Psalm 28:7: Just me and my tree

Another week over. So crazay. This trip is truly flying by and at the end of each week I’m finding myself so surprised that another week is already over. At the same time, I’m finding myself missing family and friends more than ever during this time, and I’m very excited for the time I’ll be able to reunite with everyone again. Don’t get me wrong- I’m not at all saying that I’m not loving it here, as I’m sure you’ll see in this post.

So week three at the Center for Champions! This week has been a bit crazy around the center. Carrie, the director, received news this week that she had two weeks to recruit 100 new students for the new technical/vocational program they were starting. As I’m sure you can understand, that put a ton of pressure on her, and was very stressful for the center as a whole. But by the goodness of God, between the two days of recruitment, over 200 young people came to apply for the program! The first step was having them fill out a sheet of their information. Not only did this provide us with information, but it allowed the first round of testing, which was seeing if they had the ability to read and write. A few people didn’t make it through, which is sad because they are most in need of the program, but they just wouldn’t have the ability to be successful in it. The next day, we had the test. Carrie asked us all to be there to help proctor it and be sure no one was cheating, so I had my first teacher experience! It was sad because as we waited for them to show up they had to show ID, and many had the wrong ID’s, their pictures from the day before didn’t match with who showed up to take the test, or they didn’t have any form of ID, which Carrie said would greatly hinder their advancement to the next round as you couldn’t be sure it was the same person. The program is designed for people with a Primary 4-6 education, so the test was designed to see if they were between those two. Anyone who completed the whole thing probably had a higher than P6 education and therefore would not be challenged enough by the program, and anyone who couldn’t get at least half of the questions right probably had less than a P4 education level and the program would be too hard. They were told to be between these two levels of schooling, but you could tell from the test many weren’t. Walking around during the test, God was really pulling on my heartstrings. Watching the kid’s hands shake as they tried to identify a circle and triangle, I just saw how great of a need there was for teachers here. I could hear God calling me to be a teacher louder and clearer than ever before, although where that may be still remains a mystery. After the test, Carrie and the other leaders of the center went through the tests and chose about 120 students to do interviews with and home visits before choosing the final 100 for the program. So that’s what this next week hold for them.

Besides that, I worked more on the library this week (are you surprised?). I found some more books that had to be labeled, including a box of like 70 “Lawmaking in the United States” books, which I’m sure are going to be a huge hit with the kids at the center… Speaking of, one of the older boys was looking at one while visiting in the library and pointed to a picture of Abe Lincoln and said “You know him?” uhh, Abe Lincoln? “Yes, you know him?” no… “Oh, good man. Freed the slaves. Good man.” Mmkays! But also this week I’ve started on a mural for the library! Actually, it’s like halfway done. I really wanted to have it finished for this post, but then I went to Kigali for the weekend and didn’t have time (but that story is for later…). It’s a tree made out of the word “grow” and then on the other wall I’m going to have this quote by author Joan Bauer: “We read to learn and to grow, to laugh, to be motivated, and to understand things we've never been exposed to. We read for strength to help us when we feel broken, discouraged or afraid. We read to find hope.” So yeah, I’m stoked about that. Obviously some pictures are found at the end of this post! Some funny things from the boys as they’ve seen me painting. Edy-“What does grow mean?” Another boy- “Grow. Growgrowgrowgrowgrowgrow. Looks like a lot of work.” Knight- “You like the word grow.” Andrew, our translator, as I was adding to the tree- “I see you’re still growing.” I’m surrounded by comedians.

Also, this week we had the entertainment of a Petroleum truck that crashed right outside our guesthouse! It was the entertainment for all of Rwamagana, and we quickly learned that you could look, but don’t you think about taking a picture. We know, because Mikey took a few and was surrounded by a mob including a man with an ax that made him delete the photos. Luckily I heard that story before I tried, because I think that would make me cry. But we did watch one truck try to drag the other out! Good pre dinner entertainment. They had a cable connecting the two and right after Mikey said “This is going to snap and not end well…” it in fact did snap and sparked a ton. The next afternoon the truck was finally moved up the road, and we took pictures of the damage, which I obviously attached. I have a feeling it’s going to stay that way for a while…

One day, I took a break from my library and went down to play basketball with the boys. It was probably one of the strangest afternoons I’ve ever had at the center. After a little while, we started playing basketball and one of the boys, Samuel, was behind me. I turned around and asked him if he’s good at basketball, because if the person behind you makes their shot before you do, then you’re out. So I said “are you good at basketball?” and he was like “yes, I am.” Grrrreat. So I turned around and then Jean Bosco, one of the tallest and strongest boys at the center who is pretty funny, slides behind me in line. I turned around and said “NO, now I’m really going to lose!” as Samuel peeks around Jean Bosco and says: “You are going to die.” Ookay. About a minute later, someone started playing with my ponytail. I turned around, and Jean Bosco had this big grin on his face as he was playing with my ponytail. “Good?” I said with thumbs up, “yes.” he responded. Alrighttt. We took our shots, went back in line, and the ponytail playing continued, as did playing with my “whispie hairs” as Mikey referred to them, and poking me with my own ponytail. Very strange. Then Samuel smuggled a giant stick into the multipurpose room and poked Jean Bosco’s butt with it, and I had to request that it left the room, and he continued to try to smuggle it in many more times. Then Edy, one of the 12 year olds who visits me in the library all the time, played with my nail polish and then winked at me. Then we played another round of knockout, and Samuel was in front of me, and I told him I was going to get him out. “No,” he said, “you’re not good at basketball.” Yes I am! “No, you’re not.” Ouch. Later we played four on four 2 point games, and when my team played against his, I scored a basket. AYYY! He gave me a big high five and decided “Okay, you’re good at basketball.” Thank you. “You come back tomorrow.” Yeah! “What time?” I’m here all day everyday. “Really?” Yes, I’m just usually in the library. “Do you want me to visit you tomorrow in the library?” Yeah, you should stop by. “Will you give me a book?” No…sorry. Needless to say, he didn’t visit me in the library. (Let me end this by saying he speaks phenomenal English compared to many of the other boys at the center- it’s impossible to have conversations like this with many of the other boys, which makes these rare moments so much funnier.) So yeah, a strange afternoon all around.

This weekend, anyone having a practicum in Rwanda was allowed to come back to the house for the weekend. Mikey decided he wanted to go back, and I thought a trip back home would be really nice, so I went along with him. Our two leaders, Kat and Mitch, were at home, along with three other wonderful girls, Kat, Emmie, and Andrea, who are living at the house for practicum, and some of the fantastic people that work at our house were here as well. Our weekend was filled with Anastasia, Mean Girls, Indian food, Kat cutting my hair off, ABC Bagels (donut and bagel- no shame), visiting Les Enfants de Dieu- an orphanage which is the girls’ practicum placement, getting woken up by Aidah, cooking delicious Mexican dinner and eating delicious crepe-ish things made by Kat, and trying Nutella for the first time. A wonderful much needed weekend. The way there, we walked a bit down the main road to get to a bus station, paid less than two dollars, and hopped a nice little bus. Only about an hour drive, and only a few stops, which was really nice. The way back, Mikey and I left our house around 7:30 Monday morning to walk to the bus stop and waited for our “bus” to show up. Unfortunately, not as many people want to go to Rwamagana as Kigali, and I mutatu was our chariot home. 18 passengers, a baby, the driver, and an hour later, we squeezed out of the mutatu and walked to the Center. Rough transit. Needless to say when the fourth person in our row got off a little more than halfway through our journey, Mikey and I “yesyesyesyes”-ed it a lot. Those things should NOT have four people in a row, it’s inhumane.

Welp, since the internet here has been down, you get more fun! I got to finish my painting, so I attached some pictures of it, AND they also show off my new haircut! Yahoo!