Wow! This week and a half has been full; full of so many wonderful, different and exciting things! It was full of meeting great people, eating new and interesting food, learning new words and phrases, acclimating and understanding Biblical images and concepts in a new way.
My life has been full of meeting wonderful people. I spent my first two days in Kigali at the main
FH office, meeting other colleagues. It was great to have the opportunity to meet so many people I'll be working alongside. My favorite moment of meeting my Kigali co-workers was when
Hannington, a Ugandan finance manager came up to me and said, "Karen, do you have a story for me?" I was able to use my best New Jersey accent and tell my favorite story about my dad being in the hospital next to a totally out of control, stereotypically Jersey man and his family. There's nothing I love more than imitating accents. Give me a few months and I'll have a Rwandan accent down pat!
I've also enjoyed getting to know my
Gitarama teammates a bit better. Christi was such a great help to me. She took me all around Kigali on Tuesday and helped me open up bank accounts, get a cell phone and understand where things are and how to get around. It's been great having Beth and Wes, two summer interns around to take walks around
Gitarama with. My favorite walk so far was when we trekked down into the valley and walked past many women farming their tiny plots of land. You would not even believe how strikingly
beautiful Rwanda is. I've also enjoyed getting to know the Rwandan staff in
Gitarama. Marcelline has been a great help in getting to know what the Child Development Program does. I'm hoping to be able to visit her church with her so I can better understand Rwandan churches and what they do with children.
The expat community in
Gitarama is great too! The gang of ten to twelve meet weekly for a movie night and Sunday dinner.
Soraya, a
VSO volunteer has come over to our kitchen here at the guesthouse a couple of times and cooked desserts with us: avocado ice cream and no-bake cookies. Bruce and my co-worker Tom, hosted a dinner my first night here so I could get to know the community and my c0-workers better.
It's also been a week full of new foods! I've tried melange which is a Rwandan style buffet. It's lots and lots of starchy based dishes like french fries, rice, boiled potatoes, plantains, beans and then some cooked
vegetables. Some melanges also have a meat selection. What's so interesting about a melange here is the unlike an American all you can eat buffet, you are only allowed one plate. It's great fun to see Rwandans pile their plates as high as they can!
I've also started formal
Kinyarwanda lessons. I have a great tutor Denise and now by my fourth day she already has me doing conjugations.
Kinywarwanda is incredibly difficult however! There are 16 different noun classes which means if you want to say this (fill in the blank with a noun) there are 16 different ways to say it depending on the spelling of the noun you are describing. Talk about confusing! But I'm working very hard to learn it and am so excited when I get to use it in the neighborhood.
What has been so great about this first week too is seeing Biblical concepts and ideas that I've read about an known as a child come alive for the first time. Last Sunday two friends and I walked through the valley to a church service in Kigali. I was wearing comfy sandals to walk to church in. There must have been at least three inches of dust at points because it is the dry season here. When we got back to the guest house my feet were dirtier than I think they ever have been in my life! I didn't even want to wash them. Yet that is exactly what Jesus did for his disciples. As I washed my feet I thought about the Son of God washing the feet of the disciples. That God's Son would humble himself to do that blew my mind. I don't think I ever imagined how dirty the disciples feet could have been. Sunday, I realized just how dirty they would have been and what an amazing act of service this was! I pray that I will have a servant's heart like this in Rwanda.
Being in Kigali and staying at the
FH guest house there this past weekend also gave me new insight into Christ being the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep. A lot of homes here have guards who protect the inhabitants from theft. Late on Saturday night, Wes and Nathan, two
FH interns and I stayed up late watching The Great Debaters ( a fabulous movie, by the way!) As I crossed the courtyard back to the guest house, I saw
Celestin, the
FH guard laying down on a mattress, sleeping in the driveway between the two houses. Immediately it brought to mind the image of a Shepherd who lays down at the doorway of the sheepfold in order to protect his sheep. I was reminded of Christ, who is the Good Shepherd and how he was willing and did, sacrifice his life for us, his sheep. I have found being in Rwanda has given me insight into Biblical concepts that I never fully understood before and took for granted.
Overall, it has been a great first week and a half. I can't wait to tell you all soon about my first visit to a Child Development Community. If I have enough
internet speed I even hope to upload video footage of some children doing a traditional dance. Thank you so much to everyone who prayed me and supported me here. I am honored to be a part of what God is doing here!
More to come soon!
The Neighborhood Children - The kids in my neighborhood are great! There are a couple of little girls who live near the office who run and give me a hug every time I see them. Then when I go for walks after works it seems that I am the Pied Piper. One evening (before dark) when I was walking, four boys, at least one of whom is a street child, joined me for my "sport" walk, as they called it. We chatted in English and my few words in Kinyarwanda the best I could. As we were nearing the office, Pacifice, my favorite neighborhood boy asked, "Do you have baby?" Of course I answered, "No." A minute later John said, "Do you have children?" Again, I answered, "No." John thought about my answer for a moment and then said, "But we are children." I'm guessing at what he meant, but I think he meant, 'Hey, you could adopt us and we could be your children.' No matter what he meant it was a priceless conversation!
Rwanda is a strikingly beautiful country. You can't walk more than two steps without seeing an amazing view. They don't call it the Land of a Thousand Hills for nothing! Each evening after work I take a short walk before it gets dark. I've enjoyed getting to know my neighborhood and surroundings better. This evening as my friend Beth, an FH intern and I were walking to a British Volunteer worker's house, there was the most amazing sunset over the mountains. Every day in Rwanda I am struck by the beauty of God's creation.
