Earaches in Kigali

I can't believe it is already Sunday evening here and I have not posted my blog entry. It has been a very full week and that explains why. We did have the weekend off, as we just came back from Rwanda on Friday, but we really needed the time to try to unwind from all we have had to deal with.

By the way, for those who read that it was my Birthday last weekend, but did not get to see a picture of the cake....there it is in front of Zachee and Bridget (who were at my party). Since Oren designed the cake, (Mommy baked it) it was in the shape of a steam engine and coal car all covered in M&Ms. Needless to say, Oren ate most of it himself this past week. He really does have a sweet tooth and misses the availability of candy at home. (I don't miss the excessively easy access to sweets at home for him or me!)

As I mentioned above, we were back in Rwanda this week. We had quite a few logistics to plan for a conference in March, as well as finding a home for a new MCC couple who will be service workers with Friends Peace House, one of our partners in Kigali. We were able to leave Tuesday morning since Oren had the entire week off from school. (It was a Mardi Gras holiday.) He, of course, was thrilled not to have to go. I was glad we were going as a family, eventhough that does create complications for meetings, but I figured we could handle it. We were also looking forward to an adventure. We knew that the government, in collaboration with a Chinese contractor, had been working on a new road that passed through Kayanza province and up to Kigali. We were hoping this would be a faster route, and we were excited about finding it and trying it out. The start of the trip was promising. The kids were good and we left by 10 am. We found the new road, and indeed it was complete and we felt like we were the only car that new it existed. This road goes through some really gorgeous country in Burundi, it looks a lot like Montana--big country with high mountains and wide vistas. The border had brand new buildings set up for processing dozens of people at a time, but we were there alone. (Honestly it was creepy in a Twilight Zone kind of way, like we had accidentally arrived into the future by taking a wrong turn on the map.) We got through very quickly. The only problem we encountered was a severe thunderstorm along the way, but we managed to push through it without losing too much time.

We got to the guesthouse before 4pm which was record time! We were really excited about the new road and felt like all this was a good omen for a really pleasant stay in Rwanda. We were glad to be back in the Africa New LIfe Ministries guesthouse as well, where they treat us like family and have good internet access to boot...

Here is a picture of David chilling in one of their hammocks in the front yard.

..Then we noticed that Oren was not well. We were upset to discover that he had a pretty high fever. This was particularly worrisome because he had had recurring fevers in the past week and we had hoped he was over them. Apparently he was not, and we were nowhere near our doctor in Bujumbura. I did not fancy trying to track one down in Kigali.

We gave him tylenol and sent him to bed, and hoped he would be better by morning. He was, and we started our day's activiities, shopping, banking, meetings at Friends Peace House and by mid afternoon Oren was sick as a dog. We were supposed to have dinner with a missionary couple but had to cancel. Oren's fever was 104 that night and we were worried. We gave him more tylenol and I sent out an email listing his symptoms to all of our doctor friends in the US. The next morning I took Oren to find a clinic in Kigali. We were told there was a fairly good 7th Day Adventist one nearby. We found it that morning and met the doctor. He did bloodwork right in the office, and diagnosed him with an ear infection and prescribed amoxycillin. They sold it right at the clinic. I was relieved to have a diagnosis and treatment. I paid the bill which was 4000 rwandan francs, about $7 US. It is hard, being from the USA, trying to get used to how cheap healthcare is here. I just had a doctor visit, blood work, and antibiotics prescribed and filled for $7!! In the USA that would have been Doctor $150, blood work $200, antibiotics $50 = $400. (I should mention the sad reality that $7 is still out of reach for many Rwandans.)

We had a big day planned ahead and we hoped Oren would be well enough. We were going up country in Rwanda to visit some of Friends Peace Houses' programs. They had a women's group and prisoner reintegration program in Byumba, the highest city in Rwanda. It was a beautiful one hour drive and Oren did fairly well. There we had a long meeting with some women and former prisoners who were benefitting from these programs. It is always inspiring to hear their testimonies. These programs combine development and income generating activities with peace and reconcilliation objectives, and really builds the confidence and self esteem of participants. The women's group does knitting, embroidery, as well as food storage for income generation, and also had a small collective savings club. They are comprised of survivors of genocide, and women whose husbands are in prison for crimes of genocide. Not a likely group to work together, but they have built strong bonds together, forgiven each other, and set an example to their community. Here is a picture of us with them. Felicite, holding David, is the leader of this group. They loved having our whole family come to meet with them.

Oren did pretty well through most of the visit, then began to deteriorate by early afternoon. We headed back to Kigali, then went to a nearby internet cafe to Skype our family. (As an aside I should say how much we are thankful for Skype. It is so good to be able to talk to family that way, especially when we can use the camera with the voice. We had the chance to use it in quite an extraordinary way last week. Rebecca's Dad is going to have some pretty major surgery on Monday. There was an annointing service for him last Saturday at his church. We were able to participate through Skype and really felt like we were there with everyone in the room. We prayed and read the Bible, it felt like a technologically divine miracle. )

Back to Rwanda: We headed back to Bujumbura on the new road on Friday morning and got back in record time again. Oren was already doing better as well. We were feeling good about what we had done, and I even got to go to capoeira that evening. We were happy the worst of Oren's illness was over as well....

Then David started to cry unceasingly that night. After a sleepless night trying to console him, we took him to the pediatrician at the Rainbow center on Saturday, where lo and behold, he had an ear infection! So now both boys are on antibiotics. David is still feeling pretty bad.

So we have been lying low. Rebecca had to stay home with David from church this morning, so I took Oren alone. Our missionary friend Simon was preaching so I really enjoyed that. Later in the day we went over to the Carr's to let Oren jump on the trampoline.

It was an interesting week. I wrote to several people individually by email to talk about culture shock. It has been my observation, that having 2 children is a far bigger life adjustment than any cultural adaptations one has to make living in a third world country. When you have one child, you can maintain some semblance of your childless life, retain at least a modicum of time to yourself. With the arrival of #2, that is all gone. Parenting is our career at this point, although we still show up at our job quite frequently.