Quiet and gentle reminders...

I am the Pied Piper Of Hamelin...everywhere I go, I am followed by a swarm of children (and sometimes adults) who dare each other to touch me as if I have magical powers.  "Muzungu, muzungu"  - 'white person, white person' they call out to me...my favourite today came from a lil' child no older than 3 who called out 'Muhuro, muhuro' - I am told that he could not yet say the word 'muzungu' and was therefore coming out with his own version.  Reminds me of life in Japan - 'gaijin': alien person or how Chinese people say 'gwai-lo': ghost man - not entirely pc but that's the culture...

Today I was reminded of God's hand over me.  I was walking with a colleague and the path we took had many peaks and troughs (steep ones at that) and he said to me, 

'It is like life, when I'm climbing the slopes, I think of all the hard times but then when I am going down, I think of the easy life.  May, you have nothing to fear, your family may not be here but you have Jesus first and then you have us now.  We will look after you too.'

I wanted to cry there and then but I did not.
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My day started with me being introduced to the 700 students in the Teacher Training College.  The students range from 15 - 20yrs old.  They are all training to be teachers.  These however are not my students.  It's hard to explain, but I am in effect training/working with the teacher-trainers.  So I am teaching teachers to teach future-teachers how to teach.  My main focus is to develop the use of resources and this is a challenge because there is no photocopier, laminator or endless pens and paper at my disposal.  I LOVE IT!  Now's the time to let all my creative juices run free :)

I will post photos of my workplace soon.

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A note to myself:  When an African person tells you that somewhere is not far, do not trust them!  

Today my colleague took me to the 'local' market which takes place on Mondays and Fridays only.  We set off at 10am and only by 11ish had we arrived after hiking around various mountains...just to get some fruit and veg for my meals this week...fun times lie ahead!

(Trying to upload photos but it's not happening right now)  The views however were spectacular, I simply was not prepared for such a journey.  The return trip was much shorter but I felt very guilty as my companion carried my groceries back for me.  At various points, we shared the load but that would only last for about 5 minutes before he noticed me struggling :)  The path was never even and there were a couple of stream crossings with logs that I had to walk along like a tight-rope walker - I am sure by the end of my stay here I will have perfect balance and beautifully sculpted arms and legs :)

I leave you now with the song that I listened to at school today :)

Hide me now
Under Your wings
Cover me
Within Your mighty hand

When the oceans rise and thunders roar
I will soar with You above the storm
Father you are King over the flood
I will be still, know You are God

Find rest my soul
In Christ alone
Know His power
In quietness and trust

When the oceans rise and thunders roar
I will soar with You above the storm
Father You are king over the flood
I will be still, know You are God

Still - Hillsong United

Photo diary

Inside my house...bare, bare, bare...

This is my mud hut...my principal tells me it is small, but it is sufficient enough for me...

The view from my house

View from behind my house

I missed the photo opportunity of a cow being led down this path earlier...

This is the back of my house...

The football 'stadium' - a 5 minute walk from me

The footballers...

 My many house guests...

Rocky Road

This post will be picture-less - sorry, but I will try to paint you a picture as best as I can...

I am currently sitting in my room, in the dark with my mosquito net draped around me.  I can hear the crickets chirping their night song, a cow mooing and voices outside my window (my night guard/s).

My house is a MUD-HUT with four rooms and a row of outhouses outside - one being the kitchen, the other the washroom and the last the toilet - in actual fact, they are just bare huts with nothing inside them, other than the toilet which is a bottomless-pit (often surrounded by flies) with two foot pads next to it - not the most pleasant of experiences.

I have no running water - so there are no taps in my house, nor in the outhouses.  There is a water-tank 50m away from my house but I think I have to pay to get water from there.  My TTC which is about 15mins walk away has free water but that does mean carrying it for ages - thankfully, some students did that for me today.

I am trying to make my house as 'homely' as possible but it is hard when most of the things I want/need, I cannot get in my village.  I suppose I just have to learn to live a simpler life.

Other things I must get used to:  creepy crawlies.  I am not a fan of spiders and flies - but my house is full of them and there is not much I can do about it - so I must learn to live with them! :(

The rainy season is upon us here in Rwanda which means that I am often wading through masses of (red) mud.  I wish I'd bought some wellies - my yellow crocs are a bit useless for keeping out the mud...there are no paved roads/pavements here

Today I watched a football match between my Teacher Training Centre (TTC) and the adjoining secondary school.  My TTC won 3-1 but it was amazing to see the whole village out supporting...there was no booing or hissing (actually people hiss to get each-other's attention here...so there was hissing but it was not done in a malicious way.)  Afterwards, we went back to the TTC church-hall and par-tayed! - it was a celebration of many things; the football win, welcoming me into the village but mainly to bless the local priest who is moving to another district and to welcome his replacement.  It was conducted in Kinyarwanda which I obviously found hard to follow.  Still, there was food, alcohol (everyone either drinks beer or fizzy drinks here - whenever I ask for water, I am always asked, 'why do you not drink beer?'), music and dance - and as much as I protested, I was dragged onto the dance floor and taught some traditional moves.

I am truly out in the sticks.  There are buses out of my village every Monday and Friday but if I wanted to catch one, I'd have to be at the bus stop (which I'm not sure where it is) at 5.30am!  I can walk around my whole village in about 20 mins - it's small but still pretty lively.  Every other house seems to be a bar and strangely enough, there is but one convenient store that sells everything from electricity to padlocks to bread.  Life here is very different!!!

For now, I will leave you - hopefully I'll get some photos uploaded soon!  Thank you for reading!

Prayer:

• That I may find a church to call home - there are a few churches in Cyahinda but they are predominantly Catholic churches.
• That I may be able to access water easily.
• That I might adjust to the limitations that I am experiencing and extend grace where it is due.

Thank you!!!

Kigali Life

This is the road outside my guesthouse...

Me on a mototaxi...

My Kinyarwanda is coming along, slowly but surely.  It's strange being the student, reminds me how difficult it is to learn something new from scratch.  Lots of repetition and inventive ways to make concepts stick - makes me reflect upon my own practice.  The real test is when I'm trying to manoeuvre my way around the city.  As a foreigner, we (the other volunteers and I) are often stared at and spoken to by random people.  People here are very accommodating and despite the language barriers, there is much amusement and joy to be had in the randomness of conversations.  (I'm sure the novelty will wear off soon enough...)

For now I leave you with this:

I liked this wall display in the phone shop, the slogan at the bottom is very poignant - 

'It's not how far we have come but how far we can go.'

Delayed post

The sun comes up it’s a new day dawning

It’s time to sing Your song again

Whatever may pass and whatever lies before me

Let me be singing when the evening comes

Chorus:

Bless the Lord oh my soul

Oh my soul

Worship His holy name

Sing like never before

Oh my soul

I’ll worship Your holy name

You’re rich in love

And you’re slow to anger

Your name is great and Your heart is kind

For all your goodness, I will keep on singing

10000 reasons for my heart to find

And on that day when my strength is failing

The end draws near and my time has come

Still my soul will sing your praise unending

10000 years and then forever more

10,000 Reasons by Matt Redman

This was the song that I woke to on the morning of my flight date.  It was not playing out loud for all to hear yet my ears still heard it even though it was simply playing in my head.  It was the perfect song, taking the words right out of my heart.

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I’m now here in Kigali, the capital city of Rwanda.  I’m not sure it really hit me that I was in Africa till we drove past a woman carrying a heavy load on her head.  I struggled with trying to lift my 23kg suitcase onto the scales at check-in and here was a very thin lady, carrying what looked like far more than that on her head!?!

I was pleasantly surprised to find that VSO have put us up in a guest-house where I have my own room (score!), with electricity AND a shower!  I should not get used to this as I have been informed that my actual accommodation when I arrive in my village has none of these luxuries, with a latrine-toilet outside and a water tank 50metres from my home - it's not ideal but in the back of my mind, this is what I was expecting, only I'd hope it wasn't the case...

So far I've had 1 lesson in Kinyarwanda and it's going ok but am figuring that in my village I will HAVE to learn it to fully get around.  I found my GCSE French today completely useless when I was unable to explain the problem I was having with my phone...

That's me for now - I have so much MORE to write, but I must dash for my next training session!

Last evening ponderings...

Last evening in London.  I'm still packing.  I've got the first lesson of VSO online Kinyarwanda training on repeat in the background (local language spoken in Rwanda)...NOTHING HAS GONE IN!?!?  I was supposed to have started this course at least 5 weeks ago - and as with everything I've left it to the last minute.  Oops.  Nothing I can do now but am feeling very frustrated with myself.  Not exactly a good example as a teacher :(

I've packed one whole suitcase full of toiletries, medicines and food and the other with my clothes, shoes AND motorbike helmet (which has taken up at least half of my case!)  It's difficult to know WHAT to pack.  I didn't get the waterproofs as wisely suggested by another volunteer...forgot about that completely am now thinking whether or not I should go and get some tomorrow morning?!?  Eek.

It's been an emotional week.  I don't think there's been a day without tears.  Saying goodbye (or 'farewell for now') is hard - you'd think that having done it so many times before I'd be ok but it just gets harder every time!

My flight is at 8pm tomorrow eve, I have a stop over in Nairobi and then land into Kigali around 8.20am on Saturday.  

So, things to pray for:

• God's provision & guidance - I know it was ME who should have started preparing for this at least a month ago but time has just passed me by!  Pray that I'll be able to keep up with the language training upon arrival - else there will be (more) tears.
• Reassurance for my family - it's hard to see your youngest child/sibling go to an unfamiliar country with only the news to inform you about it.  (Rwanda's (recent) history has only been of something distressing - but rest assured, recovery and development is what it is known for now - as well as it being the only place to see mountain gorillas in their natural habitat.)  I guess with me being so un-informed about where I'm going and what I'm doing, it's been hard to share information with my family (and sometimes friends) to allay fears.  But I am confident that God has it mapped out...
• Finally for health - I have the dodgiest/weakest stomach around.  Pray that I will be wise in what I eat and drink and that I will not suffer from any illness throughout my orientation time.

With this I leave you.  Thank you for all your kind messages, donations and gifts.  It is greatly appreciated and I'm sorry if I haven't thanked you personally.  Until I arrive in Kigali...God Bless Xx