My Farm Family

I feel that it’s only appropriate that this blog is written on family. I have not been feeling well these past 2 weeks. Last night, I decided to go to sleep at 6…so then I woke up at 2…at lease I got 8 hours of sleep! At first I tried to go back to sleep, but I just laid there. After a little while I got up and brought my laptop to bed. I got to talk to my sister, both my parents, my brother (for the first time since coming to Rwanda!), and my uncle Marvin! It felt so great to talk to family and hear the tales from home. My uncle Marvin told me that many people in my family were over to his house last Sunday for father’s day…this made me really miss everyone and wishing I was there. I’ve been thinking lots about family recently…mine at home and the different ones that I belong to here.

As I wrote in earlier blogs, family is defined differently here than I studied in school. It seems that everyone and anyone can be family. In the Agahozo Shalom family I find myself in 2 families…Family 7 and the farm worker family. I find myself pulled between my 2 families many of the times. I wish I had lots of time to spend with each. I love them both so much! The family that I want to talk about in this blog is my farm family.

I didn’t realize how much I was a part of this family until a couple of weeks ago when 2 brothers who work on the farm had a sister that died. When it was time for the funeral, Solomon couldn’t find me so I missed it…I was very upset that I missed the funeral. I asked Solomon what I should do since I was not at the funeral and what’s the custom here to honor the family. I told Solomon about the Jewish custom of sitting shiva for a week and honoring them by going to their house. Solomon explained that there’s not the time to sit that long because maybe of the people are very poor and need to return to work as soon as possible. He explained that its customary to visit the family one time. It can be the day of the funeral or in one month. It’s just important to pay your respects. You wish the family patients in getting through their pain…they also drink LOTS of banana beer. Solomon suggested for me to buy the family banana beer and invite over all the workers. He also advised me to get a gift for the mother to help her be patient….we both went to Rubona and bought some fabric for her to make into a skirt.

The house of the family is right across from the village. We arrived and everyone sat around drinking the beer. Solomon kept insisting that I give the gift to the mother when everyone was there. I told him that I wanted to wait until it was private but I finally gave into his insisting (he said that it’s important for everyone to see their boss doing good things…I didn’t realize until this have much everyone looks to me as the big boss…more on this later). I gave a speech (in true Rwandan fashion) and then presented the gift. The mother was very grateful and I have enjoyed to get to know her. This past week the worker whose sister died invited Solomon and I over again because his father-in-law was visiting (they are expecting a baby this week!)
5 days ago the wife of the man who works with the chickens had a baby. I was so excited today when I got to go over and visit!

An Afternoon with Gedeo

A few weeks ago, I was talking with someone that works in the village about completing projects. He was saying to me that the kids are only here for 4 years and we want to make those the best years with as many opportunities as possible. I like this mentality…it has helped to build an amazing village with many opportunities for all the kids. The administration is also open to new ideas and likes when different people bring ways to improve the village. This idea has also been a challenge for me when it comes to balancing my life here. There’s so many projects that I want to accomplish while I’m here and I’m enjoying the learning process that I’m going through to gain all this new knowledge.

The problem is that I think that sometimes I’m not feeling well but I continue to work and then realize later that my head has been hurting all day. I know now that I need some rest. I was in Kigali this past weekend and planning to leave early Monday morning and when I woke up, I really didn’t feel well. I decided to stay in Kigali to rest at a friend’s house. It was nice to decide to take the time to just rest. It’s not easy for me, I enjoy to stay busy…I think I take after my father on this one. It’s a good thing I wasn’t in the village because I would surely make my way to the farm like I had been doing for the past 2 weeks while I was sick.

While I was in bed at my friend’s house, we got a visit from Gedeo…a 3 year old little boy that I swear is a 30 year old in the body of this young boy. I have gotten to know Gedeo very well. He usually pays a visit to my friend while I’m there. You never know when we’ll show up. He’ll come at anytime during the day. Gedeo lives differently than most kids that I know his age. He is completely free. We just does what we wants. You see him roaming the streets. My friend even saw him standing outside a neighbor’s party with a big chicken leg in his mouth one day. From what my friend has gathered from talking to him (and once you get him talking, he just doesn’t stop) he comes from a very poor family. His mother has told him that his father is in jail. While most kids his age in the US would be taking a nap, he is roaming the streets looking for food or something to use as a toy. Whenever I see him, I always insist that we give him a bath. My friend usually gives him something to eat. He told us that the only time that he ever gets milk is when he comes over…I think it’s one of the reasons he loves to come and the fact that he is taken care of.

There are many kids here with the same story as Gedeo…it’s very sad to see firsthand. What makes us want to help him when there are many kids in his situation? This is very easy, he’s a special kid. Whenever he’s over he’ll sit and talk to you for hours…about anything. When I say anything, I mean anything. My friend had a conversation with him about the upcoming elections and thoughts about Rwanda. Each day he comes with his aspirations for the future and his current thoughts. When he came to visit yesterday, he told us that he got a job being a security guard for the neighbor’s car. He promised to buy my friend a Primus (my friend’s favorite beer…my friend had no idea how he knew he liked Primus) with his first paycheck. We also get crazy stories from him that can go on for hours. I always tell my friend that he’s changing this boy’s life. He has become his friend, has taught him to say thank you, and washes him up.

Meeting kids like Gedeo really puts life into perspective and helps me to appreciate how I was raised.

A Weekend of Camping

I love camping and it had been a long time since I went. I enjoy the whole process of it especially in a new place. I like the setting up of the tent, building a fire, cooking, hiking, and waking up in the morning to see a great view. On this trip, I was not let down on any of these. There was a long discussion on where we would go and finally we decided to go to Byumba in the north, about 50km from the Uganda border. I went with 4 of my good friends here…one of them has a car which makes travel much easier. We all packed into the German car and headed for the hills of Byumba. As we got closer, you could feel the temperature drop and the hills getting steeper. On our ride there, we stopped along the way to admire the views…it was so beautiful. We stopped in the town before finding our sleeping site to get some more food. I was excited when we walked into one of the stores and they were selling popcorn. As we were walking back to the car, it began to rain…

As it was raining, we drove around trying to find a place to set up camp. I got worried because our plan was to use fire wood to cook and setting up camp in the rain is no fun. I fell asleep and after about an hour, we stopped. I stepped out of the car and got a little worried again. This area was very hilly so I was just imagining sleeping up a hill. We finally found a great spot and it felt like the whole community came over…at one time I looked around and counted close to 40 kids looking on with wide eyes. We began to set up camp and the rains stopped. Cooking started. This was uncomfortable. Surrounding us were many children that you could tell were very hungry and here we were cooking a good meal. It got dark and the children began to leave. We ate our delicious meal and then crawled into one of the tents for a night of talking.
We woke up at day light and all the kids gravitated back to our camp. Our spot was so beautiful in the morning light. 2 of my friends took the 1 hour round trip journey to get water. It was so steep and I couldn’t believe that these people have to make this journey everyday.

We packed up the car and drove a little distance to begin our hike. On our trip, there were only 2 of us that we not Rwandan. As we began our hike, both of us had a long conversation about our frustrations with being foreign and figuring out our role in this poor area. This conversation started because we didn’t know what to do with the fact that we were able to eat 3 good meals and there were people around us that sometimes don’t even get one. It was a very heavy feeling.

The hike was so beautiful. We climbed up the terraced hills and saw many great views.

Ups and Downs

Some days are just hard…and I guess that’s life
Do you ever have those days where nothing seems to go right? This happens a lot here. Days just don’t go as planned. Being in here adds a whole new meaning to this.

The day before our basketball team played in the regional finals. We have a very talented team. On the way back from the game, the bus hit a cow and flipped. Luckily, no one on the team was seriously injured. We are very grateful for that. These kids have been through so much and it’s hard that life continues to be a challenge.

Many times, people just don’t come to meetings or they’re very late. It’s very common here and everyone sense to do it. I even get in the habit of saying I know they’re going to be late so it’s ok. This drives me crazy…I like to be on time and also others to be on time. You would think that with all that we talk about time management, that things would be a little different. Events get created and cancelled at the last minute…I’m definitely learning to be more flexible. I was supposed to lead night hikes for 2 visiting groups and both were cancelled. It’s hard when you work hard on something and it just doesn’t happen. That life and I’m learning to be flexible.

I’ve also definitely had more highlights that more than make up for all the frustrations. Work successes include finishing installing the irrigation system and getting the chicken business plan approved. I really enjoy being with the workers on the farm. They even give me kinyarwanda lessons which always turn into everyone laughing. We got new hats for all the workers. It was one of the best moments. They were sooooo happy...they still continue to wear them everyday.


There are 2 new farm volunteers that are here for a short time. They are a big help with the cows. One of the workers got married while I was in Israel. I was very sad to miss the wedding because I hear they turn into fun parties. I decided to go to visit his family. He lives over an hour away from the village and has to walk to and from work each day. The views along the way are incredible though. It was fun to meet this wife and child. I feel like I really get to know them when I meet their familes.


There are so many highlights...many more to come!

Pictures!!!!!!!

I have posted some new pictures from my birthday and a visit with my family. You can also see more pictures at picasaweb.google.com/amyprice33.

Finishing the 10K at the Kigali Marathon: