We have our site!!

It’s night now and we just received our sites!!! We will be going to a Catholic school in the western province near two national parks and about 7 miles or 20 minutes by bus to a very large lake. We’ve been told by several Rwandans that it’s a beautiful place surrounded by mountains and filled with tea plantations and the source of very fine banana beer. Next week we go for a four day site visit. We’ll get to see where we’ll live and we’ll visit the school where we will be teaching. This afternoon, Nonce, one of the Rwandan language teachers and my mentor, arranged for the kitchen to pack up a lunch for Nelson, who has a grand cold. She’s a mother of six and the former director of a vocational school. She walked down to our house with me and carried his lunch in a stack of thermos’. I was busy carrying all the paraphanelia that I have rigged up to sit on the hard chairs all day: my pillow and a yoga block all wrapped up in string so I don’t have to touch it and can carry it like a purse. Also a canvas bag filled with: water, my rain poncho, two notebooks, and a very heavy language book. She told me teaching is a talent and that she’s grateful to have it. She does have it too. There’s an air of grace and competence about her. She helped me compose a paragraph of introduction for our new community.