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!