Prime time

Today we started to prime the kindergarten classroom up in cyabatanzi. It's a process that is so different from painting back home. Everything is done with raw materials. We all had primer everywhere. All over our clothes and in our hair. It was so cute because all the little kids gathered around the windows peering in to watch us paint. They were fascinated by what we were doing. We took a break from priming to walk down to the church and we were able to see the woman making jewelry. It's pretty cool because we gave them money to be trained in jewelry making and also to buy the materials, and then we are going to bring the finished pieces back home with us and sell them. It was really awesome being able to see what kind of work goes into making those pieces. We even got to try it ourselves which was an amazing experience. There were just all these women sitting in the church with their babies making necklaces. The women were so appreciative that we gave them this opportunity. Now these women have a purpose. They have a job and are not just mothers and wives. They have something to look forward to when they wake up and know that it is making them money so that they can better their lives. We had this girl Winnie with us who is friends with the pastor we work with. She spoke very good English so she was great to have along with us. She told us that the women had told her how thankful they are for us being there and helping them to make their jewelry business possible. She said how amazed they were that we were on our "summer holiday" and still came to help them. You could tell how appreciative they were too. We walked in and they were so proud to show me all the beads they had already made. We really have formed such a relationship with this community and there is a lot of trust that they have formed. This one mom in the church who was making beads even handed me her baby to hold. This baby was actually a baby too. Less then a year old. And she trusted me enough to just hand me her baby to sit and play with. I thought that was really cool, and of course i was in heaven playing with this tiny baby on my lap. We then made peanut butter and jelly for lunch. We forgot knives so we ended up using the ends of the paintbrushes to spread the peanut butter around. Pretty smart I know. But then we finished priming the room. It was cool to see how much different it looked even though there was only gross white primer on the walls. It felt like I was back in YG again painting walls. When we were finished we drove down the hill and decided to stop in the community at the bottom of the hill and ask if we could hand out clothing to their community tomorrow. We pass through their small community on our way up to cyabatanzi every day and thought it would be a nice idea to make a connection with them also, so that we weren't just the random white van of white people who drive by all the time. So we got permission from the communities pastor to do part of our mission backpack in that community. Mission backpack is when we hand out backpacks filled with clothes to be distributed to the communities. Packing up the backpacks made me feel so good about what we are going to do tomorrow. I saw so many of my old clothes being put into backpacks and it put such a smile on my face knowing that soon my old green pants with butterflies and pink converse sneakers would be worn by a child who will appreciate them forever. One of my old little jackets has my name in it which is also cool to me that some little Rwandan child is going to be walking around with my name in their jacket. It's a really great feeling knowing you are literally putting the clothes on someone's back who really needs it, especially a child. It always makes me so sad to see the kids because they are always in the same clothes as they were days before, and those clothes are always so dirty and covered in holes. So I can't even imagine their happiness when they see clean new clothes for them to wear. I'm sure it will make their day. I get so tired here so early because I am up early and then going and going all day. It's only 8:40 here right now and I'm exhausted and want to sleep. So off I go to read in bed while music blasts from the city surrounding us. Friday nights in Rwanda haha. I can't believe I've already been here a week. It feels like forever but also like I just got here. I miss everyone at home and can't wait to see you all in a week!