Ready, Set.....GO!

Oh my gracious… at least it hasn’t been a month since my last post, but oh so much as happened… 

I wonder if I will EVER stop writing that statement…

In the last few weeks we have been busy continuing to test and interview prospective students. You can see from the photo the amount of CV’s (Curriculum Vitae or what we would call a resume) we have received. We have had to go through each one and determine if this particular person, based on just the CV alone, would get a call to then determine if their English was good enough for us to then move them on to the next round of testing (an English and critical thinking assessment test) and a three (me, RR and Frances) on one interview (the part of the program we now refer to as “Speed Dating”). Needless to say, this process has been most interesting. We went from testing onesie/twosie, to testing twelvsie/twenty-sixie… goodness!! 

So after they take their assessment, and during the interview portion of the program, we ask them what their hopes and dreams are. If money were no object… WHAT would be your dream career? Most are cautious around this question. Many times telling us what they think we want to hear vs. what they really want to do with their lives. But we had one guy, who actually scored 100% on his assessment and with whom we were quite impressed tell us he wanted to be an actor… okie dokie then… off ya go!! Another who told us getting a “certificate” was more important than starting a job creating business and yet another who told us all she wanted to be was a nurse, until we sent her on her way, and she then texted us back and told us she had changed her mind and now wanted to go into construction management.

I don’t mean to make light of these situations, but honestly, after #26, you just need some honesty… and we can smell suck-up so fast, they don’t stand a chance. Do we wish we could give every single one of the kids the opportunity to study here? Of course we do…but we can only take 12 students this year… 12 is the magic number. Thus far, we have 9 (Five more move in tomorrow to start classes). We are doing our final testing next week. If we hit the mark with twelve… that would be great. If we don’t and just have the 9 already admitted… we’re ok with that, too! The students we have chosen are smart, articulate, and, we think, stand the best chance of lasting the entire seven years of our program. Will we have some attrition… I’m sure we will. Some won’t want to work as hard as we are going to push them. Some will give up because they have never been taught to tough it out when things get hard! Some will shine! 

My goal over the next couple of weeks is to profile each of our new students so you will get to know them as we do. So you can follow their (and our) successes and failures. We just pray there are more successes than failures!! You can pray that, too!! At one point, Russell was talking to some prospective students’ families, and he said this, “We feel the weight of being responsible for your son or daughter changing this country.” If THAT wasn’t a big gulp moment! These great kids and their families are trusting us to teach them and mold them into the future leaders of a Rwanda… no pressure or anything!!!!! 

The new Rwandan chef started last week as well… he was an hour and a half late on his first day here… ummm, yeah, so ask just about anyone who has EVER had a meeting with us what happens when you are late… especially an hour and a half late… not such a great start, but he redeemed himself quickly and has been introducing some nice new dishes into our kitchen repertoire. Something we are going to work on next week is our, OK, HIS, baking skills (he may be a Rwandan chef, but he ain’t got nothin on this southern girl who was taught to bake by her mama and aunts!! Just sayin!!). We also have to go over the idea that if someone is a vegetarian it doesn’t necessarily mean they want to eat potatoes, white rice and a few veggies – and that’s IT! In fact… carb overload comes to mind! All and all, he does have some game… we’re just going to have to refine it a titch… I can take him to a certain point, but after that, it will be the Executive Chef’s job when they land in country around the 1^st of June! 

Oh… and speaking of the first of June… the container is officially getting packed and leaving Little Rock tomorrow (March 19^th) and they tell us it will be in Dar es Salam by May 4^th (Happy Anniversary to the Cutest Boy in the World on that day – would that be the best gift ever or what… the container actually hitting a date mark), which means it could be to us by June 1^st. And really, I can’t even tell you how much we NEED it to be here by June 1^st… I could go into all the reasons now… but just suffice it to say that if doesn’t get to us by June 1^st… it WILL NOT be pretty… on SO many levels… ooppp… another prayer!! 

And lastly… while those of you that are my FB friends already know this, and if you aren’t, you might have heard a scream from here a few weeks ago, when our daughter and son-in-law sent us the photo below… announcing to us that we are to be grandparents. After a visit to the doctor, and a first photo of Baby T, we now know to expect he or she on or around Oct. 10^th (and Brit was even able to video Skype us into her first appointment so that we could see and hear Baby T for ourselves – how cool is that from this far away???)… to say that we are excited doesn’t even BEGIN to describe it!! How does this affect our work here… in short, it doesn’t. Our schedule is already such that we spend the fall and through the holidays back stateside, and plan to continue with that schedule. And I already proclaimed last year after a full seven month absence, that, God willing, I would never do that again, so after a little break for TCBINW and I in France (and let me just tell you, do we ever need a break after the 24/7 go, go, go, non-stop world we are living in right now), I will fly to LR for just a couple of weeks at the beginning of May. We said all along that we are here because God called us here… grandbabies don’t change that… does it mean I may make an extra trip (or two) each year… probably. And do we FULLY INTEND to be the best CeCe (and Opa for TCBINW – which is German for Grandpa) in the ENTIRE world… you betcha!! We got this – or should I say… God has this and we trust that HE will work it all out!! But we do feel so blessed to be welcoming this new little Thornton/Chandler/Rainey baby into our family!! We can’t wait to spoil he/she with all the love in our hearts!! Oooppp… prayer #3… for a healthy mama and baby!! 

So, as you can see….we pray A LOT, and get through each of our days with faith and humor!! We would appreciate your prayers over the coming weeks and months as this campus turns into a full fledged University. There’s no turning back now!!

The stacks and stacks of CV's we have received!!

Students sitting for the English assessment test!

The email we got in, picture form, to make the big announcement to us!!

Baby T's first photo @ 8 weeks!! Already the cutest grandbaby in the world!! :-)