Zanzibar!!...etc

Hello all!  I hope everyone's having a fun and relaxing spring break.  We are more than half way through our time here in Rwanda.  Here's what we've been up to in March so far...

The 6th graders from Kigali International School came up to stay one night for a field trip and a hike in the mountains near us.  Bethany and Merritt enjoyed the company of some kids closer to their age.  These students have families who live in Kigali because they are with foreign embassies, business or missions, so they were from everywhere....Holland, Madagascar, other parts of Africa and Europe.  They were like "city kids" coming to the country for a weekend, so they played games on our field and had an evening bonfire.

Below, Brian and Merritt have been working on their soccer skills and all the kids get plenty of exercise in daily soccer matches around here. James (below) and the other Rwandan students are great at "futbol" and the campus manager, Andy, played for the Ugandan national team....so they are getting some great instruction and competition!   

On March 9, we jumped on the bus of our favorite driver, Kanuma, and headed to Kigali for a few hours before going to the airport for a Zanzibar vacation.  I try to keep my camera ready, because you just never know what you might see going down the street in Kigali....this beats all I've see thus far....

We've all been looking forward to a real tex-mex lunch at Meze Fresh (a concept similar to Chipotle and owned by a young man from California). Full, happy campers as we head to the airport!

Finally on our way to Zanzibar, an island off the east coast of Africa that's a part of Tanzania (which in Africa is pronounced Tan-zane-ee-uh).  There are dozens of languages spoken in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda, but the most common is Swahili (as in "hakuna matata", from The Lion King).  This island was historically a major port for the Arab slave trade and also for growing and trading exotic spices.  It is now 97% Muslim, so it is an unusual place....part resort, part impoverished east Africa, part Arab/Muslim.

We stayed in a European style beach villa on the east coast that was built by a Belgian family.

The villa had a great staff that helped take care of us and fortunately we had a great chef!  I would have had a hard time preparing meals otherwise, since there's not a local "grocery store" and there's no such thing as prepared foods....no sliced bread or ready-made lunch meat, etc. We did have some great fresh-caught fish!

On the east coast of Zanzibar is the beautiful, warm waters of the Indian Ocean.  The tide here gets very low and very high on about a 6 hour cycle and a sandbar appears a hundred or so yards out.  All the little specs in the water in the lower picture are African Muslim women who wade out into the shallow water (in their full  Muslim attire) and spend several hours tending to kelp (seaweed) farms.  They have the kelp strung on a small line between two stakes (sticks) in about 8 rows.  When the kelp is ready. they drag in the kelp on the lines or pickup loose pieces in large bags, then it is hung out to dry.  If I understood correctly, the dried kelp is sold to industry....I was told that the ground kelp is used in making fine china in Asia??

Below is a picture at low tide of a traditional "Dhow" that is a wooden boat (most have a sail) used by local fisherman and has historically been used by Arab traders.

Lots of down time to relax, play in the pool and throw the football on the beach...

Headed out to snorkel on a nearby reef...

We celebrated Merritt's 11th and Palmer's 16th birthday while in Zanzibar.  The cake wasn't quite the same, but we were able to get ice cream and Hershey's chocolate syrup, which is a luxury we don't have in Rwanda.  The candles in the cake were actually more like "roman candles", so that was quite exciting!

On our last day we headed into historic Stone Town before going to the airport.  On the drive across the island you could see that much of the island is still very much like other poor rural areas of east Africa.

I knew it would be a hot day in Stone Town and I couldn't locate a single establishment for lunch that had air conditioning, but on TripAdvisor I read about a restaurant called "Tower Top" on the roof of one of  the nicer hotels in town that overlooked the city.  It was shady, breezy, served pizza and we were the only ones there....so it hit the spot!

Zanzibar is known for it's ornately carved wooden doors and we saw many examples...

In the pictures below you can see the narrow streets of Stone Town and the contrast here....some old, poor, dilapidated parts of this city and then a few nicer streets and resorts sprinkled here and there... In the very bottom picture you can see fancy yachts and little wooden dhows moored in the same harbor.

It was fun, but we were all glad to be heading back to the hills of Rwanda...

Upon returning to Musanze, we had guests staying on campus from Kigali for a couple of days.  We were so glad to make friends with Bonita and Eric (last names are too complicated for me here!), along with their four daughters.  Eric is a Rwandan who grew up in Burundi and Bonita grew up in Uganda.  They met in Kigali after the war and stayed there.  Eric works for Purpose Driven Ministries (Rick Warren) in Rwanda.  He's an incredible and humble man who is doing great work with churches and families in this country.

Bethany had some fun girl time with the four daughters (here they are watching the movie, Soul Surfer, on the computer) and the littlest one (age 4) was so entertaining and she grew attached to Merritt and kept him busy!

Goodbye for now from our crazy crew!  

The Latest....

So, the latest from Rwanda...

Here's a demonstration of how to eat the stalk of maize (corn) in this child's right hand.  After the corn is harvested, whack down the stalk by whatever means you have, then peel off the outer covering with your teeth.  Then just take a big bite off, chew it up to get all the juice and sugar out, spit out the mouthful of fiber left in your mouth, then repeat.  I've tried it and it's fairly good!  I'm not so great at peeling it yet and the spitting out the wad left in your mouth isn't especially lady like, but it's a great and readily available food source up in our area...a favorite snack of all ages!

Above child also has a stalk in her left hand, which is a grain called sorghum.  The kids also sometimes eat the berries right off the stalk.  It's one of the two harvest times in our area, so everyone has been busy cutting down the stalks by hand with machetes.  Next the stalks are threshed, i.e. beaten with sticks (see below) to separate the red berries from the stalk.  

I was able to go see this process at the home of one of the gardeners who works at the campus where we live.  He and much of his family and extended family have a farm not far from us.  Below you can see the sorghum berries laying out to dry in the sun, as well as maize that is harvested similarly.

Finally, the sorghum is sifted by tossing it up in these shallow baskets so that the chaff will blow away and the  berries are then bagged to be transported to the market.  Transportation will most likely be on the back of a bicycle or smaller bags are carried on their heads...generally women and children, but occasionally men will carry things like timber on their heads as well.

The gardener, Gaston, was very happy to show us his farm and introduce us to his family.  All the kids came to see and say hello.  His wife also prepared fresh maize that she had roasted for us on the fire...very delicious!  Gaston introduced Merritt to his family as his "teacher", since Merritt sometimes helps the staff with their English lesson at lunch time! 

Gaston with Bethany in front of a maize or sorghum field that has been harvested and the beautiful Virunga mountains behind them...home to the mountain gorillas.

Very common for girls to babysit younger family members while their mothers are working in the fields or at home. 

Back on campus, Protais has just finished a batch of fresh bread.  Around here almost everything is made from scratch.  Very few prepared or "packaged" foods are available, so he stays busy all day preparing three meals a day from the raw ingredients.

After a week of dry weather, the temperatures at mid day are warming up.  With a little creativity, Merritt and Bethany are able to design what is probably the first ever Rwandan "slip n slide". 

Less than a week ago, Chad and Courtney Bannick returned to Musanze after six months in the states (Pheonix, AZ) to have their first baby, Olive.  She is precious and we all love having a baby on campus...we are doing our best to spoil her!  (By the way, we like her parents an awful lot too!)

Last week, another family trip back to Lake Burera.  Gary and the boys were camping out under the full moon on Tom Allen's property, while Bethany and I stayed at the fancy Virunga Lodge nearby.  A beautiful night and spectacular views!

The room that Bethany and I stayed in had this fabulous vies of the lake and a perfect view of Tom's property below us.

Best seats in the house for a performance of local music and dancing.  Mt. Murabura  in the background....5th highest peak in Africa.

Ntore dancers....the traditional dancing has been preserved from the time of the tribal kings in Rwanda before they were colonized by Europeans.

Rwandan guitar and song...very beautiful.

Majestic sunset over the Virunga mountains.  After dinner, the guys put on their headlamps and walked down the narrow path to the village below and Toms property.  

We had an incredible full moon rise over the lake in the evening and the usual spectacular sunrise!

The boys didn't complain, but they didn't get much sleep on their campout.  Meanwhile, Bethany and I were all toasty and warm in our beds under mosquito nets at the lodge.  Enjoying some hot chocolate in bed before heading back to reality!  A fun night with my girl!!

Goodbye for now...a busy week ahead, so maybe we'll have another post soon!  Lots more to tell later!

Into "Out of Africa" Territory...

We are trying to make the most of our time here in Africa, so we planned a long weekend to go visit Gary's cousin in Nairobi, Kenya.  It was an amazing trip and memorable trip with each day packed full of opportunities and surprises. 

Thursday morning we took the two hour drive into Kigali and spent the day there before our flight.  First stop, the Kigali Memorial Centre, which is the largest genocide memorial site and museum in the country.  Here we were able to go through an excellent exhibit that told the history of the genocide with a variety of media.  Very, very sad, as you might imagine...around 1 million people killed in a 100 day period in 1994.  Many more people displaced as refugees and many also dying of disease in refugee camps.  The placards Gary photographed only hint at the depth of sorrow that survivors endured. 

This is also the final burial site of the remains of 250,000 people who died in the Kigali area.  The cement crypts below are some of the mass graves that were built on this site to bury and memorialize the dead.

After a very solemn time at the memorial, we headed out for lunch.  The kids have been missing burgers and hot dogs because beef is hard to come by here and is not a staple in the Rwandan diet.  We heard that a Canadian had opened a restaurant with a great "real" burger on the menu!  We actually had a great meal at Mr. Chips (chips is the British term for french fries), but it gives a whole new meaning to a restaurant being just "a hole in the wall"...

Finally we were off to the airport and on our way to Nairobi, just about an hour flight away.  It is an interesting city for sure!  The driving is absolutely crazy there.  It is dry and dusty now during the dry season but turns into a red muddy mess when the rainy season arrives.  I didn't know that the United Nations only has main offices here and in New York.  Because it has a large international population, it is also more metropolitan in some ways, having a few western type malls and restaurants available.  However, this city also has some of the largest slums in all of Africa.

Our family really did enjoy some great times and the "finer things" while there...great meals, shopping, haircuts, pedicures...but our primary reason for going there was to spend time with Gary's cousin, Jerrod Carpenter and his wife, Amanda.  They are an incredible young couple (both from south Texas) who have been serving the needy in Kenya for about 2 years now.  The time with them was such a blessing and an encouragement to us! They generously took all seven of us in...going from a small household of 2 to 9 overnight.

Bethany loved getting to know her second cousin, Jerrod, who went to college at Texas Lutheran on a basketball scholarship.  He is a 6' 8" (without his cowboy boots!) basketball player turned coach, mentor and teacher.  His love for the Lord is contagious and he works with many of the local coaches to help disciple them and encourage them to use their coaching influence to mentor the kids they work with...mentoring is a new concept for most of these Kenyan coaches.

Jerrod and Amanda are working with the First Love orphan home in Nairobi as well as Morning Star orphan home.  They also partner with friends at at Blue Sky, who have a ministry through sports in the city (sort of like FCA).  While we were there they hosted 15 of the older boys from Morning Star at the climbing wall center that is operated by Blue Sky.  It is one of the only climbing wall facilities in all of Africa thanks to the generous partnership of the Cathey family (Chick-fil-a)...so eat more chicken!  We are all wishing they would consider opening a Chick-fil-a near us...we are missing it.

These boys had a fantastic time for their first time ever to go climbing!  It is a real treat for them anytime they get to go on special outings like this and they were amazing climbers with no fear.   Our kids had a great time also and I had a ball watching them all wear themselves out on this fun evening.

On Sunday, Gary and I were able to visit the Morning Star home to meet the other children and see the facilities.  It is one of the few homes available to orphans who are HIV+.  We arrived to find out that their pump for the well has been broken, so the kids were filling the water tank with big barrels and buckets of water from the back of a pickup (which had probably come from a local river).  The facilities here are very meager, but the kids are loved and very basic needs are met and they work hard to make sure they are all in school.  You can see that the kids love the visits from Jerrod and Amanda!

The precious little girl who is sitting on my lap just latched onto me from the minute we walked in!  She just jumped into my arms and  made herself at home.  She and her older brother were both taken in a couple years ago.  She was 2 years old at the time and only about 12 pounds.  Now she is 4 and still weighs only twenty-something pounds.  She is light as a feather, but appears healthy otherwise and she just beams.  Her older brother is quite small also...very likely from being severely malnourished for their early years.

This little guy just adores Amanda (and I think the feeling is mutual!).  Amanda's sister had worked with a group of ladies from her church to make and send gifts for each of these kids for Christmas.  They even sewed some adorable dresses for many of the girls and gave them each hand written notes.  Because all of the kids weren't there for the Christmas celebration, they were handing out the last of the gifts to each child.   They were so excited!  But I did discover another universal truth about kids all over the world...the joy of popping bubble wrap!

Amanda is amazing in her own right! (So awesome that we even forgive her for being an A&M fanatic!) She spends much of her time with the Kenyan employees of CARE for AIDS.  Her administrative and technical skills are a big help as she shows and teaches them how to better organize, upkeep and update their files and paperwork on the computer.  She also goes out to do home visits to check on the AIDS patients that they have enrolled in their ministry.  They need to educated about the disease and need to be taking their meds and getting proper nutrition.  Fortunately people in Kenya can get the needed meds free from the government, but for many people there is still a stigma and also denial, which keeps them from getting the care that they need.  

My little own little "tour guide" went all over their little campus with me...only letting go of me when we went into the boys dorm where she is not allowed.  Here she is showing off the rabbits that they have at the orphanage to sell for income as well as to eat for needed protein.

As much fun as we had with Jerrod and Amanda, we also had the most amazingly fun time seeing a wide variety of wildlife....

In our safari vehicle about to enter Nairobi National Park...a true safari right on the outskirts of Nairobi...

The sun rising over the savanna as we enter the park...

Giraffes! Zebras! Antelope! Water buffalo and more...oh my!

A huge Rhino meanders along and crosses the road right in front of us.  Look at downtown Nairobi just in the distance...crazy, isn't it!?!?

After the game drive we are off the the baby elephant orphanage!  They have 20 orphans of varying ages at the moment.  Baby elephants need their mothers for several years after birth and these have moms who've died from poachers, local farmers, natural causes....or the baby had fallen down a well and required rescue.  These youngsters are fed and sleep at this facility, but during the day they are walked out into the park with their handlers in order to spend part of each day with wild elephant herds in order to make bonds with them. After a period of years, they are released into the wild with herds that have accepted them as part of their family.  They deliberately rotate the handlers that care for these elephants so that they do not bond to any one person.  Elephants have strong family bonds and will not go back into the wild if they have bonded with a human as their "mother". 

Onto the Rothschild Giraffe center...this is the tallest of the 3 varieties of giraffe and were originally brought here by a family because they are somewhat endangered.  Currently there are 9 and we got to interact with one of the youngest ones...so beautiful, gentle and graceful!  The family had them on their own property and the giraffes would lean their heads into the dining room and house to interact with the family.  Now that home (mansion) has been turned into a pricey hotel where the guests can still interact with the giraffes.

(This was in the nicer, British area of town with fancy homes, called "Karen".  This neighborhood is named for Karen Blixen (Out of Africa), whose home is nearby and is still there as a museum.)

We also visited a free city park that many people just call the monkey park.  The monkeys will come right up to you and eat peanuts and corn right from your hand or while sitting on your head.  But we learned the hard way that they will snatch the whole bag of nuts or corn from your hand if you don't watch out...they are pretty sneaky as well as surprisingly aggressive.  This was probably the most bizarre and entertaining experience we've had so far!

P.S....That's Gary, above, with the beard, in case you didn't recognize him!  He decided to grow it out and go native for a while, but he couldn't take it any more and shaved it off when we got back to Rwanda.

Also, I've failed to mention that Jerrod has two great security dogs, Chocolate and Cookie.  They are a Rhodesian Ridgeback and Rottweiler mix...very large and strong dogs with a serious bark!  They are very loyal dogs and help make sure Amanda is safe while she's at home and if she goes out for a jog.  The dogs took us for a walk through the local forest one afternoon.

Thanks to Amanda and Jerrod for an amazing trip to Nairobi!  If you want to see what they are up to, you can go to www.adventureswithjerrodandamanda.blogspot.com 

And for our family and friends from Arkansas, we even saw some close relatives of our favorite mascot while in Kenya....Go HOGS!!! WPS!