Rwanda 2015 | Day 10

Happy Tuesday, friends! I thought that I might get two posts out this week but I forgot Thanksgiving was on Thursday, so one it is!

Monday | September 21st

Monday was our first day at the school and I could stare at these precious faces all day, erry day. ♥

I honestly feel like my heart belongs in Nyabihu. When Cory and I move to Rwanda one day, I can see us spending most of our time here at Nyabihu Christian Academy. So you can understand why I have so many pictures, right?

Our plan for this week was to do a Bible school in the mornings and home visits in the afternoons. Each morning, we started off warming the kids up with the “toasta song” {by the end of the week, some of the kids had it down and I’ll share it then!} and teaching them “Jesus Loves the Little Children”.

While we were getting the children involved, the teachers made nametag stickers for the kids and we handed those out. We promised the kids candy if they came back with their name tag each day so we wouldn’t have to rewrite all those names.

Bribery at its finest.

This cutie was most definitely not named “James”. His name was Museveni and I could have eaten him up.

Due to the large number of kids {over 120}, we split them into two different groups. The first group went outside first while the younger kids were inside for the lesson. The lesson for the first day was rough. We were so nervous about it that we pretty much read from the book and it was WAY too much information for the poor kids. We kept having to wake them up!

But they really enjoyed being outside, tossing the ball around and yelling their names.

Then we brought the parachute out and things got…a little wild. Everything was pretty okay until we said one or two kids could go underneath it–aaand then it was a WWE cage match underneath that thing and we ended up with a bloody lip.

Parachute time: over.

Before the kids left to go home, we passed around granola bars {that had been donated to us–thanks!} and each student had a snack.

The silence while they chowed down was eerie…they ain’t never silent!

After the kids went home for the day, Cory and the guys wanted to use up all the paint they had already mixed before we started home visits so Jessica and I played with the “dusty kids“.

This poor little girl was terrified of us, which is a common thing in young babies.

Muzungus aren’t quite as scary at a distance. Nice job, zoom lens.

BUT WE’RE SUPER SCARY IN UP-CLOSE PHONE SELFIES!!

These smiles, y’all. How could they not make your day better?

Amber decided to help the guys paint but I am the messiest painter EVER and really didn’t feel like destroying everything I had on. Like Amber did.

Kenny was being ol’ sweetie as usual and cleaning their hands for them. With straight-up kerosene. #wheninrwanda

We had some Rwandan tea before we started our visits.

Doesn’t take long to draw a following on foot in Nyabihu.

This fella wanted to show off his craftsmanship with his homemade Rwandan toys.

Kenny ~~straight-up stole~~ borrowed some guys bike and I’m pretty sure the guy thought he was really gonna ride off with it. He was giving him the dirtiest looks.

We visited one little girl’s house because she and some family members had been sick, and learned that there was a new (less than a month old!) baby in the house. Of course we all took turns holding the precious little nugget!

We also learned that in Rwanda, babies often aren’t named until they are three months old, and then are given names that are meaningful to their birth or the family at the time of their birth; so this little guy didn’t have a name yet! The mom asked us for name ideas, seemingly jokingly. Amber piped up with “Isaiah” quickly and everyone thought that was a pretty good idea. {Much better than Cory trying to name it “Rocket Ship” or “Wingnut” or something stupid like that. Ugh.}

#Lordhelpourfuturechildren

In the middle of our visit to the next house, the baby’s older sister came bursting in with a piece of paper and a pen, asking us to write down the name and what it meant! Apparently the mom thought it was a really good idea.

I think we named that baby.

I said it last year but home visits are by far, the most important thing we do in Rwanda. We are always welcomed into homes and the people of Rwanda get so excited that we want to come into their home and pray over them. Little do they know, we are the ones being blessed!

After a couple more visits, it was FINALLY time to go visit my girl Harriette {who I still refer to as Henrietta}! She took me by the hand and led me to her house.

This is the little girl that I fell in love with last year. I knew as soon as she stomped up to me, stuck her hand out, and wouldn’t walk off until I shook her hand and told her “goo-da-bye” that I would be her sponsor.

We spent some time catching up with her mom and hearing about how her and her family had been.

This look, y’all. This little girl, she’s a pistol.

Okay, she’s actually kind of mean and might actually be a tiny little bully, but we’re working on that…

#OperationSweetenUp

These wings…backwards. Just precious.

SO COOL to see Clemson being represented that far away! Even if they have no idea what Clemson is.

This was in someone’s living room. They sell potatoes out of their home.

Much like the way I felt about ~~Henrietta~~ Harriette , Jessica fell in love with this little boy, Alexi. She is now his sponsor!

We found Saggy Britches from last year. Unfortunately, he’s not in school this year. But he did get some britches that fit, so there’s that.

We ate at Hotel Muhabura, again. Can you tell that is one of our favorites?! They had Panaché, which is a locally-made non-alcoholic beer made with citrus fruits so it tastes like juice. We definitely should have brought some of that home!