To all who have faithfully been checking in on our blog –
and repeatedly finding nothing new – so sorry!
I don’t even have the excuse of poor internet! Each day is full & ends with
exhaustion. Now Joel & I are
enjoying a quiet Saturday evening – the kids are in bed, so I’ll try to catch
you all up on our adventures here in Rwanda
What is a day like?
Each morning the crickets’ chirping turns into bird songs to wake us all
up between 5:30-6am . We eat breakfast together as a family – a
novelty for us! Joel goes off to work at
the hospital just ¼ mile away at 7:20am . The kids & I clean up the house, make
beds, deliver our laundry to the laundry man (on Mondays & Thursdays), tie
up the mosquito nets, feed the rabbits our banana peels from breakfast, read the Bible & pray for Joel as he is
always facing medical challenges that push him to his knowledge & skill
limit. At 9am our friend, Josiane, comes to our house. She is a nursing student (24 years old) who
was desperately seeking a job to earn money so she could return to school in
the fall. Our missionary friend, Julie,
introduced her to us & suggested that we hire her as a babysitter. Consequently, I have made a great friend
& we all look forward to seeing her every day! More on her later. We play together, take walks, clean, do small
jobs that Julie has given us, etc… until lunchtime. Josiane then goes back to her house & we
eat lunch with Joel around 12:30 . Naptime for Lauren, & quiet rest time for
Anna & Levi – I let them read books on their beds or choose to play a game
on my phone during this quiet time. Joel
returns to the hospital at 1:30
or 2pm . Lauren wakes up around 3pm and Josiane comes back at 3:30 . We have a snack of cookies & bananas or
bread & butter before heading to the pediatric unit at the hospital. We take the eggs from the chickens that we
have hard-boiled & give them to the nurses.
Then we get to play with the kids until about 5 or 5:30 . We
play with whatever is around – sometimes a kid might have a balloon, so we hit
it around. Other times we play more
organized games like tossing bean bags onto a mat for points or races, or duck
duck goose. You may have seen, or even
own, a bead necklace made of magazines…. We make the beads with the kids &
moms down in peds! This week we played
jump rope a lot. Josiane had made jump
ropes with my kids, so we brought them to the peds unit to play & they
loved it! The nurse in charge of “play
therapy” brought out a couple other jump ropes & after everyone warmed up
to the idea, not only the kids were jumping, but the moms too! The moms would throw their babies into
another mom’s arms so she could have a turn jumping. Once I even saw a mother jump with the baby
still tied on her back! (maybe that’s
how the baby with the broken femur that Joel treated got hurt!?!) And not just the kids & moms, but the
nurses as well! Any time a nurse walked
by she would jump right in & take a turn.
There was a lot of laughing this week!
Levi was quite brave & tried to practice jumping every day, but my
Annie, who prefers to have something perfected before trying it out in public,
would bury her face in my skirt anytime someone tried to coax her to have a
turn… until Thursday. On Thursday, Anna made up her mind to give it
a try. In front of a whole bunch of
moms, kids & nurses, she tried jumping rope with either Josiane or me
twirling at one end. She didn’t get it
right away & kept missing the jumps.
Everyone smiled at her & laughed, but I think she knew they just
thought she was cute & weren’t making fun of her because she kept
trying. Pretty soon, she jumped 3 jumps
in a row without messing up! Everyone
cheered for her! It was sweet! Before long, she was jumping for minutes
& doing so well! It took a lot of
courage for her to do that & I’m so proud of her! She loved it & told me she couldn’t wait
to go back to the peds unit next week!
Back to our schedule – after we are finished playing at
peds, we walk Josiane part of the way back to her house and then come home to
see if Joel is home yet. When he
arrives, we eat dinner, then give the kids baths. They really need a bath every night – it is
the dry season here so everything is incredibly dusty! The tub water is so dirty after baths that we
can’t see the bottom. We usually have to
put Band-Aids on knees after baths because everyone has so many scrapes from
falling on the thousands of hills & ruts everywhere we go. It is pitch dark by 6:30pm …. Every day… all year long. So it always feels later than it is – good
because remember how the birds wake everyone up at 5:30am ?
After baths, we may have time to play a game like “Go Fish” or
occasionally watch a movie using the computer & a projector (last night we
watched a couple Leave it to Beaver episodes), then it’s bedtime. We have been reading books we have found in
the school house here on the mission.
Hardy Boys, Bobbsey Twins…. After they are in bed, Joel usually has to
read for his cases for the next day, or we play a game like Ticket To Ride with
Julie & some other new friends who are here for a short time with us (Niall
& Victoria – both medical students from the UK), or we just collapse into
bed – exhausted from a long day of being stretched mentally &
emotionally.
The weather is pretty much perfect (though I really love the
rainy season & those awesome storms!).
It is chilly enough in the morning for sweatshirts & sweatpants, but
quickly warms up. By 10am it is blazing
hot in the direct sun – so we are usually in the shade until it begins to cool
around 3pm. Because the sun is
completely set by 6:30 ,
the sunset begins early & the cooler evening air begins to feel refreshing
by 3pm . Then evenings are cool – we are still comfy
in t-shirts, but we all sleep under a couple heavy blankets at night.
What do we eat? I’m
embarrassed to tell how easy we have it here – there is a wonderful man named
Simeon who is our cook. He makes yummy
food that almost tastes like home. A
couple times a week he comes to me with a grocery list & the cost – I give
him money, someone goes to the market (they know how to get fair prices) &
then Simeon makes all our meals. I
thought about doing the cooking here – I really enjoy cooking at home. But Simeon is employed by the mission &
if there is no one to cook for, he is out of a job. So having him cook for us helps him feed his
family of 6 kids and it lets me do other things. There is no convenience food here. He makes everything from scratch – for all of
you who love organic foods – this is your place! If we ask him to make us a salad, he goes to
the garden & picks the lettuce & carrots, bleaches them to make sure we
don’t get sick & prepares a salad.
If we ask for soup, he makes a better than Campbell
We drink water. We
fill up pitchers of water from a slowly dripping filter connected to the sink,
then we filter it a second time in a water filter on our counter. Then we fill up plastic bottles to keep by
the bathroom sink for brushing teeth & in the fridge for cold water to
drink. It’s not difficult. And the kids have been really great about
remembering not to swallow the bath water or water off a wash cloth or drink
from the sink. Joel has a few pictures
of surgeries where he has had to remove long white worms out of the bellies of
kids – those pictures convinced our kids not to drink the unfiltered water!
We have a beautiful view of Lake Kivu
right out our back door. We watch the
fishermen out on their boats early in the morning & sometimes with torches
on the boats at night to give light. The
lake is gorgeous! It is down the
mountain from us – it is probably a mile or 2 to walk down to the water – and
the hills are STEEP. But the mission
owns a piece of property a few miles down the road. It is a narrow peninsula into the lake &
the land is called “Kumbya”. We have
been there several times on the weekends.
We can walk – but that’s challenging with Lauren still being too small
to walk the whole way by herself. We usually
hitch a ride with Julie driving a car.
Once we took a boat! That was
pretty fun! Kumbya is all natural – no
one has farmed it – so it looks like Rwanda Africa . We are going to go out to Kumbya for church
in the morning tomorrow, pack a picnic lunch & swim in the afternoon. There are cabins for each denomination to
stay in, some families pitch tents & some stay here at the mission.
So who is Josiane & what do we do all day together? I already mentioned that she needed a job to
help pay for nursing school – so she is our “nanny” while we are here.
She helps me out with the kids & I pay her less than $2
per day, for which she is super excited!
She teaches them how to make all the fun Rwandan toys like jump ropes out
of twine, brooms out of twigs, balls out of plastic bags & shows them how
to have fun building towers with small stones & making letters out of dried
beans! Last week she did build a fire in
our backyard (twice!) – that totally made Levi’s day! (did I mention we don’t have a fire
pit?) And she let the kids bring the
bunnies out of the cage & play with them in the “fort” – in the woods…. And
2 of them ran off… luckily we found them with the help of a couple guys who had
to crawl their way through the briars & thorns! Having a “nanny” is something that I have
definitely had to get used to. For one
thing, I don’t have a job to go to here, so I don’t actually need her to help
me with the kids every day – I am very comfortable taking care of my children. And for another thing, I don’t love what it
says to everyone around me when we walk about in the village: that I am a rich white woman who has hired
someone to do all the work while I live my lazy life. But what I do like about it is being able to
help her out financially, having a translator wherever we go, and most of all,
enjoying the company of a wonderful new friend – one who I can ask all my silly
questions to about the culture & know I’m getting an honest response! She is very comfortable in her role – and
refuses to let me do anything. She takes
my bag off my shoulder & insists on carrying it for me. When I wash Lauren’s way too dirty blanky in
a bucket of soapy water, she takes it out of my hands & washes it
herself. When Lauren wants me to carry
her on our walks, Josiane tries so hard to coax Lauren into letting her carry
her – so far that hasn’t worked. Lauren
still prefers me J A couple weeks ago, I had begun the daunting
task of cleaning out the school house.
It was filled with dirt, mold, trash, dried out markers, broken crayons,
disorganized books & buckets of gecko poop… all over the walls & on
every single book. When Josiane joined
our morning routine, I had assumed that she would play with the kids while I
continued my school house project. That
lasted about 3 seconds. She ended up in
the school with me, taking the sponge out of my hands, mopping as only a
Rwandan can mop – with a squeegee, and helping me clean up the place. There was definitely enough work to keep us
both busy –so we brought in my phone & turned on some Taylor Swift Love
Song (she liked it so much we listened to that song 100 times!)…. And after a
few days, it was sparkling J It was great
to have a friend to work alongside. And
we both felt accomplished.
On the days when we aren’t cleaning or working together on a
project, I occasionally will be able to do something that I haven’t done
before. With Josiane watching the kids,
I went to work with Joel for a morning – got to watch surgery, meet the
operating room staff, round on his patients with him & meet the
nurses. It was so good to see what he
does every day & to see the reality of the hospital conditions. In the post-surgery room, where Joel rounds
on his 72+ patients, there are maybe 30 beds in the woman’s ward & 30 in
the men’s ward. These are not private
rooms – they are in a room full of beds – and many times there are 2 patients
to a bed! When the doctor comes in to round
on the patients, the room gets so quiet & all eyes are on Joel. They are waiting for their turn when he will
come & ask them questions, inspect their wounds & tell them what to
do. Most of them are there for weeks on
end – sometimes months. In the states,
patients will be discharged with instructions on how to care for their surgical
wound & how to take their medicine.
Here, the patients would return to a home miles and miles away, in a
dirty environment where keeping the wound clean is nearly impossible…. And they
may or may not understand how to take meds, or may sell them, or may stop
taking them too early. So they remain in
the hospital until they are well. Their
families stay with them & sleep in the patients’ beds or on the floor. The family is responsible for feeding the
patient. I was so excited to recognize
several of the children who play with us at the pediatric unit – they were in
the post-surgery room. Some of them are
recovering from surgery but remain in the hospital, though they are well enough
to walk around & play. Others are
waiting for surgery. Josiane, the kids
& I brought some books to the nurses for them to give to those kids who
have to be there for a long time and have nothing to do during the long
days.
There are a couple other things I have been able to do while
having a babysitter for the kids. Julie
invited me to watch a C-section . That
was pretty amazing. I haven’t ever
witnessed a birth, outside of my own 3 kids – and that doesn’t really
count. Julie is a NICU nurse & so
great at her job! She let me help her
out in the nursery/NICU. I got to put on
gloves & tie the umbilical cord tight with string & trim it up after
delivery. It was fun going with Julie to
show the waiting Dad his new baby. He
had been too afraid to be in the delivery room of the c-section. He was so excited!
Just yesterday, I was invited to go on a community visit
with the palliative care team. 5 of us
piled into a pick-up truck with a driver (he made 6). We drove about 45 minutes away from the
hospital (on rutty, incredibly bumpy roads)
to visit a man named John who had had an accident & been confined to
a wheelchair. He was in his 30’s & lived
in a house that Kibogora had purchased for him – as it would be impossible for
him to continue to live up in the mountains in a wheelchair. The house was a cement room where he sold
salt, sugar, spices, etc… with a small side room for him to sleep in – dirty,
messy sheets, but at least a mattress.
His mother lived with him & she slept in a tiny closet room on the
cement floor with a blanket. They had a
kitchen behind the “shop” which consisted of a tree & a hole in the ground
with a grate to cook on. There was a
room with a toilet & another room with chickens & rabbits. The mother had 10 children & John is the
only one left alive. So the social
workers & physical therapists who had come to visit examined him, chatted
with him about cleanliness & about his shop & prayed with him. We spent the rest of the day having meetings
with health center officials, the sheriff & his secretary…. All trying to
figure out how to finance John’s care.
Oh, and did I mention that everywhere we went, a crowd of kids followed
us & congregated around …. They were so excited to see a white person. I guess we were out in the sticks far enough
that many of them had not seen a white person before. They wanted
to touch my skin & got so embarrassed & laughed when I smiled at
them. Every time we entered a new
building for another meeting, they children would peer through the windows
& stare at me. And as we drove home,
people called out “mazungu!!!” (white person) the whole way! We have gotten pretty used to the term. People shout it to us everywhere we go – and
when we are driving, crowds congregate to watch the white people drive by. It’s always like a 1 car parade. They scream out for us to toss water bottles
to them (we do if we have any).
Sunday, August 04, 2013
So a week has past & I’m still trying to finish this….
We have been busy! Each day this week
Joel went to the hospital in the mornings & the kids & I went with
Julie to Kumbya for the retreat activities.
The kids enjoyed a really super VBS that was put on by a youth group
from the UK who did a short term mission trip to serve the missionaries J
The adults spent time in praise & worship, listened to a teacher from the
UK and then spent the rest of the morning in small groups. It was probably one of the most inspiring
weeks of my adult life. There are so
many humble, wonderful, ambitious, hard-working, dedicated…. And just kind…
people who have lived in Africa for years & years. Most of the families
were training pastors, some were starting schools, there was a midwife, someone
from World Relief, one woman worked in
artisans & small buisnesses. Joel
was the only doc and he was able to join in the community occasionally in the
evenings. One night was “skit night” –
and it was a blast to see all these missionaries let their hair down & be
sooooo crazy & fun! It was fun to
watch them be so obviously comfortable & relaxed in a way that they most
likely aren’t able to be at home in
their work among Rwandan folks. That
night Joel was still working when we left.
But he decided to come anyway.
After work, he walked out to Kumbya.
Alone. In the pitch black dark
night. He used his phone as a flashlight
part of the way! Generally, it is very
safe around here. I wouldn’t be out
walking alone after dark, but Joel was fine.
We were so happy to see him, even though there were only 3 skits left!
Josiane came each afternoon, after Lauren’s nap. We still went down to peds this week. A few days, we found the ladies & kids
rolling beads out of magazine strips. We
learned how to do it & made a few beads.
It was pretty cool knowing that some of those necklaces are sold in
Grand Rapids!
We all walked Josiane home a couple days this week. Joel was with us one night & we walked
her all the way to her house. She is
renting a room in the home of a family.
There are a few other nursing students renting rooms in this house as
well. We have been to her house several
times now. You walk in through a skinny
wooden door & down a very, very narrow hall made of mud brick walls. The floor is dirt. On the right is a doorway that you have to
step down 2 steps to enter. There are often a couple little kids squished onto
those steps playing with their teddy bear & his plastic bag dress. Josiane shoos them away & lets us into
her apartment. It is a tiny cement room
that we can all barely fit in. Maybe 8 x
5 feet. She has 4 chairs that we can sit
around & our knees touch each other.
Her kitchen is in this same room.
It consists of a pile of dishes & pots on the floor in a corner, a
cooker (electric, I think & the circular size of 1 pan) for her to cook
rice & potatoes on (the floor), a bar of soap & a dish pan. The family is fortunate to have a running
water spigot that is located outside near the cows, goats & chickens. She
has another room, same size, that is her bedroom. It has a mattress on the floor with a blanket
& mosquito net. Her clothes are hung
on the wall on nails & her shoes are piled in the corner. She has hung up curtains on her tiny bedroom
window & her door window. It is a
little shocking the first time seeing a home like this. When we cleaned out the school house, she
took a broken mirror I had thrown away out of the trash & asked if she
could keep it. This is actually better
than the norm for most people in Rwanda.
They have running water & electricity – sometimes. The “dad” of the house she is renting is
actually employed by Kibogora mission as a cook. Working on the mission or at the hospital is
a coveted job. It pays the best around
here – even though most of the time the government hasn’t paid the hospital, so
the hospital can’t pay the workers.
This week, while sitting in Josiane’s house, playing with a
small box of Legos that I gave her from the school house (again, going to just
toss them!), she said, “I’ll be back in 3 minutes.” And she ran out of the house. When she came back 15 minutes later, she
carried a long stick of sugar cane! The
kids had been asking her that day about sugar cane & how we could get it at
the market. She had told us we could go
to the market tomorrow… and now she surprised us with it! She had run down the road to the market to
find this for us! She got out a knife
& showed us how to cut it & how to eat it… and how to grow it. This woman is incredible. She is one of the most generous people I have
known, ever. And she lives in poverty
that I can’t understand. She reads the
Bible verses we have taped to our porch window that we are learning &
reminds us everyday that “My help comes from the Lord!” (from Psalm
121:1-2). She comes from a family where
dad left or died a long time ago & mom is farming to put the kids through
school. She doesn’t want to get married
yet because she wants to be able to become a nurse to help her mother using her
nursing salary. She says a Rwandan
husband may not allow her to help her mother.
Selfless. Appreciative. Humble.
Beautiful.
She has also acted as a missionary of sorts to our
kids. When we go to peds, it’s a
difficult balance between understanding that this is totally out of Levi, Anna
& Lauren’s comfort zone – while trying to include them in a “fun” time of
interacting with sick kids & let them experience this reality. The reality for them is quite a bit of
fear. They can’t speak with anyone
there, the nurses are quite “grabby” & try to hold them or tease them, the
mothers laugh at them, the kids stare at them.
Josiane has been a blessing time & again. She is able to draw them in, play with them
on the side until they are comfortable to play with the group…. She does with
them what I do with the Rwandan kids. It
has been an amazing reverse in what you’d expect. God has given us a small “team” so that it’s
more enjoyable for everyone.
I guess this has all been about the kids & I…. Joel’s
job is intense & usually unbelievable.
Sometimes it’s not so different from Kentwood J in Kentwood, he gets called to treat shotgun wounds in the middle
of the night. Here he is called to treat
machete fight wounds in the middle of the night. There are too many infections caused by bad
hygiene, blood infections, malnourishment….. too many broken bones that don’t
have the option of an orthopedic surgeon…. too many nurses who don’t speak good
enough English to understand his orders, but too afraid to ask for
clarification; results: poor treatment.
But God knows all about it. He
knows. He knows. He knows.
“Know that the Lord your God is God. He is the Faithful God; keeping His
covenant of love to a thousand generations, to those who love him & keep
His commands.” Deut. 7:9
“My sheep listen to My voice. I know them & they follow Me. I give them eternal life & they shall
never parish; no one can snatch them out of My hand.” John 10:27-28
“We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon You.” 2 Chron. 20:12
Every day that we are here, the easier it becomes to imagine
living here. We see the needs & it
is apparent where our place is in them.
We are about to return home to Michigan in a little less than 3 weeks –
to a place we love, friends & family we love. A job that Joel loves & residents he
enjoys teaching so much. We are
beginning to feel, more & more, the back & forth pull of both
worlds. In one moment we are dreaming up
plans for our new house in Byron Center…. Reading emails from the kids’ new
principal & planning for school. The
very next moment we are planning a nice spot for a flower garden out the back
door of this house, planning on how we could make a welcome team to orient the
many different visitors who enter the revolving door of Kibogora….how to make
the operating room more efficient… We
love both. So much.
We will not pray for clarification – but trust. I can’t even begin to imagine the creative
way God will work this out & we don’t need to know. It will be a surprise anyway – that’s how it
always is!
We love you all!!!
Blessings!
Paula
Heading to the market. We bought some fabric from this store & had some tailors make dresses for the girls & shorts for Levi.
At Kumbya we often see this "Kite" bird. It resembles a golden eagle... I'm not convinced it's not a golden eagle.
Dad and I read a couple of chapters today written by one of our favorite authors!!! We were transported to walk with you in your lives, meet some of your precious friends, dine with you at meals, watch our grandkids playing, creating, experiencing Rwandan life, observe Joel with his patients, work side by side with Paula, lounge at Lake Kivu. We smiled, laughed, teared up and were blessed over and over again! We treasure it all!!! We're hugging each of you in our hearts and surrounding you each with prayer! May you continue to be surprised by an all gracious God!! Love you muchly!!
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