First Slideshow on the Blog!

                        



So, this is my first time trying to post a video.  Here's hoping it works.  I apologize for how long it is....it was really hard to choose pictures to NOT include.  Believe it or not, I really cut out a lot of them, as in hundreds.  (My family will believe this, as I've always been a picture taking fiend.) There are a few accidents in here - some poor quality pics - but I couldn't figure out how to delete those.  

Today we are in Kigali, the capitol.  We drove in yesterday.  It took us a mere 9 hours to get here. Today we were hoping to get Tim's medical license paperwork done.  However, we hit a roadblock on that - a minor one - and hopefully will be able to do it next Monday instead, as one of the offices we needed to visit today was closed.  Instead, today we will do our grocery shopping for the next 6 weeks and send it all back to Kibogora with our driver.  

Tomorrow, we will all board a Rwandan Air plane bound for Nairobi, Kenya.  We are taking Stephen to his new school, Rift Valley Academy.  He will live in a dorm with other students from all over the world.  He is excited, and I........I am excited, too, but am also left wondering how on earth I am in a place where my two oldest children are suddenly living away from their Mom (and Dad, of course).  It seems like yesterday that I was helping him ride his bike without training wheels, taking him to swimming lessons at the Family Sports Center, watching him earn his first badges in Boy Scouts, sending him off on his first camping trip, enrolling him in 9th grade at Tivy, watching him compete at the State Mock Trial competition (oh yeah, that last one was almost yesterday!).  Now he and his big sister will be living in 2 whole different countries than me!  How is that possible?

Ah.....I guess this is what happens when minutes turn into hours, into days, into weeks, into months, into years, into decades.    To the kids it all seems so natural - to me, it seems joltingly strange and somehow unexpected.  Am I super proud of him and her?  Yes.  Am I happy about all of us being apart?  Well, no.  And yes.  I mean, of course they need to grow up and leave.  I just need helping realize they aren't still 6 and losing their first teeth sometimes. 

Anyhow, hope you get to see the video, and hope you enjoy it.  Sorry the music clip plays over and over and over! Hopefully, I will get better at making these things and will learn  how to add more than one song to a slideshow.  

That's all for now! 

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Hmmmm.....this video is taking FOREVER to upload, so while I am waiting......I think I will entertain you, dear reader, by making a list of random things I've learned since coming to Africa: 

 1.  When drivers have car trouble or an accident in Rwanda, instead of using hazard lights, or those cute little triangular, orange cone or warning/caution signs, they tear branches off trees near the road and place them in the road, every 20 feet or so, for about 200 feet behind the stranded vehicle or accident. At first this seemed so odd, now I take it for granted that if I see greenery in the road, it is not Christmas time, but signs of road "danger" ahead. 

2.  I can use, re-use, and re-use WAY more things than I ever thought possible back when living in the USA.  For instance, ziploc bags, foil, crepe paper for parties, balloons (yes, balloons), disposable water bottles, decorations for a birthday cake and notebook paper.

3.  It is actually quite simple to carry your baby and have both hands free for other chores - and you don't have to spend $100 to buy a Baby Bjorn to do it - any blanket long enough to tie around your chest and back will do.  

3A. It looks a bit more complicated, but it is also possible to carry twins and keep both hands free - one is tied in front, and one in back.  Sorry, Hollie Reinhold Birkhead, I have not seen anyone carrying triplets while keeping their hands free!  

4.  This one is for me and all my Texan buds, especially - walking to your destination, rather than driving a truck or an SUV, is an enjoyable way to pass the time.  My New York friends -Craig Mills, that means you -  already knew this.....

5.  Truly fresh vegetables and fruit, picked right out of your own garden - or plucked from a nearby tree - really DO taste so much better than even the very freshest stuff at HEB (even though HEB stuff is still great!).  Also, Rwandan bananas are amazing.  Words can't describe.

6.  Seven and Eight year old big sisters are capable of being VERY responsible, hard working and focused baby sitters for their little siblings.  And it doesn't ruin their existence to help out - a lot.  They actually can be quite happy while watching them.  They can even serve as the sole caregiver for a sick relative in a hospital - for days and days.  (See #14)

7.  I can live without chocolate.  I can live without chocolate.  I can live without chocolate.  Still learning this one. 

8.  It IS possible to escape having to watch, listen to, and/or always discuss, ad infinitum, our "choices" for the US Presidential Election - even when that election is only 4 months away.  You just have to live very, very far away to accomplish this feat.

9.  Rwandans can cook delicious Mexican food.  No kidding.  But, they still could use some help in the SWEET and UNSWEET ICED TEA department.  Oh Taco Casa, I miss your little bitty, crunchy ice cubes, bright orange straws and delicious iced tea!

10.  RUTHIE has learned that "The back of your knees is ridiculous."  (I don't get this.....but she says to type it anyway.)

11.  Coke tastes better when you have to want it enough to walk to the duka (store) to buy it, and when it is served in those glass bottles from the 1970's.

12.  Dancing on Sunday morning with hundreds of people of all ages in a church with a dirt floor is loads more fun than country/western dancing at Crider's or the Cabaret Dance Hall on Saturday night. 

13.  In case any of you ever wondered:  All those nets that so many churches (including mine, First United Methodist Kerrville, www.kfumc.org) and other ministries bought to help Africans fight malaria are actually working, at least where we live.  Doctors at our hospital say they hardly get any malaria patients any more, and they used to get quite a few.  When Tim asked why, they all said, "It's because everyone sleeps with nets now!"  Cool, huh?

14.  Rooms in African hospitals, even the ICU, typically have between 20 - 50 patients in them.  There are no t.v.'s to entertain the patients, no meals, no pillows, no fun buttons to push to make your bed go up and down, and a family member or good friend has to stay with you 24/7 to attend to your basic needs.  Your family caregiver buys and prepares your food, and brings it to you in the hospital.  Many patients walk for hours to be treated by the doctors and nurses.  I've learned I have so much to be thankful for - I've learned that I've been spoiled in more ways than I can count by the life I was somehow blessed to live, that I've enjoyed luxuries untold and unexperienced by 90% or more of the world.  I've learned that I'm quite soft, and wear out easily! I've learned that the women in Africa - heck, even the 8 year old girls! - are just so much tougher than I am.  

I've learned that I have a lot to learn.  :-)

Thanks to everyone who is keeping up with us via this blog!