Muraho! (Hello!)

So, we had our 2nd family meeting about our move last night.  It was so much fun!  Tim found this Speak Rwandan audio file on the internet somehow, and we did the first two lessons.  We can now all say "Hello!  How are you?  I am doing well, thank you."  Gee, we're practically fluent!

We're thinking of maybe making tshirts to sell to raise money for the trip.  Sam has drawn some cool pictures of African scenery, which we could use as a screen-print for the t-shirts.  We got the idea because our kids' cousin's friend made t-shirts and used them to pay for his camp trip last summer.  That kid raised over $3,000 selling t-shirts! Hmmmm.  If anyone has any ideas about this, please post a comment!

At our meeting, Tim also read from some pages he found about the differences between American and Rwandan culture.  The family decided that I'm half-African, since Africans, according to this paper, anyway -  value having a different sense of time than Americans, rank harmony over confrontational truth, and see themselves as part of a group more than primarily as an individual, like Westerners are known to do.

I am chronically late, routinely ask for "just one bite" off someone else's plate and/or often "borrow" my kids and husband's clothes (hey, we're a family, so what's mine is yours, and vice versa, right?), and have great difficulty telling anyone  they really just don't look good in that outfit - even if they said they really want to know.  Well, let's just say the family decided maybe I'm going to thrive in our new culture.  :-)

All I know is, I'm so glad we're starting to have our official "team meetings".  They're fun, they're bonding, they're educational and they even remind me of the "good old days" of homeschooling.  Yay.  [Please no one burst my bubble and tell me that the "good old days" weren't always perfect!]

On another note, I brought 12 boxes of books to our local bookstore today.  They buy old books,  so I figured I'd get rid of a lot of extras, and "rake in some hard cash" for our trip, as well.  Well, it didn't quite work that way.  Most of the books went back home with me, as they only buy certain items.  In the end, I made $50 and hauled those boxes 3 different times.  At least I got a workout!  Later this week, I'll try Half-Price books in San Antonio, and after that, will list a few on Amazon (the lady in the bookstore today thought I had a few which would qualify as antiques and might bring a pretty penny!), and donate the rest.

Hard to believe in just 23 weeks, we will be living in Kibogora, Rwanda.  Wowsers.  I wonder when the good fairies are going to arrive to help me pack up and get rid of all this stuff?