Frasier Crane and the Peanut Gang.....

Ok….so what can I say about the last couple of weeks….”whew” comes to mind….

It started with another bout of malaria for me….dang…me and those skeeters…uggg!!  This time around the aches were bad, but not as bad as the first time, but man oh man, the fatigue that comes with malaria stayed with me longer than last time….I felt like my whole body was encased in cement….BUT…Russell , Katie and Christine took good care of me, and by the time Josh arrived on the 16^th, I was mostly good to go….I really just had to suck it up and well, the following is why:

Our final acquisition of the “Musanze Opportunity Center” or  “compound” as I refer to it, is complete…I realize “compound” sounds more prison like than opportunity like, but what can I say…old habits die hard…a seventeen cottage property, in which I mentioned our negotiations of a few posts back, and to get REAL details, you need to read Russell’s blog (www.musanzeinc.com), which details what we are going to accomplish with this property…as well as an aerial view...BUT, what I will say is, it was a FIGHT to get a holt of  (yes, I said “holt of”) the keys, even after having a signed lease from the Minister of Infrastructure…the folks (ok, one folk) at the local level, with sticky fingers, was not going down without a fight, and well, let’s just say he’s never come across the Raineys!! Nuf said!!

Now…those of you who know me, know I am an obsessive/compulsive sort  and I DO NOT LIKE CHANGE…something I should have SERIOUSLY considered when marrying the cutest boy in the world 26 years ago…but…as is the Rainey way (as Josh said…we ARE jump in head first kinda folk), instead of taking a week or two to move from the house we were living in, oh yeah, we attempt to do it in just TWO days…NOW…most of you are probably thinking, what’s the big deal…moving from one SMALL house to another (I have now downsized from a Little Tikes kitchen to a Fisher Price kitchen)…ok…THIS is the problem…the houses in the compound have not been lived in by any humans for over a year…so the non-human sorts had taken over (bugs and such…and let me just say officially that African spideys are definitely bigger than their American counterparts). SO, in these two days, we not only had to move EVERYTHING, but also CLEAN every house we were going to occupy, which was only three, but dirty does not EVEN begin to describe what they were! EEECCCKKK!!! Christine said she had never seen a muzungu clean like I do…and between Katie, Josh, Russell and I, along with Christine and Beatrice, we got the three cottages mostly habitable, although I will say, we have a ways to go! We ARE though, sleeping in our own beds and under skeeter nets…the rest will fall into place…I THINK!! I can honestly say there were a couple of days that I was SOOOO tired, I thought I wouldn’t make it to see another day…and even told Josh….I’m SURE your next mother will be young enough to handle these situations with your dad!

So…we get all our crap from one house over to the compound (in the pouring rain might I add), and in the MIDDLE of all the malay, we had promised Katie that once we got the keys, she could get a goat to attempt to make goat cheese…turns out, you need either a pregnant one or one that has just had a baby, and if you don’t understand why…maybe you should head back to eighth grade sex-ed class…well…we had the word out with one of the locals that we were looking for a goat to milk, and lo and behold, he calls THE FIRST DAY we were moving…. he had a mama and one month old, twin baby boy goats….

OK, let’s recap…a three acre compound with seventeen houses, along with other structures, not cleaned or yard work done in over a year…ME, freaking out over the change, and THREE goats, whom were aptly named Lucy (the mama), Blanket (Katie named him) and Charlie (Brittany named him)…notice the Peanuts theme (because, unfortunately, Katie’s dog, Linus, had to be put to sleep a few weeks ago, so these names are for Linus). Blanket, we have found, is the adventurous one, Charlie, is a mama’s boy…thus far, Katie has gotten a total of 6 ounces of milk, mainly because the night guards hear them cry and put them with their mama, so they nurse, and secondly, we haven’t had time to build a milk stand yet…which we understand will help. And of course, because we didn’t know where the goats “came from”, Katie decided we needed to give them baths, ya know, just to get them clean before she started the milking process…we took “goat roping” to a whole new level…yep…Katie and I bathing goats…and man, are they “slippery when wet” little suckers….the Rwandans thought FOR SURE we had done lost our minds…to which I would have to agree…

Then two days ago, a friend, Bill Boyd, who is a vet, and who is planning on moving onto the compound with his wife, Susan, sometime later in the summer, called and said he had a rescued African Crested Crane, that needed a home with room to roam…okie dokie then…bring him on over we say – and now you can tell we have TOTALLY lost our minds…and by the way…he has been named Frasier…Frasier Crane.

So yesterday…I am working trying to get houses in order, things organized, cook our first meal here in the Fisher Price kitchen, and Josh walks in my door and says, “Mom, the goats are on your front porch, and they are taking a poo”….EXCRUSE ME??? I thought he was kidding, but sho nuf, there they were…I happened to be headed out the door with a laundry basket under my arm, so I grabbed Lucy’s rope and DRUG her (she did NOT want to leave my front porch), as Blanket and Charlie followed….are we having fun yet????  A photo is worth a thousand words, so one is included…

THEN, Katie and I realize we hadn’t seen Frazier Crane all day…we look and look…no Frasier Crane, but we aren’t too worried, until later in the afternoon, Katie comes running in and says she found Frasier Crane stuck in a drainage collection hole that we didn’t even know was there…he clearly fell in, and couldn’t get out, and the last thing one of the vets told Katie when they left Frasier Crane with us was this: “don’t get too close, if crane’s feel threatened they go for the eyes and can take an eye out quick”. PERFECT!!! So…as soon as Russell and Josh got back (they had run into town), we started “Operation Rescue Frasier Crane”, which consisted of lowering a ladder into the muck, but because there was SOOO much muck, Josh had to hold the ladder, while Russell descended into the hole, which was probably 8 feet deep, with his sunglasses and rubber boots on (as not to get an eye taken out), and a blanket in hand (as per instructed by my BFF, Kathleen, who lives in Naples, FL and knows all things birds). Apparently, when you cover a bird with a blanket, it actually calms them down. So, picture it, Russell on a ladder, with a blanket, descending into muck, to try to cover Frasier Crane to grab him (but not just by the neck – don’t want to snap the little feller’s neck), which he does and is able to hold his neck and scoop him and additional muck up and out of the hole…and yes, we got it all on film, along with some pics, which I have included.

So…let’s recap again…I, Cheryl Rainey, live IN AFRICA, IN A COMMUNE (ok, not really, but might as well be), with THREE GOATS, an AFRICAN CRESTED CRANE, LARGE AFRICAN SPIDEYS (and other weird, awful, flying bugs…. AND, EVERYTHING needing repair….wow…THIS is what I always dreamed my life would be!! Yep…I mean, really, who wouldn’t want to be ME???

But…for all the cranky moods, and stress we have had over the last few days, we are still blessed beyond belief and are providing employment to an even larger number of people, and in the months and years to come WILL make a difference in the community of Musanze…and this project is clearly bigger than just the Rainey clan…we couldn’t have gotten here without God, and HIS sacrifice FOR US!! Nor will we get anywhere without HIM, or the countless people that have and will come along side us and after us, to help and sacrifice along with us!

I’m hoping the next few days will be a TITCH less adventurous than the last few, but I doubt it….I’m also hoping the goats stay off my porch, and that Frasier Crane stays on dry land…till next time…hugs and love….

Cottages on the north side of the property

Cottages on the south side of the property

FINALLY...THE KEYS!!!!

Lucy, Blanket and Charlie (the Peanut Gang) visiting my front porch and leaving a little somthin somthin

View of one of three of the volcanoes we can see from the property

Home Sweet Home - Our House - You think the yard needs attention??

Poor Frasier Crane - Stuck in the hole

The beginning of "Operation Rescue Frasier Crane:

The scoop up and out....

The Hand Off

Free at LAST!!!

Who wouldn't want to be ME???

JUST.BE.GRATEFUL!

Yesterday the country of Rwanda commemorated the 17th anniversary of the genocide. Approximately a million people died in 100 days. That was 1994. The whole country was shut down yesterday and even for the next week, businesses will close 3 hours a day to allow their employees to remember and grieve what was lost with the friends and family they have left.

In 1994, my kids were 7 & 9…in 1st and 4th grades…I don’t remember the exact spring break trip we took that year, but since we always got a two week spring break in Jackson Hole, we almost always hit a beach resort of one sort or another…usually the Caribbean or Mexico. My rule was… we live in the mountains, so we don’t vacation there. I VERY vaguely remember news reports of the happenings here that year…and I’m sure I thought…oh, how terrible, and then went on to the fun activity of the day…not giving it a second thought.

Our gardener, Beatrice, remembers today, April 8th, very specifically, as it was the day her father died..on April 9th, her mother…she and her brother were brutally beaten, but somehow survived. She was 18. Christine’s mother-in-law was home alone with her three children. Christine’s husband, Simon, was 15, his sister 11, and his other sister, less than a year old. When their home was attacked, they cut off his mother’s right arm and killed her daughter that she was carrying on her back, as most Rwandan mothers do. Her 11 year old daughter was also killed…she and Simon survived, she, just barely. Cyiza was 18 years old. He joined the RPF, President Kagame’s army, and fought to stop all the savagery. Christine herself was lucky. Her grandparents moved their family to Uganda when Christine’s mom was just 9 months old during similar problems that occurred in 1959, so she and all her siblings were born in Uganda and they lived there until Christine was 9…her mother and father moved their family back to Rwanda in August of 1994. Her parents wanted to come “home” to help rebuild the country of their heritage.

So yes, Christine was 9. She and Brittany are the same age. My daughter was playing on a beach in the Caribbean, not a care in the world. Christine was getting constant reports of family members that had been murdered, beaten or raped.

Seventeen years later, living in this country that has been through so much, I find myself getting frustrated on a daily basis…usually more often than not, about how slow or unorganized or, honestly, how hard it seems to get Rwandans to understand or “get it", whatever "it" is . Things that take 5-10 minutes in the US, take 1-2 hours here. Sometimes I question why we are here and are we really making a difference. Yes, God called us here, but do I REALLY have to follow through…sometimes (most times) it’s just seems SOOOO hard!

Then I look at the people around us…the people we have contact with every day…the people we have the most influence on…Beatrice, Christine, Cyiza, Ronald…these people that have lived through unspoken hardship and tragedy and MY life is hard…REALLY?? And when I look at their precious families, I realize that yes, we are making a difference. Are we changing a country, I don’t know about that…are we changing the lives of the people around us, I believe we are. Am I being changed most of all…ABSOLUTELY!

So today, when your husband doesn’t pick up his socks, or your kids are driving you CRAZY, or your parents are either doing the same (driving you crazy), or needing your help more than they did a year ago…Thank God that in 17 years in April,, 2028, you won’t be remembering this day or month in horror. Be grateful for what and WHO you have!  JUST. BE. GRATEFUL!! I know I am!