° Uganda - I went to Kampala, Uganda 1.5 months ago with my friend and roommate, Caroline. We took a 10 hours bus ride through the green winding hills of the countryside. When we finally arrived, I remembered how different Kampala is from Kigali - immensely crowded, dirty, enormous, and more poor. Since the last time I visited there nearly 1.5 years ago, I forgot how angry I got seeing children with physical deformities beg on the streets and babies around 6 months old sitting completely alone in the middle of the busy sidewalk with their hands molded into the begging position. It's insane. However, while there, I got to visit Hudson, the boy my dad and I have been sponsoring for nearly 7 years now. He is the only boy in that region who has gotten to see his sponsor twice - he felt really special. I was really surprised at how big he's gotten! Going to Kampala was good for us, overall, to get away for the weekend and to realize things we appreciate about living in Kigali.
° Making Friends - The past month I have met some incredible people and become closer friends with my roomies Caroline and Jo. We've had our share of fun and disgusting times together (maggots jumping across our kitchen, lounging in our blow-up pool, going to parties, going on a mini-safari and our car breaking down in the complete middle of nowhere while monkeys walked around us etc). It's really great to have friends here and I'm so grateful that they're in my life. I'm also becoming good friends with a group of guys and girls from Uganda who all live together about 10 minutes from our house. Hanging out with people who understand your culture, speak the same language, and who are genuinely fun people has been a breath of fresh air for me. For a few months, I was having a really difficult time living here and was really quite miserable, but things have definitely turned around.
° Boys in school - The boys all started school in February and are LOVING it. They can be found studying late into the night and are constantly asking questions or for help with their homework. We are immensely proud of the hard work they are doing. AND, 3 of the boys have been reported by their teachers as having the highest marks in their classes! It has been extremely encouraging to us to see the progress in each child, given that one year ago, more than half of our kids couldn't read or write.
° Muhawe - We have taken in a 20th child into our residential program. Muhawe is an 8 year old boy who was living on the streets and occassionally came to HFL to bathe, wash his clothes, and get a meal. When he came to HFL 1.5 months ago with a severe case of malaria, we took him to the hospital, got medication, and let him recover at HFL. After his recovery, we noticed how much he was changing as a result of being in HFL and researched his family situation. His mother was killed when he was a baby, while strapped to her back. His widowed father is extremely poor and literally doesn't have anything at home to offer to his son. Believed to be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, and unable to live with relatives, Muhawe went to the streets. Muwahe came to HFL timid and fragile, but has unfolded the past few weeks into a gentle, kind, silly boy who now has a smile on his face and wants to hold your hand every second. We are happy to have him in our program and happy that someone has volunteered to financially and personally sponsor him.
° One year anniversary celebration - We happily celebrated HFL's one year anniversary a few weeks ago with the boys and the community members who have helped this past year. It was a great time to remember together all the things that have happened this year and to ask God for another successful coming year. Thank you for your partnership with us this past year to transform street boy's lives. Remarkable work has been done and we couldn't be happier. The boys also received their first set of letters from their penpals from the States .. wow, I don't know if I've ever seen kids so happy. It was chaos - kids running around the living room, waving their letters and photos in the air, trying to pronounce their penpals name to all the other kids at the top of their lungs, all the while dancing with enormous grins on their faces. They had tons of questions and have started a competition in school to see which kid is going to be able to tell their penpal that they received the highest scores on their exams :)
° Hovde Foundation: Lastly, and maybe the biggest news of all, is that HFL is receiving a grant from The Hovde Foundation (www.hovdefoundation.org)! This is a huge answer to prayer for each staff, for our supporters, and for the children themselves who have been praying for land and a house for nearly a year. The Hovde Foundation is partnering with us over the next 2 years to help us obtain our own land, construct housing, and develop a farm that will produce all our fruits and vegetables and help us create self-sufficiency. We could not be more excited!!!
° Coming home - I have a plane ticket back to Seattle for July 29th! I am so excited to be able to come back home... however, because we are partnering with the Hovde Foundation to expand our facilities in Rwanda, I will be returning in the fall to Rwanda for the next 1.5 - 2 years. This changes many of my plans of moving home, getting a job, and going to grad school but I feel that it is where I need to be. While I know living here for 1-2 more years is going to be full of challenges, I look around me and see God moving heavily in HFL and building a wonderful community here around me. Its bittersweet I guess..
° The next few months are crazy - This week initiates 2 weeks of mourning for the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. It will be a week of hardship, memories, and pain for most of Rwanda. Additionally, our older boys will be attending a memorial in our community and learning about the genocide. Pray for them as a few have been directly impacted by the genocide by one of their parents being killed, or their parent currently being in jail for perpretrating during the genocide. We're throwing a benefit party at our house this weekend, and Javier and Brandon are coming up from Burundi to hang out with us. I'm stoked to see some familiar faces :) The second week of holidays here, Caroline and I are going to Burundi to get away for a week and relax on the beach. Then, a member of the Hovde Foundation is coming for a week to work out details of our project, then a friend from Uganda is visiting for a week, then Hilliary is coming! Wow.
° Scooty Scooty Scooty! - My parents got me a scooter :) I am so happy to cruise around Kigali on it. Instead of a 2.5 hour commute to HFL every day filled with an hours worth of walking and 4 buses, I now only commute 1 hour each day. Thank you mom and dad!! My life is going to be so much easier..
Welp, that's all for now. Thank you for your continued prayers and support of me living in Rwanda and of all our team is doing in Hope For Life. None of this would be possible without you..
