Day 14

            Hiked up the hill in town this morning. Kim struggled a little, but kept pushing through like a trooper. Her Crones wanted to act up, but we were busy praying it away. We toured the Friend's schools and introduced ourselves to several classrooms ranging from seniors down through kindergarten. We were supposed to say something about ourselves when we introduced ourselves. Judi would go right after me and every time she told the class she was my wife the whole class would erupt into applause and cheers. It caught us all off guard and Kim got excited about her turn since she loves the applause. She announces that she is married to Chris the teacher and paused (insert cricket sounds here). Not a peep could be heard. She figured it must be because she identified Chris as a teacher so she modified her strategy for the next classroom. It didn't help. Several more modifications without benefit left Kim bewildered and the rest of us guessing. Judi was beaming having been applauded and cheered all day. Chris concluded that they were all cheering because they were amazed I found someone to marry me. Whatever the case, it was an interesting cultural experience.

            After lunch, we debriefed our teaching with David. It was a bittersweet time since we knew when we were done that David would go home, and we didn't want to see him go. We planned for several return trips (Shhh…don't tell Judi), and looked at a variety of ways we may be able to use our skills to benefit THARS. We also had several requests from our Rwandan contacts at the Friend's Peace House to come and do training for them. We could come here every year and not run out of needs for a long time. I don't think Judi will allow me to do that, but she is far more ready to return than anyone would have predicted…well actually Chris predicted it.

            We said our goodbyes, which was highly emotional for all of us. We have all grown to love David and will miss him very much. I look forward to the next time we get to minister together. He feels like a kindred spirit.

            Kirsten showed up late for dinner. Unfortunately for her we lingered after dinner. We probed her for all the details of her love life, and then asked to use her Internet card. So at least we violated her privacy before we exploited our relationship with her to get what we want. She says she doesn't mind at all so I figure she should either be nominated for sainthood or she is desperately lonely. I'll assume the later. The Internet connection was too slow to upload the blog so I will try again later. If you made it this far into the blog you realize that I have given up the notion of including pictures. It takes too much bandwidth to upload.