Simply Love: Rwanda - May 30, 2012

[The following post is an excerpt from my journal as I traveled to Rwanda. The inconsistency in the entry title and datestamp is due to limited internet access while I was on the trip. These experiences were documented in real time, and I am posting photoblogs now that I have returned.]

11:51 AM Central Africa Time - Noel Orphanage; Gisenyi, Rwanda

"Train a child in the way he should go,
    and when he is old he will not turn from it."

Proverbs 22:6

I am sad to report that the "special rooster" did not pay my bedroom a visit this morning. Instead, there were wolves howling aaand... wait for it... just some casual 4 AM mopping. You know- the prime hour for mopping. haha. I woke up to the sounds of water sloshing, buckets slamming, and mops swooshing across the floor. Keep in mind the gap between the windows and the floor. I thought for sure I was getting an unsolicited bath in bed. I'm excited to see what the edge of dawn has in store tomorrow! Who would have thought 4:00 AM would be one of the most exciting hours of the day?! :o) The Rwandans sure start early!

I cannot believe our time at Noel Orphanage is more than halfway over. Today is our third of four days here, and I already feel like some of these kids are my own! One of them, Lilliane, went back to school today after being sick for a couple of days. I am so glad she is feeling better, but unfortunately, that means I did not get to spend any time with her this morning. However, Brigitte was around this morning (they have opposite school schedules), so we spent most of the morning together.

As soon as I got off the bus, Brigitte pulled me over to the library. I was incredibly excited to find that they were practicing their math skills. They were doing multiplication tables with a little bit of geometry and algebra scattered here and there. I loved spending my morning helping teach them math! Having been a math major in college, I am confident that this was a God-ordained opportunity. [In fact, because Brigitte pulled me away so quickly, I missed the tour that the rest of the team took to the pig barns. I was bummed to miss the pigs, but it was definitely worth the trade!] I taught Brigitte the rule of 10's (a x 10 = a0) and the rule of 11's (when a is a single digit, a x 11 = aa), and showed a younger boy how anything multiplied by one is itself.

[Side note: It is SO hard to get good candid shots of the kiddos because they LOVE getting their pictures taken! If I even touch my camera, someone will see it and start asking, "ifoto?" (for you slower ones, that means "photo?"), and then everyone will stare at the camera and smile. The fact that I was able to get a few good shots in the small library speaks volumes about their focus on learning math!!!]

"Can I bomb your "ifoto" of Brigitte?"

"WE LOVE MATH (and ifotos), BUT MOSTLY MATH!!"

Brigitte and the rule of 11's!

The beauty of math is it's the same in nearly any language! Despite the language barrier, I was able to use drawings and arrows to teach. The numbers and symbols are the same from English to Kinyarwanda except for the slight difference in the way they write the number one. They write it like a slanted seven and distinguish the seven by crossing it horizontally through the middle. It was very easy to catch on. I absolutely caught a glimpse of heaven when this mathematical opportunity found me in Rwanda!

Also this morning, the teacher of the three to five-year-old class asked us to come teach a song to the class. We sang and danced for them and with them, which was a blast! They sang and danced for us in return. Their songs were precious! They even knew several in English. We taught them "Father Abraham," and it was just short of chaos. The kids adored goofing around with all of the body movements. All of us mzungus were out of breath from bouncing around at a higher than usual altitude!

I slipped away to the adult "safe room" (the kids are not allowed in here) quickly to write, and through the window, I can hear giggles as the kids play Ring Around the Rosy and Duck-Duck-Goose. They are such beautiful sounds of fun and laughter! I think I'll go add to the noise! :o)

4:45 PM Central Africa Time - Noel Orphanage; Gisenyi, Rwanda

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart
    and lean not on your own understanding;

in all your ways acknowledge him,
    and he will make your paths straight."

Proverbs 3:5-6

After lunch, we did some crafts. We made braided string bracelets and popsicle stick crosses.

Note to self: When making crafts with hundreds of kids, don't get too fancy or they will swarm! I had a long line of kiddos waiting for me to help them with their popsicle stick crosses! ...And by "line," I mean "mob." :o)

Aaand Cue Swarm.

I was furiously wrapping yarn around popsicle sticks, and all the while a sweet little baby girl named Maria was clinging to my skirt wanting to be held. I thought for sure that my skirt was going to fly south for a little while there. This was the view down my legs:

Precious Maria

We also had some really nice time bonding with the older girls in their dorm. We sang and danced with them, and taught them a worship song. It was such great girl time. The dorm mom even hung out with us! I loved every minute! And of course, Kazuba was there with me. It is amazing how attached you can get to a child after just three short days. My sweet little Kazuba has melted my heart. Today she introduced me to her friend, Ivona. She also told me that she has a 12-year-old brother named Innocent who goes to boarding school three hours away in Kigali. She does not speak great English, but I love conversing with her however we can.

Then there is sweet Lilliane. She was at school in the morning and was dancing at church after school, so I did not get to see her until pretty late in the day. She does not ever let me out of her sight and has to have a hand or two on me at all times. As sweet as it is, it can also be a bit overbearing. But, it does break my heart to see tears roll down her cheeks when I leave for the day. I pray that she receives the peace and love that she needs from the Lord and does not rely on people to bring her happiness.

7:45 PM Central Africa Time - Hotel Dian Fossey; Gisenyi, Rwanda

"Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law. The commandments, 'Do not commit adultery,' 'Do not murder,' 'Do not steal,' 'Do not covet,' and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law." 

Romans 13:8-10

When we got back to the hotel this evening, I had a nice conversation with a woman on the team and one of the American girls who is living in Gisenyi about purpose. The two of us on the team are both struggling with clarity about the "what's next?" All of our experiences from the past several days are floating around in our heads in a blurry chaos. We need to pray for clarity. The woman living in Gisenyi provided us with much encouragement. She mentioned that after her first trip to Rwanda, she took two weeks off of work to process all of her thoughts even though she had already decided to move to Gisenyi before she even left Africa. I am at a point where I have had wonderful experiences but no clear take away as of yet. I suppose there may not ever be one, but I pray, if there is, I am listening attentively to the Lord when He reveals it.

Tomorrow is my birthday, my last full day in Rwanda, and my last day at Noel. As sad as it will be to leave, there are things back at home that I miss dearly. However, I have noticed that this list of things I miss is growing shorter by the minute. I have grown accustomed to the sleeping arrangements, wearing bug spray 24/7, incorporating the "pepto bismol" food group into every meal, brushing my teeth with an agacupa ["water bottle"- see this post for the agacupa story], and getting woken up by roosters, wolves, and casual 4 AM mopping. All humor aside, the luxuries of home are no longer important; once you take away all the excess "stuff," loving people is all that remains. After all, the two greatest commandments in the Bible involve simply loving.

Maybe that's my take away- to loosen my grip on the material and tighten my grip on the hearts of people. I know I have become somewhat of a recluse. I am selfish with my time, space, and money. I do not always give people the attention they deserve, and if I appear to be doing so, my mind is often elsewhere. I have been over-utilizing my "I's" and under-utilizing my eyes. I have been putting myself first. I think that is why I had such a tough time adjusting when we first arrived in Rwanda; I was uncomfortable. I missed the luxuries. I wanted to hop on the next flight and head back home.

Hopefully tomorrow will bring even more clarity. I will be sad to leave my precious "daughters," but I know that my prayers for the Lord's protection will be much more valuable than my presence.

Simply Love: Rwanda - May 29, 2012

[The following post is an excerpt from my journal as I traveled to Rwanda. The inconsistency in the entry title and datestamp is due to limited internet access while I was on the trip. These experiences were documented in real time, and I am posting photoblogs now that I have returned.]

9:00 AM Central Africa Time - Hotel Dian Fossey; Gisenyi, Rwanda

"He will yet fill your mouth with laughter"

Job 8:21a

There are roosters on the property at the Hotel Dian Fossey. They have not hurt my sleep too much up to this point except for jarring me a bit. [The alarm on my phone that I use to get up for work is a rooster sound.] Well... this morning was different. The "special" rooster [I call him "special" because he has an incredibly irregular crow. It almost sounds like a cat in writhing pain. Combine this crow and this crow, and you get the "special" rooster's crow.] decided that it would be awesome to camp out on our doormat this morning. The first time he crowed, I practically wet myself because it sounded like something was dying in my bed! The front door opens into my room so my feet were literally 4 feet from the rooster. Not to mention, two of the walls around my room are glass windows with only a screen (no glass) across the top section and a good one inch gap of open air between the floor and the bottom of the window. So, he pretty much was in my room. It was quite a hilarious experience to say the least. When I get to customs and they ask if I have been working with livestock, I wonder how well it would go over to say, "no, but I shared a hotel room with a rooster." :o)

"Hey, guuuuuurl!"

5:40 PM Central Africa Time - Gisenyi, Rwanda

"Two are better than one,

because they have a good return for their work:

If one falls down,

his friend can help him up. 

But pity the man who falls

 and has no one to help him up!"

Ecclesiastes 4:9-10

  I bonded with one of the team members quite a bit today. This morning when we were having the team devotional, she mentioned being overwhelmed by the physical nature of the kids. She said that she was starting to feel claustrophobic at times. Some of the kids are incredibly touchy-feely and love being in physical contact with us. Sometimes it is hard to find a moment where there isn't a hand hanging onto you, whether it be your arm, leg, or side. It is a germophobe's worst nightmare to be in a third world country at a huge orphanage with a sick kid who is touching you all up and down your arms and hands.

Her boldness led me to admitting I had been feeling the same way. I was ashamed that I had been feeling that way and assumed that everyone else on the team was fine, so I was not going to say anything... until she did. It is so wonderful how God seems to place people beside us to share in our struggles so we see that we are not alone. A friend of mine recently ran a half-marathon with a couple of her friends from college. She mentioned that she would have run the race much slower if she had done it on her own, but since she had friends to run with, they all stuck together and pushed each other. I love that God does that for us. He knows our needs so well that he can pair us with others who will push each other.

On a lighter note- what do you get when you cross cows, sheep, goats, rocks, and a soccer ball? A little something I like to call "landmine soccer." While watching your feet to avoid the "landmines" (mainly rocks, animals, and cowpies), you also had to watch the ball and your teammates to make progress up the field. I only played for a few minutes, and it was tough (especially in sandals)! Today was our second day at Noel Orphanage, and it was a blast! In the morning, we played some landmine soccer, threw an American football for a little while, and just hung out with the kids. Even our bus driver, Alfonse, got in on the action!

I also thought it was pretty cool to see a kid in an Upward Basketball t-shirt!

I witnessed  my first case of bullying at the orphanage today. An older girl came up to Brigitte, took the small tear in the back of her shirt, and ripped it almost completely off. I was shocked that someone would do that, upset and embarrassed for Brigitte, and angry at the older girl. I felt terrible about the situation, but Brigitte shook it off- no tears, no grudge. What a sweet girl she is! As I was pulling my thoughts together, a beautiful thing happened; another one of the older girls, Noella, instinctively took off her jacket and put it on Brigitte to wear temporarily while the three of us went to go get Brigitte another shirt to wear. Suddenly my hope was renewed. While there is bullying that occurs, they have people looking after them. They might not have mothers or fathers, but they are still receiving motherly and fatherly love from their friends. And they are most certainly receiving Fatherly love from God.

Noella (left)

In the afternoon, we spent our time playing worship music in the special needs wing. I sat and sang with my sweet girls Belize (bay-lee-say) and Kazuba (kah-zoo-bah). 

Kazuba and I singing in the special needs wing

Ten-year-old Kazuba is quickly stealing my heart. She is very shy, but she has a way of showing affection without showing it at all. She does not show physical affection very often, but she will grab my hand every now and then, and when I look to see who it is, she just looks up into my eyes and smiles. She will disappear for several minutes at a time, but she always finds her way back to my side. She loves to listen to music and dance, and I love watching her do so. She has the prettiest smile in the world (at least I think so).

Amanda (left) & Kazuba (right)

As we sang in the special needs wing, it was so cool to see the residents bobbing back and forth to the music. There is so much power in music. Bob Seger was really onto something when he said that music "soothes the soul." Of course, he was specifically talking about rock and roll, but I happen to think that all music has soul-soothing properties. In fact, this article shows that music can help jog the memory of Alzheimer's patients! There is just something about music that will always be a part of me. Beautiful music flows through me like oxygen flowing through blood. It makes me feel alive. It makes me feel closer to the Lord than I have ever been before. Our worship time in the special needs wing was perhaps some of the most pure worship I have ever experienced.

After we left Noel for the day, we went to the store at the Presbyterian guest house as well as a couple other stores to buy souvenirs. They had wood carvings, bags, purses, paper beaded jewelry, rugs, and baskets. As we were in the shops, I was talking with Jane about her baby boy, Gideon (who is the cutest baby I have ever seen).

Nom nom nom! :o)

Jane and Gideon

He is also the most well behaved baby I have ever seen! He rarely cries or even fusses! She also said he has slept through the night since he was born three months ago; she even has to wake him up to feed him! I found it hard to believe this, but she said that all five of her children were easy babies, just like Gideon! She also said that she is very blessed because of it. I was joking around asking her to send me some of her good genes, and she just laughed and said, "I prayed over all of my children when I was pregnant with them. I prayed for them to have peace." What an incredible mother she is!

In my favorite psalm, David says, 

 "For you created my inmost being; 

you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

your works are wonderful, 

I know that full well.

My frame was not hidden from you 

when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be."

Psalm 139:13-16

"Momma Jane" and "Baby G" are living proof that these words are 100% true. The Lord knew us so intimately before we were even born. In fact, he even knew us before we were even a thought. It blows my mind to think how well He knows us and how much He cares about us. I think this is one of those concepts I will never fully grasp. His love is amazing.

Simply Love: Rwanda - May 28, 2012

[The following post is an excerpt from my journal as I traveled to Rwanda. The inconsistency in the entry title and datestamp is due to limited internet access while I was on the trip. These experiences were documented in real time, and I am posting photoblogs now that I have returned.]

3:43 PM Central Africa Time - Noel Orphanage; Gisenyi, Rwanda

"Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord,
     the fruit of the womb a reward."

Psalm 127:3

Today has been amazing so far! We went to Noel, which is the largest orphanage in Rwanda. It is home to over six hundred kids! As soon as I stepped off the bus, my "daughters" chose me. An 11-year-old named Lilliane (Lih-lee-ah-nay) and a 14-year-old named Brigitte (Brih-jheet) were instantly glued to my side. I didn't even mind that it was hot and they were wrapping themselves around me nearly the entire day! The kids took us on a tour of the orphanage- to the special needs wing, through the library, past the chapel,

into the playrooms,

into the medical clinic,

and through some of the boys dorms,

[Please note the Justin Bieber shrine on the wall of the boy's dorm:]

[I like this wall better:]

When we walked into the toddler area, it was probably one of the best sights I have ever seen; tons of little ones started waddle-running toward us with big smiles, cooing, with their arms reaching out for us to pick them up! Unfortunately, they cannot afford diapers for all of them, so only the really young babies get diapers, making the chances of getting peed on pretty high.

Of course, holding one little one at a time was not enough, so I grabbed two right off the bat. :o)

A ridiculous amount of laundry was hanging to dry in the courtyard- I have enough trouble keeping up with my own laundry, let alone that of over 600 kids!!! 

There were rooms filled with baby cribs. Noel houses children as young as a few days old! They have to keep the feeding schedule on the wall to stay organized.

 After the tour, we played with the kids for a couple hours. Lilliane, Brigitte, and I had fun jump roping a little bit. These sweet girls even started calling me "mom." I'm grateful that we will get the chance to spend the next few days at Noel so I can have more time with them!

Lilliane on left, Brigitte on right

We walked to Tara's house for lunch. Tara is a 20-something American woman from Oklahoma who first traveled to Rwanda on a Visiting Orphans trip in January of 2011. [Fun fact: This world is so small that I actually know Tara's half sister because we were on the first year student mentor staff together in college!] It was on this first trip that Tara fell in love with a young boy named Innocent. You can read about their first meeting in this blog post. Long story short, Tara decided to move to Africa to work with Noel. She has since begun working on getting Innocent a student visa to get an education in the United States (and avoid being "reunited" with a family who might not be able to properly care for him.)

As Tara was working with Noel, she saw two needs and decided that she needed to help. First, the futures of the older children in the orphanage are uncertain, so she wanted to help prepare them for life after Noel. Second, many students have to walk over an hour to school, but the schools do not serve lunch; because these older students who are at school all day (the younger ones only go half days) cannot walk home and back during their lunch break, they do not eat lunch. Tara decided to do what she can to meet these needs, so she started a sewing school called "No. 41," which she first wrote about in this post. The sewing school trains the older girls of the orphanage to sew and make paper bead necklaces so they can make a living. They sell these products to give back, and the sales will help fund the start up of lunch programs in the local schools! The bags, which will be launched online soon, are sold for $60, and the purchase of each bag will feed one student lunch for an entire school year. Once 250 bags are sold, the lunch program will start at one school, the next 250 will launch another school, etc.! [Check out their Facebook page here!]

Through only the grace of God and her obedience to Him [she has never sewn a stitch in her life!], Tara is currently running the sewing school out of a home she rents a few houses down from the orphanage. The ultimate goal is for the school to eventually be taken over by the Rwandan girls. Every morning, the girls will file into the house (usually long before work officially starts!), sit down at their sewing machines, and get to work! Each girl makes an average of one bag per day. The girls have sponsors who contribute to their salaries, and each girl gets a commission for each bag made as well as each bag sold. The girls love what they do so much, when it is closing time, someone will yell, "Time is over!" and everyone else will chime in with a resounding, "NAHHH!!!" Up until this week, seven of the thirty girls in the school lived with Tara, but they just got a new house and will be moving in at the end of the week! They are all very excited!

We hired two ladies to cook lunches for us at Tara's house for the four days while we are at Noel. [One of the ladies is Jane's cousin!] This is a blessing to us to be able to spend time with the girls, have cheaper meals than we would get at a restaurant, and know that all of the food is safe to eat. It is also a huge blessing to the women who we are paying to do the cooking! Win-win! :o) That being said, it was GLORIOUS to be able to eat cold vegetables for the first time in several days! I missed fresh vegetables so much! I just crave cold vegetables when I spend time in warm weather.

We had the privilege of being No. 41's first ever customers! The girls were excited because we were excited, which made Tara excited, which made us excited, and then the cycle continued from there. I know it was pleasing in the Lord's sight to see a room so full of joy! As a team, we ended up buying thirteen of the feeding program bags as well as several smaller bags and several necklaces. I bought one of each- a feeding program bag, a smaller bag, and a necklace. It was awesome getting to meet the girls who made them! The bags were all tagged with a piece of paper to tell who made the bag so the girls get proper credit. Patrice made the feeding program bag:

 And Ange made the smaller purse-type bag I bought:

Some of the necklaces were tagged, too, but the one I picked up did not have a name on it. I asked around to see if any of the girls knew who made that particular necklace. The first girls I asked were unsure. Then, suddenly, I saw one of them run out of the room while a cartoon bubble with a light bulb in it hovered over her head. Lo and behold, she came back into the room a few seconds later pulling Patrice by the hand. Patrice and I just laughed that we must have been on the same wavelength as she was designing and I was buying! She was overjoyed that I kept picking out her items! Heck- her outfit even looked like something I would pick out to wear! [Green and purple are my favorite colors in case you haven't noticed. Even the bags I picked out were green and purple!] I think I have found my long lost Rwandan sister! We kind of look alike, don't you think?! :o)

 After I did my shopping, I sat down with some of the girls who were making the paper beads to watch them for a while. I was so intrigued that I asked them to teach me. They happily to showed me how they cut triangular strips of paper, roll it tightly, and get it to seal with liquid glue. After they have exhausted a certain color of the paper supply, they string the same color beads onto one strand, apply lacquer, and let them air dry outside for four days. Once the beads have dried, they take them off of the strands, and use different color combinations to string them into necklaces.

The sewing school is just one big happy family- literally! Some of the women have children, so their little tykes run around the house and yard while their mommies work all day. :o)

Frank, the trip leader, and his wife sponsor one of the girls, Amelie. Since she has never had a father figure in her life, she requested that her sponsor be a male. Tara matched up Amelie and Frank, they have been skyping with each other regularly, and they just got to meet each other for the first time today! He was so excited to meet his Rwandan daughter, and she was so excited to meet her dad! It was a beautiful union. He even called his wife internationally so the three of them could talk on the phone. And of course, Frank made sure the bags he would were ones that Amelie made!

Two more American girls, Allison (Texas) and Elise (Maryland), moved to Noel after going on a Visiting Orphans trip in January of this year. Tara is taking Allison under her wings and is teaching her all she needs to know to be able to take over the sewing school when Innocent gets his visa and he and Tara leave for the US. Tara hopes that this may happen as early as July, but she is prepared to stay longer if need be. Allison is also a gifted photographer, so she is helping get the No. 41 website up and running. Elise has been helping out around the orphanage wherever she is needed, but Tara is secretly hoping to get her involved with No. 41.

8:15 PM Central Africa Time - Hotel Dian Fossey; Gisenyi, Rwanda

"Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth." 1 John 3:18

I have never heard more Justin Bieber in my life. It is beginning to be rather humorous. It seems as soon as we sit down for dinner, the servers intentionally put the Justin Bieber CD in specially for us. The sweet part is, I think that they believe they are doing us a favor by doing so. The Rwandan culture is a very honoring culture. It is a culture that revolves around always saying "yes." They want nothing more than to please others. That being said, I think that they are trying to honor us as guests by providing familiar music as a comfort. There is either a huge stereotype that Americans love Justin Bieber or it is the only American music they have. Either way, I think there must be an unwritten rule that says, "See a Mzungu? Turn the Bieber up." As hysterical as it is, it is rather endearing. :o)

I wish the United States had a more honoring culture. The Rwandan culture certainly provided me with a fresh perspective on loving "your neighbor as yourself." We Americans give much less than we receive, and often do not even realize it; and when we give, we expect to receive in return. We care about our own needs far more than others. We are not only not afraid to say no, but we use the word carelessly. Even as babies, we are brainwashed with hearing "no" all of the time. Discipline is good, and taking care of oneself is great; but when the no's go beyond that is where the problems begin.

We say "no" to loving others on a daily basis. We say, "I am too busy." We ask, "can we talk later?" We see someone who looks cold and fail to lend them a jacket. We walk past homeless people begging on the street. We purposefully avoid people we do not feel like talking to. We ignore people's phone calls, emails, text messages. We think about our own agenda while merely pretending to listen to someone else speaking to us. We certainly do not go above and beyond to love.

I do not want to be that way anymore. I want to consider others comforts before my own. I do not want to be "too busy" to love. I do not want to withhold my heart from anyone. After all, what good does it do to have God in my heart if I keep it to myself? I want to love big. I want to love loudly. I want to love with reckless abandon. All in all, I want to get rid of the selfishness that distracts me so I can simply love.