Sept 2010 GAMES, Birthdays, and Family Pictures

Where is my neck?

So much has happened since I last wrote that I am not sure how to sufficiently post an update, so today I will just stick with some old pictures I have been meaning to post and some recent events. The pictures are from September and you will find them in a separate post because I could not figure out how to add the whole album to this one, even though I know I have done it before. Oh well.

My class is going great, what awesome students. A couple weeks ago, Epa, the only boy, kept pulling at the collar of his shirt and looking down and around. I asked him, "Epa, what are you doing?" His reply, "I am trying to see my neck," so nonchalantly as if I was the silly one for asking that question. I told him that his neck was like his face, he can only see it in the mirror. "But if you look straight down with your eyes," I continued, "you can see your nose, can't you? That is how you know your face is still there." "Yes! And my cheeks!" he replied. Later I glanced over and saw him puffing out one of his cheeks and looking down at it. Sometimes it is all I can do not to laugh in the middle of class.

Three new girls arrived this week. They have been all smiles and laughter, and so has their new Rafiki Mama, Marie (pronounced Mary). Before they came the other children kept saying, "We are getting a baby!" All three girls are four years old and they had seen pictures of them, I guess they just associate "new" with "baby." Maybe we need to work a little more on their English vocab :-)

Have you ever played hand and foot? If not, you are truly missing out. That is the card game of choice here at the Rafiki Village Rwanda. The ROS usually indulge in a round whenever we are all together. Many of you know that I used to be EXTREMELY competitive in card and board games, but my never-ending losing streak in hand and foot has squelched my overzealous sense of competition. Still I hold out hope that one of these days I will win by a landslide. A girl can dream, anyway.

Finally, a story about the reason I am here.... Immaculee, another of my students, was playing during recess when she looked up and saw the moon was still out. She pointed it out to me and I commented that the moon isn't usually out during the day. She agreed but quickly added, "But it is on purpose! God did it, and he did it on purpose!" "Why do you think that he did that?" I asked. "So that we could know that he is powerful," she replied. I could do nothing but smile back at her. What a wonderful thing, for a child to see that all of creation proclaims the glory of the Lord. I hope you see the same purpose in creation as you look around today.