disney world

We made an escape to Disney World this weekend with Corrie's folks.

I expected to be shocked by the American-ness of the laboratory-controlled environment. But the most American thing about the place was the urgency with which visitors consume it. I mean, you pay $100 for a day pass so you'd better get your money's worth. Everybody's running from ride to ride, jumping strollers and tossing little kids out of the way.

Didn't have much time to notice, though -- I was too busy dodging those crazy Americans to get on the rides in front of them. A very successful day.

equipment

Our church has had its sound equipment confiscated a couple of times. Check out the BBC article.

Good thing the Fox News crew wasn't there!

(from the Nairobi airport...)

road rage

I'm road-raging.

Not in a "that jerk cut me off!!" US road rage kind of way. It's more of a "I'm trying my best not to kill you -- please don't make it so hard!!!" People walk in the middle of the road, cars swerve into oncoming traffic, mom's push their kids into the street (then look), motorcycles zoom around you, helmet-free. It really stresses me out.

I think my stress is clear indication that it's time to leave Rwanda for a couple weeks. Fortunately, we're getting on a plane tomorrow to visit family! Can't wait.

cards

These are the coolest greeting cards I have seen: Cards From Africa.

Made here in Kigali.

purchasing power parity

If you add up the income of all the people in Rwanda, then divide it by the number of people in Rwanda, you get $224 per person per year. 61 cents a day.

Yet people (economists) will tell you that the Gross Domestic Product per capita is $1300. The reason is that they say it's cheaper to live here so your 61 cents is really worth $3.56.

And yes, it's cheaper to live in a mud hut than an house. But is it really fair to make that adjustment? Shouldn't we also add in the cost of carrying your water from the creek a mile away? The cost of having malaria a couple times a year?

Besides, I find most things here pretty darn expensive. Remember RAV4's are $40,000. Gas is $5/gallon, cereal is $10/box. A one-minute phone call costs 30 cents, an apple $1, a coffeemaker $100 (if you can find one).

Perhaps we should adjust income the other way?

is tomorrow a holiday?

As muzungus in Kigali, we never know when we're going to show up at work and find no one there.

There are tons of national holidays in Rwanda, but no calendar for them. Instead, a Minister of Something will decide at 8:00 PM some evening that tomorrow will be some holiday. Then they'll announce it on the radio.

In Kinyarwanda.

We heard that tomorrow may be a holiday. Monday was one. So was last Wednesday. So I'll be rolling into the Ministry of Health tomorrow morning at 8AM for a meeting, and I may be the only one there.

Who knows?

a superficial peace

Visitors love to comment that Rwanda is peaceful.

And it is peaceful. Just 11 years after a devastating war, Kigali is probably the safest capital city in Africa. There are no rebel groups here, no formal crime syndicates, no internal threats to stability.

But at the same time, it's not Peaceful. Every long-term foreign national I've talked to (even those that wouldn't normally believe in such things) is aware of a spiritual weight in Rwanda. We recognize it because it affects us all powerfully, over time.

You don't notice the first week you're here. Nor the second. You just notice that many Rwandans are quiet. Slow to open up. After hearing a few people's stories you don't have to wonder why.

Here is a resilient, proud, and strong people. They have been through more than I could imagine surviving, and survived. Everyone lost someone 11 years ago. Some were confronted by a side of themselves and their neighbors they didn't imagine could exist.

The peace is on the surface. No one's killing each other anymore, but the war ravages on, deep inside.

This country is at peace. Now we pray for Peace.

29 years

I'm 29 years old today. Me and my twin sis, too.

And it feels good. Corrie got 29 people together to celebrate, made Mexican food that actually tasted like Mexican food, and baked a cake (thanks to Mom for importing the materials!) with 29 candles on it.

I'm not one to take an annual stock of my life, but as far as it goes I feel good. Don't know that I'd boast of my 'accomplishments', but I will say this: I've married a wonderful woman and we're living an interesting life.

Not a bad way to spend the last year of my twenties.

thank God for the Rain

It's been dry and hot here. Rwanda's a tropical, densely populated country where 90% of people work in subsistence agriculture. So when it's dry, that's real bad. People here are using the word "famine".

Last night we got some good steady rain for a couple of hours. Not enough for us to, say, have water to bathe this morning, but for agriculture it's a step in the right direction.

So thank God for the rain. Join us in praying for more.