We're back!

Ethan and I made it back safely to Kigali this morning, after what will go down as the all-time, worst-ever, "TIA", scary, awkward, extremely uncomfortable, Survivor-like, 12 hour nighttime bus ride from Kampala. There really are no words. But I'll try to conjure up a better image for you later! And also of the good times, the amazing scenery, views, and extraordinary people we met. We had such an awesome time exploring Uganda, and saw some stunning examples of just how cool and creative God is. After Ethan leaves on Sunday, I'll have a week before school begins, and I hope to have some time to try and reflect and write, and put some of the memories on paper (or computer!).

We slept some this morning, and were thankful for showers and clean clothes, after about 48 hours of wearing the same thing. We're at Shokola now, and just enjoyed some hummus and mint tea, and had an awesome skype with family, including the famous Aiden! Man, he's getting big! Miss him so much! Momma, we'll skype with you tomorrow, k? Been a good relaxing day. Gonna try to connect with a few friends tonight (most are still out of country.) Bout to head home and primp a bit and go to a "Seychelles" themed New Years party at the preacher's house so Ethan can meet a lot of the KICS families, then probably gonna head to my favorite estabalishment of Carwash for some great and greasy pork, and maybe try to see "Black Mzungu", the famous Rwandan hip-hop and reggae artist in concert later. Should be a fun and interesting night! Glad to get to spend it with my brother! Tomorrow, we've got big plans for an African market experience, craft co-op, and just some chill time. He leaves after church on Sunday. :-( I promise more stories and pics will come later from our adventures. Miss you all and thinking of you at home right now enjoying the snow! Can't believe ya'll had a snowy-white Christmas! I'm jealous! Much, much love, peace, and joy to you all...and many bright and beautiful blessings and promises for 2011!

Love from Kigali,
Emily

Merry Christmas!

Hi everyone! This is going to be really quick...because my brother, Ethan, is here!!! And right now, he's waiting at home for us to go out to Carwash for the best pork/goat in town! I took him on a 45 minute run through the village today, and it about killed him. :-) He's so hungry now! Sorry for the lack of blogs this week. There's sooo many things I want to write about, but they will have to wait a few weeks! The last week of school was wonderful, but crazy and chaotic too with all the fun Christmas chapels and programs. And then Ethan arrived Sunday afternoon (sans bags!) But they came later.

Since he's arrived, we've eaten at Bourbon, tons of great Rwandan food, played with the kids at the orphanage, visited the coffee factory, explored the lively market, eaten at Cactus overlooking the city, visited the genocide memorial, and ridden about 50 motos already. :-) He's about to get used to them! Tomorrow morning we head out for a 10 day adventure through Uganda and Rwanda. Not sure if we'll have internet access or not, so I want to wish you all a very merry Christmas!! We'll come back on New Years, and he leaves on the 2nd. I'll have about a week before I have to start school again, so I hope to catch up with you all during that week. I'm so excited Ethan is here, and I'm with family this year, and I get to share a bit of my world with him! But we will be missing all of you and miss being at home with the familiar sounds and smells.

As I've been preparing for Ethan to come, and getting "ready" for this time of year to celebrate this amazing birth of our Redeemer, this year one word has stayed with me...Light! We've been studying John in our Bible Study, and my kids had to memorize the beginning of John.

"The Word gave life to everything that was created,

and his life brought light to everyone.

The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness can never extinguish it."


-John 1:3-4


You know, I think the disciple John was trying to describe something, or really someone, that is totally indescribable! It's so hard to put into words the power of the light of Jesus. When I think of light, I think of the sun, or a Christmas tree all lit up, beautifully decorated. But I think John was trying his hardest to capture the full power and mightiness of the Light, of the Messiah that had come to earth. He is the light in all of the darkness. There is darkness everywhere. We all know that. We don't have to look very far to find it either. It's here. And it's there where you are too. Loneliness, confusion, hatred, racism, sin. But John tells us that no matter how dark the world is, or your community is....the light of Jesus is always stronger and more radiant than ever! And I know it to be true. I see His light everywhere. I see His light working through people and in people that don't even realize it! This Light is real! The light truly overcomes any and all darkness, and this Christmas, I want to celebrate that! He is the Light of the world; a city on a hill cannot be hidden! ~Matthew 5:14.

Blessings to you this Christmas! Love you!

Emily and Ethan

Engineering for Change

Can hip-hop power a solar revolution??? Hmm...

Check out these two articles about my friend, Sam Dargan, who hails from none other than the huge metropolis of Mechanicsville, SC. He's one-half of the Dargan brothers...James works in coffee here too. Sam has lived in Rwanda for about 5 years now, first starting as an engineer and medical worker at his aunt and uncle's rural hospital in Shyira. (they are UNC alums, and Morehead scholars!) It's neat to have some hometown connection here. Sam, only 28, owns Great Lakes Energy, which sells stoves and solar-powered lamps and bulbs to rural communities. How he markets his products is even neater! He has discovered some of Rwanda's new, up-and-coming hip-hop artists, and he's started a production company to produce their albums! In turn, they provide on-air, and YouTube advertising for solar products. Both parties benefit, and the word about solar power and its effectiveness is getting out! That's what I call creative energy! :-) (This is also the guy who invented "moto polo." Don't ask. But you can also find that on Youtube as well!") :-)

Diplomate and Sam

http://www.engineeringforchange.info/2010/12/clean-tech-awareness-brought-to-you-by.../

http://newtimes.co.rw/print.php?issue=14420&print&article=34787

Keep back nothing

"Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favorite wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end; submit with every fibre of your being, and you will find eternal life. Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will really be yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in. " ~C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

This challenges me. In the biggest way. Especially the part about, keep back nothing. I tend to want to hold onto things, and keep trying to work them around in my head, and fix it how I think it should be fixed. And many times, when I do give something totally over to God, I think that I'll just end up being disappointed. I feel sad about it, cause I feel like I've lost something. Such little faith! But you know, the things I have truly, truly given over to Him, I haven't at all been disappointed. So then, why does it still remain such a challenge to continue to let Him have control...control over my desires, my wishes, my ambitions, of other people that I want to know him, to love Him. What C.S. Lewis says is honestly hard to do, but necessary. "Look to Him, and everything else will be thrown in."

Jotham's Boys

On Sunday afternoon, our Bible Study headed out to Gasabo district, way out in the village, to Jotham's house. Jotham is a member of our church, and together with his wife, they have taken in 25 former street boys and have given them shelter, clothing, and paid for their school fees. The boys range in age from 12-18, but most of them are in 2nd or 3rd grade...a few in 4th. But they are all doing well; they are so eager to learn, and many are at the top of their class! It was a fun day of getting the house "tour", playing a Rwandan version of duck-duck-goose, running relay races, eating snacks, and singing Christmas carols with these boys. They devoured the chocolate cake and had fun eating the popcorn. At the end of the day, they opened gifts, and it was a complete joy to watch their faces. Then they prayed for all of us, through a translator. Their prayers were amazing and so precious. They said that they had asked God for a little, and He had provided them with a lot, and they could never thank Him enough. They prayed that God would bless us and keep us safe and strong. It is so humbling to have someone who has nothing pray over you for God to bless you with your needs. We are so blessed, we don't even know it. I can't wait to visit them again in a few weeks! After spending a day with these wonderful fellas, I am now officially in the Christmas spirit. God bless Jotham and his boys!

All 25 boys share these 3 bunkbeds, with a dirt floor.

The kitchen

The hallway

They've started raising rabbits behind their house to sell. If you look in the tree, the boys also have created a beehive, and hope to harvest their own honey.

Their soccer ball... made from sticks, straw, material, rags, trash.

Paul brought out his Ipod and speakers to add a little Irish Christmas music to the party. Looks kind of funny sitting on top of the concrete and rice bags.

Singing Silent Night in English and Kinyarwanda

Amazement at Doug's guitar

Piggyback rides!

Moses and Doug

Relay races!

Their first real ball and pump. They were estatic.

2 more! These came from America! Thanks Jordan and Caleb!

Smiling faces

Paul, showing them how it's done, ha!

I see this picture a lot....a "baby" holding a baby. I never get used to it though.

A day not to forget

Every year since 1988, December 1 has been a day for the world to remember those who have been infected, affected, and fallen by HIV/AIDS. Our church remembers this day on the first Sunday of December. Moses, our youth pastor from Uganda, spoke on this topic on Sunday, and we were flooded with statistics galore. You've probably heard a lot of these statistics...seen them on the news, read about them in Time magazine, CNN, etc. Statistics are just that...numbers. It's good to have statistics, but statistics don't tell the stories. People do that. But they are still compelling. Here's a few statistics that Moses shared with us...

Since 1980...

a total of 25 million have fallen to this disease. and we're still counting...

to date, 33 million are infected with this disease.

2 million of these are under the age of 15

In 2008 alone, 2.7 people were newly infected with the disease.

EVERY DAY, 7,397 people contract the disease.

that's 308 people every hour

5 people every minute

In 2008, 2 million people died of the disease.

Of the 33 million people living with the disease, 22 million of those are found South of the Sahara....that is 67% of the entire total.

90% of the whole total of children with the disease live in that same area.

Women constitute HALF of the world's HIV cases. This means there are about 16.5 million women infected with the disease, excluding girls below age 15.

In Africa, Swaziland has the highest HIV rate, with 25.9%

In East Africa, Kenya has the highest rate with 7.9%

Rwanda/Burundi has the lowest in E. Africa with 3.0%

150,000 Rwandese are infected with HIV

78,000 Rwandan women are infected.

19,000 Children....and 220,000 AIDS orphans in Rwanda

These statistics educate us and open our eyes, and they are shocking...but hearing stories from those infected, those affected, and knowing some of your friends harbor this illness, and some have died from it...it hits you harder than any statistic ever could. Last month, one of our KICS drivers died from this disease. He drove us to all of our fieldtrips last year, and was the personal driver of a student of mine. Manny was strong, robust, looked like he was in tip-top shape. Today, the face of AIDS has really changed. It's not the sunken-in, shriveled up faces we are used to seeing on our TV screens.Thankfully, due to the success of ARVTs (anti-retro viral treatments), people are living longer and healtheir lives. It's a great thing. But also, unfortunately, it has caused the disease to spread as well, because many who think they are "cured" because they are on medecines...they don't fully realize or they don't think they can spread this disease, merely because they appear and feel healthy. A sad mistake.

There's another stigma here against actually going for the testing and finding out your status and beginning the meds. Many people would rather wait it out and not-know their status, than discover they are positive. That was Manny. Manny thought he was ok. We did too. But he got sick all of a sudden, and contracted tuberculosis, and never came out of the hospital. He discovered in the hospital he was positive.

I am proud of our church here for their role in educating the community about this disease. In East Africa, often times the Church is who stands in the way of people finiding out their status. I know many Africans who have said they were encouraged by church leaders and elders not to go for testing, because either they didn't want the church to have a bad reputation, or the church didn't want to carry on the responsibility of supporting them....OR, the largest reason is because many church leaders say they don't beleive in that "white man's medicine", and that if you take the medicine, your faith is weakened and it means you don't truly believe in God's healing power! It's true. What a sad, twisted understanding of our Father's power to heal.

This was the case with Mama Sandra, the mother of 5 small children under 10 years old. She's a member of our church, and she gave her testimony on Sunday to a hushed congregation. Mama Sandra was forced into an arranged marriage years ago. She had 5 children with her husband, before he left her. After he left, he became very sick, but never would go for testing. Finally, when he was on his deathbed, he admitted to her that he had AIDS. After he died, Mama Sandra went for testing and discovered she was also positive. Next came the unthinkable. ALL 5 of her children tested positive for HIV. They are under 10 years old. They immediately began treatment. But after 2 years of feeling good with the medecine, Mama Sandra's elders in her previous church convinced her to stop her treatment so God could fully heal her body. She became very weak, almost to the point of death, before she began the ARVs again. Now, she is doing well, along with her children, but still is struggling to make ends meet, and to regain her lost dignity. She has a community of supporters behind her, and she holds on to her faith. She has good days and bad days. When I heard her speak, I couldn't help but think about the times when I've said I'm having a bad day, and how it pales in comparison to hers. Perspective. We have a lot of be thankful for! Even on our "bad" days.

The ARVs are free in East Africa, but as we all know, free doesn't necessarily mean free. You need transportation to get to the meds, especially if you live way out in the villages. And many people don't have that money. And what about condoms. Number one, they are expensive. People can use that money for food instead. Number two, they aren't good quality here. Number three, many Africans think they are "taboo," and they think the condoms themselves will actually harm them. And Number four, the conservative Penacostal church here will not advocate for their use or distribution. Another hurdle to get over...breast-feeding. Try telling an HIV-positive African woman who just delivered a healthy baby... that she can't breast-feed that baby. Huh!?! It sounds absurd to them. Breast milk is free! And it's natural. What will people think? Breast milk nourishes the child. It's the most natural thing for these women. But also the biggest reason that HIV is passed on to infants. So, even if you help the woman to finally understand that she absolutely cannot breast feed her newborn, then what else is she supposed to feed it? Powdered milk is extremely expensive here and not readily available.

So you can imagine some of the bumps in the road on the way to educating individuals about this disease. It's more complicated than just screaming about how AIDS kills. People need to understand the whys and hows, and they need to understand love and acceptance too. AIDS is real. It infects, affects, hurts, and kills. It is not prejudice. It has visited every continent, every race, tribe, color. Statistics are hard to read and sobering. Just like Mama Sandra's story. But there is a great hope too. People are alive today. The medicine is improving, getting stronger...and most importantly people are becoming more and more educated. For that we can celebrate. And for the rest...we can hold on to hope!

Pruning

This is a coffee tree. Sorry it's blurry! We've been reading the Gospel of John in our Tuesday night Bible Study, and last week was a memorable week on chapter 15. Really hit me hard.

"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit He prunes so that it will be even more fruitful."

I started thinking about all my many branches and what fruits they are bearing. Some are good, and others, not so much! And still others, maybe are not bearing any fruits at all! And why is that so? It made me think about all aspects of my life and the fruit I am bearing or not bearing. I thought about church, teaching, my social life, friends, family, volunteer work, everything. It was really good to have some time to reflect, to see where my priorities are, and if they match up with His priorities for me.

How can we be sure we are bearing amazing, luscious, plump fruits? (I'm picturing the big mangoes in my yard and yummy passion fruit!) It's simple. We are to remain close to Him, the one who created us.

"I am the vine, you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." We can do NOTHING...not ONE GOOD THING apart from him. That hit me hard. It's not that we will just have tiny fruit...maybe just not the best harvest without him. No! WE can bear NO FRUIT AT ALL! Nothing without Him!

Well, then, how can we remain in Him? Honestly, sometimes I feel so close to Him, and at other times, I feel farther away, and trying to creep back slowly. But I know and trust that He is still there with me even when I am staggering along, and He is pruning away at my branches. I say to Him, keep pruning! Prune away as if I'm a Bonzai tree! :-) And by the way, I think the answer to my question about how to remain in Him can be found later on in verse 12...."My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you."

Paul is a friend from Northern Ireland, and he hosts us every Tuesday night. He works in the coffee sector, for Technoserve, and last week at Bible Study, he taught us how to prune a coffee tree. :-) So I learned that there's two ways to prune a coffee tree. One is you have to cut the tiny little branches that grow all over the place that get in the way when there's too many of them. (just like in our life when we get too busy and have way too many distractions that clutter our life and take us away from what is really important!)

And the second way to prune the coffee tree is when there's a really BIG, healthy branch that grows out, and it looks VERY fruitful and the farmers all look at it and all they see is money, money, money!...But what they don't realize is that because it's so big, not enough LIGHT is getting into the inside of the coffee tree. Even though the branch itself is super healthy! So therefore, the coffee tree is really not doing so well afterall....and because not enough light can enter in, then the darkness is a great breeding ground for the bugs to enter in and eat the tree. (darkness=sin, Satan, garbage, whatever.) So that's why you have to prune the big, healthy branches, so that in the future, the coffee tree can end up doing well and bearing much fruit (coffee.)

It really spoke to me that even the big, healthy branches can end up harming the tree later on, if not properly pruned. The branch will just engulf the tree, and kind of take it over, and no light will ever enter in. In thinking about this chapter, I thought about the "pruning" that has taken place in my life and the reasons why. Pruning sure does hurt at the time, and you get mad, but then later on, you realize what it was all about! Or maybe you haven't realized yet....but you still know and have faith in the One who's doing the pruning, and you know His pruning is preparing you to bear much luscious fruit down the road!

So I say, bring on the shears and prune away! Even cut some of the bigger branches, Lord, if you need too, so the LIGHT can enter in!