It's a small world!

Today, I was riding in Hadley's car, coming back from lunch with a big group of friends. Hadley lives with Tim and Matt, and they are all young lawyers working over here with the Ministry of Justice. Hadley is helping write and translate laws in English, and I have no idea what the others do! :) I've known these guys since October. They live about 5 minutes from me, and Hadley is in my Bible Study too.

I knew that they all had a 4th roommate who came in November, but for some reason I had never met this 4th roommate until today. Her name is Muna, and we got to chatting, and then Tim somehow interjected and asks me when my birthday is. This is always a fun question, cause everyone is usually so surprised it's New Year's Day, like it's a big deal or something. Then I get to say how I was the first baby born in Cabarrus County in 1981, and how I won some prizes and my picture was in the paper. Whoop-te-do. :-) But it's fun to talk about.

So, I told em' the story, and as soon as I said, Cabarrus County, Muna says, where? I said Cabarrus County. And she said, Kannapolis or Concord? Usually, I have to go through the whole spiel about how I'm from North Carolina, and when people say where, I say, in the middle, right outside of Charlotte. That's the only place most folks have heard of. But to hear someone ask me Kannapolis or Concord was crazy! I said Kannapolis, and Muna says that she moved to Concord with her family when she was 14 and she graduated from Northwest Cabarrus Highschool in 1999! Wow! We graduated the same year from rival schools. I told her I used to teach at the Middle School too. Small world! She also went to university at Davidson.

We chatted some more, and she just went back there at Christmas to visit! She's been living in New York, but her folks still live in Concord. Dad is an accountant and mom is a nurse. It was weird hearing her say how she used to live near Carolina Mall, but now lives further out near the Speedway, and how her sister went to Robinson. Landmarks from home! Whoa! Love it! She asked where I lived, all I had to say was, do you know where the KFC is on 29 and she knew! Tim was rolling, and laughing at our smalltownness. :-)

Muna is out here also working for the Ministry of Justice. Such a small world! Who would have ever thought?? I love it!

This week in Rwanda

A mountain gorilla in the Virunga Forest gave birth to twins this week! It's only the 5th case of twins in 40 years!

http://www.newtimes.co.rw/index.php?issue=14529&article=38084

and..

Rwandan coffee comes to New York!



Bourbon Coffee is the first commerical coffee brand out of Africa to spread internationally. We have 3 stores in Kigali, and my friend James helped open and manage the first two. Bourbon gets its name from Rwanda's Bourbon arabica coffee beans. Bourbon is unique because they are directly involved in the entire process, from growing the beans to brewing the coffee. They pride themselves on being a "Crop to Cup" chain, as this allows the "middle men" to be cut out, and more money goes directly to the farmers. Check it out! And if you're in Manhattan, stop for a cup! Don't go to the Starbucks down the street. :)

http://www.dnainfo.com/20110207/murray-hill-gramercy/rwandan-coffee-shop-challenges-starbucks-monopoly

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! :)