Seniority

I have officially entered into the world of being a senior and I’m milking it for all it’s worth. The bell rings for class to start, “Oh, was that the bell? Do seniors have to go to class right when the bell rings?” As if being a senior entitles me to something greater than the other students. I’ve only been a senior for two days…I think I need to get a grip.

I have a heavy-ish work load this year but I do like my schedule. I am taking a dual enrollment class online for history for first period. Second period is alternating between physical education and Bible every other day. Third period is AP literature. I’m a “band assistant” during fourth period and I have chemistry fifth period. After lunch I have French 2 and then advanced band. So like I said, it’s a little heavy but I do like the flow.

Yesterday was my mom’s mirongo ine na gantandatu birthday. (Her age in Kinyarwanda) It’s hard to celebrate birthdays in an American fashion in Rwanda but we do our best. My dad bought my mom twenty pink roses. The ladies who were selling the roses were asking the equivalent of $6.50 and my dad talked them down to just under $5. Imagine…twenty roses for five dollars! We were also able to surprise her with a cake. We brought a chocolate cake mix back with us from America. I baked it Wednesday morning while she was out of the house and took great care to open every window to get the delicious smell out of the house. After I got home from school yesterday I snuck frosting ingredients down to my room and made frosting from scratch. She had her favorite - chocolate cake with white icing - for her birthday and she was absolutely surprised. Happy Birthday Mom!!

Random power outages are becoming a regular part of my life again. The power was out for five and a half hours last Thursday and it was off for a good forty-five minutes yesterday. The power goes off without explanation and there is nothing you can do about it. It comes back on when it comes back on and you go on with your day.

It rained off and on last Thursday and Friday. Strange weather for supposedly the dry season but I don’t mind…I like the rain. The temperatures have been quite cool in the mornings, probably in the low sixties. By mid morning the air has warmed up and once the afternoon rolls around it’s just plain hot. It comes full circle in the evenings and everything gets nice and cool again.

I’m enjoying all the walking I’ve been doing. The other day I walked down the hill to the little grocery store to get a dozen eggs and passed easily twenty people on the five minute walk. When the cashier at the grocery store saw me he said, “Long time.” I told him it had been a long time and that I had been in America for the summer but I’m back now. He asked about my family and told me to come see him again soon.  I continued my walk back up the hill, this time with a bag of eggs, and passed two more familiar faces. We had a short conversation in Kinyarwanda and then went our separate ways. Exchanges like those are one of my favorite things about living here.  I walked to church on Sunday morning…it was just under an hour walk and I did not pass a single muzungu (white person) the entire time. Mind you I was walking on a main, heavily traveled road.  I walk to school, I walk to the grocery store, I walk for pleasure. I walk, walk, walk.

We had an electricity issue on Saturday night. Before I can share the story I have to explain Cash Power. Cash power is what our electricity is called. Every house has a cash power box outside of their house. You load units onto the box and then you have electricity to use freely. Our family uses roughly fifteen units of cash power a day between showers and lights and electronic devices. We were watching a movie (You’ve Got Mail) and we were about a third of the way into the movie when the entire room went black. Our first thought was that the power was out but after looking out the window we discovered that neighbors had power. My dad went outside to look at the cash power box and was greeted by a zero on the meter. He went down the hill to the grocery store to get more cash power. The way you load cash power is a little complicated to explain, I don’t even understand it, but you need your box number in order to purchase cash power. My dad tried to load the newly purchased cash power but soon discovered that he had given the old box number from our previous house. Back down the hill he went to give the correct box number. The time from when the power went off to the time we all sat down to resume the movie was about an hour and a half. That’s just part of living life in Africa.

Another part of living life in Africa is the bad internet. We went from a terrible internet connection to no internet at all. Our house is at a lower level on the hill so other houses and trees block our house from the internet tower, leaving us without the convenience. So we have to march up the hill to the school when we need to use the internet. There does appear to be a solution of a different internet source but the device is currently out of stock and there is no telling when the next shipment will arrive. So we are without internet at our house indefinitely. Is this what happens when you complain?

Tuesday was our first day of school. It was only a half day…just to give us a taste of what the year would be like. We didn’t have school on Wednesday because it was a national holiday. This was not poor planning on our part; the school didn’t find out about the holiday until Monday, leaving no time to make a change. So we’ve had a half day, a day off, and finally, today, a full day. Adam is loving being a part of high school now. He likes his schedule, he’s having a great time with his friends, and he’s doing well. Miles loves fourth grade. He picked up right where he left off with all his friends and he’s having a grand time being back in Rwanda. Both my parents are doing well. They are very busy with the demands of school but they love being here and serving at KICS.

I went to the market on Tuesday afternoon for the first time this year. I love the market. It’s truly a cultural experience….the language, the smells, the sights. It’s wonderful! I went to see Josephine, the lady who sells us fabric, (you may remember her from one of our videos that we showed this summer) to tell her that we were back from America. She was happy to see me and she said, “How is my mom? How is my dad? How is Miles? (Everyone loves Miles.) How is my brother? (meaning Adam).” Then she said to another couple in the fabric booth, “I am their second daughter. Actually, I am the first daughter because I’m older than her (meaning me).” Well Josephine, didn’t you just work your way right into our family. We do love her!  On my way to the market I discovered that streets signs (from my previous blog), in fact, do not make any sense. You may pass 316th street and the following street is likely to be labeled 118th street. I do not understand.

On Wednesday night I had the rare opportunity to go to a chamber music concert. Three musicians, a pianist, a cellist, and an oboist were in town from Berlin, Germany. They performed on Tuesday night and Wednesday night. There are only three grand pianos in the entire country… (Let’s take a minute and marvel at that. Three grand pianos in an entire country. Do you have any idea how many grand pianos Julliard owns? And that’s just ONE university in ONE country. Blows my mind.)… and grand pianos are not easy to transport so the pianist had to play on an electric keyboard. It’s sort of like playing on a wooden clarinet for years and then having to perform on a plastic clarinet….it’s doable, but it doesn’t sound the same, and it’s a disappointment for the musician. True to the African style the concert started thirty minutes late, but it was positively glorious. I have not had the privilege of attending a concert in over a year. I soaked up every minute of it. I felt every emotion known to man during the hour. The musicians did a marvelous job of conveying their feelings and I was able to understand the music on an emotional, if not intellectual, level. My year is just getting started but I know, without a doubt, that it will be a highlight of my year.

Yes, my year is just getting started. I have so many things still to learn and experience. I’ll be working hard to finish high school and graduate with the best grades I can pull off. I’ll be practicing my clarinet and giving lessons to younger clarinetists. I’ll be growing in Christ and preparing for college and the years to come. I’m living in AFRCIA! I want to jump at every opportunity I have to experience something new. I want this year to be the greatest one yet!

Back in Kigali

Well, here I am again, sitting at my computer in beautiful Rwanda doing my best to portray my life, experiences, thoughts, and feelings through a minuscule blog post.

The summer went by like a car on the interstate in America.  I was just leaving Kigali and starting my summer and now I’m back in Africa getting ready to start my 12th year of school. What happened? Where did the time go? I thoroughly enjoyed seeing my friends and family. I was able to reconnect with so many old friends and create new friendships. Not much had changed, thankfully, so I was able to jump back into the life I knew. I had a marvelous time shopping for new clothes and driving around in my car like a crazy teenager. I did enjoy Chick-fil-a and all of the other good places to eat, but American life is tiring…the constant need to acquire more things, the fattening food, the lack of exercising, the constant coming and going. It was nice for a while, but now that I’m back in Rwanda I feel like I can breathe again. 

We arrived on Friday night (Friday afternoon for all you East Coasters). The airport in Kigali is very small. You have to enter and exit the plane on moveable stairs because the airport doesn’t have gates. It reminds me of how the president or some other important person does when they arrive somewhere and the camera guy catches a pose as they’re walking down the stairs waving and smiling to their supporters. (Yes, I did glance up as I was walking down the steps expecting to see my posse…) Anyways, we walked down the stairs and across the runway to go inside. I took a deep breath and was welcomed with smell of Kigali -earthy and rich. I think Kigali has two main smells: body odor and exhaust. When we got to the door I wanted to hug the guard. I had no idea who he was but I was so happy to see him. I think I was just happy to be off the plane and overwhelmed with several emotions. I kept my dignity and did not hug him, but the feeling was there, nonetheless. We went through customs without any issues. All of our bags made it except for our two over-sized bins filled with instruments and most of my clothes.  We talked to one of the airport customer service people and they said that the bins would arrive from Nairobi, Kenya the following day. How did those bins get to Kenya? Beats me. Regardless of the route they took, we were able to retrieve our bins the next night and all of the instruments were there, unharmed. 

Speaking of instruments…we brought thirteen donated instruments back with us and several boxes of music! It’s a great addition to the growing bands! 

Speaking of instruments (again)…I’ve upgraded from an intermediate clarinet to a professional. A dear family friend graciously gave me a brand new clarinet in memory of her husband who just recently went to be with the Lord. It’s one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. The keys are so shiny. It’s wonderful! The tone is warm and rich and delicious.  I absolutely love it! With this instrument I’ll be able to go so much further than I would have gone with my previous clarinet. I’m so grateful!

Kigali is just like how we left it. The internet is still horribly slow. Actually, the internet speed has changed…it’s gotten worse. I’m positive it wasn’t this bad last year. The connection only works every now and then and when it is working it still takes way too long to load a page. It’s frustrating but there’s nothing I can do about it.  I was really happy this morning because I was able to respond to three facebook messages before the internet went out!  

Another new addition to the city is street signs. I haven’t been out in the city enough to figure it out but I think there is a logical order to them. Thankfully, it’s numbers and not names. For example: 179th avenue and 85th street. It will be much easier to give directions now!

We went to church on Sunday morning (the one we had been regularly attending last year). It was enjoyable to be back in the lively African worship style. Yes, the service is long and the benches are uncomfortable but it always leaves me feeling revived and ready for the week ahead. 

After church we met up with several other KICS teachers at Meze Fresh…Kigali’s first fast food restaurant! (New to the city while we were gone.) It’s essentially like a Qdoba. You walk down the line and tell them what you’d like in your burrito or taco. They don’t have as many options as Qdoba but it’s still really impressive. It’s painted lime green and blue and it has black and white accent decorations. It’s a really cool place. It’s quick, delicious, and filling. I’m looking forward to many more meals there in the future. 

Right now Rwanda is in the dry season so everything is very dusty and dry. I repeat: VERY dusty. The crops and plants are all brown and dead but before long, once the rain comes, it will be just as beautiful I remember it. Green, lush, pleasant, perfect. 

We all seem to be transitioning fairly well. My dad and Adam don’t seem to be dealing with jet lag at all. My mom, however, has forgotten how to sleep. Miles and I are somewhere in the middle, sleeping off and on throughout the night. Overall, it’s nice to be back. I’m looking forward to the start of school because it will give me something to do. I have a lot of time on my hands right now because my parents are up at the school everyday getting things ready along with the other teachers and there just isn’t a whole lot for me to do. I probably should be looking for scholarships and studying for the SAT and doing all that fun college stuff but something about that doesn’t sound very appealing…

I miss my family. I miss my friends. Unfortunately saying goodbye doesn’t get any easier. I feel caught between two worlds….two homes. Kigali feels very much like home. It’s very comfortable and familiar and I love it here, but oddly enough I feel homesick.  Might that be because North Carolina is my home? That’s where I’ve spent most of my life, that’s where my friends and family and memories are. It’s a little hard to understand. One thing I’ve been enjoying is the smell of my clothes. They all smell like the laundry detergent and the homes of the various people I stayed with during my last week in the States. It’s just a simple thing that makes me feel close to them and puts a smile on my face.

I know that this year will go by in a flash and before I know it I’ll be saying goodbye to my life here in Rwanda and embarking on the wonderful journey called college. I have an exciting year ahead of me. God has spectacular things planned for me and I can’t wait for it to all unfold and to discover His perfect plan.