Rwanda 2017 | Days 9 and 10
Since it’s been a hot minute since I did my last Rwanda post, you can catch up on Days 7 and 8 here. Remember, this is our trip from last October. As soon as I finish these, I will start on our trip from this summer!
Monday | October 23rd
Monday morning the team rose early and hit the ground running! We left in two cars, with Kenny in the front car. Within one turn, they had ditched us and we were hopelessly lost in Kigali. Fortunately, Cory was able to use his airtime and buy enough data to run Google Maps and get us to where the guys were working. Late as usual. I do have to note that this was not until after he refused to listen to my directions (which happened to be right).
After we dropped the guys off, Kenny, Dorian, Baker, and I took the SUV to visit the two-month old baby of a 16 year-old girl named Florence. Florence passed away in September before we got there, and now another lady in the village and her daughter Chantel were taking care of the baby.
Baker LOVED the sweet baby and I do have to say that it made my desire to adopt even stronger.
In case you were wondering if Cory and I are super protective parents (and my previous Rwanda post haven’t convinced you), my child is barefoot in Africa. Now, we were inside someone’s home and it was pretty clean, but who knows where her shoes were?
After spending some time with the family and talking with Chantel, who had a baby of her own, we decided that they needed some food to help Chantel have enough milk supply to breastfeed both babies (that’s what she told us she was doing). We went back to market in town and sent Keneth in to buy some beans, rice, sugar, flour, and soap for the family.
We dropped the food back at the house, dropped Keneth off back where the guys were working, and another driver we had used that week, Jadeau, took us to meet Josephine at a nearby school for time to counsel the girls. Praise God, one of the girls accepted Christ!
Meanwhile, the men were on the side of a mountain working on renovating a home. The house needed the interior walls finished, windows added, a new door, and fresh mud all over the house inside and out.
A perfect job for this crew. They worked hard and almost finished the mud on the outside before they had to leave. Check out all these volunteers! The communities never cease to amaze us with their willingness to donate their time and effort.
Completely switching gears, the guys rushed back to the house to clean off the dirt and mud. We forgot that we had the big car and left all six of them to get home in the Corolla. Oops!
That afternoon, we had the Ruble Scholarship Fund inaugural presentation, in which the first children who completed the RCRI program are now going to college. Each of the students were given laptops (you remember the ones that we got stopped in customs with?) and it was a grand affair, with government officials, pastors, parents, and the media present.
The only tall person in the room had to help hang the banner.
Speeches were given by Ben, Cory, Joel, one of the recipients, one of the parents, and a pastor.
Poor Baker was so tired! She slept through the entire ceremony.
Thankfully, Greyson took over for a little while and she never woke up!
After the speeches were given, the students were all presented with a laptop to use for their studies.
Before the ceremony was over, the students sang a few songs they had prepared.
Afterwards, Ben and Cory were interviewed by the newspaper and filmed for TV and YouTube. Dorian got sick during the presentation and ended up leaving early. Thankfully, we had an extra car and driver that was able to take her and Donnie back to the house.
On the way home, we stopped by Simba (a grocery store/restaurant) to use the WiFi. I needed to download a program to edit all the school pictures we had taken the week before so we could print them before we left. I couldn’t get Photoshop to work but we were able to get milkshakes and coffee (Jordan and Greyson got burgers and we still laugh about the enormous tip Jordan accidentally left the waitress. HOT TIP: learn how to count the currency of the country you are visiting).
Once we got home, we discovered Dorian had an intense stomach virus. We were all very tired, especially the guys from slinging mud all day, so we ate dinner and called it an early night, praying no one else got the stomach bug.
Tuesday | October 24th
On Tuesday, Cory woke up sick (not the stomach bug!) and was feverish all day. He pressed on though, and the guys went straight to Gahanga to return to work on the house there.
Everyone, except Cory, was able to finish mudding the inside of the house and to get everything ready for the next day while he laid on the ground outside.
While the guys worked on the house, Baker and I stayed home for the morning with Dorian. I worked on editing the school photos while Baker napped and actually got a lot accomplished. After she woke up, we had mac and cheese for lunch. Dorian was feeling better so we decided to continue on with our plans to meet with another group of young ladies for the afternoon and waited on Jo to pick us up.
It started to rain and the men helping our guys on the house informed them that no more work could be done until the ground was soaked overnight to soften it enough to make the rest of the mud they needed, so they headed back to the house…right after Donnie and the boys played a little stickball in the road, American style. What you can’t see in this photo was the sheets of rain coming down!
Cory and the guys got home just before we left and in time for Baker’s nap. Our time to meet with the girls kept getting pushed back, but we left about 2:15 to go to Kicuciro and talk to the ladies. As we were leaving, Cory laid down with Baker and ended up passing out with her for several hours.
I honestly didn’t want to go visit with the girls, at this point. I had been home all morning and just wanted to rest. But I’ve made a promise to myself to never stay behind or say no to something in Rwanda. I’m so thankful I went because it was a great time to minister to the young ladies in which the girls were reminded of their self-worth and how to protect that.
The girls interacted with us and Josiane even sang a song about the temptations of this world. If you’ve followed along with our Rwanda journey, you may remember Josiane from 2015. She was new to the RCRI program, lonely, withdrawn, and so quiet. When she stood up to sing the song, I could hardly believe my eyes. God has worked big miracles in Josiane’s life (and even more so now that we were able to see her again in 2018!) and to see her come out of her shell was an incredible experience.
When Cory awoke to Ben knocking on the door, everyone else in the house but Joel was gone. Dorian and I were still with the girls and the men had gone exploring. Ben had been called away to Kenya for a future RCRI ministry opportunity and he had come to explain why he had to go and leave us. Shortly after he left, everyone returned to the house and Cory went back to bed for several more hours–but not before Baker managed to get her head stuck in these poles. The gate was normally shut so she couldn’t get out but the front doors are almost always open in houses in Rwanda to help with the breeze. You can see how the poles are bent in the middle and her head fit perfectly through them. If she slid her head up or down though, she was stuck.
And that’s exactly what she did. I panicked and for a brief second, it ran through my head “how in the world are we going to get her out? We are in Rwanda with no way to cut these metal bars?” Luckily, Cory gently slid her head back to the middle part and she was free. Whew!
Cory woke up long enough to attempt to help Baker get dinner and get ready for bed, and they were both out by 8:00pm. Dorian and I discovered that evening that Chantel wasn’t telling the truth about baby Idu. Some dear friends of ours actually support Idu (they supported his mother before she passed away) and the family was supposed to be buying high-nutrient formula for him, not breastfeeding him like Chantel said she was. Either way, we were still thankful we were able to provide them with food but we just wish they had been honest with us.
What Cory missed the rest of the evening was Kenny, Donnie, and Jordan going to a massage parlor up the street and getting very relaxing massages. I can hardly type this with a straight face but I will leave it to them to finish that story.
This almost wraps up our 2017 trip. I have one more post to share and I hope that you will come back to read the rest of our Rwanda 2017 trip.
Need to catch up on Rwanda 2017:
Traveling, Arriving, and Day 1
Days 2 and 3
Days 4 and 5
Day 6
Day 7 and 8
