The Hoe of Friendship is the Leg

Mark went out first thing this morning to look for gas – which he found. So I worked on baking the cookies while he went to the airport to pick up the Rossingtons who flew in from Kenya. We made it to church a little late but it was okay.

After the service, we found Charlotte (our language helper) and took her, her baby (who is 19 months old) and her nephew, Ivan, (who is probably around 11 or 12 years old) in the car to Charlotte’s house. We went down the main road to the first roundabout and then turned onto a dirt road, similar to the one our house is on. There were several gated houses and small dukas, very similar to our neighborhood. After going down (literally – down the hill) she said okay, park here. So we parked in front of a duka and there was a path between the buildings that she led us down. Ivan was brought along to stay with the car and “guard” it. We walked down this path and wound our way between several buildings. Many people were standing outside their houses to see the “wazungu” (white people) in their neighborhood. We came to a small wooden gate and went in there where we found ourselves on an even narrower path between buildings but one of these was Charlotte’s house. She invited us in and was so happy to have us.

Her living room was small and the furniture – a long couch and two chairs, a coffee table and an “entertainment center” filled the room such that the door wouldn’t open all the way. She didn’t offer to give us a complete tour but told me that there were 3 other rooms – one for her husband, child and herself, one for their housegirl, Cecile, and one for guests. The kitchen was outside and in the building across the little path. I believe the toilet area was next to the kitchen – a long drop. We met someone else who lived in the same “compound”. His front door was in the same building as Charlotte’s and their kitchens were side by side. I’m pretty sure they shared the toilet. They do not have running water but they do have electricity (they even own a TV).

When we got in the house, I gave Charlotte the bag of chocolate chip cookies I had made for them and she said a quick thank you, turned and excitedly announced that she had a gift for me. She handed me a gold gift bag and inside was a typical Rwandan outfit that she had made for me! The skirt is a wrap-around that ties on and there is a sleeveless blouse and a head scarf! The fabric is a green and tan pattern – one which I would have chosen for myself! Amazingly, it fits me! She never took measurements – she just guessed well!

After we had gotten settled and Charlotte had brought us drinks – coke and water – her father, Louis, arrived. He is 78 years old and is a bright, alert and friendly man. He left Rwanda with his family in 1959 during the power struggle that was going on at that time. At the time he had at least one child. I believe some others were born in Congo but he eventually ended up in Bujumbura, Burundi and got a guard job at the American Embassy. Charlotte was born in Bujumbura. She is the lastborn of is 8 children. They were in Burundi until after the genocide in 1994 at which time they moved to Kigali. He thinks highly of Americans and was very congenial to us but if he speaks English, he didn’t let us know. He spoke in Kinyarwanda and Charlotte translated but he also spoke Swahili so Mark was able to converse with him. He actually lives within walking distance of our house and I think I have seen him walking on the road. One reason he likes Americans is because when Charlotte was a young girl, she was very sick and an American gave them medicine for her and she became well. He is very grateful to that American. His wife, Charlotte’s mother, died within the last few years. Charlotte told us that is why she married “young”.

Charlotte’s husband, Félicien, arrived next. He is also a nice, friendly man but only spoke Kinyarwanda and Swahili – or at least didn’t tell us otherwise. He has a job but we aren’t completely sure what he does. Charlotte told us is a technician and that he makes jewelry but we aren’t sure what type. After the men arrived and were settled with their drinks, Charlotte said she was going to go see to the food. I offered to help so she found us both a cloth to wrap around our dresses and we went outside.

Charlotte had two women who were helping her, one was her house helper, Cecile; the other one I’m not sure who she was. They set me up on a bench next to a charcoal burner which had a pan on it with meat cooking in it. It was beef. They brought me some tomatoes to cut up into it and my job was to stir it periodically. They had several charcoal cookers going at once getting all the food ready. I also cut up some onions for the beans. During all this operation, the baby, named Tita, was running around and very cranky. Charlotte fed her some rice and sauce and then handed her over to her dad inside to feed her. She became too cranky for him so he handed her off to one of the girls outside. Much later, while we were eating we could hear them singing and playing a game with her and eventually the gal came in with Tita tied on her back, sound asleep. Hungry, tired babies are the same around the world! I was, of course, concerned having the baby playing around all the burners and pots of hot food. One misstep and she could have gone right into one. I know babies get severely burned that way.

After 20 minutes or so, the food was all ready. When it was all set up on the coffee table in the living room, it was quite a feast! We had the beef with a tomato sauce, spaghetti, rice, boiled potatoes, French fried potatoes, boiled manioc, sombe, and boiled beans (with onions!).

When we had all finished eating and dishes were cleared away, we were offered more water and soda – no chai. Then we sat around and chatted. It was a little strained because of the language barriers but we managed. Charlotte’s dad, Louis, told us a Rwandan proverb: The hoe of friendship is the leg. Meaning: to build a friendship, you need to walk/go to the person’s house and visit.

When it was time to leave, we walked back up the path and we took Louis and Ivan with us in the car. Louis lives within walking distance from us so we dropped him and Ivan off at the top of their path. I had noted earlier that Ivan was NOT having fun being a guard. He had come back to the house and the ladies all chased him back out, promising him a Fanta. Later when I saw him, he was eating so I’m sure that helped him out. As he got out of the car, Mark shook his hand and thanked him and slipped him a few coins (about a dollar’s worth). When we drove away, I noticed he and his grandfather walking down the path and Ivan turned, waved, and gave me a huge grin. It was very sweet.

In the evening, we had another prayer meeting with the other AIMers. It was a good ending to a full day, although we didn’t get to talk with Emily.

Shopping in Town

Hello! Mwaramutse! Although, if you’re reading this in the afternoon it would be Mwiriwe!

Saturday is sort of becoming our day to go into town and do a little shopping. Since we're "renting" the car we're using right now, I'm not driving it and Mark takes me in once a week and we pick up stuff that we can’t get at the dukas (small stores) near our house. So, we went in to town and we took Melissa, the single gal working here now, with us. We pretty much just went into a hardware store, the “China” store (although we noted that not everything comes from China – it is operated by Chinese, though), a few tourist stores , the post office and Nakumatt. We picked up a door mat for our front door at a handcraft store that is made of sisal. It will help tremendously to keep the dirt out of the house – we’ll still take our shoes off at the front door, though. We also bought something else which I have attached a picture of. You guess what it is!



















One thing we’ve been looking for is picture postcards but the only ones we’ve found we didn't like. We were told that the post office sells post cards so we went in there and sure enough, they do sell them but they were very expensive! Melissa bought some stamps and we left. Just outside the post office the hawkers showed up to sell us cards with banana leaf designs. They worked out to be less expensive even with postage than the postcards so we decided to buy some. OoLaLa! The commotion that caused! I think we ended up with at least 5 (maybe 7) people around us all trying to sell us cards or pictures or maps – all at the same time. One guy showed me his stack and I liked some of his designs and another guy showed me his and he had some different ones so I decided to buy 20 – 10 from the one guy and 10 from the other. Well, another guy had shown up and he had some different ones I liked so I bought 10 from him as well. Melissa also bought 10 or so from one of them. She also bought some cards with small batiks glued on them. They were a little more expensive but maybe sometime I’ll get some of them as well. Doing business with several people at once can be very exhausting! I wonder if that is what the stock exchange is like.

We ate lunch in town in a restaurant called “Fine Dining”. When we sat down, the gal came to the table and asked us what we wanted to eat. We asked if we could see a menu and she looked a little dismayed. It took 10-15 minutes for them to find a menu for us. We’re not sure if people don’t usually order from a menu or if they were trying to find an English one. We all ordered a chicken meal – mine with mushroom sauce, Mark and Melissa with curry. A few minutes later she came back with the menu and said they were all out of curry sauce. Mark ordered the mushroom sauce and Melissa ordered a “Mexican Pizza”. I think it took an hour for our food to come – seriously. We noticed that most of the others in the restaurant were just drinking sodas and eating pizza or other simple things. Maybe they don’t usually serve meals at lunch time? Who knows. When it finally came it wasn’t too bad but it wasn’t fantastic either. I was hungry so it tasted good. I forgot to ask Melissa what her pizza had on it. I did notice corn. She ate it all so it must have been okay.

That evening I mixed up a batch of chocolate chip cookies because I wanted to take some to Charlotte’s house the next day. We got the first sheet in the oven, set the timer and sat down to watch the next Star Wars (we’ve been working through all 6). The timer went off and I went to check the cookies but they were only half done. Then I realized the oven was off – bummer. We had run out of gas. By now it was Saturday evening and we knew that the store wouldn’t be open this late. So I covered up the dough and put it in the fridge.

To be continued....

A Language Lesson

What do you do when the power is off all day? That was our predicament today! Fortunately we have a gas stove so preparing food was no problem and our computers run on battery for quite awhile so that was okay.

We still had our language lesson this afternoon. So far we've talked about 2 classes of nouns: the "umu" class which is only people and the "umu" class which are nouns starting with "umu" but are not people. What difference does it make? A lot. All the adjectives and possessive participles change their prefix based on which class the noun is. Also, the plural is different based on the class. The first class ("umu" for people) the plural prefix is "aba" whereas the 2nd class "umu" the plural prefix is "imi". We also learned that if you use the words for in (mu) or on (ku), you drop the first vowel of the noun. So - if you want to say "on (ku) the hill (umusozi)" it changes to "ku musozi". This really doesn't matter because if you say it all fast, the words blend together anyway. But it does get confusing!! The 3rd class we looked at today briefly is the "in" class meaning that all the nouns in this class begin with the prefix "in" but the plurals for this class doesn't change the noun. So, "inzu" (house) is the same as "inzu" (houses). How do you know if it's plural or not? Context. The adjective prefixes for the class are "ya" (singular) and "za" (plural). So, if you want to say "my house" it is "inzu yanjye" but if you want to say "my houses" it is "inzu zanjye". Got it? Neither do we. But we're slowly getting it. The problem is you have to be able to know this quickly and change the prefixes in the words as you are talking to match the class of the noun you are talking about. Pray for us!

Joy of the Lord - yet grieving as well

Today I went to a Bible Study that Mimi Wilson was leading (the cookbook author). She talked about the Joy of the Lord. She first talked about the fact that God shows emotion and then talked about joy. A couple of interesting things she said were:

- In Ezekiel 9:3, 10:18, and 11:22 the glory of the Lord was removed from the temple and from Jerusalem and was last mentioned as being on a mountain to the east of Jerusalem. In Luke 19:37-44, Jesus was on the Mount of Olives, to the east of Jerusalem and he wept over Jerusalem. He, God, had returned to Jerusalem but they did not recognize him nor did they receive him. (John 1:11)

- In John 11 we again see that Jesus wept. A question was once raised: What is more incredible? A man raised from the dead or an eternal, holy God who weeps?

- The angels sang for Joy when man was created (Job 38:6-7) Jesus endured the cross because of the Joy of redeeming man (Heb. 12:2) There is Joy every time a sinner repents – it is God who does the rejoicing in the presence of the angels (Luke 15:8-10)

- In Jesus’ final words to the disciples and prayer for them, Jesus offers them the Joy of the Lord which comes through hearing and obeying the word of God and abiding with him. (John 15 -17)

- Where do we look for “Joy” – in worldly pleasures? Relationships? We should rather find real Joy in our relationship with Jesus and in serving him to bring others into the kingdom.

She also gave a good illustration that I hadn't thought of before. She has Parkinson's Disease and takes medication daily. However, this medicine only covers the symptoms, it doesn't cure the disease. This is much the same as the sacrifices of the Old Testament. The blood of the lamb covered the sin of the people but didn't cure it. These sacrifices had to be over and over again. But, Jesus' sacrifice on the cross cures our sin problem! His blood takes it away - once for all! Amen!!

We heard sad news this afternoon. There was a Swiss girl, Corina, 24 yrs. old, who had come to Rwanda as a medical student to do an internship. Less than a month after being here, she became sick and was treated for malaria. However, her condition worsened drastically and she was transported to Kigali where she was practically dead. She was airlifted out of Kigali to Nairobi where there was some sign of hope and she was able to respond by wiggling fingers but was still very sick. We haven’t heard exactly what she was sick from – an infection most likely. Her parents and boyfriend flew in from Switzerland to be with her. Many missionaries donated blood for her. Many, many prayed for her but yesterday she died. We do not understand why but we trust in God’s sovereignty. At this point, we do not know if she or her family are believers but we do know that her family has been staying at Mayfield Guesthouse where there were Christians to be around them and pray for them. Our prayer now is that they will allow themselves to be drawn into the arms of God. There was also a young Swiss man who was working with her who will be dramatically impacted by this. Please pray for all concerned.

Mark went to a hardware store this morning that he has been shopping at a lot lately and was able to talk with the owner for a little bit. She is Asian decent (Pakistani or Indian) but was born and raised in Rwanda. Mark explained to her that he is here to oversee the construction of a Bible School and she had no idea what a “Bible School” was. Pray that Mark will be a witness to this family. The reason Mark went there was to buy more gutters for the back of the house and parts for our bathroom sink. Now the small bathroom sink has a leaky faucet….

Chapel

This was a very quiet day. Mama Fifi is still out sick so I have been doing a lot of household chores. I don't mind - I just don't get much else done.

In the evening we walked to FATER for their chapel service. The school librarian, David, gave the devotional which was on the three questions which God asked in Genesis: To Adam – Where are you? To Cain – Where is your brother? To Hagar – What’s wrong (why are you crying?) David pointed out that God knew the answer to all the questions but he asked them in order to get the person to answer honestly and to be in communication with God. God wants us to admit our sin, to care for our brother and to admit we need help.

I took down (or I should say, Mark took down) the mosquito net over our bed today. I don’t know when it was cleaned last but it was smelling dusty and I was waking up rather stuffed up so I thought it was time to clean it. Also, I'd been waiting until we had water in the tank. I handwashed it and hung it on the clothesline. The water sure was dirty! It was a nice sunny morning so it dried quickly and Mark hung it back up for me. It smells and looks so much better! This is the first place we've lived in Africa with mosquito nets, although we probably should have put them up in Nairobi. We don't see too many mosquitos but enough to make sleeping under a net more comfortable - unless the mosquitos joins us under the net! That is annoying.

After our language lesson this afternoon, Mark went to a meeting at FATER. Actually he left our lesson early, just as it was starting to rain so he got a bit wet I think. There was a representative from Compassion International who was speaking at the college about children. He said that the biggest obstacle that Compassion has found when trying to aid children is pastors! They find that pastors often have no strong interest in helping children because they don’t tithe and they make noise and are distracting during church. So, Compassion is going to Bible Schools throughout Africa to talk to pastors-in-training to try to change this trend. Hopefully these pastors will see the need for investing in the children. They are the ones who can change the culture of the nation from one of mistrust and hate and prejudice to one with Christian values.

Mid-term Letter from Emily

Hello Everybody,

Life at RVA is crazy, busy, stressful and lots of fun. The people are all very nice and friendly. I have been welcomed with open arms into their school. Right now I am on midterm break. That means that the term is half way over. (yay!)

That last few weeks have been very crazy. The sophomore class is doing Valentine’s sales. We were selling cupcakes, Hershey’s peanut butter cookies, roses (single and a dozen), singing Valentines (groups of 10th graders choose Valentine’s songs and sang them to people. ‘Kay, so say I wanted to get one for mom. I would choose which song I wanted and then write it down and give them mom’s name and tell them where mom lives. They would go find mom and sing her the song. (it can be very embarrassing if they get you during chai time or lunch.) Also we sold tickets to a pancake house (romantic pancake dinner) and lots of little valentine’s things, cards, heart shaped puzzles, long pretzel sticks with caramel wrapped around it covered in chocolate and rolled in sprinkles (pretty and yummy), and lots of little things that little kids would call treasures and my dad would call junk. We sold 1700 cupcakes and a lot of cookies (not as many as the cupcakes but a lot of them).

Last week was delivery week where we gave out all the cupcakes and cookies. It was very good for getting to know who lived where and what all the dorms are called. This week we are giving out all the roses. Our class sponsors (they chose at some time (freshmen year I think) to be our sponsors and help us out with all the sales and activities that we do as a class (that also includes senior safari when we go to the coast and get a nice break) are going down to Nairobi to get the roses for us.

Some of you may have heard about the camping trip my dorm went on. It was lots of fun. We went to a camp called Freedom Base. It’s called that because during the war for Kenya’s independence that was one of the bases that the freedom fighters would go to. We got there Friday evening and pretty much just ate dinner and set up camp. We also played a few games. Compared to American camps it’s not much but it’s not too bad of a camp. It has 5 cabins (but it’s smarter to sleep out side because of mosquitoes), a high ropes course (we didn’t get to do it L) bathrooms (long drops) and various kinds of team building obstacles. We did those on Saturday morning.

• One was these three platform thingies. One was 5 ft off the ground, one was 7 and the other was like 3. It was a trust fall. A person would climb on to whatever height they wanted and would fall backwards into her teammate’s arms.
• Another one was this 3x3 wooden square and we had to get everybody on it. It didn’t work very well.
• Another was this wire that was attached to poles every 9 feet. It was zigzagged and at the end was the wire and a rope that started at the last pole (which was taller than the others) and went down to the very end of the wire. The goal was to have the entire team/dorm get across the whole thing using nothing but each other for balance, and at the end you had to have one person at the end of the wire holding the rope tight and the person walks across the wire with the rope above their head.
• Another one was two poles with a lot of rope in between. It looked a lot like a spider’s web. The goal was to get everybody through the rope hole. The challenge was you couldn’t point at a hole or it would become “closed”, you could only put three people through each hole, and eventually towards the end you could only have one person talking. (the talking part was very hard for my dorm.)
• Another one was a big rope made into a rectangle with lots of bottles inside the rectangle. The dorm was spilt up with everybody having a partner. One of the people would be blindfolded and the other had to yell to them how to get through the rectangle without stepping on a bottle. The challenge was that everybody was doing it at the same time so you had to listen for your partner’s voice. It was very hard.
• Another one was these two wires that made a V. A group of two would start at the beginning of the V holding each other’s hands above their heads. They would slowly start down the wires and as they got farther apart they would have to lean on each other more and more. The goal was to get to the end of the V. Nobody was able to do it because it took lots of arm muscles.
• The last one was the scariest. It was a 15 foot wall with no hand holds or foot holds the object was to get everybody up it. The first person was lifted up as high as we could reach. It was just enough for her to reach the top with her hands. She then had to pull herself up with her arms. Once she was up there it got easier. The next person was lifted up and she would be helped up by the girl who was already up there. Once there was four girls up there the first one had to go down. (so there could only be three girls at the top of the wall at a time). The challenge was to have enough strong people at the top to be able to get the girls up. But we were able to do it. The last person had to run up the wall and grab the other girls’ at the top hands. Eventually we slightly lowered one girl at the top down so she could reach a bit father down and she pretty much ended up hauling the last person up on her own strength.

After we did the team building things we went to one of the girl’s house (her parents pretty much owned Freedom base and her house was close by) we had some enchiladas and hung out for the rest of the afternoon. We were all dead tired because it was very hot there and the team building stuff was tiring. We left around 11 in the morning on Sunday after a small church service and a look back at what we did. We got back to school in the afternoon and even had time to finish our homework. (always a good thing). I’m trying to get pictures up on facebook but it’s not working very well.

During midterm I went to my guardian’s house. My first guardians are the Moffitts, friends who lived near us in Kenya and are great friends. My second guardians are the Goossens. They are friends whose daughter was in my kindergarten, second grade and third grade class. Friday I hung out in the afternoon. We watched Prince Caspian and got up to date on facebook. (the RVA facebook doesn’t get flair or anything that requires pictures really). For dinner we went out to an Ethiopian Restaurant where I saw one of the girls in my dorm.

On Saturday we hung out till noon then I went Java house where I hung out with the Rossingtons and played on a little playground thingie. It was lots of fun and I got some things my parents sent out for me. I got back at 3 and hung out some more. At 5 we went to an AIM missionary gathering. It was a fun little potluck and we played a few games, too. (for those of you who know what I’m talking about it was in the front yard of Eagle’s Nest, where the Stairs used to live, right by the big field.) When we got back we watched “Man from Snowy River”.

Sunday morning we went to the AIC (Africa Inland Church) church nearby. It was the one that we went to when we lived here. Then when we got back we relaxed after eating lunch. Around 3 we went to Junction and looked around, got some yummy ice cream and had fun. When we got back, Natalie and I went to a youth group thing that she goes to and we saw Naomi Goossen and a friend who goes to RVA. When we got back we watched “Return to Snowy River”.

This morning we woke up late and had some waffles. Then Natalie worked on homework and I typed this letter. And now you are officially up to date! Yay! I’m going to go help make some cookies.

Talk to you all later
Emily

February 2009 Prayer Letter

February 2009

Dear Family and Friends,

25 years ago this month we (Mark, Lisa and 1-year-old Rebekah) came to Africa for the first time with Africa Inland Mission. It has been an unbelievable journey and we praise God for allowing us to serve him in this way and for his watchfulness over our family: The LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forever more. Psalm 121:8

Many have asked how the Theological College construction is going. Before we arrived, our colleagues here in Rwanda began the process to obtain building permits but they simply did not have enough time to complete it. Mark has been doing all kinds of paperwork, running around making contacts and trying to finalize the building plans in order to get the necessary building permits. Please pray that all this paperwork etc. will be done in a timely manner. Also pray for Mark that as he meets various businessmen and government officials, that he would be a light and a good testimony to all he meets.There has been a land issue that Mark has been working on and it seems like we may have worked out a solution to this problem. Please pray the land issue can be resolved in a way that is economical for the college.

In our next email we will likely be asking you to pray about additional funds needed for the construction. If you like, you can start praying now ☺

Emily is adjusting to life at Rift Valley Academy although the separation is hard for all of us. Please pray for her to find the right balance between studying and socializing.

We are so grateful for Skype and the internet which allows us to stay in daily contact with our family in the U.S. Our prayer is that Joe and Rebekah, Stephanie and our moms would all grow in their faith and knowledge of God. Pray too for Rebekah (and Joe) as she cares for 2 sick kids.

Continue to pray for our colleagues, Keith and Margaret, as Keith recuperates in England from triple bypass surgery. We are praying for a complete and speedy recovery so they can return to the team here in Kigali soon. They are missed!

Thank you again for your prayers for our family and ministry. Many of you have been praying us through this journey for 25 years and more. Your faithfulness is an encouragement beyond words. We can identify with the Apostle Paul who was always so grateful for the prayers, letters and support from the churches at home. We could not be here without your partnership.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
2 Thessalonians 3:18

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Happy Valentine’s Day!!

The boys woke up shortly after 5 a.m…. There was no way they were going back to sleep so I set up the movie “The Incredibles” in French for them and that kept them occupied until breakfast. I made pancakes with syrup and freshly made, hot applesauce but they all turned their noses up at the applesauce – silly boys! It was delicious. They were impressed with the pancakes – I made each of them a pancake shaped with their initial. Also, they said their mom never served syrup with pancakes – just fruit or yogurt. Much healthier but Grandmas are supposed to spoil the kids, right? They liked the syrup.

After breakfast we had a harder time keeping them from killing each other (just a figure of speech!). Mark played UNO with them but the oldest got bored when Mark wouldn’t let him cheat – go figure. Then Mark decided to have them help him fix one of the trucks they brought over but they weren’t content to sit and watch – they had to pick up and handle all the tools, wire, everything! So, he then had them help one at a time. Eventually, the truck was fixed and – Ahh! Their parents arrived to whisk them off to the pool for a few hours.

It wasn’t really all that bad! Gilles and Myriam really appreciated a night on their own – said they’ve only left the boys once before with Grandparents! We enjoyed having a little more energy and noise in the house – we are pretty boring on our own. The boys said they had fun and they all loved the Valentine Cookies. Oh, did I mention that their mother tongue is French? Only the oldest speaks English… The 3 year old is almost impossible for us to understand, the middle one we caught about half of what he said. The oldest was our interpreter. Mark did quite well speaking to them in French. Me? Well, I usually forgot that I needed to use French and couldn’t come up with the right words anyway so I just talked in English and pretended they understood me! Their folks want them to learn English anyway so I’m willing to help them along.

After the boys left, Mark and I went off for a few hours. Another missionary family was having a “garage sale” so we went to have a look but most of it was for kids. So we didn’t buy anything. There is a store near there that we don’t get to very often. We stopped in there for a few supplies we can’t find elsewhere but for basics, it is more expensive. Mark wanted to take me out lunch but it was too early so we decided to go to the pool and sit there for a bit. It was a beautiful day. We chatted with the Bonvallats, shared a coke, watched silly kids in the pool, read a magazine Gilles had brought and watched a little bit of a tennis tournament. They were older teens or young 20s playing. We never found out who they were but they were taking it seriously. I felt a little sorry for them because they were in the sun and it was pretty hot out for that type of activity but I suppose that’s what tennis players do.

We went to lunch at the “Bourbon Street” coffee house but were a bit disappointed. It wouldn’t take much for them to do better. The atmosphere is nice though. It’s very well decorated.

On the way home we stopped at another grocery store and then got back in time to find Mama Fifi having an asthma attack! She hurried off to the doctor and we don’t expect to see her again for several days now. Last time she was sick for a week…

I made a lasagna for dinner using the sour milk “cottage cheese” I had made awhile back. It came out nicely, if I do say so myself!

We have been talking some to Joe and Rebekah – Poor little Abbey has not been feeling well and they ended up taking her to the emergency room because of her fever and difficulty breathing. Seems she caught a cold which went to a cough which ended up in asthma type symptoms. On top of that, she had a bladder infection. After receiving some medicines to bring down the fever, help her breathe, and fight the infection, she was able to calm down and get some sleep. Hence, her parents are also ready to get some sleep!

It’s also been good to talk to Emily on Skype this weekend! She doesn’t have a good enough internet connection at RVA so while she is in Nairobi, we are taking advantage of the better connection. She sounds good and is enjoying her break from school. They aren't doing too much, just hanging out, which is fine. She did mention eating out at an Ethiopian restaurant and also at Java House so she is a happy kid!

Oh! I almost forgot! We woke up this morning to a FULL TANK of WATER! First time in several weeks!! So, now we will do laundry and take showers but we still need to be careful because who knows when we'll get it again. Instead of praying for "our daily bread" I'm beginning to pray for "our daily water"! Praise God - from Whom ALL Blessings FLOW!

Slumber Party!

Rossingtons left today for Nairobi. Mark drove them to the airport which is just 15 or so minutes away (we can see it from our house!). When Mark got out of the car in the parking lot, he was greeted by the man, Stephan, whose car we are trying to buy! It was good for them to see each other again as Stephan told Mark that he had been able to find the original owner of the car and was still working on getting the paperwork sorted out. Yeah! Stephan was dropping his colleague off for the same flight as the Rossingtons. She is headed back to Switzerland and he is leaving in 3 weeks, so he is also anxious to get this all taken care of soon. Please keep praying!

Earlier this week, Myriam called me and asked if we would mind babysitting their 3 boys while they went to a Valentine’s Dinner. We offered to not just babysit them but to keep them overnight for them, if the boys would be brave enough! Everyone agreed that would be a great idea so tonight we had 3 young Swiss boys over for a slumber party – ages 7, 5, and 3! We have 2 extra twin beds and they brought a portable cot for the youngest. My! What energy boys have!! I had Mama Fifi bake some heart shaped cookies (her first time doing that!) and then when the boys came, we decorated them with colored frosting and sprinkles. Mama Fifi (Bless her!!) also made a pizza for me which I popped in the oven while we decorated cookies. Mark set up the computer in the living with the speakers and the boys helped move the furniture around and we ate pizza while watching the movie “8 Below” in French. By the time that was finished, it was bedtime. Whew! That was easy.

(The picture is Mark with Aurelien (age 3) showing off the cookies they decorated together!)

Humble Pie

WooHoo! We actually got some city water today! Not a full tank but a significant amount which will definitely help. We are going to take showers tonight!!

Mark has decided to buy the pump – he had decided to buy a new one which wasn’t too much more but when he talked to the seller about it, he went down on his price for the used one enough to make it worth it.

Tonight we ate at the Bonvallat’s house again but this time with another couple: Cal and Mimi Wilson. Cal is a doctor and is here for a couple of months teaching at the University in their post-graduate program. He is sponsored by US AID. Mimi grew up in Zaire, her parents were missionaries at Lolwa which is a day or two drive from Rethy. She had attended Rethy in elementary school back in the 50’s. In the early 2000’s, the Bonvallat’s had lived at Nyankunde which is a few hours drive from Lolwa. We met Mimi at the women’s Bible study here in town and she was shocked when we told her we had both been to Lolwa! She said that nobody knows where it is! So we decided we should all get together for an evening. It was very nice reminiscing and hearing each other’s stories about Zaire/Congo. Cal had also been to Nyankunde to work as a doctor in 1980 so he was not left out of the conversation.

However, Mimi is an author and you may have heard of her book “Once a Month Cooking.” Well, I made the dessert for the evening and after having a perfect apple pie and perfect chocolate cake with cocoa fudge frosting earlier this week, my lemon pudding cake this evening was less than perfect! It just wasn’t exactly what I thought it would be like – the pudding was runny and the cake wasn’t really cake – more like meringue. And, of course, of all nights, my cream wouldn’t whip up nicely like it has all the other times I’ve made it here! And I was serving it to a cookbook author!! Myriam’s roast was absolutely wonderful as were her homemade noodles and her salad. Everyone was gracious and said they liked the pudding – Mimi even asked for the recipe! I think they were being kind. Oh, well, nothing like eating humble pie!

By the way, Mimi has written some other books – I believe they are devotionals or study guides. You may want to check into them. They are available on Christianbook.com.

Collecting Rain Water

I spent a good portion of the morning getting a pile of stuff ready for the Rossingtons to take to Emily. They are heading to Kenya for a conference on Friday and have offered to see Emily and give her a few things from us. This coming weekend is RVA’s mid-term so Emily will be in Nairobi as well. She will be staying with the Moffitt family. They live on the compound adjacent to the one Emily grew up on. She and their daughter, Natalie have been good friends most of their lives!

This afternoon we got a good rain storm! Mark has a used pump here that he is thinking of buying and the owner said Mark could bring it home to try it out. We let the rain water fill up a barrel and then Mark pumped it up to our overhead tank. It was pretty exciting, actually, since we haven’t had water in the tank for so long! He let the first water go because it was dirty but the rest of it was clean. He pumped up a couple of barrelfuls which means I can do a little laundry! Yeah! The washing machine at the house here unfortunately cannot be handfilled so we are dependent on the tank water for laundry.

25th Anniversary with AIM

25 years ago today, Mark, Rebekah and I arrived at Rethy for the first time! What a journey it has been! We have a lot of great memories and a lot of great friends from our Rethy days. Many of our dorm kids are now parents – many are serving the Lord in different places around the world. We are looking forward to what the Lord has in store for us in the next 25 years!!

I was able to go to the ladies Bible Study this morning. I’m beginning to feel like I know a few of the ladies now is that is encouraging. We are studying Beth Moore’s book on the Psalms of Ascent. They are short Psalms but so many are good reminders of God’s protection over us. I have enjoyed reading through these Psalms and meditating on them.

This evening Jan Rossington, Myriam Bonvallat, Melissa and I got together for a Ladies’ movie night! Jan is home alone with the kids most evenings because Bruce teaches at FATER in the evenings so she decided that after getting the kids in bed, we should all come and watch a “chick flick”. It was fun. (Mark stayed home and watched some of the "Lost" series that he hasn't had a chance to watch.)

Another Monday

Still no water in the tank. We have had to buy some from some guys on the street. They get it at the main water spigot near the market and then sell it – almost like door-to-door water delivery! I’ve seen some of them carry a 5 gallon plastic jug of water on their heads!! Usually they use a wheel barrel or a bicycle to transport them.

Mark went back to see one of the architects today. He dropped off some plans that another fellow did but Mark wanted it double checked before taking it to the district office. He have to go back next week to pick them up and to the guys opinion.

Melissa went to the doctor and the lab and found out that she has amoebas. So now she is on a three day treatment and should be much better by the end of the week! We’re glad it wasn’t more serious although amoebas can be bad. No one in our family has actually ever had them but we’ve been told about them!

Charlotte came over for another lesson. Sometimes it seems that we’re making progress but other times it goes very slowly. I guess that is to be expected.

Happy Birthday, Rebekah!

We’ve pretty much decided to attend the Friends’ church which is up the road. There are several reasons for going there, not the least is that we can walk to it. Also, our workers, a couple of people from FATER and our language helper, Joyce all attend church there. Other reasons: 1) it’s in Kinyarwanda and we want to listen to the language; 2) it has been by far the friendliest church we’ve attended with complete strangers coming up and greeting us; 3) we have found that many churches with sound systems don’t know how to use them properly and turn them up WAY too loud so the sound is distorted and very annoying. This church maintains an appropriate level for their sound which makes sitting there for a couple of hours more pleasant; 4) the people there seem to really like being there! They are lively, laugh a lot, sing vivaciously, dance with joy and just have fun worshipping and fellowshipping! So, that is where we went to church this morning. We heard a few words we understood and even one song was sung in Swahili! We aren't sure if the sermons are good or not but the pastor definitely uses the scripture and almost everyone, it seems, has a Bible with them. Today about 10 people went forward to pray at the end of the sermon - again, we're not sure what the call was for but it seems that they were listening and heard a call on their hearts!

Melissa lives in one of the missionary houses on the compound of the Friends’ Church so we decided to walk over and see how she was feeling. She said she had slept until 11:30 that morning and was feeling a bit better but still didn’t feel like eating. We encouraged her to get some lab work done tomorrow.

Remember those ditches I saw being dug on Thursday? We found out what they are for today! The city is putting in some new water pipes in order to give our part of the city a better source of water. We’ve heard that they are tapping water from a different lake or someplace for our district. Again, a lot of muscular men moving a lot of heavy pipes and moving dirt – all by hand. A task which would have been completed by heavy machinery in the US. We watched them for a little bit on our way to and from church.

Well, today is Rebekah’s 26th birthday! We are thinking about her and hoping she is having a nice day. It is always good to be able to call on Skype! We also were thinking about her 1st birthday which we celebrated at Kijabe, Kenya in the home of our friends Phil and Bonnie Bustrum. Genelle Knopf was there as well. We had just arrived in Africa on February 3 and were still getting over jet lag. I remember sitting in the Bustrum’s house in a daze – not really knowing how to help or what to do next. Having jet lag with a baby who doesn’t understand what jet lag is extremely exhausting. I really, really appreciated being able to crash at the Bustrum’s for a week before heading off to Rethy!

Tonight we had our AIM team prayer meeting at the Bonvallat’s so in honor of Rebekah’s birthday and the 25th anniversary of our arrival in Africa, I baked a chocolate cake with chocolate fudge icing to share. It was yummy! We also had a good time of prayer.

Gutters

Because we haven’t gotten water in our tank for a few weeks and the tank is now empty yet we have been getting a LOT of rain, Mark decided to put up rain gutters to collect rain off the roof. He spent a good portion of the morning purchasing the pieces in town and installing them on a section of the back of the house. He is also hoping to collect rain water at FATER so he is practicing on this house.

Unfortunately there was not enough today to really test it out…

The new AIM volunteer missionary, Melissa, invited us to join her for dinner and games tonight. Just as we were leaving, to go over there she called and said that she was feeling crummy but she had made 2 pizzas and wondered if we’d come over even if she didn’t eat. My gut reaction was to stay away in case she was contagious but then we decided that we should go over and check on her since she was alone.She was having waves of feeling crummy and after talking with her, we thought, in our very un-medical opinions, that she probably had picked up a parasite like worms or amoebas. Since her worker had made the pizzas, we decided we’d go ahead and eat with her and keep her company. To add to her frustration of not feeling well yet wanting to make a good first impression having us over, the power was off for most of the evening and she burned the cookies she had baked for dessert! Poor thing. I discovered that she is Rebekah’s age – 26. Hmmm. I was 26 when I first came to Africa and I can remember the frustrations of those first years. We prayed with her and hope we encouraged her some.

Buying Land

This turned out to be a very busy day for Mark! He went off to town with Bruce first thing in the morning to go to the bank. The remainder of the funds needed to complete the purchase of the land had been transferred from a bank in Nairobi to the bank here in Kigali. Unfortunately there was a bit of a mix up and with changing the money from one currency to another, there would be a significant loss of funds. Bruce spent a considerable amount of time negotiating with with bank manager and was able to not lose quite so much. They had to leave without the money, though, because they had an appointment with the EMI team and didn't have time to get through the paperwork and all.

EMI is a missionary organization that is based in Uganda and they assist churches and missions with their building projects by doing land surveys and drawing up site plans. They are the ones who came out in June and Mark came to Kigali to meet them. Well, they are in Rwanda for a different project but had agreed to an hour or so meeting with Mark and Bruce to discuss the current obstacles and possible changes to the plan. We had thought that they might come to our house and have lunch with us, hence the apple pie. However, they had several appointments that morning and were unable to come over.

At some point in the morning, following the meeting with EMI, (Mark will probably have to explain this better) Mark and Bruce ended up at the mayor’s office and met the top urban planning manager for the city of Kigali. This person is the boss of the urban planning manager in the district where the land is. That impromptu meeting went well and was positive except that as the city gets more organized, they are also coming up with more regulations so Mark will have to pick up a new list of what’s needed from the district office. He hopes it’s not too much more than they are already preparing.

After those meetings, Bruce and Mark went back to the bank to collect their several thousand dollars (in cash) to take to the forex bureau to change it into Rwandan Francs. The bank gives a poor exchange rate so that is why we withdraw $$’s and then go the forex to get the francs. The highest currency bill here in Rwanda is a 5,000 which is worth $8.90 right now. So imagine the bulk of money Mark had to carry of several $1000 in RWFrancs!!

Mark came home with Alexis and they ate some lunch and then they ran off to the land to pay the remainder due for the new parcel of land. Mark said it was an interesting process. The group of men there all were speaking Kinyarwanda which he didn’t understand any of it except for a few numbers. There was a contract handwritten in Kinyarwanda stating where the parcel of land was, the amount it was sold for and the date the occupants had to be off the property, etc. They were talking away and then their voices got louder and more argumentative sounding and louder and faster! It seemed that the seller was refusing to sign the contract. Mark was thinking, “Oh, no. He’s upset because we’re late paying the balance due and he wants more money!” After a few minutes, Alexis translated for Mark and told him that the standard time for an occupant to vacate the premises is 2 weeks but the owner had previously requested a longer time period so they agreed on 4 weeks at their last meeting. Now he saying he wanted 3 months! Alexis was adamant that that was too long and was trying to explain to him that when the construction starts, Mark wants to use the house as his workshop and store room and the family needed to be out. So this is what all the arguing was about. In the end they agreed to 6 weeks but now the whole contract had to re-handwritten. Alexis had been the one who had first written it out and he told the seller that if he didn’t like it, he would have to rewrite it! So, more discussion, more writing and, for Mark, more waiting. When they had arrived in the house, the TV was on and the movie, “Amazing Grace” was just starting (in English). The TV stayed on during the whole event and so Mark at least had something to do while he was waiting for all this! The movie was finished before they were done! Mark said one thing that was kind of funny was that the seller was really talking loudly and sounded terribly upset but then, there was a break for a couple of minutes and he would pick up us 8 month old child and bounce him on his knee and laugh and sweet talk the baby as if nothing was upsetting to him. As soon as the discussion started back up, he was back to loud talking. He was like a switch turning on and off!

While Mark was off at his meeting with EMI and at the bank in the morning, I had spent a good portion of the morning studying Kinyarwanda. Joyce came over for our weekly session and we went over the vocabulary that I was working on. When it is only me and the helper, it gets very tiring working on Kinyarwanda for 2 hours – when Mark is here we take turns practicing and reviewing so we each get a little break. Anyway, I got tired of doing our review and I wanted to work on numbers some more so I got out our Skip-Bo cards and taught Joyce how to play! The requirement was to say the numbers in Kinyarwanda (which I had to keep reminding her). She had a great time playing the game and she won! I think I have a better grasp of the numbers 1 -12. She said another time we need to play a game to learn colors. Maybe I’ll get out UNO.

As we were playing Skip-Bo, it started to rain and then it rained harder and harder. Pretty soon we couldn’t hear each other any more and I thought it didn’t sound like a normal rain so I looked outside and lo and behold! It was hailing!! Quarter inch balls of ice were bouncing around on our grass! They looked like little insects out there bouncing around! I sent a text to Mark to say that it was hailing and he sent a message back saying it was sunny in town – a 15 minute drive away!! Crazy! Well, all of a sudden it stopped – no rain, no hail – just silence. Joyce and I looked at each other in amazement. It was as if God turned off the faucet! Just like that.

We were invited to the Bonvallat’s house for supper that night so I offered to bring the apple pie and whipped cream (fresh cream skimmed off the top of our milk each morning). I went ahead and walked over there and Mark came a bit late, straight from his land purchase ordeal. Myriam made lasagna – Yummy!! And the apple pie was perfect. They live up on the hill a bit higher than we do and have a better view of the city. From their front window we could see a fascinating lightening storm and eventually the rain came up to the house. Because it was dark outside, it was spectacular!

Another Day in Kigali

Today Mark and Bruce went to visit another architect. They talked to him about helping out with the construction. They didn't actually make a contract with him yet but just discussed the possibility. He also said he would look over the plans that another architect is drawing up to make sure they are appropriate before they take them to the planning director. They also encouraged him to encourage his church to get involved in FATER more by sending students and financial support.

While Mark was out, I walked over to FATER (my first time venturing out on my own!) to talk with Elias. I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned that I am helping out with the bookkeeping of FATER and he is my contact person there. He pretty much handles the day-to-day business and keeps track of what he has spent. He also receives the fees from the students. Then we get together and make sure his records are accurate and I receive the money he has taken in and give him spending money for the week. We’re still working on getting organized, which is why I went over there. Fortunately for me, he usually understands my English and I usually can understand his French.

As I was walking I noticed a couple of things of interest. One was a bicyclist. The college is up the hill a little ways from us and is on a nicely paved road. As I was walking up the hill, a bicyclist came zipping past me down the hill – I tell you he was going incredibly fast – of course without a helmet – but strapped on the back of the bike was a very large silver milk canister – I forget what the proper name for it is but I think you know what I mean. If that thing was full, I have no idea how he kept his balance. And I sure hope his brakes were working!! If they weren’t or if he were to run into a car, he would be dead on the spot, I’m sure. We all know that I’m a chicken at heart and would not go fast down a hill but this guy was just plain crazy in my viewpoint! I told Mark about him and he said, “yeah…” like he sees it all the time or like – “So? Some guys like to go fast.” I’m not quite sure which….

I also noticed a LOT of men digging a very large ditch along the side of the road. I was thinking they were just digging a ditch because all roads have ditches and because it had rained so much the day before, maybe they needed to fix the ditch in that spot. A lot of places had runoff and erosion where is wasn’t supposed to be so there are a lot of new piles of dirt around where people are digging ditches. I guess I'll find out later why they were digging. What is amazing from a western viewpoint, is that the work is being done by hand. LOTS of men with hoes, digging and digging. No machinery to eat up fuel or break down. Just men getting paid to do an honest day’s labor. I certainly hope they are getting a living wage but I imagine it’s not much. Kids flipping burgers at Ronny Mac’s are getting more per hour than these hard working men probably get for a day.

This afternoon we had another language session with Charlotte. Talk about mind exhausting. Trying to go over and over the words and remember the fine differences between “umwigisha” –oo mwee gee shah (teacher) and “umwigishwa” – oo mwee gee shkah (pupil) and other such words! And then trying to get the tongue in the right place at the right time to say the words! We also found out the difference between the words for “old man” and “fool” is one vowel… we need to be very careful.

After our lesson we went over to Rossington’s so Mark could have a look at their washing machine. It turned out to be an easy fix – a dirty filter. After dinner, I made an apple pie, with Mark’s help, because there is a possibility we will be having guests for lunch tomorrow.

Lots of rain - but no water...in the tank, that is

Somehow, we seem to have something slightly interesting happening. Yesterday, (Tuesday) while it wasn’t very interesting, I guess, the power was off all day. It came on in the evening after being off for about 22 hours. The meat in my freezer was still frozen solid so that was good. The fresh milk we had bought and boiled on Monday went sour, though. It wasn’t cold enough yet when the power went off Monday night to keep it fresh. So I am attempting to make “cottage cheese”. If it works, I’ll use it to make lasagna – I think I saw lasagna noodles somewhere in town… I used the opportunity of a quiet day to handwrite some letters to folks who don’t have email. After all the rain we had on Monday, Tuesday was a dry, hot, sunny day.

In the evening, Mark and I went to the chapel service at FATER. We walked there and back, in the dark. It’s kind of weird not having street lights and trying to walk on a dirt road (we did have a flashlight but didn’t use it).

Today, Wednesday, we woke up to an overcast day. It often starts out a bit overcast but then burns off as the sun comes up. Well, today, it just got darker and darker. By 9:00am it was almost spooky how dark it was outside. If I didn’t know better, I would have thought it was 6:30 at night. Well, the thunder started rolling and the rain started coming down and it rained and rained and rained – steadily and non-stop until around 3:30 in the afternoon! It was incredible. Charlotte came for our language lesson and said that it was very unusual to have rain lasting for so long. Our poor milkman finally came after lunch but was drenched. I’m sure a lot of businesses suffered today as people waited and waited for the rain to let up but it just kept coming and coming. My new computer desk was to be delivered today but with the rain, there was no way that was going to happen. I’ll bet we’ve had more rain this week than So. California has had in a year.

We still haven’t gotten water from the city or a tanker truck yet so we put buckets out again to collect some of the rain water. We have a large barrel we store water in so we topped that off and then we flushed toilets well with rain water and Mama Fifi mopped the floors. And we still had extra water. This evening our guard, Uwimwana, helped Mark pour the rain water into the tank to give us a little more. Hopefully, the city will send water soon.

Important visitor

Well, the Superbowl came and went and life goes on! I don’t even know who played or who won or how good the commercials were. That’s how clueless we are here. We considered watching it here somehow – asked around to find out if anybody was showing it or had access to satellite TV to watch it. But alas, a lot of people were interested, nobody knew how. Also, one major factor: it started at 1:15 AM here so that pretty well squelched any thoughts of watching it. Sigh. Mark even thought about asking Rebekah to set her webcam up facing the TV and trying to watch it that way… decided he needed his sleep instead.

Hmmm…. The power just went off. Third time today. First time was during a really, really heavy downpour with lots of wind. Trees were blowing like crazy. The rain came in the house through the window panes in the front of the house and even under the front door. (splashing, not flooding) That time the power was off for an hour or so. The second time was this evening which is pretty standard. It often – oh! It’s back on again – goes off around 7 PM for 1 or 2 minutes. We don’t get excited about it anymore. In fact, I often light a candle around then just for good measure. It’s a good reason not to have electric clocks…

Mark had an exciting day today. He left this morning at 7:15 with Gilles to go into town and meet an architect. In order to get the building plans approved, there are some – there go the lights off again, oh, they’re back – technical drawings that need to be done as well as some estimates for costs of supplies, etc. Before we came, one architect was hired for a relatively small amount of money to do this work but he hasn’t come through with all of them yet, even after several months. Mark was referred to another architect who is very – there go the lights again – well known and has contracts with the city to do some major addition to the national genocide memorial and such things as that. Mark was very impressed with him and then a few days later got the quote – over $10,000! So, Gilles knows this other fellow and took Mark to meet him this morning. Mark also thinks this is a trustworthy guy and should have a more modest estimate for the work. We’ll see.

After lunch Mark ran off to get gas in the car and discovered that our neighborhood gas station was out of gas. Hmm. He went to another and another and another! Finally, all the way downtown, he found a station with fuel. Now, part of the problem might have been that it was during the pouring down rainstorm and maybe the attendants didn’t want to come out in the rain (no self serve here). However, if the stations truly are low on fuel, Mark has decided not to let the tank get very low in the future.

Mark then went off to a meeting with 4 other gentlemen: Bruce, a professor from FATER named Phanuel (if you have watched the FATER video, he is the one that starts out talking about the genocide), the president of the Evangelical Alliance of Rwanda (EAR) and the secretary general of the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) who is visiting from Canada. The WEA is the Evangelical’s answer to the World Council of Churches. The EAR is a member of the WEA (as is Rick Warren’s church in Saddleback). The EAR is the organization that started FATER. Is that clear as mud? Anyway, The secretary general, who is visiting, wanted to see and hear more about FATER and see the land, etc. So, Mark drove these gentlemen out to the site and showed them the plans, etc. (hence the urgency to have more gas in the tank) Afterwards, they went to the current place where classes are being held (which is a bit dismal) and showed him around there. Several of professors and students had gathered to meet this important fellow and they had sodas and samosas and rolls and bananas and peanuts to munch on while they all chatted and discussed the importance of the college, etc. Mark felt like it was a very good and profitable meeting. On a side note, as I said, it had rained buckets today and Mark was a bit concerned that the trip to the site would be quite a soggy mess but the Lord turned off the faucet in plenty of the time and the ground out there, being a bit rocky, wasn’t too terribly muddy so they got along just fine.

While Mark was out chauffeuring, I had a language lesson with Charlotte. For our language lesson, I decided I wanted to learn some nouns from around the house so I pulled out a variety of dishes and cooking utensils from the kitchen and had them sitting on the coffee table. I think Charlotte thought I was going to feed her but then she realized it was all for the lesson. As we were working through the ones I put out, Charlotte kept coming up with more items that we should learn so I would go into the kitchen and get them. One item she said was a flask. I wasn’t sure what she meant so I pulled out a glass pitcher but no, that wasn’t it. She said it was for hot water so I brought out the tea kettle but no, that wasn’t it. Then it dawned on me and I brought out a thermos – yes, that was it! I told her that I thought (correct me if I’m wrong) that in British English it would be called a flask but in American English it was a “thermos” and that was why I didn’t know what she meant. She laughed and said, well, then in Kinyarwanda, we are speaking American because that is an “iteremus” which, when she says it fast, is thermos with a long e sound for the prefix and a “t” instead of the “th”. Whew. One less word for me to learn!

By the way, the lights are still out… My battery is holding up well. Concerning our water – we still have not received any from the city into our tank (I have lost track but I think it’s been about 3 weeks) but I feel like the widow who fed Elijah – our tank hasn’t run out even though is very low. But then, we are hardly using water – using rain or dishwater to flush toilets, we’re taking sponge baths, no laundry, no floor washing, etc. When it rains fairly hard, we put several buckets out under the runoff from the roof to catch what we can. It helps. There has been some communication with the city concerning our water because it is not just us but the whole neighborhood. It seems there is a “problem” with this area (other parts of the city get water daily) and they are going to be laying pipes in order for us to get water from a different lake or source somewhere. The pipes are being stored at the turnoff from the main road on to our street but they have been there now for a month with no change. There has been talk of us missionaries ordering a water tanker truck to come and deliver water into our tanks and we would all share the cost. I don’t know where that is going right now but I think it will be in the next couple of days.

Well, the lights are still out and looking at the screen is beginning to bug my eyes so I will close for now and go to bed.