Road Trip.

This past weekend, a group of friends and I headed out to Lake Bunyonyi in Uganda.  This was my first time actually riding, with friends, in a car, on a road trip while living in Rwanda.  And it was SO FUN!  Public transport definitely has its perks, but driving through the hills of Rwanda, playing good music, with great friends was just incredible.  (Normally, on busses, an obscene amount of Celine Dion is played...) 

Enjoy the pictures!

Isn't Rwanda gorgeous?  This is a tea field.  We passed miles and miles of them.

Bicyclists here are incredible.  Believe it or not, this is NOT the biggest piece of furniture spotted on a bike... 

Some of the hills are rather steep.  I often see people hitching rides on the back of semi-trucks.

Need a snack?  Pull over for some sugar cane.

Then enjoy... (but make sure you spit out the cane.)

Across the border, we reached Kabale, Uganda.  The piles are clothes for sale.

Here is Lake Bunyonyi.  So beautiful.

Dugout canoe: the primary method of transportation on Lake Bunyonyi.  (We took a motorboat as it was pouring rain and pitch dark when we arrived!)  Although, I have paddled one of these puppies before.  They are VERY hard to steer.  You tend to go in circles...

Fun out on the water with great friends.

Torey (one of my roommates) and I.

We visited Bushara Island, my favorite.  Mostly because there are towering eucalyptus trees and tons of gorgeous moss.  Look at this!

Nothing better than being on the water.

Beautiful color on the way back home. This is what many homes / buildings look like outside of Kigali.

Happy Thanksgiving!

It’s Thanksgiving weekend!  I hope you and yours are in the midst of a great weekend of community and togetherness.

I was happy to spend Thanksgiving morning with the wonderful group of students I teach.  We made a Thanksgiving Tree on our classroom wall, and I thought I’d share some the things they are thankful for.  I love their words!

I am thankful for cats because they are cute.

I am thankful for colors because they make other people happy.

I am thankful for God because He gave us life and He has the most power.

I am thankful for my baby brother because he keeps me company.

I am thankful for animals because they give us food.

I am thankful for water because it helps others breathe better.

I am thankful for birds because I love watching them.

I am thankful for fruits because they help you heal.    

I am thankful for Jesus because He died on the cross.

I am thankful for snakes because they protect sometimes.

After a shortened school day, I headed to a huge gathering (40+ people!) and ate some good food with even better company.  We even had pecan pie!  Amazing.

Missing you all back home.  Sending love from the land of a thousand hills!

Its been awhile!

To all the wonderful people who read this blog,

Its been awhile, I know.  Me, myself, and my camera have been rather busy with the first quarter of school, going back to Minnesota for the wedding of one of my very best friends, and coming back to Rwanda to roll right back into teaching.  

This first quarter of school has been good. I have a great group of second graders, full of life and energy.  My favorite quote from a student so far this year is (after getting new, bigger framed glasses on my trip home to the states): "Ms. Cullen, you look like a scientist!  No... you look old fashioned!"  And then, on Friday, one of my students from last year ranted: "Ms. Cullen, your glasses from last year are really SO much better.  I think you look much better with small glasses rather than these big ones."  I won't take their advice, I'm confident in my choice of frames (however I do feel a bit like a hipster...)

I live with five other wonderful women this year, some of which work with me at school, others manage a health study and run a home for street boys.  I drive a little scooter to and from school each day, soaking in the morning sun, mist, or rain, whatever the morning brings.  After school, I work with both children and adult language learners, tutoring them in English and developing friendships.  Most evenings I try to cook something, usually lots of vegetables that end up in a salad or stir fry.  Sometimes I make a smoothie with mangoes from our yard (that is, until I unintentionally set our power converter to the wrong setting and burned the plastic off of my magic bullet, which now is replaced with a hand blender whose voltage I don't need to convert!)  Life is good.  I'm happy here, although getting a taste of fall back home was quite the tease.  Call me strange, but I really do miss the cold weather!  

On to the pictures:

1) Taking a walk with the kids from New Hope Homes.  This is after we splashed around in a stream near their home in Musanze.

2) A campfire with our wonderful staff at KICS.  We had a great weekend retreat in September, and this was part of it.

3) Beautiful Rwanda colors: red dirt, green vegetation, solid rock.

4) Colors, again.

5) A gorgeous waterfall on the way to Lake Kivu for our staff retreat.

6) A fellow teacher ziplining across a stream.  This was all jerry-rigged by my headmaster and our PE teacher.  I didn't get a chance to try it, but it sure looked fun!
That's it for now, folks.  Sending love, from Rwanda.

Visiting kids in Kabuga and Musanze.

This school year started off with two last-minute public holidays.  One was literally the day after school started.  The other, this past Monday, celebrating Eid.  Now last year, when these random public holidays popped up, I'd go over to see the kids at New Hope.  Now, however, they live two hours away.  So this last Monday, I took the chance to go to Hope for Life Ministry, a home for former street boys founded by my roommate, Hilliary.  I'd been hearing about "her boys" for the last year.  Natalie and I scooted our way to Kabuga, a town just outside of Kigali.  Well, I should say Natalie drove her purple Scooty Pep+, a little 75cc moped, which looks a lot like the one I drive around Kigali (besides that fact that it is purple.)  We made it, and she did a great job driving:

 

Natalie and the boys made bread while I watched and took pictures.  Here are some of them kneading the dough.  Natalie is an absolutely fantastic baker and loves to share her love of bread with anyone.

I couldn't help but smile when I saw a huge rabbit hutch near the house.  They raise rabbits for eating, 

much like my old house on the north side of Minneapolis.  These cute guys will eventually make a great meal.

A hydro-geologist from the states was staying at Hope for Life.  Here she and some of the boys are building a composting toilet with cement. 

There were a few photographers in the group ready to take over the camera.  Here is my favorite shot one of the boys took:

**

Yesterday, my alarm clock chimed at 4:30am.  On a Saturday.  Yes, I'm a little bit crazy, but not really because the purpose of waking up so early was to catch a 5:30am bus to Musanze, where the kids from New Hope Homes now live.  I got there before 7 and knocked on the gate.  Everyone seemed to be sleeping still so I waited and took in the surroundings.  Currently, the kids are living in a rental home while the new house is being built.  The rental house is just a short walk from the bus station on the outskirts of town.  The countryside is lush, green and hilly, with dirt paths carving through terraced farm fields.  Beautiful.  After a few minutes, Manuel came to let me in with a big hug.  All of the kids ran out of their beds to greet me.  It was a great welcome.  I've missed them a lot over the past few months.  

Look at how cute the little ones are in their jammies, brushing their teeth:

We built rock towers.

I think Esther would have a blast at Artist's Point in Grand Marais...

Who can build the tallest tower?

After a lunch of cabbage, beans, and rice, the older kids and I hiked out to a stream I'd been hearing about all morning.  Donna and the kids discovered it a few weeks ago and it definitely lived up to the hype.  At first the kids just waded around, splashing a bit.  Five minutes later they were floating down the small rapids under the bridge.  So fun to see them enjoy the water.

To get back home, we took a different route which took us up and down a hill.  This area is just so beautiful.  Can't wait for the rain to show up soon and make the green even greener.

Much love from Rwanda,

Abby

Love from Rwanda.

It has been over a week since returning to Rwanda and I think I'm officially over jet lag... although I could really use a cup of coffee right now!  (And it's 4:36pm.)  It is really wonderful to be back, although bittersweet after such a wonderful time at home with such dear people.  Here are a few instagrams to document my first week back in this beautiful country:

This is Sande and I in a (very) dusty van driving on a (very) bumpy dirt road (very) fast. (Note our expressions.)  I had the chance to travel to Kibeho, a small town in the south reaches of Rwanda, with Donna and six of the kids from New Hope Homes.  We visited a Catholic visionary who has lived there her entire life.  She is an amazing woman, committed to telling her story and praying for those who come to visit her.  Google "Kibeho" to find out more.  We stayed at a guest house and I entertained the kids while Donna had more time with the visionary.  We played cards, walked around the beautiful grounds (including visiting a giant statue of Jesus), ate meals together, and generally had a great time.  I also played nurse tending to a child who ate way too much food the night before... let's just say I didn't get much sleep! :)  It was so wonderful to reconnect with some of the kids, and spend time with the ever wonderful Donna.

The deep, red dirt is still here.  After my first trip in 2007, I wrote a song including the lyrics "deep red dirt, on my feet, it's seeping into me."  This dirt literally does seep into you (you should see the bottom of the tub when I wash my feet), but I was going for the metaphor.  This country is magnetic - it draws you back, time and time again.  And now, returning for another year, I definitely feel at home.

Tomorrow marks day one of the 2012-2013 school year.  I am delighted to start the year with a new crop of 2nd graders.   Each year, I like to make the number of the grade level I teach with a different object.  This year, it was buttons.  

To all of you back home - I am so blessed by your support.  Thank you.  I'll keep the photos and stories coming. 

Much love.

A Minnesota summer.

Summer, in pictures:

 I got to spend lots of great time with my family at the lake.  Here is my mom and Aunt Julie, after a day (or many days!) in the sun.

The sunsets on Trout Lake are the best.  This is my little cousin fishing.

Sunset boating.

Sunset water (sense a theme?!)

Really, we're not twins. (My sister Laura and I.)

I will miss long summer nights.

Stormy skies on a drive through central MN.

Jayme and I went to the Boundary Waters.  It was an epic, and I mean epic, trip.  We had steak the first night.

And oatmeal the following morning.

And here we are making our "holy crap we made it through the hardest portage of our lives" faces.  It was an intense trip, but the adventure was oh so worth it.

This campsite won the "best ever stayed at in BWCA" award.  It was rainy when we set up, but the morning brought sun and warmth.

Roots, rock, and water.  

4 days and I'm on a plane back to Rwanda. Where'd the time go?!  

Hope your summer is full of beautiful sunsets and fun adventures.

Much love.

Last Days in Rwanda, First Days in MN

It's hard to believe I'm writing from a comfortable couch, in Minneapolis, drenched in morning sunlight from Minnesota sun.  I just finished eating greek yogurt with raspberries, which were two things definitely unavailable throughout my last year of life.  I am ever so grateful to have these months at home to connect with those I love on this side of the Atlantic.  

My thought process this morning... "Okay, so if I want to post a blog, it will take at least 30 minutes to upload photos, so I'll start the upload, go for a run, grab coffee, and come back home to post."  Well, the upload of the below photos literally took.... 10 seconds for each photo.  Internet speeds are like lightning here. Its crazy.  

So, without a run under my belt, I will update you on my last few days in Rwanda!

The day before my flight back home, I headed up to Musanze for a quick visit to see the kids at New Hope and help Chantal with a few projects.  One of those projects was taking pictures while her architect and builders started measuring the building site for the new homes.  A month or two back, all of the kids from New Hope moved to Musanze from Kigali, which although being a huge change for me, is just awesome for the ministry.  Here is a picture of the new land.  It is nestled under towering volcanoes, with plenty of space to grow food and keep animals.  On this land, in about 9 months, will be a beautiful new building to house all 30 (or close to it) children at New Hope.  The vision and plans for this property are well laid.  I am excited to be a part of the process.

                            

This is the architect looking at the plans, eyeing what should be roped off for the building site.

And here is a builder cutting planks to build a fence for the building site. Aren't the colors in this landscape just incredible?

I also got the chance to visit the pre-school started by the Anglican Mother's Union in Musanze.  Here are the kids in their new, tie-clad uniforms.  So cute.  Its really hard to get a picture of a bunch of 3, 4, and 5 year olds looking at you (and gasp - even smiling), however!

Here is Desami identifying letters.  The teachers in this school are just wonderful. I got to meet them a few months back and talk with them about planning out their instructional day, but seeing them in action was just so great.

After this wonderful day, I bussed back to Kigali to see friends, do some last minute packing and organizing, and found myself on a plane bound for Brussels.  Who I didn't expect to see was one of my very good and dear friends, Marta, on the plane.  We enjoyed the 30-minute flight to Kampala, sitting side by side, catching up.  She then got off the plane in Kampala, where she is doing educational research for the next month.  It was such a welcome surprise!  Here we are, in all our traveling glory:

Now, I guess its time for that run and some coffee. :)