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.