Long time no write!

7-18-10

Jarod here…Sorry it’s been a while since we’ve updated. We have actually been somewhat busy lately (at least I think so). Work is slowly starting to take on some form finally and things are looking good. The past 2 ½ weeks have especially been busy. Recently we have had the chance to get to know a couple of our other bosses. Lyle who is the Operations Manager for Kageno who travels back and forth between the Kenya and Rwanda sites when she is not back home in Colorado and Frank, the Executive Director of Kageno. We really enjoyed getting to know them and feel like we have a much better perspective of our roles here in Banda and are excited about what the next two years have in store.

Anyway, to recap the last 4-5 weeks, this is what has been happening: rode a wooden bike, broke the wooden bike (it’s okay, it fixes really easy), almost lost my soccer ball to an outraged neighbor lady with a machete (it’s okay Meg, I saved it), had a forth of July party at Ryan’s site with HOT DOGS and MUSTARD and KETCHUP…amazing, killed a half a dozen rats, let one house worker go, hired another one (great decision by the way), ate vegetable sushi…in the middle of the forest, hosted our first Peace Corps visitors, helped paint a house, set up tents for the Kageno visitors, cut grass with a had tool that you swing back and forth like a golf club (brings a whole new appreciation for weed eaters and lawnmowers), slid down the mountain in the rain, all the while holding on to the arm of a 50 year old man as I pulled him down sometimes as well (talk about a booster for your ego), slid down a hill on a piece of banana tree stalk peeling, did yoga, yes yoga with hundreds of Rwandans as they stretched and laughed all the while in their skirts and with babies on their backs…the babies faces where hilarious…from their faces, in my mind they were saying, “what the heck are we doing and why am I upside down), witnessed my first African baptism services (this was no baptism ceremony for wimps…when the Pastor dunked it was with so much force that their feet came up out of the water. Oh and they also made the baptism pool from a creek behind the church but they dammed it up first so the water would be deep enough), helped doctor the finger of a co-worker that was nearly cut off with a machete, shared a bench with a monkey (that was fun), and much, much more.

I think it is safe to say that Sarah and I are continuing to fall more in love with Banda. I think every child in this village already knows Sarah’s name. If they ever see me without her the first thing they ask is, “Sarah ari he he (where is Sarah)? Oh and I have another somewhat sad but also funny story…so there is a kid named Thomas in our village who had an infection or something that resulted in him losing his eye. He is only about 3 or 4 years old. Recently, Kageno has been trying to help and has been taking him back and forth to the district health center in hopes of getting a new eye put in (one that is just for looks obviously). This past week he was given a new eye but unfortunately, the hospital made a mistake in perfecting the correct size of the eye. My supervisor told me that they were having problems with it falling out. I said, “What…his eye…it’s falling out???” So, yesterday I was at the feeding program and I saw Thomas there. I could see that he had his new eye in but after the next swig of his porridge, the eye was no longer there. Yup…that is right, his eye feel right into his porridge. His mother calmly picked it up and cleaned it off…I don’t know what else to say. That’s all for now…be blessed