The Long Blog Post

Hey guys!

We stopped in Brussels for three hours. It's really cool how energy efficient Europe is. The escalators don't start until you step in front of them. Everything was really expensive so we didn't buy anything.

In the US, you're allowed 2 oz. of fluid, so I drank all buy 2 ounces of water from my water bottle. At the security check point, they saw the water and said they allow 0 oz. I asked if I could drink it or if we could just pour it out. They said I first had to go through again and then they directed me to an exit, so I walked around and spent another half an hour going through security with my empty Nalgene bottle. I wish we just did profiling.

We are staying in a really nice house. It has four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, dining room, and living room.

I saw what looked like a crow, except it was white-breasted. The rest of it was black though. Neat.

Kinyarwanda. It's been awesome. There was a little bus with four Rwandans in it that picked us up from the airport. Elijah, Pastor Claude, Jazelle, and Eric. I started chatting with them in Kinyarwandan. They understood and answered my questions, which is awesome. “Have you been to Rwanda before?” “No.” “It seems like you've been here before.” Sweet. They were all interested in how I learned, and a bunch of them knew Gabi and Margret (my Rwandan teachers).

We're living with Elijah and Sam (Bizimana).

Sam and Jazelle are both 20, but anyone would have guessed their 13.

Gabi and Margret didn't come with us because Margret was having a baby, with the due date in mid-December. The day after we got here, one of our Rwandan contacts said he heard from Gabi, and Gabi was really sad, because the baby was a still birth. They were really looking forward to their little girl. We were crushed to hear that and prayed for a while.

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That was all written on Friday. It sounds really upbeat. That jumps out at me more now that we've had four days of jet-lag. I also have hayfever- itchy, watery eyes and itchy, runny nose. I've had a cold for three weeks. It's better now in that my voice is back, but I keep coughing. I think it might be because of the pollution. It smells like exhaust downtown.

I got a bunch of mosquitos on the second night, so our leader gave me her mosquito net. I was pushing for us to buy mosquito nets for the team, but she disagrees, but we're going to talk about it as a team soon.

We're eating really well here. The fruit is really good here. Mangos, amazing passion fruit, fresh bread, great tea. We're making our own meals here, and we have great cooks on our team.

We even have toilets. Most places have squatty potties here. Just a hole in the ground.

Me and a couple other leaders went shopping on Friday and couldn't take a bus, so we each took motorcycle taxis. I hear Portland driving is a bit crazy to some people, though I don't think so, and I am a very moderate Portland driver. Seattle driving is crazy compared to Portland driving. But people who take taxis in third-world countries know that Seattle driving is actually extremely cautious. But these taxi drivers are extremely skilled so the actual risk was extremely low.

We went to a wedding on Saturday. It was soooo weird. The bride was a white Norwegian marrying a Rwandan. She did not look happy at all. At all. They served Fanta in the middle of the wedding. There was no pastor, just an MC making jokes and telling stories. Then we went through a crowded room to dish up awful food and returned to our seats to continue the wedding. We were all hoping that they had already gotten married in Norway and this was just for his family.

On Sunday, we ran Sunday school. We acted out the story of Jonah. I was Jonah. We had a great time with it. Then we broke into age groups. Katie and I had the 4- to 6-year-olds. We reviewed the story and did songs, and then had them draw, and then did more songs with dances. Then we were introduced to the main gathering at Christ Gospel Church, and then we met back with all the kids again. We did more songs with dances, and then sat among the kids. I had a couple on my lap, and I was putting my sunglasses on them, which they really loved. These kids think we're awesome. They loved shaking our hands. I think they're going to think very highly of white people when they grow up.

We're running workshops of music, art, and English this week. I don't know any of the details though.

We did a whole lot of worship and prayer for the first few days. We had a neighbor come over and pray for him. He's a Christian named Eric. He said he was extremely blessed to be prayed over by us, and that he's always wanted that and he feels changed now. Sweet.

I'm in charge of finances for the team. I keep track of every expense and how much money we have and can spend. The team money was dumped into my bank account before we left. I asked if they were sure they wanted me to be the person that both has the money and keeps track of where it goes, which I think is a ridiculous system, but the school leader was all for it. It's harmless this time, but that's a terrible system to have for the long run. Anyway, the staff leader, Mikaela, designated two student leaders, Luke and Michelle, and they're great leaders. Mikaela said she didn't want to add any burdens to me since she says I have the hardest job, but since I'm making all the team purchases and she consults me for decisions involving money like if we can eat out or not, maybe it would have been more consistent to have me in the meetings where Mikaela takes Luke and Michelle aside to pray and plan, but it's just a title so it really doesn't matter at all, cause I think “Accountant / Financial Consultant” is already a really awesome thing to put on my resume when I get back to Portland.

My team gets along great. It's a lot of fun.

I'm really looking forward to how much I'm going to get to do for God here. God is worth it, and plus we get rewards. Sweet deal.

That's all I can think of to write right now. A bit scatter-brained, but pretty candid. Hope you liked it.. :-)