Hey Everyone!

So now that I have a minute I thought I would give you a little idea of what life is like here.

First a little about the characters I live with:
Les and Yvonne are the missionary couple I am staying with. They are great, loving, funny, and down to earth. Mariya is our cook who lives with us - she is part of the family now. Eric and Emilee are also part of the family. They are both in their early 20's and they work and live here. Eric speaks pretty good English so he does lots of translating for us. He is also a teacher in the Early Learning Program. Emilee is the sweetest guy - he is a lot like a little child. He never went to school so he can't read or write and he doesn't speak English, but he is a hard worker - he is the shepherd. Then we have 6 bible school students who live in a building on the property.

Daily life (for me atleast):
The day starts early in Africa. Everyone is up around 5:00 - although they are not blessed by my presence until 6:30. Breakfast is bread and butter every morning because they can't afford anything more than that. And actually having bread for breakfast every morning means it is a good month. Some months they can't afford breakfast at all. We eat with Eric, Emilee, and Mariya - we feed the bible school students when money permits but they often go without breakfast.
The Early Learning Program starts at 8:00. The kids start waiting at the gate round 7:00, some even earlier. They love school. All their cute little faces start coming in around 8:00 and I get hugs from all 55 of them. We have 45 minutes of singing and story telling. Then they split into their 4 classes and they have 2 subjects, then recreation time and uji (a cream of wheat type drink), and then 2 more classes. They leave at 11:30. I have been teaching them English without a translator so it's been a little hard to keep the class under control - but overall they are really well behaved kids.
We have African food for lunch which is usually a huge plate of beans and something else. I'm not actually sure what anything is - I don't ask because it all looks so gross I figure if I know what it is it will make it that much harder to eat. We have one meal of green mush, another of hard white stuff (which I think is unripe banana), a flour and water mix (like the paste you make in preschool) that drops in your stomach like a rock, and a bunch of other nasty things. I usually eat a little and give the rest to Emilee to finish - that boy will eat anything!
Some days, like today, we take a taxi into town and go to the market where we bargain for vegetables and other things. When you walk along the streets you get followed by people trying to sell anything from soccer balls to mini strawberries to phone cards. Today after returning from town we went down the street from where we live to a vegetable stand to buy from the local people. We got followed by a bunch of kids and adults, because it's so rare to see white people here. The little kids all ran up and were holding my hands as we were walking. It's adorable.
Other days, like yesterday, I go over to the orphanage and play with the kids. I brought balloons over and they had a great time playing with them. You really need to watch them though because they will do anything to get more. I guess they don't have anything so they do what they can to get things - which I understand, but it's frustrating for me. And the older kids pick on the little kids alot.
Yesterday when I was there, my little buddy Moses, who is 3 or 4, from the Early Learning Program, gave me a tour of the orphanage in Kinyarwanda. I'm not sure he grasps the concept that I can't understand him - but it was really cute. The kids there don't have much, 3 to 4 of them sleep on one foam mat on the ground and the whole place is just gray concrete. There is no color. But at least most of them go to school and they get fed. It's better than living on the streets like many kids here do. As I was coming home from the orphanage a few of the 4 year olds walked me home. Yeah, that's right, they walked ME home! As soon as they can walk little kids just roam the streets by themselves and it's fine. Kids from the orphanage just come and go as they please. Even the 3 to 5 year old students go home by themselves and some of them live 30 minutes away - they just walk themselves. It's something that I'm still not comfortable with but that is just the culture.
Dinner is American food! Yeah! Sometimes it's pasta, sometimes it's tuna - so it's usually something good :) After dinner it's bed time by 9:00 since they get up so early. One night I was in bed by 8:00! which seems so early but you get so tired here between the high altitude and all the craziness during the day.

So that is a day in the life of Dana. I'll update later with some more cultural differences because it's very interesting. I hope all is well.

Love
Dana