back to banda

10/01/2010

Well, I’ve decided I’ve put this off long enough.  Plus I’m tired of Sarah saying, “you haven’t written a blog in forever.”  So, here goes. 

 

First of all, sorry to the readers if you have actually been looking forward to reading a blog from me.  Thankfully, Sarah is doing a good job of keeping the blog updated.  Anyway, a lot has happened since I last wrote and if I mention some of the same things she has, I am sorry.  Since returning from South Africa and In-Service Training, I would say we’ve hit the ground running.  Work is continually proving to be more and more promising and that does wonders for my “feeling helpless” feeling I seem to get so easily.  

 

Sarah has begun teaching English to the nursery school teachers and working more with them in getting a curriculum into place.  I have started teaching English classes to the Primary School teachers in Banda.  This has proved to be an interesting activity even after one week.  In my second class with a group of about 14 teachers I somehow found myself trying to explain the difference between the verbs to have sex and to make love.  I have no idea how and why we got to that point but for some reason I went right along with trying to explain the difference…not sure if it ever got through to them.  Now that I think of it, I’m not sure I could explain it even in English!  Anyway, that was fun. 

 

Also, the rainy season (which is September-November) has come.  And although it is supposed to start at the beginning of September, it seems it decided to wait until the afternoon of the 18^th when we were walking back down to our village from in-service training.  The usual 1 hour and 15 minute walk down took us 3 hours.  And unfortunately for us, we didn’t have an umbrella with us.  By the time we had made it down the mountain (the whole time carrying all of our stuff from the past 3 weeks away from site) it was dark.  Our fearless night guard (a 65 year old man with a dead flashlight, machete and cataracts…it’s okay, I am laughing too) sees us or should I say hears us trying to get in the gate and shouts out, “who is it”?  After we explained it was us he was happy to see us.  Besides, knowing him and how hard he works, he probably hadn’t slept much if any since we left site nearly 3 weeks ago.  Wow…just realized that.  Because of that, this blog is dedicated to Sebahoro…our fearless, old, tough, sweet, nearly blind night guard.  Thanks Seb for all your hard work! 

 

We recently found out some sad news.  Our counterpart and supervisor were scheduled to go to New York at the end of this month to be a part of the Kageno big fundraising event.  However, it seems it is next to impossible for a Rwandan to get a Visa to visit America.  I had no idea how grueling, demanding and time consuming the process was.  And after all the preliminary work was done which consisted of many, many hours of paperwork and emails, the interview was conducted and for some reason the embassy did not see it necessary to let them go.  We were very bummed for them as they were both so excited to see America.  Plus NYC is basically the exact opposite of Banda, so that would have been an amazing experience for them.  It really frustrates me to know that it is so difficult for someone to visit our country…especially when they are doing it on grounds of helping to develop their own country…not sneak across the border and squat somewhere.  What is so great about us that we can’t even let someone visit us for even a week?  Anyway, I am done ranting.  Oh well, they were not too disappointed and we are hoping they will be able to go next year some time. 

 

In other news we recently hit our 7 month mark in Rwanda…still hard to believe it has already been that long.   We want everyone to know we are just as happy here as we were the rainy night we got off the plane in February.  Things are starting to fall into place and although we do experience tough and emotionally draining experiences weekly, neither of us would change a thing.  Keep us in your prayers and know we are thinking about you!  Until next time, take care and be blessed!

 

Before I go, I need to give a quick shout out to all the October birthdays and what not.  Happy Birthday to Natalie on the 4^th, Uncle Gary on the 6^th, Aunt Debbie on the 11^th, Scott Houck on the 15^th, Levi on the 26^th, Aunt Pam on the 27^th, Mrs. Laura Houck on the 28^th, Cortney on the 24^th (sorry if this is the wrong date Cort, this is what Sarah told me) and I think that is it.  Sorry if we missed anyone…it is hard to keep up with this stuff when we are so removed from it. K Bye! 

 

The Rings