Here we are

Bev and I are back on USA soil. In Florida at Rafiki's home office for meetings all next week. It is a long flight from Rwanda to Florida, but we praise the Lord we made it with all our bags and are not having hardly any problem with the jet lag. Although it is great to be in the US again, I can not help but think of what we left behind. Not that, our leaving will stop any of the work, our more than capable team is carrying on and will do a great job. I just miss Rwanda, the people and especially the children. Of course, we are sitting in a hotel room 3000 miles away from the family we want to see.

We have much to do while we are here on furlough for the next 3 months. Traveling to three corners of the USA, raising support in order to return to Rwanda for another two years. God has blessed us with the oppotunity to help orphans in Rwanda to a new life, to a wonderful Christian education, to become productive members of their country and most importantly to learn and trust in the Word of God.

Our Rafiki Village Rwanda now has 16 children and will soon be receiving 3 more. They are all precious gifts of God. I wish you could all see come see them, how God is teaching them and how they are teaching us. If you would like to have a life changing experience, contact the Rafiki Home Office in Eustis Fl, ask about a MiniMissions trip, at 352 483-9131 or go to the web site
http://www.rafiki-foundation.org/ros/merrill/merrill.html
If you can not come to Rwanda Africa yourself but would like to help with a monetary gift, again call or go to the web site and ask about helping support Ken and Bev Merrill, ROS 176. Another way to help is supporting a child at the village or helping with a construction project. There are many ways to help, even if you can not physically come to Rwanda.

The Grand BBQ

We have wanted to do something for all our workers for sometime and just could not think of what that might be. Well, last week we put together a BBQ Rwandan style. Goat brochettte and roasted green bananas and Fanta. Fanta is a generic name for all soft drinks. There is a very limited selection of soft drinks in Rwanda, all Coke products. We have Coke, Sprite, Fanta Orange and Fanta Citris. They all come in 30 cl bottles, in a few of the up scale stores you can now get Coke light in a can, but it is expensive.

First I had to buy two goats, which we promptly named "Medium" and "Rare". This , of course was a real big hit with the ladies at the village -not. In fact, some decided not to eat after they saw them tied up enjoying their last meal. After the meat was taken care of I purchased two large stocks of green bananas and a couple cases of mixed "Fantas." OK, we had the fix'ins now we needed the butcher, the mason to build the grill, the fire starter (which is an art in itself with local charcoal), and of course the cook. As it came to pass (I borrowed that line), God provided Janvier, our gardener. Who, as it turns out, seems to be able to do just about everything. The rest of the boys and I pitched in, but Janvier was the hero of the BBQ.

We built the grill out of some left over cement building blocks, roofing metal and rat wire screening. Janvier and crew went off to prepare the goats, while we continued to put finishing touches on the grill. This grill was a masterpiece, a three tier affair. The meat cooking grill was on the top, with the charcoal fire under that and could be feed from the opening in the back side. On this view side the mid section was for roasting the bananas under the fire pit and the very bottom was a warming oven. I take no credit for the design, it was purely Rwandan and worked great.

Since I have been in Rwanda I have eaten in many places and eaten many things that I would have never even imagined I would eat before coming here. I have even eaten their "special" Brochette, once. But let me tell you there is no waste with these guys. I will spare you the pictures but they clean and boil the intestines and about everything else that comes out of that critter. Then they somehow tie all those loose parts together and put them on a skewer to roast. AS I said I had already tried those once, and did not think I needed another round. The regular goat brochette was very good I do not know all the stuff they rubbed and socked into them but they were very tasty. As expected some parts were a little chewier than others, but it was very good. They also had some sauce they brush onto the bananas, with an old paint brush I think, that was very good also.

But the coup-de-gras was when they drank the liquid from the boiling pot. I drew my line in the sand on that one. No thank you very much.

The Mother's and children came up to enjoy it, I was surprised how the children went for those brochette. We feed nearly 70 people counting the children. What a great day and what great people to share it with.

When I was growing up in Maine one of the highlights every year was going to deer camp in the fall. Dad, Gramps and usually a couple other families all gathered at this small cabin up on the mountain behind our farm. There was a log book there that everyone wrote in everytime we went. The end of nearly everyones entry was, "and a good time was had by all." God bless, go out and have a great time with folks you enjoy being with.

Good day - even got some exercise.

This has been a great day in that we have our NGO paperwork renewal finalized, signed stamped and delivered. Annie's car paperwork has been approved by everyone with enough signatures and stamps on it to pass for a UN treaty. She is purchasing her insurance today and should pick up the car tomorrow. The crew was here today installing our satellite internet dish. Waiting now for the cement to dry for the support pole and they will set the dish tomorrow. I am praying for the service to be up and running tomorrow night. We are down to our last few children to do intitial interviews on for this first round, they will be completed before we leave on furlough. PTL.... All of our paperwork has been approved and the childrens lists will be completed.

Then this morning Sam and I went to one of the sectors to drop off blank forms for children interviews. It was quite a ways out and had to be back at the village to meet with the internet guys. Things were clicking right along, submitted our payroll to the bank paid the water bill and employee taxes then drove out to the Mwogo Sector office. God must have thought that these two guys have been eating to many brochettes lately and need a little exrecise. As we got out of the vehicle at the Sector office we could hear the sound of rushing air and the wind was calm. Right rear tire was going flat very quickly, oh well, we will change it after we give the papers to the social affairs officer. The spare tire is locked on to the rear carrier to prevent theft, great idea, except the key was a remake and was made of plastic i think. Luckily we stopped before breaking it off in the lock. Then we looked for the jack and wrench, no jack and the none of the ends of the 4-way would fit. So we started walking , it's about 10.5 km, but I was steam propelled by this time. Called Bev to see if someone could come out to get us, and everyone was busy and our car had a dead battery. Bev borrowed a car and met us on the road. We got about 3 km of exercise, which, as it turned out, was just enough to cool me down. Back to the village and picked up a jack and lug wrench, a good metel key, plus one of the guys to come along to help. Bev had to take care of things at the kitchen. Back to the truck and changed the tire with no problems, then back to the village to pick up Bev as none of our guys have drivers licenses and back to the truck. The local folks must have thought these muzugos had gone mad. They hardly ever see a white person out there and then to have them drive and walk back and forth a half dozen times in about 3 hours must have been the talk of the town. As it worked out, the satellite installers were also running late so we all got to the village at the same time.

Lunch in Juru

Friday, 29 May, I was privileged to have another culinary first on our children interview trip to Juru Sector in Bugesera District, Rwanda. This sector is a ways off the main road and the the road getting there is not very well maintained. As such it is on the poor side of the economy even though there are many small coffee groves. We had four children to see in the morning and was making great progress, in fact we were done earlier than we expected. The Sector Social Affairs officer, Gertrude, with us suggested we have lunch before returning to Nyamata, which sounded good to me. She called ahead so they could start the brochette. When we got back to the village center the bananas and brochette were on the fire and it smelled fantastic. We sat and had a warm coke (no electricity = no refridgeration) while we waited. Most Rwandans preferr their drinks warm anyway, probably because that is the they have traditional been. I have seen many people in a nice resturant in Kigali order a drink and they will send it back if it is cold and ask for a warm one.
It takes a long time to cook green bananas and goat brochette, but the wait is usually worth it. When they came I thought a couple of them looked pecular, so I avoided them the first time around. Then I was informed that those were "Special" brochettes reserved for honored guests, in this case it was me. So I went in where a lesser man may have feared to tread. Now I was pretty sure what this "special" brochette was but was trying not to think to much about it while I was eating it, but good old Sam would have none of that. He piped right up and told me it was intestines, cleaned, washed, boiled, rolled and put on the skewer to roast. I was certainly praying they had been cleaned and washed, and was hoping they had been boiled, I could see they were rolled and roasted. I must say the taste was OK and they were soft and chewy, but my brain just wouldn't settle down to say that I was really enjoying it. I ate it and smiled while eating but I can't say I would go back and ordered them again.
We were finished and ready to leave so Sam asked the man for the bill, of course this was all in Kinyarwanda so I was not understanding what was being said. But Sam and Gertrude started laughing at whatever the guy had replied. I asked what was going on, when Sam had asked for the bill the guy said couldn't I just tell you what you owe. They do not have receipts and bills out in the village. But in a minute he came back with a itemized written bill on a piece of paper, with his official stamp on it.
So as I look back on the experience I would say they tasted OK, but would not go so far as to say, "Them guts are good".