Going to Qatar today. We will spend a few days there before heading to Rwanda.

Counting down to our arrival in Kigali. We are so excited!

Jane (headmaster's wife), me and Chantal (pastor's wife) in our Sunday best. Fabulous!
Here I am with other children who had American addresses in their Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes. I will write to them on behalf of the children and include a photo of the child.
Compassion International kids getting extra instruction on Saturday mornings.
My sweet Clementine (who got our shoebox gift) and her mother Gratias

The morning I am leaving. Pastor Elson, Chantal, Grace and me.

Pastor Elson's friends, now my friends, Soline who is a minister in the president's office and her husband Manasser (who also works in the government) gave me this beautiful book of Rwanda. Manasser grew up in Muhura.




That's President Paul Kagame dancing. It's not WHAT you know it's WHO you know :)
Soline with the president and others.










Soline and Manasser's house. They have come a long way from Muhura.

I went to visit my childhood friend Hilde today and she put the photos in my camera on a CD. I have the rest saved on the laptop and will post later, but I am glad I can show you some now. One of my suitcases arrived a few minutes ago. I am able to charge the camcorder and digital camera, but the laptop cord is in the other suitcase. Tomorrow I am going to Lillehammer to visit my aunt. I will take photos of the beautiful mountains where the winter olympic were held in 1994.
Kirsten in Norway

The capital city of Kigali.







The hotel from the movie "Hotel Rwanda"

Me with some cute boys.







I played soccer with this guy. He has a homemade ball like most children in Rwanda.




This little boy had no pants . I gave him a granola bar and a car. I gave his mother some money.

View from the road

Pastor Elson's kids Alliance (7) and Shalom (5)

Pastor Elson's living room

Pastor's youngest child Grace (1)



My last Sunday Chantal (pastor's wife) dressed me Rwandan style for church




Road to Muhura




Internet cafe in Bymba and Muhura church

I am working on recapping my week in Rwanda, but first let me ask you this question: Whether you built your dream house or you are renting an apartment:

What is your favorite thing about your home? Think about it for a minute before continuing.........

I would have said my big beautiful kitchen with too much cabinet space, my pool and secluded back yard, the huge game room with built in book cases and a wet bar and my jaccuzzi tub in my bathroom. Now I say indoor plumbing is my favorite thing about my house, followed by a close 2nd - electricity 24/7. We all know people live in poverty around the world, but this past week I did. It is difficult to put into words all my feelings, and actually where I stayed is one of the best houses in Muhura. The pastor has electricity for 3 hours a day. He has a 13" TV and one TV station, but he has an outhouse, cooking is done outside and his children who will be 6 and 8 this summer have never had icecream. From now on I will clean my toilet and my shower with joy since I personally met hundreds of people who have neither. Most of them don't even know what they are missing. They know very little about the world outside their village.

Please pray my missing luggage will find their way to me. The films and video tapes along with other important infomation about Muhura is there along with gifts for some of you.
Love and God's blessings to you all.

Hello there!

I hope you are all doing well. I am Rwandaful!! Pastor Elson's uncle, Jean-Baptiste, taught me that. (He is the director for Youth for Christ).

I am now in Norway. I have so much to write and it will take a while so I will first post this brief message. I corrected my previous typos from the bad keyboard :).

Thank you for all your comments. It is so exciting to read them.

My luggage is lost somewhere between Africa and here so I do not have the cable to upload pictures. I will call my brother when it is morning in the US to see if he has one here at his house. (He arrived in Texas on Saturday).

Last night I had my first shower in 2 weeks. Awesome!! Even without running water the educated people in Rwanda are very clean. They wash themselves morning and evening, but the villagers do not.

Love and blessings to you all.

I love you Kristin and Erik. Thank you Kristin for all your comments.
Din Mamma OXOXOXOX!!!

I am now in Byumba again at the internet cafe. Connection is very slow.

Sunday we had a great church service at Clementine's church in Karama. It is about 1 hour walk from Muhura and 15 minutes by car or motor bike. The service was long but wonderful. 5-6 different choirs sang. I even got to dance with one group. They were jamming in church and praising God. Awesome! I got up to speak and told the story of why I was there. I had met Clementine at Pastor Elson's house Saturday morning, but at church I met the rest of the family. They presented me with 2 beautiful baskets with beans. I had spotted the younest boy in the family beacuse he was wearing Erik's Dallas Cowboys sweat suit and Kristin's Barbie tennis shoes. The mom, dad and older children were wearing "Jungle Tracker" shirts from First Baptist Colleyville. Very exciting!

After the service I greeted and hugged all the ones that came to me. It was at least 100 people and the custom is 3 hugs and then a handshake. (I got 300+ hugs!!) Everyone were very happy I was there. It was the best service I have been to. These people really know how to praise and worship.

We were served lunch at the church A chicken was killed in my honor :-( . We also had goat meat (very good) with beans, rice, potatoes and cabbage. Coke and Fanta were served and I also got bottled water.

By the time lunch was over it was 3:30 and we drove to Clementine's old house. It was pretty bad. There were about 100 of their friends and neighbors acompanying us so it was hard to take pictures. I had also used up too much of the camcorder battery at the church service. We then went to the new house they built with the money I sent them. It is much bigger. 4 rooms (a living room and 3 bedrooms). The kitchen and toilet are always separate from the house. They are using a small hut for kitchen now, but are building a new big kitchen using the roof from their old house. It will be about 5-6 feet wide and 10-12 feet long. The toilet is an outhouse. I did not look closely at it. There were so many people in the house and felt a bit clostrophobic. Pastor Elson told me later I was the first white person that had been to Karama for as long as the local pastor knew.

Elson also introduced me to the neighbor family who are good Christians. They are extemely poor. I gave them some peanuts, granola bars and cheese crackers as well as about $30. Elson took a picture of us outside their hut.

As we were leaving we were surrounded by people and it was hard to get in Headmaster Pheneas' truck.

Back home we had a nice dinner and I loaded the photos to the laptop. I can't post them from here, but we are going to Kigali today so hopefully I will then be able to share pictures with you. We are meeting with some of Elson's friends. The wife is an attorney and a minister for President Kagame, the huband also works in the goverment. We will be spending the night at their home.

Yesterday I spoke to the Women's Union and to The Daughter's of Jesus. Many are widows and very poor. They have little means to put their children through school. I told them to pray that Global Family Resue will come to Muhura. July 17th GFR will be in Muhura to meet with the leaders and hopefully the meeting will go well and we can sponsor families there through that organization.

When I took a tour of the school I saw the kitchen used to prepare food for the 600 boarding students in the secondary school. There are 3 huge pots heated by wood. They cook beans with cabbage, rice and a paste made from corn meal. This is what the students eat for lunch and dinner every day. NO variety here. For breakfast they have hot cereal. The ones who have money can buy bananas or avocados (sweet treats). The students sit on the lawn to eat their food. I want to do a fund raiser for a new kitchen an dining hall. They sleep 4 to each twin size bunk bed. No siderails on top. I could not sleep like that for 6 years of school!! However the students know they are lucky to be able to attend school.

I do not feel like a stranger here. With Pastor Elson I feel like part of his family. We are more alike than we are different. The same for Pheneas and the teachers I have met. The villagers who are not educated are very different. They have no clue of the outside world. Their only hope is to get their children ecucated which costs money. They have none. Most people (85-90% of the country's population) do not have jobs. They try to cultivate the soil to sustain themselves, but it is not enough.

Most of the children have no shoes and their clothes are tattered and sometimes they wear an adult T-shirt all torn and dirty. I give money to some, but when there is a huge crowd I can't.

We went back to Clementine's house yesterday (Wed) hoping I could spend some quiet time with them, but there were still 30+ neighbors gathering. The living room was full and Elson told me not to ask them questions of what they need in front of everyone. They could be in danger he said. Instead they will come to his house on Saturday morning. I know they need matresses. They have one bed frame with a straw mat where the parents sleep. The children sleep on the floor which is just dirt. Elson will let me know what it will cost to pour conrete floor for them so I can send the money for it. I plan to buy matresses for them at the market in Muhura on Saturday.

All the people at the house were trying to tell me their needs. Elson did not translate everything. I told them I wish I could help them all, but I am not rich. Pray to God and maybe others in America can help them. Once I am able to post photos you will see the difference a few dollars make in Rwanda. I know many of you will want to help a whole family or a student.

On our way home we stopped by another family who recieved a shoebox and are being helped by Americans. I took a picture of them and their house. Elson will give me the address to the family sending them money and I will send them pictures.

In Muhura, close to Pastor Elson's house there are 3 women and a baby girl living in a hut. They have no husbands and Elson said the child was probably conceived by prostitution. There are no jobs for the women. I gave them the baby clothes from my processor Toni. Thank you Toni! I will also go back and give them some money. I was not able to bring with my all I wanted to bring. When I go to the market on Saturday I will see what they can buy here and how much it costs. Since shipping from the US is pretty expensive it may be better to send money instead of clothes and shoes.

I miss my children, but I am very happy here. If there was running water and electricy I could stay here a while.

Love from Rwanda!! I love you Kristin and Erik. Din Mamma OXOXOXOX :)