All grown up!

Tomorrow marks six months living in Rwanda, and almost 5 years since I first set foot in this beautiful country.  Here are some photos of some of the kids from New Hope five years ago, and now, all grown up.  Enjoy!

Ingabire, as a baby.  She was a big drooler!

Ingabire, 5 years old.  She's lost the drooling habit.  She's always sneaking up behind me and braiding my hair instead these days.

                         

Ariane, carrot eater in 2007, almost 1 year-old.  

The wonderful, goofy almost 6-year old Ariane just a few weeks ago.  She is a constant source of laughter.  And always on the move.

Dorcas stole my heart 5 years ago. Look at her cute little chubby face!

Now she is a smart, observant 5 (maybe 6?) year old.  We still share a pretty special bond. Love this girl to pieces.

Pizza Pizza!

The older kids at New Hope and I have been talking about making homemade pizza for awhile now, and this weekend was the time to do it.  As I type, they are back at Sonrise starting their new school year.  Rwandan schools are on a different schedule than our school here in Kigali... anyway, on Saturday we made pizza.  And it was REALLY GOOD.  Seriously.  Here is a photo play by play.  All photo credits go to Sande (11 year old) and Kayitesi (I think 10 years old?)  They are budding photographers. :)

The sous chefs.  Chopping, grating, pressing dough.

Kayitesi and Ana pressing the crust.

Nshimye organizing the pies.

Isaac and Fabiola, garlic and onion chopping experts.

Homemade sauce.  The tomatoes here make really good tomato sauce.

Salami works well as pepperoni.

And as a mask.

Here is how we cooked the pizza.  Let me explain the process:

1. Start a charcoal fire on the cement stove.  Nurture it until it is really hot.

2. Put a wire rack on top of said fire.

3. Pizza pan (with pizza) goes on top of wire rack.

4. Use a huge pot on top to ensure that cheese melts.

5. Keep blowing on the fire to make sure it stays hot.  Nshimye was very helpful in this regard.  He was a vigilant pizza chef.  Wouldn't give the responsibility to anyone else, until I took over to ensure his lungs didn't get completely ruined by inhaling charcoal dust.

Here it is.  Don't you want some?

Pizza on charcoal has a really good flavor. I'd recommend it. 

Lake Bunyonyi

You may remember some photos of Lake Bunyonyi from October.  I brought my Mom and Grammy to the beautiful lake for one night, but knew then that a return trip was more than necessary.  Natalie, fellow KICS teacher, and I spent 4 days relaxing at the lake last week.  Here are some photos:

The forest is magical on this little island.  Fantastic moss everywhere.

The beautiful lake. (What you don't see is all the fish poop floating in the water on the surface.)  This lake is apparently one of the cleaner/safer ones in East Africa, so going off of that information, I dove right in.  If you know me well at all, I'm sure this doesn't come as a surprise.

Amazing, skeletal tree with even more amazing birds perched.

My favorite bird picture.

Birds (!)

Evas, our hostess who also hosted us when Mom and Grammy visited.  She sat with me awhile outside our tent (where this photo is taken).  She also strapped my backpack on her back and said "now, I am a mzungu!"  Apparently us mzungus are known for our backpacks.  LOVE Evas.

Beautiful bark. (I really need to buy a macro lens this summer.)

More moss / bark.  Gorgeous.

I got a lot of sun. And, unfortunately, a fever on the way back home.  It was totally worth it, however.

Look out.... its going to be a double post kind of day!  Next up: homemade pizza with the kids at New Hope Homes!