A little publicity from Gordon College

My alma mater, Gordon College, actually interviewed me for this back in the Spring, but I just got an email today saying they published it to their blog. Very nice of them.

http://gordoncollegegrapevine.blogspot.com/2009/10/encouraging-small-business-growth-in_22.html

Listen and Learn

These are the two words I keep hearing in my heart and mind as I live life here in Rwanda. It has been three weeks and if you know me, you know I am a doer. And now I am in a land with plenty of needs for which there is plenty of "doing" to be done. I am friends with so many people who are great "doers" and for whom an immediate need on the street requires immediate action. Yet, I continue to hear the whisperings of "Be Still."

I attended a Bible Study today with other Westerners and the theme was on...yes, "Being Still." The author of the study said the Hebrew word for this expression is "rapah" which literally means to relax, be lazy, be discouraged, be slack, weak." When I've heard or read these words before in Psalm 46, I never viewed them in a negative way. I always thought it mean to just be quiet, relax. But this Hebrew word implies so much more...it requires one to literally give up control. That is what I feel I am to be doing...to give up control of what my ideas are for my time in Rwanda.

"But, wait," I cry. "There are street children and orphans and widows...your word cries out for them, so I should do something now." And, yet, I keep hearing....just listen and learn.

So I have been here three weeks now this evening. While we're still lacking certain furniture and comforts of home, I feel quite settled into life in Kigali. So I want to know what is next. Dano is busy with Karisimbi and I am thrilled by how that is going, but my heart is for the orphan and I want to know what I am supposed to do for the orphan. I met with a wise woman today who has lived in Rwanda for five years and works with African Enterprise. I told her of my struggle and she was so encouraging to me today. She said, "The best thing you could do right now is to listen and learn because you're not just listening and learning for opportunity, you're listening to the culture."

The guys have commented that they are so glad we had several months to just meet with business leaders, organize our thoughts, meet with the leaders again, reorganize our thoughts, meet with them again, etc., because now the final product is so much better and the clients have tremendous buy-in. Every day the guys learn something new about a potential client or Rwandan politics or business and with each lesson comes a better focused direction for our company. I believe that is what is happening with me as I seek to discern how to best serve here.

So I have decided to just start meeting with people who are doing orphan care work, to hear their hearts, to see the needs, to simply be present. I'm starting to see and believe that so much "good work" that is often done is often done too quickly. It is still good work, but it could be so much better if the idea and heart behind it were given time to "Be still."

Help Support Ballet Rwanda

We are very proud of our friend, Caroline Peixoto, who moved with us to Rwanda. She is launching Ballet Rwanda on November 9. Check it out at www.balletrwanda.com and if you're interested in helping her meet her fundraising goal of $2000, you can give online at www.balletrwanda.com.

Dossier in the Hands of the Minister

OK....now we wait...our dossier was delivered to the Minister of Gender and Family Promotion yesterday. Hard to believe we may have our son within a couple months.

Adoption update

Our dossier arrived at our Rwandan attorney's office this evening. We will meet tomorrow and then she is presenting it to the Minister of Gender and Family Formation. According to this attorney, it is highly likely that we could receive our child within 2-3 months. The other thing she told us is that since we are in-country, once the Minister has approved our dossier, then our attorney will go with us to the Sisters of Charity Home of Hope orphanage and we will choose our child. Dano and I are taking big, deep breaths right now. This is so different from how our other two adoptions went. And it feels like a very heavy weight on us right now to "choose" our child. So we are praying in a very different way for our son right now and would appreciate any prayers from friends and family.

A little press from our friends in Rhode Island

http://www.eastbayri.com/detail/131672.html?content_source=&category_id=&search_filter=rwanda&list_type=&order_by=&order_sort=&content_class=&sub_type=&town_id=

The reporter saw the chalk painting that our friend had commissioned of the girls at the Providence Street Festival and wanted to know the story behind it. Dano did the interview via Skype, so there are a few misspellings and omissions, but it was still nice to have the free press.

We also have a blog for Karisimbi at www.karisimbipartners.blogspot.com

Day to Day in Rwanda

So we've been here nine days already. In January 2008, my college roommate, Anne Mugofwa, told me on a phone call that I would find myself in Africa much sooner than I expected. I told her we kept getting sidetracked by Asia. Who would have guessed?! Anne has never been to Rwanda, but the company she works for just decided to open an office here, so she was here on Wednesday and will be back in a few weeks. We managed to get breakfast together. I think it was rather surreal for both of us. When we were in college, we always dreamed of doing some great work together that would bridge our continents. Now we are on the same continent. I'm still in a season of listening, absorbing and learning, so am not jumping the gun on any work-related ventures (outside of helping us launch our company), but it is fun to wonder how Anne and I may do something together in the future.

I don't really have a routine yet. I've told myself next week is the week for that. I have my language lessons scheduled for almost every day next week so that I can catch up to Carter. Lian's school will be on a regular schedule and I'm committed to doing "school" stuff with Anna. Of course, if you know me, you know that is hard for me to do and not invite all the neighbor kids. So, Anna and I took "school" outside the gate today. Also, if you know me well, you will know what a stretch it is for me to live in a "gated" area, but that's how things are done here. Anna and I set up our blocks on the front yard and just started playing. We saw Pierre and JoJo and said, "Ngeeno Hano" (come and play) and they did. I spelled out their names for them, whcih was very fun for them. Most of all, they just liked building towers and crashing them down.

Setting up a house here is a lot different. Stuff at the department store is not cheap, so you go to the furniture market where you can either choose something off the block or bring ina picture of what you'd like and have them make it for you. Of course, that requires a lot of bargaining and negotiating and since I'm white with Chinese children, we are an oddity. But, I felt more confident today and I asked our house helper, Consolee, to help me with some of the negotiations. It took 45 minutes, and me walking to the store across the street, in order to get them to lower the price on a bathroom cabinet, but in the end it was a good deal on all fronts.

Lian had a great first week of school and seems to be doing well. We decided that we city folk need to embrace our new surroundings and our beautiful yard and welcome a few more additions to our family. So meet "Sunny and Joy" - these are our gifts to our girls for being such troopers this summer. We met this guy who was giving them away for free. And he has someone make the cage for us. The girls were so surprised! We saw them today and chose two boys (yes, boys, even though Anna named hers Joy) so as to prevent future bunnies from being born. We will go back next week to bring them home. Hmmmm...chickens might be next since we do have the chicken coop...