Friday Fun (okay, so cleaning clogged drains isn't exactly fun...)

In the afternoon Mark went to the Bonvallats to help Gilles with his car. I forget what they were doing but I think he was fixing the clutch pedal or something like that.

When he got home Mark had to take apart our kitchen sink drain because it was clogged up. Fortunately it wasn’t a time consuming project, just messy. But now our drain works well!

Then Mark went over to Rossingtons’ because they were having water pump problems again. However, that was a quick trip because by the time he got there, they all realized that the problem wasn’t with the pump but with the fact that there is no water in their tank! This neighborhood has not received water from the city for over a week now, which is why we have a water tank in the back yard. When the water comes from the city, it fills up our reserve tank and we can get by for a couple of weeks or more if we are careful. But we are only 2 people. Rossingtons are 5 in their family so they can’t go as long as we can on one tank. They are now buying jugs of water from the pump at the market until the water comes back on. We’ll have to start doing that if we use up our tank next week before the water comes back on.

After Mama Fifi left, I made a pumpkin pie. Actually, it was a squash pie but it was like a pumpkin but yellower. I had asked Mama Fifi to cook the whole squash the day before, which she was surprised about but I assured her I would make good use of it. I was disappointed in the pie though, it didn’t have much flavor to it. I will have to work on my recipe a bit.

The reason for the pie was because we had invited a couple over for games and dessert. I first met her, Michelle, at the ladies’ Bible study and then we met her and her husband at both the town meeting at the Ambassador’s house and the inauguration the embassy. He is Rwandan, she is American, he is now a US citizen. His story is that he went to the US 20 some odd years ago as an International Student and when he was finished with his BA he wanted to get a master’s but didn’t have money or scholarships so he got a job driving big rigs across the US. Eventually he bought his own rig. He said he’s been in every major city in the US except San Diego! (probably not Hawaii either…) At that time he did not plan to come back to Rwanda and knew he wanted to be US citizen. He said he was driving in Connecticut and met some folks who were evangelizing truck drivers at the truck stops. He told us, “Can you imagine? I met Jesus at a truck stop in Connecticut!” He then made a habit of stopping at the chapels at other truck stops around the US. (I didn't know they had such things!) At one of them, he met Michelle who was a volunteer. I think it was in Kansas or Oklahoma. They ended up getting married 8 years ago. They became active in a church and eventually became aware of God’s call on their life to be missionaries. They are now here, supported by their church and friends. They are building churches for small rural churches that can’t afford buildings but they are based here in Kigali. They said they are having a bit of a difficult time adjusting to life in Rwanda – even though he is Rwandan by birth, he has been gone a long time and is fairly Americanized now. It was interesting to here them struggle with the same things that many Americans struggle with out here. He lost several relatives in the genocide but his mom is still alive and lives in the country. She makes a living by selling sour milk. It’s the same idea as drinking buttermilk. For people without refrigeration to keep fresh milk, it’s the way to go.

We had a good time getting to know them a bit better and hopefully encouraged them a bit by being friendly.