Emily arrived at RVA

Well, Emily made it to RVA and is getting settled in. Her flight was supposed to leave at 11 am on Friday so we were going to leave at 8ish to get there early (We can see the airport up on the hill from our house – it’s only a 15 minute drive). There is a new “Bourbon Coffee” place at the airport by the main entrance and they sell really good French style Chocolate Croissants so we thought we’d get one for a breakfast treat before she got on her plane. I decided to check my email one last time before getting ready to go and discovered one from RVA saying that the flight was changed to 3 in the afternoon! I was just starting to call one of the other families who would be putting a child on the plane when Mark’s phone rang and another dad was calling to let us know the same information. That dad went to airline office to verify and get the kids’ tickets confirmed for the new flight.

So, we went off to KICS instead to do a bit of work and Mark ran off to the immigration office to drop off stuff for the latest visas. Unfortunately, immigration is being very picky about the photos we are trying to use and they still didn’t accept them. Bother. We ate lunch with the teachers at KICS and then took Emily off to the airport. All 7 of the RVA kids were there and ready to go. They got on with no problem. Emily said that this time the plane had assigned seating – it’s a smaller plane with about 30 seats so up till now it’s been open seating. She ended up not sitting with an RVA kid but next to a gentleman. It’s only an hour flight so it’s not a big deal. She also ended up in the emergency exit row (we thought minors weren’t supposed to placed there). She said it was a little “freaky” when the attendant came and gave instructions on how and when to open the door. She was told she could change seats if she didn’t want the responsibility but since the gentleman was also in the row with her, she stayed put. You always go on faith that you won’t need the emergency door anyway.

Emily said her new dorm mom is nice. She doesn’t know yet how strict she’ll be. Hopefully strict enough without being a tyrant. She is still in the dorm building called “Kedong”. Kedong is divided into 5 sections, each with it’s own dorm mom’s apartment and it’s own entrance. Last year she was in Kedong Upper East. This year she is in Kedong Middle West. She was assigned a roommate – someone either new or returning after a furlough – but she isn’t back yet so Emily has her own room for now. She thinks maybe she’ll be alone the whole semester. She said that’s not a bad thing.

Emily got her class schedule and got into all the classes she wanted. She has American history, PE/Bible (alternating every 6 weeks), English, Pre-Calculus, French 3 and Chemistry. She thinks French and Chemistry will be the hardest and unfortunately, they are the last two periods of the day. She doesn’t like that but there’s not much she can do about it.

Saturday at KICS we had a “Meet and Greet” in the afternoon. It was kind of like an open house only the classrooms weren’t open. The teachers were set up around the courtyard and the parents and families came to them and introduced themselves. There was a food table with sodas, cookies and samosas. There was also a table with samples of the school supplies which the kids are to bring with them. I haven’t counted up the names of who signed in but we guess there were about 150 people there – about ½ of the families represented. We were pleased with the turnout and with the general atmosphere and attitudes of everyone. Some parents noted there was a “different spirit” at this gathering.

Sunday we hosted an informal afternoon gathering of our AIM team. Bonvallats and Rossingtons had been gone for the summer and are now back so we wanted to welcome them. Also, I wanted the Maxwell family (new principal at KICS) to get to meet the AIM folks so I invited them. The Bonvallats had visitors from Congo who we also invited. We were 23 total! I made a birthday cake for Mark (chocolate cake with banana cream filling and fudge frosting!) and others brought fruit, popcorn, carrot sticks and muffins. It was fun. There were 9 kids who thought it was fun to try to catch and hold the kittens. When the kids were distracted with eating, I caught the kittens and hid them in Emily’s room. The kids then had a game of “hide and seek” with the kittens but the kids never did find them! After they left, I found the kittens snuggled up, sound asleep on Emily’s bed, none too worse for the extra excitement!

Well, I guess that’s it for now. It’s time to get ready for school and a new week. The first grade teacher arrives Thursday, (I think) with his wife and 1 year old. I think they will be staying with us for a few days. Should be fun!

Another busy week!!

Don’t have much time but thought I’d send a quick update.

I cut my last letter short on Sunday because I thought we were going to have the boys back here but it turned out they stayed at their new place after all. We’ve been without guests now for a few days! We’ll probably have the first grade teacher with his wife and 1 year old stay with us next week for a few days until we can get them into permanent housing. Guess God knew we needed a big house!

Speaking of the house, we skyped for 45 minutes with the family whose house we’re staying in. They had been planning on returning in January but due to medical complications they’ve decided to stay in Canada for recuperation and to let their boys have a full year in the same school. So, that means we can stay in this house until June if we want!

The work at school is continuing – things are kind of a blur. We are still incredibly busy trying to get teachers settled and everything ready for the first day, 1 September. Now we have to just ask – “Is this required for the 1st day?” Not everything will get done. Crazy thing is, we still have applications coming in from new families! We have just about reached our limit of students that we can handle for this year. Some classes are bursting at the seams to be sure!! God is blessing!

Last night Mark, Emily and I went to an Indian restaurant for dinner to celebrate Mark’s birthday (a bit early but Emily’s classes begin on his birthday). The food was good, service great, atmosphere fun, prices a little steep but okay for a celebration. The highlight was that Emily had heard that this place would sing happy birthday so we told them, without Mark knowing, that we were celebrating. After the meal was cleared away, the lights went out (there were candles on the tables) and we heard some banging in the distance. Soon there were about 10 employees banging on trays like drums and singing “Happy Birthday” – first in English, then in French. Then they sang the “Jambo” welcome song in Swahili and a little bit in English. It carried on for quite awhile as they all danced around the table making a lot of noise and having Mark stand up and be thoroughly embarrassed! Great fun! He said it wasn’t as bad as Johnny Rebs or Joe’s Crab Shack, though! They brought out some ice cream topped with bananas and apples. I wish I had remembered to grab my camera.

We are taking the staff to Lake Muhazi today for their staff meeting just to have new venue. Kind of sick of being around the school! Hopefully we’ll be able to have lunch out there – we’ve had a hard time getting ahold of the restaurant to ask about it. Also, we wanted to take Emily out there so she is coming with us.

Emily leaves tomorrow morning for RVA. Won’t see her again until Thanksgiving Day! She’ll have a new dorm, new dorm mom, new roommate, and most of the same dorm mates. Some of her old friends are coming this year who she hasn’t seen since 3rd grade! Some of them were kids I taught in Kindergarten! How did they all grow up so fast?? My baby is going into 11th grade!!!

Gotta go get breakfast and ready to head out!

Another crazy week!!

We have had a busy week with late nights but things are getting done.

After writing last week I made some soup which we enjoyed. We all (Mark, Emily, Chris (the teacher from MN) and I decided we’d go to the airport early (four more teachers were due on a flight that evening) and get an ice cream cone at the Bourbon Coffee shop there. As we were clearing the dinner table, Mark got a phone call from Bryan, the school board chairman who we’ve been working with closely this summer. “Where are you?” Bryan asked. “The teachers are here and cleared through customs already!” Come to find out, we were given the wrong ETA for their flight. So much for getting ice cream.

So we dashed to the airport and sure enough the teachers and those who went to meet them were all standing around outside in the parking lot waiting for us and the other family who was hosting one of them. We stood around for a bit chatting and getting to know one another.

We took another guy teacher, Jack Beach from Tennessee, with us to stay at our house. The others each went to different houses. Jack will be teaching HS math, physics and PE. Jack and Chris have been staying with us all week. They are nice guys and will be good additions to the teaching staff. We’ve been calling them the “boys”.

Monday to Friday have been long days at the school office for me with meeting parents, filling Trevor Maxwell (principal) in on details he needs to know, receiving payments, answering questions for the new staff, trying to help figure out the schedule of classes for HS and MS with Trevor and Holly (a returning teacher), writing and answering emails, etc.

Mark ran around all week with the teachers (or for them) – setting up bank accounts, looking for housing, dropping off visa paperwork at immigration, going back the next day with copies of the signed contracts for the visas (the letters of appointment he’d dropped off the day before weren’t good enough), trying to work with landlords to get leases signed and working on getting the houses in shape, shopping, etc, etc.

A couple days we didn’t get back to our house until 8 or 8:30 at night! I am extremely thankful for Musengimana who works for us right now. I would give her a list in the morning of food we needed at market, a meal we needed to have ready for us in the evening, and laundry or other household tasks. When we got home, the house was clean, dishes washed and put away, laundry washed and ironed, fruits and veggies in the fridge, and dinner ready! I would never have survived this week without her!!!

Emily has been going in with us to school and helping out a lot. She has basically been a go-fer (you know: go for this and go for that). She has made copies, run around delivering supplies to classrooms, sorted out the new books that have arrived, helped teachers find things, babysat for the Maxwells while they went house hunting, etc, etc. She’s gotten to know the new teachers pretty well and enjoys hanging out with them. She said it’s been better than sitting around the house with nothing to do.

To add to the excitement of the week, Trevor hired 2 more teachers: A first grade teacher who hopes to leave the US September 2 or 3 and another middle school teacher who will fill some gaps. She hopes to arrive the 2nd or 3rd week of September. We start school on September 1 so someone will have to substitute for a bit while we wait for these to come but at least they are coming!! God has been blessing the school in tremendous ways!

Saturday I wanted to take Emily to a large market to look for some clothes. She has worn through some of her shorts and capris. The boys wanted to go along as well so we all went together, although Mark and the boys walked around together while Emily and I hit the clothing area. This market is really huge – Fruits and vegetables of all types, dried beans of many colors, shapes and sizes, dry goods like flour, sugar, etc, meat and fish – fresh, frozen and dried, hardware supplies, kitchen supplies, baskets, buckets, luggage, shoes, bed linens, towels, - well, I suppose this market is Kigali’s equivalent to Wal-Mart only it’s more like a swap meet/farmer’s market. Most of the clothes are used (I saw one with the Goodwill price tag still on it). Emily and I just wandered around the different stalls until we saw something we thought might fit her. In the end she got a couple pairs of PE shorts, a couple pairs of capris and a pair of track pants. She did all the bargaining herself – in French! I was impressed! The merchants all seemed to think she was cute and gave her reasonable prices. More than Goodwill but way cheaper than new. The boys didn’t buy anything – just looked around.

In the afternoon, Mark and the boys went to the “girls’” house to help hang up mosquito nets and other things. They tried to get things settled with the boys’ landlord so they could move in soon but that is going slowly. Emily went swimming with the Bonvallat family who just got back from their summer travels to the US (for work) and Switzerland (for medical checks and visit family). She is not pleased with the pool – said it is getting too green.

Saturday evening Mark, Emily, our friend Melissa, and I went out to dinner to a nice restaurant (décor was beautiful; food okay; price way too expensive) just for fun. The “boys” met the “girls” at an Indian restaurant which we haven’t tried yet. Said it was quite good.

Well, I will have to tell you about today’s church service later. We thought the boys were moving out into their own place today but I just got a message from Mark that they are coming back and sleeping at our house. No problem – except I sent one of their blankets and comforter to loan to another new teacher flying in tonight. I need to go see what I can find in Finnerty’s things and figure out supper…..

Things never quite go as planned here. At least we have plenty of water and electricity!

Saturday events

Well, the city was replacing valves or something for our water main pipes up the road from us and on Friday afternoon we got word that the work was finished and our tank was filling up! That was very good news.

For the last several weeks it has been very dry and dusty here – no rain at all which is in stark contrast to all the rain we had in Jan – Apr! The last couple of weeks it even became quite hot – not humid, thankfully – but hot. Friday late afternoon we noticed a change in the weather. A wind came up and clouds (not dusty haze) appeared. In the evening we watched a fantastic lightening storm (we live on a hill overlooking the city). Then, the power went off… but a few hours later, it was back on again.

I woke up to a steady rain on the roof – what an amazing sound! Normally I go back to sleep but I couldn’t stop wondering if the kittens were okay. They are just over 6 weeks old now and we can no longer contain them easily so we decided to let them roam the yard with their mom. (They are not inside cats.) Since I couldn’t sleep I decided to get up and check email and stuff that I hadn’t been able to do that evening with the power off. The kittens were fine – they and Mom have a nice hiding place. They could have gone into the outside kitchen where they have been for the last 6 weeks but that would have been too easy! While checking email, there were some really close, loud, bright claps of thunder and lightening. Mark woke up then and came in to unplug the internet and computers just in case we got hit by lightening they wouldn’t get zapped. So, I went back to bed and slept.

The rain continued steadily for most of the morning. I was hoping to do a couple loads of laundry, since we had water, but with the rain, I wouldn’t be able to dry the clothes. About the time it quit raining and I decided that laundry might still be a possibility, the power went off again. Musengimana, who works for us, told us she noticed the wires on the pole in the street by our house crackling. The ended any hopes of getting laundry done…

Around 8 pm we had guys from the electric company come by to check out our problem. They said it was indeed a problem at the pole and they would have to come the next morning to climb the pole and fix it. Our landlord happens to work for the electric company so he is able to help us expedite these things. This morning during church, Mark got a text message from our landlord saying that there a guy who could climb the pole but Mark would have to go pick him and his ladder up. So after we got home, Mark went off to collect the fellow and his ladder. About an hour later, (29 hours after it went off) we had electricity again! So, tomorrow, (I don’t do laundry on Sundays) I hope to get some laundry done!

To add to our Saturday evening fun –

We had invited a another family over to play games for the evening but they cancelled because mom wasn’t feeling well. Okay, a restaurant in town was advertising live music – acoustic guitar, saxophone and clarinet. Sounds good – we decided to check it out. But we needed to wait for the electricity guys to come and they arrived too late to go to the concert. So, we called Melissa to see what she was doing – after chatting with her family on the phone, she was going to watch a movie and we could come up and join her. Emily and I walked up to her place and were just getting settled into a movie when Mark called – the teacher who we were expecting to arrive Sunday at noon (he will stay with us for a week or so) actually was due to arrive SATURDAY at noon but his plane had mechanical problems and he was delayed! His new ETA was 9 pm Saturday. We hadn’t made his bed yet! Mark and Trevor went to the airport to meet him and sure enough, he was on that flight! Mark let us know that he had indeed arrived so Emily and I rushed home and made the two guest beds and got candles ready, etc for him. Whew! I’m glad we had a little warning! We told him he could take a cold shower or a warm bucket bath. He opted for warm bucket bath. I’m looking forward to a warm shower soon!!

He is a nice guy. Came to teach MS/HS French and Maths. He is from the Twin Cities in MN. His accent makes me homesick for the Schendel family!!

Well, I better go work on supper and getting ready for the other new teacher who is staying here.

Water situation

We are officially out of water in our storage tank. The city water that usually comes in to fill the tank has not come in for a 2 or 3 weeks but we have seen guys down the road working on a water main pipe. Yesterday it looked like they were getting closer to being finished so we are hopeful that water will come in a couple of days.

But we still have access to water – it’s just not convenient. This is where our camping experience comes in handy!! There is a community water tap down the hill from us, near the market. This is where the folks who do not have plumbed water go on a daily basis to collect water in their plastic jugs. It is a very common site to see children and adults carrying water jugs (from 5 liters – 20 liters / 1+ - 5 gallons) down the street. I am constantly amazed to see them carrying full 20 liter jugs on their heads!! When we need to buy water, we have one of our workers get a water guy to bring us some. There are young men who go up and down the streets all day with a wheel barrow full of water jugs – I’ve seen them pushing up to 5 or 6 jugs of water at a time. We have a large drum we put outside our kitchen door that the guys fill for us and then we have buckets in each bathroom that fill for washing up. Our worker, Musengimana, will hand wash some clothes for us today (the machine we have is a European front loading machine which is hard to use without plumbed water – I miss my simpler twin-tub machine we had in Nairobi.) These guys are super strong from pushing their wheelbarrows of water jugs up the hill – especially our dirt road that is full of deep ruts. We pay 250 rwf per 20 liters which is 44 cents. The water itself costs (if we were to go down and get our own jug filled) 100 rwf per 20 liters so these guys are making 26 cents per jug or about
$1.50 per wheelbarrow, if they can handle 6 jugs at a time. My guess would be that from our street to the water tap plus waiting in line, round trip would take them 45 minutes to an hour. We hear their wheelbarrows starting around 5 am and they keep going all day until dark (6 pm or so). I’d say they might make $8 - 10 a day hauling water!

The kittens we have are getting big and harder to contain in a safe place. We gave up last night and let them be free – figuring they were more apt to get hurt trying to get out than being out. They are so cute running around in the garden. I just hope they don’t find a small hole somewhere and get stuck! They are trying to figure out if they should be friends with the dog. Their mom is very friendly with the dog so I think they’ll warm up to her soon enough. The African gray parrot may be a harder friendship to create – I don’t know – but again the mom cat and the bird get along ok. (I’ve even seen them “kiss” – very funny!)

Well, I’m off to get breakfast and then to work. It looks like we’ve got a 1st grade teacher now. He won’t get here until a month or so after school starts but at least he’s coming. The other big hole is Kindergarten and we are realizing we could use another middle school teacher – we have full classes which we weren’t expecting. We had planned on doubling up a couple classes (like soc. Studies or Bible) but now with the larger classes we can’t do that so we need to have more teachers to cover each class. I think it will work out – the teachers will just be stretched.

Kumbya

We just got back from a week away at a camp called “Kumbya” so I thought I’d write a bit about it before we get swamped with life again!

Kumbya (pronounced: KOOM-bee-yah NOT kum-bye-yah like the song) is a “camp” that was established by missionaries several decades ago (60 – 80 years I think – not quite sure). I’m a bit hazy on the history but my understanding is that way back then, the government gave or sold a peninsula on Lake Kivu to the Free Methodist missionaries working in the area. At some point several mission organizations banded together and create a camp area for missionaries serving in the “Great Lakes” region of Africa (basically Rwanda, Congo, Uganda, Burundi). Each organization built a “cabin” for their missionaries to use and now there are about 8 of these. They are actually brick buildings with tile roofs. I only went into a couple of them but while they are all different, they all basically have a main living/playroom with 3-5 small bedrooms and a small kitchen of sorts. The one we stayed in was the only one we know of that had a flush toilet! Our kitchen was a closet sized room with a cupboard on one side for storing dishes/food and a table on the other side with a 2 burner gas stove and a few pots on a shelf. There was running water coming into the kitchen but no sink. We had buckets that we used to wash dishes on the porch outside. The back yard looked out onto the lake and we ate all our breakfasts out there. There was a large fire ring in the back yard where we sat around a fire a couple of evenings. We had a fire in the inside fireplace one evening but it was pretty smoky the next day in the living room. There is no electricity on the peninsula but there are a couple of generators they use for the evening meeting time. We used kerosene lanterns or candles to light our cabin.

There are not enough cabins for everyone so several people pitched tents all around – there are no actual campsites – just where you want. There are pit toilets in different locations around the peninsula so most folks camped within easy walking distance to a toilet. A third option for sleeping was to request a “hut” . Some local guys came in a day or two early and constructed temporary grass huts for those who had requested them. I didn’t actually look in one but I think it would have been a fun option for kids or families who didn’t own tents.

Another building at the camp is a meeting/dining room/kitchen. This was an L-shaped building. Everyone ate breakfasts in their cabin or campsite but we all ate together in the dining room for lunches and suppers. The meals were prepared by a crew that is hired just for the week but some have been doing it for several years now (one said he’s been cooking at the camp for 30+ years.) Some missionary wives plan the meals ahead of time and do the shopping in Kigali. The meals were simple but very good. I was impressed. We ate things like Enchiladas, pizza, spaghetti, fish and chips, burritos, soups, salads, mac and cheese, etc. It was all cooked over wood stoves or in wood ovens.

The basic schedule was:
Breakfast/clean-up
Morning worship / Bible teaching (kids younger than HS had a VBS program at this time)
Tea break (I provided goodies for one of the tea breaks)
Small group discussion/prayer or women’s/men’s group teaching time (HS discussion time + VBS)
Lunch
Free time
Supper
Evening Meeting
Hang around the cabin/hit the hay

Every year a speaker is invited to come for the week. This year it was a pastor and his wife, Terry and Kelleen, from a church called CrossOver in Spokane, WA. He was very good. She was also good when she led the women’s meetings. His talks were mostly taken from John 13-14. Hers were from Ps. 46.

For most folks, the free time was spent at the beach on the lake. There is a very nice cove where there is some sand and some grass and trees. It was definitely the place to be in the afternoons. There is platform (everyone called it a dock but technically it wasn’t a dock) a few yards out from shore where some folks (mostly kids) would swim to and sit on or dive off from or play “king of the dock” (Emily’s favorite). Over the years different mission groups or missionaries have donated or loaned “toys” to the camp – innertubes and other floating devices, a small 1 – 2 person sailboat , a motor boat with water skiis, a kneeboard and other pull toys, and kayaks. Mark took Emily out on the sailboat one day and taught her the basics of sailing. He also got the motorboat going and took the high schoolers out knee boarding one day. He took the younger kids out on a big tube that is designed for pulling behind a boat. Emily went out kayaking with friends a few times, went cliff jumping (estimated to be about as high as a high dive at a pool), built sand castles/kingdoms with the younger kids or just chilled out and read. I spent most afternoons at the beach watching Emily and the other kids while reading a book or chatting with other moms. If I wasn’t there, I was taking a nap or doing laundry or other household chores at the cabin. When Mark wasn’t in a boat on the water, he was looking at someone’s car or other items that needed fixing.

The evening meetings were varied.
Saturday night was an introductory meeting.

Sunday night Kelleen gave her testimony.

Monday a missionary who has been in Rwanda for 25+ years gave a testimony/talk about how God has worked in his life over the years.

Tuesday the missionaries who were at Kumbya for the first time gave testimonies (Mark shared).

Wednesday night the “Kumbya Development Committee” (KDC) gave a report of the plan for the future development of the area. Simply put, it has come to the attention of the government that the peninsula was “given” to missionaries years ago but those people are no longer around. The administration of the land and usage of it has been very loosely structured over the past few years. Because Rwanda is the most densely populated country in Africa and land is valuable, the government requires that all land be owned and used for specific purposes. The KDC has been formed and there is now an association that has been formalized which will then take over legal ownership of the land. They then have plans to build a few “luxury” tent sites and dining area on a different part of the peninsula which will be used for “ecotourism” to satisfy the desire of the government. The missionary camp section will remain virtually untouched and still be used by missionaries needing a retreat/rest. One of the huge draws of the land is that it is one of few places on the lake where the indigenous trees and shrubs are untouched and it has become quite a sanctuary for birds.

Thursday was the mandatory camp event – “Skit Night!” There was a huge variety of hilarious skits and amazing talent. One skit was a mockery of a well meaning American evangelist who came to Africa to preach using idioms and very American phrases. It was then “interpreted” to the audience by a “local” interpreter. Everyone was roaring in laughter! One mom performed a beautiful dance/sign language of a worship song. A family of 3 kids did a percussion trio using local instruments that was extremely well done. Emily and I taught the group one our family favorite camp songs: “Wa-da-lee-ah-cha” One 10 year old girl sang a worship song she wrote – phenonmenal. A 5 year old girl sang the worship song “Holy is Lord” and did a super job but when she came the words “It’s the anthem of the Lord’s renown” she sang “it’s the antelope the Lord’s renown”! Very cute! It was a fun evening.

Friday night was “Movie on the Beach”. They took the generator down to the beach, hung a sheet between two trees, set up a computer and projector and speakers and showed “Madagascar 2”. While it sounded like fun to watch a movie on the beach like that, we didn’t really care about watching that particular movie and neither did Emily’s 2 RVA friends so we invited them over to play “Settlers of Catan” with us. We were 6 (Melissa went to Kumbya with us) so we used Emily’s new extension for the first time. It made for a long game but it was fun. We sat out on the porch with lanterns all around us. The moon was pretty bright so that helped.

A tradition at Kumbya each evening is to award the “Cuckoo Award”. Basically, “friends” nominate their friends who catch them doing something silly or “cuckoo”. One night it was given to a lady who that morning had groggily gotten up and started making Kool-aid but instead of putting the powder mix into water, she put in the pitcher of milk! One Jr Higher got it for acting silly out on the lake, thinking no one else could hear him but he didn’t realize that the sound traveled far out there. Others received it for similar moments of silliness.

There is a family here whose grandfather had worked in the area as a missionary. Dave (the grandson now working here) never met his grandfather but recently met a man who had been a boy growing up in the same area as Dave’s grandfather and he knew him. This elderly man, Larry, shared many stories with Dave which Dave wrote down and shared some of them with the group in the evenings. Most of them were about Larry’s pet chimpanzee named Wimpy. Between Wimpy’s funny antics and Dave’s good story telling, we all enjoyed the stories from the past.

One of the big blessings that God provided at Kumbya were friends for Emily. We didn’t know of any kids her age who would be there at the camp this year. There were some girls a couple years younger who she would have hung out with – and she did some of the time. But when we got there another family from Uganda was unloading their car not far from our cabin and Emily instantly recognized 2 kids from her class at RVA! One is staying with the other’s family in Uganda for the break. She didn’t know them too well but they all got along great and enjoyed doing things together. It made the week a lot more fun for her to have kids her own age to hang out with.

Thursday morning the tradition at the camp is to have swim out to “3 Hump island”. It has been determined that it is 5 kilometers round trip. The swim starts at 6 am (less current) and was finished by 9:30 ish. In the group swimming this year were 6-10 adults, the high schoolers and lots of kids (there is a lot of peer pressure to do this event!). Most of the kids had some sort of floatation device to help them. Everyone made it to the island except for 3 kids. Mark took the motor boat out to keep on eye on everyone and several local fishermen were hired to also row alongside to help keep an eye on everyone. Only 4 attempted to swim back so everyone else was shuttled back in the boats. It wasn’t a race per se but Emily was the first one to make it to the island and she was hardly winded or tired. Some of the adults maybe would have given her a bit of competition but they stayed with their own kids. On the way back it was 2 adults, Emily and one of the other RVA kids (who we think only did it to keep Emily company). She ended up slowing down to stay by her friend who was extremely tired but they both made it and now they have bragging rights! In the “record books” from recent history of the camp, Emily is now the youngest swimmer to reach the island the first and maybe the youngest to go round trip! It’s really not a race but more of a “Hey, guess what I did?” type of event. After the swim, some ladies had pancakes ready for the swimmers which Emily scarfed down! I don’t think I’ve ever seen her eat so many pancakes in one sitting!!

I mentioned that the kids had a time of VBS while the adults had their morning meetings. One of those days, the story was about creation and a missionary who came in from Uganda had found some of the long balloons used for making animals. The idea was that the kids would make balloon animals as a craft. I happened to be sitting on the beach with some other moms when she delivered the balloons to the lady in charge of VBS. All the moms there commented what a good idea that was but none of them knew how to make animal balloons and they were wondering if there might be anyone there who did know. I, of course, spoke up and said that Mark knew how. So, the next morning he spent an hour or so making animal balloons for some very delighted children. In fact, that afternoon, I spotted one girl out swimming in the lake with her animal balloon right there with her!! They asked him to make some more during free time on a different afternoon but he got busy pulling kids on the boat so Emily ended up doing it instead.

The camp actually keeps going until Monday morning but we left Saturday morning so that we’d have a day to rest at home before going back to work on Monday.

Traveling to Kumbya from Kigali took us about 7 hours. There are 2 different ways to go so we went one way there and the other way back. We decided we like the 2nd one better. But both ways were very pretty. This country is truly hilly! And the people farm it up and down all the steep hills! We saw coffee, tea, corn, rice, wheat, cabbage, grasses, manioc, bananas, and lots of other crops growing. It was amazing and beautiful. Sometimes driving through a small town I felt like I had gone back in time a hundred years or more. It is very difficult to describe the scenes and yet it is beautiful. The kids along the side of the road would call out to us – often asking for money or plastic bottles but some just greeting us and waving. There was one group of adults along the side of the road that we think must have just come from a gathering of some sort but when they saw us, they gathered and began singing us a song!