I am continuing to make Kicukiro my home and for the most part I am enjoying adapting to the lifestyle here (meaning I don’t wear my watch anymore and I have begun to be accustomed to going with the flow rather than over planning for things beforehand). Last weekend I ventured out of Rwanda – I went to Kampala, the capital of Uganda, for an Ultimate Frisbee tournament! It was a fairly tiring weekend but it was great to experience another bustling East African city and play my favorite sport. On the recent home front, I realized that holidays aren’t quite the same abroad L but that I have many things to be thankful for here and I don’t actually need to eat turkey and pumpkin pie or see my family and friends (though those were missed). I “shared” Thanksgiving with my host family and students so we were able to share about things we were thankful for, which was nice. I appreciate the people here who make me feel welcome and the things I am able to see, learn and do here. Speaking of which…I will share with you some of the sights and sounds of Kigali and Kampala in words and photos…

K I G A L I

I SEE…a plethora of cornstalks near 8 feet tall, almost ready to be harvested (in my host family’s yard); many rolling hills covered in fields and small red tin-roofed houses (even in the city!); children and adults alike staring at me, especially as I bend over to pick green beans in the field at Mwana Nshuti; nighttime hills sparsely speckled with bright lights, looking like stars on the ground (most homes have a bright LED(?) outside that is on all night); smiles and bright faces as I greet people in Kinyarwanda…

I HEAR…motos honking for people to move or to attract a passenger; greetings in Kinyarwanda that I understand and a flurry of words that sound like a language I might one day know; Rwandans at church singing and praying in loud, confident voices at many different times during the week; my host mother summoning me for a meal: “Bethany…come to table!”; raindrops falling gently or in a hurry on the tin roof…

I SMELL…exhaust from trucks; the fresh air during or after a nice rain…

I TASTE…Fanta citron (carbonated lemonade) at any party or meeting where drinks are offered; vegetable soup with a variety of locally grown veggies, introduced by our visitor Elizabeth last month and a recurring meal in our family now; delicious chocolate and fruit-flavored homemade ice cream at a café on my way into town…

I FEEL…the soft, crumbly dirt in the fields at Mwana Nshuti as I help weed; little Chris’s hands as he reaches for me; dusty chalk on my fingers while teaching English; the wind blowing in my face and rejuvenating me on a moto ride after playing Ultimate Frisbee; my feet squishing into the mud on the road after a big rain; people’s bodies pushing into mine on either side as I ride on the bus; many people’s hands as I greet those I know and those I don’t…

Things are growing at my house! The harvest will begin in 3-4 weeks...and the corn is so tall! 

Helping make peanut butter! It's great being able to have one of my favorite foods here - natural peanut butter !!

This is a sewing cooperative of 10 young women, most of whom graduated in the past 2 years
from Mwana Nsuti from the vocational sewing program (same as my students are in this year). 

They proudly showed us what they are capable of making!

Kicukiro Center. The market has food, fabric and some household essentials.
Outside are taxis (motos and small buses) waiting to take you to town or elsewhere in the city.

K A M P A L A

I SEE…large animals, unexpectedly: a zebra near the side of the road 2 hours outside of Kampala, storks taking up watch on building tops, and a camel meandering slowly near our Frisbee field; people outside talking and having a good time at almost all hours of the night as we drive; Americans, Canadians, Ugandans and Rwandans covered in mud, chasing the Frisbee down the field…

I HEAR…music blaring from a small pickup truck driving through town; people on the sidelines cheering on my Frisbee team…

I SMELL…meat being cooked and served on skewers on the street; public toilets that make my home in Kigali (even without running water) seem like a dream…

I TASTE…warm delicious rolex (chapatti with egg and veggies rolled up inside) bought from a street vendor and consumed on the spot; a salty, crunchy food that doesn’t seem as bad as I imagined grasshopper would be; mud in my mouth after I dove for the Frisbee…

I FEEL…hot water splashing on my back after our voyage and reminding me what a luxury it is; pleasantly squished and carefree on the back of a moto with the driver in front and my friend Sue behind me (the moto seats are extra long in Kampala!); a slippery Frisbee in my hands, which I try to wipe off on my brown, muddy shirt; a soft pillow under my head after a very long drive – a sign that I can finally close my eyes and rest…

Hangin' at the equator in Uganda! 

A perfect street-side snack (aka breakfast) - chapatti and egg! Yum!

The frisbee players - 6 from Kigali and ~20 from Kampala. Fun people!

Hannah and I showing off our clothes and skills at the end of the tournament!
(Ok we might have gotten a bit dirtier on purpose, trying to practice bidding/diving for the Frisbee...
but we were almost this dirty all day thanks to the muddy field!)

Happy belated Thanksgiving to you all! I am VERY thankful for each one of you. 

celebrating life together

My program, SALT, stands for Serving and Learning Together. I think that is a very appropriate name for the program…certainly if I thought I was coming only to serve (i.e. improve things here) I would be disappointed. Learning from my Rwandese coworkers and host family as I work/live with them is a large part of what I do here. Often I still find myself wishing I could “do more” – after all, I am American, and Americans are generally much more task-focused than the relationship-driven culture found here in Rwanda, not to mention I am naturally an ‘achiever’ and someone who likes to help others… But luckily I also like being a student and learning and working alongside others.

This is a year of learning to share life with others. Sometimes this is incredibly fun and other times it is very stretching. Things usually don’t go how I expect, although I suppose that fact is something I should expect, given that I’m living in a different country. Now I am realizing that I can learn, grow and even serve others by the small daily interactions, when I enter people’s worlds and let them enter mine (through asking questions, doing tasks together, and being open to something new). That is sharing life with others and maybe that is my true purpose here.

This year (in the 8 months that are left!) I hope to learn to relax and to be confident in who I am and why I am here (even if I don’t always understand). Maybe transferring and editing a colleague’s photos or moving (more accurately: co-supervising the boys moving) huge boxes of books is helpful…if nothing else I enjoy the change of pace from sitting in the office and planning English lessons!

Ok now for some specifics…stories and photos!

Teaching story: This week I (fairly) successfully introduced my students to mad libs! (I’m hoping you know what those are; they were a childhood favorite of mine!) We picked our words, wrote them in the story and I had to be patient (and try to control my laughter) as they worked and were confused. After we read the story aloud in English some students were laughing and after my brilliant idea of having them translate it aloud into Kinyarwanda they were all laughing really hard! Yay for elephants playing football, eating to God, sewing animals and potatoes, and selling friends! I then asked them to change all the verbs from the simple past to the present perfect (despite that being incredibly illogical) because that was the other teacher’s grammar lesson of the day J

Highlight of the week: visiting my language tutor Joyce’s house for her birthday!
Joyce mentioned it was her birthday in an offhand way at the end of our lesson the day before, so I went over to Ruth and Krystan’s to bake a cake (gotta love ovens!) and hoped my host parents could give me directions to Joyce’s house. After several minutes of trying to understand my host mother’s directions, my host father produced a map that consisted of a single winding road and he said, “Follow the cobblestone road. When the road starts to bend back the other direction you will turn off and go the other way. The house isn’t far past that.” I quickly decided I wouldn’t be surprising Joyce, rather I would call her when I approached what I thought was the correct location. (It actually worked out fine.)

I didn’t think coming to visit and bringing a homemade cake and birthday card was such a big deal, but from the look on her face, I could tell it was for her! She gave me many hugs and seemed so happy all evening!! Her friends came over later in the evening (just as I was leaving to meet my 9pm “curfew”), so for awhile it was just me and Joyce, and later her children and her neighbor’s children. I fully enjoyed seeing her house and photos, playing Go Fish in Kinyarwanda with the children, and eating birthday cake and the customary Fantas. Oh and I tried to sing Happy Birthday in all 3 languages (English, French and Kinyarwanda) but Joyce needed to help me and the kids out on the Kinyarwanda verse because I kind of forgot how it went J Needless to say, it was a wonderful evening for all, and I plan to visit again even if it’s not a special occasion!

Joyce is in the middle, with her children Jessica (L) and Bridget (R). They are adorable!

Birthday cake and Fanta! (Thanks for the candles, mom!)

I am hoping to put photos on facebook soon. After a long 3-4 weeks without a camera I should be taking some more photos in the near future.

This week's reflection: God knows best. I see this often in His timing, placing me at certain places at certain times, how things don’t happen the way I expect (but the difference is usually good) and the way I am doing new things that I wouldn’t usually do, and seeing good results from that. At least someone always knows what’s going on (and it certainly isn’t me!).

Precious People

I am calling this post “precious people” because I think that has been a theme for me from the last 2 weeks. So yes, it has been a good two weeks! I have been especially thankful for the people in my life here (though I miss you all back at home so much!). Although my first month here being somewhat challenging because I didn’t know anyone – and I still wish some things were different socially – I am now very grateful for the people God has put in my path and daily life here. I will try to tell you about these precious people, though my words will certainly fail to give a complete picture…anyone want to come visit to see firsthand?? J

1. My students are so precious; I want so badly to give them each a hug and get to know them personally, hear their struggles and joys and learn what their life is like outside of school. I guess knowing their names is a start (the English teacher has been with them since March and still forgets them often)…but I hope somehow I can cross the culture and language barrier and really get to know them more in the coming weeks.

2. Random children in my neighborhood have taken a liking to me and come to greet me whenever they see me. This always makes me smile, though I cannot describe the joy in my heart when I hear things like “Hi Bethany” or “Bite Bethany?” (“bite” basically means “What’s up?”). Once I even heard a conversation between 3 boys where one called me “Mzungu Teacher” (what they often say when they don’t know my name) and one of the others corrected him and said (something like this, it was in Kinyarwanda) “Her name isn’t mzungu; it’s Be-ta…no, it’s Be-ta-ni”. Boy was I happy!!! Of course, the pronunciation of my name isn’t perfect, but I am so pleased that many of the children remember my name – I have been trying to tell them my name off and on for several weeks now.

3. My coworkers at Friends Peace House are warm, friendly and happy to have me there (it’s mutual). Some I talk to more than others, but most conversations that exceed the normal one minute greeting make me really happy. Julienne, who works in the library and is responsible for the newsletter (there’s a new one, Peace in our Times edition 3 up now at friendspeacehouse.rw/documents), speaks English and French and is a good resource for my questions and we play football with the girls at school together on Thursdays. Jonas, the director of Mwana Nshuti, likes to ask questions about America and tell me about life here. Ityanga, the cleaner, speaks no English or French but wants to learn English and I want to learn more Kinyarwanda so we try our best to communicate as we can using random words and gestures – I can’t wait till I can really understand her and learn more about her life! Eugene, who is responsible for implementing many programs throughout Rwanda, loves to discuss political, social or other problems in Rwanda and how he thinks things could change – I wish he had more power to use his good ideas. Augustin, the English teacher, has a good sense of humor, tries to help me out with living in Kigali, and is generally so easy to work with. Samuel, the sewing teacher, doesn’t speak any French or much English but nevertheless I can see that he is a very smiley and positive person, and I love playing football with him! And finally, Cecile, the assistant to the director of Friends Peace House (FPH) and the woman who really runs the show around here, is definitely a main reason I love working in the office. For a Rwandese woman, she is incredibly open and honest – she even shares her feelings (this doesn’t seem to be true of any other Rwandese person I’ve met…). I love that she won’t mind answering any question I ask her and without my asking she shares with me certain things that are making her really happy, frustrated, worried, etc. I told her once (and it’s true!) that working the office is much less fun when she isn’t around!

      4. Chris, the 1.5 year old son of Christine, one of the daughters of my host mother, is so cute! AND…he is finally not scared of me! We had a great time “playing” together last Sunday, first with my laptop (I showed him some photos and tried to teach him the word for car in Kinyarwanda!) and later outside on the porch watching the rain. When I got back from the retreat I was hoping he still remembered me – and he did! He was in a really good mood so we danced and clapped our hands a bit together!!

      5. MCCers from the Great Lakes region of Africa – the local and North American MCC workers from Congo, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi had a retreat in Gisenyi (a small city NW Rwanda, near the border with Congo, and on beautiful Lake Kivu) this past week. The retreat was a renewing time of sharing about work and life in our different contexts, discussing parables about the Kingdom of God from Matthew, relaxing together (yoga, origami, swimming in the lake), and having ample amounts of time to talk more during meals (turns out it takes a long time to prepare the dishes of food for 20+ people!). I couldn’t believe when the week was over and wished I didn’t have to say goodbye to my new friends. It’s hard bonding with people and then parting ways, not knowing if/when you will see them again. (This reminds me a bit of leaving orientation in Akron, PA because the SALTers will come together for re-orientation next year but the IVEPers who have been serving in the US and Canada won’t be joining us L)

I am thankful for having time to go away up to Gisenyi on retreat, but it is good to be back too. I am hoping to quickly get back into the swing of things at work and hopefully take some of my recent ponderings from the retreat about capacity building and the Kingdom of God and put them to use at work. What does that mean? …I don’t quite know yet but hopefully it means being an even better MCC volunteer this year!!

Peace to you all!

P.S. If you were to come visit I now know a hotel that has hot water for showers, serves salads and has a view from the  window of a lake that looks like Lake Michigan J It was pretty nice – I didn’t quite feel like I was in Rwanda!

P.P.S. Other people who fall on the 'precious people' list are YOU - my family, friends and supporters back at home. I love the emails and appreciate your prayers. And the care packages aren't bad either :) (thanks mom!)