settling in

The visit from Laura Bush went really well. It was fun to see her and her daughter Jenna with kids from our programs! And Mrs. Bush's personal translator was our own JP Ndagijimana, the director of programs at World Relief Rwanda.

I've been back in Buja less than a week now and I was in Kigali/Rwanda for about a month. It came to feel more like home up there than it did here only because I had only been in Buja a week before going up to Rwanda. There is a much bigger expat community up there in Kigali so that was really nice having a lot of really great people to hang out with. There are so many wonderful people in World Relief (WR) and I'm happy to be able to rub shoulders with them. I ended up staying several nights with Sarah and Sunita. They live together with another girl named Kristi. They're great girls and I am looking forward to spending as much time as possible with them. Sarah is the regional Microfinance technical advisor; she just happens to be based in Kigali but she will hopefully come down to Buja at least every other month or so.

The Broses have really become like family to me. Not only from the perspective of me needing them to play that role for me but also by truly welcoming me as a daughter/sister and making me feel like one of them. People at Kumbya kept asking if I was the boys' sister and before I could say no, one of the boys would always say yes :) I'm learning what it is like to have three younger brothers! Andrew is the oldest and just finished his first year at UofO studying architecture. He's here in Africa for the summer doing an internship with WR building houses for returning refugees to Burundi. Aaron just finished his sophomore year at Rift Valley Academy, an international boarding school for missionary kids in Kenya, and is here in Buja for a few more weeks before he goes back. Austin just turned 13 and lives here in Buja and attends an international school near their house. Dan and Tambry are really enjoying having all three of them home for most of the summer. They're great parents and are raising some wonderful boys. They are the kind of boys who are always living on the edge. They spearheaded the Great Goat Slaughter for dinner at Kumbya. It was like a scene from Lord of the Flies and an anatomy lesson all rolled up into one when they opened that goat up. We had a quite a feast that night.