell their baskets to the church, and then the church sells them to travelers and tourists. The work was tedious, but the baskets were beautiful and the women were obviously proud of their product. We continued on to have a little outdoor photo shoot with the kids, we met some local students who were playing soccer (Donna will write more on this later!), and we made it back to Chantal’s house just in time to greet 3 more unannounced visitors. Finally, after getting the van packed, saying our goodbyes, and making sure all the kids used the bathroom, we loaded up, gave a quick wave to yet another visitor, and began the 2.5 hour trek back to Kigali. We were prepared for the worst (apparently quite a few of these kids are known pukers), but ended up having a very peaceful ride home. No vomit, only laughs and songs emitted from these kids’ mouths. I spent the last hour with Mary Rose sleeping on my shoulder and Kayetise sleeping on my lap. When these beautiful kids are falling asleep all over you, it’s impossible not to recognize that something very special is happening here. I mean . . . we could all imagine what life would be like for any one of these 27 children if it weren’t for these homes. It’s in these moments that I’m forced to reflect on my life and my choices. I know that I have been born with a ridiculous amount of privilege: white, affluent, American, educated family, etc. The challenge for me is finding some way of reconciling who I am and the life I have with the incredible disparity witnessed in places like Kigali. It all calls forth the famous question, “how then, shall we live?” No worries, I’m not going to get into any heavy pontifications on that now . . . Donna’s blog readers have probably had enough of my weary introspection! All I will say is that I feel very blessed to be playing a part, however small, of the process of rewriting these children’s futures.

Whoo hoo our chickens are laying eggs! We use the eggs to feed the kids and sell the rest at market to help make us more self-sustaining.

Sweet Boy along side the road "Auntie" Bebe/Christine Abby Teaching

Abby, Sarah, Monica and Mackinzie before church

Back after 3 years

Monday, July 19. 2010 Muraho from Musanze, Rwanda! This is Abby writing. It is day three back in the beautiful hills of Rwanda. Sarah and I arrived Saturday afternoon after a very smooth flight. For those of you who don’t know me or Sarah, we spent a month at New Hope Homes in July of 2007. It is truly amazing to return to this place so full of hope. It was pure joy to see the kids’ faces again. There are many new, some familiar. Today began with “school” for the younger children at New Hope Homes. Imagine twelve children, age four and under, with boundless energy. Now, picture a lawn thick with spiky grass and flowering trees, toddlers running fast, falling, getting up again. The chaos ensued, but somewhere in there, we taught letter names, letter sounds, and did some writing and drawing. The teacher in me is excited to see where these kids are at and build from there. The day was also full of English / Kinyarwanda exchange. Christine aka Bebe, an auntie at the home where we are staying, is hungry to learn English, just as I am to learn Kinyarwanda. We’ve started a sloppy process of language exchange. Right now it consists of naming objects, practicing greetings, and writing the words down in a journal. The process is so great! I’m hoping to learn and teach as much as I can in this month ahead. This afternoon we headed out to Musanze, a small city 2 hours north of Kigali. Chantal and Mbanda now live here. Chantal is graciously hosting us in their new beautiful home, and fed us a fantastic dinner. Tomorrow we pick up the big kids!!! I am SO excited to see them. Isaac, Lionel, Fabiola and Marie Rose were all here three years ago when we visited. They are now apparently very strong in English, so we will actually be able to have conversations. Fun! The three of us, Donna, Sarah and I have a huge to do list for our time here. Sarah is task master and keeping us all in line. We’re hoping to get a lot done for these kids! Love to all, Abby

Sweet kids hanging out by the road.