THREE.RING.CIRCUS!!!

Well…just call us the THREE RING CIRCUS! Goodness gracious… just when you think it can’t get more interesting or crazy, well, let me just tell you... IT CAN!!!
We have been busy getting the new students into a routine… mornings, they are up at 6 for fitness, followed by quite time and breakfast, and then at 9, school is officially in session. Frances is doing a great job with them, and I have been spending mornings in the classroom with them as well. Not that I am, or claim to be, a teacher, but hey, I did raise two kids and am not completely unaccustomed to college papers and writing! Their written English is their biggest challenge, although they are working VERY hard to improve every day. Some are clearly ahead of others, but ALL of them are encouraging of each other. They have bonded quicker and better than we ever could have imagined.

With morning classes over, we have lunch and then afternoons are spent in “Hard Work University.” They work alongside our different staff teams… kitchen, housekeeping and gardening. Russell or I one also takes them for a couple of hours each day and spends time with them. He concentrates on the construction aspect of things… I spend time with them in the kitchen… and I also teach Philippe, our Rwandan chef as well. We have been concentrating on baking, but after our break, will expand into other delicacies!

Last weekend was quite the show here at the MOC. We knew we were going to have a half a dozen folks with one of the PAC (President’s Advisory Council) members for lunch here at the MOC (on Sunday). We spent Saturday baking my, if I must say so myself, best homemade chocolate cake with chocolate butter cream icing in Rwanda, and Saturday and Sunday prepping for lunch. Well, at around 10AM on Sunday morning, RR gets a text that the Prime Minister will be dropping in for a little look-see around 4PM… ok.. well… can we say pure bedlam?? I had previously met the Prime Minister last fall in Little Rock when he was the Minister of Education, and just a few weeks after that meeting, he became the Prime Minister. SO… lunch is going along swimmingly, as LOTS of military and secret service (or whatever they call them here in Rwanda) start showing up to do checks and bladda, bladda, bladda… when the entourage finally shows up, it includes not just the Prime Minister, but the Governor of the Northern Provence, the Mayor, and ALL their individual peeps, PLUS news crews, radio reporters, newspaper reporters… bladda, bladda, bladda… the scene is best described as HELL! Poor Russell was trying to give them the tour, but it was like herding cats – some were interviewing students, some were wandering around talking amongst themselves… the Governor was flirting like crazy with all us girls – me included. It was seriously surreal…

BUT, they did ask a lot of good questions, and we felt very good about the visit. But man oh man, were we worn SLAP OUT!

On Monday morning, we found that the radio reporting was fairly inaccurate, but the newspaper and TV reporting were, for the most part, accurate. We are no longer flying under the radar here at the MOC… we are now “on the map.”

Subsequently, it’s pretty amazing how just a couple of days later, what has taken us WELL OVER a year and more time and energy than we can count to get our INGO status, was granted to us – FINALLY! RR also sat down with the head of the Rwanda Workforce Development and the Minister of Education, and we got the green light to continue on our path of educating these wonderful kids!! WHEW!! Can I hear a GREAT BIG AMEN!!

I have included some photos of circus day… for your visual entertainment.

Kim and Aaron Jacobi, from Little Rock, arrived here at the MOC last night for three months. They will be teaching and helping with all kinds of things and we are grateful to have them here! They are going to fit in nicely!!

This coming Friday, TCBITW and I are FINALLY taking a MUCH NEEDED break. We will be heading to France and England. We have to be in England to watch the JBU paper that I mentioned in a previous post, presented to the Associated Schools of Construction’s 48th World Congress, and we have to be in Paris for a few days for RR to attend a construction equipment trade show that is in a different world city every year. This year just happens to be Paris - don’t you just HATE that??? Actually we will be in Paris for longer than that, and traveling around France for 4-5 days as well… we are looking forward to relaxing and reconnecting. We have taken to speaking in one (or at best, two) word sentences to each other, and have had exactly FOUR nights out alone since we got back to Rwanda in January. Needless to say – we need some time away! And we are SUPER excited to have our dear friends, Doug and Kelli Greenwood, flying over for our last week in Paris (they have never been) and I like NOTHING more than showing folks around my favorite city in the entire world!!  RR will be arriving back in Rwanda on April 28th, while I head to LR to spend a couple of weeks with family and friends. Josh will be flying down from Jackson Hole, so I will not only be with my mom, and mother-in-law, but both my kids (and Baby T) on Mother’s Day – it simply does not get better than that.

I will start the profile of our students on my next post....instead of doing them one at a time, I will do them all at once, so you can see how special they are!!

Till next time – Au revoir – gotta get a little French on :-)

A real Rwandan BBQ!! - Best Chickin in Rwanda!!

Scott Ford, a member of the PAC, graciously giving our staff and students a talk on Entrepreneurship!

Students meeting the Prime Minister!

Russell giving the Prime Minister and Govenor the tour!

Patience being interviewed by TV and Newspaper!

More of the tour!

Frances, Russell & I explaining the English School

Welcoming the Prime Minister!

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!! :-)

Where DOES The Time Go......

Well… again, time passes oh so quickly, and updates are too far apart.
The last few weeks have seen more progress and us as busy as ever around the MOC…

Frances is taking the English School and really running with it! We have been very busy interviewing prospective students to move onto campus starting March 5th. So far, we have accepted two young men and two young women, although we are still in the interview process, and hope to accept one to three more of both the young men and the young women.

We have had HUNDREDS of applications, but we are staying focused on our goals of only accepting the students we believe have the entrepreneurial gifts we are looking for in our students. It has been an arduous process, but one we know will pay off in the long run!

We are due to have our first teacher conference this Friday, March 2nd. We will be holding this one day conference for Musanze’s 15 Senior Sector Education Officers in order to improve their English and build a relationship with them so they can help us recruit the “Head of English” from each of Musanze’s 84 public primary and secondary schools.

By training the “Head of English” in each school, we can help the education of thousands of children throughout Musanze! And wow, would you be surprised by how little English the “Head of English” teachers actually have, but we are determined to change that!

We also said goodbye to Charles last week. He has returned to England and back to life there. We will miss him around the MOC, but hope that he settles back to life in England with ease!

Our new Rwandan chef will be starting here at the MOC tomorrow. Our Executive Chef from the US won’t be on the ground here until late May, so in the interim, we have hired a very well respected Rwandan chef, who will then become Matthew’s sous chef once he and his family arrives. And on that note, we have some exciting news about Matthew, but weren’t sure if we could share just yet, so you’ll have to check future blogs to find out what the big news is….no, REALLY…BIG!!

It also looks like we are going to have to say goodbye to Frasier Crane. He is becoming increasingly aggressive (he REALLY just needs a woman), and although he hasn’t hurt any of us adults, we worry about the kids on campus. We already have Elizabeth, and Matthew and his wife Diana have three small children (20 month old twins and an eight month old – yowsa for them), and once they arrive on campus in May, that will make four small kids running around… not sure Frasier can take all the excitement. Bill Boyd, one of our residents, and a vet, is taking the lead in finding Frasier a good home, hopefully with lots of other cranes, where he will be happy. We will REALLY miss him, and there has been talk of trying to get him a wife here on campus. We are still weighing all our options and will do what is best for Frasier and all the residents here at the MOC! But, if he must go, it will be VERY hard for us! He has been on campus with us since our second day here!

Other than all of that, we are just working ourselves crazy every day… working on getting our next container shipped out of LR by the end of next week! Oh GREAT… another container to deal with… oh what fun THAT should be. SURELY, it will go more smoothly than the last container catastrophes… SURELY!! Although, I’m certainly not going to hold my breath!! I’m afraid if I did that, I might just keel right on over!

This post, I have just included some random photos… the rainy season has arrived here in Rwanda, and the flowers are loving all the moisture.

Till next time… Sowa Sowa!

Our new kitchen sink and faucet!!

Health Center

More of the health center...

Prospective Students taking the English Assessment!

Saying goodbye to Charles...

The flowers sure love....

The Rain.....

Oh Me, Oh My......

Oh, me, Oh my… where do I even begin on what has transpired in the last 2 weeks! Sit down people, this is gonna take a while…

Last post, we were getting settled back into life in Rwanda. Excited to be getting our two containers that, we were told, were ready to go and head up to Musanze. HA HA HA HA HA! … Yeah, not so much!!! The process of getting the containers, it turned out, was similar to pulling the teeth of a 20’ crocodile sans nitrous oxide! After three days, and a trip to Kigali by the cutest boy in the world, container #1 was actually released and on its way. It arrived around 12:30 AM on Tuesday, the 17th. We had requested, if possible, that the container that DID NOT have the 5000 lb. generator, come first, so that we could get everything unloaded, making it easier to concentrate on the biggest unloading project of all when the generator did arrive.

Let me digress here for a minute or two. WAY back in August. TCBITW hired some local guys, which we fondly refer to as our “special forces” to dig a giant ramp, essentially, hand digging an unloading dock, as it were, to the cement pad where we knew would be the final resting place of the generator. Since there aren’t really cranes or forklifts to speak of in this country, or at least in THIS part of the country, logic told us we needed to be forward thinking (and thinking outside the box) when it came to getting that generator unloaded (I have included photos for those, who like me, that are visual).

OK, back to the story… YAY, progress… #1 container arrives, and since it was after midnight, I was already home… no sense in ALL of us waiting up for a truck to simply drive through the gates. We knew we wouldn’t start unloading until first light. The look on Russell’s face when he walked in the door (while simultaneously shaking his head) was one I can’t EVEN describe. And these are the words I hear, “Of ALLLLLL the contingencies we have thought through and planned for, what is THE ONE, the ONLY ONE, we NEVER considered”? HMMMMM, I say… why don’t you just put me out of my misery and TELL ME? Well, he says, “They loaded the container backwards on the truck. The doors are facing the cab”!!! SKEEEERRRTTT… WHHHAAATTTT???? Oh, that’s right people… a picture is worth a thousand words, and the photos speaks volumes! And of course, it WAS the container with the 5000 lb. generator! OK, so let’s recap… one container WITH 5000 lb. generator, but backwards on the truck, making our, oh so proud of loading dock, USELESS… and not just useless, but now a hazard!

So, next morning, they unhitched the cab of the truck from the container, and we proceed to unload everything we can, except the generator (which actually consists of a 2000 lb. fuel tank and the 3000 pound generator itself). The generator actually sits nicely on top of said fuel tank, or as I call it, the rocket ship, cause should that puppy ever blow… that’s where we’ll all be… outer space! Now, we were also hoping for the other container first, since it contained most of the furniture we had ordered for the houses here on campus. And what I have yet to mention is that TCBITW had agreed to host a Canadian mission group, consisting of 11 people, who were to arrive here in Musanze on Sunday, the 22nd for a 12 day stay with us here at the MOC… Ahhh… but the mattresses WERE on the first container… so we are making progress… ohhhh, but the beds, sheets, towels, pillows, etc. were not! One step forward, two steps, back!

Onward in my story… apparently there IS a crane (besides Frasier) in Rwanda, so we call it up from Kigali, I mean, what else were we to do… but in the meantime, Andy, our general manager, heads into to town to see if he can locate something, ANYTHING, that might help us get that generator and tank off the VERY BACK of that container. Well… 7 hours later, and up pops, “the dude” …that’s what I’ll call him because I don’t know his actual name… owner of Break Down Service… I kid you not, this is the name on his truck, and it’s not so much a crane as a tow truck. Oh yeah… I’m thinkin… this is gonna work out just real good!! SOOOO… on we (and I say “we” very figuratively) proceed to unload the tank and generator with “the dude’s” tow truck! Again, pictures included, cause you can’t even really describe the whole process. What I can tell you is “the dude” was, pardon my French, a smarty pants! At one point he argued vehemently with TCBITW that they should just unload the generator perpendicularly onto the back of the tow truck, instead of actually moving the truck so that it lined up with the generator, so that they could then “slide” the generator onto the truck, as they did with the fuel tank. Now, those of you who know TCBITW know he really does not lose his cool – I mean, hardly EVER! WELL… he finally, after a 20 minute “discussion and explanation via translator” of why that wasn’t a good idea, as in, that sucker would just tip his truck right on over like me on a bike in Rwanda… told the guy, “DUDE, you want to get paid, you do it MY way, or don’t do it at all.” We all sort of held our breath, thinking, what happens if “the dude” with attitude drives off! This could be bad, really bad… ahhh, but he didn’t, and moved the truck like RR wanted! By this time it is getting dark and they tried several times to “hit the mark” on top of the fuel tank… last time… 1/8 of an inch off, and “the dude” simply lowers the generator, pulls off the chains and says “I am finished,” in Kinyarwanda! Okie Dokie then, I guess we’re done here! Fortunately, Russell knew he had wenches coming that would remedy the 1/8 of an inch thing. We were glad to see “the dude” and his “tude” go, but by golly, he did get the job done! So, I’ll give him that! That crane from Kigali never did show up!

Now… those of you with small bladders, may want to take a potty break at this point, because I am just getting going on the SECOND container…

SO… everything unloaded from #1 Container, and Frances and I are “putting together” fools… there were stainless steel kitchen counters, metal shelving, all kinds of consumables to be organized and inventoried… you know… HERE is where my OCD comes in EXTREMELY handy… give me something to organize and inventory… yowsa… am I ever a happy camper?!

In the meantime, the shipping company assures us that the #2 container will be on its way and to us by Wednesday, the 18th… late afternoon… still plenty of time to get it unloaded, and the beds we needed for the Canadian group to be assembled, and ready for use! Well, Wednesday passes… no container… Thursday… no container… by Friday… TCBITW was on his way to Kigali bright and early at 5 am to “get r done”… spent all day back and forth with the customs folks, nope… no go on Friday. Back he comes Friday night. By the time he gets home Friday night, they summoned him back to Kigali on Saturday bright and early at 5 am… still time we think… we got this! Back and forth all day on Saturday… nope… not gonna happen! Time for Plan B for the Canadians… got them rooms in town for Sunday night and Monday night, not knowing, at this point, when we would actually get #2 container. Back TCBITW goes on Monday to Kigali, and well, it appears that all the paperwork that we did WAY back in July to avoid such issues, was the WRONG paperwork. We blame this squarely on the shipping company, since they assured us (and it IS their job to know these things, and why we pay them $15,000 a pop PER container), we had everything we needed. Apparently, we shouldn’t even have gotten #1 container, but God showed up big time, and what should have taken 2-3 weeks to sort out, RR got sorted on Monday, and the #2 container finally arrived within our gates at 8:30 PM Monday night!! Can I hear a BIG WOOT WOOT?!! By day break on Tuesday, we were unloading the #2 container, and with the help of all the Canadians, got that sucker unloaded and furniture put on the porches of the right houses, and then THEY started all the assembly of THEIR OWN BEDS (which they slept in Tuesday night)! I have to tell you… they have been INVALUABLE to getting things done in the last few days. BUT, to add insult to injury, TCBITW got a call from Jeffrey Lee’s wife, Kristen (Jeffrey is CEO of the Opportunity International Bank here in Rwanda), and they had 13 South Korean doctors in country and wondered if we, by chance, could host them overnight on Wednesday, the 25th… and what does he say… “Of Course” he says… ”SURE, NO PROBLEM.” Did I also mention that by this point I had 4 fever blisters pop up in an hour period from stress (and two more the next day). So shall we recap once again… #1 Container, done, with the help of “the dude” with the “tude.” #2 container, FINALLY done, with the help of God and the Canadians, number of people sleeping on campus Wednesday the 25th – THIRTY-ONE… number of people we feed Wednesday night… 40, with the power out the ENTIRE time, and NO, the generator is not working yet… who’s had time for THAT?!? OH MY GOODNESS!!

And then on top of everything else, Russell says to me, “go pack up everything in our house so we can move the old furniture out (what was here when we got here and what we had at our old house), and move the new furniture in”… yeah, that’s me, doncha know, the girl that just LOVES CHANGE, LOVES CHAOS, LOVES UNSETTLING MY NEST! OY VEY!!!! Is that another fever blister I feel??

The good news is WE DID IT! Not without some kinks and tempers flaring (who ME)… and there are LOTS AND LOTS of pictures that captures what has been going on!

Just when you think it can’t get more interesting, more stressful, more comical, more BLESSED! I am learning… it can ALWAYS get more of all of those, but especially, MORE BLESSED! We are, in these last two weeks, feeling more blessed than ever! We still have A LONG way to go, but we made some HUGE progress these last two weeks… AND, as you can see, we now have “real” toilet paper, Kleenex and enough Clorox to last us a year – we hope!

Thanks for all your prayers, and words of encouragement… the simplest of those means the WORLD to us! Love and hugs from my, back to normal, new and improved, nest!

Even Frasier was like....WHAAATT??

Getting instructions for how this whole thing was going to go!

I mean, WHAT do you even say??

Our beautiful loading ramp, ready for the unload....ummmm, or not!

The only think holding the container locked - assuring huh?

FINALLY open....

All the tires on the truck looked like this - also assuring, huh?

A joint effort of unloading...

Beatrice's way of carrying a box to the kitchen! Love it!

Frances, our Head of English, with our 15 new computers for the English Institute!!

Trying to get the container repositioned to unload the generator

A plethera of things to put together....

The fuel tank being moved onto the concrete pad by "the dude" with the attitude!

The only think left is the generator...look how back heavy this sucker was!!

A bright spot was SugarBear with her new picnic table!

And off she goes....

Now the final push to get her into place!

And the negotiations begin....

Now comes the generator...with "the dude" with attitude and his truck sideways!

The only think pulling that honker of a thing!

The cutest boy in the world "splaining" how this was NOT going to go!

And "the dude" was going to have to drop it ON Russell if he planned to get it on the truck THAT way!

Sudden change of heart by "the dude" when he realized he might not get paid...hmmmm!

OK...time to set her on the rocket!

Lord help us...the only thing holding that generator up!

Russell has gone to painting again...this time for our Canadian residents

In position in the light of day!!

Our new sink!!

Before photos of the kitchen...clearly I twtich, what with my OCD....

Old sink..where the new stainless steel sink and table will go!

Old shelves...left by the Austrians....

Old table next to frig and freezer!

New Shelves & Stainless Tables...

New Shelving...

New Table next to Frig & Freezer

Stainless table next to new shelving...

New shelving for the the dining room...

Unloading the #2 Container...

Group Effort....

Couldn't have done it without the help from the Canadian Mission Team!!

My un-nested nest :(

OCD ALERT....OCD ALERT....

Poor little entry way...

oh, oh...new bedroom...

And new wardrobes...

Happy Entry Way...

The nest has new furntirure...cept for the big black recliner...

This is the furnture that will eventually decorate all the houses on campus!

Dining area w/new bookcases!

Who says there's no Sams in Rwanda!!

There is at the MOC baby!!