Day 4 - Kigali, Rwanda - Thursday, April 30, 2009

Got a late start because of getting to bed so late. Really confusing having a 5-hour nap and then up for 5 and then back to bed for 3. I texted Anselme to only pick me up at 9:20 AM for a 9:30 AM start at the church. Had a quick breakfast, getting sick of Baguette and Meat. Had some interesting peanut butter, it was more like playdough than smooth and easy to spread. Also tried their yogurt today. Either was bad or just bad because it tasted sour and it's much runnier than what we're used to in Canada. The sausage (from Rwanda) and the granola bars (from Canada) are God sent. At 1040 AM today, the meat started its repeat performance.

Brought my suitcase of goodies as the promised prizes for our choir leaders for their aniticipated presentations. Some gently used toys, clothes, books, ties, etc. from home.

At the hotel and generally in public you feel the pro-English presence. It will take a generation to get the "French" out of the system. The French really disappointed the Rwandans. Now they are part of this East Africa movement with the commonality being the English language.

It's getting nice and warm today. Because it didn't rain too much last night, it's going to be a hotter day today. I sweat whether it's hot or not so it really doesn't matter too much to me. A beautiful day nevertheless.

Did I tell you about my mosquito bite? The fun begins! While on the phone with DEV Bernie yesterday, I found my first mosquito bite. Got another one today. The tally is 2. Pray that whatever bites me is not malaria-carrying. My malaria pill is due tomorrow (Friday) as well as my second dose of Dukoral (used to prevent Cholera but mainly diarrhea) so the mosquito bites are good reminders to take the medicine tomorrow. With this Swine Flu all over the news here and at home, it reminds us about prevention rather than cure.

So Obama's first 100 days are over. They, of course, know all about Obama here. He's their hero too. Who's Stephen Harper? What else is in the news? Jays lose their first series of the year as of Thursday night, losing 3 of 4 to Kansas City. The Devils lose, well I guess with a name like that they should and Ovechkin 4, Avery 3.

The gel I bought stinks as well. My hair's all over the place. Oh well!

First stopped quickly at the Kenya Airways office to reconfirm my flights for Saturday.....that's another story. Leaving at 4:00 AM Saturday morning, meaning I have to be at the airport at 2:00 AM. We'll leave the hotel ~ 2:00 AM. To miss my flight would not be good but to be stuck in Rwanda wouldn't be the worst thing either.

Then to the church, so we started at 10:00 AM. En route, I took some video and pictures. I'll refer to the links when they're ready. I'm thinking of downloading them on youtube. So the presentations started and took us the whole morning until almost 1:00 PM. Generally they did very well and their peers "marked" them. Only one C, mostly Bs and a few As.

Then Baguette and Meat for lunch (AGAIN!) with pop. Realized at lunchtime that I'm running out of money fast. OK, just kidding, but it's going fast. Costs are up everywhere, especially transportation and food. What else is there really? When we reimburse the brethren for their transportation, lodgin and food, I would say it's almost double what it used to be when I came the first time here in 2005. Sending an SMS (send money soon) to Most Respected Timothy Nuessler. I will have to contact the office for more funds to meet me in CAR, Tchad or Sri Lanka.

So after lunch the choir leaders got their pick of the "rewards" from the suitcase. I gave the Apostle and Anselme a small woman's lotion gift pack for their wife and then according to their "grade" they were able to choose 1-2 things from the "valise" (suitcase). What a zoo! It was like that suitcase was the last sack of rice in the whole country. Eventually everyone was happy with what they received. I told them that only Rwanda received this as I couldn't bring a suitcase for each country and drag them with me all over the place.

The afternoon session included a review of how to organize a choir practice, vocale exercises and warm-ups, proper breathing technique (including each choir leader lying down on a bench to show them "deep" breathing technique). We concluded the meeting just after 5:00 PM. We also distributed another gift. We organized the reproduction of a music theory book in their language. This was, to date, not available here in Rwanda and the choir leaders were very happy to receive them.

Some other notes;

• While not being able to sleep last night, I watched Deja Vu with Denzel Washington. A pretty good movie although the concept is off.
• Saw travel warning for Congo-Brazza last night but couldn't get to it until today. Nothing to really worry about. Although Tchad is at the highest warning level right now. What else is new?
• Deodorant. Don't get me wrong, this is not a criticism but just an observation. Most do not know what this is. They are used to the "human stink", although to a Westerner it can be quite offensive. There's really no getting used to it for us.
• Drinking water is called "Source du Nil", named after the Nile River but couldn't be further from the truth. It's not Natural nor Mineral, it's just purified drinking water. You would think there would be a lot of Mineral Water in Rwanda because of the thousand hills. The Mineral Water is much more expensive. Who knows? This Nil water may have had its source at the Nile but it went through a big process before I ingested it. Maybe that's a good thing.
• Looks like Friday BF will be bread only, no meat for sure!
• Saw 3 laptops in the group of choir leaders today. Actually have one sister (that's a breakthrough in some places) in this group in Rwanda. Almost everyone has a cell phone. We even joke that people would rather go hungry than give up their cell phone.

More on the black & white. That's fairly protocol here for NAC functions whatever they are. That's all the "good" church clothes they have and often only one white shirt/blouse that is worn until they can't anymore. This is a good reminder to all reading this, including myself, that we need to send some black & white to these places. Blouses, shirts, pants, skirts, shoes, ties.... Let's see what we can do and how much it will cost to send. Minimally we should also concentrate on sending one suitcase with the brothers to the first drop-off country that they travel to. Anything and everything helps!

BTW, May 1st is May Day here as well. Otherwise known as Labour Day. It's a holiday here so we will start a little earlier and end earlier so that the choir leaders can have a little extra time with their family and friends on this holiday.

It would be possible to stay here and in the other countries for a month easy. Unfortunately we all have the same illness.....lack of follow-up.

Had a brother approach me today for help for his house. He even showed me a picture of what he needs (wants) to do. He has an uncle in South Africa but I guess he's not willing to help. This brother isn't expecting the church to help, he's expecting me to help. I will see what I can do. When you help one, the rest expect it as well. Reminds me of a time in Bangui (CAR) when a brother approached me for money for medicine for his TB. I knew fairly quickly that the TB was just the final stage of an AIDS death. I gave him what I could but I knew it wouldn't help much. Sure enough, upon my next visit to CAR, he had already died..... A tough reality of the diseases that exist and that prevail in this part of the world.

After a short recuperation from 5:30 - 7:00 PM. The three of us (Apostle Minga, Anselme & myself) went to "heaven" for supper. This is a new concept restaurant owned by Americans where they employ young Rwandans out of desperate circumstances (orphans, former prostitutes, etc.). The cooks, servers, hosts are all Rwandans out of these circumstances. A really nice restaurant to boot. Everyone speaks English and the food was very good although a little cold. Pictures show the Anselme's pork chops, my beef filet and the Apostle's chicken. This is just up the road from the previously best restaurant in Kigali, Indian Khazana (sp?). Rumour has it that this Indian restaurant had to recently close due to them "not paying their taxes" (nudge nudge, wink wink).

Returned home at 9:30 PM or so and returned to the room, slept on and off, watched "Damage" (not bad) and now up again till 4:00 AM doing this blog but at least I'm caught up. SKYPEd with Bishop Wiesel tonight as well and hopefully he will be my SMS delivery when we meet up in Sri Lanka in a couple of weeks. He had to cancel his trip to Pakistan and will go to Nepal instead, something not good (again). Good Night and see you tomorrow.