Running and a new coach?

Okay so its 7pm here and I just thought about it and it's only 1pm at home...hmm lol

This morning I had an opiphany lol (i dont think thats how you spell that) I've been praying alot for things like courage lately, but have found myself frustrated because I dont see that quality coming out in my life. This morning i felt like God was saying there are certain things that Hes equipped us with and its important to pray for them, but we cant passivly wait for them. Hes given us what we need to do what He wants us too, but our effort and persistance is important too. Its kind of an obvious thing but it just really came to my mind.

"Love the Lord with all your heart mind soul and strength".

Well, last night and this morning were the first times that I got to go running...not the same as at home.lol So first about a half mile after i left the house, a group of 6 little kids in school uniforms decided to try to run with me. I couldnt help but laugh ...they find everything so exciting :) i ran up to the stadium and on the back side, one little boy started herding his chickens after me? I dont even know what to say about that...when i was running away from them i wasnt sure if it was really happening hah ...then a group of little boys were playing soccer and they kept yelling "muzungu" when i ran by so i stopped to see if I could play with them..they seemed confused at first, but then let me play keep away with them..they were so cute. This moring an old man in jeans and sandals decided he wanted to race me...when he realized he was faster than me he started to encourage me to run faster by counting in french...hah I couldnt understand him but at the end he gave me a high five!

Today at the office was the day when all of the artisans bring in their products or handicrafts that they sell to Azizi Life. Azizi Life is a for profit business under FH that Tom created because technicalities prevent non-profits from buying and selling products. Their aim is to develop rural parts of southern Rwanda by encouraging and assisting small artisans cooperatives improve their products and finding new markets for them. There is so much more to development work than I ever realized. Development can be thwarted by the same people that organizations are working to help.

Tom and Christi have had problems with the artisans failing to be honest with them. Some will find various products at a low price and try to sell them to Azizi Life at a higher price and try to pass them off as their own. Lately, to account for this, if Tom or Christie are suspicous that an artist isnt telling the truth, before buying anything from them theyll have them make the product in front of them. So today i got to watch that and it was amazing :) Here is a woman making an african shaker from a dried out gord (sp?) shes been doing this for 25 years!

I love CHIPS/fries/freets(??)!

Date: Sunday 14, 2009


Today was such a long but good day. I woke up this morning at like 530 even though christie wasn't coming to get me until 9 something. Im still a little off from jet lag.It was a really good time to just sit with God and talk...oh yeah and I atempted to make coffe lol.
We walked to church today from the house. I don't think i've been stared at so much in my life. One little girl grabbed my hand and wouldnt let go lol. At first it made me nervouse that everyone
was looking at me, but I realized once I smiled and waved, the persons entire expression and demenor(sp?) completely changed into a smile and a wave. Christi explained it as "It's kind of like you having a purple person
walking around your town" lol well I guess were the purple people right now.

The church we went to was really cool. It's at a childrens home run by a retired woman from penn. named "mama". There were so many kids there. One of the boys from the home game the sermon and a Rwandan man named John translated. He talked about
pride and how God has put us where ever we are and to rely on anything else is unstable. It was really good and really cool to see such a young kid speak with such passion (even though I couldnt understand him until after the fact lol)
After church we walked to Christi's for lunch and I love avacados! lol they are so cheap here. It's funny because fresh food here is so cheap because it's grown in such abundance while packaged food(which is cheap for us) is so expensive here because its
exported and shipped here. After lunch Chrisiti and I walked around for almost 4 hours. We walked to a catholic church on the outside of Gitirama. Theres a school at the church and so there were a lot of kids walking around. A group of little girls was following us and so I said hi to them in Kynrwanda...
hah decided to practice my skills...and one of the little girls decided to practice her english on me :) it was the coolest thing because we were both working to speak the other's language.

At the end of the day we had "Muzungu diner". Muzungu is what everyone here calls Westerners or white people. So on SundAY nights most of the development workers get together for dinner at this cafe. It was really good. Goat meat is kind of tough, but the fries here are the best ive ever had. I had a huge plate of them and
I think im going to have them everyday until i leave :)

So there were times today that I forgot I was away from home. It was weird like I know im gone, but Im so caught up in everything around me that I dont realize it. I think its one of God's ways of comforting us is different situations. He has definatly been in everything and I feel like I dont deserve the peace that He's put in my heart about everything, but I'm so thankful for it!

I miss everyone and Im thinking and praying about you guys!

Beth

Rwanda

ate: Saturday 13, 2009
Today is my first day in the country and Rwanda in beautiful. It's crazy to think that something so horrible could have happened in a place like this. It doesnt connect. It's hard to be gone. My hosts, Christi and Tom are amazing.I can see God's grace and understanding through them even from just the few hours that I've been with them. Right after the airport, Tom took us to lunch at his favorite Italian place. It was funny to have that as my first meal here...but really good and the most amazing veiw. Then we went to the country director's house in Kilgali. He had some investors from Canada coming to talk about differernt projects they are wanting to invest in. I have a house mate named Nathan(a former intern from uganda...he was just brought into Rwanda to work on a clean water project) was saying that Dwight (the country director) wants to keep pushing for sutainable projects for Rwanda in the places that were hit the worst by the genocide. These areas are currently the poorest and from what I understand have the most potential for growth. Even though these types of projects arent currently being pusued in Uganda (maybe due to the backwardness of the coutnryor the recent change in country director?) Nathan thinks that this will change in the region since dwight has been working on projects.
So even though my hosts are better than I could have ever asked for and the country is so beautiful... its still really hard to be so far away. There are so many people here, just walking in the street and all around, but I feel really isolated. I havent seen another blonde yet in Gitarama lol and i really just wish i knew the language. Even going to the store to get some breakfast food was hard. Tom and Christi took me, but there are so many norms that Im not sure of yet. I dont know how much im really paying for things since the exchange is so different and since the stores are so small I feel like I'm offending the owner when i dont buy anything. They look at you the whole time your there (maybe because Im so white?) AI think its so easy to feel isolated right now, but when i came back to my room i just sat and prayed. I've learned at times when you feel the most stuck and scared God is so quick to come. I've felt like this before when Nicole and I got in an accident last summer. Even though this is a different scared than being strapped into a stretcher, I still feel scared and a little helpless being so far away.
The second I sat down to pray I could feel Him. I think He knows me better than I know me and knows when I need him. I really wanna get over this initial nervousness so I can really begin to see what Hes put in front of me right now and really get to know the people around me. Anywaysss...im sleeping under a mosquito net lol. Im gonna take more pics of the land tomorrow I wanted to today but ran out of batteries!

Travel

"The reason why it can never succeed is this. God made us: invented us as a man invents an engine. A car is made to run on petrol, and it would not run properly on anything else. Now God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other."

- C. S. Lewis


I'm at home right now in between one of layovers in Dullus. I'm so thankful I got to come home for a little after orientation. It was sad leaving, even though we were only there for a couple of days. Last night Donna and Elyse took me to this place called In and Out for dinner. I mean its kind of amazing :) Then we hung out at her house. Elyse bought Jen and I necklaces for a going away present. That made my night! In those little things...even though the people involved might not realize..I think those are the small things that God uses to show us that He's there and that He loves us through that.
This morning I got up with Donna and we walked Chance (her dog). We had such a good talk and it made me not want to leave! She has so much to share and I think I can learn so much from her.

Okay so on the flight today I made two freinds lol. One was a girl from Japan whos family now lives in Arizona and she goes to school in Chicago. We started talking and then realized we both run track (well ran for me lol) She was so fun to talk to. The second person I talked to was a little girl that sat next to me on the plane. She was from Inia and didnt speak any English...I realized that after trying to tell her I was happy she was small because she was sitting in the seat next to me. She ended up using my coloring book and then sleeping the rest of the time aha. Anyways heres some more pictures of my last day. The first is Donna's meal at in and out, the next is Jen, me and Elyse, and the last one is Chance ...she didnt want her picture taken

In the office!

Okay so we are almost done with training and it's been amazing! I'm on Brittani's computer right now and it's about the first hour that we havent had a session during the day. I've been staying at Donna's house (a woman that works for Food for the Hungry) and she is so great! She's made us so many home made dinners. I'm staying with another intern, Jen, who is going to Uganda! She and two other's (including her fiance!) will be there for two months. Even though were in neighboring countries (rwanda and Uganda) we have to fly completely separately.

All the other interns are so great! (the international ones are in the pic above to the left). The neat things about everyone is that we all have different skills and talents, which are all being applied to different areas of development. For example, Jen on the far leftis pre-nursing and is going to the Philipines to work with health and nutrition while Audrey is an amazing artist and is going to work in India to put together a book for FH with interviews and art work. So it just shows how were all made so different, but each gift that God has given us is needed for something different.

So God has really been shwoing me how He is in so many of the little things. Everything from what weve been learning to how kind Donna is. I think I always expect to only see Him in the obvious things...like when we're being taught about Him, but He always comes up in unconventional ways :) Well we have to finish up some orientation! I'll be on again soon.

Beth