Back in Seattle

It is so unusual walking into a house I haven't been in 8 months and know where everything is. And again walk down the hall to "my" room and see things that I placed here and there eight months ago. Things that haven't been touched in that long. Getting into "my" bed and then waking up to the familiar color of light coming in through the window. The light here is filtered by a thick layer of clouds, not rain clouds, just clouds. The sky is a greyish color and somehow it makes me happy. I want to curl back up under the covers because of it's familiar shade.

Somehow deep within I know that this is home.

Packed, Moved, Visited, Flew, & Visiting Some More

Well, my room was packed up into boxes. I moved into a new house across the street.

Bus Ride Through Uganda (16 hours)

Took a bus to Uganda to visit Isaac's family.

Traditional Ugandan (Busoga) Dancers at a wedding I attended

Uncle D and Senga

Lots of family to see and things to experience.
I spent each of the 5 nights in Uganda with a different family and in a different city! Wow I sat on public transportation a lot!

Family

Traditional Ugandan Gomis (not sure the spelling on that one)

Got to teach at the local elementary school.

 Then got on a plane and flew to Washington DC to visit my sister.

So great to see these fine people!!! Mom and Sister

Name this building ;)

And now I'm ready for more visiting of people I haven't seen in a while. :)
Will return to Burundi in late August to start start teaching first grade on Sept 10th.

Rachel the American

Can you imagine, I'm in a place where even amongst 10 foreigners I'm still the only American!
So they gave me a name tag to rub it in. :)

Proof

What letter am I pointing to?

I really was doing vision testing :)

Eye Doctor & Translator For the Day

There are two Cibitokes in Burundi. One is a neighborhood in Bujumbura, which is about 10 minute walk from Hope Africa University. Then there is the Cibitoke province, which is like a state within Burundi. It happens to be a 2 hour drive from Bujumbura. The visitors I was with found out the difference between the two yesterday.

I was invited to travel with some short termers to an orphanage that was “not far” yesterday which was good because I had things to do in the afternoon. But once we past the airport and headed on the road out of town I started asking questions.

We traveled along the well paved road, wide and freshly lined seeing the country side. This is the first time I’ve been to the west side of the country. There were parts that reminded me of my time in Kenya; dry with scattered trees and bushes. Other parts were dense with foliage. We drove to the top of a hill and entered a walled compound. Inside were 5 houses and a large gathering room. There were also 15 beautiful little children to greet us. The children, who are orphans, live in family groups of 6 children per house with one mother, most were widows themselves.

The team that invited me to come was a group of doctors. So I turned into a doctor for the day. I helped with the eye exams. I gave the “What letter is this?” exam to all the children while others were checking their hearing, health and also the adults.

At the end of the day I was thinking about the time and I was pleased by my language skills. Most of the day I was able to communicate not only what I wanted to say but also translate for the doctors what they were trying to say. God is good to me. With no formal Kirundi training He has granted me vocabulary and a heart to learn this language. Thanks God.