The Beauty of the World Surrounds Me

I have just returned from Giterama, where we spent the last week. We ended classes last Friday (September 18) and on Monday we headed off for Giterama. While in Giterama we spent the week going to local villages and talking to people. Food for the Hungry is looking at starting a new program in the Giterama area, but needed to know the needs of the community. Usually FH (Food for the Hungry) focuses on "at risk children", but this knew program is going to be focused more on "at risk households/families".

Our group was broken up into three and assigned a cell. Rwanda is divided into Provinces then districts, then sectors, then cells, then villages/towns/cities. With in each group of three we were paired off and then given someone to translate for us. Every morning we drove about 45 minutes away and each couple w/ translator... so triplet... was dropped off in a different villages. With in the villages we went door to door gathering information. At each house we were invited inside where we began by explaining to them why were here. Then we proceeded with roughly 7 pages worth of questions. The questions involved things like how many people were living in the house, how many children were going to school, house

hold monthly income, do they use mosquito nets, was the family tested for HIV/AIDS, what kind of crops does the family grow, and many many more around those lines. The interviews lasted any where from 20 minutes to an hour and the responses were all over the board. We were required to average 5 houses a day and we did the surveys for 4 days.

There were many challenges through out the process. The biggest issue is the fact that we can not understand a thing the families are saying. This caused some issues. We were unable to understand exactly what the translator was saying or how they were translating what we were saying. This caused problems because at the end of the day when talking to other groups we realized our responses were really different, which could be the cause of the translating being slightly off. We also were unable to hear all the responses. Many times the families would go on and on in their response, but all we really heard was the yes and no part. Not being able to understand them, even a little bit, made it frustrating at times. So many times I start to answer them in Spanish and realize that they really won't be able to understand me if I talk in Spanish.

There were all some really great things about the week. We got the opportunity to go into these families homes and meet their families. Sometimes the families would of

fer us food and many times they would bless us and thank us for coming. The people we would talk to were so incredibly beautiful! And the children would follow us aroundfrom house to house. There was one little girl that followed us for three days and would just it on our lap during each interview (she is the girl in the first picture). It was so great to talk to the people and hear about their lives and how different they are from our western life style and western way of thinking. Life is so much simpler than we make it and we can learn so much from people that are different than us. Once again I am reminded that we are different in so many ways, but yet we are so similar. We were all made out of God's image! No one person better, prettier, stronger, or more intelligent than the other. All bless with different gifts and different talents. All share in the same salvation . Isn't God GREAT!?!?

So today after we finished our quota for the day we had some time to kill before the bus picked us up so I decided to play soccer with some of the kids. Every where I travel... from Portugal, to Prague, to Guatemala, to Rwanda.... I am always excited about how wonderful the sport of soccer is and how blessed I am that my parents chose to put me on a team! Soccer (futbol) is played EVERYWHERE... literally. From inner city kids in St. Louis to rural village children in Africa, everyone plays the sport and it brings so many people together! BUT back to my story... so I was playing soccer with about 1/2 a dozen kids who are saying all this stuff to me, but I really have no clue what they are saying. And then after a while I realized we were playing keep away. Sometimes when I think about it I don't understand how we can all be on the same page on something when we all speak different languages, it is pretty awesome! (the last picture is all the kids who played soccer with me and we are holding our "ball")

So overall the week was pretty good! The villages were in the hills, like all of Rwanda is, so the view is breath taking! I really enjoyed the week and I am sure I will continue to learn different things from it as time goes.

Thanks again for reading my blog! Love you all so incredibly much... and missing home a little bit, but afraid to believe it incase it spreads through my whole mind... which would be no good! I leave for Mbale, Unganda in a week and only 11 weeks left in Africa, time will fly!