Joys!

In 2009 I started a "Joy Book" where I have had friends fill pages of lists of things that bring them joy. I made my list in the back of the book. In May (while proctoring an SAT exam for high schoolers all day one Saturday) I started adding to the list and then quickly decided I had better just make a list in my journal because it would take up too much space in my joy book. So I thought I'd share my "Rwandan Joys" list here.


In no particular order...
-My kindergarteners
-The children at Home of Hope Orphanage
-The street boys at the Hope for Life home
-The neighbor children at Hope for Life
-The thousands of hills in this country
-Younglife
-The Younglife campaigners kids
-Body and Soul weekly work out classes
-Worshiping with my staff
-Supportive classroom parents
-Seeing baby feet sticking out the sides of mothers walking down the street (because all babies here ride piggy-back and are tied on to their mothers by fabric)
-The smell of the rain
-African fabric
-Watching rain storms come across the city
-Getting minutes on my phone by purchasing airtime from the back of a motorcycle
-The milk gate- my neighbor 3 houses down sells milk from their house. We call it the milk gate- you just bring a container and they fill it with fresh milk for very cheap.
 -Living only a few houses down from my best friend and her husband
-Themed parties with my American friends
-Making food from scratch
-Power outages
-Making do with what I have
- Rwandan bananas
-Rwandan eggs
-Traveling out of the city
- "Nta kibazo" (it means no worries)
-Shopping at the market
-Constantly hearing different languages
-Being on a bus and buying grilled corn through the window.
-Hearing someone say "thank you too" when I say thank you.
-Sleeping in a hammock while traveling
-Driving around town on my scooty pep scooter
- Being forced to get creative with a lack of materials
- Seeing my students' creativity
- Getting paychecks from God
-Living without a TV
-Shopping at the market
-Seeing people carry very large items (like furniture) on their heads and walk down the street

And the list could go on and on! These are just a few. : )