Suds in a bucket...

how to wash your hair in a bucket:

1) Get half a bucket of steaming water from the cook

2) Check to see if there are any "floaties" in the water (learned that the hard way)

3) Then pour enough cold water to make sure the water isn't scalding

4) When you've reached the desired temperature, dip your head in the bucket!

5) For the part of your head that doesn't fit in the bucket, take the little bucket and pour.

6) Shampoo! It's important to keep your head away from the big bucket at this time so as to keep the clean water as uncontaminated as possible.

7) Rinse, using the same method as steps 4 and 5

8) Towel dry then air dry

9) Voila! Clean hair! Before and after, I really hope you can tell a difference.

If this post has not made you laugh out loud and very thankful for your next toilet flush, shower, and/or hand washing then I got nothin' else...

The fish lives in the water

DA FEESH live een dee wotah!
That's what it sounds like when 15 kids from Rwanda are saying it.

We've been practicing our drawing skills this week and we got to add another page to our special art books. We talked about fish in the water (not to be confused with the fish on the table) and then drew some cool pictures!

Then they had to show me their fish faces.

"SPORTS"

This week we did some "sports" activities which included dancing to my crazy "muzungu" music, Putting a couple of mattresses on the grass and doing flips and summersaults. Don't forget the potty breaks

They were very impressed with my attempt at a cartwheel...

riding bikes with one training wheel,

throwing frisbees.

It also included me teaching the kids some crazy faces as you will see... and just laughing a lot!

The Mob VS little Muzungu

Just for your reference: Muzungu is a swahili word meaning white person...

Have you ever been in a mob?

I'm not talking about GoodFellas, or being at Walmart during Christmas time -

I mean in the middle of Thousands of people all trying to move in the same direction, climbing, shoving, and pushing?

Have you ever been in a mob with 7 kids? Have you ever been in a mob of thousands of people and been the ONLY white person in the whole crowd?

Well, that's what I experienced yesterday at the main stadium in Kigali at the Hope Festival. this is an event hosted by Andrew Palau (son of famous evangelist Luis Palau). Claudine, (one of the Aunties at the house) decided it would be really fun to go and take some of the kids. there were some professional skateboarders and bicyclers and a kids programs and supposed to be some good music.

I had NO idea what I was getting myself into. A friend mentioned that when I went to the festival that I would see plenty of muzungus. The only ones I saw were on stage.

When we got there, we headed toward the big stage to watch the kids program. there were thousands of people going in the same direction. We were trying to get to a place where the kids could see over the adults. As we started pushing our way toward the front it got more crammed and crazy. tapping the adults on the shoulder and using my charming smile, literally grabbing the kids by the arm to make sure they don't fall or get trampled.

THEN, the MC of the kids program stopped in the middle of what he was talking about and told everyone to NOT PUSH the children back!

THEN everyone "sat down". So at one point, I was sitting cross legged with 2 of our kids on top of me and then atleast 3 other kids who I didn't know were somehow sitting on top of the kids who were sitting on top of me! When we finally sat up, I thought my legs had fallen off...

We got into a similar situation when we went to watch the the bicyclers and skateboarders.

THEN we went into the stadium where it was a little less crazy and we could listen to the music. There were so many people just blatantly staring at me, they would literally reach out to touch my hair or just follow me around. If we were just standing somewhere waiting around eventually there would be a crowd of people standing around me staring. I would say hello and they would continue to stare. Finally I just gave up and said very loudly, "Muzungu gucheza muziki!!!" this means "white girl dances to the music" then I would dance around and still get nothing but blank stares. Claudine and I would literally laugh directly at them in front of them and be silly and there was NOTHING, no expressions. All around me I heard people speaking and suddenly they would point and say MUZUNGU!

The expressions on the faces in these pictures is what I experienced all day, especially the boy in the lower left corner...

CRAZY... As transportation goes in these parts of the world, the trip home was just as crazy and long, but that will have to be another post... Needless to say, I was very happy to get home.

My favorite questions of the day:

ARe you married? Do you have an email address? Can I come to visit you? do you need a husband? Do you have parents? Why are you here?

But the best of all: Please, Sister, would you stand up and dance for us? Will you teach me to dance?

HILARIOUS!

I love my cap!

here are a few pictures of a little craft project we just did. We made some foam hats with foam stickers and they were SO excited

The big person in these pictures is Claudine, one of the Aunties in the house and we became fast friends.

This is Peace - how could you not fall in love with a face like that...

This is Silvia - she's only 3, but very smart, she even managed to make a "cap" that matched her dress!

Love at First Sight!

I finally figured out how to get my pictures uploaded. The pictures you see are the kids from New Hope Homes in Kigali Rwanda.

The school that I work in is run by the home for the kids who are a little behind because of their circumstances.

For some of them, their parents are gone and their distant relatives have brought them here because they are unable to take care of them. Some people have literally left these children at the gate to the homes and then disappeared. It's heart breaking but the kids are happy, they have a place to live, food to eat, clothes and shoes, and are surrounded by people who love them and are committed to taking great care of them.

I wish I could explain to you how amazing it is to be here and to be a small part of that. We've been working on Art and English skills the last couple weeks and I'll let the pictures say the rest...

Music to my ears

OK, so right now I'm living a house (maybe 1500 sq ft) with a "mommy" an "Aunty" and 8 orphan kids. My room is nice because I have my own bathroom... the house is right next to the office and the classroom.

The other 2 houses of about 18 kids are about a 5 minute walk away.

Sunday (yesterday) was awesome because I went to church with mommy Claudine and 5 of our kids. The music - incredible. Dancing - incredible.Ye

Then last night all of us got together at the big house and it is now official that I have approximately 20 orphan kids singing Skinna marinky dink! SO awesome!

Today I gave my first art lesson. We learned about what a "bear hug" was and made little bears out of construction paper.

want to know what it's like being a missionary?

Here's what it's like:
1) on the 2nd leg of the plane ride (Denver to DC) you get stuck sitting ON the airplane for 2 1/2 hours. Then you figure out that it's possible to miss the 3rd leg because the delay

2) you talk to flight attendants and agents to see what they can do and A) they don't know where Ethiopia is (FCOL!) or B) they basically tell you that you're just gonna have to RUN to get the other gate.

3) as things turn out the domestic flight arrived literally 10 gates away from the cross-atlantic flight was going to depart (This has never ever happened to me) - this is totally a God thing...

4) For a 16 hour flight from DC to Ethiopia, you get to sit next to a giant Sudanese man with legs up to your eyeballs, and feel very sorry for him because of the lack of space on the plane.

5) Get off in Ethiopia at 8:30 pm, get in line for an overnight transit visa, stand in line next to a couple very awesome old british chaps (journalists for Al Jazeera English) for THREE hours, while in a line of at least 200 people there was ONE immigration agent interviewing EVERY person for at least 7-10 minutes (the british guys timed it). THEN you go find your luggage on 3 different carousels and finally get to your hotel at 12:30 am.

6) when you meet the orphan kids that you get to spend the next 3 months with you realize that it's all worth it. Love at first sight was mutual...

7) pack everything, cram as much crap as possible into very large suitcases and FORGET 2 of the most important things...the connector thingy that uploads my pictures on to my computer AND my iPod charger! So for now You'll just have to read...

8) Last but not least - you get to the place where you stay, you have the convenience of wireless internet BUT find out that there is no running water.