Sunday Visitors

For Sunday morning worship, we went to an English church service and then after a rest in the afternoon, we worked together to make supper for us and the Bonvallats. They are headed out tomorrow for vacation in Uganda and it would be the last opportunity for the kids to hang out with Emily until she gets back from RVA in March. We made hamburger surprises and mashed sweet potatoes (a strange combination but it was stuff we had on hand). I made Apple Crisp with real whipped cream for dessert. It was all tasty. The kids watched “The Incredibles” with Emily after supper while the adults did the boring sit around and talk thing. We learned some more good information from Bonvallats about them as a family and Rwanda in general. They were the first AIM missionaries to come to Rwanda several years ago so it was a rough road for them but they have seen God’s hand in it all.

Well, I think that is all our Christmas news! We need to eat the gingerbread house and take down the tree and then Christmas will be over. We have no plans for New Year’s Eve right now – maybe we’ll watch the Star Wars DVDs Stephanie gave Mark for Christmas. No Rose Parade or football games…

Gingerbread Houses

Zoe and Zawa, the oldest of the Rossington and Bonvallat clans, came over this morning and made gingerbread houses with Emily. We had prepared the pieces yesterday evening. They had a great time and used LOTS of candy! Emily tried to be more precise and artsy so hers turned out a bit “boring” but nice none the less. Everyone was very happy with the results and the parents and siblings all came over when the projects were completed to get photos, etc.

After cleaning up, Emily went with the Rossington's to a hotel that has two large trampolines. The rain prevented them from swimming. I watched my new “Sleeping Beauty” DVD from Emily while I tried to iron but it was frustrating because the electricity kept going off. The DVD was on the computer so the battery kept it playing but the iron kept shutting off. It took way longer than it should have. Mark watch a DVD called “The Constant Gardener”. It is a fictitious story but is set in Kenya.

It was good to have a quieter day.

The Celebration Continues!

Today is Boxing Day! We continued celebrating Jesus’ Birthday today! It has been fun to spread out the festivities.

We were invited to Mama Fifi’s house. (Unfortunately, we forgot to take our camera.) It was very nice of her to invite us over there. She told us she would come to our house to take us there because there is no way we would have found it on our own! She arrived around 10:00 a.m. with a young man named Jonas who she had asked to come along as an interpreter. He is a college student and attends the same church as Mama Fifi.

We all got into our car and headed up the road away from town. After some distance, we turned onto a dirt road and drove quite aways down that road. Then we turned onto an even smaller dirt road. Because Rwanda has so many hills, almost all the roads have very deep drainage ditches along the sides. There are little bridges in strategic places built across these ditches which enable cars or pedestrians to cross them. The smaller dirt road we were turning on to had one of these bridges. The problem was that probably no cars ever cross that particular bridge so it was quite narrow and looked a bit rickety. The young man in the car with us was skeptical that we could cross it with the car and offered to get out and help Mark navigate it (Maybe he wanted an excuse to walk across!). Mark, being the confident driver that he is, decided that the bridge was sturdy and wide enough and that he could manage just fine. So, we forged ahead and sure enough, the bridge was fine and we zipped right over. The road was only a little bigger than a path. We continued down that road for quite a long way much to the amusement of the children living along that road. They all waved and laughed and ran out to see us. A few young ones cried in terror and ran to their moms. I’m sure very few, if any, cars drive down that road.

Mama Fifi’s house was at the end of the road. She has a nice sized piece of land with a vegetable garden (she grows peanuts and manioc). She said she also owns another garden somewhere else. Her house is made with mud walls, cement floors and tin roof. There is no electricity or running water. She pays 150 RWF (about 30 cents) for about 5 gallons of water to be carried to her house. The main house has 4 rooms all about the same size. The first room is the living room with a couch and 3 chairs and a coffee table. The furniture filled the room so you can get an idea of how big the house is. Another room is her bedroom. The other two rooms were for storage and bedrooms. Behind the main house was another building, also with mud walls and tin roof but with dirt floors. It had two rooms. One was where the animals sleep at night – goats and rabbits. Emily thought the rabbits were cute until I told her they were for eating. Also, Mama Fifi’s “house boy” sleeps out there in the same room with the animals. She hired him to live with her to care for the animals, carry water, etc. The other room is the “kitchen”. She cooks over charcoal and has no refrigeration. Behind this building is the outhouse.

Mama Fifi told us, through Jonas, that her family has always lived in Rwanda and they survived the genocide but her father is blind in one eye and her mother is completely lame now because of the beatings they received. They live in a village. She has brothers and sisters who live near her parents. She helps support her parents because she has a job and they are unable to work. She has 3 daughters: Serange (I think is how to spell it), age 19, and Fifi and Diana who are 8 and 6. Unfortunately, her husband has died. She is raising her 2 young daughters plus 2 orphan boys on her own. They are relatives who were orphaned in the genocide. They are older (I don’t know the exact ages) and attend what is called “catch up” school. Because of the genocide and being orphaned, they missed out on going to school at the proper ages. They now attend a school where they are learning to read and write and are learning a trade, like being a tailor.

Jonas also told us a bit of his story – his family left Rwanda during the upheaval in 1959, right before independence, and settled in Zaire/Congo (Bukavu area). He was born and raised in Congo. During the 1990’s, his family had to flee their home in Bukavu because of the unrest in Zaire and they lost everything. We were in Rethy in the early 90’s when there was trouble in Bukavu – we knew missionaries who also evacuated. At that time, though, the trouble didn’t get up to Rethy but we had our bags packed. You’ve heard on the news about displaced people who run into the forest – Jonas was one of those. He was a child – about 10 years old. They eventually were able to go back and restart their lives. His father has passed away, his mom still lives there and his sisters have married Congolese men. After finishing secondary school, Jonas has come to Kigali for further schooling. However, he says that he can never go back into Congo for fear of his life. You have probably heard of the conflicts right now in Congo near the border of Rwanda. There is a Rwandan man (I don’t know his name) who is leading an army of sorts in Congo. He claims he is just trying to get rid of rebels who are hiding in Congo. Unfortunately, more than just ‘rebels’ are being attacked. The Congolese army and gov’t don’t appreciate having this Rwandan man causing havoc in their country so they have been attacking him and his army. In doing so, they have been looking for and killing any young men with Rwandan ancestry, claiming that they are all spies. Shoot now, ask questions later. Hence, even though Jonas grew up in Congo and had nothing to do with the genocide or the current troubles in Congo, if he were to return to Congo, he would be a target. He also said there is no future in Congo because of the anarchy, poverty, and corruption.

Fifi and Diana and a little neighbor girl came in and sang us a traditional Rwandan welcome song complete with a dance. Fifi has a very sweet voice and both girls are adorable. They took Emily outside and tried to teach her the dance. Emily, being quite shy about dancing, was not exactly a willing learner. Mama Fifi thought it was very funny to watch. After that, the girls played a game of hide and seek/tag. By then a few more kids had shown up. It seems that kids around the world enjoy chasing each other!

We left the house with Jonas around noon and made it back across the questionable bridge with no problem.

In the afternoon the three of us AIM families got together at the Rossington’s house for coffee and Christmas goodies. We sat on the front porch and chatted like boring adults while the kids (including Emily) ran around chasing each other. Emily got her exercise today!

It was a great day of socializing and fellowshipping with other believers!

Happy Birthday, Jesus!

Happy Birthday, Jesus!! Unlike our relatives in the mid-west who had a white Christmas, ours was green and a little overcast in the morning until the sun broke through haze. Absolutely beautiful weather!

This morning, Emily, of course, opened her stocking and gift from “Santa” and then she went over to Rossington’s while Mark went over to Bonvallat’s to drop off their “Candy Cane” bread and the gifts we brought them. We then enjoyed our bread with scrambled eggs and passion fruit juice mixed with plum juice. Of course after breakfast Mark read the Christmas story and then we opened our presents. It was a bit quiet and tidy but fun none the less.

We then scurried around and finished up the preparations for Christmas lunch, which was actually much easier than in past years. Emily frosted the cake while Mark and I worked on shredding and chopping cabbage, carrots and onions for the salad I was making. I was told to make enough for 30 people so I made 2 huge bowlfuls. In the end I brought home ¾ of one bowl. I made too much. There was a lot of food there and a lot of kids. I don’t think the kids ate the salad but the adults did and some went back for seconds.

Well, at noon we went to the Bonvallats. They have a covered carport area that they don’t use as a carport but they had cleared it out and brought out chairs and small tables. The neighbors who were coming also brought furniture over. The floor of the carport was dirt so it didn’t matter when kids spilled coke or other items. I suppose the neighbors came around 12:45 and brought FOOD!

We had lots of rice, homemade French fries, sombe (manioc leaves cooked in palm oil), 2 kinds of ugali (or bugali or foofoo depending on the language): one made from corn meal and the other from ground manioc root. (I’ve been told that the type made from manioc is similar to poi but I’ve never been to Hawaii so I can’t verify that. ). We also had cooked green peas and carrots, a green salad and my cabbage salad. The main course was goat cooked on skewers. They called them brochettes. They were really good. I am not a huge fan of goat but these had a nice flavor and were very tender.

Besides the Bonvallats and us, there were 2 Rwandan families who are neighbors of the Bonvallats. One family has 7 kids plus extended family and their kids. The other family also had several adults and kids. Everyone was introduced but I couldn’t keep them all straight. There were two adorable baby girls – one was Abbey’s age and the other about 9 months old. When the kids were finished eating, they ran off to play soccer or on the Bonvallat’s slide. The adults were boring and sat around and talked. In previous years there have been group games which included the whole family but this year some of the adults had to go off to a WEDDING on Christmas day! They said it was fairly common for Rwandans to get married on Christmas – especially the Catholics.

The preferred languages for the day were French and Kinyarwanda. Some of them also spoke Swahili because they had lived in Zaire/Congo at some point. We are finding a LOT of Rwandans have spent some of their lives in Zaire/Congo but mostly in the southern part, just across the border. We’ll have to tell you their stories later.

After cleaning up and saying goodbye to the neighbors, Gilles and Myriam invited us to stay for coffee which we did. In the evening we set up a DVD on the computer and watched a movie, “The Ultimate Gift.” It was interesting. If you haven’t seen it, you should watch it sometime. We then Skyped a lot of people! Very fun!

It was a pleasant way to celebrate Jesus’ birthday!

Christmas Eve

Today was a busy day! After giving Mama Fifi a large list of fruits and veggies I needed at the market and running a load of laundry so it would be ready for her hang, Mark and I went into town to get some last minute groceries for Christmas. We went downtown to the Nakumatt because I figured they would have a few more of the specific items I needed. For instance, I wanted brown sugar but that is not available here so the next best thing is mixing molasses into white sugar. (1 TBLS molasses per 1 cup white sugar). The trick was finding molasses. We asked one of the workers at the store (BTW: Nakumatt has a worker in EVERY aisle to assist but I think also to prevent shoplifting. It’s a little weird to have so many people around and if you take something off the shelf, they come right away to rearrange the other items so that everything is up to front.) At first, the worker said no but then found Mark a few minutes later and said yes. Indeed they did have a few cans of it. It was a little pricey but since I’ll use it a little at time, it will last me awhile. Something else I was looking for was either buttermilk or what they call “curdled” milk. All the milk cartons were labeled in French or Kinyarwanda and we weren’t sure how to say it in French. I tried to ask a worker but he didn’t understand what I wanted so I went with my gut feeling and bought a small carton of what I thought I wanted. I got home and discovered that I was right!

After lunch I made our traditional 3 “Candy Cane” breads with some slight variations. I couldn’t find dried apricots for the filling so I substituted dried pineapple. With the cherries it was a little sweet, though, so to cut the sweetness a little, I added some cinnamon. I liked the flavor of that! I think I’ll keep using the cinnamon. Also, for the decoration on top, I have always used fresh mint leaves with the cherries but I couldn’t find mint so I used cilantro leaves! They didn’t look quite as nice but I didn’t mind the flavor. It was interesting. Maybe I plant some mint for next year.

While the breads were rising, I mixed up a buttermilk spice cake that I told Myriam Bonvallat I would bring to the potluck on Christmas.

In the evening we decided to attend an English Christmas Eve service. It was a candlelight service with LOTS of candles. They had a nice variety of music: mostly Christmas carols with some worship songs mixed in, some adults singing, some kids, some “wazungu” (white people), some Rwandans. In general, it was well done. A young Rwandan man gave his testimony which was very well done. He had it well thought out and presented it well. It was interesting because his Kinyarwandan name means “light” and with it being a candlelight service, he tied it all into his talk. At the end, everyone took a candle and we stood around the room and lit them while singing “This little light of mine.” It was a nice touch.

Mark and I stayed up a bit and wrapped Emily’s presents. We bought 3 small sheets of wrapping paper and some ribbon at Nakumatt and also used the brown grocery bags from Nakumatt (plastic grocery bags are illegal here in Rwanda so all the stores use brown paper. Even bread comes in paper bags rather than plastic). While we wrapped, Emily baked some chocolate chip cookies for Mark’s Christmas present. The house smells good after baking bread, spice cake and chocolate chip cookies!!

We are looking forward to celebrating Jesus’ birthday!

Dinner Guests

Mark went out this morning and exchanged our empty our gas cylinder for a full one so we could cook again. It was interesting not being able cook or heat food up. Actually, I thought I’d really miss the microwave but we don’t too much. It is amazing how quickly one can adapt. However, I am grateful to be able to use the stove again.

We had our language lesson in the afternoon and that went well but it is very slow and laborious. Joyce taught us to say “Have a Merry Christmas” in Kinyarwanda. It doesn’t sound like it looks!

This evening we had our colleagues, the Rossington family along with Bruce’s parents, who are visiting from England, over for dinner. I made peanut butter chicken and everyone liked it. Yeah! Our dining room table isn’t really big enough for all us (adults and kids) so Emily set up the coffee table as a kid’s table and she sat there to supervise. Emily was very good with them and kept them all focused and eating. The floor is cement so having rice spilled around was easy to clean up! I had heard that Mama Fifi’s specialty was lemon meringue pie so I asked her make 2 of them for our dessert. They were good except she didn’t bake the pie crust first. We'll work on that one.


So, we survived our first dinner guests! I hope we will have many more!

3 Items Gone

Wow! It’s the Monday before Christmas! It hardly seems like it since it is so low key here.

Well, not much exciting happened here today except the gas ran out in the cylinder for our stove while Mama Fifi was in the middle of making lunch so we had spaghetti sauce without the tomatoes and we ate it on bread instead of pasta. It worked. We had sandwiches and salad for supper. (No microwave or electric appliances!) Mark will go out and get a replacement tomorrow morning.

Our third Kinyarwanda lesson was today. Wow. Lots of interesting words and difficult pronunciations. Joyce, our teacher, said that her 9 month old baby got sick Friday so she took her to the clinic and got some medicine for her. On the way home, around 7 PM, a man snatched her purse! He got her money, cell phone, passport and the baby’s medicine she had just bought. She said she went back to the clinic where they gave her more medicine with the understanding that she will pay next week. She is asking for prayer for a way to get a new cell phone and for her baby to get well. We asked her if purse snatching was a common problem and she said yes. I don’t carry one if I don’t have to.

The excitement in the neighborhood the past few days has been connected with a dump truck. When we arrived here there was a big green dump truck parked across the road from our yard making it difficult for us to get out of our driveway. It was missing the rear wheels and looked like it had been there awhile. We’ve noticed the neighborhood kids have had fun playing in it and on it, climbing all over it and pretending to be driving it. It has been quite the attraction. They also figured out that if they climbed up on top it, they could see into our yard. Hmm. Well, Friday, there was some commotion out in the street and later when we went outside, we saw that some men had arrived to work on the truck. It seems they had needed a new axle (Mark could tell you better) and they had to have it imported from Uganda. They spent quite awhile on Friday and Saturday working on it. Sunday morning on our way to church, they were working on the steering wheel – we wonder if the kids had broken it. Sunday afternoon they spent a little while working on starting it up. They got it going but only a few feet. Eventually they got it going and turned it around to go out to the main road but for some reason, it quit again, this time in front of the neighbor’s house. Late this afternoon there was a lot more commotion and laughter - finally the green dump truck went on its way! I’m sure the neighborhood kids are disappointed to see their playground gone. .. Mark was hoping they’d leave the old axle behind. He had plans to use it as a stand for a bench grinder in his new shop…

Sunday School Christmas Party

This morning we went to church with the Bonvallats. They go to a small church that is a little drive from here. It feels like it is in the “bush” but it is still within the city limits. There are more gardens in the area and less modernization. We assume the houses had electricity and some may have had indoor plumbing but that’s not always a given. One house had a cistern with gutters on the roof to fill the cistern with rain water. The people in the area are definitely poorer than those living in our neighborhood. In fact, the church is too poor to pay for the pastor full time so he has a construction job in addition to being the pastor.

The church meets in a temporary building that is made with long boards stuck in the ground and a roof. They put tarps around 3 of the sides as walls. It was kind of like a pole barn but made with boards instead of poles. That’s not a very good description but Mark said it wasn’t a typical type of structure . The service was conducted in Kinyarwanda but I understood one or two more words this week than I did last. There were 3 choirs: a kids’ choir, a youth choir and a young adult choir. They were all accompanied by only a drum. Each group had their own drummer but they all shared the same drum. It was quite large: about 2 feet high and 2 – 2 ½ feet in diameter. The one playing it sat on a bench and straddled it. They played it with one open hand and the other hand had a stick. They were quite good at getting several different sounds out of it. The choirs each sang several numbers. They were good but not nearly as energetic as the choirs from the Friends church last week.

Besides the typical announcements, offering, welcoming of visitors, etc., they also opened it up for testimonies and 3 or 4 people stood up and read scripture or said something. The one main testimony was from the pastor who has been gone for 3 months or so. He had been in the hospital for a couple of months with a sciatic nerve problem. This was his first Sunday back. He didn’t preach and he sat most of the time. He was the only one with a chair with a back on it! We all sat on wooden benches. The sermon was given by a young man who said it was his first time preaching. The assistant pastor sat by Mark and interpreted, but it was hard for Mark to follow. The assistant pastor got up after the sermon and talked for 5 minutes or so and then 4 people went forward to pray. I’m guessing there was some kind of altar call.

During the sermon, the Bonvallats and some of the church members took the kids outside for their Sunday School. It was a special day for Christmas. They sang songs, told a story, were given a piece of banana/passion fruit bread and were given goodie bags with candies and stickers. Emily had helped make the bread earlier in the week and so she wanted to go help hand out the goodies. They had made 60 bags (they normally have 30 in S.S.) and there were 65 kids! Some of the siblings shared. The kids were all happy but Emily didn’t understand what any of them said.

In the afternoon the Bonvallats went swimming and invited Emily to go along. She always enjoys getting in the water!

A quiet Saturday

After breakfast this morning, we called our friend from Thailand, Beck. We were hoping he would be at the IFN Christmas Party. It turned out he was and so we were able to talk with several of our friends. It was very fun.

Later, Mark worked on Bonvallat’s car with Gilles because it was making a funny noise. Their son came over here and asked Emily to come over and then go swimming when the car was finished. It turned out to be a gloomy day so they decided not to swim. She stayed for lunch, though.

After lunch we headed downtown to walk around and see what we might find. Several businesses were closed by then but it was nice because there weren’t so many people, cars, etc. We found a few handcraft stores but they pretty much all sell the same things – carvings, baskets, batiks, pottery, etc. I still haven’t seen an olive wood crèche that I like. We also went into a few hardware stores looking for a tool box for Mark. We ended not buying anything other than sodas at a small snack place and a small basket for Emily for a jewelry box.

On the way back into town we stopped at the small grocery store near the house. We can get dry goods like pastas, flour, sugar, spices, etc. there plus cleaning supplies. They have a small dairy section with yogurts, cheese, butter and milk. They also have frozen meats and fresh fruits and veggies. On this trip we only needed cheese. They sell a locally made pale yellow Gouda cheese here. We used to get the same type of cheese when we lived at Rethy.

As we've been out and about, we've tried to remember to use the Kinyarwanda greetings we've been learning. It's always a pleasant surprise when someone responds and we realize that they actually understood us!

It's beginning to look like Christmas

On our way into town to go to Nakumatt, we stopped at a coffee shop first to get a cup of coffee/hot chocolate. It is called “Bourbon Café” and is very similar to Java House in Nairobi. They put a nice design on Mark’s mocha with the whipped cream and they served a little cookie with each of our drinks. It was a nice touch. At Nakumatt there was a Santa Claus walking around the store greeting everyone. I wanted to get a picture of Emily with him but she wouldn’t let me!

In the afternoon Joyce came over and we had our second language lesson. We reviewed the greetings we had done on yesterday and then began learning names of some places and sentences like: “I went to the market.” “You went to the bank.” We were pleased to discover that the words for “school” and “market” are the same as in Swahili and they use the French word for “bank”. That makes our life a bit easier! This language is definitely going to go slowly but we don’t see it as completely impossible. Pray for us to have clear minds!

In the evening we went with the Bonvallats to a Christmas Carol sing. Just a few years ago there were only a handful of missionaries from several different organizations living in Kigali. They decided to network and socialize together. One tradition they started was an annual Christmas Carol sing with a potluck. Well, the group has grown! I would guess there were 50 -60 people there and I know of some who weren’t there. It was good to meet people and find out who all is here and what they are doing. Mark was able to meet one fellow in particular who has been here a long time and done a lot of construction so he is a good resource for Mark. Everyone was to bring a “snack” and a dessert. I made guacamole and found crackers to put it on. (No corn chips out here and I didn’t feel like making any). It was almost gone so I guess everyone liked it. Emily made “Snowball cookies”. Others brought marinated meatballs, pita bread with humus, sandwiches, several different dips, pizza (homemade), deviled eggs, etc. Desserts were pretty standard cakes and Christmas cookies. No one went away hungry.

It was nice to sing the carols also. We haven’t sung any (that we recognized anyway) in church.

It's beginning to feel a little like Christmas!

Mwaramutse? (a morning greeting)

This morning, Jan came by with Bruce’s parents who just arrived on Tuesday night from England. We sat and talked and had tea and coffee. It was good to meet them. We’ll probably have them come over for supper sometime.

For lunch today I taught Mama Fifi a new recipe: Stir Fry green beans with rice. It was yummy! She seemed to enjoy learning a new recipe. We couldn’t communicate real well but I just showed her what to do. She understood and then she wrote it down. We’ll see if someday she can make it on her own.

After lunch Joyce came over for our first language lesson. By the time she left we knew a few words but our brains were tired. Now it’s a matter of remembering it. We worked on basic greetings today but there are different greetings depending on how well you know the person, if there is one of them or a group and depending on the time of day! Then there are different ways of saying goodbye depending, again, on if there is a group or one person, if you will see the person the next day or if you will not see them for a long time and also a different way depending on the time of day you are saying goodbye! We’ll meet again tomorrow. We had her record the vocabulary she taught us so we can work on it some more.

We've enjoyed calling family on Skype! I surprised my brother, Earl, and called him on his birthday. I've also been checking on my mom everyday in the hospital. We got to see Christopher and Abbey (and Joe and Rebekah, too!) on the webcam which was cool! Have you seen the investment commercial on TV with a baby talking about how easy it is to do his investments on the internet and then he spits up on the computer? While Joe had Abbey on his lap talking to us with the web cam on, Abbey nonchalantly spit up! We saw it before Joe did. It reminded us of that commercial except I don’t think she hit the computer!

Making Connections

While I stayed home this morning and worked on emails and miscellaneous housework, Mark met with Bruce to talk about a plan of action for starting the construction. There are still some bits of red tape that they have to get through before they can actually break ground so they wanted to work on figuring out a priority list, etc.

Then Mark and Bruce had lunch with a fellow named Tom Wheeler who is from Saddleback church (Rick Warren’s church). Tom is here working as an assistant or a consultant to the Mayor of Kigali. I’m not real sure how he got that job. Bruce thought it would be good for Mark to meet Tom just to have another contact with someone connected to government here.

Mark made it back here in time to for a meeting with our new language helper. A missionary working with the Friends church recommended this gal named Joyce. She is a Rwandan but she grew up in Uganda so she speaks fairly good English. Even though she grew up in Uganda, her family made sure she learned her native language of Kinyarwanda. However, she told us that the way she learned it from her grandparents and family in Uganda was different than the way it is spoken here in Rwanda because languages evolve. So she took a three month course in Kinyarwanda in order to speak it correctly. She has helped a couple of other missionaries get started in their language courses and is willing to help us.

The missionary who came with Joyce to meet us is named Debbie Thomas and she has 4 kids. The oldest, Brianna, is in 8th grade at RVA. Emily met her at the Christmas party we went to on Tuesday. Emily invited her to come over with her mom and then the two girls joined Miriam Bonvallat and her boys at someone else’s house (I’m not sure whose) to make goodies for a special Christmas kids’ event at the Bonvallat’s church on Sunday. The girls helped make several loafs of banana bread and passion fruit bread while the boys and younger kids filled little bags with treats. Emily said it was fun and a good way to get to know Brianna a bit better. Because Brianna is in middle school still, she and Emily won’t have too many opportunities to be with each other at RVA. They’ll have different activities, etc.

Very exciting development: this evening Mark had our internet connection set up at the house here and we've been able to play with Skype and send emails, etc. It is definitely nice to have it at home.

It's amazing the connections we made just today: meeting someone working here from Saddleback church, an opportunity to learn Kinyarwanda so that we can connect better with our neighbors and Rwandan friends, Emily developing a friendship with someone also at RVA, and connecting with loved ones all the way over in America through the internet!

A Fun Surprise

This morning Emily and I went with Jan to the ladies’ Bible Study group meeting but it was their annual Christmas party. It is a group of missionary ladies from several different organizations who get together twice a month for a Bible study. It was a fairly typical party with a carol sing, a small gift exchange and a potluck brunch. I think there were about 30 ladies there. At one point they went around the room and everyone introduced themselves. I was quite surprised when one lady said her name was Jo Wilson and then she mentioned her adult son. I knew right away that her son had been one of our dorm kids at Rethy many years ago! After evacuating from Zaire in the 90's the family moved to Kenya for awhile and I don't know where else. She and her husband have been in Rwanda for 12 years now. That was a fun surprise!

This afternoon we all went back to the Kenyan embassy and picked up Emily’s passport with the visitor visa. We then went to the US embassy again to register and, after waiting in line awhile, we were told that we are supposed to register on-line and not in person. Oh, well.

We thought it would be nice to go get a couple of chai somewhere but the place we wanted to go to, we couldn’t find. Also, it started to rain and we didn’t feel like driving around the city in the rain so we went home (where it wasn’t raining yet) and had some hot cocoa and played a game. We ended up going to Rossington’s and helped them out a little with a project of hanging mosquito nets. His parents are flying in tonight and they were finishing up getting things ready for them. They have also been very nice about letting us use their internet.

We are hoping to have our own internet set up at the house this week. It will be much easier for sending emails and doing Skype etc. I am getting sleepy so I will close this and go to bed. More to come later!

Electricity and Water

Today was another day of learning where important places are in town and accomplishing a few tasks. First we went to the Kenyan Embassy to drop off Emily's passport so she'll be ready with her visitor's visa when she goes to RVA. The school will get her Student Visa. We also went by the US Embassy to register our presence but found out that they do that on Tuesdays and Fridays. We found our way to a hardware store (for Mark) and the "China" store (for Emily and I).

We also stopped and “bought electricity”. The system here is that all the electricity is prepaid. We have to go to a special store that “sells electricity”, give them our meter number and then we pay for a certain amount. They then gave us a code number with our receipt. Mark took that number and entered it in a number pad on the meter and it increased our amount of available electricity on the meter. Mark figures we’ll have to buy more every 3 or 4 weeks.

After lunch Mark was able to do a few repairs around the house here. There is a water tank in the back yard that fills up when we get city water and then we have should have enough to last us until the city sends water again. There was a floating bottle in it with a rope and weight attached that was to indicate the level of water in the tank so we know if we have to be extra careful with water usage or if the city has sent us water. Anyway, the rope broke when Mark was fiddling with it the other day so today he installed a new rope. Also, we’ve had trouble with really low water pressure plus the kitchen faucet had a problem. In fixing the kitchen faucet, Mark discovered that the filter on the end of the spigot was clogged with dirt and gunk. After cleaning that out, the water, obviously, came through a lot better. So, he decided to go through all the spigots and clean them out. What a difference! He also did a few other minor repairs around the house. It’s nice to have him around!

Worshiping - Rwandan style

Our church service was definitely a cultural experience for us this morning. We decided to try a Rwandan church that is just up the hill from us (actually it is on the property that FATER is now renting.) It is a “Friends” church (or Quaker) and our worker, Mama Fifi, and the Rossington’s worker go there. Mama Fifi told us it started at 9:00 and went until noon. We decided to show up at 10:00 (politely late, African style) along with ½ the congregation and it went until 12:30. It was a very lively, fun service although we didn’t understand any of the language other than “hallelujah”, “amen”, and “missionary” (they were introducing us). A young man was told to sit next to Mark to translate because he knows English. He is a university student and teaches computer classes part time. He was a little helpful but he didn’t translate everything so Mark said it was a bit scattered.

One thing that didn’t need translating was a skit of the Good Samaritan. It was well done with a predominantly female cast and a modern twist (the Samaritan called for help on her cell phone!). I wondered as I watched it how that story affects the Rwandans after the 1994 genocide and if they would have a problem stopping to help someone of a different group. Since we didn’t understand the language, we didn’t get a feel for how they were presenting it or the application of it.

During the 2 ½ hours that we were there, about 1 hour was talking (sermon, introducing visitors, announcements, etc). The rest was singing – mostly by different choirs. They were all very good and we knew we were in Africa! Not one song was sung standing still and a couple of them had out and out dancing in the aisles and up front. There was a large area between the seats and the platform where the choirs stood and where dancing took place. Everyone looked like they really enjoyed being in church and had a good time. Not at all quiet, stoic or “reverent”.

I would have liked to have understood the sermon. The pastor was animated but not loud and shouting. He often called on someone in the congregation by name and had them stand up and either asked them a question or used them as an example for the sermon. At one point he brought out a large gift bag that obviously had a gift in it. He spent a long time talking about it. We think he was either using it to say that God gives us gifts and we need to receive them and use them or he was saying that if we serve God he will bless us and give us gifts. However, in the end, he gave it to one of the older ladies in the church who was VERY animated and very excited to be the one chosen to receive the gift. She came up to the stage dancing and then opened the gift, which was a piece of African cloth. I’m sure she’ll show up next Sunday with a new dress!

It happened to be a special Sunday for the church as they were recognizing their deacons/deaconesses. They spent a bit of time going over the duties of the deacons/deaconesses and then had them stand and be introduced. There were also several guests from other district churches. We think they were there because of the special recognition part of the service. Also, a couple different men got up and gave testimonies. One was about a car accident he had survived. The other I have no idea what it was about. They packed a lot into the 2 ½ hours actually and it was not at all dull!

After the service we were warmly greeted by several of the congregation (we were the only white folks there and most likely not many white folks ever come to that church). We were then invited to a special reception for all the visitors. We found out that they do this every Sunday but that there were lots of extra guests this particular week. We went into a side room where they had tables and chairs set around. They served us soda (in bottles!) and we had a choice of two different types of bread: one was basically a hot dog bun and the other was a small corn bread loaf. Emily and I each took a different type and then we each shared half with each other. One fellow sat next to Mark and talked with him a lot in Swahili and another fellow sat next to me and tried talking to me in French. I understood most of what he was saying but had a hard time giving him answers. Mark ended up helping me out.

We were pretty tired by the time we got home and got lunch and all. The rest of the day was spent doing emails or things around the house. We were able to call my mom in the hosptal (using Skype) and talk for a minute, although she was very tired. Mark and Emily worked on decorating the tree and they made a cute star for it with wire and aluminum foil.

A Leisurely Day

After a slightly leisurely breakfast this morning, the three of us went back to the Belgium School that Zawa attends. They sponsor an annual Rwandan craft fair every Christmas and we wanted to have a look at what is available. Most, if not all, of the tables that were set up were groups that help handicapped or the less fortunate (like widows) learn a craft and then business skills by marketing them. A lot of the stuff looked like things we can get in Kenya. There were some items that had a Rwandan look to them or made from materials that are local. For instance, a lot of the carvings are made from Olive wood. We looked around a bit and picked up a few very little baskets that Emily has now hung on our little Christmas tree as ornaments. They add some color other than RED.

Also while we were there Joe and Rebekah called us on our new Rwandan cell phones to let us know that my (Lisa's) mom is in the hospital. It is nice that we have such good communication abilities here. We pray she won't be in for long.

After the fair, we dropped Emily off at a hotel where the Bonvallats were spending the morning by the swimming pool. They stayed until noon and then the Rossington family came so Emily was able to hang out most of the day by the pool. She had packed a small lunch to eat as a picnic. She has become quite the favorite with the kids of both of these families. They haven’t had a teenage girl around before so they think she’s wonderful and fortunately she likes little kids so she doesn’t mind playing with them and letting them idolize her.

Mark and I had a quiet afternoon around the house, putsying around doing odd jobs that needed to get done. In the evening we watched a DVD on our computer. It wasn’t too bad for the three of us. Emily says we should have brought out a video projector and then we could show it on our wall. For now we'll enjoy the simple pleasures of life.

Residents Visas!

Well, tomorrow will be one week that we’ve been in Rwanda! In some ways it seems like much longer and that we’ve been away from the US for a very long time.

Today was another long day spent in offices but it was profitable in the end. Mark and I went with Bruce at 7:30 a.m. down to the immigration office to finalize our visas. They had the paperwork ready for us so it wasn’t much of a wait there. The paper work had the amounts listed that we had to pay – 465,000 Rwandan francs (RWF) for the “deposit” and 200,000 RWF for the visa itself. The current exchange rate is about 550 RWF to 1 US dollar so that made each of our visas about $1210. (Emily doesn’t need a Rwandan visa – she will have a student visa in Kenya and a visitor visa here) We knew that it would be that much and it was budgeted into our outgoing funds. We then went to the bank (where we waited in line) and withdrew that amount – in cash! We then went over to the Rwandan Revenue Office (where we waited in line) and gave them the paperwork and the money. They gave us receipts which we were to take back to the Immigration Office. Bruce had a meeting at 9 am so he left us at the Revenue Office (we were driving the Ferdinando’s car which I will now refer to as our car until we buy one).

Mark realized that we really didn’t know for sure how to get back to the Immigration Office from where we were so we decided to buy a road map. We went into small bookstore but they wanted 13,000 RWF ($23) for their map so we went outside and found a guy hawking stuff (actually he came up to us) and told him what we wanted. He said he could get us one and ran off. In the mean time, many other hawkers showed up with lots of maps of Africa and of the entire country. Eventually the first guy came back with the desired road map. He wanted 5,000 RWF ($9) but Mark told him that was the tourist price and we wanted a better price, like 3,000 RWF ($5.50) but he would only go down to 4,000 RWF ($7). We needed the map so we paid him the 4,000 which was better than the 13,000 in the bookstore. I’m glad we had it because it did help us visualize better where we were. Kigali is built up on hills surrounding a large valley and to get most anywhere you have to either go in a circle around the hills or down in the valley and back up again. It’s very easy to get turned around. Plus many of the intersections have round-abouts and it is easy to get off on the wrong street. We also discovered that the city is in the process of redoing the street signs so none of the streets were labeled which didn’t help us at all. Anyway, we made it eventually back to the Immigration Office (where we waited in line) and turned in the receipts. They said to come back to pick up our passports at 3:00.

We had some time before needing to get back to lunch at the Bonvallat’s so we went to Nakumatt and then to the “China” store. What that means is that everything in the store was imported from China. I don't know the real name of the store - the receipt was printed in Chinese! We bought a small Christmas tree there – our first ever “fake” tree but we have not found anything in town that even remotely looks like a live tree we could use. It was $30 dollars so if we use all three years, it is only $10 a year. We also picked some red tinsel garland.

Emily and Mark are setting up the tree while I’m writing this. We brought lights with us – they are red. It is a very – ba bam RED – little tree. Emily hung her newest ornament from Grandma on it.

While Mark and I were galavanting around this morning, Emily stayed at the Rossington’s to work on school work on the internet. We all went to the Bonvallat’s for lunch. The oldest boy (7 years old), Zawa (short for Zawadi which means gift in Swahili) went off to soccer practice after lunch. Emily decided to go watch. After soccer practice, Zawa was invited to a friend’s house to play. His dad, almost jokingly, asked Emily if she wanted to go along and she decided that would be more fun than hanging out our house. I asked her how it was and she said that the boys were typical young boys who don’t like to lose. Every game they played either the boys changed the rules so they would win or just when Emily was about to win, they’d quit! She thought it was pretty funny. I asked her if she spoke French while there. She said she heard a lot of French but didn’t say much. Zawa has pretty good English.

Anyway, while Emily was off, Mark and I went back to the Immigration office to pick up our passports. There was a huge line of people, many waiting for the same thing, some still trying to figure out what paperwork was needed. It got very hot and tiring waiting but finally our turn came up and there were our passports with the Rwandan resident visa stamped in them – good for 2 years and multiple re-entries. Yeah! Everyone we have told has said it is unbelievable that we got them so fast (less than a week in the country) and without more hassles and fines. Many people have said that God must want us here!

This evening we went with the Bonvallats to Zawa’s school for a special Christmas festival. It was basically a fund raiser for the school with a $1 entrance fee and then food and crafts for sale. I was hoping maybe for a hamburger or hotdog but since it is a Belgium school they were selling oysters and crepes! The crepes were good – we didn’t try the oysters. They also had a lot of homemade goodies like cookies and cakes. The crafts were things the kids had made in school.

We were glad to get away for the evening because our neighbor decided to burn trash and the smoke is coming directly into our house. It is really bad. We closed all the windows and doors but these houses are built with a small screened ventilation window in every room near the ceiling which can’t be blocked. Our whole house smells like smoke.

Well, the new Rwandan Resident needs to get to bed. It's been a long day!

Learning about the Neighborhood

This morning, first thing, Mark worked on the Ferdinando’s car to get it running and I worked with Emily on French. Later in the morning, Jan Rossington took Emily and I on a walk around the neighborhood a little bit. We went to the local market which is an outdoor market with loads of fruits, veggies, etc. They also had lots of fabric for sale so we may go back at a later time and get a dress or two made. She showed us a couple of small stores that she sometimes uses and then we walked over to FATER to see their current facility, which is pretty pathetic. We met one of the administrators who it seems that I will be working with some. I will be working with Bruce next week to learn how to do the bookkeeping for FATER on Quickbooks. Elias, who I met, is the one who receives the money from the students so he will be then passing the info along to me.

The city is definitely hilly so we had quite a good workout on our walk. I wouldn’t mind doing that every day to get into better shape! We had lunch with Rossingtons again and then Mark, Emily and I drove to a couple of small local supermarkets to buy a few basic supplies for the kitchen. We will begin cooking on our own on Saturday.

I have now spent the evening working on emails and other computer matters. We don't have an internet connection at our house yet so we work offline and then go to the Rossingtons use their wireless connection. It works but will be nice when we can do it on our own schedule at home. (Emily doesn't get to use Facebook as much as she wants!)

One thing I have discovered here is how time tell time in the morning without a clock. If I wake up and it is pitch dark and very silent, it is between midnight and 5:00 am. Shortly after 5 the call to prayer comes from the Mosque on the other hill but we hear it very well. Around 5:15 the small song birds start singing. The songs gradually become louder as more birds wake up and join in. Eventually the roosters start their call to wake up. By 5:30 or so the sky gets a bit lighter and the sun is up around 6:00. Other than the mosque, it’s not a bad way to wake up.

Well, I will close for now. We’ll let you know how the visa goes!

Caught in the Rain!

This morning we got up early again and went to town with Bruce. We went first thing to the immigration office with the updated paperwork in hand, including the diplomas which our wonderful family found in our file in storage, scanned and emailed to us. We saw a different person and she was more favorable with the paperwork we brought in. She said we needed copies of some of them (since Mark and I are applying for separate visas, we each needed a copy of each document for our own visa). She also wanted a marriage certificate which hadn’t been mentioned before but Mark had a copy of it on his computer that he had scanned previously. So we told her we’d be back in an hour with the paperwork.

We ran back to the house, printed out copies of the necessary documents and ran back to the office (it’s about 15 – 20 drive one way). Amazingly, the power went off as we were printing but the Ferdinandos (whose house we are living in) have this wonderful back-up battery system. Mark just flipped it on and we continued printing! When we returned to the Immigration Office, the same lady was at the counter. She looked at the documents and told us that they would have to be reviewed and that our visas would be ready on Friday! Bruce was shocked. He said that no one he knows has ever gotten them approved that fast!

We then had time to go buy a car battery for Keith Ferdinando’s car (Keith and Margaret are not only letting stay in their furnished house but also they said we could use their car) and to get the insurance updated. It all went smoothly and we had time to kill before picking the kids up from school so Bruce dropped us off at a new supermarket (Nakumatt – a chain store from Kenya, Africa’s answer to Wal-Mart) in town for us to look around. We said we’d walk up the hill and meet him at the corner at the kids’ school. As we were leaving the store, the wind picked up dramatically and it was starting to sprinkle. Mark thought we could make a dash for it and get to the school but we only got across the street and down a little before it began to absolutely downpour (California never sees rain like this). We dashed into an alcove of a store where some others were standing as well. It was a pretty good place to stand except that the wind was so strong it blew the rain right at us at times. The front of us was soaked from the waist down! Mark called Bruce and he was able to come by and pick us up. By the time he got there the rain had subsided quite a bit.

After changing we again had a nice lunch with the Bonvallats. This time Emily stayed longer in the afternoon and played with the boys outside. I told them they had to teach her French. Mark went back over later and helped Gilles work on a problem with his car.

We were able to finish unpacking this evening although we don’t have a place for everything yet. Some things we put back into suitcases for now. We made the discovery that one item is missing from our luggage unless we accidently put into Emily’s duffle bag which we left at RVA. It is the comforter for our bed. It is not an essential nor very expensive item, it just would have been nice to have as it wasn’t that old and we liked it. Oh, well. We are thankful all of Mark's tools made it.

Good night for now!

A Less Hectic Day

Well, the wake next door carried on for most of the night and was noisy. Mark had trouble sleeping through it but for me it was mostly a dull background noise that I could sleep through. I remember waking up once and realizing that it was very quiet outside. They must have decided to sleep a little bit.

I spent the day at the house doing French lessons with Emily and getting to know our houseworker, Mama Fifi. (My name here is Mama Emily). Also, we were excited to find that water had come into our tank during the night so I was able to do a couple of loads of laundry! Yeah!

Mark spent the morning with Bruce composing a letter we needed for the visa and other paperwork. We ate lunch with Rossingtons and chatted for awhile. The afternoon was spent unpacking some more and generally working around the house.

Mark and Emily both crashed around 7:30 PM this evening. I will finish this and then hit the hay myself.

The funeral for our neighbor’s daughter was earlier today and there is quite a party still going on. Hopefully, it won’t be too late!

God bless,
Lisa

The Business of Getting Settled

This morning we needed to be at the Rossington’s house around 7 am in order to ride into town with him when he took the kids in the carpool to school. Mark set his alarm for 6 so we’d be sure to be ready to go. The alarm went off and I thought it was strange that it was so quiet outside and so dark but went ahead, got dressed and went out to put breakfast on the table. I looked at the clock in the dining room and looked again, thinking I was really tired and not able to read the clock. Nope. It still said 5:30! I went in and told Mark and he checked his clock and then realized that he had not changed it from Kenya time, which is an hour different. Oh, bother. Here we needed sleep and we were up an hour too early! Fortunately we didn’t show up at Rossington’s at 6 am!

I forgot to mention that we were awakened in the middle of the night sometime by very loud talking at our neighbor’s house next door. We found out the next morning that our neighbor’s adult daughter, who had been ill for some time, had died that night. It seems that was what the commotion was about. There were comings and goings all day long at that house.

After dropping the kids off at school, Bruce took us to the Rwandan Immigration office to tell them that we were in the country and to find out what we needed to get our residence visas. The fellow we spoke with hemmed and hawed a bit and wrote down a list of documents we needed and stated that some we had brought weren’t good enough because they weren’t notarized, etc. He also said that we had four days to complete the process and since we had arrived on the 6th we had to have it all turned in by the 9th (which is tomorrow!!). We reminded him that the 6th was a Saturday and that in fact we had come on the first available business day so he said it was okay and we had until Thursday the 11th. The odd thing about the documents which were needed was that the immigration website lists specific documents which are needed. He told us some that were on the list, omitted some that were on that list and added some which weren’t on the list (like the diplomas that we didn’t have).

After that visit we went to the bank and spent quite awhile setting up our new bank account complete with internet availability. We then went to a phone store and got our new Rwandan phone numbers. We also stopped by a service station and got the hole in Bruce’s tire fixed.
We had a nice lunch with the Bonvallat family. They are a Swiss family who first went out to work in Zaire in 1996, right when all the missionaries were evacuated. After working in Nairobi for a time and then later in DR Congo (and being evacuated eventually), they have been in Rwanda for a few years and are trying to start a ministry with the youth. They have 3 boys – only the oldest one speaks English. The middle boy took Emily into his room after lunch to show her around and chatted and chatted away in French. She had no idea what he was saying other that an occasional: “Tu comprends?” (do you understand?) She thought he was very cute.

Mark spent time this afternoon working on paperwork and I tried to unpack and stay awake. We went over to the Bonvallats again to walk over to their neighbor’s house with them. The neighbor, Godfrey, has a very large house he is currently living in but he also owns a house somewhere else in town that he wants to move into. He is getting the one next to Bonvallats ready to rent out and so we thought we’d take a look at it. It has 6 bedrooms, 2 living rooms, 2 bathrooms and a dining room but no indoor kitchen! He is constructing another building in the back with 2 more bedrooms, a small bathroom, a storage room and a kitchen. Traditionally the Rwandans don’t have their kitchen in the main house. He did say that he would be willing to transform the smaller living room into a dining room and make the dining room into a kitchen. The layout allowed for that and it would be an easy fix. He also wants to rent it completely furnished and he had quite nice furniture. Unfortunately he will be asking $1000 / month which is way over the mission budget. If it was half that price, we maybe could use it as our house and run a guest house for visiting teachers or construction workers who come out to help us. It’s a bit higher up the hill and has a great view of the city.

This evening the group of people who have arrived at the neighbors for the wake have multiplied and spilled outdoors. There is a lot of talking and singing. I hope it doesn’t go on all night.

Good Night!

A Day of Rest

Today, Sunday, we went to church with the Rossingtons. It was an English service basically serving the American community in Kigali. We met a family with 2 kids going to RVA. Emily will be flying over with them in January.

Afterwards we went lunch at an Italian restaurant that served mostly pizza and then we went to a hotel in town where the kids went swimming. It cost about $4 for Emily to swim for the afternoon so that wasn’t too bad.

When we got home we walked with the Rossingtons to a neighbor’s house to congratulate them on their new baby. The new father is the Academic Secretary of the Theological College. He and his wife are Congolese but working here. We are finding that a lot of Congolese are living here. The wife’s mom was at the house. She is visiting in order to help with the new baby. She only speaks Swahili so we were able to talk with her. Otherwise we spoke in French. Actually, Mark did the talking for us – I do better listening right now. I am pleased that I understand a lot in both languages; I just can’t come up the words to formulate my own sentences yet. Hopefully it will come in time.

Well, that is all for today – pretty much a restful day. Tomorrow the business of getting settled begins!

God bless,
Lisa

We have arrived in Kigali, Rwanda!

We made it to Rwanda!!

Once again our flight was uneventful. It was good that we arrived at the airport very early (about 3 hours) as it took quite awhile to figure out the excess baggage but it all went very well. After we got through the baggage check-in, got our boarding passes and went through the immigration desk to get our passports stamped, we had one hour until we needed to be at our gate. We were all very thirsty by then so where do you suppose we went? Java House! They now have one at the very far end of the airport!

Instead flying on an AIM-AIR or MAF airplane, we flew Kenya Airways. It was a rather new 737 airplane and seemed very nice. We knew it was a short flight so we weren’t expecting food but amazingly, they served, without an added fee I might add, drinks and a hot meal! It was not a huge meal but adequate since we hadn’t had any lunch. We left Nairobi at 12:30 and arrived in Kigali at 12:35! (There is a one hour time difference.) The Kigali airport seemed nice and clean and some ladies were standing at the door greeting everyone. It was quite friendly.

We made it through immigration without a problem and went down a whole lot more stairs to the baggage area where we had to wait a bit for them to start unloading but all the luggage was there! There was no customs check and no one even looked to see if we had our own bags. Mark met a Rwandan pastor while waiting for the bags and explained what we are planning to do here. The pastor was very pleased because he said that many, many people are coming to Rwandan to feed the poor but, he said, what Rwanda really needs is trained leadership in the churches.

Our colleagues, Bruce Rossington and Gilles Bonvallat, were waiting for us and very happy to see us. The Bonvallats we knew from Zaire and Kenya. They are a Swiss couple who are here to work with the youth. They have 3 boys ages 7, 5, and 3. The Rossingtons are a British couple. He is teaching in the Theological College and we will work very closely with them. They have 3 kids: 2 girls ages 8 and 6 and a boy age 2. We were able to fit all the luggage and ourselves into their two vehicles. We spent the afternoon with the Rossingtons getting to know them and having them tell us some basic stuff we needed to know about living here.

We are staying for now in a furnished house that another couple had to leave because of health problems. They are due back this spring but for now it very convenient for us to have a house ready to go. It is a 3 bedroom house but one bedroom is set up as an office. The living room is quite large and there is a dining room and a very small kitchen. There is a laundry room outside. There are two baths, one in the master bedroom and one for the other bedrooms. Overall, it is a nice house. The floors are all cement and the walls are brick but cemented and painted a pale yellow on the inside. We have electricity but unfortunately there is no water right now so we have large containers of water that were filled up at the Rossington’s and Bonvallat’s houses and brought over. There is a large water tank in the back yard that normally gets filled periodically by the city water but it seems the tank has been run dry. Until the city water comes in again, we are being careful.

Another way we know we are in Africa is by the creepy crawlies we have found in the house! We have found a spider or two and a few dinky little critters but what made me jump tonight was the gecko that ran across the floor when I scared it from its hiding place! Geckos I can live with but the yucky one was the inch and a half cockroach in the shower! Those I am not fond of at all and hopefully I won’t see too many more.

Well, that is our first day in Kigali!

Day 3 in Kenya

Day 3 in Nairobi!

After breakfast and chatting with friends who are also staying here at Mayfield, we headed over to Yaya Center (a mall not far from where we used to live). I was surprised to see that many of the stores are the same but, of course, many are different – I suppose over half are the same. One surprise was to find a beautiful new huge Woolworths on the second floor!

After checking out all three floors of the mall, we made our way back down to the first floor to the new Java House there. (Java House is the Starbucks of Nairobi and is found in several locations now. It is better than Starbucks, though!) We met Emily’s dorm mom there and enjoyed an hour or so visiting with her and asking questions while sipping our Java House drinks – Mark had Coffee Mocha which came with a beautiful design on top drawn with chocolate syrup, I had a pot of Masala tea which was REALLY strong masala but OHH so good! And Emily had a chocolate chip milk shake which she said was wonderful. Abigail had an iced blended coffee mocha of which came with a little pitcher of syrup to add as sweetener (since we all know that sugar doesn’t dissolve well in iced drinks). However, she said it was plenty sweet without the syrup.

Abigail is very sweet and will be a great dorm mom for Emily. She plays piano and teaches the 7th grade music class as well as accompanies the High School choir. She was really excited that Emily brought her guitar and is hoping she’ll play for devotions. The 10th grade girls dorm is full starting in January with 18 girls. It should be fun.

After our visit with Abigail, Mark and Emily went off to buy a flashlight for Emily and find a place to exchange money. They went back to Mayfield. I was picked up by a couple of friends who drove me out to the AIM ladies’ Christmas luncheon. Besides getting to see several of the ladies we used to work with, a special treat was walking into our hostess’ house and seeing her worker, Josephine. She had been a faithful attendee of the Bible study I used to have for the workers and she is a very sweet Christian lady. She and I recognized each other right away. It was a great reunion.

The lunch was a potluck with lots of good food. After lunch we went inside and had a Christmas Carol sing and those who had come prepared shared in a cookie exchange. It was fun for me to be there particularly because this was a tradition that I had help start many years ago and had hosted it several times.

In the afternoon Mark, Emily and I rested at Mayfield and reorganized our suitcases. Later on, we had another sweet reunion with our good friends: Mary, Judith, Julia, and Susan. Judith was our worker for many years. Mary is her wonderful mother and Julia and Susan are her sisters. Judith’s brother Simon is the one whose wedding Emily was the flower girl for many years ago. (He and his wife are now living in Texas). It was really, really good to see them and they, of course, loved the pictures.

Well, that was our third day in Kenya. Tomorrow we head off to the airport for Kigali!

Bye for now from Kenya!
Love,
Lisa

Visiting RVA in Kenya

Good Morning!

It is Friday morning here, about 5:45 am. I woke up at 5:00 am after a good night’s sleep so I decided to come out to the lounge and let Mark and Emily sleep some more.

We had a good day yesterday. We all slept well Wed. night so we woke up refreshed and ready for the day.

After breakfast we headed off to Rift Valley Academy (RVA). First we stopped at Nakumatt (Kenya’s equivalent to Wal-Mart). Mark was able to get the Emily’s cell phone set up with a Kenyan phone number there. Also, Emily and I went into the grocery section to pick up a few supplies for lunch. It took quite awhile to find what we needed since the store was so huge and they don’t organize the aisles the way we would. We ended up with some rolls, peanut butter, yogurt, juice boxes, napkins, and plastic knives and spoons. The store was well stocked with a good variety of foods. In my first impression, I think they had pretty much everything they used to have but offered more options. For example, it used to be that we could get peanut butter but only had 2 or 3 types to choose from. Now there were 6 or 7 types or brands to choose from. It seems that the economy is doing okay here.

We didn’t have too much traffic heading up to RVA and got there in about the expected one hour. The weather was great with the blue sky and huge puffy white clouds that are the norm out over the Rift Valley. It seems that they’ve had some rain because the valley was greener than I remembered it being in the past.

At RVA we met Tim Cook, the school superintendent, in the office and made sure Emily was ready to go. Then we went to her dorm and found her dorm mom’s house worker who let us put Emily’s things in the apartment. We spent a little time chatting with her. She is a nice woman and was encouraging Emily to just trust God when she was away from family at RVA. Her faith in God was evident.

After walking around a little and showing Emily the important buildings (the cafeteria and the library!) we walked over to see our good friends, Steve and Melinda McMillan. Steve and Mark, of course, ended up in the garage looking at Steve’s “new” car. While they were out there a neighbor walked over, having seen the garage door open. Mark was surprised when he turned around and saw Tim Brown standing there! So Tim came in and we chatted for a bit. Tim is the son of Paul and Ellen Brown who we worked closely with in Zaire for many years. He was in jr. high when we first went out in 1984. Now he and his wife are teaching at RVA.

As we walked back to the car we were driving, we saw another car parked nearby and Mark said, “That’s our old Pajero (Montero).” Emily dared to question how in the world, with all the cars around Kenya, he would possibly know that it was our old car. So Mark began listing off all the unique features of the car that he himself had added to it. Even I realized that indeed it was our car. Also, as we were getting into our car, I saw a man I recognized (Mark Kinzer) talking with another man. So we went over to say hi and discovered that the other man, who we don’t know, is now the owner of “our” car. He bought it from whomever it was we had sold it to and knew that it had been “our” car. It is now a pretty old car but looked in good shape.

Anyway, we drove back to Nairobi hitting more traffic but not as bad as we imagined. We went directly to Waldo and Lynette Goossen’s house where we had dinner. Then Steve and Melinda Moffitt and girls came over and joined us for dessert. It was fun to visit with all of them and admire how big all the kids are now. Emily’s friends, Naomi Goossen and Natalie Moffitt are both really tall and make Emily look short! The Moffitts and the Goossens are Emily’s guardians when she is at RVA which means that during the long weekend breaks she will hang out at their houses. Also, if a problem comes up and Emily needs something, she can call on them.

We got back to Mayfield around 9:30 last night and were pretty tired so we were in bed by 10:00. I am being attacked by a mosquito here so I will close this long epic for now and get ready for breakfast. Talk to you later!

Lisa

We made it to Kenya

Hi! We made it to Kenya!

We had an uneventful trip. The LAX to Amsterdam trip was delayed by about an hour but because we had a several hour layover in Amsterdam, the delay didn’t affect us. We were all able to sleep some on that flight. Food was different but good enough.

The Kenya Airways flight from Amsterdam to Nairobi was pretty nice and also uneventful. The airplane was a fairly new Boeing 777 with a few nice amenities like individual tv screens so we could pick what we wanted to watch and nicer reclining seats.

The big test for our days of traveling was to see if our luggage had arrived as well. While we were waiting in the very slow line to get our visas, our luggage had indeed been offloaded from the plane! All 12 pieces were there looking to be in fine shape. A driver from Mayfield Guesthouse was waiting (and getting nervous because we took so long) for us. He had a van with a roof rack so with the help of some young men looking for an extra buck (which they got), all our very heavy baggage got up on top of the van or inside of it and there was room for the 3 of us as well (always a good thing!).

Driving from the airport to Mayfield Guesthouse was an adventure because there was a TON of traffic. Everyone here is complaining about the amount of traffic and it was obvious that it has gotten way worse over the years. It was also fun because there were giraffes grazing in the plain next to the airport!

After unloading our very heavy luggage into a storage unit for the next few days, we all three enjoyed hot showers and a cup of coffee (okay, Emily didn’t have coffee…). We then spent the rest of the day trying to stay awake so we can sleep tonight. We walked around Mayfield, stood around talking to people, went to the hangar (where Mark used to work) to visit folks out there, walked to Hurlingham (a nearby shopping area), etc. The reaction we got from folks at the hangar was really fun. Most of the Kenyans did not know we were coming so they were quite surprised to see us. They were disappointed to find out we are not staying in Kenya but happy we are back on the continent. Everybody told Emily, “Wow! You’ve grown! You were just a little girl when you left!” They’ve also been very pleased to see the pictures of Rebekah, Joe and kids and of Stephanie. We finally all ended up taking a 30 minute nap before supper which helped revive us. We’ll be ready to sleep tonight!

So, that was our first day here. Tomorrow we head up to Kijabe to see RVA.

Good Night!
Lisa

September 2008 Prayer Letter

Dear Family and Friends,

Since we now have a little extra time because of our delayed departure to Rwanda, today we are leaving on a trip to Northern California to visit a supporting church and some friends. Please be praying for a safe trip. Also, Mark is taking 2 construction classes at a community college that will help him with his work in Rwanda. He is one of the “Old Guys” that Stephanie says you sometimes see in college classes.

Emily’s homeschooling / on-line classes are going well (and we think she is actually enjoying it). She enjoys the commute (bedroom to computer) and the flexibility. Doing schoolwork on the front porch in a lawn chair definitely beats pushing through crowded halls and sitting in uncomfortable school desks! Emily has “met” another girl in the same grade in her online class who is headed to her school in Kenya , Rift Valley Academy! Her family is also delayed due to low support. It will be fun when they actually get to meet in person.

We are thankful that our monthly support is now at 100%! Our Outgoing account is at 53% (still needing about $8,500) and our Car project account is at 17% (still needing about $15,000). Please continue to be in prayer about God’s provision of additional funds for both of those accounts so that we can leave without any more delay.

Several people have asked what is happening with the construction project of the Rwanda Faculty of Evangelical Theology (FATER) because we are not there. The simple answer is nothing; as soon as we arrive it will begin. Also, please be in prayer for the principal of FATER, our colleague and friend, Keith Ferdinando and his wife Margaret. They have suddenly had to go home to the UK for medical reasons. Pray for wisdom for the doctors and for a quick recovery for Keith.

We have a new tentative departure date of Tuesday, October 28. Please pray that all support will be collected in God’s timing.

Donations can be made online at: https://www.aimint.org/usa/online_giving.html

Thank you again for your prayers for our family.

In Christ,
Mark and Lisa Sudman
310-715-6366

P.S. If you received AIM’s “Heartbeat Africa” magazine this month, check out page 9! The FATER construction project is highlighted in a short article.

August 2008 #2 Prayer Letter

Dear Family and Friends,

Today is the day we had hoped to leave for Africa. While we are sad about all the extra difficulties this brings, we are confident that our move will take place in God’s timing. So instead of moving to Africa today, we are moving out of our rented house in Lakewood. Earlier this month we asked you to pray about temporary housing. We are praising God that we can move into Lisa’s mom’s old house until it sells.

So, don’t use our old address or phone number anymore. Our new temporary address is:
Mark, Lisa & Emily Sudman
17701 Avalon Blvd. #278
Carson, CA 90746
310-715-6366

Emily will begin homeschooling and taking on-line classes starting next week to help her be ready to enter Rift Valley Academy whenever we get there. This is a new experience for all of us! Pray for a smooth transition to this new type of schooling and for diligence for Emily.

Earlier this month we also asked you to be praying about an additional $500 in monthly support that was needed. We are praising God that we are a bit closer to being able to leave because that need has been met. Please continue to be in prayer about God’s provision of additional Outgoing and Car Project funds (about $28,000 still needed for both) that we need before we can leave.

Again, we have been asked several times how donations can be made to our support. It can be done online at: https://www.aimint.org/usa/online_giving.html

Or by mailing a check to:
Africa Inland Mission
P.O. Box 178
Pearl River, NY 10965

All checks should be made out to “AIM” with a note indicating that it is for the Sudman Outgoing or Car Project, or for monthly support (for those sending in monthly support, you will then receive instructions on how to continue).

Thank you again for your prayers for our family.

In Christ,
Mark and Lisa Sudman
310-715-6366

Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. Luke 12: 6 & 7

P.S. This week Emily (and the rest of us too) said goodbye to a good friend. She met this friend during our first Christmas after we returned from Africa in 2002. This friend was always happy to see her (and all of us), always willing to play, go for a walk, and even cuddle up once in a while. Her name was Asali. When we left Africa we had a dog that we left with friends to take care of her. Now that we are leaving the US and returning to Africa, we have found friends to take care of Asali. She is in a good home and will be well loved.

Finding a good home for Asali was one of the many concerns we had in leaving the US. While the concerns for our family (our mothers, 2 daughters and grandkids and other family) that we are leaving behind is greater, we can once again see that God is also concerned about the small details in our life. If God can take care of the sparrows (and dogs), He will take care of all the things in our lives.

August 2008 Prayer Letter

Dear Family and Friends,

From the start we knew our return to Africa would be a journey of faith. Once again we see God’s faithfulness in the birth of Abbey Lynne and God’s provision of a caring independent living (with some assistance) home for Lisa’s mom to move into.

We also are now seeing how our departure date of August 28 was too ambitious and that God has made it clear to us we need to delay our departure for a time because of lack of financial support. This will allow us to spend a bit more time with Abbey Lynne (and Christopher, Rebekah and Joe) and to help Lisa’s mom get her house ready to sell.

Our next steps of faith will be for God’s provision of:
· temporary housing at the end of August when we move out of our rented house
· additional Outgoing and Car Project funds (about $28,000 still needed for both)
· additional monthly support (about $500 per month still needed)

This delay means that Emily will have to change schools in the middle of the school year and a delay in the start of the Theological College construction project that Mark will be overseeing. So please pray for God’s speedy provision of the support we need. Also pray that we make a wise decision for Emily’s education while we wait to leave.

We have been asked several times how donations can be made to our support. It can be done online at: https://www.aimint.org/usa/online_giving.html

Or by mailing a check to:
Africa Inland Mission
P.O. Box 178
Pearl River, NY 10965

All checks should be made out to “AIM” with a note indicating that it is for the Sudman Outgoing, or Car project, or for monthly support (for those sending in monthly support, you will then receive instructions on how to continue).

Thank you again for your prayers for our family.

In Christ,
Mark and Lisa Sudman
562-857-9886

Emily's July 2008 Jamaica Letter

Dear Family & Friends,

Thank you so much for supporting me and my team in Jamaica. We had a lot of fun sharing God’s word with the Jamaicans. We had a group of interns from the Jamaica Youth for Christ who helped us with puppets, played in the band (because my team was so small we didn’t have a band) and helped us figure out how everything worked. In Jamaica, we put on shows for students in schools, orphanages and for disabled children. The children really loved the attention they got from us. It was hard leaving sometimes because it felt like you were betraying the children. We put on puppet shows, acted out silent dramas and the band played songs. While we were there every student on our team shared his/her testimony. Giving my testimony in front of all those people was hard but God helped me and I made it through! At night we put on a show in a church yard for the surrounding neighborhood. These shows were mainly for the adults in the audience but we still did puppet shows for the children, which they loved. It was cool to see the openness of the Jamaicans. If you asked they would boldly say "Yes, I am a Christian" or "No, I am not". After the shows we would go around and talk to people and help them figure out the meaning of the dramas, puppets, and music.

During this time God taught me to be flexible. We would be told we were going to go to this place at this time and we’re going to do this. Then five minutes later it was “We’re going to go there and do that and at that time.” I had to learn to say “Ok, cool, let’s do it". I also learned to be more open with people and talk to total strangers (I had learned the lesson “Don’t talk to strangers” too well).

I also learned to trust God and know everything’s in His control. On the way back our 1:00 p.m. flight from Jamaica to Florida was delayed until 3:00 p.m. Because of that, we would miss our connecting flight. So instead they got us on later flight out of Florida. We went and got lunch and had a debriefing. As we were doing some last minute shopping, we discovered that the plane out of Jamaica was delayed again until 6:00 p.m. If all went well, we could get on our new connecting flight out of Florida. We didn’t make it. So we spent the night in Florida in a hotel that the airline paid for because we had travel insurance. The next morning half of our group left at 6:00 a.m. (I wasn’t on that flight (YES!!!)). My group left Florida at 10:00 a.m. but we had another stopover in Dallas before going on to California. At LAX my parents were there waiting for us. God took care of everything and even gave Amy, the secretary who bought the tickets, the foresight to buy the travel insurance.

Besides the adventure in Florida, the trip to Jamaica ran smoothly and everyone had a great time. God taught us all lots of very important lessons that I know I will never forget. Thank you for making the whole trip possible.

God’s Little Missionary,
Emily Sudman

July 2008 Prayer Letter

Dear Family and Friends,

In our last 2 prayer letters we told you about our needing to trust God to take care of our family and finances in order for us to return to Africa so Mark can oversee the construction of the Rwanda Faculty of Evangelical Theology (FATER). God has been answering our prayers and we are confident that He will continue to do so.

We need to ask you to continue to pray along with us for God’s provision of the funds we need in order to return to Africa. In just one month we have raised about 25% of additional monthly support, 17% for our “Outgoing” expenses and 5% of our vehicle project. But there is still a lot that remains, and only 7 weeks until we depart!

Please let us know if you would like to help with these needs, or click on this link if you would like to donate on line. https://www.aimint.org/usa/online_giving.html

Mark had a great two week trip to Rwanda in early June and has returned with lots of photos and a full description of the construction project. In fact, we would love to show you our PowerPoint and tell you all about our new ministry. If you, your church or your small group, would like to see it, let us know.

Be sure to look at an AIM website for The Rwanda Evangelical School of Theology to see some interesting info about the college and several videos by one of our future co-workers that you will find interesting. http://www.aimint.org/eu/projects/the_rwanda_faculty_of_evangelical_theology.html Also, be sure to visit: http://www.sudmansafari.blogspot.com/ .

We are thankful that Emily and the others from our church’s High School group had a great mission trip to Jamaica. Emily will give you a report soon.

In the service of Jesus Christ,


Mark and Lisa Sudman

Serving with Africa Inland Mission
P.O. Box 178 Pearl River, NY 10965
Home Phone: (562) 857-9886
e-mail: mark-lisa.sudman@aimint.net

Home Again

Saturday, June 14: Thank you for your prayers. I left Rwanda about 1 AM California time on June 12. Three flights (21 hours), nine time zone changes and a few hours of sleep later, I arrived a bit tired at LAX at 1 PM June 13.


On the two long flights I had exit row seats! That was great. My sore throat turned into a head cold, which is not good for flying, but maybe better than a sore throat.

I slept well last night and now I need to dig into the pile of snail mail and email, see what the funny noise is in the car that started while I was gone, and prepare for several speaking engagements. Speaking of speaking engagements, we will be having a get-together Sunday evening, June 15th at our home church at 7 PM. If you would like to hear all about our new ministry, please come. (Hospitality Center at the Lakewood Family Church (First Baptist Church of Lakewood) 5336 Arbor Rd., Long Beach, CA 90808)

We will have another one on Saturday, July 19th if you would rather come then. Or, if your small group or your church would like to hear about our ministry, let us know and we would be happy to work something out.

I'm really glad I made this trip, it was well worth the time and expense. I now have a much better idea of what we will be doing and how to do it. It would be great to tell you all about it in person.

Thanks again for praying,

Mark

562-857-9886

Last day in Kigali

Wednesday, June 11: Not much to report today. This morning I went around town by myself again to check prices and the availability of things. There is a lot here, but imported goods are expensive. This afternoon we talked a bit more about the construction and then I packed for my trip. I leave Rwanda at 11 AM Thursday (local time) and arrive at LAX about 1 PM Friday. I feel like I am coming down with a sore throat. Pray it goes away.

This afternoon one of the staff at the FATER Bible school asked me what my impressions of Rwanda were after being here just over a week. I told him I think I am going to enjoy living here. I wasn't sure I would before coming on this trip.

Not only do they say that Rwanda is one of the cleanest cities in Africa, they say it is the safest. I will withhold judgment on that, but they may be correct.

I am thinking that while the construction project will be a big challenge for me, I think I will enjoy that as well. They say that God equips those who He calls (or something like that). I am trusting that it will definitely be true in this case.

Mark

Welders and Plastic Bags

Tuesday, June 10: I don't have much to blog today. Went to town this morning checking the availability of goods and their prices. We will need a portable welder at the construction site; we found one for over $10,000. Good ones in the US are $2000 or $3000. We may choose to ship one in from the UK. Glad I don't have to pay for it.

This afternoon I met with a Conservative Baptist missionary who has been in Rwanda for about 20 years to talk about construction, etc. He will be a big help with purchasing supplies, finding workers, building code questions, etc.

A section of road on the way to the construction site.

There are a few small changes that Keith and I would like to make in the site plans. This evening I tried my hand at drawing up a few plans. We will give it to the design team to see what they think tomorrow just before they leave Rwanda. It should take them about 2 months to draw up the blue prints etc. so we can have them approved by the Rwandan building department. When that is done we can start construction.

I have a feeling I will hit the ground running when we arrive in Rwanda on Sept. 5th.

Mark
PS. On an odd note, did you know plastic bags are illegal in Rwanda? It is to help keep the country clean.

The Final Product

Monday, June 9: This morning I worked on Keith's car a bit. I needed to go to town to get a part so I walked to the main street and got a Boda (motorcycle taxi). I had no idea where to go but the Boda driver thought he knew. After stopping at several parts stores I decided I would postpone looking for the part and would do a bit of bricolage (French for making a temporary fix) when I got back to the house.

While I was in town I checked prices for a few things we will need (like appliances) when we set up house in September. WOW! Prices are at least double what they are in the States. But at least the Boda was a good price. I paid a little less than $5 for the round trip.

After lunch we had a presentation by the design team of the site plan to some of the staff of the FATER Bible School and the president of the Rwanda Evangelical Alliance and his secretary. The Rwanda Evangelical Alliance is made up of 20 or so evangelical churches & denominations who run the FATER Bible School.


They were VERY pleased with the plans and are excited to see that the new campus is close to becoming a reality. I was touched to see their sincerity and the trust they have in God for His provision of all that is needed to complete the project.

Mark
PS Unfortunately the rent for the house I saw on Saturday is too high. We will need to wait for God's provision.