Random Thoughts at 5:30 in the Morning

I have not been sleeping as much as I would like here. There's so much going on that I want to be a part of. I think it's finally catching up to me so as you can imagine, I was not happy when I woke up at 5:30 this morning. I've had many things on my mind so I thought that I'd share a few things....

As most of you know, there was a genocide here in 1994 that killed around 1 million people. Many people here are very open to share their experience...even when you least expect it. There have been many times that I have been in the middle of a conversation and someone will say something (many times just out of the blue) or an experience. This is something that I had to get used to. I'm used to the mentality of don't ask don't tell. I think about stories of people who survived the Holocaust. Many people had a hard time talking about their experience and tried to just block it out. When we were at the picnic on Saturday, I had a conversation with one of the staff members here. She began to tell me that it's hard for her to be close to water because all that she can think about is how her family was killed and thrown into a lake. What do you say when you hear that? I just put my hand on her shoulder and said that I know that it's not easy. I think that it is very healthy the way most of open to dicussion. I think that it has led to interal strength for many of the people around me.

All around me there's so much beauty both from the people and the landscape. As I have written about before, I was assigned to a family here at the village. There are 15 kids, 1 house mother, 1 counselor, and 2 volunteers (one of those that's me!) I love being around the kids. They have such beautiful smiles (that truly shows their internal beauty) and have a way of taking a hard day and making it a little sunnier. I'm amazed at their thoughtful questions, creativity, and how much they want to learn. Last night I went for a run around the village as the sun was setting. I wish that you could see what my eyes witnessed. Rwanda is truly a land of a thousand hills. As I ran around the school which is located at the highest point, I saw banana tree filled rolling hills and 2 lakes in the distance. The sun was setting so there were beautiful colors to paint the landscape. This country also has the most interesting birds. On my run I saw birds in about every color. I have big plans on Shabbat for taking pictures of the landscape.

Who likes mushy food and tea with their sugar....definitely the Rwandans. I made a stir fry for dinner and I felt the vegetable were cooked very well. My Rwandan roommates said that the veggies were too hard. I love their mushy food so I guess we'll settle on mushy food. I asked one of my roommates how much sugar he puts in his tea. He said not so much just 2 spoon fulls...a little I said. The sugar is much sweeter here and I only use a forth of a spoon.

Tonight, my house is hosting Kabbalat Shabbat. I had a dream last night where I forgot the words to Henei Ma Tov....