An Unwelcome Visitor

I had a little “visitor” last week, making itself at home in my kitchen and living room. There are very few things that instill fear in me. I have jumped out of an airplane at 20,000+ feet and moved to the middle of Africa by myself….but this little, tiny mouse caused a great amount of anxiety and stress for me. There are many visitors that I welcome….lizards, birds, an assortment of insects, malaria-infected mosquitos (okay, maybe not that)….but not that little mouse. I had never realized my phobia of mice before now, but I guess I have never had to share a house with one quite so brave. I found myself avoiding being in the house at all costs. As silly as it sounds, it was really the first time I have experienced fear since I got here. It was quite ridiculous now that I look back on it.

I put my guard Museveni on a mission. He got three traps to put around the house and checked them daily. He thoroughly got a kick out of my crazy antics about the stupid mouse. Museveni is very loyal and takes great care of me. He tried to assure me many times that the mouse could not actually hurt me. And finally, a few days after setting the traps, we caught the mouse. The little thing may have won the battle, but I won the war! (At least until the next one comes along.) Museveni was so excited about catching the mouse, I think because he knew it made me rest easier!

The good Lord taught me a little lesson about fear from this experience. The fact that I let something so tiny and insignificant instill worry and anxiety in me caused me to really think about fear. I am in the midst of a country and people who have experienced real fear….a fear that has justification. Everytime I would think about this, I re-evaluated my thoughts. However, the Lord did give me comfort, even in my trivial times of worry:)

Beach Vacation

Last week I adventured by myself to Gisenyi, a nearby lake-front “beach” town that I have been hearing about since I arrived in Rwanda. It was a national holiday in Rwanda, so school was out and I was needing to get out of town for the day to experience some new scenery. I decided that I would try out the public transportation system and ride the short one hour bus ride. I hopped on the Virunga Express bus fully expecting to be there in an hour; however, God has a sense of humor. On my first bus trip in Rwanda, the bus breaks down when we are about 10 miles outside of Gisenyi. While we are waiting, I attempt to talk to the boy sitting next to me who had very limited English. Since our conversation was limited, he decided that he would just draw me a picture instead. So he drew a flower in the back of my journal and wrote “its for your” ("for your" what?...not sure). I couldn’t help but laugh to myself as we finally realized the bus was not going to start, so we hopped off and stood stranded on the side of the road in the middle of Nowhere, Africa. Pretty soon, I have a crowd of about 20 town children standing around me just staring. They didn’t try to talk to me, they just stared at the “muzungu”. I love to watch the somber stares of the children break into smiles when I attempt my limited Kinyarwandan and ask them their names.
After about an hour, I manage to find the only person on the bus who spoke a little English, inquiring about how we were to keep traveling. Finally a small bus pulls up, and he tells me this might be our only hope if we want to get to town anytime soon. This was the kind of bus that I had seen and often laughed at riding down the road with about 30 Rwandans crammed into a space meant for about 8 people. They are literally stacked on top of one another. We hop into the crowded bus, with everyone getting a kick out of me being in the middle of the sardine packed vehicle. We kept pulling over to cram more people in, and I kept thinking there is no possible way more people can fit in this bus. Oh, but there is. They really thought it was amusing when I got my camera out and started taking pictures. This guy looks really amused, huh?

I finally arrive to Gisenyi and take a motorcycle taxi to the Serena Hotel, which is the only 5 star hotel in Rwanda. As I stepped onto the peaceful beach, I thought about the adventure of getting there and how I would not have had it any other way. After lunch, a massage, and meeting some very interesting travelers, I head back on an uneventful bus ride home.

Lazy Sunday Afternoon

As promised, my four little village boys show up at Sonrise School bright and early on Sunday morning after their three hour walk down Virunga Mountain. They left their village at 6:00 in the morning to meet me at 9:00 after church at Sonrise. I was feeling a little pressure to show them a good time since they had journeyed so far. So I piled them in my car, went to the market to get some food and then brought them back to my house for the day. I could see their eyes widening as we pulled up to the gate, as I’m sure they have never been in a house this size. And their eyes really opened when we walked in the house and caught a glimpse of the television. I asked if they had ever watched a TV before, and two of the boys had not. So we turned on the television so they could experience a movie, but these usually active boys quickly got bored, especially since they couldn’t really follow what was being said. They head outside and find a skateboard, which they had never seen before, and were easily amused by pushing each other up and down the small sidewalk/drainage system around my house. Can't you see the pure bliss on their faces?
John Gaspar, Remember, John Rambert, and Elie....all cousins!

One of the boys’ older brothers showed up from his boarding school two hours away (I guess word had traveled that they were coming to a “muzungu’s” house), which was nice because he spoke good English and I had an interpreter for the rest of the afternoon. These hungry boys devoured the food I put before them, and I watched their eyes light up as I gave them each a Fanta. We spent the afternoon doing a Bible/English lesson, learning songs, and playing soccer. The boys spent most of the day at my house, and I dropped them off at the bottom of the mountain so they could make it back to the village before dark.

"Teacher" Anna.....teaching a bible lesson on the computer and teaching "Jesus Loves Me". Here is a video of the kids singing....please excuse the leader of the song and the poor videography! I gave them the words to the song and made them promise they would teach it to the other children in their village.

This was another one of those simple but incredibly rich days, where I am blessed far beyond my capacity for holding blessings. As I watched the smiles on their faces and the sparkles in their eyes, I came to appreciate the simplicity of life a little more.

A group shot with my visitors

The Simple Life

Last week, I had the most amazing day with my friend Tom Allen and several other visitors that were in town. We started off the day by visiting the Musanze Cave, which is a deep rocky cave outside of Musanze inhabiting millions of little bats, who did not seem too pleased with their visitors. We also had several little Rwandan “tour guides” who accompanied us along the way. The cave required pretty strenuous climbing over mounds of slippery rocks, and several of these boys were barefoot and had no light of their own to guide them. We saw bones in the crevices of the cave, which we presumed to be human remains from people hiding during the genocide.

Here is a picture of us with some of our "tour guides".

Coming out of the cave...

It is a great feeling when you walk into a remote village in the middle of Africa and all of the children come running towards you, yelling your name and greeting you with big hugs. It is kind of humorous because Virunga Lodge is an upscale African resort (that costs around $1000 per night) where we like to go for dinner, but our favorite part of going there is to visit the locals. I saw the same boys that had walked 3 hours to send me an email the previous week, and this time they tell me that they had walked the 3 hours (each way) again to come visit me at Sonrise on Sunday. I had no way of knowing these kids were coming, and they don’t really understand the concept that just because I work at Sonrise doesn’t mean that I am there all the time. Talk about feeling guilty! I promised these boys that if they came back this week, I would definitely be there.

We hike past the village for a couple hours all the way down the mountain to the lake, accompanied by about 30 kids. Tom pulls out his flashcards, and we have mini English and Math lessons on the side of the mountain while we are waiting for the boat to come take us across the lake.

The first boat we got in quickly filled up with water….we decided this probably wouldn’t be a good idea.

We pile on the next boat, along with my favorite boys, to go across the lake to visit a nearby island. Once we get to the island (which is really more like a small mountain), we hike all the way up and come across a mud hut school in session. This Primary school had no running water, no electricity, and only three teachers to teach all of the students. We go into the classroom and Tom performs a quick English lesson to a lot of really stunned students, who were shocked to see white skin in the middle of this remote island. Next we go into a home of one of the locals, and I look up to see probably about a hundred children trying to get a glimpse through the windows and doors. As is custom here, we are asked to say a blessing on the home before leaving. So we all gather around, hold hands, and Tom prays for this family and the rest of the village. Below is a picture of our new friends gathering on the bank to wave goodbye.

My sweet friend Elie....as he has told me several times, "I am so happy you are my friend."
The boat takes us back across the lake to Virunga mountain, and as we are getting closer, the mountain seems to be getting steeper and steeper. We literally hike straight up the mountain, in a single file line and on a barely-there path no wider than six inches. I am not afraid of heights, but there were several times which I looked down the steep mountainside and thought to myself….”if I even barely stumble, if I take one wrong step…..this could be very bad!” At one point I looked behind me to find a line of children winding around the path as far as my eyes could see. Whenever I started to think how exhausted I was, I just looked down at the little girl who was about two years old, barefoot, and not even at all affected….and re-evaluated my thoughts.

We end our day by eating at the wonderful Virunga Lodge and dining with some very interesting people who were staying at the lodge.

This was an amazing, exhausting, adventure-filled, unexpected day….but, then again, I have come to have no expectations about what my days will hold here in Rwanda. I must quote my friend Tom here, as he wrote on his blog about this very same day: “I strongly believe that we should live “intentionally”, and not simply “sleepwalk” through life. HOWEVER, I also believe that if we squeeze life too hard, insisting upon every last drop, we can choke it to death. Life is very good. The best of my life here in Rwanda is VERY simple. I feel very privileged and blessed.” Enjoy the simple things in life!

A Three Hour Walk

I recently posted about going into a remote village on top of Virunga Mountain. With more visitors in last weekend, we decided to take them to Virunga Lodge for dinner to enjoy the spectacular views and relaxing atmosphere of the resort. We stopped to show them Sonrise School on our way, and when leaving the school, we notice a group of children passing by the entrance. Immediately I recognize John Rambert, one of the children from the village we had visited. We figure out that three of these children were from the village, and since we were headed up that way, we piled them in the back of our car for a ride to the top of the mountain. We asked them what they were doing in town, and they replied in their broken English: "To send Anna a letter". They tell us that they left at 6:00 that morning to walk 3 hours down the mountain into town, just to find a computer to send me an email. I was humored and amazingly touched at the same time. The boys loved being able to ride in a car, and we saved them a 3 hour walk back to the top of the mountain! Above is a picture of me with the three precious boys, John Gaspar, John Rambert, and Remember. And how coincidental that we just happen to be at Sonrise the exact moment they were passing by. Rwanda is the most densely populated country in Africa, and Musanze is the most densely populated area in Rwanda. So basically, in the most densely populated region of Africa, we happen to run into these village children who just happened to be on their way to send me an email!

When we got to the top of the mountain, we witnessed a beautiful rainbow stemming from the lake and arching over the volcanoes!

Here is a picture of me with John Rambert....I absolutely love this child. He has the best smile and the sweetest eyes....a picture does not do him justice.

We followed the boys into their village again, and all of the villagers came running to greet their long lost friends. We were invited into John Gaspar's home, in which I was taken back by the humble living conditions. The mud hut consisted of three tiny rooms, one for the parents, one for the three children, and one for the baby goats (I'm not sure why the goats have their own room, but who am I to ask?). Above is a picture of John Gaspar in his room, which he shares with two siblings. For their bed, they place a straw mat on top of leaves, which are used to provide some cushioning on the hard dirt floor. However, John Gaspar is so proud to show off his room, as he doesn't even realize the conditions in which he is living. He has never known anything else. Most days I have been so encouraged and uplifted by the incredible contentment, joy, and faith of these people; however, there are days like this when I am overwhelmingly hit with the realization of the poverty of which I am in the midst. The realization that a huge percentage of the world lives in similar conditions as John Gaspar. I feel this slight guilt that I will go home to my big house, eat a good dinner and get in a nice warm bed, and this child probably does not know where his next meal will come from and will sleep on a dirt floor. I am struck with the the reality that unless this child has access to a good education, his life will always be like this. I am hit with the fact that this is just one of many children in this village, one of many villages in Africa, one of many continents in the world. I feel the overwhelming sadness that, no matter how much I am disturbed by this, there is really not that much that I can do about it.

And then I am reminded of the great quote: "Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little."

"Whatever you have done for the least of these, you have done for me." Matthew 25:40

Sonrise High School has a beautiful new building that was completed several months ago and proudly sits adjacent to the main road with a welcoming new entrance. There is only one thing that stands in the way of the students occupying it and putting it to great use…..furniture. This new building is meant to provide science laboratories, art and music rooms, additional classrooms for the older students, new space for computer labs, etc. Right now, the students have no space for science labs, which inhibits their hands-on and practical learning. With the increasing number of students, many of the classes have outgrown the small classrooms. I have one class with over 70 students crammed in a tiny classroom, in which four students often sit in a desk meant for two. The students and staff are so excited about the new building; however, no one knows when they will actually be able to use it. The designated funds ran out before the furniture was able to be bought.

This is not meant to be a plea for money…(although it looks like it, smells like it, tastes like it….so it is:) However, I have had so many people ask me how they can help and contribute to what I am doing here in Rwanda. I cannot think of a more meaningful contribution than to help increase these students’ education through allowing them access to an environment conducive to learning. If you have read some of my previous posts, you will recall how serious these students are about their education. They have such a strong desire to succeed and become something in this world, and they know that education is the key to unlock their potential. I can assure you that this contribution will make a difference for many years to come. We need around $45,000 to fully furnish the building and have already received some donations to get us started. My goal is to have the new building open and ready to be used by the students when they come back for the new school year in January. One of the students told me that they are wanting to have President Kagame, the President of Rwanda, come when they officially open the new building. Help me make this possible!

If you feel led to give to this cause, you can send a tax-deductable donation made payable to Bridge2Rwanda and designated to go towards the Sonrise Furniture Fund.
Please send to the following address:
Bridge2Rwanda
1818 N. Taylor St., #322
Little Rock, AR 72207

Thank you from the students and staff at Sonrise!!

"I had a farm in Africa...."

My life is starting to feel like a scene from Out of Africa:) As the opening words of the book and movie state, “I had a farm in Africa at the foot of the Ngong Hills. The Equator runs across these highlands, a hundred miles to the north, and the farm lay at an altitude of over six thousand feet. In the day-time you felt that you had got high up; near to the sun, but the early mornings and evenings were limpid and restful, and the nights were cold.” My setting is only slightly different, as I am at the foot of the Virunga Mountains, about a hundred miles south of the equator, and still at around 6000 feet elevation. The nights are getting chilly in the mountains as we are coming into the rainy season, but it still feels amazing during the day. I am still settling into the surreality of actually being here. Below is the view from my front porch....not bad!



My parents came to visit last week and see for themselves why their daughter had run off to the middle of Africa to spend a year of her life. They instantly fell in love with the beautiful country and beautiful people. My dad, the agriculture guru, was in awe of the tiny plots of land still farmed using primitive techniques with a shovel and a hoe. My dad planted a full garden (aka my “farm”) in my back yard. To the right is a picture of Museveni, my day guard and gardener, who is so proud of his hard work. My mom fell in love with the markets full of freshly picked produce and spent a lot of time cooking and stocking my freezer full of food! My parents both fell in love with the students at Sonrise and, like myself, could not believe the maturity and faith of these students. I had my dad talk to several of my older classes, mostly about the techniques of modern agriculture in America and the impact of agriculture on the world. They were amazed by the concepts of combines, cotton pickers, and satellite technology. I am encouraging my father to get involved with the development of agriculture in Rwanda, and so Dale Dawson was able to set up a meeting with the Rwandan Minister of Agriculture. They had a great meeting and possibly opened some doors for my dad to provide some assistance in agricultural areas of Rwanda, which is immensely important since over 80% of the population of Rwanda is involved with agriculture. In fact, the Minister of Agriculture will be in the US in a few weeks and is even going to come to Marianna, AR to visit my parents and tour the family farm.

We had a group from Arkansas (including Dale and Judi Dawson, the founders of B2R) come to Musanze to visit and all the rooms in my big house were finally filled. One of our favorite experiences of the weekend was going to dinner at Virunga Lodge, which is a resort on top of Virunga Mountain about 20 minutes away from my house. The views of this place are breathtaking, as you look out at the smoky volcanic mountains and glassy lakes below. On our way to the top, we had two Rwandan boys just jump in the back of our truck for a ride up to the top. We thought it was hilarious that these random kids were brave enough to just bum a ride; however, it turned out, of course, that our friend Tom knew them. The boys lived small village close to the Lodge and were returning home on their five mile walk from school. So we all followed the boys into their village, and we were quickly surrounded by the precious faces of children wanting to get a look at the white people visiting. I think there is some type of signal that they send to all of the children when a white person is spotted because they come out of every corner of the mountains. They all want their picture taken and to have your email address, which we found amusing since there are no computers for miles around. We found out later that they walk about 2-3 hours to get to town so that they can access email. They were so gracious, as they all wanted us to come visit their thatched-roof, mud hut homes. We were able to go inside several homes, complete with water bottle chandeliers and pet chickens walking around your feet. It is such a precious experience to go into a remote village like this one. Even though you see poverty at its worst, you also experience the joy of the people who have so little material possessions but so much faith in something more important.

Bishop John and his wife Harriet hosted all of us at their home for a great Rwandan feast while the crew was here. Here is a picture below of the whole group. My parents had a great trip and are looking forward to coming back and bringing the whole family!