Thursday 28 June 2012

One never knows exactly

Yesterday morning, Solange came by our house at 9am. She had worked for us as house help for 4 years and left last year to get married. That never happened as her fiance, a Rwandan soldier, decided to go to Darfur to serve for at least 1 year. She had called us about 2 weeks ago to say that her current job was going to be ending last Friday and did we know of anyone that needed house help.

As a matter of fact, yes. Our new teammates - Joel and Liz.
She agreed to come and work for less money. What a gift. We LOVED Solange. Such a HUGE relief to me that I didn't have to train a new house help in the midst of all the other life busyness going on these days.

As she sat and had tea and we talked through her new job, she thanked us over and over again for what we did for her. Her last jobs have loved her and been amazed at how well she can cook. The last, wanted to take her to Mozambique for 2 years.

What did we do? Not 100% sure other than we treated her as someone that God  has sent our way to work for us (she just showed up at our gate one morning) and I took the time when I could to teach her new recipes.

Who knew...

It struck me again how when we take time to be in someones life AND also allow them into our lives, we never know how it will change their life forever ... and our own. So much of this can just be 'normal' life and doesn't have to be orchestrated, planned or over thought. We just need to be open to allowing people be part of our lives and journey ... authentically - through the good and the mess.

We are blessed.

Double blessed actually. Sigisi who was our night guard for two years and left to go back to the village to live with his wife and baby, called last week and said he needed a job as village life was getting too hard for them just now.  Well, in fact, we needed him to start immediately.

Beni was jumping up and down when he heard Sigisi was coming back. He remembered that Sigisi played football with him each evening.



Tuesday 26 June 2012

COLD in Kigali

AND it's June 26!!

It's supposed to be about 28 degrees Celsius, blue sky and no rain in sight ... and it's 18 degrees today - overcast with a bit of rain.
FREEZING!!

I've been drinking tea all morning to try to keep warm.
I never thought that this Canadian girl would ever say that 18 degrees was cold - not just cool, or chilly but downright COLD!

Mmmmmmmmmmmm....

Beni geared up for a bit of rain

Thursday 21 June 2012

Our house as of today

Plastered - inside and out!

Check out the blue sky!!


Now if Serge and I can only decide on the doors and windows... we'll be moving forward - bars inside or out then Rwandan metal or do we splurge a little and get PVC or aluminum. Oh how we go around and around on this!
How to get it all ... sliding so not to lose space inside the house AND so we can have mosquito nets on all windows AND to not  have the bars make it look like a prison.
Around and around we go... but hopefully not for too much longer.
Making us both dizzy I think!

Tuesday 12 June 2012

Good bye at a Tea Plantation

Tonight I'm feeling very bittersweet.
It's the end of an era for me.
I spent the last day with my dear friend Val.
We have been friends for about 6 years and shared much of life here in Rwanda - laughing, crying, lots of talking, praying together regularly, sorting our life, sharing our latest finds in Kigali, Christmas Eves, Thanksgivings, etc.

Val and her family head back to Canada on Friday. They desire to return to Rwanda but God only knows when. When Chrissie, Anita and I asked her what she wanted to do as a day out - she wanted to visit a tea plantation - hence a drive about 1.5 hours out of Kigali to the Sorwathe Tea Plantation.
It was not a disappointment.

I well remember the first time I met Val. We had both brought teams to the Kigali Genocide Memorial and were waiting for them. We struck up conversation and realized people had told us individually that we needed to meet. Our friendship has not looked back.

I will miss her dearly.

We drove 19kms along this valley of tea ... incredible!

The visitor grounds are the Sowathe Tea Plantation are grand!
Flowers beyond flowers.
Had a flash that I'm becoming more like my mom... touring
flower gardens!!

Myself, Val and Chrissie
Anita couldn't join us due to a sick baby a the last minute.
One of the foursome missing... to bad for all of us!

Tuesday 5 June 2012

Isaiah 1:17

The verse for IT Rwanda .... and our 'disecting' of it this morning at our biweekly meeting.
Had some good discussion and got us dreaming and thinking more about our work here in Rwanda now and the future. good times!


LEARN             to do what is right
                             to do good
                             to live right
                             to do right
                             to do well

Seek          JUSTICE
Promote
Work for
See that  ........  is done

Give the            OPPRESSED   reason to celebrate
Relieve the
Encourage the
Defend the
Correct the  Oppressor
Rebuke the Oppressor

Defend the                        ORPHAN
Take up the cause of the
Stand up for the
Bring Justice to the

Plead for the                        WIDOW
Plead the case of the
Defend the
Fight for the rights of the

Monday 4 June 2012

Maddy's latest post

Read Maddy's latest post on her blog this morning and was SO blessed that I needed to share.
We're about the marginalized ... those that others shun / put aside / hide / are ashamed of / don't take a moment for ... and some kids with special needs in Rwanda just came a bit closer this year to who God has created them to be. We're blessed that Maddy had the faith to take the leap!

I just had my last parent teacher meeting! I am still standing, I am very tired but still alive.

I just finished my first year of teaching, and creating a special education program, in Rwanda.

I remember the first day of school sitting at my desk saying to myself, 'What am I supposed to be doing, how do I do it and how did I get here...?'

Now I am sitting here saying to myself, 'What just happened, how did this all happen and is this all real...?'

It is pretty powerful what a little step of faith can turn into. As hard as it is, sometimes you just need to hold your breath and jump.