I freaked out for nothing!

There is a story to tell each day. They keep getting better. Ben and Mike made crepes this morning for our chef and security guard. They also cooked for Isabelle who is helping get the house ready for our teams coming. They loved it! It was very culturally hard for them to accept, but tonight I saw Joseph the cook hug Ben and there was a familiarity there that doesn’t normally exist between employers and employees in Rwanda.

On another note, I think one of my biggest fears about coming to Rwanda this year was exposing the children to tremendous poverty, need and perhaps despair. For all my worrying, I think I was way off. Of course, isn’t that the way it always ends up? I usually end up freaking out about nothing!

Today we went to visit one of our staff members who lives in an area of Kigali which has many poor families packed together in tiny mud homes with pieces of tin nailed one on top of the other. When we got out of our vehicle, the children of the village began to gather around in interest. At first the children stood there wide eyed in disbelief that a white man had come to visit. But as they saw our kids, there seemed to be some kind of silent reaction of accepting Ben and I. We became believably human. We were just another mom and dad walking into town with their kids.

I could sit here and tell you about the amazing interaction that occurred between the village children and mine, but I think it is best coming from their own mouths. So, you can check out Mike and Nate’s blogs for that. However, I do want to mention that I have made much too big a deal over how our kids would react. I was worried that they would break down and not be able to process these “traumatic” situations. Kids are so amazingly accepting! They take a situation at face value and they began to interact through a simple game. They don’t consider all of the pain and suffering that may be lingering in the background of someones life. Kids just step into a situation with beautiful ignorance and enjoy being in that moment.

I looked on as Mike wrapped his arms around a little toddler who had been bumped during play. He was wearing his baseball hat and he leaned over into the child’s face to see if he was ok. My heart exploded with pride. I watched Nathan, who generally speaking would definitely rather be playing a computer game than anything else, and without speaking any words, he loved those kids. He smiled and laughed and that was it! Bingo! The connection was there. I learned a lot about interacting with people through watching them… but more than that, I began to appreciate having our kids in Rwanda this year. They have already made an impact and they haven’t even been to our villages yet!

Oh if I could just relish individual moments like a child! If only I could look on them and just love them without wondering how I could improve their lives and plan out a better way for them to live. That is such a western thing to do…analyze and calculate the future for each individual that I want to “help”! You know what I mean; I put a report together, plan a committee meeting, or just get busy DOING something, etc.

If I could only just BE. Perhaps I could just be their friend. I certainly can’t help meet the needs of every child… but I can truly love each one just as my own children did… with a smile. God, sometimes help me just to BE!