Tim and I spend a lot of time at school, or with people related to school. It has been wonderful how welcoming everyone has been (students, teachers, and staff alike), taking us around, helping us explore the city, inviting us to their homes or various community events, but it is also hard. Everyone we know is related to school, everyone we hang out with (including ourselves) are connected to St. Ignatius and I am beginning to go a bit stir crazy. We have hit the point, that happens any time you move to a new place for an extended period where you transition from being a tourist in that place to actually living there. Tim and I have a lot we want to see and do, but we feel limited by our lack of language and cultural savy, but at the same time, we don't want to continue to solely rely on the kindness of others to help us get around because we do live here, we are capable adults who just need to man up, so to speak. Kigali, while a thriving metropolis doesn't necessarily offer a lot to do on a regular basis culturally or otherwise and so I am working to find "my place." I am working to find that thing or that place where I can go to feel at home, I am working to make Kigali my home, but it's a challenging transition. We have seen the market now and the downtown, we have ridden he one escalator in, I imagine, he whole country. We have been to the supermarket and to a local corner store for a pop and the question is what's next? When we don't have plans, where do we go to get out, but that isn't just wandering around?
In other news, last Friday, the teachers played basketball against the students (and by the studnets I really just mean the 5 best players in the school out of the roughly 130 kids). With the teachers, the pickings were much more slim. Despite the fact that I haven't played on a basketball team in 10 years? 12 years? I still made the staring line up. With 2 subs, and a few cheerleaders on out side, the students beat us 49 to 30? Or 29? We didn't much like talking about the score. To be fair, the teachers put together a fighting team. There was moment there, at the beginning of the game when we actually were winning. It was only 2-0 and we just happen to have scored fist, but still! It was fun to interact with the students in that way though. There was plenty of trash talk and lots of cheering or book depending on scores and fouls, but most of the student body came out to watch.
So, while most of our time is spent at school, some of that (outside of he teaching) is really great. Tim got us an invite to join the cultural club at the primary school, so I might do that. They practice Wednesday afternoons and I don't teach then, so that could be fun to learn some traditional dance (or better yet, have some primary students teach me French and Kinyarwanda).
Also, please pray for one of our students who was hit by a mototaxi walking to school yesterday. She is in he hospital.
Tim has also posted some excellent pictures from our time here at timnendick.com if you are interested.
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