Life in Rwanda....

There is always more to tell about life in Rwanda than I have time for, so I usually resort to the pictures that I have to tell the story.  Today, I'm posting this in the middle of a torrential downpour with some small hail.  We do get some fairly regular rain, even though it's not officially the rainy season.  Fortunately, having grown up in Arkansas, an out-of-the-blue hailstorm doesn't faze me too much!  However, what I'm not as accustomed to in the "on again, off again" power that occurs some days.  Sometimes it can be frustrating, but other times it is just plain comical.  Frustrating if you are trying to send something to print on the printer....but other times it is downright funny.  After power was off and back on for the 4th time in 10 minutes the other day I finally just laughed out loud.  If I'd had any of my girlfriends around to share it with we would probably be hysterical with laughter in the floor.  (Really, what choice do you  have at that point?) Sometimes the absurd things in Rwanda just catch me off guard and I don't know if I'm laughing at how inefficient and backwards some things are here or laughing at myself for my American ideas and expectations of how things should be!

 

Today's downpour and hailstorm...

A few quite minutes with Gary on our front porch last Sunday...

 

Last week Brain spent a couple of days outside of Kigali with a medical team from Little Rock who were doing medical evaluations and creating medical charts for hundreds of students in schools sponsored by African New Life and the sourrounding schools and greater villages.  They labored at this for about 8 days, but were rewarded at the end of their time with a trip up to Musanze and a great morning of trekking the mountain gorillas!  Brian literally had some young gorillas brush up against his leg while they were playing! 

 

We get afternoon rain every few days, but you still can't rain on Merritt's parade...

 

The kids continue to help give a hand to the Rwandan students who are giving a facelift to some of the cottages on campus... (not sure how Palmer got selected for ceiling painting...maybe he drew the short straw, or maybe he just has the longest arms!)

 

Example of a local "soccer ball" that most of the village kids will make and use. Made of platic bags and tied up with twine, this one is about half the size of a traditional soccer ball.  A little boy in the village was very happy to sell it to Brian since it brough a good price!

 

One morning I sat outside the gates on a boulder across the street and just enjoyed watching all the people go by.  LOTS of potatoes grown in this region, so you always get to see plenty of those and you just never know what you might see that day...

 

Many of the local English teachers in the area will come to the campus on nights or Saturdays to take advantage of Enlish instruction that is made available to them on our campus.  They are charged with teaching Enlish to their pupils, but many of them know very little English themselves!  Here they have an excellent instructor, Francis, and also have access to the Rosetta Stone program on laptops. So after a long day of teaching or on their Saturday, they walk, ride a bike or take a moto ride here for a minimum of 4 hours a week of instruction.   However, many don't have the technical skills to use the Rosetta Stone program very well, and we just happen to have some teenagers that are very saavy on the computer!  Here Lawson and Palmer are in the classroom assisting the teachers with Rosetta Stone...

 

 

Car and tire problems just come with the territory here!  With the condition of the roads, the tires take a beating.  Had to send this tire in twice for repair last week, so when Russell and Gary went to Kigali for business on Monday, the Jeep also got a new set of tires!  It doesn't have power steering either, but they just work around that!?!  (Fine by me, as long as I don't have to drive!)

 

Brian, Bethany and Palmer are skyped into the 6th graders at PA last Friday night.  The sisth grade had just finished a unit on Africa in Mrs. Fischers class, so she asked if they could do an interview during Xperiod.  Luckily we had internet and were able to pull it off.  The students had great questions...

 

Gary mentioned the deaf school in his last post.  It's fun to see that kids here are so much like kids everywhere...just showing off for the camera and wanting to be cool...

 

 

My picky eaters have had a hard time, but we do get some great foods here.  Some familiar and some are new to us.  There are actually 4 varietys of bananas (who knew?) and here we have either the small, yellow, sweet kind that are similar to what we get in the US and also very common is mutoke (larger, green bananas, which have a tate and consistency a little more like a potato).  We grow some of the small ones right here on our campus, along with many other veggies that grow in the gardens.  Also popular are passion fruit, which is tart and you just spoon out and eat the whole insides including the seeds.

 

Fresh pineapple, mango and a fruit that is similar to a tomatoe that you also just scoop out and eat. 

Delicious brown eggs also!

 

Freshly made "peeli peeli" (sp??), which is sort of like a tabasco for all kinds of foods here.  Almost everyone loves it, but it's too hot for me.  It is made from these small orange peppers that are grown here, cooked down with oil and Cheryl has them throw in some carmelized onions!

 

And lastly, our adventure from yesterday, a trip to see the endangered golden monkeys that also live on the same slopes as the mountain gorillas.  We rise early, head to the visitor center and get to watch some traditional Rwandan dances, meet our guide, drive to the trailhead, hire porters, then we're off on a beautiful hike up the last of the fields of the local farmers (waving to farmers and children along the way).  Into the national forest (i.e. jungle) we go and finally arrive in the bamboo forest where the trackers have been waiting for us to view a large family of monkeys (about 115 in this family).

 

Well, the sun is out now!  And we are about to head off on another adventure tomorrow...going into the "big city" of Kigali to visit the genocide memorial, lunch, then to the airport for a flight to Nairobi, Kenya.  Going to visit one of Gary's cousins and his wife, who have lived and worked in Kenya for nearly 2 years.  They work with an orphan care ministry, FIrst Love, as well as an AIDS organization and a basketball ministry (he was a college player and a high school coach).  Hopefully I will have pics for you next week!

 

Hebrews 12:3 (ICB)

Think about Jesus.  He held on patiently while sindul men were doing evil things against him.  Look at Jesus' example so that you will not get tired and stop trying.