8 weeks left

Work: Meetings and meetings and meetings, at the district, with the church, and elsewhere. But things are coming of it. Our organization’s health post has been languishing for a year without the support to start up, but this week the job announcements were posted for the nurses and other staff that will provide health care to a sector of over 13,000 people. We’ve had community health days there in the past, and moms start coming with their kids early in the morning, and there’s a steady stream all day, until it’s finally too late, and they are sent home with a toothbrush, multivitamin, and deworming meds. I cannot wait until they can get care every day, any time they need it.


Crafts: I have become well creative here, and I’m almost too embarrassed to admit it. But here’s my latest homemade gift for a friend – the sachet is made out of a pair of old linen shorts, and filled with lavender I picked up on my layover in Amsterdam. The lip balm is homemade, and scented with Rwandan lemongrass essential oil, as is the candle. I have become unhealthily obsessed with making candles and lip balm, because how many of those two things can anyone realistically use?



Life: It was my birthday last weekend, and got to spend it hosting some of our amazing friends. I am savoring each last gathering, and what is most likely my last warm weather birthday in a while. Thanks for all who sent birthday wishes my way!




Also, my amazing tailor gave me a huge box of fabric scraps for our project making toys for kids in the local hospital. We had to check it out first.

I wrote this the week before Christmas. I am now officially finishing my Peace Corps service on March 29th, and with so little time left, I'm hoping to document a bit more regularly.

My Garden:

I have a beautiful garden full of vegetables, herbs, salad greens, and a field of sweet corn that might just be perfect on Christmas day. It's beautiful and makes me happy every time I look outside. Back in America, is it possible for us to afford a place in the city where gardening is possible? It's making us discuss the suburbs for the first time in our marriage. The first time in my life!

My Front Door:

First Anna made the wreath out of avocado leaves and dried chiles from our garden, then one from a pine tree cut down along the road. The archway is from our front yard, the chairs were purchased from the back of a bike of a guy I saw walking down the road. This is what got me into the holiday spirit.



Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World)

I just got back from a 5-day camp for secondary school girls. I was facilitator for 11 girls from all over Rwanda, talking about goal setting, good decision making, and HIV prevention, on top of the leadership acitivities, and just fun. Doing yoga outside with a bunch of groaning girls while the evangelical church next door blasted praise music was an entertaining high point, as was the camp fire where the girls wrote things that someone had told them they couldn't do because they were girls, then threw it in the fire. When one of my girls read "they say I won't find a husband because I'm clever," crumpled the paper, and threw it in the flames, I cheered. It was exhausting, though, and it's good to be back at site.