Reports of Violence

Three grenades went off in Kigali on Friday night. All at bus stops. Apparently 1 person is dead while another 30 were sent to the hospital with various injuries, some serious. I am thankful for my health and safety as God's hand continues to be upon me.

The Dog Ate My Homework...?

A student came to class today with the following homework excuse to which I couldn't help but laugh out loud: "I couldn't finish my drawing in time because we had no electricity for the whole night! We had to use candlelight and so now my drawing isn't very good." :) I love Africa!

Memory Verses

"My son, pay attention to what I say; listen closely to my words. Do not let them out of your sight, keep them within your heart; for they are life to those who find them and health to a man's whole body. Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life." (Proverbs 4:20-23)
The above is the coming week's memory verse for my class. I also learn it with them as we have an ongoing competition against one another. Prior to Christmas holidays, we all memorized the entire book of 2 John and I promised them a party if their class average beat my mark (and they didn't beat me...but made a valiant effort nonetheless).
One of the best things to come out of our competition has been the attitude of two of my students. They both come from families that don't recognize the importance of the Bible for everyday life. In fact, during parent interviews one of their parents implored me to discontinue teaching the Bible so intensely as it is a "dead word." Those two students have made it their goal to now study and memorize 3 John because they so enjoyed the challenge of learning 2 John. Hurray!
So now, each week I have promised to also learn the memory verses with them - this week being Proverbs 4:20-23. What an amazing passage in Scripture. And what a challenge and a privilege to be able to learn the Word alongside my students. God is good.

Haircut

I just went to a salon (called "Saloons" here... :) ) to get a much-needed trim. He asked me how much I wanted off... one or two centimetres? I said only one because I want to continue with long hair. 45 minutes later, my hair is almost 10 centimetres shorter. Welcome to Africa.

Friday Morning Rumblings

The earth shook. My dreaming postponed. Why were the walls and my bed shaking? Earthquake! Two harmless earthquakes in the middle of the night, in fact. Having never experienced an earthquake in Canada before, I was a bit confused and "shaken"...but quickly rolled over and returned to my slumber. I had children to teach in a mere 5 hours!

Christmas 2009 Trip, continued

We returned from Petra to delicious Christmas dinner leftovers and began planning and preparing for our next trip - Israel. The Miles - a family in Jordan that helps children with congenital heart defects - offered to take us with them into Israel for the week. Along the way we stopped at Gadara, also known as Umm Qais, and walked along an old Roman road nearby the place Jesus cast the demons into the pigs from the demoniac. After Gadara we all piled back into the nine passenger van and continued to the border between Jordan and Israel. We breezed through Jordanian customs and drove across the famous Jordan river into the promised land. There began our troubles. Two of our group, David and Jonathan, had visited Iraq previously where they taught English for a few months... this was apparently very suspicious to the Israelis. They held all of us up... for five hours! We sat in the Israeli customs office until hours after it had closed and played games, sang songs with guitar accompaniment, and prayed vigorously until one of the guards came and finally said, "At last, you are free to go." The vigorous prayer continued as it was now night and we had to drive through some potentially dangerous areas on the way to Jerusalem. We finally arrived at 1:00 in the morning and fell into exhausted sleep.

Throughout the next few days we visited some of the coolest places on Earth including some places Jesus walked, such as the Mount of Olives and the Garden of Gethsemane. We also saw the Rock of Agony, Temple Mount, Western Wall (aka Wailing Wall), Garden Tomb, Sea of Galilee, King David's Tomb, Mary's (mother of Jesus) Tomb, Church of the Holy Sepulchre (shrine at Christ's tomb), Hezekiah's Tunnel, and the Old City - Arab and Jewish Quarter.

On New Year's Eve we youth (the six of us under 30 and over 10 went to see the celebrations on the infamous Ben Yehuda St. which has had its fair share of violence through the years. We escaped with our lives though were only a few feet away from a fatal stabbing; watching the police and military swoop in was actually about as exciting as the night got. There was remarkably little celebration it seemed, though there was a lot of drunkenness and a few street musicians.

On New Year's Day we made our way back to Jordan, taking a detour to En Gedi where David cut the robe of Saul. The border crossing into Jordan was actually pretty painless. They didn't care whether any of us had been in Iraq before.

Our remaining time in Jordan was spent shopping and enjoying the luxuries that are unavailable in Rwanda. We drove out to Makawir, the place where John the Baptist was held and killed, enjoying one more taste of biblical history before making our way back to beloved Rwanda.

Christmas 2009 Trip

My trip to Israel and Jordan was fantastic! Though I am glad to be back. The end.

Just kidding.

It’s amazing how much you miss the first world when you live in the third world but don’t even realize it until you are immersed in the first world once again. The Dubai airport was my first taste of Western society since leaving Canada in August. I was mesmerized when we first arrived in the airport...so many shops and actual fast food! After a long overnight lay-over in Dubai, we were off to Amman, Jordan where I met David’s twin brother for the first time. First stop: McDonald’s. Then off to peruse one of the many malls. It was incredibly strange to see so many options before my eyes. My exclamations of awe and wonder were probably quite loud and odd to others...it was as if I hadn’t ever been to a shopping centre in my entire life! But really, it has only been 5 months :)

We explored Amman for about a week - downtown shopping, enjoying delicious shawerma, sightseeing at the ancient amphitheatre - with some of David’s good friends (he used to live in Jordan while a teenager) and brother. The Arab culture is fascinating. The call to prayer occurs several times throughout each day via loudspeaker from the mosques. Most women wear hijabs but often pair them with skinny jeans and fancy shoes. I was definitely an object of fascination and desire for many, though I was careful to avoid showing too much skin at all. A few American females who are currently studying in Jordan told me that their wearing a hijab doesn’t discourage comments or stares...white women will be met with looks and comments regardless so I didn’t wear a head covering except when I was in a holy or sacred place as a sign of respect for the culture.

From Amman, we traveled down to Petra and Aqaba and saw some amazing sights! Petra is an ancient hand-carved city (apparently mentioned in the Bible, but perhaps under another name) that is beautiful to see. After a fun camel ride, we hiked up a series of hills and mountains, passing by the Treasury (setting for one of the Indiana Jones films), then up to the Monastery, and finally to the Most High Place. Incredible place that all should see! Check out my pictures.

Israel and more about Jordan...to be continued! (I have a Science test to write up tonight) :)