Feast of Our Lady of Kibeho

11/29/09

English class on Friday was great. We played a game with three teams, and each team is given a section of the chalkboard. On each section I drew a small house and a stick person. Each member of each team had to go up to the board, quickly add something to the picture, and pass the chalk to the next person. I was hoping this would be a really fast, frenzied thing, but people were taking their time with their drawings.

So after all the pictures were completed, we explained what we think is happening in each picture, and I wrote these stories on the board. Some of them were really hilarious. It took a lot of prompting at first to get them to describe what they drew. I would ask questions like "Who is this? What is her name? Where is she going? What is this thing?" When we got to the third and final group, they had really gotten the hang of what the purpose of this activity was. I called on the first guy to raise his hand, and he basically had the whole story prepared! But after calling on more people to give them a chance, we ended up with the main character being a fisherman who is also a professional soccer player, going to Kigali to the airport, where he will fly to England to play in a match. Edouard wanted this guy to fly to Wisconsin…love it. Someone else suggested England, and I figured that's a better option since Edouard is probably the only person who remembers the name of my home state.

Also, a miracle occurred today. Fr. Antoine showed up at 4:58pm. I was still finishing up my class with the animators, which ends at 5pm. Fr. Antoine usually comes at 5:30ish, sometimes 5:45ish, and I've always counted on him waltzing in much later than the originally-discussed 5:00pm. So I'm at the front of the class saying something to the 23 students sitting before me, I look over at the door and see Fr. Antoine not only on time, but 2 minutes early, my jaw drops. "Whoa," I say out loud. He just comes in and makes himself comfortable, shakes hands with a few people, and we end our lesson. We had our usual after-class party, and Fr. Antoine joined in playing some ping pong. This time we really didn't do much Zumba. People were doing their own thing, playing ping pong, doing puzzles, a few were dancing and I taught some songs, but the dance vibe wasn't as strong today. I didn't actually start my lesson with Fr. Antoine till 6:15pm – and I felt really bad about that. We all hung out after class for at least a half an hour, Fr. Antoine included, but then I was kind of sweaty from the bit of dancing that we did. So I went to get a drink, which took a while because students were chatting with me on my way towards the convent. On my way back I run into Edouard and Felicien, two very faithful animators who I know very well, who say they need something to drink. So I get them some water and we end up talking for like 20 minutes. By that time, all the other students had left and I hadn't said goodbye to a single one. That made me feel like a very bad teacher who gives a disproportional amount of attention to the students who she is most comfortable with instead of reaching out of her comfort zone to talk to the newcomers. Bad. Plus, Sr. Charlotte and Fr. Antoine had tried to call me and see where I was so that we could start our lesson. They had actually decided that we need to give me more time in between these two lessons. I think this is a good idea. So next week we will end animator English at 4:30pm, have a half an hour of after-class party, and then I have a half an hour to myself, and then the Fathers come. Sounds good.

The lights again went out during my lesson with Fr. Antoine, but we were having a really nice conversation, so we just continued it. The lights came back on and we did a brief lesson on stressed syllables, but the majority of our time was spent just having a conversation. This is very beneficial as well, and Fr. told me this. The best part, however, was at the end. You see, tomorrow (Saturday) is the feast of Our Lady of Kibeho. Kibeho is a tiny village in Rwanda where the Virgin Mary appeared in 1981 and continued appearing for the next 8 or so years. She gave many beautiful messages to the world, including a special warning to the people of Rwanda to change their ways of living, because the future will contain horrible acts of hatred if they don't. Unfortunately, this message was not heeded by everyone, because one of history's most devastating and rapid genocides (if not the most devastating and rapid one that has ever occurred) resulted a few years later. We were just about to head out the door of the classroom, when Our Lady of Kibeho comes up in our conversation. For the next 15 minutes, Fr. Antoine is at the chalkboard writing dates of apparitions, names of visionaries, telling me all kinds of facts about Kibeho, and summarizing the homily that he is going to give in mass tomorrow. I was so touched – you should have heard this man speak. He loves Mary so much! And he was just going and going, I loved every second of it. He has a very pure heart and a genuine desire to bring the message of Kibeho to the parishoners at Muhato. "Our Lady's message was 'change.' We must change our lives to follow the gospel message. That is what she said then, and it is still true now. People hear so much about Kibeho and they want to go there to see this and that and all kinds of exciting things. But She told us that everything She says is nothing new. She just wants us to return to what her Son told us in the first place. And She loves us! She loves us so much! So, please pray for me that I could convey this message to the Christians tomorrow. Yes, tomorrow is a big day in Rwanda." - Fr. Antoine.

Well indeed, Saturday was a big day in Rwanda! I feel so so incredibly blessed to be in this holy land on this day. Mass was so beautiful. Mary's statue was adorned with flowers, the choir was all dressed up in their uniforms and sang many beautiful Marian hymns, and thanks to Fr. Antoine I knew just what he was saying in his homily! At the end of Mass he recited a prayer from Kibeho – I could see Her picture on the little card he was reading it from. And I have no idea what the words were, but man was it beautiful. What a moment – to realize that you're breathing the same air, soaking up the same sunshine, walking on the same ground where so many pilgrims have come from all corners of this country and beyond to come visit the place where Mary Herself visited. And to be among the people that She considers her special children! Of course, she loves all people across the world with the same amazing love that Jesus has given Her, but Rwanda has a special, unique place in Her heart.

Later that day, I had plans to go walking with Louise, another animator who lived with the Sisters here at Muhato all of last year. She was an Aspirant, meaning she wanted to become a Salesian Sister, and she headed off to Kigali to begin her formation. But less than a month ago she returned because she was not sure if the religious life is truly her vocation. Well it was raining quite a bit this afternoon, so I didn't really know if she would come. I had also invited Edouard and Felicien yesterday, and I said I'd beep them when we're leaving.

So at 4pm, it was still raining, and figuring that it'll be dark in 2 ½ hours, I assumed we could just reschedule for next weekend. That was ok by me because I had a lot of catch-up things that I had hoped to do but didn't get to yet. But she came knocking at the door just a bit after 4, even in the rain! We sat and talked for a while to wait for the weather to clear up. Meanwhile Felicien called to yell at me in French for not beeping him. It was very funny. Well, Sr. Gisèle was going to drive Sr. Rose somewhere in town, so they offered to drive Louise and me, and we could just take umbrellas, and it was evident that the rain was almost finished. So we drove into town and they dropped us off near Lake Kivu.

That was very helpful, and sure enough, it stopped raining within 5 minutes of them dropping us off. We had such a great time on our walk! Louise is a very kind, generous person (who walks 45 minutes in the rain to come meet me!) and was very interested in snow. I was telling her about how the cold is miserable but it offers many fun things like skiing, snowball fights, and traying! She said that she would probably die in such cold, as right now, when it was probably 60 degrees F, she considers it cold. We laughed a lot and talked a lot and had a really nice walk. We were headed for "La Grande Barrière," which is one of the borders between Rwanda and the Congo. She explained to me along the way that its really not very grand…that I'm probably going to laugh when I see it. Sure enough, we arrive there and the border is a small stretch of a red metal fence. There are two moveable arms with stop signs for cars passing through. But it is well guarded, so you can't just hop over. There's an immigration station right there too, where people are waiting in line to have their passport stamped. We turn to walk along the road to stay on the Rwanda side, and Louise explains that there is also "La Petite Barrière," which apparently is even funnier because you would think that a barrier can't get much smaller than the grand one. We plan to head there, but it is already starting to get dark, and we still have at least 45 minutes to walk back to Muhato. So we decide that we'll see the little border another day. I was also very privileged to stop by Louise's house with her! Only her brother was home, and he was heading out the door to go meet the rest of the family at a prayer service. But we stopped there to get some money so Louise could take a moto-taxi home since it will be quite dark by the time we get all the way back to Muhato. She said that one day soon I can come back to visit and meet her mom and sisters – I'm very excited about this! The rest of the walk back home was kind of tiring…it’s pretty far, and you are walking on uneven, rocky surfaces the whole way, in the almost-dark. And there were lots of kids shouting "Good morning!" I corrected them, telling them that now we say "Good evening." It was really really great to get to spend some time with her – and her English is verrrry good. She has only studied it for a year, but she lived in Kenya for a while where she got to practice a lot. I'm so happy to have a friend!

Meeting Sr. Rose

11/29/09

Sr. Rose came home from the hospital in Nairobi! She is very sweet, and a very animated storyteller, as I've found that many Rwandans are. She was recounting the events of her hospital stay, in which she had several operations. I am not really sure what problems she had, but I guess she had an infection in her gallbladder, and they ended up removing it. They had done all kinds of tests, three catscans, given her all kinds of antibiotics, but they couldn't figure out what was wrong. But after the gallbladder came out, she was just fine.

When she returned, I was in the middle of a lesson with Fr. Antoine, but I'm sooo glad it got cut short. I hadn't really planned anything, but I had only given him the Mass parts yesterday, so I assumed we could go through it again, and maybe even look at a particular days' readings and work on a homily. Well, after talking a little bit, he tells me that he feels very comfortable saying Mass in English because he remembers it from seminary, and now that he has the typed script, he's all set to go. So I'm like…yeah, good, what should we do then…hm… I started doing a few consonant pronunciation exercises, but it was not going well. I was not prepared, and he was just flying through these exercises. They were not really something that he needed work on. All of a sudden, the lights go out. Thank God! Our electricity goes out frequently, so this was not unusual. And my failure improv lesson was cut short. But then Sr. Rose came back and we went to greet her by singing Hail Mary, Gentle Woman. It was fantastic.

Sr. Rose speaks very little English. Actually Kathryn's teaching was the first exposure to English that she has had. So the next morning we picked up where Kathryn left off. She is a very conscientious student, eager to learn and really grasped what I was teaching. We were going over very basic things – I introduced the common verb tenses, gave her some example verbs, and how to conjugate regular verbs. I then gave her some fill-in-the-blank and rearrange the sentence exercises to work on by herself. She did very well and was very happy with the way the lessons went. It really helped that I could explain things in French, but I need to make sure I'm speaking more English than French in my class with her! The more she hears it, the better.

Friday at Patronage I had two very devoted followers – these two older girls who spoke more English than I've heard from most of the kids were basically little barnacles stuck to me. They were both in my class on Tuesday, and they were very sweet, telling me they love me and stuff. I would rather have them fully participate in the group activities though, instead of just hanging on to me. When the games got going though, they did rejoin the group. The kids really like this "kill the mouse" game. Two kids are blindfolded and given a huge stick. A balloon is placed a few feet in front of them, and they are spun around and given three whacks to try to smack the balloon with the stick, and thus kill the mouse. During their formation, I was asked to go supervise the Abastrong group, the big kids. My two barnacles were really happy about this, and they really wanted me to sit next to them. But I told them that I needed to stand up in order to watch everybody else. These kids were much better-behaved and didn't need too much supervision. But I again trust that my presence gave a little message of "pay attention, don't mess around."

Afterwards, Fabrice accompanied me during playtime to translate. That was super helpful. We actually played real games, like Red Light Green Light and Cut the Cake, instead of having the kids follow me around and do whatever I do. It was very beneficial to have the kids understand what I was trying to say, and we decided afterwards that from now on, I will always have a Kinyarwanda translator. Sweet!

The Rest of the Week

11/29/09

So, Patronage on Wednesday and Friday were very similar in structure to Monday, as described earlier. Wednesday's large-group games were quite enjoyable for everyone. They played a version of Marco Polo called Adama-Eva. One kid, Adama, is blindfolded and is trying to find Eva, also blindfolded, who is trying to avoid Adama. The rest of the kids form a circle to guide the blind Adam and Eve whenever they veer towards the edge. It was pretty funny to watch!

During formation, Sr. Charlotte asked me to go supervise the Abapietro group because they are many and the animators are few. So I went in and just sort of stood at the back and would separate children when they started fidgeting with each other, or go stand by these two troublemakers. I felt like my being there was a bit pointless, but I trust that it did some good to keep them paying attention. Really though, the environment in which they learn is not conducive to learning. Kids are entering and exiting the classroom freely. They open the door and come in after a half an hour, they come and squish in a seat with three other kids, they get up and leave randomly, and a few of them have their baby siblings strapped to their backs and need to leave to tend to them and get them to stop crying. But I guess they're just used to this. They did pretty good at learning the song and associated hand motions that was today's goal.

Later during playtime I had a larger group of kids following me around to play "do what she does." It was again very fun telling them to stand up, touch the ground, stand up, touch the ground, faster faster faster, and they giggled a lot a lot a lot. But again, it was tiring. I tried to teach them leap frog too…I chose one girl to help me demonstrate, and motioned for her to come over here. But then the whole group followed her! It was hard to get them to understand that they need to stay there and watch. Fortunately one of the older girls told the littler ones in Kinyarwanda to stay. So me and this girl played leap frog, but she actually just somersaulted over me while laughing hysterically. Hey, whatev. I then told the others to join in, but they didn't really get the whole idea of continuing the line…that once someone jumps over you, you get up and jump over the next person. It ended up being a few people crouched on the ground while everybody else jumped over them….they still had a pretty good time. Then Fabrice joins us with a ball and we play a duck-duck-goose game. Everyone sings this song in Kinyarwanda and one person takes the ball and walks around the outside of the circle. They stealthily put it behind one person, who must get up and chase them around and tag them before they get back to their spot. It was fun, but I can only squat on the ground for so long, so after a few minutes I stood up. And as a result, all the kids stood up too and the game instantly dissolved. Goodness. We walked around a bit with all the kids trying to hold my hands or grab my arms, they really just like to touch. I was pretty tired that day and did not have as much energy to run hither and thither with them. But then it was time to reconvene, phew.

In my English class we corrected the stories that the groups wrote yesterday. Not too much to say about that – they did a decent job of spotting the errors and correcting them. But after class we had an excellent Zumba party! They wanted to do "Chin Chin" without me leading, so that I could watch them and tell them what to fix. So that's what we did! And then we did a few other songs just for fun. Sr. Charlotte captured it on video, but unfortunately the file is too large for our portable modem to handle :  ( I wish you could see it though…they're great!

Thursday I was supposed to go with Sr. Charlotte to Rubavu for Patronage, but she suggested that I stay home and get caught up. I mentioned that I still needed to plan lessons for the Father's and that I still need to figure out what we're doing tomorrow, and a few other random things that I hadn't been able to do. So I had a day of finishing things. I actually typed up a copy of Sunday Mass in English for the priests in this area. I've emailed it to one priest from a different diocese, and I gave a copy to a priest from a different parish who came to visit the Sisters, and I've gone through the script with my two priest students that come regularly for lessons. They were very grateful and eager to get started with saying Mass in English. I don't know when they'll actually start, but I'm glad that I could help get this process going.

11/26/09

11/26/09

Tuesday is when the Patronage kids in the middle group come for an English lesson. Sr. Charlotte asked me this morning if I would help her teach them, and I agreed. Now during this exchange, I was under the impression that I'd be HELPING, but deep down I had a slight idea that this meant, "you'll teach the class. ok?" So I was prepared to take the reigns. Good thing, because that's exactly what Sr. Charlotte meant. I figured I could just use the same first lesson I did with the secondary school class – "How are you?" other responses besides "Fine, thank you." "What is your name?" etc. This group was a lot more challenging than the older kids. Sr. Charlotte had to chime in a lot with Kinyarwanda explanations. Kids again confused "how are you doing?" with "what are you doing?" So I tried to explain the difference by writing the two sentences on the board and putting their respective responses beneath each one, but they didn't really get it.

Also, one thing I didn't account for is that you need to tell the children to copy down the things you write. They won't just do it automatically. I should have expected this, since they're only about 10 years old, but I just hadn't thought of it. So at the end of class I re-wrote everything we talked about, and we gave them a good 20 minutes to copy everything.  Sr. Charlotte reminded me that in school, they're still perfecting the skill of writing, so each letter they copy with great care and precision. Just the act of writing down what we discussed is a big task in itself, but it really helps them remember it.

We spent at least 30 minutes learning "what is your name," "how are you" and responses other than "fine, thank you" (that's the only response they're taught in school, I've discovered.) I would toss a ball to one student at a time and ask them their name and how they're doing, and this was mildly effective. Many kids were just silent when I tossed it to them…its not such a good idea to put young ones on the spot. Having the class as a whole repeat things worked much better. To fill the remaining 15 minutes, we learn the days of the week. They are super excited about this because they already know it. When I write "Today is ______." about a third of the students jump up and start waving and snapping their hands (instead of simply raising their hands, they all do this kid of snapping thing…its like they're snapping their fingers, but they're actually flicking their wrists really hard to make a noise…its weird.) So everybody wants to say that today is Tuesday. We review "tomorrow is _______" and "Yesterday was _________," which they had not learned yet. Sr. Charlotte had to explain that. Well, after my hour of teaching, Sr. Charlotte taught them an English praise song with hand motions and movements. I sat in the back and participated with them. It was so awesome to see them sing and dance – they really love this type of stuff. They're very loud, not at all shy or reserved with their voices! And they like the motions too. It was quite a blessing to watch them all sing "This is the day that the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it."

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English Class

11/24/09
In my English class on Monday, I showed the children a magazine picture and presented a made-up story that I had written about the girl in the picture. Then, I divided the class into groups and gave each group a different magazine picture. They were instructed to create a story of their own. They wrote these stories down, handed them in, and I corrected them that evening. This was a pretty good activity. It took quite a while for them to complete it, and it really allowed me to see their writing ability. The focus was again on clothing, since that was what we'd been talking about. So they had to describe the people's outfits in the picture, and then imagine what is happening in the scene. One group did a very nice job of creatively elaborating on the picture. Theirs was just a simple image of two teenage girls talking on the phone. Well, they had this drama going on about one of the girls is talking to her friend, but her friend loves the other one. The one wants to know which is her true friend, but she doesn't know that she actually loves the other one. The sentence structure was quite confusing for me – I got the gist of what they wanted to say, but I spent a long time correcting this one and trying to make comprehensible sentences. The other groups did a pretty good job of describing the people's outfits and naming them and giving them ages. But no other group really had such a good story to go along with their description :) Nearly all the groups had problems with including "a" before they describe a singular noun. For example, I found a lot of  "She is wearing red sweater."

After class, Jean d'Amour comes up to me and says that he wants me to give him a gift. There was a bit more explanation to this, but that's basically what he said. I told him that I don't have anything to give him, but he says he wants me to get him a book or something.  Here we go again…expecting that I'm made of money…we debate back and forth as I walk him to the gate, and all the while he keeps telling me that you give someone a gift to show your affection for them. I tell him that I would if I could, but I really don't have anything to give. He says to me "if your heart obliges you to give something, you give it. You hate me then?" I just start cracking up and explain that refusal to give something to someone does not signify hatred. He's laughing too at this point. I tell him "Jean d'Amour, I am giving you my friendship. Isn't that enough for you? Why do you want someTHING?" And at this point we meet up with Sr. Charlotte, who asks what's going on. Jean d'Amour explains his request and she gives him this look of "you are ridiculous, go home." She sides with me and says that its enough that I am giving my time and friendship, now get outta here. It was quite comical.

Patronage!

11/24/09

Monday was my first day of Patronage – it was awesome! We get there a bit before 8am, and there are already a good number of kiddos waiting for us to bust out the bag of balls and ropes and other toys. We basically just play with them for the next half hour until there are about 150 kids. I decided I'd join these 2 girls, probably about 9 years old, who were bouncing around these tennis ball type things. They were very curious about me, as are all African children towards a muzungu, and they just stare and stare at you. So I motion for one of them to throw the ball to me, and she does, and we start up a nice game of catch. We quickly attracted about 5 other girls, and it turned into a game of keep-away/fetch/fake-out/bounce the ball wherever you want. Pretty soon there were 10 of us, and they were laughing and having so much fun! They really liked to throw fakes.

There was also this little troublemaker boy who I decided to chase around. I don't even really remember how this started, but he would get all scared-excited whenever I'd catch him looking at me and he would run away. So I would run after him and a bunch of other kids would either laugh or follow me.

Well after a while of that it was time to round everybody up and begin.

So we form a huge circle and Fabrice, one of the Animateurs, leads everybody in a Kinyarwanda cheer that all the kids know. We're marching and dancing around in this circle, we're clapping, they're singing and I'm just smiling and going along with it, and the kids love every second. I had my little friend whom I chased around right next to me, and I would clap and dance extra crazy whenever he stealthily shot a glance at me. He and his friend would just laugh and laugh. We also do the umugari song, which is about the classic African dish that you eat with your hands – I believe I've posted about this previously, its delicious. This cheer is complete with hand motions to indicate that you break off a piece of umugari, dip it in the sauce, put it in your tummy, and mmm mmm good. Then there was also this very weird meat game. Yes, meat. I had no clue what we were jumping forwards and back for, but I was holding hands with some kids so I'd jump whenever they did. Fabrice gave me a brief run-down to inform me that when the leader says a meat that you eat, you jump forward. If you jump for a meat that you don't eat, such as zebra, you have to go in prison in the center of the circle. Hm.

We played clapping-circle games for at least 45 minutes, then the kids got in lines to sing Patronage songs (all in Kinyarwanda). These are more bible-camp type songs, and they all know the words very well and loooove to sing! I just kind of stand at the back and observe. Then they all proceed into the classrooms of the public primary school where Patronage is hosted.

We have a shortage of animators, so the children are in three groups – Malaika ("angels") which are the littlest ones, ages 3-5 then Abapietro ("St. Peter") which are the middle kids, ages 6-9, then Abastrong ("strong") for the older kids, age 10 and up. Each group has at least 40 kids, and there are 2 animators for each group. So each group packs into a classroom, which miraculously fits everyone, I'm not sure how.

The rooms back at Centre de Formation Maïn (the school the Sisters run) are much nicer than this one. Here, the rooms are very small, and the desks are large wooden benches with old wooden tabletops attached to them. Each one sits 3 or 4 students, and they are all thoroughly carved in and written on by all the bored students who have spent their days in these desks. And there is no electricity in the school. Each room is illuminated by the sunlight peering through the windows and through a panel on the ceiling. Its actually quite effective. But the walls and floor are pretty dirty, and there is only one blackboard at the front of the room – this is the only teaching medium available. But, our rockin animators do their job with what they have! The animators teach the kids about advent, they read them bible passages, they teach them poems about Baby Jesus, and they teach them songs to correspond with what they've learned.

All of the formation that the animators teach is in Kinyarwanda, so I just sat outside one of the classrooms and played with two really little kids, probably about 2 years old. They were 2 girls who wandered over from I have no idea where. They just sort of smiled and giggled at me, so I was smiling and making faces at them and playing little hand-clapping games with them. For a good 20 minutes they just gave me high-fives, and then my hands were covered in dirt. But I had brought along my little bottle of hand sanitizer, so I cleaned up, don't worry. Both of these girls were super cute, with big baby eyes and cute little smiles. But they were sooo dirty! One of them had a torn dress on, and she had obviously been sitting in the dirt, because her undies, which I could visibly see through her torn dress, were all dirty. The other little one was wearing a jumper with a hood – it was actually really cute…picture a little kid running at you with a dark blue fleece onesie on, all the way from her ankles to her head. But she too had a big dirt splotch on her butt. I wondered if these kids were potty trained…I think so, but if not that could lead to some major problems with all the dirt they're sitting in. Well after a while a very fierce-looking mother comes out from behind the school, and immediately the girl with the torn dress starts crying and tries to hide behind me. I realize that this was her mama who must have not known where she was, and yep, now she found her, playing with a muzungu, tsk tsk. I felt really bad, that I should have made sure these were Patronage kids before I started playing with them. But I really have no means of asking since I don't speak Kinyarwanda, and since their parents were no where around I assumed they were ours. Well I motioned to the little girl that she had better go by her mama, and she eventually did, crying the whole way. The mom took off her sandal and threw it at her. I was a bit shocked by that, but I think its pretty normal around here for parents to hit their kids. Throwing shoes I'm not so sure…It didn't hit her very hard though. Not that I'm condoning this or anything…

After the kids in the classrooms finish about an hour of formation with the animators, they all come back outside for playtime. Well, this was interesting. We again bring out all the balls and jump ropes, and many of the kids start forming their own soccer games or catch or jump rope or what have you. A small cluster of them just circle around me, like they want me to put on a show or something. So, I say we should play follow the leader. I grab hands with one kid and have the rest grab on to each other, and motion to the leader that we'll follow them. She has no idea what I'm getting at. So I take the lead and start skipping around, and then they all follow me in a pack. This gains a few more kiddos. So I skip around some more, changing the move to jumping, running, clapping, all kinds of things. I'm now pretty tired, so I point to someone else and say "your turn, go!" But again, no idea what I'm saying. This game has really become "do whatever the muzungu is doing." So I continue to roll with it…we walk over to an open patch of field, and I attempt to play Simon Says. Now, right off the bat I know this won't work because they don't know enough English. But if I do the moves along with them they'll just copy it. So we really played the "mirror" game. Put your hands up, jump, touch the ground, stick your elbow out, face that way, run over here, touch the ground, run that way, run over there, run that way, run over there, stand up, touch the ground, stand up, touch the ground, faster faster faster!!!! They were laaaaaughing a lot and I was having a good time but this game is exhausting! Fortunately for me, it was time to reconvene.

To end the morning's activities, the kids perform for each other the poems and songs that the animators taught them.

 They line up again in their groups, each one performs their piece, we do a special "bravo" clap for each group, and we sing the Patronage song one more time. Then everybody goes home, ta da! As soon as they were dismissed, I was mobbed by a hoard of kids proudly saying "bye" in English and wanting to shake my hand. I did my best to give high-fives or handshakes, but there were so many. I just had to sort of push my way through them to join the animators and Sr. Charlotte for our de-briefing meeting afterwards.

Morning Formation

11/13/09 Morning formation with the Animators was again great. I brought out 3 of the little cloth balloons that one of the retired Sisters in San Anotnio made, and we had a good time. I was explaining how we play this game – everyone holds hands in a circle, and you have to keep the ball in the air without breaking the circle. As I'm explaining that we all have to hold hands, John, one of the flirty ones, goes "J'ai un petit problème…" and moves so that he's right next to me. We all just laughed! Well, the game ended up being too hard because of the wind, but we had fun just playing volleyball with them. Again everything was in Kinyarwanda, so I practiced patience. Then we practiced one of the crafts that we'll be doing with the kids – tracing our hands and cutting them out and writing our name and "love" or "peace" or any other inspirational word (in Kinyarwanda) on them. This sounds like an easy enough task for most of you reading this, but for the people living in developing countries it’s quite difficult. In primary school, children don't have art class, so they miss the prime developmental age for training the small muscles in the hands and arms to be able to swiftly cut around curves and corners. Most of the Animators had to do 2 or 3 hands so they could practice using scissors. Sr. Charlotte was helping them see where their errors were – either they traced one of their fingers too narrow and it looked unnatural, or their cutting was jagged, or they couldn't maneuver around the little corner where the fingers meet the palm. It was another eye-opener that helped me to see the many things we take for granted in America.

We then made paper hats. This only involved folding, so it was not as complex an activity for the Animators.

They decorated them nicely, and then we all went to take a nice picture, which failed because my battery died. Sad.

We had a pretty good time getting organized for this picture though – it took a good 5 minutes because everyone was arguing about how we should squish to fit, and people's hats kept blowing off.

I had a nice chat with Liberata, one of the Animators, a wonderfully smiley one. She said that she really wants to learn English, and I said we can make an English-Kinyarwanda exchange. She was very happy about this idea and squeezed my hand in an approving gesture. I've noticed that friends do that a lot, either hold hands or are just more touchy-feely than Americans. One thing that I appreciate very much here is that everyone greets everyone with a handshake. If you walk into a room, you go say hello to each individual person and shake their hand. I'm gonna try to continue this when I'm back home…I really don't know why we only do this in professional settings…

Finally, we sorted toys that will be used at Muhato's Patronage and at Rubavu's Patronage (a neighboring city where Sr. Charlotte will be working a few days a week as well as here at Muhato parish). It was very much a Third World toy sorting. We brought two huge burlap bags of stuff and dumped them out on the bare cement floor.

The "toys" consisted of many tin cans, bottle caps, a bunch of colorful film canisters with filmstrips in them, a jump rope, 2 very good condition soccer balls, a handful of worn-out soccer balls, 3 balls made from trash bags, pieces of rope, some sticks, pieces of silverware, a sack full of bean bags, several Styrofoam blocks, and several whistles. It was rather heartbreaking to see this, and also a bit shocking to see the ideas that people were coming up with. Example: lets stick the handle of the fork in our mouths and see if we can carry a beanbag on the end of the fork. My thoughts: get that out of your mouth!!!!!! While I do embrace doing a lot with a little and making something fun out of just a few resources, I do not advocate sticking dirty old silverware in your mouth in order to come up with a good game. I wish that bottlecaps and tin cans were not the most abundant "toy" in the batch. But I am still confident that the kids will have a blast with whatever games we make up out of this stuff. We had fun doing lots of cheers/chants and playing volleyball outside today. Everyone got a turn riling everybody up with a cheer (I did not, because all of this is in Kinyarwanda…I don't mind though). I am constantly amazed at how not a single Rwandese soul is afraid to sing loudly and dance around. Its wonderful! We also practiced Patronage songs, which are all in Kinyarwanda. Even with the songbooks (thank God for songbooks) I still had a difficult time because the words are so long and complex. We also made teams and came up with a team cheer (in Kinyarwanda)…that was interesting, but I still had an uber fun time. I really spend most of this time smiling and laughing and not thinking about how out-of-place I must be, but instead just diving right in and doing my best to do whatever my comrades are doing.

Later that evening, I had the most hysterical fit of laughter that I've had since I've been here. Fr. Antoine, Fr. Théophile, and Sr. Charlotte all came for an English lesson on vowel pronunciation. It went very well. At the end, I asked if I could get a picture of my students. So they lined up real nice and I took a lovely photo. Well, upon seeing it, Fr. Antoine says "Oh no, we must retake. I don't look good. My head is tilted. I am not standing straight and tall. I do not look serious." The three of us bust out laughing and completely make fun of his remarks, but he insists that we must take another one. Well, I was stifling some laughter as I took the second one, couldn't hold it in, and burst out laughing as the photo took, resulting in a nice blur. So it actually took three tries to get it right. And even at that, Fr. Antoine was still not satisfied. I'm not sure what was wrong with the third one, since he didn't make us redo it again, but he had a thing or two to say about his appearance. I've really grown to love this man's demeanor. Pretty much, he is hilarious. He's a very young, hip priest who always has a smile on his face and can often bring laughter into any situation.

Bringin Bunny Back

11/11/09 Today all the Animator formation was in Kinyarwanda, so I did a lot of praying for the group. However, we shared some more good times cutting out cardboard stars. And, as our icebreaker before we began, I taught the group "bunny bunny." Yes, it has now been spread transatlantic…get ready world. It was really funny, everyone was laughing a lot, so I'm glad it was a success! I was sort of worried it would be too complex. Not so. Then, John, the coordinator for the Animators, busted out some crazy French song that everyone knew. We danced around in a little circle with coordinated moves, and at some point the words were "I'm looking for the prettiest girl who will dance with me" or something, and the leader grabs a lady and everybody links arms with a partner and dances around. I was happy to be chosen as the pretty lady, yay! John led a couple more, then Sr. Charlotte whipped out some similar Kinyarwanda chant/song/dances. It was so cool doing these with them, even though I was learning on-the-spot. Everyone just gets so into it with a huge smile on their face, and singing dancing with all their might – especially the guys! And mind you, this is outside, so naturally anybody who is walking by stops and looks at us. Now, a note about the surroundings. We are hosting Patronage at Muhato parish, which has several halls in which we can host the Animator formation. But outside there is an ongoing process of demolishing old houses that were once on the property. There are always workers outside with shovels and rickety old wheelbarrows that look like they could collapse at any moment. It seems to be the most inefficient way to clear out bricks, but people come and go with little cushions to put on their heads so they can carry bricks out. Even little kids come to carry bricks – that's the sad part that I hate to see. I don't know if their parents are sending them to work, or if they just have nothing else to do since school is not in session. But no little child should have to carry bricks on their head either to work or to fill vacant hours of the day.
The Animators really like to ask me about differences between here and the States. Today the first question I received was "In the United States, its very easy to get money, yes?" I had to explain that no, its not, and actually right now there are many people without jobs. They also asked me about the weather and what snow is like. Its kind of crazy because there will be a commotion of Kinyarwanda, and then all of a sudden I hear a "Jacqui" interspersed in there. So then I ask what they're saying about me, and like 3 people will answer all at once. I've noticed that people tend to interrupt me a lot when I talk…this might be an American politeness difference. Its actually quite humorous – I was explaining the weather in America, and during my explanation someone else asked me what the weather is like at home. I just laughed and replied, "I am telling you…you have to listen…"
Sr. Charlotte and I again had a wonderful time getting supplies ready for tomorrow's formation. As we sorted and boxed things, she taught me the Kinyarwanda words to one of the Mass songs that I know the tune to but don't know the words. Now I know the words :) We have a really fun time together, especially with things concerning music. I find that we tend to make a rhythm/beat out of things, such as walking and talking, and then just take it and run and we end up laughing up a storm. She also had me practice the little dance that people do during Mass, since I told her that I've always wanted to join but am too self-conscious. So we danced, and it was good. I think I'm gonna ask her if she'll stand up and do it with me tomorrow.
We ate umugari for lunch and dinner today – very good and very traditional! Its polenta made from cassava root. I’m not entirely sure what polenta is, but it looks like a heap of bread dough made from the cassava flour. You take a heap, pour some tomato-fish sauce on your plate, along with cooked greens, and a piece of boiled fish (still with scales and eyes and bones…fresh from Lake Kivu!). Then you use your hands to break off a piece of the polenta and dip it in the sauce, and you grab some greens and fish while you're at it. It was so goooood. We've eaten fish surprisingly few times here, but it always tastes so amazing…I love it.

hmmm...

11/11/09 Ok, weird thing happened to me today after Mass. An older woman with her son came up to me afterward, very nice and smiley, and said something in Kinyarwanda. I told her in French that I didn't understand, but she just kept repeating it and was grabbing onto her breast. I maintained a look of "I have no idea what you're saying," and we parted ways. Well, I asked Sr. Charlotte what that was all about, and she told me that the woman said "I am your mother!" Yes, grabbing your boob is how you indicate motherhood. Fitting, I guess. But she explained that this fits into the mentality of "white people are rich, so if I'm their friend they'll give me money." I've never met this woman or even seen her before, and she's already calling me her daughter. Therefore, this was probably not a sincere gesture to be kind to the foreigner; it was self-seeking. It was a good reminder that I must be careful with friendships here, as you can't really tell who is genuine and who is just after your perceived (yet false) infinite wealth.

More Animator Fun

11/10/09 Today after Mass I had 2 delightful conversations on my own! The principal of the nearby public school recognized me from when I came to Lorraine & Pauline's thank you party. So I talked with him and another teacher about how the weather in the States is very cold right now. Usually that's one of the first things people ask me – "Comment vous trouvez le climat en Rwanda?" Then, as I was just outside the mission gate, there were a man and a woman outside a car randomly parked on the road. I said "hello" in Kinyarwanda, and they asked me something else that I didn't understand, so I went over to chat. We had a very nice talk in French, again about the weather, and they asked me about my life with the Salesians. The man who was doing most of the talking spoke English, so he told me in English how it is very hard to understand American accents because the English that Rwandans are taught has a thick French influence. He said he lived just a few kilometers beyond the compound, and said that they want to come by for a visit, and if I ever want someone to show me around I can come by! We never exchanged any additional contact info, so I kind of don't forsee this happening, but who knows!
Working with the Animateurs again was amazing today! We had 8 of them today. Mostly everything was in French, so I was really able to participate in everything. We had more fun playing goofy icebreaker games at the beginning, and then we did this activity to help us see the worldly things to which we are too attached. We were asked to "pack a suitcase" for a trip. Two guys were baggage check officers, and one was a customs officer, and the rest of us were passengers. We each had to write down what we're packing, and we were all given a boarding pass. It was actually really fun. I'm assuming none of the Animateurs had ever traveled anywhere, because they had tons of questions asking for clarification about what they're supposed to do. Sr. Gisèle was giving lots of examples about what you need to take when you go on a trip, and lots of Kinyarwanda explanation was given. One thing I've learned to appreciate on a deeper level is my education. Things like comprehending directions quickly truly come from the overall school experience, rather than textbooks/lectures. Well anyways, before we boarded the "plane" which was just a different row of benches, we had to remove some things from our suitcases because they were too heavy. This then segway'd into what things can we remove from our lives that distract us from following Christ. We ordered aspects of our lives (work, school, family, friends, etc) by priority, and every single Animateur put either God or prayer as number 1 on the list. It was very uplifting to see how willingly the Animateurs shared their responses! They were mostly in Kinyarwanda, but there was never an awkward silence in which no one wanted to volunteer their thoughts. It was really cool, like being in bible study again!
Then we did some practical work where we cut out cardboard stars that the kids at Patronage would decorate. This was really great, good bonding – I was joking around with the two guys next to me. Jean Paul was always stealing my stuff, first my pen, then my scissors, and Stany was joking around that any of the good stars you find are the ones that he and I cut out. There was a lot of Kinyarwanda conversation going on, but Sr. Charlotte would interject and ask me if I knew what they said, because it was either about me or about English. They are all such welcoming people – even though the conversation was way over my head, I never felt unnecessary, excluded, or unwanted.
Afterwards we had to carry our supplies to the mission, and about five of the Animateurs wanted to come with me to get the keys. We walked and talked and they taught me some more Kinyarwanda words, and Edouard asked me if I had a real boarding pass from when I came here, and if he could look at it. I'll be bringing that with me tomorrow :) I can't wait to see them for English classes at Patronage, because I feel like we're already on a companionship basis. They're all about the same age as me – between 16 and 21. So pretty soon I get to be their goofy teacher who was first their friend.

An uninvited dinner guest...

11/9/09

Before dinner tonight I went to my room to wash my hands, and as I'm walking through the dark hallway towards the illuminated dining room, I see something black dart through the bright light of the dining room. I'm like "please tell me that was just a weird shadow…" with an uneasy feeling in my gut. So I warily emerge into the dinning room, and yep, sure enough, its not a shadow, it’s a bat. And Sr. Charlotte and Sr. Candide are just sitting at the table eating and talking as if it’s a normal occasion.
"Is there a bat flying around?!" I say, kind of stammeringly because I'm freaked out.
"Yes, just come sit down." Replies Sr. Charlotte with perfect calmness.
What?! How can I sit down? There is a nocturnal flying creature disturbing my meal! You told me I didn't need the rabies vaccine! I quickly run to my spot at the table while the bat continues to circle, and all the while I'm squirming and laughing and screaming a little bit. Aaaaah what if it flies under the table into my legs?! Sr. Charlotte says to me "You're really afraid aren't you?" And I explain my fear of close-flying things, birds and bats included. They're really surprised at my reaction, probably just as surprised as I am at their lack thereof. We shut off the lights and turn on the hallway lights to try to get it to fly out, but that doesn't really work. But just after we had turned them back on, it flew into the hallway and I gave this huuuuge sigh of relief. Unfortunately, it flew into the hallway, not outside. It probably came from the ceiling, where we had 2 workers remove a ceiling tile to fix our roof. So yeah, it lives with us I guess.
I asked them if that happens a lot, and they both kind of shrugged and were like, "Yeah." And I said, "Oh good." This will be a fun adventure. Maybe when I come back I will have been desensitized to my irrational fear…

First formation with the Animators

11/9/09 So, we're putting on a 'vacation bible school' called Patronage for all the neighborhood kids, and high schoolers are invited to be Animateurs, or junior camp counselors. They receive some training and special faith formation, which began today. This was so amazing…so, first, a bit about the laxity of time here. My lessons with the Father's have never started more than 10 minutes late, and I've learned to expect things to start much later than planned. It really doesn't get to me, I just bring a book to read or something. I've heard stories from enough people who've studied abroad and have been really frustrated with this aspect of many other cultures, so I've learned to not let it frustrate me! Well, today the Animateurs were supposed to arrive at 8am. Dear Felicien, our youngest Animateur whom you'll hear more about, was there promptly, early even which is probably waaaay unheard of, and he was all ready with his notebook and folder, ready to learn. Well, we decided we should wait for more to show up. After 30 minutes or so we had a second, and finally at 9am we had 5 total and began our formation. Wow. We seriously sat around and did nothing, just chatted, for an hour. That would never happen in the States – if people are no-show's for 15, maybe 20 minutes, the whole thing would have just been cancelled!
I absolutely LOVED working with the Animateurs! First of all, during a little conversation with Felicien, I learned the Kinyarwanda words for physics, chemistry, math, and "bless you" if someone sneezes. I don't know the French word for "sneeze" so I was just demonstrating it to get him to understand what I was asking. But he really didn't get it until after repeated demonstrations. It was probably quite a sight too see but ah well, s'all good. I have since forgotten all of these words except chemistry (uwatambili?), even after Felicien reminded me again the next day… Felicien is such a funny little guy, he's 16 years old, and is a bit quiet, but he was just laughing at me as I struggled to pronounce these words. He's pretty soft-spoken, as I've found most Rwandans are, but we really had a nice conversation. Plus, he wants to be a priest! He's very dedicated, as suggested by his promptness and preparedness.
We all played Concentration and an introductions game with balloons, which was super fun with lots of laughing. Its so very true that people have many more similarities than they do differences – here I am across the Atlantic and goofy circle clapping games and balloons are still a major source of laughter and entertainment! To get to know one another we were paired up and just walked around or went somewhere to talk to that person. I had a really nice time talking to Fabrice, a very experienced Animateur, whose French was very comprehensible. Sr. Gisèle led us through a little reflection about why we are here, for whom are we becoming Animateurs, do our lives imitate Christ's, do we strive to be His disciples? It was mostly in French, so I was able to follow along without much difficulty. It was so beautiful to see the Animateur's nonverbal responses – they all had this genuine look about their faces of true peace, and a true desire to be Animateurs because they love God
Then came Fr. Antoine's talk about Christmas, which is what Patronage is preparing the little kids for. This was all in Kinyarwanda. So I decided I would pray for everyone. I prayed for all of our Animateurs, each by name, then for Patronage, then for St. Paul's and for many friends and dear ones back in Madison and at home. I was filled with sooo much joy – as I was remembering all these things about home, I didn't feel at all homesick or like I was missing my comfortable social sphere. Instead, I looked at where I was – here in this smallish building with a bare cement floor and long wooden benches and a little bird walking around pecking stuff and I can't understand any of what is being said. But this is exactly where I am supposed to be. This is where I belong – I have been given specific qualities so that I can do exactly this – be a friend, be energetic, be Christian, be present – to people who don't own much, but have much inner beauty. Yes, home and St. Paul's are wonderful places from which came irreplaceable, unique, wonderful memories. But this is now; this is Muhato Parish in Gisenyi, Rwanda, and this is where I belong. What a good place to be!

Made a friend!

11/7/09 First time walking into "town" by myself. I loaded up my backpack with my laptop and camera and flash drive with the intention of using an internet café or some wireless at a hotel. I began the 45-minute trek with a delighted certainty that soon I'd have a trail of small followers. Somewhat to my dismay, I only ended up with one very brief, but quite large, group of young'uns following me. I waved and "Bonjour"d or "Mwiriwe"d to everyone, and waved especially fanatically to the children, who were always brimming with giggles and "Muzungu! Muzungu!"s. But most of the kiddos did not latch on and trail behind. Except at this one house, there were like 15 children playing something, and they all started following me after I greeted them. But this man walking a bit in front of me turned around and yelled something at them in Kinyarwanda. I'm assuming he was telling them that I didn't want them following me, because shortly thereafter they all dispersed. Bummer. Oh well, next time.
Well, I continued on my way and eventually a guy about my age struck up a nice French conversation with me! I had a hard time understanding what he was saying, but he actually spoke pretty good English, so he'd insert the English word whenever I was clueless. He assumed I was Italian for some reason, probably my accent I guess. And it turns out he was an Animator (like a junior camp counselor) at Patronage (a 'vacation bible school' that we're putting on next week) for the past 2 years. He said he'd be back again this year – yay for making a friend that I might see again! Well, he ended up walking me all the way to the internet café, which was at least another half-hour away. I'm sooooo glad he did because I would not have found the place on my own. It was jammed in this building with about 6 other shops, and it was up on the second floor, and even if I would have found the right place, it was not what I was expecting. I figured I'd be going to a café, a coffee shop, where I could whip out my computer and use their wireless. Well, there is no coffee, just a dozen large, antiquated, semi-private desktop computers jammed into a small room. I wouldn't have known what to do – pay first? Just sit down and start working and pay later? Plus, it turns out that this little place had no connection (see, I wouldn't have known to ask if they've got connectivity. And when the cashier would have told me that they don't, I likely would not have understood and would have just smiled and continued to try to connect while looking stupid. Yes.) So, Amiral walked me to another café just down the road. This one looked the same, and had a connection. And again fortunately for me he took care of the entire transaction – talked to the cashier, asked me how many minutes I wanted to pay for (its $0.20 USD for 15 minutes), handed my money to the cashier, and directed me where to sit. Then, he proceeds to sit down at a nearby computer and check his own email! At this point I'm like . . . nuh uh…you're not gonna sit here till I'm done are you? Its gonna be a long time, and didn't you have something you were going to do today? I'm pretty sure you weren't planning on coming here…You just went half an hour out of your way being insanely kind and hospitable – you've done enough! But he did some computing for another half hour and then finally parted after I gave him tons of thanks. What a nice guy!

Inhore dancers

I accompanied Lorraine, Pauline, Sr. Iwona, Sr. Charlotte, and Michel to the "thank you" party hosted by the public school just down the road from Centre de Formation. At first I felt a bit out of place because they had all of us sit on chairs and watch the kids perform songs and dances for us. I really didn't deserve to be part of this "thank you" fest because I didn't teach here at all! It was just Lorraine and Pauline! But the director of the school welcomed me just as much as he did them. And then, when the kids started performing, I lost all sense of being out of place…they were incredible! The young children were lined up very nicely in 3 lines. They sang a song in Kinyarwanda complete with clapping and coordinated stomping, and their faces were so bright and smiley! Then, another group of slightly older students came out with a drum and started singing and clapping something more intricate, and a group of 8 girls came out and danced the traditional Inhore! They were so elegant and beautiful, and only in 6th grade! Lots of slow arm movements – the wrists and the neck motions play a vital part. They looked like they were having a great time. After the girls did about 3 different dances, 3 boys about 12 or 13 years old came out and did another traditional male Inhore dance. It was so intensive – lots more jumping and large arm movements than the women. And they also had huge smiles on their faces. Incredible! And us observers just smiled and clapped along with the choir, cheering "Bravo!" It was so awesome. Later Sr. Charlotte said that the girls will want to teach me the movements. And I abso-freakin-lutely want to learn J
I've decided that I need to do most or all of my lesson planning sitting on a chair outside facing the garden and the beautiful Rwandan hill, which is one of thousands, that is right on the other side of the compound. So today I colored pictures of clothing on this poster Kathryn had made sitting outside. I simply can't sit at a desk inside when the weather is so fantastic. And its like this all year J
I spent a good 2 hours today playing cards with Lorraine, Pauline, Sr. Candide, and Joanne. I do have my own lesson planning to do, but they're leaving tomorrow L I'll really miss their company. Sr. Candide amazes me – she's 70 years old, and is the Mother Superior of this mission, yet she will sit and play cards with her volunteers during the middle of a Monday! And she stayed up with us till after 10pm last night playing cards – she was a hoot! When she cleared out all the cards in her hand, she let out this excellent little "Heh! Heh! Heh!" She is a 35 year old deep inside I think.
We also had our meeting about planning the Patronage today. It was all in French, but I was pleasantly surprised with the amount I comprehended. I took some notes with the intention of asking one of the Sisters if I missed anything crucial…haven't had the chance. Truth be told, my presence at this meeting was probably not necessary. We discussed a lot of broader issues that I am not a part of, but it was very good practice for my French listening, and it is good to have a bigger picture in my head about what this will entail. Plus, Père Valence and Père Antoine said they want me to come by tomorrow at 5pm to have a first English conversation practice session. They both are very eager to practice, so I'm pretty psyched to go there.

And then there were three...

Today Michel, Lorraine, and Pauline left. I was very sad to see them go, and I will dearly miss their company, their conversation, and all the laughter they brought! So, there were only three of us here today: me, Sr. Charlotte, and Sr. Iwona. Immaculée, a former student who has been picking up some part-time work around the mission, has been cooking lunch for us and eating with us, so it was nice to eat with her today too. Sr. Charlotte and I bonded quite a bit today. She's so young, can't be more than 27 or 28 years old, so we find lots of the same things to be humorous, thus we get along quite well! We worked together for a few hours preparing arts and crafts for the Patronage. We basically looked through boxes in this warehouse to see what kinds of craft supplies we could find. We found a bag of bean bags, and we made two towers of Styrofoam pieces that were packaging parts for printer cartridges, and decided that these towers could provide for a nice game in which the bean bags are used to knock down the opposing team's tower. And we found plenty of crayons and paper, but not the cardstock kind, which is unfortunately what we were in search of. So then we decided we'd look for materials with which the children can make hats for Christmas. Sr. Charlotte found a box filled with empty cookie boxes. These cookie boxes fit nicely on top of the head, so we'll just decorate them and boom there you go! I love this – being creative with random scraps (Styrofoam and cardboard cookie boxes, stuff you'd normally throw away. Yes, much creative potential lies within). Kids certainly don't need fancy pre-cut foam crafts…you can make so much with what you have right here!
Then Sr. Iwona put me to work making a folder of digital pictures showing the chronology of how the mission in Gisenyi came to be. She showed me lots of these pictures yesterday, and it was quite enjoyable to look at the very early stages. This mission was only built in 2003, and the church right next door was just completed in August 2009. I'm in the midst of brand new goodness! So I looked through photos for quite a long time, and then Sr. Iwona had me use my digital camera to take pictures of non-digital pictures. It worked surprisingly well, quality's not as bad as you'd expect! It was pouring rain too, just like yesterday. It was really nice having all 3 of us working in the library for a few hours today, I felt very at home. I'm feeling more and more comfortable and at ease here, and I think having the smaller group today helped a lot.
Fr. Valence and Fr. Antoine came by at 5pm today for our first English "lesson." I had a lot of fun with Sr. Iwona right before they got here – they were late, so we were just hanging out outside waiting for them so we could unlock the gate to let them in. So we went under the huge gazebo in the middle of the yard and twirled around. Delightful!
I had such a great time "tutoring" the priests! I say "tutoring" because it was really just a conversation hour. They asked me things about life in the U.S. – what is the educational system like, healthcare, the Church – and then they'd tell me about how it’s different in Rwanda. I learned a lot! They were so grateful and very eager about the next seven months – they say they’re going to be fluent by then, and honestly they probably will be! They said they really benefit from just the listening and speaking practice, and they're recruiting other priests (and I guess some Sisters) from the area, so it’s very possible that this could turn into a large class! And we're aiming at making this a more structured class, not just a conversation hour, even though that is extremely beneficial. So I'm gonna plan a few things out for tomorrow. Oh yes, they want to come back tomorrow! Not sure if this is going to be a daily thing for the next 7 months, but I'm down with it if it is. It was tons of fun and very rewarding knowing that I can help them so much by just talking. Talking slowly and clearly, that is.

Muhato daily Mass

I started today with daily Mass at Muhato parish, and it was the best possible way to begin the day! I've been pretty eager to get my usual spiritual routine going again, but I had to sleep in the first few days here rather than get up for 6:15am mass. Its in Kinyarwanda, so I don't understand a thing, but God is so steadfast and unchanging that He still comes into that little wafer at every Mass, no matter where I am around the world. Its so amazing…first of all, tons of people come. Basically the entire town came to daily Mass. And there are 4 altar servers (on a Monday!). The church is brand new, and there aren't pews or kneelers, just long wooden benches. And there are huge windows and the sun streams through in the most indescribable way!!!! There are no hymnals, just amazing songs that everyone knows by heart. There are only voices, clapping, and a drum. Everybody worships very freely here. Some people kneel down on the cement during the Consecration, others remain standing, others bend their knees on the bench in front of them. And …this is the best part…right after the Consecration, when the priest holds up the Host, everyone applauds! Here I am expecting the solemn silence we have at St. Paul's along with a nice profound bow, and instead there's cheering and clapping! I love it! One of the Sisters later explained to me that in Rwanda applause is how you welcome someone, and since the King of Kings is coming, we welcome Him all the more. And…this is another best part… during a song after Communion, lots of people are standing up and swaying, moving their arms, dancing in their "pew!!!" I hope that one day in the next 7 months I get the courage to stand up and join them.


and p.s. (there's really no fitting place for this picture, but how can I not share it?) - check out the African millipedes! They're actually the best kind of pede to run into. They can't move very fast, and if you poke them, they curl up into a little ball. Delightful!

"downtown" Gisenyi

Today I went with Sr. Iwona and Michel into town so that I could buy calling cards for my phone. Town was a bit frightening and unsettling. And it was raining pretty hard…makes for a treacherous journey. I have never seen such poverty before. Everyone tries to find shelter from the rain, but many people are just standing against buildings that don't have much of an overhang. And many people are still walking/biking around outside. The city looks exactly like you'd picture a third world city…buildings made of cement with tin roofs, puddles and mud all over the place, very densely packed houses with no glass or screens on the windows. Then we get into the more "business" district, where there are shops that also look very run down, but are brightly painted. There's a small shop that sells stereos and boom boxes, another that advertises "Amata & Fanta" or "milk and soda," bakeries, foreign exchange stations, and tons of other small shops specializing in this or that. We first stop to get bread, then we exchange some empty glass bottles for ones filled with soda, then we park the car and get out to walk to the stand where they sell phone cards.
Then we head for the market. Now, the market is crazy. It’s a building with tons of long tables inside where people are selling bananas, cabbage, maracuja (passion fruit), starfruit, other fruits that I don't recognize, carrots, potatoes, and lots of other produce. It seems that the vendors each only sell one item, rather than a bunch of items as they usually do at the Farmer's Market around Capitol Square. Everyone sort of stares at us as we join the packed warehouse. A little boy tries to help put our purchases in our sack, and Sr. Iwona gives him as stern look and tells him no. I've been a little surprised with the way the Sisters handle this kind of behavior, which happens a lot. There are lots of people who come by and try to sell them things or try to be of some kind of help. I guess I assumed that nuns would very gently and lovingly turn them down, but these Sisters are bold. I trust that they're legit in doing so, because perhaps they've been kind in the past and found that it only results in greater pursuance by unwanted salesmen. Besides, they've been doing this waaaay longer than my wimpy 4 days…So I'm trying to be very understanding in the way they deal with the poor people who come to them, and I'm trying to learn my place in how I should react. My first instinct towards these people is to smile and politely say "No thank you," but perhaps I will need to change this accordingly. I'm open to learning the ways of life here.
I was pretty glad to get back to the mission, and I realize more deeply now that the standard of living in the mission is extremely good. I do not feel guilty about being comfortable; this is how every person should live, with water enough to drink and bathe, a private room to sleep and work in, and food enough to eat. May all the impoverished nations of the world be continually brought more and more toward this standard of life by the generosity of others.

Another random fun event – We did a little Zumba after dinner – me, three nuns, and 2 Canadian volunteers. I love that this is now the third time I've taught a Zumba class for Salesian nuns! Since then, they've decided that I will be doing lots of dancing with the kids at Patronage, the “summer camp” that we put on for the neighborhood children during these two months that they have off of school. Sr. Charlotte tells me that the kids are gonna love Zumba so much that they'll go home and tell all their friends and bring them the next day. How pumped am I? Extremely.

First time outside of compound

Went on a photo-walk with Michel – he has been such a good friend to me! He wanted to go up on one of the hills and take a picture of me in front of the mission. So up he went, and me just being an airhead I forgot to take a picture of him atop the hill! He laughed it off and did not show any outward anger – what a good man. I apologized a bunch of times, and he said, "Well you know what, we're just gonna have to go back up there!" So we went! The view was spectacular! For me, what was even more spectacular were the children! White people are called "Muzungu," so whenever they see you they're like "Muzungu! Muzungu! Bonjour!" or they'll throw in any other French or English words they know. This one little girl kept saying "How are you? How are you?" One girl asked what my name is (I always introduce myself as Jacqueline, as I think the French pronunciation is easier for most people), and so they all kept saying "Jacqueline! Jacqueline!" and saying other things in Kinyarwanda that had my name inserted in them. Its like you're a celebrity and you haven't even done anything famous...the kids just love the heck out of you and follow you everywhere and copy everything you do and say. So there were probably 20 little African kids following us on this hike. It made me very grateful for what I have - the hike was on an unpaved, narrow path with lots of rocks. Many of these kids did not have shoes on, and all of them had extremely tattered, torn clothes. They also don't have any kleenex, and they have really runny noses. One little girl picked up a rusty tin can filled with who knows what, and I immediately said "No, leave that there!" (in English, which means she had no idea what I said) but then I realized that they probably find gross things on the side of the road all the time and pick them up and play with them. I hope I can come back here one day after I'm done with med school and treat these little dears for any sicknesses that they might (and probably do) have.

It was such a joyful walk, I wanted to stay and play with them. They copy everything, and they've already learned "Row row row your boat" and "twinkle twinkle little star" from the other volunteers, so when I started singing they joined right in! And if I lost my balance a little bit and let out a "whooo!" or any other random noise, they'd repeat it. And they all wanted to hold my hands. They were actually getting kind of aggressive with each other...it worried me a bit. They were awed at a bracelet I had on, and one girl was just kind of petting my arm...a little wierd but mostly just cute. I did make sure to wash my hands and arms very well after I came in.

When we finally went inside the gate of the compound, (which is everythin with the blue rooftops as seen in the photo) they all crowded outside the fence and were still shouting "Jacqueline!" and other things that I didn't understand. Dominic, our fabulous gardener, had to shoo them away.

I trust Sr. Candide's judgment when she says that I should really get my rest now. She's seen many a volunteer not get enough rest at the beginning and then poop out during their teaching. So I've been trying to take naps and sleep in. Its hard though…I have too much excitement on my mind. And when I rationalize my way through it, I think I've already skipped the whole jetlag thing, and that I've naturally got enough energy to make it through a normal workday. But let me not assume anything – everyone says Sr. Candide knows best and is always right!