Deliciously Satisfied

These past few weeks have been incomprehensively busy. Last week I went to the village everyday doing various projects and visiting various projects. I cannot lie, I loved every moment of it (despite the lousy and rainy weather) and wish that the village could be my true home. Sigh, maybe one day.
The children especially have been a wonderful refreshment to have in my life. I miss working with the children so much, and sometimes the computer work I am stuck doing gets me down and I just need a good dose of childhood. For example, this Saturday we went to the L.L.C.C.M. Orphanage center. It is an RVCP initiative and we went there to play and visit some of the orphans. They don’t live at the center, and only come Saturdays but the center provides their guardians (whoever those might be, similar to Uganda you are considered an orphan if only one of your parents have died) with agriculture projects to help feed the children.
The kids are anywhere between the ages of 8 and 20. Some have been orphaned by HIV, others by the genocide. Of 28 that have been tested for HIV, 28 came out positive. It is a religious orphanage, although RVCP is not religious the orphanage is also supported by some religious institutions. Actually, L.L.C.C.M. stands for Jesus’ famous words “Let the Little Children Come to Me”. Well, are those famous? I don’t know, somehow I knew he had said them before anybody told me.
The kids are phenomenal and in some ways I felt like I was back at HOH hanging out with some of my favorite kids again. They all danced and sang welcome songs for us, and MAN can those kids dance and sing. They had some of us dance traditional Rwandese dances with them, which I have now tried a few times. Although it looks really great to watch it most certainly is not the easiest thing to do in practice. I am sure I look ridiculous when I try, but I don’t care, as long as the kids are laughing (whether at me or not) and having fun this is what I care about.
After the kids were served a delicious lunch – and me too, actually probably the best food I have had since I got here, so deliciously hot and fresh – I went outside and some of the kids followed and we broke out in a sort of break dance/western club/traditional Rwandan dancing beat boxing song and dance. It was waaaay too much fun. We kept it going for quite a while until the man who runs the orphanage came out with a smile but a somewhat grim looking face to ask us politely to go back inside so we could pray. Oops. I somehow feel that even though it was perfectly ok to be having fun with the kids what we were doing was somehow controversial compared to the praying that was supposed to be happening.
Oh well!
The praying that followed was really, really… and I mean really… tense. A woman visiting from a church in Oregon led the prayer. This prayer led to talking about the kids dying, and asking Jesus to keep them brave and strong. I really can’t explain how I feel about this. I guess I don’t even know how I felt about it. The prayer was being translated so the kids could hear it. I mean, one thing I have learned about children who are dying is that they have the most amazing ability to stay happy – it is breathtaking and inspirational. Even though this prayer was out of love and asking to keep these kids safe I just can’t explain how I feel about this prayer which blatantly talked about how sick many of these kids are to their faces. It isn’t a hidden fact. Many of these kids will probably die soon, but- is it ok to talk about it. And this causes me to re-evaluate myself. Why is it that I don’t feel comfortable talking about inevitable death when I am so certain about the present and enjoying it as it lasts? I accept some of these kids will die – as much as it breaks my heart. And although some of the kids were crying during the prayer (although I would say it was out of the love that was felt in the room) I know these kids accept that they will probably die. This alone is incomprehensible – how would it feel to live with death walking in your shadow? I am just trying to sort through this, and even my opinion about how to talk with children about dying. I guess in this case they are waiting an afterlife of wonderful promises and a beautiful paradise. Maybe I just don’t know what is in my own life after death (if there is one) so I somehow don’t know how to talk to kids about it…
Oh the challenges.
The project is going super well, we are getting tons of hives soon and will be putting them in. That being said this is turning into a somewhat stressful and computer filled week (sigh). I get to go to Kigali on Monday though to learn about hives are made (yay)! This should be fun, and it will be a good chance to get out of Butare for a bit. That being said I feel like I could sit in front of a computer everyday for the next two months and still not finish all the work I have to do. Still, those women are so incredibly worth it and I would not sleep or eat for them to make this project work. I am learning so many valuable things about development work and learning about the stresses and complications of making a budget (yech). But, every time I get to go and hoe a bit with those women or get to greet them if I run into them in the village all those nitpicky computer details fall away.
On another note I am back to making Marakuja (passion fruit) juice again, and despite the lack of interest from my roommates I LOVE it. I would make it forever and ever until the end of time if I could. Many do I love passion fruit!! YUM!
My big project will be doing a woman’s empowerment workshop at the end of July which I am incredibly excited about planning. It should be pretty low key with a lot of drinking beer and chilling out just talking about women’s rights and having cultural exchanges. Plus, I am such a workshop writing geek that I just can’t wait to make the workshop and see it be facilitated (unfortunately my Kinyarwanda is not strong enough to actually facilitate myself – but I am sure I will thoroughly enjoy watching).
In a few weeks I might end up going to Burundi to hang out with some people in Burundi Village Concept Project. This should be so much fun, and I would be really excited to check out Bujumbura (doing it carefully with other friends and acquaintances that live in Bujumbura of course!). This will be a new adventure, a new country to put on my growing list of East African visits. It won’t be long (only the weekend) but I am pretty excited!
My other love is groundnuts. These are peanuts but they still have their purple covering. I can’t really explain it more then by saying yum. Wow so so so so good. You just buy them off of people on the street and you eat them quickly for delicious satisfaction.
This is how I feel now here in Rwanda, deliciously satisfied.