Thursday, November 8, 2012

On Dizzy Bugs & the Execution of Chickens


(Written as of November 3, 2012)

Well it’s been a busy few weeks. Currently we have quite a few visitors and the house is packed! The kids are home now from school, on holidays until after Christmas. Speaking of holidays, this week Suzi (a Peace Corps volunteer working up the road) and I are organizing activities for the kids in the mornings. We’ve got sports, crafts, reading and all kinds of fun lined up. Suzi, daring soul that she is (and with exceptional Kinyarwanda skills, I might add), is going to teach poetry to some of the older kids. Exceedingly cool, right?! Too bad I’ll be with the little guys while she does that, I’m so interested to see how it goes! Also, in the afternoons, some of the other volunteers are going to do other activities like computer, ESL and stories. So our kids may be on holidays, but they sure won’t be bored!


Then we’ve got another feast coming up on Nov 10 – the kids have been preparing dances and songs and comedy sketches for Dr. Hazel (aka Mama Victory) who is here for a week or two. She let them know the best performance would go with her to Kigali to show their stuff at the church there on Sunday. The kids are pretty excited, and we sort of have our own talent competition going on (Rwandan Idol, anyone?!). It should be a lot of fun.

Friday night I was doing Family Time with the kids and teaching them another couple of songs. They love to learn new songs but really, I enjoy seeing them sing and jump and drum their hearts out in Kinyarwanda. So this time I had them teach me a song too. I requested a simple, easy song that they would teach a little child and had them teach it to me. It was pretty fun and always good to learn some more Kinyarwanda. I do know a lot of the songs but not all the words, so I guess now I’m making real progress.


I can’t believe I only have a few weeks left – I have a lot lined up for the next few weeks and it should keep me busy. Kid activities, sort of like summer camp next week (I’m writing this on Nov 3 but have no idea when it will get posted!) and then I’m doing some staff training…. And on and on it goes!


I can’t forget to mention that I am now known as the woman who sentenced all the chickens to death. Sad, but true. I did a cost/benefit review of all the animals onsite and sadly, the chickens came out as more cost than benefit. So we should shortly be smelling chicken dinner wafting out of the orphanage kitchen and I’m trying out a new role as Executioner of Expensive Chickens. Add that to the ol’ resume and I should be rolling in job offers!!


In other news, we’ve had boatloads of rain (now there’s an interesting metaphor) and as a result we’ve had a lot of the bugs that former readers of my blog will remember me christening as “dizzy bugs”. I know the local name for them but can’t begin to describe the feeling of waking up in the night after the rain and hearing them banging around off my walls, roof and clouds of them outside my window, drawn to the light and banging off the glass – loudly enough to wake me up, I might add. It’s a creepy feeling to wake up in the dark and wonder… where is that clickety-clackety sound of wings and LARGE bug bouncing around coming from?! It is a bit of a delicacy around here though, so you shouldn’t be surprised to see kids out collecting them so they can take them home and fry them up. I think some of the new kids here expected me to be grossed out but they underestimate my past experience. I walked by the kitchen and there was a group of kids sitting around a bucket of squirming bugs, de-winging them so they could eat them later. I just said the equivalent of “Mmm, nice! Good job!” in Kinyarwanda, and then “Protein!” in English to the visitor I was touring around. As Papa Jojo put it so eloquently last time I was here – God gives the bugs like manna from heaven here after the rain.


Some of our secondary kids are home from school, which is great! We are still waiting on Ignace to finish up at the government school as they are on a bit different schedule. Fabrice is also here but going back to write some more exams in a few days, and Bea and Esther were the first to get home. So nice to see the older kids here at home!


I’m sure I have about a bazillion more stories to share, but that’s it for now! You’ll have to buy me dinner when I get home to hear the rest. :)


Updates as of November 8:

Well here I am in town finally posting my blog -- since I last wrote, I have a few updates:

The chickens surprised us all by having more than 15 chicks all at once! I guess the threat of death was a good motivator. They have a reprieve from the guillotine… for now.

The time Suzi and I spent working with the kids was great! Here are some pictures (most days were too busy for pictures, but I got a few good ones):


The kids playing Red Rover and older kids playing volleyball
 Chalk drawings in between the dining hall and the office...
Fabien
Liliane
Shema
Gilbert
 Jaime & Sonia hanging out after drawing pictures:


Finally, Ignace comes home from secondary tomorrow, just in time for the feast this weekend! Good times ahead... stay tuned!

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