A Sunday At Urukundo Children's Home!

Sunday morning a week ago we left the house at 7:45 to go

pick up Tamon and Etienne so we could head to 

Mama Arlene's and the worship service with all the kids! 

Folks already out in the field working. 

 My favorite spot on the trip up!  Love these trees.. 

And then there is the view across this vast valley looking 
northward towards the volcanoes.  
No view of them today though due to the clouds!

We got there safely and just in time to take the little ones
to practice their songs for church.

    Thought i had a lot more of these dolls singing... but guess not.  

They were really sweet singing for Jesus.

Then Church Started....and the worship team
hit the drums and started singing. 

The CMU kids were sitting on both sides of the room

and right behind all the little ones.  Notice the back of the 

room isn't filled yet.  

The CMU students packed half of the room.

This is So-So.  I don't know how to spell his name but
he is one precious little boy.  He recently turned two! 

Claude jumped right into worship.. Claudine.. however,
next to him.... didn't like the "noise".  ha! 

 Mama Arlene in the blue dress... Claudine still not ready
to "listen".  She is the little one that was blind and not
walking when she arrived at age 3... Now after eye
surgery and a lot of loving care.... she not only sees but
she runs and jumps and loves life.... (just not loud things)

The service isn't full yet but the villagers are starting to
come now.  

 One of the Pastors on the left.. only speaking Kinyarwanda and Oscar on the
right who was interpreting in English.

 Then the kids got up to sing their songs..

Just got them singing ""....on their way out. 

The the Pastor asked the worship team to come up again.

After the 3rd round of singing, Mama asked Bruce to come
up and introduce the CMU students and leaders.
Next to Bruce (on his left) was Bob Reid...a prof
in Mechanical Eng. at CMU... He leads several
trips a year but this was their first trip to Africa.

Then Prof. Bob introduced and brought each student
 to the front of the church.  The back seats are starting to fill now.

Finally they were all up in the front.

After Bruce took a formal picture of all of them,
 they returned to their seats. 

Then all of the other people that usually come to the service each week
were asked to come to the front.
They gave sort of a welcome blessing to all the visitors.
It was very nice and quite warm and loving. 

Oscar was telling us what the blessing was...in English.

 Then before the sermon the last choir came up!

Baby Diana sat sucking her thumb with her runny nose all morning.

She just turned one! 

 Everyone up again and one lady came to release her
worship through dance.

Now you can see all the folks that have filled the church.
Between these two videos many people came forward to
give them testimonies about what God was doing their
lives... how He had blessed them or simply to praise Him!
It was very moving.... even though we couldn't always understand.
Most of he time Oscar would interpret, though. 

At the end of the service... after the Presbyteria preacher had 

a good sermon the worship team closed the service. 

Oscar and a CMU student outside afterward.

Some of the folks that had come from the village.

   

As you can see, the pineapple are growing... They

grow right out of the top of another old pineapple 

top placed in the ground.

 This is the project the kids will be working on.  As you can see
even before they have begun the Rwandese workers have
already torn out and rebased 3/4 of the basketball court.
The goal is to get it done and surfaced with new concrete.
( Does this remind anyone of a Long Island project?)

 Etienne and Mama on the court.
Etienne lived with Mama for several years. He is a dear young man and
now--- he is applying to do his master's work in IT at CMU/Rwanda!  Wow!

We walked Tamon down to the newest school...
(after looking at the pre-school building) to give him a tour
of all the things at the home! 

  Tamon and Etienne standing outside of the new primary center. This
is such a beautiful building!  After this they hiked up the hill to view Rwanda from the
most center point of the country. They got back just in time for lunch.

I didn't take any pictures during lunch but at the end..
this little one was the ONLY one left eating.

She was enjoying every bite.
A friend came over to help her finish. 

"No way. I'll take care of this", she implied as she pushed her helper
away.  She enjoyed it all to the end. Lunch was delcious!

Looks like Juan captured the kids...
but I think the kids might have captured him, as well!

Looks like Bruce is storytelling here... Cute picture, huh?

We had a great day all together and finally... after the CMU 

students left to go explore Gitarama and after we had 

sat and talked with Mama for awhile, we decided to head back 

to the city.  The kids were taking their naps and we needed ours, too!  

But what a wonderful Sunday it was!  

I think the CMU students are in for a super week filled with lots of joy 

from the children and being able to give them something 

really "solid" like a concrete playing area!  What a great gift they are

and will continue to be for the Urukundo Children!  

Just about back into the city we stopped to take a picture
of this place that we had seen on the way up!!
None of us could even imagine what this place is!
But it is a conversation started, don't you think?
I hope you can find a bull washing bar near you!!

All for now...
love,
margie
 

Kwetu Film Institute and the Dr's Office

A couple weeks ago I was walking home from my exercise class 

and went a couple blocks out of my way to stop at a little grocery that

opened called "Tonto's" about 1 mile from our house.   

A new pharmacy had opened a couple doors down from the grocery and 

in between...... was another door.. with a little reception area.

I wandered in to see what was behind the door...and I found

the KWETU FILM INSTITUTE...

AND THE GATO KEZA 

coffee shop!!!  

The new marketing lady, Diane was there and I talked to her 

about bringing the AIC Group for a tour and lunch at the coffee shop.

And today was the day we came to visit.  Had a great turnout!

We were waiting for Eric.. the film producer and the 

designer of the institute.

The coffee shop has only a couple food items but their coffee
and smoothies are terrific.

Eric was being held up but we didn't now why... so we finally
asked someone else to start the tour...

I don't remember the Communications teacher's name... but
he told us about the classes, the schedules and how
things work.. 

Several folks had a lot of questions.  

 This is Tamon.. He has just arrived from Forest Hills, Pa!
This is a suburb adjacent to Penn Hills in Pittsburgh.
He had contacted us in early Jan... to let us know he
was moving to Kigali.  His family and Evie's family
( Isaac's preschool teacher at Beulah)  are good friends and Evie
suggested Tamon should contact us!

So, he arrived about 10 days ago.. and is quickly
settling in to his new apt. and looking for a job.

He is a very nice young man and he joined us on the outing
today to see what Kwetu was all about.  There were a couple
other guys there but mostly he was surrounded by women.
Anyway... welcome to Kigali, Tamon!!! 

We made our way to a small theatre that held about 30...
and some of us were standing..  We were shown a couple
documentaries.  One that a student had done and a couple others.
The best one was how the whole Kwetu Film School got
its start.  The academy had come from Hollywood to
help teach classes about film making, producing, lighting,
acting, etc... that was the beginning of "Hillywood".
Since Rwanda... is the Land of a 1000 Hills... I guess
they decided "Hillywood" would be an appropriate
name for the yearly film festival held here.

This is all amazing since there is yet to open in
Kigali --a movie theatre!   But I think the Kewtu will become one of
our hangs....  They do show movies each Friday night!  So,
at least we will get to see some once in a while.  


After we got home...  it was time to take Innocent to the Dr's.  He has been
sick for about a week.. and his cough and back pain seemed like pneumonia.
I asked him where we should go to the hospital or clinic... He said there was one
place that he had taken his brother a while ago... So, let's go there. 

So, here we arrived--- at a great medical center
complete with a small hospital.

 The lobby was very clean and organized and they even had a
computer to keep records and schedules.

The best part of the whole visit was that Dr. Tomy was
the Dr. there... I have heard GREAT things about this Dr.
and he was terrific for Innocent.  This building was where
he sent him for his blood test... 

This was and is a very nice facility.

This is part of the small hospital.

While we waited 20 minutes for the blood test results....I looked around. 

This tree/cactus or whatever it is was shooting up 

to the sky! 

 This is what it looked like next to the hill.

       

Just thought this was the coolest plant. 

It reminded me of those Maypole structures in Austria!  

So, the blood tests back.. nothing awful.. just the flu and cold. 

We had waited 1 hour for the Dr. to come from lunch.. because

we didn't have an appt.  but  aside from that it was a great 

experience.  

Innocent had his appt. with the Dr. 

had blood tests, and was given 3 different medications...

all for the cost of $20.00.

Also something in Rwanda that is the way it 

"used to be in America"... long, long, long ago! 

Innocent is all better now and back to good health! 

love,

margie

Visitation Day at the Boarding School

Finally it was Visitation Day...( the 1st Sunday of the month ) 

to go see Kofi, Cynthia and Patrick at school.  I could hardly wait. 

We went to church first and then headed to the school....

There were already lots of cars there and this room was 

full of parents and guardians....

We of course, were ushered clear across the front of the "dining hall"
to find a seat on the opposite side of the room.
The whole parent's meeting was in Kinyarwanda so we
couldn't understand anything... 

 Then the principal asked one of the students to explain to us
what was going on.  You can see in the picture we
are all sitting on the "bottom" portion of the dining room.
We were sitting on the seats/ benches from all the tables
up above... This was a large room. 

The roof was tin and it suddenly started pouring
down rain.  Couldn't hear anything and then the electricity
went off and the mic stopped working.  But it seemed that most
of the parents were only concerned about their children getting
enough food!  No government subsidies here just -- Beans and Rice! 

Finally found these two... but Cynthia had gone home 2 days earlier.. sick.  There has been a really bad bug going on around Kigali... Bruce has had it, Innocent,
and Patrick...too...So far Kofi and I have escaped it... Yes, I'm knocking on wood.
The book that the boys are holding is a new Bible that the
American Bible society just came out with.  
It is Kinyarwanda on one side of the page
with the English text just opposite so they can read and see the text in both
languages!!  We got one for each of the kids.
(At this writing... a week later.. Cynthia is now back at school.... and healthy!) 

We talked to the boys in the car.. until the rain stopped.
Patrick's step-mom, Angel was with us in the car, too.
A lot of the kids didn't have family visiting...due to the fact that
many of the kids are from Burundi....the country just south of
Rwanda. So you see them lined up under all the roofs along the buildings.
Once the rain stopped we got out and took some pics...  Note the volleyball court.
Maybe they need a new net???? 

This is the main building on Campus. The Deutsche Welle radio 
station towers are in the background.

I love this soccer goal ... Doesn't it seem like this would be the soccer field
in the Flintstone's Movie?... Minus the cars, of course! 

It was time for the kids to go to lunch and for us to take off...  I headed to the dining hall with them to see what they were serving. Sure enough...  a ton of rice covered with a ton of beans awaited them.  On Saturdays they do add meat and bread...It does look like a LOT of food ---but every day?  And what am I complaining about???

 
                            Serving was buffet style so I guess they could
                           have as much as they wanted.  Not sure, though.

         The cool guys!   (The houses behind them off in the distance are actually near our
neighborhood.)  The boys are skinny.... These growing boys probably don't get enough food.  But when I asked Patrick what we liked about school he said the studies and the pray time.... I thought he meant "play" time since the r's and l's sometimes get exchanged... but he said no.... it was the Prayer time...  They have devotions everyday.
It's great to know that they are still growing in their faith as well as in knowledge!

Then Angel and I told them to SMILE!!!   Aren't they handsome?
Yes, these are their uniforms and
the girls have the same... but with skirts.
Casual look is the addition of a yellow t-shirt like
the one Patrick has under his uni.


It was great to be with them and in 3 weeks they end their first term
and will be off through most of April.  Then we can be together more!

 It was the end of another beautiful day!
Even with all the rain... because it was so wonderful to be with the kids!

love,
margie