welcome to the east side

So the new language here in Rwanda sounds a little like this. "balsdlkfaweoovsfjsjf". Seriously! I am anxious to learn the language because most of the people here speak the "dfajsdfjssdfsf". I sure wish I would have learned another language other than English as a child. I think my brain would be more flexible now if I would have. Luke and Abby's brain is sucking it up. Especially Luke's. it is amazing how he can communicate. Our day guard doesn't speak french or english but he somehow communicates with him.
Our yard is amazing. Luke has had more band-aids this past week than he has his whole life. the kids love being outside and are exploring all kinds of stuff. Our trees are huge and perfect for climbing. Our yard is so green. We love the grass.
Anyways so today is attempt 2 at getting our visa. Hopefully everything will go well. If not on to plan B. No big deal just a little waiting for our container.
Spencer starts his classes with NNU soon. Wow between his school and trying to find a car.. the deputation moula is going fast. At first we thought we were going to look for a big truck to make Spencer's traveling easier on the roads but it looks like for now we may have to get a cheaper vehicle and have him ride the bus where he needs to go that have bad roads. Unless there is a donor out there that wants to help a sista out. LOL just kidding - well not really!
Okay so i need to run some errands today. the bank, grocery store, find the Fed Ex people, find walmart.... heehee
Okay until next time remember... I love all y'all and the grass is greener on the other side... at least the East side of Africa it is!!!
your sista in Rwanda :)

a motorcyle taxi?

Okay so my first experience with grocery shopping was pretty funny.The actual shopping wasn't funny it was how i got home. Alright so a local Pastor took me to the store. We headed on the bus and arrived at a small store down town where I found some necessities to help for a couple of days. I asked the pastor if the store excepted visa cards and he assured me several times that they did. So I pulled up the the register with my load of stuff and asked if they excepted my card. Nope she said. I was about the wring the guys neck but i realized no matter what question you ask here the answer is always yes. "So do you know if they except cards" YES, "Are the monkeys coming in our yard dangerous?" YES, "Do you speak english" YES "Did it rain yesterday?", YES, are you answering Yes to every question?" YES. Okay so I didn't really ask these questions. So back to the story. So luckly I had a $100 bill that I had in my purse from traveling so was able to us it. Yes you can us USD if the bill is made after 2004 and it is a large bill. So the next crazy thing was there aren't oust bags to use to fill your groceries with. There is a law in Rwanda that there are no plastic bags. So that means everything was being packed into these small (lunch size) brown paper bags. But you can buy these reusable bags too. So I bought 2 and filled my brown bags full of groceries in them. BTW that are no large hefty duty bags to put your home trash in either. So now with 2 large reusable (the kind that are popular in the states now) bags we walked out of the store. Not too excited about catching the bus with these large bags the Pastor started to negotiate with the motorcycle taxis for us. After he got a fair price there I am sitting on the back of the motorcycle in a dress with a large grocery sack on my lap. There were lots of people looking at us. But hey, we got home a whole lot faster than taking the bus. So we are weaving in and out of traffic and I am trying to hang on to the guy and the groceries. We made it home and everything was good. Hummm the life of a missionary... some of you guys are really missing out :)
So right now I am sitting at my desk drinking coffee, eating pineapple (one of 6) a local pastor brought us, listening the the birds chirp outside and thinking how beautiful Rwanda is. It really truly is a beautiful, clean and safe (despite what friends and families may think :) ) place to live.
Okay so pray for us today (although I realize most of you are sleeping) that we continue to adjust to this new culture, get our work visa's so we can get out container delivered and learn a NEW language so we can communicate with the people here better. We would also like for you to pray we can afford a truck.
Okay I love all y'all and remember...don't forget to stop at your local Starbucks, they are selling Rwanda coffee right now.
April

don't pack it in your carry-on... what was I thinking!

I know it has been a year since I last posted. Well, not really but I have heard enough complaints that I am posting now. Just kidding again, I am now just coming to the point that I am ready to share my crazy stories and thoughts with you again. Whoever you are!
Okay so the last couple of months have been a lot of fun and really tiring times. We spent about 45 days in the states and now we are in Rwanda. Okay so here is a short overview of what we did in the states.
1. arrived in Kansas and was greeted by our friends Jason and Jewel Alvis. there they gave us their car and we headed to Arkansas. had our first meal prepared by Jewel (awesome yummy food)
2. arrived in Springdale, Arkansas the next day and stayed with our friends Sara and Justin Guy. Had a blast with them too. (ate at my fav restaurant with some other old friend.. the Vetters, Jim's mom, greg and Cherie and kids, tara and wyatt and kids and of course our craziest friends Justin and Sara
3. arrived in Greenbrier, Arkansas 2 days later (i think) at spencers parents house. began to rest a bit from our long journey
4. spoke at a church the next Sunday in Greenbrier
5. next Sunday drove a few hours to Jonesboro, AR for the AM service and then to McCory, AR for the PM service
6. the next week drove about 6 hours to TN for services in Clarksville and Nashville. stayed with spencers sister Julie and family... while we were there the kids went to Hermitage's vacation bible school for one day.. they had fun
7. drove back to Arkansas for more services and a district assembly (where spencers dad retired)
8. drove to Alabama for a service at Coleman 1st.. stayed in an awesome lake house where the kids jumped in the water without life jackets on (they can't swim but we jumped in after them)... after the AM service the church had a huge slip in slip where abby got in with her dress on... after getting wet they changed clothes and we headed to Florida.
9. stopped for about 30 minutes at about midnight in Lake City and saw some friends Lynn and family (i know you too Brit)
10. arrive in Lakeland, FLordia in the middle of the night at my parents. slept in the next day but got to spend a couple of days with my parents before the busy days in Orlando
10. arrived in Orlando for our General Convention and Assembly and stayed with spencers sisters family in their huge condo they rented. God is good, only stayed in one hotel the whole time in the states.
11. can't exactly remember what all we did in Orlando. we stayed pretty busy EXCEPT some old college friends of mine flew into Orlando and I loved every minute of it. Natasha, Deeee, Veronica and Big Al. Love those girls!
12. kids went to Sea world with my wonderful bro and aunt Leatha... my bro also went with us to Disney... (btw had free tickets!) now that was a fun day
13. went back to my parents for another few days and had a good time... miss my parents already... and my inlaws :)
14. drove to South Carolina and spoke and Midland vally church. arrived there on the 4th so the kids got to see some fireworks
15. drove back to Nashville, TN on that next monday and did a little shopping before we flew out on wednesday.
16. arrived in Kigali 29 hours later and now it is 2 weeks later
okay i will post about our first couple of weeks here next time. as you can imagine i have alot to say and am not saying enough about our time in the states.
we feel very blessed to have been able to go home in the middle of our contract. we loved the states but are glad to be home.

i love all yall and remember... do NOT put peanut butter or choc. surup in your carry on... it will be taken away from you from the airport security and you may just cry! BOOHOO
April