Rwanda 2018 | Days 2 & 3

Welcome back! I’m so glad you’re here to read about our first few days at Nyabihu Christian Academy. The first few days at the school, especially for new team members, is almost indescribable. They are almost overwhelming but overwhelming in the best possible way. These are often the days when the deep relationships form and the team members find “their kid” and those are moments you never forget.

Monday | July 16th

Day 2:

We rose early to a beautiful morning at Bishop John’s house. We had a traditional Rwandan breakfast with a lot of fruit. The house was not only beautiful, but it was so peaceful. Some of the rooms had these huge porches and it was just so darn refreshing to sit out there in the morning. There was a wide variety of birds chirping but other than that it was pretty quiet, which is unusual in Rwanda.

Straight up the mountain we went, to begin our week of work at the school in Nyabihu. Of course it’s not a Rwanda trip if Cory doesn’t get pulled over by the police, but thankfully she was just checking drivers’ licenses (more thankfully, he brought his!)

It was a little chilly when we arrived at the school. People often ask us if it’s always scorching hot in Rwanda and surprisingly enough, it’s not. Don’t get me wrong, we have been there when it is hot but this last time, we had great weather. Nyabihu is in the mountains of Rwanda and it’s always cooler there than in the capital. Without the humidity like we are use to in SC, high 70’s is the most perfect temperature there.

We jumped right in upon arrival, the ladies helped the teachers by spending time with the children, singing songs, playing games, playing soccer and basketball, and praying with them.

Hindsight, I would have definitely faired better if I had taken the time to slowly introduce Baker to the kids. Throwing her in the middle of Rwandan selfie was probably not the best way to get her warmed up to 300+ school age children.

I immediately spotted our girl, Harriette and oh my gosh, she has grown so much over the year.

Keneth, our trusty translator and close, close friend is also becoming quite the videographer.

I’m sure the teachers just love when we barge in to their classrooms but it’s so interesting to see how their classrooms work especially to those of us in education.

While the ladies were with the children, the guys started securing forms and pouring concrete for the block foundations of the new addition to the school. This work including actually mixing and placing concrete and mortar as well as moving large boulders around and tying the rebar cages for the insides of columns.

For the first few days, Baker was very overwhelmed by the children. The children there have no concept of person space and she wasn’t too sure what to think of it. It’s a lot for an adult that can understand what’s going and and aware of what they are walking in to. I can’t even imagine what was going through her little brain. We spent a lot of time just walking around, letting her soak it all in and trying to keep her happy.

We breaked for lunch where we ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and Pringles! After a rough morning, Baker seemed to calm down after some Goldfish.

The children have a longer school day than years past but now go home at lunch time and return for their afternoon classes.

After lunch, the team was able to visit the homes of four of the children to check on them, encourage them, and pray with them. This is always emotional and jarring, especially for first time Rwanda missionaries. We were blessed with the opportunity to fellowship with these fellow Christians and share encouragements and love in both directions.

I threw Baker on my back and by the time we got to the second house, she was sound asleep. I sat down outside because the house was small and I needed to rest my back with Baker on it. Approximately 37 seconds after this photo was snapped, Baker projectile vomited all over my back. She was dead asleep when she got sick and I’m not sure if it was 4lbs of Goldfish she had eaten combined with the sunshine and bouncing around in the carrier but she seemed okay afterwards. Joel and Anastas jumped right in to help me and Cory, bless their hearts! Of course, I didn’t have a clean t-shirt with me! Since she seemed fine, we finished our two other visits.

In one of the homes lives a family of two parents and two children, with another due within the next two weeks. Their home is in a sorry state, being made of mud with a woven bamboo internal structure—years of being exposed to rainy seasons has worn through the outside layer and the walls are thin and brittle. We prayed that their situation can improve along with a safe and smooth delivery of the baby to come.

We also visited a young lady named Aline that Joel has a particular connection with, Joel having befriended her last October. Their situation is much better than it was in October, Aline and her adopted mother, but they are still extremely poor, the mother has injured feet and can no longer find work, and they live at the mercy of others’ assistance. We discovered that Aline didn’t know her birthday so we made a birthday for her, October 10th, the day that Joel met her the year before.

This is Anastas! He’s been a teacher at the school since we started going in 2013.

I found sweet Alexis and sent this picture to Jessica, who went with us in 2015.

After getting back to the school, we loaded up the cars. Baker, myself, Crystal, and Jamie were in the car with Claude, our driver, so we went on and headed to the house. Baker fell asleep on the way home and I was able to lay her down to continue her nap while I jumped in the shower to get the rest of the vomit and all the dust off me.

#motherhood

Cory was our other driver and his car group was gone forever! I had my makeup completely done before they got home. Turns out, they went to the market for fruit (and a little sneaker shopping) on the way home. I’m not crazy about us separating while we are there mainly because Cory is the only one with a working phone and I had no idea where they had gone. We shared a few words about that.

Some fellow Rwanda friends had suggested we try La Polete for dinner and while the food was good, the wait was really long. We were told the pizza was awesome but the people who didn’t get pizza were done eating before our pizza came out of the oven. This is not uncommon in Rwanda however it was not ideal with a tired 2 year old.

After a busy first day of work, we were all exhausted. We did our devotion from Romans 6:26, when we got home and Crystal had the idea to make care packages out of the supplies we brought so we could leave with the families we visited the next day. I’m always thankful for new perspectives from our new team members and we had so many donations to be able to do this with. We made up a few for the next day before hitting the sack!

Tuesday | July 17th

Day 3:

We started day 3 with a delicious breakfast and headed straight out to work. Cory had to go meet Ben and sent us on to the school. When we got to the school, Joel and Jamie jumped right in feet-first with laying block on the foundations they poured the day while Jordan and Sarah fellowshipped with the kids and Crystal, Baker, and myself helped a little in the kitchen then joined in with the fellowship.

I handed Baker off to Cory who was waiting on the lumber for the bookshelf’s to come and was shooting footage.

We helped the ladies pour and serve the children porridge and we realized they didn’t have enough cups for all the children and made ourself a note to pick more up for them. These ladies are incredible, y’all. It amazes me how they prepare food for children without all the amenities we have here in the United States- everything is cooked over huge open fires.

After we fed them porridge, we spent more time with the kids until the eggs were ready to be served.

Crystal and Sarah holding those little hands! Memories that will last a life time.

Joel and Jamie were still working hard laying the brick on the foundation.

This little girl, she’s going to rule the world one day. When we first met her in 2017, we called her “The General” because she was the boss. She may have been smaller than most of the ones in her class but she took charge of everything.

There were lots of songs while we waited on the eggs to be done!

I discovered that Baker did much better throughout the morning when I gave her a break mid-morning. We would go to the car, give her a snack, and let her have a little phone time. We normally only stayed back there for 10-15 minutes and was the perfect little break for her overloaded brain.

Once the eggs were done, we served those and we were blown away at how these little children were able to peel them! Some of us couldn’t even get them peeled.

Once the lumber was delivered, the guys worked as fast as they could to get them close to finished before the afternoon snuck up on us.

This picture cracks me up every. single. time. The look on their faces like “Are they sure they know what they’re doing?”

I see this picture and I can hear the giggle coming from it. I can’t wait to see these faces again in just a few days!

Gosh, they are precious.

The shelves came together quickly!

Once the guys got to stopping point, we had left over pizza for lunch before fitting in four home visits.

I had Baker on my back so it was hard to go in to all the homes but the crowd we gained because of Baker was impressive. Joel had noticed that his friend Aline and her mother were sleeping on a makeshift pallet on the floor, so on the way to work that morning he bought them a real mattress. Jordan had also bought some shoes for them, so we delivered the mattress and shoes first. 

This family had the cutest 9 month old baby and a two year old. The mother expressed how hard it was staying at home with her children and my heart felt ached for her. Across all cultures, raising children is hard. I literally can’t fathom adding the burden of providing enough food for your child daily. I tried to encourage her by telling her being a mom was the hardest job of all, in Rwanda and America.

There was a lady who made a decision for Christ during one of our home visits last year that we did a follow-up visit with. In spite of her physical troubles, she is spiritually alive and well! There was also another lady who made her decision to follow Christ today, and we couldn’t be more honored.

Our team, you guys, they were incredible.

It feels so rewarding seeing my feet covered in dust. After the months of preparation, it just feels good to jump in and get a little dirt on my feet.

People, of all ages, love seeing pictures and videos of themselves.

Our little ham, doing what she does best- bringing joy to everyone she meets.

The children from our church made pictures and letters for the children we visited. The letters were all so sweet and the kids enjoyed receiving them.

Many of the families we visit worry every day about whether they will lose their rented homes, homes that are often just two small rooms in a ramshackle mud house, homes that can be rented for $5/month which might as well be $500/month for some of these families. There are mothers who don’t know how to feed their babies, whose babies’ stomachs are swollen with malnutrition and worms. It is easy to be distracted by the fun singing and smiling faces and forget that these children struggle every moment of every day from their poverty, so take a moment to lift them up in prayer.

Coming from Clemson, there’s a saying “There’s just something in these hills” and that saying is even more fitting in Rwanda. These hills are captivating.

I am amazed year after year that babies are taking care of babies.

My people.

The chicken house is a wonderful sight! It’s truly an answered prayer that the children have eggs weekly. We’ve heard the chicken house is even fuller this year!

These two…they are two peas in a pod and make our trip so full of laughter.

I am so thankful for the opportunity for Baker to grow up going to Rwanda. I pray daily that I never fail to teach her how to properly be the hands and feet of Christ.

So far, I’m blown away by her. We were cleaning and loading up for the day and she jumped in to help. Bless her sweet little heart.

Cory’s car stopped again for tree tomatoes and at a pretty lookout for pictures.

Apparently one of these tree tomatoes exploded on Keneth in the car and it looked like a straight up murder scene in the truck.

We had decided to ask if the house staff would cook dinner for us the rest of the week instead of going out. We want to always be good stewards of the money we receive and it was just much more convenient to not have to rush to get ready for dinner when we got home.

It was nice to have some down time before dinner to talk and hang out. When we walked down stairs for dinner, we were blown away by the spread. It was a delicious Rwandan dinner and I think we all enjoyed it more than going out. There is just something about sitting around a table for dinner. Afterwards, we had our devotion time where we mentioned the shortage of cups. Crystal and Jamie lead a great devotion and we had a good time talking afterwards. We were talking about men being sick when Jamie started a conversation about going to the hospital one time when he had the hiccups for a week. Sarah and I died laughing until we realized he was serious. We still couldn’t stop laughing at the story and it’s memories like this when I think back to them, even a year later, it brings a smile to my face. This is why I write it all down.

Alright, so two long days and if you made it to the end of this post, bless you! I hope you’ll join me for days four and five!