For Amy

My friend Amy informed me today that it's been a month since my last post. Time is just flying by too fast here.

The last month has been full of a little bit of everything: school, friends, and travels.

School

Today ended our third quarter. It is hard to accept that tomorrow begins the last term I will be at KICS. The kids celebrated today that summer vacation is within reach, and I nearly burst into tears. I told them they're not allowed to be excited about summer. ;) Overall school has continued to be a positive experience day by day as we teach the students and meet as a staff to develop plans for future growth. My daily highlight continues to be my students voices. We sing hymns each morning and I know this is their favorite time of day. They beg and plead, "can we please sing 'Blessed Assurance,' 'How Great Thou Art,' 'Amazing Grace,' and 'Behold What Manner of Love'!!" And then we sing from our hearts as loud as we can (we interrupted the fifth graders' lesson yesterday, but instead of asking us to take it down a notch, they just joined it!). Yep, I love my job.

Friends

I don't know what I would do without my friends here in Kigali. While I must admit that I'm a bit of a homebody, I do enjoy the occasional trip to town, night out to eat, or stroll to the coffee shop. My friend Micah and I try to get out once a week to do something like this, but lately we've been so busy (or sick) - it's been hard! Last weekend was just silly… my roommates and I are used to lazy Saturdays, but lazy is not a word to describe last Saturday. Micah and I planned to get donuts Saturday morning, but Friday night I had to change our plans… our friends Doug and Kerry were getting engaged and my roommates and I were asked to be part of that occasion! Well, obviously we were totally on board, but didn't realize how hard it would be to decline all the wonderful invitations to 'go to lunch' 'go shopping' 'have a game night', when friends called that morning. We weren't allowed to tell so we were like, "um… sorry, no. we're busy." "Why?! What else could you possibly be doing?" "um… well, were going out, so no." It was much more fun that evening to have everyone over to our house to celebrate Doug and Kerry's engagement!! (they're getting married in July)

Travels

I've been out of Kigali twice since my last blog. I was able to visit my friend Sharday in Nairobi, Kenya in February. We spent the weekend together, and I was able to see where she lives and studies at NEGST, as well as see a little bit of the city. My first thought when I flew into Nairobi was "this is Africa!". Not that Rwanda isn't, but Nairobi has more of the 'look' and 'feel' of what one might think when they think of Africa. There were lots of wide open spaces, and 'africa' trees, and even a warthog running through the street! I enjoyed going on the Safari Walk and visiting western shopping centers. The highlight of the trip though was the Giraffe Center! If you haven't seen it yet, check out my fb pictures of the trip - you'll get to see me meet a lovely giraffe named Arura, up close and personal!

We had a long weekend in early March so some girlfriends and I headed out to Kibuye on Lake Kivu. It was a nice relaxing weekend, full of rest and picturesque views. We stayed at a guest house called St. Jean's. I was pleasantly surprised at the comfort of such a simple place! The wait for food was the typical african hour-hour and half, but the portions were huge for the price we paid.

Back at home here I am constantly thinking about the future while trying to enjoy the present. As I said, time is just flying by fast! I am excited for my mom's arrival in less than 3 weeks! We are planning an adventure up to Uganda to Queen Elizabeth Park, as well as seeing the sights here in Kigali. My guess it my next post will come after that! :)

I hope you are well and blessed ~ thank you for reading!

Definitely going on the "Top Ten" highlights of my life!