A Terrific Big Brother!

Had to share this one....This was on our first 'umaganda', house-building day...This boy made several trips up and down the mountain carrying 5 gallons of water, not to mention a sibling! Yes, he had bare feet on the rocky path. The most amazing thing was how happy he was to do it! 

Back in the USA

We arrived home yesterday and continue to adjust to the time change! Poor Guy went through several air sickness bags on the last leg of the journey (Brussels to OHare). I think it was due to lack of sleep, he caught up a little and now has kept a couple bowls of chicken noodle soup down!

I'm still a bit behind in the sleep department myself, so I'm hoping I make sense here!

I wanted to share our experience at the orphanage. Jeff, Ryan and I went with several other team members. The first room we went into was the 'toddler room'. The kids were all seated around a long rectangular table, waiting to be fed some type of porridge. We squatted down and tickled them and held their hands. Sometimes back home we care for the kids in the toddler room at church, it was so similar yet so different. They react to the tickling the same with coos and smiles and some are shy and look away, just like at church. However, when the kids at church get upset I'm able to tell them "Mommy always comes back" (or Daddy) That was not the case here. There was one caregiver in the room who seemed more concerned with keeping order than 'loving on' the kids, but we weren't there that long. I hope she hugs and kisses them when we're not looking. Next we went into the baby room, about 40 feet long and 20 feet wide filled with blue metal cribs. Some of the babies were so small, they must have been born recently. I picked up one tiny girl 'Felise', I stoked her tiny head and realized she had a fever. Travis, GFR Rwandan staff who has adopted a baby there, told me she probably isn't sick enough to be in the infirmary, but he assured me they do have children's tylenol there. Soon a caregiver came in with a bin full of bottles with names on them. I pointed to the bottles and to Felise and the caregiver searched until she found hers. (Felise had gotten a bit fussy and I wanted to calm her) She sucked the bottle down quite quickly. In the meantime, Ryan had a happy little toddler boy following him around with a little ball, he trained Ryan to 'fetch' pretty easily, rewarding Ryan with smiles and giggles, it was precious. Soon we went out to the playground with 5 to 8 year olds, I'm guessing. They all wanted to look in our backpacks and take our glasses off us. But one little 8 year old boy came up to me and grabbed my hands and led me over to the stairs, we sat and he just layed across my lap, just starving for some affection. I cry now thinking of it. I rubbed his back and held his hands and hugged him as we had to leave. We all shed tears there, it was rough.

It was difficult also to say goodbye to the team and the precious staff in Rwanda. I hope to post some more photos of the team, our new friends. We experienced many things together in Rwanda, so far from home. So many heartwarming and heartwrenching things. I know I've returned a different person, never to be the same. I pray that God will guide us as we process all we've seen and learned. It can be so overwhelming, I want to do more to help. I know I can't save all those people myself, this is when I treasure Global Family Rescue's mission statement: Transforming the World....One Family at a Time. May all glory go to God for giving us strength each day, safe travel and renewed hearts for Him and all His children. Bless you all! Pam

Patrick's class where we got shelter

 

Guy and his new brother Bosco

Bosco is the newest hire for GFR 

Verene and Isabelle

 

One of Jeff's newest friends

 

Verene and Isabelle posing with Jake and Pam

 

Alan gives his shoes to these orphans

and teaches them how to tie them! 

"Does it ever come off?"

 

Guy hangs out with grandma

 

Jeff shows drivers license to prove his age

 

Jeff poses for Hope

 

The path to today's Umaganda

 

Ryan tossing dirt

 

Alan gives his hat to the orphan

 

10 down 1 to go!

 

Monday in Mutete

Mutete is a village north of Kigali in the mountains. After GFR's fundraiser in January, a corporation decided to sponsor 20 families! All of them live in Mutete. Once again, we did interviews, photos, handed out gifts, etc. We each escorted a family through all the stations. I escorted a woman named Verene. She had the youngest of her 3 children with her, named Isabelle, who was about 3 years old. I listened to Cyprien interpret her interview...she was so thankful to her sponsor because she had no clothing before, so she could not be around people. She was literally living in rags. Today she was so proud in her new clothing and Isabelle had a little purple dress on. Alan, Amber, Angela and I were each waiting with our families in line for their video and we played a game, pointing to our 'hair' or 'nose' and asking them the word in their language. Alan was a riot...he was asking the word for 'dance' and he was doing different dances. He got everyone American and Rwandan laughing! The family Alan escorted were orphans they were being cared for by the oldest boy who was 15 yrs. old. Unbelievable. They were very happy to receive some new clothing, etc. Every family was very happy when Christina printed their photos and gave them to them on the spot! That brought big smiles (museke')! Guy and Ryan kept busy communicating with the kids and of course, Jeff made some new friends too!

When the interviews were done, we walked down the path past the school (we caused quite a distraction there). We walked to another 'umaganda', house building. The house was being built with funds from KidCity, the children's ministry at Community Christian Church. That was very appropriate as there was another family of orphaned children that will live there. Half the team had gone ahead (Ryan and Alan included) and the rest of us picked up after the interviews.

When we arrived at the umaganda, Alan was chopping down trees with a machete, 11 of them!! He would chop until they were just about to fall and then he would do a 'tae kwon d0' kick to knock it down. All the villagers would cheer!! Ryan was shoveling a big pile of dirt into the house to spread on the floor. We were all about to meet the orphans when it started to rain, soon it was pouring so we all started to run up the hill, but when we got to the school the children invited us in! We ended up in Patrick’s classroom, he was one of our interpreters a few days ago and he was teaching secondary school English! By the way, I found it interesting that several students had been outside holding buckets under the gutters of the school to collect rain water for drinking. We spent about 20 minutes in the classroom, then the rain let up and we walked up the path to our mutatu (mini van).

Tomorrow we will visit an orphanage, that should be heart-wrenching, then pack for our trip home! Love to all, Pam

More Family Interviews....

Saturday was so busy! Again, we had many stations to get the sponsored families through. We were able to process 44 families. At the last minute, I was asked to do the family interviews for the video. I had 3 questions to ask: What would you like to say to your sponsor? How has life changed since you've been sponsored? and What needs do you currently have? Of course, this was all done through an interpreter (Cyprian was great!) and it was so inspiring to hear the answers! When I heard 'now we can eat meat and get food easily' or 'we had no clothing before' I truly realized how much the sponsorship had done for them!! They also get medical insurance so that they are able to take malaria meds, etc. A life saver for many. It was so moving. I was surprised how exhausted I felt at the end of the day...it was more draining than building the house! Katie Couric I am not!!

On Thursday, Manuel had spent the day helping interpret when we were with the Mutabaruka family. When we dropped him off, I could see he was nervous as he said to Ben, 'I just have one question, please. I have been waiting for sponsorship for 2 years, please do you know how much longer I will have to wait?' Ben had him write down his name so that he could look into it. The system they have in place for sponsorship is very good. The 'muzay' the older gentlemen in the community identify the neediest families. They all help each other, so when the neediest get sponsored it lightens the load on the whole community. Manuel's family (wife and 4 small children) were up for sponsorship! We thought, how great would it be to sponsor someone who we had spent a day with! Ben asked one of the GFR Rwandan staff if they could bring Manuel and his family to the building we were using on Saturday and we were able to tell them ourselves! It was such a blessing, really words cannot describe it! Even Manuel, who has pretty good english, was using Cyprian to translate because he was so emotional he could not come up with the english words. He did shake Guy and Ryan's hands and say 'my white brothers'! Manuel listens to an english radio station every morning and this is how he taught himself english. He works very hard and I'm sure that at the end of his 3 year sponsorship, he will have a good business going and will be helping others....a goal GFR sets for them.

Guy worked very hard ushering families from one station to the next, he kept things moving very efficiently! He's picked up several words in the native language, I was wondering what he was saying...they were different words than the ones I have learned!

Ryan was a big hit with the local kids! You can see the one buddy who he gave his Volcom hat to! At one point he had all the kids around him feeling his biceps!! They are used to seeing very thin arms, so his muscles were drawing a crowd...I'm pretty sure he enjoyed the attention! :)

Jeff helped out wherever needed....set up the generator, ushered families, did crowd control and of course, made friends with the kids! One lady wanted him to have a photo taken with her, but he declined, thinking that it may culturally mean that he was engaged to her or something! ha!

Today is Father's Day! Happy Father's Day, Dad! We will go to a church in town where local missionaries go, then either hang out at the pool at a local hotel, or go shopping at a local market. It's a day off, so I don't think I'll be posting again.

Tomorrow, we will build another house! Love to all, Pam

Guy and Jeffery connect with Manuel.

 

Our translator from Thursday received brand new sponsorship

 

Alan took a break from soccer to meet a few families.

 

Pam did interviews with the video crew!

 

Me and my "butty"

 

Guy's 19th Birthday Safari...

We spent a lot of time in the bus today! It took us 2 1/2 hours to get to the park, Akagera Park. We actually stayed in the 4 wheel drive bus for the safari. Unbelievable considering the terrain. Water buffalo, impalas, giraffes, elephant, hippo, baboons and zebras...all running free, pretty cool. At one point we were next to a large lake where there was an elephant cooling himself, across the lake we could see Tanzania. There was a resort next to the park where we were able to relax by the pool and then had a nice meal. After dinner, Kay (team member) brought Guy a piece of cake and Alan (my 3rd son is so thoughtful, he had purchased a card for Guy at the 'Cards from Africa' business we had gone to) he had everyone on the team sign the card, Guy appreciated the celebration! Then back to the bus for the trek home. Unfortunately, we had a flat tire on the way home! We were going slow and there was a sign on the road that the driver hit and it popped the tire! Loud pop! The guys in the truck in front of us jumped out with their jack and started helping our driver change the tire! Nobody even asked us to get off the bus, 41 of us! It was quickly changed and we were on our way!

Tomorrow we will do more sponsored family interviews, it's always awesome to hear how a sponsorship improves their lives!

Giraffe

Giraffe...a family hanging out 

An elephant cooling off

 

We saw stripes...

 

Never seen before...the mysterious albino gorrilla