A Map of the World

A Map of the World”

by Ted Kooser

One of the ancient maps of the world
is heart-shaped, carefully drawn
and once washed with bright colors,
though the colors have faded
as you might expect feelings to fade
from a fragile old heart, the brown map
of a life. But feeling is indelible,
and longing infinite, a starburst compass
pointing in all the directions
two lovers might go, a fresh breeze
swelling their sails, the future uncharted,
still far from the edge
where the sea pours into the stars.

The Christmas Hippo (Ethan Adventures)

Note: I tried to post this on Saturday, but Blogger has been really messed up lately, and hasn't let me upload images in a while. I think the problem has been fixed though, but to make matters worse, I lost the USB with ALL of the pictures of Ethan's trip on it. Ouch. Not a fun weekend.

Hungry, Hungry Hippo, right outside OUR tent!

Christmas Barbecue dinner

If we couldn't be home, dining on turkey and mashed potatoes, and Grandma's big Christmas Eve spread, this dinner was the next best thing. We were happily exhausted from our safari, and gathered back at camp for a big barbecue meal of roasted goat, chicken, grilled veggies, and all the fixins.' The Canadian reindeer joined us. :) Before too long, Mikela (the palliative care doctor and mother of six), and her son Ruben started scheming up a way for all the guys to chase after the random warthogs in camp, mount them, and put the reindeer antlers on the warthogs. Ethan, Greg, and Joe took to this plan with delightment, but wanted to wait a little while, and really get a plan going. (or get their nerve up.) The girls just wanted them to go ahead and do it, so we could snap a picture and go to bed. Bets were made, and prayers were said. Us ladies were gung-ho at the idea (probably because it didn't involve us,), but the boys kept delaying.

Just as we were all sitting around the table, discussing our plan, and laughing at the day's events, a massive hippo comes walking up out of the bushes, and walks right behind our table! He was about 5 feet away from us! The owner had warned us earlier that sometimes stray hippos roam into camp, because they've had a fight with another hippo down by the water, and they've been excommunicated from their hippos family. (we could tell that was the case with this one, from the gash marks on its skin.) It's sad, but true! Anyway, we honestly didn't expect for it to happen when we were there, especially when we were right in the middle of eating our Christmas dinner! I think all of us were shell-shocked at first, and it didn't really hit us that it was a hippo! I think I yelled, why don't you put the antlers on that! Then it hit us, whoa! It's a HIPPO! Immediately the whole place got quiet, and the owner motioned for people to stay calm and don't take pictures because the flash freaks it out. So, after a few moments of astonishment, we started walking gingerly towards the hippo, as it roamed through our camp! We made sure to stay a good distance away, but we were in awe, and sooo curious to get a better look! Ethan was the bravest (or dumbest; however you wanna look at it,) and snapped this great pic of the hippo walking right in front of our tent! It was just so surreal, and actually very sobering to witness this massive creature, weighing like up to 3 tons, so near to us. Hippos are one of the most aggressive animals, and most dangerous in Africa, and they can easily outrun a human being. It was pretty awesome seeing this creature up close!

As the evening progressed, we got used to the hippo, and just went about our business; I walked right past it going to brush my teeth for bed. Then, I woke up at 2:30 in the morning, needing to find the outhouse. I looked over and Ethan's bed was empty, but I definitely heard the guys outside acting crazy. I started to step out of my tent, then heard Heather say, there's the hippo! Without my glasses on, I couldn't tell. But I soon realized the hippo was standing right in front of my tent! So I hurried and zipped it back up, and decided to wait it out. (The owner told us that a month ago, two hippos got in a fight and tore down a tent with a couple inside! They escaped unharmed, but pretty shaken up!) So I just laid still in my bed, and didn't move; hoping it would go away. Every 10 minutes or so, I would creep up and unzip a few inches of the tent, and still see it's massive body close by. Nope. Back in bed. Guess I was going to have to hold it. Finally, he walked to the next tent, and I made a careful dash/fast walk to the outhouse. That's when Heather and I saw Greg, Joe, and Ethan acting a fool. They had finally gotten up the nerve to place the antlers on the warthog, but the hippo had chased off all the warthogs, so the boys were just roaming around in the dark....Joe with a long piece of French bread, Ethan holding the antlers, and Greg with the camera. They kept having to dodge the hippo. After another half hour of watching this circus play out in front of us, we coaxed our beloved boys safely back into their tents, so they could live to see another Christmas Day. This was truly one Christmas I will never forget. :)

Bisoke

Last weekend I climbed a volcano! (No, it wasn't active. But there's still an active one I would love to climb in Congo, if they ever drop their visa price down again.) I headed up to the Virunga Mountain Range, with Clay, Mark and Wes, and we woke up at 5am, in order to be at Volcanoes Park Headquarters at 7:00. Edward was our guide, and we drove to the base of Bisoke. Bisoke is one of many peaks in the Virungas, and it actually straddles Rwanda and the DRC border. But we get to climb it, because the summit is in Rwanda! Bisoke is 12,200 feet tall, and has the largest crater lake of all the volcanos. Sadly, we didn't get to see the crater lake, because it was shrouded in fog when we finally made it up. Dian Fossey's grave was a short distance away from where we began our hike; but the weather conditions and time weren't on our side, so we didn't venture off to see it. (Dian Fossey was the American zoologist who studied the mountain gorillas here for almost 20 years before she was murdered. The movie, Gorillas in the Mist, is about Fossey's work.)

 Rwanda usually has pretty great weather, but we must have picked the absolute WORST outdoor activity day of the year! We ended up climbing in freezing cold rain, and a nasty wind chill that crept up on us. We sunk KNEE-DEEP in mud the whole way up and down. And Bisoke has NO switchbacks! They don't believe in them. So straight up we went! We looked like a complete disaster when we finally descended. Covered in mud from head to toe. I can honestly say I have never before been that muddy. The whole trek took us about 7 hours, and I think if we hadn't have been having so much fun, we would have been miserable! :) It was that kind of day! But once we realized there was no turning back, we just embraced the mud, and got going! I'm proud to say I left all those boys behind and made it up a half hour before the rest of them. :) Afterwards, we came back to the B2R house, made a big pot of cafeteria-style spaghetti, and slept like babies.   

The sign at the summit. Seriously, who's gonna attempt to swim in a volcano lake??

A view of Bisoke from Musanze town

The crater lake we were supposed to see on the top; but the fog blocked our view.

Hikers in the Mist

Dan and Frances live in Musanze, and they joined us for the hike, along with two other Koreans from Kigali.

Our guard. His gun is just in case we spotted gorillas, buffalo, or Congolese rebels. That day, we only spotted buffalos. Dang it.

We love mud.

The Gift of Hearing

This is little Alec's reaction, after he heard a SOUND for the first time in his life. PRICELESS! (That's 2006 American Idol winner, Jordin Sparks, in the background!)

I was sooo privileged this week to be able to help my friend Anna with a Bridge 2 Rwanda project to bring over 2,250 hearing aids to people in need! It was AMAZING! To witness a child hear for the first time; use one of their 5 senses for the FIRST time...I can't explain how AMAZING it was. Their faces shone so bright! People walked for hours to come get hearing aids. Watching the wife speak to her husband, and seeing him so overjoyed, he leapt in her arms, and began crying. There was joy, laughter, tears. These kids, wives, mothers, fathers, grandfathers all will walk home and hear the thunder roar, hear the motos sputter, hear the children playing with the tires and laughing as they kick the ball on the side of the road. They will hear their loved ones call out their name. They will finally begin to learn how to talk and say their names! He who has ears, let them hear! I pray we never take for granted this totally awesome and wonderful gift from God. Stop and LISTEN today....to the birds, the leaves, that person who's been trying to talk to you for weeks; call someone and LISTEN to them! What a great gift these Rwandans now get to experience! God is good!

This event was organized by my friends at Bridge 2 Rwanda, and sponsored by Starkey Hearing Foundation in the U.S. Starkey representatives were there, and they brought along some familiar faces to volunteer....NFL players Larry Fitzgerald, Adrian Peterson, Vernon Davis, Santonio Holmes, and Roy Williams came with the organization PROS for Africa to help out! Also, Jordin Sparks, the 2006 American Idol winner was helping fit the molds! We all pitched in and helped with cleaning ears (gross!)...flushing them out continuously, scraping wax out (yuck!), fitting ears with molds, fitting the hearing aids, and testing for quality, and finally, there was counseling on how to properly use the hearing aids. A busy, busy, wonderful week!

Here is an article that Anna wrote about the project that was published in the Rwandan Newspaper which explains it a little more....

"Over 2,000 people will receive the gift of hearing next week through the efforts of Starkey Hearing Foundation, an American-based charity that donates hearing aids in developing countries around the world.

Although Starkey has contributed over 60,000 hearing aids in approximately 15 African countries in past years, this is the first major gift to Rwanda.

Starkey Foundation was recruited to Rwanda through the request of the Minister of Education, Dr. Charles Murigande. He reached out to Starkey in February 2010 and encouraged them to extend their humanitarian actions to Rwanda.

With no avenue for purchasing hearing aids in Rwanda, this donation is of immense benefit and value to the hearing impaired community. The total number of individuals with hearing loss who will receive hearing aids is approximately 2,250 people from all over Rwanda, with over half of that number being children who suffer from hearing impairment.

The recipients of the hearing aids were gathered over the last few months through Rwanda’s schools for deaf children, local hospitals, faith-based communities and other organizations serving individuals with hearing loss.

Each person registered to receive the aids has previously been fit for custom-made ear-moulds, which will attach to the hearing devices they will receive next week. Starkey Foundation will donate two hearing aids to each person, totalling a donation of over 4500 hearing aids to Rwanda.

The President and Founder of Starkey, along with a team of hearing professionals, will be visiting Rwanda March 21-25 to fit each individual patient according to their degree of hearing loss. In conjunction with the Starkey Team, another US non-profit called PROS for Africa will be hosting a group of NFL (National Football League) professional American football players to volunteer with the hearing aid project. Many well-known professional athletes will be visiting Rwanda for the first time through this mission.

Several local organizations have also been instrumental in coordinating this substantial project, including Bridge2Rwanda, Liliane Foundation, and Hope International. MTN contributed by donating SMS messages to inform the recipients and other essentials to help with the distribution. Participating hospitals included King Faisal Hospital, CHUK, Butare Hospital, Ruhengeri Hospital and PIH Rwinkwavu Hospital, in which they assessed and fit patients for the custom-made ear-moulds.

The distribution events will take place in Ruhengeri on March 21-22 and in Kigali on March 23-25. Starkey Hearing Foundation plans to return to Rwanda on an annual basis to distribute hearing aids and continue to give the gift of hearing to Rwandans with hearing loss."

Anna, cleaning ears

This man, John, was estatic when he received his molds. He leapt into his wife's arms, and started crying. Then he hugged all of us, and put his hands together in prayer. It was a beautiful sight.

Anna and John

Animals! (Ethan Adventures)

We were very lucky and saw a TON of animals over the 3 days. We took a game drive through the Nile Delta area of the park and spotted elephants, gazelle, buffalo, giraffe, and many DLA (deer-like animals.) Our driver even went barreling off road, (waaay off road), to chase down a lion family in the tall grass. It was awesome! The next day we took a boat ride up the Victoria Nile to the base of Murchison Falls. We saw more elephants, tons of lizards and crocs, and a million hippos! The hippos were my favorite. It was neat to watch them interact in their families, and how the parents are so protective of their children. Hippos look like the laziest animals ever...floppin' about and lounging on each other. They don't intermix families. I learned that Hippos always stay in their own "clan." The last day, we traveled to the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary in Nakitoma, and tracked white rhinos! They were amazing! It was so special to be able to get so close to them. Beautiful!

Murchison Falls (Ethan Adventures)

Ok, don't laugh. I know it's been over 2 months since Ethan left, and I'm still getting around to posting pics and stories! Sometimes life gets in the way, ya know! :) I wish I could be with Ethan now on his adventures traversing the United States in his used RV; crisscrossing through, oh, about 16 different states, stopping to say hey to folks along the way. What a life! :) Makes me think of the Zac Brown song, "So we live out in our old van, travel all across this land....just as free as we'll ever be!"

So Ethan and I spent our Christmas in Murchison Falls, Uganda, with an amazing group of friends we just met. Christmas Eve morning, we met Heather and Greg, a couple from the UK, who have traveled all over the world together, and were now on their African honeymoon. They slept in bunks 9 and 10 right by us. (I hope I'm as adventurous as they are when I get married!) We headed out to our safari van, and met the other people we would be spending Christmas with for the next 3 days. There was Ruben, from Sweden, (we dubbed him John Mayer.) He was an interesting fellow,with a great mind, and hopes to teach one day in the U.S. He was traveling with his sweet mom, Mikela, who was a hemotologist back in Sweden, and came to volunteer in Uganda for a few months. And then there was Joe...a fun guy from Tucson, who has lived all over, and now is teaching in Kosovo. He had hoped for a position in Peru, but when they denied his visa, he packed up and set out for Kosovo. We heard his many challenging situations with his students there, and just life in general. Joe was full of stories. He was our Jack Black of the trip. If I've ever met someone who should write a book someday, it is Joe. We all encouraged him to put these stories on paper! When we first stepped into our van, Ethan and I had no idea who any of these people were, or what the next 3 days would be like, but soon, we both knew, as cliche as it sounds, we were all so well chosen for each other. I can't explain it any other way. We just clicked, and this Christmas is one I'm sure each of us will never forget. We made memories and lifelong friends. We shared like we had known each other our entire lives. We chased hippos together, and laughed at the antler-wearing Canadians together, and ate and drank and sang Christmas carols all night! Joe and Heather and Greg have already been to visit me here in Kigali, and I know the rest of us will reunite soon. We made some special memories. I love them all!

From L to R: our driver, Heather, Ethan, Joe, me, Mikela, Ruben, and Greg. Our guide/guard is in front.

On the first day, we set out for Murchison Falls, about a 6 hour drive on dusty, pot-holed Ugandan roads. We stopped in Masindi for a brochette lunch, and then headed to the falls. I've seen some amazing waterfalls in Africa, and this was the most powerful one by far! We could feel the mist from far away; so forceful! This is where the Nile River splits Lake Victoria and Lake Albert. About 300 cubic meteres of water per second flows through a narrow gap in the rock about 20 ft. And the result is power! Whoa, it was cool! The water then flows into Lake Albert. In the back of this picture, you can see Greg placing, "Mr. Bear" in front of the falls. Mr Bear has traveled with them to 6 different continents, and taken some really awesome pictures. One day they hope to write a children's book about his adventures. :) We arrived at the camp right before dark. The next morning we woke up at 5, and set out for the ferry, to cross over the Nile, into the gamepark. We were so fortunate to see every kind of animal...our guide even went offroad and chased down the lions for us. I'll post some great animal pics in a sec. We spent Christmas Day taking a boat ride down the Nile, and spotting hippos, crocs, and elephants. Our boat stopped at the site where Ernest Hemingway crashed his plane in 1952 when he was on safari with his wife. After the boat ride, we went back to camp and celebrated Christmas with a delicious barbecue, and warthogs and hippos. I'll write about my most memorable Christmas in a sec! The next day, we headed out to Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary, the only place to see rhinos in the wild in Uganda. The sanctuary was created to reintroduce rhinos to East Africa, after they became extinct in the 80's. Their longterm goal is to rebuild the rhino population and relocate the rhinos back to their natural habitats. They also have a rhino breeding program. We made it back to the Red Chili in Kampala shortly before dark, and hit up the Sunday night barbecue, before heading out to a local joint to have one last night with our safari friends.

Checking out the hippos

The Victoria Nile

Our faces were kind of orange from the dirt!

This was where a bridge had been erected for when the Queen came to visit. Shortly after her visit, the water overtook it.

grace

Something really bad happened this weekend. And it hurt. Really bad. There were feelings of anger and rage and ugliness and not so good words coming from my mouth and imbeded in my heart.

And then, just like that, grace came. Forgiveness came. I can assure you it wasn't me. I still harbored some pretty bad thoughts about this person. But grace triumphed. Forgiveness is a beautiful thing. I was able to focus again, and to worship again, and to really commune again. God is amazing. His love and His grace for us is unending! If grace is an ocean, we are all sinking for sure. (love that line!)

I picked up my journal and started to write today, and I happened to read the words my friend wrote to me before she gave it to me in 2009. She wrote that sometimes messed up and confusing situations just happen to us, and it's a mystery as to why, but that is where we grow. Then she added, "Green grass comes from deep crap." (sorry!) She's right! :)

Grace is a mysterious, crazy, wonderful gift. Because of grace, I can sleep tonight, work tomorrow, love my neighbor, and love myself. It's an amazing gift to accept. Give this gift of grace to someone today. Accept this gift today. I can assure you, you will sleep better tonight. :)


Grace, she takes the blame
She covers the shame
 Removes the stain
It could be her name...



Grace, it's the name for a girl
It's also a thought that changed the world
And when she walks on the street
You can hear the strings
Grace finds goodness in everything...


What once was hurt
What once was friction
What left a mark
No longer stings
Because Grace makes beauty
Out of ugly things


Grace makes beauty out of ugly things...


-Bono