Basic Computer Training
July 26th
*heavy sigh*. . . the last two days have been soooooo eventful! I was up till 1am completing everything I wanted to do after getting home from the hospital after 11pm. It took a bit to find a comfortable position to sleep, then I got up at 6am to get ready for the trip out to the National Museum. It hurt to put any weight on the stitched up ankle, so I hopped around to get myself ready for the day, and hopped out to the stairs, thinking that would be the easier way to join the US team today, as they too were going up to see the museum.
Jodi found me near the foot of the stairs, flabberghasted that I still wanted to go. She'd told the team I probably wouldn't be going. She tore off, told Jeff, and much to my amazement, Jeff took off to get the wheelchair they'd obtained the last time a team member needed one not long ago. I didn't think I needed such a thing, but I accepted the gesture.
The drive to the museum lent itself to a number of photo opportunities of the countryside, the rural homes, farming, and people. At one point, a group of kids came running up to us all going "Muzungo! Muzungo!" which I think means stranger, or white stranger? Wazunga apparently means a group of us. I had to take a picture of them all leaning in to get a good look at us. At one point, we stopped near a coffee plantation and one of the team took my camera to go get some shots of the coffee plants.
When we got to the museum, when the lady at the desk saw the wheelchair and saw me hop/hobble over to the desk, she said I would get in free because as she put it, "she can get in free, she's ill". lol. . . I wasn't ill. I only had 3 stitches that were making it hard to walk, but I certainly wasn't ill. But she insisted I go in free. The bus driver pushed me around for half the tour of the museum, and helped me hop/hobble around the museum gardens as well. He didn't speak any english, only french, but he sure was helpful!
The drive home furnished me with my very own story of a vehicle breakdown on the side of the African road! This road was paved, and the breakdown was a battery/fuse issue. I didn't hop out to get pictures because we parked quite close to the side of a cement/rockwall ditch, and I didn't want to accidentally hop into the ditch! So no pictures of this event, but I now have my very own story of the brokendown vehicle on the side of a paved Rwandan road.
While at the Museum, I bought myself a wooden carved cane, some cards and a package of coasters, for less than 5,000RWF!!! That's less than $10US!!! So I began hobbling around with that, trying to take the weight off the left ankle.
After the museum, we had lunch at a restaurant further into the town of Butari I think it was, and when I looked up, I couldn't help noticing the lightshades were the tops of huge gourds!!! I had to take a picture! That was so unusual!
It was a long day. We got home and Jeff and Jodi had barbecued dinner for everyone, and baked a cake for one team member's birthday today! We joked about her leaving her youth in Africa, as it was her 20th birthday.
I am so sore tonight. I now have my left foot elevated with the laptop on my lap as I type and prepare images for posting. It is my hope to get to bed a bit earlier tonight and hopefully sleep through till at least 8am tomorrow. I'll be hobbling into church tomorrow at CLA. The US team is coming to CLA tomorrow, but attending another church service before then. One of the team members doesn't think she'll be going and offered to walk with me over to the church. That might be helpful as I learn how to navigate the cane through the rocky parkinglot. That will be easier than attempting invalid treatment in the wheelchair. Elmer is going to look at me and wonder what happened, because I was fine when we parted ways Friday evening at 6pm. Ah well. I'll survive, I'll live, I'll manage. Monday I'm to go and get the stitches cleaned, however Sunday morning is when I planned to have my shower. That might be painful, we'll have to see. The bandaging was already popping with the movement today, and I tacked it down with one of my own bandaids.
Sunday morning I begin one last week here, then I board the plane to come home. Elmer joked with Jeff that now that I've been here, I have to come again. The teachers of Wellspring Academy want me to return, next time with the kids in tow. And even Jodi held up my hospital card, telling me to hold onto it for when I return in the future. I imagine most missions experiences are like that for people, where the locals and the missionaries hope to see the short-term person again in the future. But. . . this is my first time, and I have to say its been rather enjoyable over all, nowhere near as much adjusting as I expected, and alot of amazed people around me because of the lack of required adjustments, most commenting on how quickly I seemed to adapt. But as I told Jeff, I haven't been doing anything any differently than I would normally. He jokingly blamed that on being an Islander(vancouver island).
I like this place. I like the people, the church building, Wellspring and the Academy, I've enjoyed sharing Rwandan lunches with the teachers every weekday, enjoyed worship at CLA, had a cheerful trip to the hospital. . . in some ways it is a shame that I only have one week left. But in other ways I will be glad to see the animals and church office again, and see my kids home safe and sound.
July 25th
I'm tired, its been a long day! I was teaching till 4pm, then had a tour of CLA with Pastor Elmer Komant leading the way. That was so exciting!!! I ate dinner with the US team again tonight, leftovers, then decided to get down to my suite before 9pm with the goal to start renaming all the pictures from the tour, so that I'd remember what they all were. I typically go around a spot in the lawn leading to my place, where there is not alot of light on the cement pathway. Some rocks had been placed in a small gardenplot the day before. When I realized I couldn't see where I was going, I attempted the feel route, feeling with my feet how the sidewalk sloped, trying to avoid a cement wall that came up near that point. Instead of finding the wall, I found the rocks and fell into them!
That resulted in a trip to Kigali Hospital with my passport and travel medical insurance in my recently acquired new travel purse. The bill is quite reasonable actually, far cheaper than I would have expected, so I'm weighing calling the travel medical company or just paying outright myself. I'll discuss that tomorrow evening after my trip to the national museum on Saturday. I have 24hours to call them if I do, and the hospital trip didn't happen till 9pm, so I have time.
So now I bear a 3 stitch memento of my trip in my body. My daughter will be proud! Jodi joked that I hadn't brought my camera to the hospital, and the Rwandan doctor, who was quite knowledgeable of North American ways, also joked about having a camera handy. I missed those pictures, but I did take a picture of the gauzed up area of my ankle that took the stitches. They also gave me a Tetanus shot, which I had to wait around for a bit. It was actually a very cheerful visit in the hospital! The doctor and his aide and even Jodi for that matter, couldn't get over how brave and strong they felt I was as I let them touch me up with iodine, then stick local anaesthetic under my skin around the injury. I watched them stitch me up too. I really should have had my camera. My daughter would have loved those pictures!!! A)She likes to sew, and B) she should become a veternarian due to how animals and injuries interest her so much. Ah well. she'll have to settle for my stories.
I will upload some of my pictures of CLA here. Most of the CLA pictures were a personal errand for the Evangel Pastoral Staff. But I will share some here because I know how much everyone at Evangel loves the Komants and supports them so heavily. We saw pictures of this place in the building, now here it is completed.
July 24th
Still early in my evening, around 11:30ish in the morning in Kelowna. I had a quiet day today without teaching the teachers. Got a load of laundry done, washed some dishes swept the floor. . . didn't go anywhere other than to the MTN Centre. The lady who asked me to return, found a travel pouch with so many pockets on it, and two very sturdy zippers! It's a color green typically associated with camping or military, so its not "pretty" to look at, but when not holding all the stuff I need for my trip, it could easily replace my leather satchel back home! Kind of funny that I'd find something with sturdy zippers in Rwanda instead of Canada. When I asked the lady if I should pay her, I got told no, when I asked if she was sure, she waved me off, as if it was a gift! I left amazed. This was the same lady who'd given me a talking-to after I handed her too much money yesterday.
I ate alone in my suite tonight. The US team was having chicken, and the only other meat choice they offered me was enchilladas with refried beans in them. Neither choice appealed to me. I can't eat chicken and don't like refried beans. . . so I came downstairs and made myself pasta and hamburger, and a lettuce/carrot salad that I ate with yogurt as the salad dressing. Tuesday evening I'd had to choke up some beef as it lodged in my throat and wouldn't go up or down. That alarmed the team needless to say and I had to explain that I deal with this periodically, not very often thankfully enough, but that it usually scares people the first time they see it. Beef and cheese, bread and cheese, beef and potatoe are all combinations where it can happen, but as I said, thankfully enough not all the time.
I gave Jodi the funds for the printer today. It turned out to be less than half of what Jeff expected. So that is one need covered while I'm here.
I have just over a week left here before I get back on the plane to come home August 1st. My time here has been busy some days, quiet other days, and the combination is making my time seem unrushed overall. I like that. The fact that a week Friday sees me leave this place does seem quick. But I knew before I came that it would be a quick trip. I just hope I get those administrative passwords before I leave, or a few machines are going to be handicapped or unusable as a result. I don't like that. Yvonne said to resend my email to Chiang, in case he didn't get it last Friday night. I forgot to do that last night when I got home from Bible Study. I need to do that tonight.
I did a little more writing today on my project. Pulled up the self-control file this time. I added a couple Scripture references and additional thoughts, adding part of a new page to the file in the process. Rochelle had led a song last Sunday that finally gave this file a song, as I believe it had been the only thought without a song strangely enough previously. "Change Me on the Inside". I felt it went with this thought because self-control tends to be something we think have to do all on our own, when its actually a fruit of the Spirit, and outcropping of the submitted, surrendered life to the Holy Spirit. So it fit well with the thought that our own efforts only touch the outer man, but God changes us and works His work in us from the inside out, such that changes made in our hearts, minds, and spirits eventually display themselves out where others can see. So that was cool. That's two files I've edited or added to now. "Where it all starts" and "God's love shown through Self-Control".
Being able to find time to write definitely displays the lack of busyness in my life here in Rwanda. It's not hard to see how I could get busy around here if I was living here however. It could be possible to become just as busy here as I am at home. But having time to write is something I was hoping for, so I am thankful I have that while here in Rwanda. I wish I could do it on the plane, especially with the leg of the trip between London and Vancouver being all daytime hours coming back. But without a laptop, that won't be possible.
As I stood here preparing dinner and using a big knife to pare the carrot, as there wasn't a vegie peeler in the drawer, once again the thought came to me that this kind of improvisation, while normal to me, seems so amazing to others around here. I never thought that "if you don't have it, can't get it, not available, then make it, improvise" was such a foreign mindset. People keep talking about my adaptability when I'll I'm doing is adjusting how I do things to fit the ways and means around me. I guess that does lend itself to the definition of adaptability, I just never thought it was out of the ordinary before. But then most people from western shores didn't grow up the way I did, where improvisation was a way of life. When you can't afford something or it isn't available, you come up with some other way to accomplish the same task. Perhaps that's more normal on home missions posts than in "average" town/city dwellers.
I had no idea just how much my childhood experiences would prepare me for this short stint here in Rwanda. I also had no idea till June 8th, just how much my marital choice and resulting divorce would provide a base on which to identify with the locals here. I've taught my kids and heard it preached, that nothing in our lives happens by chance. That God knows about everything that will happen, orchestrates divine appointments, allows things into our lives to test us, challenge us, discipline us, and prepare us for moments in the future when we will touch others with the results in our lives of prior experiences. I've told my kids and heard it preached that what happens to us now, God will use to benefit someone else in our future. I am watching this in a small way here in Rwanda, where my past experiences, my own road to healing and restoration, allows me to relate to these people in ways I didn't think I could.
God is so amazing!
Jodi wrote about what I'm doing with the teachers, extensively on the 23rd, and again in a blog posting on the wellspring website today. She posted a couple pictures that she sent me low-res versions of so that I could share them on facebook and in my short-term missions page.
July 23rd
I reach the end of another day here in Rwanda. Jeff and a Rwandan electrician got two of the banks of computers switched over to UPS units this morning, and those machines behaved beautifully! I can't wait for the center bank of computers to be hooked to UPS's now, however that's a cabling/daisychaining nightmare under there. I figured out that each computer has a max load draw of 5.6amps. Every 4 computers in the center bank are plugged into a 13amp powerbar! Do the math and by the time you get to the final bank at the wall, we've got an overloaded set of powerbars on that set of computers. Jeff plans to split the load so that by the time we reach two wall plugs, half the bank is going into one plug and half to the other, ideally easing the load on the middle and last powerbar in the system. I'm not an electrician, but I can do my math, and I hope this means we won't risk overloading the power plugs in that part of the room.
I couldn't install the printer software for the printer I bought. The HP software wants administrative access, which I don't yet have. As we can't find the XP cd, I can't do the lengthy workaround either to give myself admin access via a fresh install of the OS on all the systems. I am all but cursing the fact I don't have admin access to these machines when I was told by the guy who installed the network, that no passwords were set. Clearly passwords were indeed set, and I need to know what they are! Ugh! Three machines are affected by this. Two are affected by the lack of knowledge of the BIOS password, leaving 20 that are fully capable of all that I want to accomplish here. I guess this is my version of the difficulties people face on the mission field, although I have to say I run into these issues at home too, so it doesn't really feel like a "mission field" problem, it feels like the typical ill-organized situation I often run into with small business or home computer users.
I finally have a "decent" picture of myself over here. It's in the home of the Wellspring Foundation's Program Administrator, as she and her husband hold a CLA cellgroup in their home every Wednesday evening. Next Wednesday will be my last evening with this cell group, and it will be held in Jeff and Jodi's home. I'm hoping I can help Jodi with preparing dinner for the group, as they start with dinner, then go into Bible study.
Today was a practice day for MS Word, and the teachers loved it so much that for the second day in a row, we missed morning tea by half an hour! So we had morning tea at 10:30am again. When 1pm rolled around, you should have heard the moans and complaints at having to leave their computers!!! They were so enjoying what they were doing! So into what I'd suggested in playing around that some of them had found the wordart feature, others were playing with bullet styles, others were playing with different colored fonts and font faces and sizes. They didn't want today to end at all!
I have a day off tomorrow as the local District demanded they go to some training session with them instead. So that gives me Thursday off. Friday, we go from 8am to noon, then 1pm to 4pm to make up 3 of the 5 hours missed. I'll probably end up teaching the day I leave as well, due to the teaching time having been backed up the week I got here too, from the 17th to the 18th. That day will be shorter too as I will have to leave around noon to get to the airport for my 2:30pm flight to Nairobi. But they get the full two weeks otherwise, which is good. One of them is so into wanting to learn more and deeper information, that I can talk to him at a higher level than the rest of the class. He just soaks it up! He says he wants to become an expert in computers. I pray he can realize that dream. Apparently he just recently married, so Yvonne was joking that his wife must get an earful about computers every time he goes home right now.
So I'm not sure entirely what I'll be doing on Thursday. I've been invited to join the US team to their sports camp tomorrow, however I had an incident today at the MTN Center store today, that resulted in a lady asking me to show back up at 2pm to see if she found me an item I was asking about. I'd gone up there to buy more breakfast stuff. They didn't have everything I wanted, but I did buy some yogurt, bread, and a package of tropical fruit juice crystals. It was funny, because the total came to 1.500 RWF and when I went to hand her a 5, she chided me for handing her too much cash and asked if I had something smaller. I handed her a 2, and then was told in very concerned, no uncertain terms style speech, that I should be careful that I do not pay more than I should! I asked her where I could go to replace my travel purse, that it had a hole in the coin pouch. She asked what size I was looking for and then told me to return at 2pm when she starts work tomorrow, to see what she found at the market, that she'd find me a really nice purse! lol. . . I had to laugh inside as I walked home, because first I get a very concerned "wrist slap" about handing her too much money, then she offers to find me a replacement purse!
I told Jodi about this and she had to laugh and shake her head going, "only in Rwanda, only in Rwanda, these people are amazing!"
This place really is amazing! However I can't help wondering how much and how many of my experiences are God blessing me here, or "beginner's luck" in my first time here, because I keep being told how we'll have to wait for this, might not get that, how service is slow or not very good, etc, and I keep running into situations where service is excellent, where things are much faster than I was told, how what I want really is here if I can afford it, etc.!!! Even Jeff was saying how our trip to the computer store went better than he'd imagined it would be on Tuesday!
Some Rwandan young man who was with a bunch of others all pulling rocks from a field into a stack on the side of the dirt road between here and MTN Centre, took a liking to me today. He quickly said "good afternoon" on my way by the first time, then as I returned with my bag of groceries, he called out something to the effect of "Sister!" I turned and he asked me something that at first I took to mean asking for 100RWF and I simply said "sorry" and passed on my way. However I suddenly clued in that he was saying something about me being one in a 100 and that he was asking if I'd go to him. So my "sorry" left his buddies laughing at him as I walked into the distance. I just shook my head. Guys are guys anywhere in the world.
Truly humanity doesn't change around the world. Feelings, convictions, desires, wants, dislikes, relationships, emotions, spirituality, it may have different faces and modes of expression, but its all the same! Man versus woman included.
So I've been here one week already, another week to go, then two days later I'm on the plane coming home. It's hard to believe its been a full week already. The teaching is going well, the overall experience has and continues to be positive, and I hope to meet the lead voice in "Hope Rises" soon. Apparently Nicholas had been at the school just yesterday, but because Rosette didn't know I wanted to meet him, she never introduced us. She plans to call him and arrange for us to meet. I want to see his Geranium project as its known around here. We'd call it a farm back home, but she referred to it as a project instead.
Apparently Nicholas isn't simply on the board of the Wellspring Academy, he's the Chairman of the Wellspring Academy!!! Eesh! First I get personally invited by the Wellspring Foundation Program Administrator to join her cellgroup while I'm here, then the team I join for the trip to the memorial is driven and guided by a member of Kigali City Council. . . and now I find out that the man I want to meet is in the head seat of the Wellspring Academy board of directors!!! I'm not used to rubbing shoulders with such influencial people like this! I suppose I should be used to it working in the church office, but I don't know. . . I've seen Yvonne's educational pedigree, I've heard Nicholas' story of the genocide, and never in my life would I have expected to be in a public van(think public transit but van style not bus style) being driven by a City council member!
Needless to say I really am feeling spoiled here! I bought cheese apparently days before it ran out for the dry season. There won't be cheese now till the rains come as the cows aren't drinking enough milk to supply milk demand and cheese at the same time. So one tip to keep in mind, stock up on cheese during the rainy season so that you have it during the dry season.
Yvonne has asked if I'd be willing to dialogue with another young lady who will be coming to work here for a year with Wellspring. Apparently its her first time to Rwanda as well, and Yvonne thought it would be good if I was to share my experiences with her. I told Yvonne I'm not sure if everyone will have my experience, because of how easily I do adapt to changing circumstances, improvisation situations, etc. But that I could share it if she wants me to.
The teachers today at lunch joked about getting my email address so they could ask me questions about how to do things after I leave. So my time here may not be over, but go from in-person to longdistance via email.
I have to say I could live here without much difficulty. I have come to agree with Yvonne that there is a need for technical support in Kigali, and with how the urban life is here, and with CLA being so much like home, that there wouldn't be alot of adjusting to do at all. I know that in the week I've been here, I haven't run into any serious situations involving customs among the locals, or at the store or in the living conditions that would make me want to run for the airport. As with any people, you listen to how they do things and generally do it their way, unless they give you leeway to do it your own way. The natives had their family hierarchy and community hierarchy that one had to follow. Here there seems to be a governmental/church hierarchy one has to follow. It's a morning culture that you'd love Pastor Marty! The mornings here are just beautiful. It almost makes a morning person out of me! They break for morning tea almost without fail, around 10am, and in the afternoon, they might break around 2pm for afternoon tea. Being a bit on the hypoglycemic side, I could benefit from that schedule. You never go for more than 3 hours without food and drink on that schedule.
July 22nd
Jeff and I went into town today to answer a pressing need for the computer lab that had been overlooked when the lab was first set up last fall. The flow of electricity here in Rwanda ebbs and flows regularly, causing lights to dim or brighten as a usual occurrence, however computers can have that and have been regularly rebooting.
The rebooting was a major hassle as these particular dell computers have a wait period after hard shutdowns, often causing systems to take up to 20 minutes before they finally boot back up. This behaviour also happens when the system goes into hybernation mode, as I have a suspicion the BIOS has its own sleep mode of sorts, and it too will take just as long to wake up. As I can't seem to get my hands on the needed passwords to turn off the system and bios hybernation features, the only other thing we could do was at least ensure conditioned, steady power to the room to prevent unwanted reboots and shutdowns via power sags or outages.
We bought 8 3-machine UPS units and 1 single machine unit, and replaced the printer. I am paying for the printer out of the goodwill funds sent with me, and the cost was somewhere around $100.00 US I believe, maybe a little less, for a basic HP model. Jeff and Jodi actually advised me NOT to allow for goodwill requests, so upon hearing that, I decided that I wasn't coming home with this money, so if I saw a need I'd meet it, or leave the funds with Wellspring to use as they saw fit once I left to come home. The printer is thoroughly coverable with what I have on hand, so I'm paying for the printer.
The cost of the UPS units is roughly $186 per 3-pc unit, and $90 for the single machine unit. So 8 of the first price and one of the second price is the total cost of the overrun on the wellspring budget for this year. I asked Jeff if I could make this need known to Evangel, and he said to make it known wherever I wish to.
July 21st
The 'net connection today has been horrible, and we ended up with a power outage across our part of town for over 2 hours. Apparently that is the longest power outage they've had in years, so it was considered highly unusual. We had a power outage this morning too, partway through the computer lessons for today.
The teachers picked up on the first lesson today so quickly, that after morning tea, we launched into the second lesson. So we covered the parts of the desktop, and the parts of a typical program window, all in one day. At lunch, when lunch was over and it was time for singing, sharing and prayer, one teacher said that while he was learning about minimizing and maximizing his screen, it suddenly came to him that he wants to maximize his faith, maximize his time with his students, maximize his life, not minimize! It was such a revelation to him that he had to share it with the group. Imagine seeing Biblical principles in something as simple as how to use the tiny buttons in the top right of your screen. . . I hadn't considered the life application in that, but he's right. We should be maximizing our time, our faith and our life to the fullest extent God has for us, and for His Kingdom! That was really cool.
Tuesday morning we start on the lesson everyone's been chaffing at the bit for! We start learning about Word! One teacher that had been ill and in hospital, showed up today with knowledge of Word as well, so I told him that he along with the other two, may find themselves helping to answer questions from the other teachers as we go through the lessons on Word, Excel and Powerpoint. If they pick up on these lessons quickly, we will definitely have time to go over the advanced lessons, and the typing lessons as well that I brought with me.
The power into the computer lab is not regulated or conditioned unfortunately. So sags and spikes really affect the machines! Before the morning's power outage, we had half the lab down at one point. These computers have a nasty wait time after hard shutdowns and returning from hybernation. I still can't get the login info needed to check the bios and power management features so that I can turn them off. Jeff is going to help me in figuring out the power requirements for some ups units, then we'll be going into town to see what we can do within some range of budget that he should let me know about in the morning. Another computer needs Office reinstalled, but we couldn't find disks for the installation the lab is using.
All this made for a very varied and interesting day. Great on the people front, aweful on the technology front. I don't know how much of the budget can be spared, so I told him this may have to be put out as a call for funding. He said they'd figure out what can be done.
Jeff is so glad I'm here to discover and address issues related to the computer lab. I guess on that score, there is a need for being here. I've been told that techsupport services are lacking in the area, that I might find myself being offered work here if I'm not careful.
Today Jodi told me the name of our driver to the memorial yesterday, was the boss of the company itself, AND that as a member of city council, he is up to his ears in preparations for the presidential primaries due to hit later this year. Imagine being taken to the Kigali Memorial and taken through the memorial, by a member of Kigali City Council??!!! His name is Dieu Donne. Hearing his story, seeing literal photographs of siblings and neighbors who he'd lost to the genocide, hearing how he felt and his perspective, made the tour that much more alive. I don't know if Deiu Donne is saved or not, but I do pray that if not, that he comes to Christ.
Sincerely,
Marilynn Dawson
