As always, my days are made most wondrous by my continual awe at God as seen through and in baby Elizabeth. I honestly can’t even describe the joy involved in helping take care of this precious little being every day. I now know what it is to be a grandmother, and it is, as described by those in the know, the best job on the planet… I would hardily concur! She is mighty fond of her CeCe, I can tell you that… I can get her to sleep in record time, and she loves laying on the couch next to me (even if I am not paying attention to her), while I work. Just to look over and see that smile, makes my heart sore. Honestly, the thought of leaving her for 6 weeks when I head back next month is almost more than I can bear, but being back home for the holidays with our friends and family is awfully important to me as well, and so, we attempt to thread the needle that is our life both here in Rwanda and back stateside.
Also in the last couple of weeks, we have rented a car for just a couple of months from friends who weren’t going to be here for several months, to number 1: see if we would use a car if we had access to one, and number 2: get me out and about with a little more success since my ankle injury. It has made getting out and about so much easier. It’s probably a good thing, with my ankle, that I can’t drive here just yet. As most of you know, Russell is a fairly conservative, take it easy, kinda driver… I AM NOT… Yes… the fact that our car is a manual transmission, therefore, I am unable to drive, because of my ankle, is probably a very, VERY good thing… I’m not sure Rwanda is ready for my driving… oh, but soon enough!
As we have ventured out and about a little more lately, we have tried to explore some of the places that have not been accessible to me via walking. The other day, we visited the local deaf school here in Musanze, and oh my goodness, what a treat is was. This school was started by a British man, who had a heart for deaf children. The school has 58 deaf boarding students, as well as 35 "Children Head of Household" day students, who for one reason or another, have found themselves, at their young ages, as heads of their households, having to provide financially (and every other way) for their younger siblings. Here in Rwanda, being deaf has traditionally been associated with being stupid and not capable of learning, much less being a contributing, communicating member of society. Oh, how wrong they have been. We happened to be there on a day that the students were preparing for final exams, so we had the pleasure of watching them go through some of what would be the language part of their testing. At first, they were simply having fun by writing our names on the blackboard. I had to reach WAY back into the very depths of my brain to bring back my very rudimentary sign language skills that I learned 30 some odd years ago in college. And I must say, I did pretty well. As you can see from the pictures, they wrote both my name and Russell’s on the board, along with their own. Next, they read, out loud, from the blackboard, so they are learning speaking skills as well as sign language. These kids are so smart, they actually learn English, French, Kinyarwanda, as well as sign language, SIMULTANEOUSLY! How many of us could do that… I certainly couldn’t… they are smart and funny and LOVE to learn! How refreshing!!
The "Children Head of Household" day students are learning a trade… everything from carpentry, to art, to basket weaving, to gardening and/or sewing skills… something that will allow them to go out, get a job and support their siblings for whom they have responsibility. Again, how many of us can imagine doing that at the age of 15, 16 or 17?
It was such a fun afternoon being with these precious kids and the teachers that are so devoted to helping them, not to be outcasts, but contributing members of society. I am in awe of the difference they are making! We should all strive to such…
All the photos this week are from our afternoon at the deaf school. Just look at the smiles on these kids faces… oh, to have such pure joy! I will say that joy has been a TITCH more difficult to come by in the last couple of days, as we woke up Saturday morning to NO WATER. It appears that one of the major water mains coming into the town broke and the whole town has been without water since. And then ON TOP of that… during an afternoon thunderstorm, lightning hit our house and completely fried our internet modem… so we are back to even slower internet than usual… BUT… since it did rain during said thunderstorm, we had every bucket we could find outside collecting water so we could flush our toilet… oh yeah… we Rainey’s are just regular MacGyver’s… I'm happy to report that by yesterday afternoon the water is back on so we are back in business, when they told us it could possible be a week without… whew!!
Next week, Russell and I will be heading to Cape Town, South Africa for a few days. He has been asked to speak at a Wild at Heart conference there, so we are going down a few days early just to check out another part of the continent. I will head back home, while he stays on to speak at the conference. Next post… I’ll let you know what adventures we find to our south… till then… my prayer is that we all find PURE JOY!!
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