From Jessica -- On the left is our home in Kigali...225 Rue Terminalia Street. It’s in a set of duplexes with a diverse mix of Rwandans and expats. On the right is the view from our home.

 

Our first week has been full! We stayed with Dabbs, Mary, Will and Kate Cavin for the first several days. Their family has been here since April, and Dabbs and Todd will be working together at the bank. The Cavins were wonderful hosts. Rebecca and Ben adore Will and Kate, and the familiar faces helped ease the transition. In fact, we’ve been amazed at how well the children are doing.

 

The second day we were here, we took them swimming at the Novatel hotel, an expat hangout. Rebecca became immediate friends with 7-year-old Ruth Jenkins, who was adopted by a missionary family here. They ran around chasing two crested cranes. It made my eyes fill with tears, because Rebecca had been concerned about all the “people with dark skin,” and here she was holding hands and laughing her head off with one of them.

 

Our first “Get me back to America” moment came the night we moved into our home. We got in late, and the kids were tired and cranky. Everything was in suitcases, and I couldn’t find anything. I tried to start the bath water and realized we had forgotten to plug in the hot water heater, so there was no hot water. Todd was sweating profusely, trying to hammer a hook in the metal ceiling to hang the mosquito net over the children’s bed. Then the electricity went out. Our new next-door neighbor John Peays came over and brought us candles and flashlights. We continued what we were doing in the dark, then Ben stepped on a candle. It was 30 minutes of utter chaos. At one point I looked at Todd and said, “Someday we will look back on this night and laugh.”

 

Everywhere we go, people are walking on the side of the road, carrying goods on their heads. The small children carry heavy tubs of water to and from their homes, which are primarily mud huts. The way of life for expats and upper/middle class Rwandans is to have workers inside and outside the home. Our guard Alfred lives in a tiny room attached to the back of our house. It has a small mattress, a shower and a toilet. It’s probably about 6 ft x 6 ft. His wife and three daughters live two hours away, and he works in the city and sees them about twice a month. He is a part-time pastor and sings in the choir. And he is thrilled to have this job.

 

Yesterday Todd stopped by to get an ice cream cone on his way home from running errands. He was feeling a little down because it was the opening morning of dove season and the first Razorback football game at home. As he was buying his ice cream, he saw six little children looking in the window at him with hungry eyes. He bought six more ice cream cones and didn’t feel so low any more.