July 25th & 26th

July 25^th and 26^th: These days are “dancing days”. We have spent a good bit of time on our toes. We might as well be ballerinas on point.  WELCOME to RWANDA!

July 25^th- Day One of the Dance:

As we loaded up the “taxi” aka “Partridge Family van” with our suitcase full of teaching supplies and headed to Ginkomera, all that we knew was that we did not know a lot.  We had taught the 10 diocesan staff for two days but now were heading into the unknown—a little bit more rural Rwanda. We were leaving the paved road! What was awaiting us was a full classroom; full from age 5 to 40 (or 62 if you include those of us on the team) with a vast discrepancy in English fluency. As we were exuberantly ushered into this classroom by pastor steven- being tailed by at least 10 more students- we were clearly over our heads.

Deep breathe, let the dancing begin… on our toes we went.  Luckily we had really prepared before we left. (Thanks to those who are more administrative in nature--- not I).  So though this was not anywhere close to “the plan”, we managed to dance around this unexpected situation with some grace, a few missteps, and a lot of improvisation… lets call it an interpretative dance—the pun was fully intended!

As we closed the class with a 4^th singing of amazing grace (now accompanied by some rhythmic clapping, thanks to the Rwandans), I felt chills dance up my arms and down my back; and I knew I had been blessed to share in that moment.

The day was not over yet… just beginning.

We had lunch at Gikomero with PEACEMAKER and those he allows in his presence. He is the most stoic 1year old I have ever met. Lunch: Rice, beans, other vegetables stewed and curried, chicken (sorry Taylor) and Fanta was included; and Ford was happy.

Then we piled into the truck and bounced down the bumpy, steep inclined, clay road for a well sighting. The well was wonderful. The throngs of children that followed us were captivating, the goat was entertaining, and the inventiveness and sheer patience of the production process was humbling. 

Loaded up the truck, pranced uphill, piled out and then piled into the van.  The transition from truck to van we execute with little grace and no efficiency- we fall out like fruit and then talk to everyone- though the vehicles are separated by 10ft,  it takes about  30mins before we are loaded up and closing the door.  We heading back for our 2^nd lunch. Ps- who gains weight in a 3^rd world country…WE DO!

2^nd lunch completed, short nap, and then off to buy fabric in the market rounded out our scheduled afternoon activities.

The market experience is another blog post in itself- not my first time in a African market, so I would not convey the experience in a way to give justice to what most of the rest of the team experienced, but there was dancing involved.

Day one of the dance was concluded with dinner, compline, singing, and tears. The Holy Spirit has provided space for our emotions to rise to the surface everyday. Even Ford and Eric are not spared. Rwanda, Africa in general, is slower in nature; Less distractions are available therefore more emotions are felt. It is good and cleansing.

July 26^th: Day Two of the Dance

Wake up; too early for me, again!  (6:30)

Eat our most exciting breakfast yet:  flat eggs, toast (we were given a toaster, SCORE!) a gouda cheese wheel (a added bonus), avocados, papayas, peanut butter and bananas, salt, Jennifer’s PEPPER, and COFFEE (French pressed). This is a much better spread than anything I typically ever eat for breakfast.

I’m still waking up when we all leave for our daily prayer time up the hill.

Then load up and head to Gikomero. We are about to start dancing again. Though we had yesterday under our belt, I was fairly certain we could not rely on yesterday to be the experience of today. When I used to live in Africa we had a saying: TIA- “This is Africa”. We would use it whenever any of our western expectations did not line up with African reality. This day was no different.

We were directed to the “stage”, a completely different classroom than the day before. Our audience, you may ask, contained about 10 repeat offenders and about 35 others; all were young students between 6 and 16.  I could hear the music begin as we all rushed around dancing on our toes. Sarah and Taylor grabbed the material and began the handout process.  Hillary, Teresa, and Jennifer braved the stage and danced through their lessons. I was impressed by their execution and form… and then it happened. My favorite part of the trip (and Felicimas as well), Teresa danced up and down the aisle. This is not a metaphoric dance that I have used throughout these 2 blog posts, but REAL “get down with your bad self T-Dog (her nickname)! Felicima literally had to leave the room she was laughing beyond containment or composure. The class ended in EPIC fashion.

My memory has a hard time trying to recall the events after that moment.

We left the class and Eric and I kicked a soccer ball for a bit with about 4,000 kids (what it felt like). After a few minutes, I slipped and fell right on my rear and elbow- (I ate it).  Note to self: toms and a graveled basketball court do not provide great footing for flashy soccer moves.

As I regained my composure and my lungs stopped screaming from this thin air, we had lunch; same menu as before and still rather tasty. I would like to acknowledge the shivery of our leaders! Eric Bolash, as I discovered a chicken’s liver in my rice sauce, he volunteered to eat it so that I would not have to. Ford also has saved me. On our first visit my malaria pills made me too nauseous to eat. He ate my plate as well as his, not knowing that another lunch was waiting us. He had 3 lunches in one day. They Rock!

We finished lunch and headed “home”. I would like to encourage all those reading this blog in the states to take our team to a petting zoo upon return. You would think we have never seen a goat, or pig, cow, or chicken before. Every time we pass one of these animals we light up, make animal sounds, and giggle with excitement. I would love to see a lion pounce on one of the animals above, but for now that is all the “wild life” we get. Well, unless you count Taylors pet gecko. Unfortunately for Taylor, we think we ate her rooster friend and we are not certain if it was Charlie (her pet gecko) that I stepped on the other night. Squishy- ugh, not fun (I was barefoot)!

Anyway… we made it home, had a second lunch. Then we took our fabric to Sarah’s new friend, Joseph the shoe maker/sewing genius, to make us some sassy sling bags.  

We were ex-hausted by the end of the day. We had our daily candy fix (we are about out of our stash) drank some tea, and ate dinner.  Then we retired to the “living room” for more compline, songs, sharing, and tears- our typical Rwandan night.

These past few days have consisted of varied tempos. We waltzed to the African cadence, hip hopped across hectic classrooms, spent most of our teaching on our toes, and had more than a few interpretative moments, and in our sheer delirium and sugar highs have just raved with headlamps as strobe lights.