17. First day of school - Naomi

Thursday, Nov. 12, 2015
Naomi got to start school today, Thursday. Not Wednesday, which we thought would be her first day because it is the first day of "Term 2." There was so much confusion and discussion around where Isaac would fit in, no one worried about Naomi staring on the first day of the term. But once I figured out the only solution was for Isaac to go into the 10th grade at Green Hills, I tried to push (gently) to get Naomi fully registered and ready to start.

She did great! We tried on uniforms in the school store, which has clothing, apparel and all books and stationary stacked on neat shelves in a bare, warehouse-style room. I paid the fees at the bank. That was a bit of an experience, too. When you exchange this many (tuition) dollars for Rwandan cash, you end up with a lot of bills!

Green Hills Academy - Primary School

First day - a little nervous?

Wonderful "Teacher Sarah" for class 5B (5th grade).

Day before first day - uniform purchasing at the school.

Trying on in the back room -- "This sports uniform is so un-stylish it's funny!"

Pick up time at the end of day 1 -- Naomi made it!

16.5 Magic number seems to be four

Magic number seems to be four.

• 4 ATMs to find one that works
• 4 banks to find a way to pay the rent in $
• Only 2 attempts to find the place to buy the modem stick – but needed cash – enter the 4x to find an ATM “loop”!
• Fourth day of trying, I finally got to the errand of getting to the post office to mail postcards Naomi has written to friends in her class in Ann Arbor.
• Fourth visit to the Rwandan immigration office I actually had all the documents needed for my visa application.

16. House search start: visit to Sue & Bill in Gacuriro

Friday, Nov. 6, 2015

Sue and I had already "connected" via email before we left the U.S.  Our contacts in the Human Resources for Health (HRH) program* had helped us get into the HRH network via email. Sue and Bill are both nurses who joined the HRH program in July 2015 and started renting their 3 bedroom house in Gacuriro. They now want to move, however, so they are looking for someone to essentially "take over their lease." Sue was so kind to invite us over for not only a tour of the house but a pizza dinner and she even made homemade butterscotch bars for us!

Master bedroom w mosquito net at Sue & Bills

Stove & oven with butterscotch bars!

Pretty nice kitchen, really!

We learned that Sue & Bill were medical missionaries for several years in the southwest part of Rwanda for many years. Their children went to boarding school in the US while they were in Rwanda. Now their children are grown and having their own families.

I took the opportunity to ask these new-friends-who-are-nurses about mosquito nets and malerone. Like us, Sue & Bill are not taking daily malerone pills to avoid mosquitos. But we did not have mosquito nets on the beds at the BnB house! Sue advised us on which store to go to. So we took the taxi from their house at almost 8pm, had him take us straight to this store in town (which is thankfully open until 9pm). Isaac and Naomi then helped me find my way through this strange Chinese-Rwandan version of a Meijer store with lots of cheap stuff -- including mosquito nets! We bought two.

Back at the house Francoise was kind enough to help us get makeshift hooks put into the ceilings above our beds. Since he doesn't speak English and I (Ruth Ann) don't speak much Kinyarwandan, the process required a lot of sign language!

*HRH is a program funded by the Clinton Foundation that is committed to capacity building in medical specialties in the countries where they are invited to work. Rwanda is where they started. The program pays a stipend and living expenses for physicians and nurses to come work in Rwanda for 1 year.

15.5 Naomi's Birthday #1

Nov. 7, 2015
We've only been here 4 days, but a birthday is a birthday. While it certainly couldn't top the slumber party with 9 friends and an ice cream cake that we had for Naomi in October, we could do something, I was sure.

I must have been sleep deprived or something, because all I found at the Simba bakery was banana cake -- which was delicious. But how did I miss the frosted, ready to take home, birthday cakes in a little showcase? It was on the side of the same counter with the simple banana cake!  I did find ice cream at the Simba and we managed to have a bit of a party with Isaac and two of the residents of House #6 - Marlou and Laura.

Birthday card game with Isaac on the terrace.

"Facetime" (via iPhone) with a friend in Ann Arbor.

Birthday evening.

Yes! There is cake & ice cream in Rwanda!

Playing the card game "Powers" with new friends, Laura and Marlou.

15. More photos on instagram

If you're looking for more photos of our life here and more recent ones, too, try Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/kaczorfamily/

You can set up an instagram account either on your smart phone or on a computer. Our Instagram page is called "KaczorFamily". Search for that on instagram and then you can see our "stream" of photos with short captions. These are all photos from John's phone.

You can get a perspective on Kigali from our Swedish friends' experience by following them at "KigaliKickers" on Instagram.

14.5 Arriving and Adjusting to Rwanda

Nov. 6, 2015
This is an excerpt from an email to family at home in the US:
Things have gone as well as can be expected this week - thnaks to all of your prayers and support. The flights went smoothly, but were very full.  (Thanks Boeng for building good planes.)  Also, the airlines did not give us the problems I feared with visas.

As I write Naomi is peacefully sleeping, which did not happen the first 2 nights.  We had homesickness until exhaustion set in at about 3 or 4 am those noghts! But during the day its differnt. She does great and Isaac has been wonderfully positive, and optomistic about our experiences so far.  I get the feeling he's happy to not be in school. He's also remarked several times that Kigali is nicer than Guatemala. And I think being able to watch European pro soccer on large flat screen TVs here enchants him.

The house where we are staying is in a well-kept, quiet and very safe feeling part of town. there is a security guard-gardener, Francoise,, here 24hrs. a lovely housekeeper, Grace, is here mornings, and other guests are interesting young people from Sweden and Holland. The owner, Matt, is from North Carolina and his business is Jibu, a drinking water distibution co. Pat, the acquaintance through whom I found the house, let me practice driving his manual shift through Kigali traffic today. The rest of our travel in town has been by bus and by taxi.

In the afternoon we went to the school (Green Hills Academy) for the first time. Happy, the admissions lady, (Yes, that's her name) was there and informed us Isaac and Naomi should come tomorrow, Friday, to take the placement tests. Naomi and Isaac remarked about how ugly the "sports uniforms" are, and Naomi was alresdy dreaming up ways to make the frumpy tie & blouse formal uniform look fashionable. Happy informed us the kids must bring sport shoes on sport days and otherwise they must wear all black shoes.  Isaac asked if all black sports shoes qualify, and I was surprised that Happy sais "yes!" as long as they are all black.

We walked aroind the school grounds, looked in the classrooms and met a few of the teachers. The school day had just ended, but there were lots of kids there both for extra activities and because many students are boarding students. We did not see any other "whites", but we did see several expat looking Asian students. We walked out to the athletic fields where there was a ton of activity, which seemed to make Isaac nearly gleeful! there is construction going on to build basketball courts, a large group of boys Isaacs age playing soccer, at least to volleyball games going on and in the small building at one end we heard the traditional dancing class going on (I.e. lots of drumming)..  The dance class ended and children of all ages poured out in their sports uniforms. We talked to the instuctor, Jaquline, for a bit about the program. (I think Naomi will love it.)…

14. Our Euro-US Researcher Hostel - Our Transitional Housing

View from the terrace of KG 672

Nov. 15, 2015
Kimihurura, Kigali, Rwanda

The small community of people living at KG 672 is wonderful. Not surprising -- Patrick is the able Rwandan property manager and has a developed "skill set" for assessing travelers. He's been working at the front desk of one of Kigali's hotels for at least 10 years. He has mastered the AirBnB system that is bringing guests to fill the rooms of this large, beautiful house.

Patrick - master house and hospitality manager

The first day we were invited by Laura and Marlou, the 20-something young ladies from the Netherlands, to see where the shortcut to the bus stop is and they showed us how to ride the bus into town. Laura and Marlue are students at Wagnenen University in NL, studying some area of community health. They are here on a UNICEF project to promote breastfeeding and they are writing their masters thesis on this topic. They will stay through the end of Jan. 2016 in Rwanda.

Laura and Marlou - multi-month residents doing research on a UNICEF project on breastfeeding.

Then we have the three Swedish students, Anna, Emily and Steena, who are  studying radio journalism in Rwanda. I think it is a project funded by the Swedish radio broadcasting company. They are staying in Rwanda until Dec. 17.

Steena, Emily and Anna are journalism researchers from Sweden.

Matt is the businessman from North Carolina who rented this house from the Rwandan landlords and then had to return home. It was great to meet him and learn about the Jibu drinking water distribution business he has set up.

Isaac and Naomi with Matt -- the N. Carolina businessman who turned an unfortunate change of plans due to a family situation into a wonderful AirBnB opportunity for many people to meet in Kigali!

This weekend (our second weekend) we have a "one night" couple staying here - Maria, who lives in the Hague (HL) and works for an impact investment fund. But she was born in Russia and grew up in NJ, finishing college at Rutgers. Her boyfriend is Peter, a Belgian, also living in NL, and he flew in to Kigali after a week of business in Singapore! (Sorry - didn't snap a photo of them.)

The other "members" of this lively household are Grace and Francoise. Grace is the housekeeper and she works 8 - 3pm, M - F. Francoise is here 24/7 and he is the security guard/gardener and maintenance man.  Francoise sleeps in a tiny room next to the front gate. Grace goes home every day to her family of 4 daughters. Her husband, I've learned, is out of work right now. I hope I can get a photo of them soon, too!