Sunday- church and home visits day
Sunday we walked from our hotel to the school where one of the lutheran churches meets in a classroom. Many of the students attend the service as well. Pastor Saltine warmly welcomed us. The students sang with such passion, while Ornella ( a super talented student ) beat a drum. There was not a dry eye on any of us. Both Melissa and Robin were honored and asked to share at the service, they did such a great job! Quite a few adults spoke up and shared their stories about surviving the genocide, and how they now deal with all the emotions of hate, resentment and conversely forgiveness and joy.
After church the pastor invited us all to his home for lunch. His beautiful wife and their four children prepared a typical lunch: potatoes, rice, pasta, cooked banana, red beans and some yummy cooked greens ( no idea what they were ). They splurged and bought fanta for us all. His 86 year old mother emerged from the kitchen and greeted each one of us with the traditional greeting. She embraced each one of us and in a rhythmic motion hugged each person much longer than a normal American hug. We all felt welcomed and cared for. we discussed the school the church and were inspired by their personal stories of resiliency and motivation.
After lunch we divided into 3 groups. Each group was invited to a different family’s home for a visit. The experience of walking through a village, seeing the extremely poor sweeping the dirt by their porch, and their dirty, shoeless children was humbling. Each and every person smiled and waved. The exception was often the very youngest children who sometimes screamed out and hid behind their mothers. White people are very rarely seen so it’s probable that they had never seen a white person.
Please ask one of to share our experience. Their homes, their kitchen, their sleeping quarters, are nothing like what we see in our lives at home.
One man, Matthew the local dentist ( who is also the only physician for miles ), walked us to his personal banana grove. We had some fun trying to balance a full banana branch on our heads like the local women do. NOT SO EASY!!!! 
Each group was served tea bananas, cookies, and one lucky group…had the pleasure of eating goat innards. Katie, Madeline and Suzie were great sports and ate it, goat and all!
The third group was serenaded by the local church choir with their traveling electric keyboard, right in the front yard.
What an amazing Sunday …. Amen, alleluia!!!!
The Rwanda teachers
Sunday- church and home visits day
Sunday we walked from our hotel to the school where one of the lutheran churches meets in a classroom. Many of the students attend the service as well. Pastor Saltine warmly welcomed us. The students sang with such passion, while Ornella ( a super talented student ) beat a drum. There was not a dry eye on any of us. Both Melissa and Robin were honored and asked to share at the service, they did such a great job! Quite a few adults spoke up and shared their stories about surviving the genocide, and how they now deal with all the emotions of hate, resentment and conversely forgiveness and joy.
After church the pastor invited us all to his home for lunch. His beautiful wife and their four children prepared a typical lunch: potatoes, rice, pasta, cooked banana, red beans and some yummy cooked greens ( no idea what they were ). They splurged and bought fanta for us all. His 86 year old mother emerged from the kitchen and greeted each one of us with the traditional greeting. She embraced each one of us and in a rhythmic motion hugged each person much longer than a normal American hug. We all felt welcomed and cared for. we discussed the school the church and were inspired by their personal stories of resiliency and motivation.
After lunch we divided into 3 groups. Each group was invited to a different family’s home for a visit. The experience of walking through a village, seeing the extremely poor sweeping the dirt by their porch, and their dirty, shoeless children was humbling. Each and every person smiled and waved. The exception was often the very youngest children who sometimes screamed out and hid behind their mothers. White people are very rarely seen so it’s probable that they had never seen a white person.
Please ask one of to share our experience. Their homes, their kitchen, their sleeping quarters, are nothing like what we see in our lives at home.
One man, Matthew the local dentist ( who is also the only physician for miles ), walked us to his personal banana grove. We had some fun trying to balance a full banana branch on our heads like the local women do. NOT SO EASY!!!!
Each group was served tea bananas, cookies, and one lucky group…had the pleasure of eating goat innards. Katie, Madeline and Suzie were great sports and ate it, goat and all!
The third group was serenaded by the local church choir with their traveling electric keyboard, right in the front yard.
What an amazing Sunday …. Amen, alleluia!!!!
The Rwanda teachers
Gorillas in the missed
We thought that we had missed “the big five” classic safari animals. However, when we compared notes and shared our pictures over dinner tonight, we realized that that we indeed had captured them on film. Some of them were camouflaged in the thick brush.
The Rwanda teachers
Picasso art lesson
Katie, Nancy and Madeline taught a fabulous lesson on Picasso. Katie introduced some background on the artist and abstract art. Nancy taught a guided art lesson which allowed the students to create their own Picasso-like portraits using pastels. Madeline and Katie had them journal about the feelings the portraits, some of them shared their moving entries aloud.
Teens get flip flops!!
Yesterday was another exiting day at the school. We’ll post more about the day, but wanted to share about the flip flops. So many of you generously donated bags and bags of flip flops. In fact we nearly filled 2 suitcases with them. So, yesterday we lined up all the larger pairs so the kids could choose a pair. The students were all in a circle after just playing a game. Each teacher ( we all are ‘teachers” here even those of us with different professions), took turns calling out a question related to the lessons we’d taught. As the students answered their questions correctly we sent them over to select their pair. The photos taken will give you a pretty accurate view of the joy we saw on their faces. We certainly didn’t plan on needing to bring extra large sizes! Some of these boys are very tall. We’ll send more back here soon. Tomorrow we’ll take the smaller pairs to the nearby preschool.
The Rwanda Teachers
Thanks for the support and comments!
Hi All,
Just want you to know we are able to see your comments, enjoy them, and look forward to reading more. Scott, your comments and support are even making Katie cry. Another very busy and emotional day. We will blog later today and share more stories and adventures.
Africa pics…more!
