It’s been a long time since we posted on the blog. I think it’s a sign of how settled we are. In the beginning we wanted to share our new and unusual experiences. Now we have few of them: it has become quite natural to be here. Well, relatively anyway. We will never understand this culture the way we do in Australia, but these days our learning curve has slowed down. This is very helpful.
It’s the looooong school holidays at the moment. We are really enjoying having William around more. His teacher, Anysie, came to visit the other day (for some help with understanding medical English for an assignment she is doing – so many people here seem to be studying while working). It made me (Catherine) smile to see how comfortable he is with her. He talked exuberantly about what’s been going on in his holiday. This is very, very unusual for our shy William: when most visitors come we struggle to get him to greet them properly if they are new, and he certainly is not chatty even if he knows them. He likes Anysie and they obviously have a great relationship.
We went to the Kumbya Conference for protestant missionaries recently. It was a lovely time, getting to know lots of lovely people and sharing a tent with our young German friends Moritz and Ilva. We said goodbye to them both yesterday; their year in Rwanda has ended and they will return to begin university. Moritz said he will always remember with a smile the morning Hannah woke up in the tent as the sun was thinking about rising, unzipped it, walked out to the car (where the food was stored) and yelled across the camp site, “Mum I’m sooooooo hungry. I want some food. I want food Mum. Mum I want food.” Until I rushed out to her to still the noise and showed her there was bread in the tent. He said it was a great way to wake up. As you can see, he is very nice.
Part of the new refugee camp for Congolese fleeing the war there. We passed it on the way to Kumbya.
The children attended a ‘school’ at the conference. I was so excited to see a well-resourced, fun program unfolding in English. Hannah loved it. She would ask at the end of each session if she could please go back again soon. William, on the other hand, didn’t want to go. It taught me something important: it’s just his personality to need to have special friends in his class to feel at home. It obviously wasn’t the different teaching methods or the low number of resources that made going to school in Butare difficult for him in Term 1 after all. In fact, William kept asking if he could go to his school in Butare instead! I’m very pleased to know this – it’s a great relief. I can’t help laughing remembering the time the children at Kumbya met in a different building for school (I, of course, forgot and took them to the normal place). All the way down the hill William cried, “I don’t want to go to school”, and all the way back up Hannah was crying, “Where is school? Where is school?”. Perhaps an illustration of the years to come?
Hannah playing with Rae-An
William and his new friend Johannas, dressed as bears for Noah’s Ark. William of course opted not to perform on stage, but he looked cute.
Hannah as a butterfly for Noah’s Ark. We woke her up for the performance knowing she had been looking forward to it.
There was a skit night at Conference. Last year Hannah was 1 year and 4 months. We spent the whole time trying to keep her off the stage, so this year I wrote her name down. Still, we were surprised that she wasn’t at all scared of singing into a microphone in front of 150 people. She loved it, and afterwards kept giving us reasons to let her go back and sing more.
Hannah loving singing ABC to 150 people
William, meanwhile, had been reflecting on his week. He said to Tim, “I know how to make friends Daddy.” “How do you do that?” Tim asked. “You find someone you don’t know, and you play with them. Then you play with them again, and again. Then they’re you’re friend!”
We’re back home in Butare. Back to work and play. It’s a nice place to be.
Our house last night. It was Moritz’s farewell from Running Club. Tim was too sick for the planned half marathon, but they ran their normal route together one last time.Then spaghetti bolognaise and garlic bread with twenty people for dinner. You can see me here with my good friend Gloria who just topped the exams to become one of the newest internal medicine physicians. We have the pleasure of her company several times a week and will miss her when she moves back to Kigali. I’m in awe of the way Gloria and many of my Rwandan friends can switch from Kinyarwanda to French to English without blinking when talking to various people in the room.
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