This month we are spending our time in Kigali, Rwanda. My team of 6 girls is claiming kingdom and working with little ones for the whole month! This month, unlike last, we have a fairly consistent schedule so I thought I would finally answer the question everyone asks me: what does a normal (ministry) day look like on the race?
Each morning, I open my eyes to the soft sunlight entering my room, the cool African morning breeze, and the shrill and sharp shrieking of my host brothers: Isaiah(2) and Josiah(4). It’s between 6 or 7 am, depending on what time I actually fell asleep last night. The boys typically start their play routine of screaming and pushing chairs (race cars) along the concrete ground at 6 though, so I’m up anyway. Thats nothing compared to the other kids (Jay: 6, Deborah: 8, Lori: 12) who start their days at 5:30 so that they can get to school on time. Once I finally decide its time to get up, I peel back my bug net and tie up the curtain to let some sunlight in the room. Sarah, my team leader, typically unlocks our front door around 7:15. This prompts Isaiah to start yelling some of the only English words he knows, “FOOD IS EEREADY” (whether or not it actually is). I start the day with a podcast, brush my hair in the window/mirror, put on a little makeup and wait for Mary (our host mom) to come tell us food is actually ready.
Around 8 we eat breakfast, bananas, pineapple, bread and butter, tea and coffee and sometimes an omelette! This is a fun time of talking about dreams or staring in silence, again based on what time we went to bed the night before. When we are all done, we go to our room to do the finishing touches and mentally prepare for our day. Brush teeth, put on shoes, clip on fanny packs, fill up waters, and finally pray over the day and for God to move. We leave the house around 8:45 and start our uphill journey…literally. The walk to school is a mental battle. A rocky and bumpy red clay road at a pretty gnarly incline; talk about a morning workout. Once you reach the top you rest for a second on a straight away, then walk directly into the forest, into someone’s farm, say hi to the goats, then round the corners to see little faces looking out the window at you. “A mazoongoo!” they yell. Yes, the white teachers have arrived.
We each go to our classrooms, 2 by 2, and get greeted with sticky hands, big hugs, high fives, runny noses, and some of the cutest smiles you’ve ever seen. Once the kids calm down, school begins! Typically, their actual teachers wrangle the classroom and begin to teach while Courtney and I grade their homework. We then re-write their new homework over and over in all their books. They don’t have printers or copiers so we write every worksheet they need! It’s honestly a really fun job. Their works consists of either learning numbers, letters, French, or general knowledge (body parts right now). They repeat whatever they are learning over and over, come up to the front and demonstrate, and even do a dance when they get it right! They have a worksheet to do, that we just wrote, and then they basically rest…or run a muck around the room if their teacher leaves..until 10am. They then make a line and go wash hands! Courtney and I head to the back shelf where we start handing out their breakfasts one by one. Typically this is either a canteen of porridge and a biscuit or a roll of bread. These kids are a HANDFUL around this time. It’s a joy..and a struggle haha. They all want to show you their clean hands, but they also all want to jump off of the desks and throw the erasers since the teachers aren’t in the room. Eventually, we calm them down when they all have their food. You do a rotation of finding the backpack, handing out food, and opening/pouring/feeding some of the little ones their porridge. Oh! I almost forgot to mention, Courtney and I teach what’s called “baby class” which are all 3 year olds. They need a little more help and wrangling than the older kids.
As they finish, we send them outside to recess. We have no idea what this usually looks like, but with us it is different every day. Typically, the little ones take a little longer to eat so we get out to play time a later. Your time outside could consist of sitting on the ground and being used as a jungle gym, running around playing soccer or jump rope, or (if you’re tired/lucky) clinging to one of the sleepy ones and just holding them the whole time. Typically, we make a circle half way through and do some fun dances and silly songs to get some energy out of the kids. About 11, sometimes 11:30 on a playful day, we go back inside for another hour. Depending on the teacher you have, you may be required to figure out what to teach for the next 45 minutes. You may get “sleep teacher” and your kids nap on their desks, you may sing “baby shark” 25 times, heck you may still have homework to copy while the teacher tries to wrangle the class. Then we hand out homework books, food containers, and backpacks, pray, and sing “goodbye teacher” as the kids get picked up one by one.
Then comes my favorite part: the walk home. Not only is the walk all down hill, but we take some of the cutest little kiddos by the hand and walk them home. They’re our neighbors so their parents don’t even come for them anymore, they just skip home with us. From 12-1 we rest at home, wash hands hardcore, and drink water (hydrate or dydrate amirite?). Then we have lunch, tell some jokes about what the kids did that day, and honestly just enjoy each other’s presence. So far, I have a running record of everyday making Sarah spit her drink or food out of her mouth from laughing so hard. It’s my favorite thing to do. After this, most of the time it’s nap/movie time. We need some time to check out. There are other days where we tear it up with the card games for hours. Either way, we get ready to leave around 2:30 to head out for our next ministry: painting!
We walk even farther up and up the hill to get to the bus station. About 20 minutes later, we hop on the bus and take a 20 minute drive to the old church. For some background, about 7 years ago, the Rwandan government just randomly decided to shut down thousands of churches. They say it was due to failure of meeting requirements. Our host, Pastor Moses (aka Dad), has 3 branches of his church shut down because of this. This is where we come in. Over the month we spend evenings painting the interior and exterior of the church so that it will be up to the standard. After this, we will clean/paint the floors and add some chairs and they should be able to reopen! After a few hours goofing around, jamming out, and getting a little work done too, we trek back uphill where we either get back on the bus or get picked up by Pastor and head home. Typically, Dad makes some sort of “in my culture…” joke on the way home and tries to convince us to do something embarrassing claiming it as Rwandan culture. He laughs and laughs..and we get a kick out of it too.
Once home, I run in the house first and wait for someone to come in so I can scare them. Even though the sun goes down around 6:30, we don’t eat dinner until after 8pm. This is the time where one at a time we take bucket showers, rounds and rounds of card games happen, and/or we have team time. Bucket showers for reference are freezing cold and you literally dump a bucket of water over your head and scrub a dub dub! Team time is about an hour of time where one of us girls chooses how we spend that designated time together. Sometimes it is serious, sometimes it is a game, but they are always fun and bonding. Dinner is the same as lunch, funny stories and trying to make Sarah spit. After dinner…it’s honestly time for sleep. I’m 21, I’m a grandmother. Typically we stay up doing who knows what kinda shenanigans until 9 and then get under our bug nets for the night (get wrecked malaria). For me, I typically watch a movie or a YouTube video, but am out like a light in the first 10 minutes.
In no time, the sun peeks through and my day begins again. We are blessed to have consistent ministry, kids to love on, a host family that loves us so well (they are genuinely our family), and a team that makes even the mundane fun! Welcome to a day in the life: Africa edition. Now off to an “off day” where all that is on my agenda is coffee, posting this blog, and calling my mom.
Ps: thank you all for your support and continued interest in my time out on the field. The race is HALFWAY OVER which means it’s less than 6 months that I will be back stateside. Please be praying for our team as we head into our next month in a little over a week (and that we get to go to Uganda!! (get wrecked Ebola). Keep us in your prayers, and keep on keepin on:) See you soon
