Superbowl Sunday

In honor of the Superbowl, some of our guys organized a big flag football game at the stadium pitch. Of course, they wouldn't let us girls play, even though we assured them that we knew the rules of the game MUCH better than our 2 European friends...OR...Fabrice, the random Rwandan man they picked up to play. But whatever. They'll know next time.

Kelly, Kerry and I had a blast cheering from the sidelines for red and yellow. We were soon encroached on all sides by Rwandan men of all ages, curious to know just what in the heck we were cheering at! We got many stares (used to this by now), marriage proposals (used to this too), and questions in broken English asking, "Please, what is this game? Ball is not soccer. Ball is brown and long? Please, I need to know rules for American game." :-) So Kelly and I grabbed the spare football, and threw it back and forth with the spectators, and tried to cue them in on what was happening on the field. We taught them about 4th downs, and why you can't throw the ball ahead of you when you're running, and what a penalty is. They just laughed and laughed the whole time!

Santos, was this ADORABLE boy you see in the bottom picture on the left. He was doing cartwheels on the field, and jumping up and down! He saw one of our guys tackle someone, and then he tried to tackle his buddy, but was taken down. :) Greg and his son Weston are at the top. Weston was one of my best students last year, and Greg just started our very first American football club at KICS! They are a wonderful family! 

What's it worth you?

It's Superbowl Sunday! To be honest, I seldom care much about NFL football; I'm a much bigger college ball fan. But I still enjoy watching the Superbowl each year. Because it means family, friends, community...and more importantly...FOOD! :) Cheese dips, bean dips, nachos, doritos, cheetos, OH lemme stop! And of course there's the commercials. I would love to be sitting with friends, watching the game on  big-screen TV tonight, indulging in every type of American food. :) We might try to rig up a Skype-showing tomorrow night. I hope so!

As I was thinking about the Superbowl today, I read a letter/blog entry from Brian Hixson, Chair of the ROC (Rwanda Outreach Community Foundation.) ROC partners with Rwanda to help complete its Vision 2020 by investing in people and property. Our school, KICS, and also our church, CCR, were developed by ROC. ROC works primarily in developing faith-based education and community projects. They have invested in the Peace Through Business program for Rwandan women, and also the Rwandan Presidential Scholars Program. Brian lives and works here in Kigali with his wife, Holly, who is a Chemistry teacher at KICS, and she also runs the Peace program. They have two daughters in 1st and 6th grade. The Hixsons are missionaries, sent by their church in Oklahoma. They also spend a great deal of their time at the church, coordinating worship band and pastoral duties. The Hixson really are integral to our school and our church, and I'm thankful for them!

I wanted to share with you Brian's letter today. As you can guess, it's Superbowl-themed. And just like Brian, I'm not begrudging any indulgence that you might enjoy because of the game today. We'd both like to be there, watching and eating with you! But his letter is a good one. Maybe it will cause you to think today as you're watching one of those infamous commercials. Cause you to think about something bigger, something greater than those 60 seconds. It's a long read, but well worth it!

Here it is...from Brian..


As I reflect on the culture of the Super Bowl and the millions spent around this event I wonder where it all goes and what part we play in that process. Many will enjoy the new advertisements rolled out by deep pocket advertisers. Of course they couldn’t invest at such levels without customers to return the investment. For just 3-million dollars you too can have your ad placed before 110 million viewers.



For the price of a 30 second add we could have a piece of property with a 2000 seat church built and likely fill it before the next 138 minutes of Super Bowl ads run.


For 20 seconds we could purchase a small apartment complex and house 2/3 of our teaching staff leaving all those resources used for teacher housing to apply directly to the education of children and in turn the blessing of thousands being served by the families of these children.


For 7 seconds we would have a piece of prime land and be able to build sports fields and accommodate needs of accreditation for our school. Additionally this would meet a need of a community that has no common fields or gyms for its citizens to gather around as families and friends enjoying competition that cost nothing more than the energy invested by the participants of the game on the field or court.


For less than 1.5 seconds we could purchase a home to care for orphan babies in an effort to deinstitutionalize orphanages and transition children into homes surrounded by loving families.


For 1 second we could build an office wing on our existing church building to accommodate our staff, or come close to purchasing a neighboring building to accommodate staff needs.


For ½ a second we could complete fundraising needs on a community park connected to our church, school, and neighborhood.


NOTE: All of the above reflects one minute of advertising


The financial needs of a ministry like the one we serve are substantial and well beyond those noted above. I simply used these items to demonstrate how much could be applied toward real needs. I was pleased to discover that in 2009 PepsiCo, a normal advertiser at the Super Bowl, decided to use those dollars to address real needs of real people and allowed its customers to vote on how those dollars should be allocated. I realize that there is still a major gain in this move by PepsiCo, but in the end there is benefit beyond just another Pepsi being sold.


Obviously, we are talking about figures that are much greater than most of us can comprehend in our pocket. Let me use another Super Bowl example. The last 20,000 tickets available for the game range in price from $2,400 – $23,730. I expect some small percentage of that will find its way into philanthropic hands of an athlete or owner’s cause, but most will not.


For that cheap ticket, 5000 people in Rwanda could eat today who will otherwise go hungry. For the expensive ticket 75 girls could have been afforded secondary education for a year. To park around the stadium you will pay $550-990. The vast majority of the world’s population lives for a year on less than the amount to park for a few hours. The going rate on a room at Arlington Super 8 Motel is $1,198 plus tax. A single bag of chips will cost you the same as the average income of four people in most third world and developing nations. That two-liter of soda would feed a family for a day. I will let you imagine how that pocket change for some could impact the lives of others.


In the 46 minutes of commercials that air during the Super Bowl $136,000,000 will be spent. That is a lot of money, but not near as much as those companies intend to gain from that investment. The advertisers know they will make that money back and much more. Enjoy your drink, chips, car, insurance policy, and whatever else is being advertised and pray that a fraction of your purchase finds its way to something meaningful. Better yet, buy one less bag of chips and do something meaningful. The opportunity to make a difference surrounds you.

http://www.rocfoundation.org/

Baseball

On Tuesday, Rwanda celebrated Heroes Day. (I'll write about it in a later post.) School was out, but teachers still had to come and work on accreditation materials and curriculum guides. Not fun!

The next day, all my students were eager to share how they spent their holiday. We usually spend a few minutes on Monday sharing about our weekend, so I decided to let them share about how they spent Heroes Day. There were a few "normal" responses. Naomi went to the stadium to hear the President's speech with her parents. (Her mom was the first living hero in Rwanda!) Some kids played football, others went swimming, some helped their parents around the house.

Thn came Jonathan's turn to share. Jonathan and Siem were playing at his house, when they decided to try and play that "white person game that they play in America." You know Miss Griggs, that white man game where they hit that ball with that stick thing. Oh! You boys mean baseball, I remarked. Yeah, baseball! :)

But of course they had no bases and no baseballs. Baseball is a foreign game here. Everyone eats, drinks, and bleeds "football"...and not the kind being played today in Superbowl XLV. They've both seen this "white man's game" on TV before, and tried to emulate it with resources they found at home. So what do they play with?

Jonathan said they thought that guavas were about as big as that white ball they've seen on TV, so they ran up and shook the guava tree, (and almost fell out of it), and shook a ton of guavas on the ground.

Then he went inside and grabbed his vuvuleza. If you don't know what a vuvuleza is...let me tell you. It's a plastic horn, about 2 ft. long, and it produces an extremely loud, deafening montone noise, when blown correctly. It can even cause hearing loss. They became famous during the World Cup this year in South Africa, and Jonathan's dad is from there, and brought him one. So the boys grabbed the vuvuleza and tried to play "the white man's game", using the vuvuleza to hit the guavas that Siem pitched, and they ran around the guava trees. :-)

They said they had a blast, and I was just laughing, trying to picture them in my head. Then, after they practiced batting for a bit, they smooshed all the little guavas inside the vuvuleza, and threw them like pellets at each other. I'm imagining paint-ball, African style. :) Love it!

Best Thought

"Thou my BEST thought by day or by night,

Waking or sleeping, thy presence my light."



Lord, be thou my vision today! Be our vision! To do the work you have for us today. You, Lord, know all of our thoughts; you've searched us and you know us. Even before a word is on our tongue, or a thought in our minds, You know it! Help us purify our minds, our hearts...only wanting what You, Lord, want for us. Purify. Cleanse. You know the trash that needs removing! Help me not manipulate You with my actions, selfishly and naively thinking I have some sort of control. Lord, thank you for creating us in your image! I want to dwell on you today and always!

Bus to Kampala (Part 3)

I could have spent the entire 2 weeks that Ethan was here just lounging by the lake in Bunyonyi and living in our makeshift tent, but Ethan wanted some more adventures. Though I don't think he had African buses in mind when he was thinking adventures. Our next bus was a very BIG step down from Kampala Coach, but still, by far, not the worst bus we took on our trip! That's yet to come. We waited for over an hour sitting in the back, and much to our amusement, we spotted an original Charlotte Hornets jacket worn by a man in a Kufi (Muslim hat.) We tried to sneak a picture, but he walked away too quickly. The trip to Kamapala took about 9 hours, and we had much to keep us entertained along the way....chickens under our feet, pooping everywhere, goats tied up in the back, hawkers trying to sell us everything from maize to fake Rolexes, to groundnuts and ladies perfume. And of course Fantas...and many breastfeeding moms. I love looking out of the window and seeing what I can see! Or even on the bus right beside you! Never a dull moment! Road trip games in Africa beat the heck out of "counting the trucks or cows" games in America. Here, you can count the tied up goats, the tomato stands, the donkeys...and on and on. Some views from the road... 

Kabale, Uganda bus park

Roadside markets

We took this pic for you Mom.

I love the colors of the markets! So alive!

That night, we finally made it to our destination, The Red Chili Backpackers in Kamapala. But the trek from the bus park to the hostel was another adventure! It was a public holiday in Kampala, and during rush hour too, so we were walking through a sea of a MILLION faces. A little scary, and definitely a bit of a "rush", as we were trying to manuever in and out of the crowd with our packs on our back, and figure out which way we were headed. Kampala is definitely not peaceful, small Kigali! We got to the Red Chili and had some burgers and got some sleep for our safari the next day. Red Chili is an awesome place to meet friends, connect, and reconnect with old ones! Ethan was definitely shocked to walk in and find some other mzungus! We spent Christmas Eve Eve in beds #12 and #13 at the Chili! :)

Adventures with Ethan, Part 2 (Lake Bunyonyi)

Finally...Part 2 of E and E Christmas adventures! So we made our 5am Kampala Coach bus, but it took forever to board because the conductor was trying to check everyone's luggage, open up boxes and bags, and "wand" people with a broken metal detector. Security is hilarious here (except when the president is around.) They had never done this before, so at first, I was getting slightly annoyed and just tried to sneak on the bus, but they stopped us and said everything had to be "checked." Apparently, the night before, a Kampala Coach bus coming from Nairobi was targeted and bombed by Al-Qaeda, so they had to do their "job" here. It really just amounted to them shaking everyone's luggage and asking, "Are you with Al-Qaeda?" Ethan thought about answering with an affirmative one time, but I said no, we don't wanna hold up this bus anymore. So we finally boarded the very, very back seat. My Rwandan friend, Celestine, who works for the bus station, phoned me early that morning to make sure we were up, and even offered us chapatis for the ride. But I declined because even though I don't usually suffer from motion sickness, it's always smart to ride any African bus with an empty stomach, especially when you are in the back! You don't wanna learn the hard way.  

We got to the border in about an hour. Everyone files off the bus, and it's smart to hurry and head straight to the first line to fill out the Rwandan exit card. I can fill those cards out in less than 20 seconds now. It's my record. You always wanna hurry, so you don't get overrun by the hawkers selling all kinds of food, and also so you aren't the last person in line. Or even worse, the last mzungu in line. After you fill out that card, it's still not advisable to stop at the first border "loo." Because now you must hurry across the bridge of No-Man's-Land. This is where you meet like 50 money changers in pale green jackets trying to earn your business (and your trust.) But you have to be careful with them, because they can slide small bills in with the large ones and fool you. They are sly. That's how they earn a living. Then, we reach Uganda, and head to the small outdoor "office" ,and stand in a longer line to fill out the entry card to Uganda. This process takes a lot longer. Meanwhile, our bus leaves and goes across empty, while officials check it for illegal items. Then, you finally reach the border patrol and pay the visa fee and get a new stamp! I have to say, Ethan was a pro at the border. He wasn't as slow as I thought he would be. :)  

Our canoe :)

Once we reached the small town of Kabale, I called up my friend, Isaac, who has a taxi to take us to exchange money and down to the lake. This ride is absolutely gorgeous. Once we reached the lake, we threw our bookbags in a dugout canoe and paddled about 40 minutes to Bushara Island, where we were staying. I love this trek! The water is so clear, calm, and clean! This lake is so clean, it has a very large otter population, and you can see them out swimming. We also passed villagers washing their clothes and cleaning their fishing nets, and paddling their canoes to the local market where everyone arrives by canoe! Really neat.

I've blogged about Lake Bunyonyi before, back in October. It's my favorite place! Here's some other pics, and info about the 29 islands! http://emmyginrwanda.blogspot.com/2010/10/lake-bunyonyi.html

We stepped out of the canoe, and this turkey was there to greet us!

I could honestly live here forever. I love this place! It's simple, and pure, and surrounded by God's creation. We stayed in this awesome tent, and to me, it was the best accomodation ever. All you need!

Our outhouse and shower! This shower is as good as it gets! You pre-order it the night before, and a man comes early in the morning, climbs up the makeshift ladder, and pours the boiling water into the bucket. Then you wait a while until the water cools down, and you enjoy a fabulous outdoor hot shower, with an incredible view of the lake. Nothing beats it!

This is Dorcas, my dear friend at Bushara. She has just finished school, and is working on the island to help support her family. The island is a wonderful community, one where you find love and peace. Bushara is run by the Church of Uganda, and these young ladies here, (Dorcas included) use the profits to take care and raise many orphans in the surrounding islands. Marvelous Grace is a sweet baby girl who lives with them here at Bushara.

The night we arrived, we were headed up for dinner with our laterns in tow, and I heard a young boy yell, "Hey, I know you!" I was confused at first, and then I saw it was Mattias, a 2nd grader from KICS! The entire Jelsma family was at Bushara too! They are from Holland and Canada, and have also spent many years living in the Philippines. Jocelyn is a trained midwife, and Richard works with a Bible College here. Marijke, (in the blue hooded jacket) is in my class this year, and Danieke (older girl) is a faithful member of our girls running club! It was neat to run into them away from Kigali. Jocelyn apologized and said that Miss Griggs picked the wrong place to vacation. :) But I loved seeing these awesome kids and introducing them to Ethan!

Lake Bunyonyi actually means, "the place of many little birds." Birds are everywhere! And they are absolutely stunning! You can walk around the island in 2 hours and spot 50 or more different species! They are 100 different species on this one, tiny island. The only annoying thing is trying to stop them from pecking at your breakfast, or making sure they aren't directly north of you when you're eating a meal! :)

This lake the most beautiful lake I have seen. Here's a view of the floating swim dock, and across the lake is Sharpe's Island, which used to be a leper colony until the 80's. Now there is a school and church on the island.

We decided to take the free boat back, instead of rowing. We were tired. :) But feeling refreshed! We both hated to leave.

January

I never intended for it to take this long to tell of my adventures with Ethan! He left almost a month ago! All I can say is that January has been waaaaay too long! So glad we've only got a few days to go. You know, it seems like every year that I'm away, January seems to be the "downer" month. Not sure why that is. Even though it's my birthday month, and the excitement of a new year, every year that I've been in Africa, January has been the "ugh" month for me. Either a bit of homesickness sets in after the eventful holiday season, or REAL sickness comes, or I'm faced wth a big decision, or have a big change to make, or something. This January has stretched on for what seems like an eternity! But it's all good; I'm ok, I'm healthy again,( I pray I stay this way!) and thankful, and have joy....but I just want this month to be OVER!

But you know it hasn't been all dumpy. I've had some absolutely wonderful conversations this month with friends and people that God has brought along my path. I mean WONDERFUL! He's been at work, even though I haven't been at my best. He's ALWAYS at His best, and working in us and through us, even though we don't feel up to it! The Spirit totally works in us and intercedes when we can't. I've learned that this month! I had the pleasure of hosting some friends, Heather and Greg, from the UK last week. Ethan and I met them on safari in Uganda! They are traveling for 3 months around Africa for their honeymoon, and are climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro this week! They've been to 6 different continents, and are getting ready to just up and move to New Zealand in March! We had some great talks about life, traveling, God, love. The Lord continued what He started in Uganda for real. And the week before, I hosted our friend Joe, from Kosovo. I'll tell you more about my new friends later! And pics too!

Also had some great dinner talks with two friends this week that are nonbelievers, and definitely doing some searching. One lives here, and is confused about many things, and asking some great questions about whats going on and how God fits in everything. He is one person that I would NEVER have thought would be open to what God is trying to do in His life, but of course, God likes to surprise us. :) I have been praying for this person everyday for a year now, and I can totally see the breakthough coming. :) The other friend also works here, but is getting ready to make a big move to Atlanta. She's not sure what she thinks about God, and is also asking some really great questions. She's excited about the move, but really anxious too about reintegrating back to life in the States, and also life with her new fiance, another friend who we both met over here. I love it when you can really see God working in and through people that don't even realize it yet! It's gonna be a great day when they do finally realize it! A day of rejoicing!

Anyway, it's been BUSY month. So sorry to be behind on blogs and many emails to you. I'm trying to plan an outreach service day for our school/community now, and visit some schools to arrange some b-ball matches too and build some new relationships there, and work on accreditation stuff for our school. A LOT going on this month, and a LOT of GOOD stuff! I'm soooo excited that a K-town friend from church, Chris, is coming out here on Saturday to help at our school for a few weeks! It'll be great to hear another accent like mine for a change. :-) All my friends from Bridge to Rwanda, who have been in the States for 2 months are now back, so it's been a busy season of catching up, and fun talks, and GREAT conversations with new folks too. I count those conversations more than anything else! :) And on top of everything, I've been trying my darndest to get well and beat these pesky parasites too! I usually don't have to try so hard to get well, but they've been pesky and persistent, that's for sure. But I'm back now! And ready for whatever February brings! I just want January to end! Thank YOU for all your prayers for my health, for my kids, our school, and for more conversations like the ones I've been blessed to have this month!

Peace!