Shabbat shalom

 Shabbat shalom this is one of the later nights we've had it's 10:30 and I'm just getting ready for bed was a very busy but very wonderful day first of all we met up with a girl she's 29 years old named Kim that Carl texted us about that she was here in Rwanda by herself and maybe we can meet up with her which we did so she met us at the hotel she's 29 very nice girl involved in Holocaust and genocide studies and we walked to the center and she kind of shadowed us today I introduced it to everybody and then we went to the to see Patrick at the gazemble center which used to be the orphanage the one that Johnson was rescued from we spent some time there it was bittersweet because he was engaged to ordeal and they're not engaged anymore so it was a little sale after we spent a little time there we went back to the center we grabbed the little lunch and then the kids had their talent show which was a lot of fun to watch and you did a little dancing then I changed into a dress and we waited for the car and we went to the Chabad Center for our Shabbat dinner we ended up with 10 people and the two gentlemen or two rabbis in charge tonight came from New York and Florida because the rabbi is in Israel but these two gentlemen were great they were very welcoming they're very warm and the men were taken in the other room to start the services I was able I was asked to let the Shabbat candles which I very happily did and got a chance to practice some Hebrew and the services was were not that long but there was one part where all the men were dancing and it was so nice to watch all my

talent show

Kevin in his yarmukah

shabbat table

jennifer

Frankie i 

friends dancing with the Chabad people and all the guests once the service was over we went down for dinner but you know was fabulous I'm starting out with the challah and the salads and the hummus and everything and I think my friends were very pleased that the ones that never had Hollow before certainly loved it then we had chicken we had fish we had green beans and a lovely dessert of vodka and mint tea it was a lot of conversation and different places and all in all it was a wonderful experience I love sharing my culture I actually really enjoy Shabbat and the service of it and I think that everyone enjoys himself and were exposed to another culture so shabbat shalom I'm going to sleep I forgot to mention that of course they served shots of whiskey which I didn't have any and was very surprised to see Julius take three shots of whiskey I hope he's not going to have a headache tomorrow

Great night /a surprise activity

 It is now Thursday morning and:600 in the morning and I'm up a little early but actually went to bed later than usual the day started at my usual hour and had my 10:00 class and then we went with Olivier to go shopping for a few things but he took us to a place that was a little more expensive than we used to so we didn't spend too much time. The people we had met at the hotel Playing for Change or performing last night and we thought it wasn't going to be a big deal but it turned out to be a very big deal fiston was kind enough to accompany us along with Emmy and Olivier but Amy and Olivier left and it was just the three of us but this was after it poured torrentially for a couple of hours very unexpected for this time of year so most of the people were happy about seeing the rain because it's very dry right now the good thing was because we were going to the show Colleen and I ate our dinner at the center and had we been walking home we would have been soaked when I say torrential I mean torrential rain. When we got to the place with the program was it was still raining a little bit we took a seat and then it was raining and not raining and they had to remove all the equipment and they had to put it all back and a very kind woman who turns out to be a director of the program gave Colleen and I to umbrellas thankfully it finally stopped but the show started late but it started surprisingly with traditional dancing that was incredible for some reason I can't post videos here but I did take some pictures alsoFiston on ran into so many people that he knewo including a woman that he told us in his street days had fed him she was so happy to see him and he was very happy to see her as well some of our mind leap students were there also and the people that we met at the hotel were all very thrilled that we made it we said we would be there and we were there we did not stay to the end because it wasn't going to be over anytime before 10:00 p.m. so we left after the kids from Miami did some of their performing it was very Jazzy and their lead singer and these are all high school kids their lead singer was a real good jazz singer. There are a lot of people up and dancing throughout the whole show and it was a lot of fun we're thinking maybe we can go back tonight cuz they have three performances tomorrow we have our Shabbat dinner so and I was chilly last night I didn't have a jacket with me and I have a jacket but I didn't bring it. I'm also posting a picture of my class of younger students that I get help from

 Miami kids

Rwanda traditional  music 

raining 

my class 

morning stretch 

Fuĺl day and uphiĺl again

 Good afternoon it is about 6:00 p.m. here just got back from the walk. Today I felt a little more tired because I had a terrible headache this morning but with my lovely Etc thank God for Excedrin I was able to get rid of it. So today was busy I had my two classes one is an hour one is 2 hours the first one is with the older kids so it's a lot of really 12th grade material and grammar and things like that the second group of the younger kids and we do a little bit more fun activities and I think they enjoyed it. I got to see one of my first students online Emmanuel who is now a choreographer he's in school and he seems very happy. I recorded myself going up the hill and going down the hill but videos don't always play on here I will try but if not you'll just see a couple of photographs tomorrow at our rest time which is between 12:00 and 1:30 we are going to go shopping for a few things. I was thrilled to see Colleen and my very special student Gideon hold back 4 years ago we said was so so smart well he ended up being in the top 10 of the country and he is now in the process of looking at colleges hopefully in the US and I hope for his sake that he will get accepted and maybe get some scholarship money. So I'm meeting Colleen in an hour so she can rest and I can do my blog and then we'll have our usual dinner in little alcove and watch something on my tablet. You may be wondering why I would put myself through this of going up those Hills down those Hills Etc but I get such pleasure and joy and satisfaction out of being here I think that's the least of it plus it's my personal challenge that I can still do it 73 and I can still do it

hotel stairs

Frront row and full moon

 Good morning it is 7:15 or so 7:30 I'm up because unfortunately I had an excruciating headache last night tried to go back to sleep I did and this morning I just took my Excedrin and I hope it does its job don't know why I have a headache I'm drinking enough water but nonetheless I have one. I didn't write last night because it just was late and I was tired. However from the hotel Colleen and I go out every night to eat our breakfast I mean eat all dinner together on the outside Alcove and usually after we watch something on my tablet and last night there was a huge soccer game and the stadium is right by us and we could hear all the hollering and yelling and clapping and Rwanda was facing Djibouti and Rwanda 13 nothing. We have met up with that group of children from from Miami that are here to perform with change of music or music has changed something like that it's also a nonprofit so we may go and watch their performance tomorrow night. I also wanted to give you a little story about a young man I will post his picture who I saw at the center who seemed very very upset and I asked one of the teachers to ask him and it turns out that he's 14 years old and had not been to school at mind leaps for the last 2 weeks because his mother has gone to Uganda to get material for what she sells which are beads and jewelry that she makes leaving him to take care of his younger siblings. He's 14 years old he had to cook for them get them ready for their own activities and all at the age of 14 and what he was most upset about was missing school. Very humbling to think that such responsibility goes to such a youngster but it's not a singular story. In the meantime it was a beautiful full moon last night I hope I captured some of it on my camera and going downstairs to try to have some breakfast even though I don't feel like eating much. Yesterday I did a dance class with Eaves but mostly I just do the warm up and stretching part of it I did okay also you'll see a picture of

Olivia wearing my AARP hat which I gave to him you'll also see a photo of children in a huddle and it was a game that we were playing with words

Easy like sunday morning

 We're back from our day a little earlier because it is Sunday. We got up had breakfast and met some very nice people from Florida that are here from another NGO company called change through music and they're here with nine students from Florida and they'll be performing. We also told them about mine leaps I'm always trying to publicize them when I have the opportunity. Colleen went off to church and I stayed at the center I did a little reading I hung out with the other teachers that were here today I had lunch and when Colleen got back we took a car taxi and went to visit our mutual friend Odile

Odile and her then fiance had stayed at my house they were there for New Year's Eve and spent a few days together but unfortunately a deal although she was attending Yale University and actually graduated and has a master's from Yale returns home to Rwanda and had a horrific accident that severed her spinal cord so she is in a wheelchair now. Her sisters and brother and mother were there and were very nice and very hospitable to us and she looks great and she still works for the prime minister's office here in kilgali she says she has a rich social life she goes to the gym but I asked her about her legs and she says she has no feeling in them which made me very sad. It was a lovely visit and we returned back early we're going to have a little snacky kind of dinner and tomorrow we're back to our regular schedule of teaching I'm going to put in some photos and catch up tomorrow I'm also putting in photos of my lunch which was usual which was rice with cabbage and beans is actually taste very good I also added pictures of Bashir and Rebecca because they are leaving tonight to return back to the States today they also had a very interesting meeting with several students that have graduated from college and having a discussion about life afterwards about jobs search going for masters degrees and things like that because many of these kids once they graduate they really don't know what's next so as you can see mine leaves keeps in touch with their graduates their alumni and that's why so many alumni actually work here at the center

same gentleman I photographed  2 years ago

lunch

Alumni meeting about life after graduation

t

Baby sitting and girls lunch out

 Today was a fun day it started out with getting to the center a little late because today was the community service day which is the last Saturday of the month and that's when everyone comes out to beautify the area the streets it's mandatory there are no traffic no very few motorcycles between the hours of 9:00 and 12:00. I find it amusing that as we're walking to the center some people we know come out and call on name it just feels so homey that here I am in Rwanda and people know me and Colleen. So we spent some time at the center and then we went and met Rebecca for lunch so it was just the three girls we had a lot of good conversation and then we went to Rebecca and bashir's rented home which is very nice actually and we was spent the afternoon with Sophia in the beginning she was a little hesitant and then eventually she really warmed up to us we had a lot of fun with her reminded me of my own granddaughter Sydney same age they're only a month apart and what fun it would be if the two of them got together. So tomorrow Colleen and I are going to visit odile she stayed in my house with her then fiance Patrick who runs the gazeemba orphanage she had a very terrible accident that put her in a wheelchair we don't know what her condition is right now she did graduate from Yale and we don't know what the situation is going to be but we are going to spend time with her tomorrow all right so enjoy the pictures for today I didn't see my monkeys this morning maybe they'll be out tomorrow

even Sophia pitching in on community  day

Shabbat shalom

 It's 9:30 p.m. and getting ready for bed and hoping to get a good night's sleep. So there's a lot for me to write about today and the first thing I wanted to talk about were the monkeys because they were back this morning and I put a picture of them that I took on to Google to tell me about these monkeys and this is what I learned they're called Eastern vervet monkeys and they are from this area and they can be very friendly from what I read but it says not to leave snacks out don't leave your window open when they're around because they are looking for snacks so they're very friendly to humans but can be a little Brazen so that's what they are and that's what kind of monkeys they are so I wanted to share that another thing I wanted to mention was the changes that I see since the last time I was in Rwanda and what I noticed again were that everybody has cell phones now and that at the center there are more children on their cell phones and when we wanted to take a break and do a game like Zip they had no idea what I was talking about meanwhile only a few years ago it was the children that taught me that game among others that they play in Rwanda I found that a little sad so this morning we had a free morning because it's Friday and they do different things on Friday I had one class with my online students which I was very happy to see them and we will laughing a lot because I was doing L and R pronunciation and they left it themselves as well and it was really a lot of fun. I hope that they come out of the next 3 weeks being able to say Larry and say Laura and say rock and roll I also remember when I was here or maybe my first or second trip that mostly all the kids girls and boys had very very short crop hair that's not the case anymore a lot of hair extensions and men with more hair on their head than I've seen before so that was something that I thought was different also the fact that the mine leave Center has so many teachers now there's never enough chairs for everyone to sit in the staff room which is a wonderful thing that they have so many so between the hours of 2:00 and 4:00 we have well I taught class and then four to five we did a discussion and it was very Lively mostly talking about women's roles in Rwanda and then we opened it up to let them ask us questions to ask Colleen and I questions which was very interesting and again a wonderful to be able to have these discussions that are a little difficult you know we talked about racial inequality in the US and how neighborhoods are mostly segregated and how what they consider what they think is that all Americans are rich and the fact that what I have probably would make me Rich here but according to our Santa's in the US I am definitely middle class

Tomorrow is Community Day of Service where everybody pitches in and does something whether it's cleaning the streets or planting trees everybody does this they'll be very little traffic in the streets and this is in the morning until 12:00 after which Colleen and I are supposed to babysit for Sophia last year and Rebecca's little girl so I'm looking forward to that. I also did a class this morning withYves which was fun I felt great stretching and later on he showed me some techniques and keeping my balance because balance is difficult but he showed me a couple of things that I was not doing correctly and I thought it was very helpful I think I burned a lot of calories and not sure I haven't checked yet today what my step count was between that and the dancing and actually I'm going to look right now so today I got my 10,000 steps. So I am going to bed and I will post some pictures and hope you're enjoying reading my blog I'm also wanting to include include a poem that Julius wrote basically for me but it's for everyone when I was talking about the fear of falling and it's also obviously a metaphor for life but it's a very interesting poem so I thought I would add it

yes me trying to work out bbbb before dance

Julius Hawai

Fiston

students 

one of my on line students

sisters 

my on line students

morning visitors

 

July 23 l and R

 For the past 2 days I have worked on pronunciation with all the students. The older ones obviously do a little bit better plus I'm in a room with a computer and a projector which helps a lot in the afternoon I teach the younger kids who also worked on pronunciation it was funny and sweet watching them struggle with saying the L letter and the r letter and we did some tongue twisters as well tomorrow is Friday and it's a different kind of day with the older kids practice every week to present a debate in the afternoon so I'm pretty much free in the morning tomorrow I still walk up and down the hill but it's less steps than I had hoped it really only comes to about 5,000 steps 00 a day although my heart rate goes up to 120 125. Colleen and I woke up to the little store on the green corner to buy what they call biscuits but they're like tea crackers cookies that I bring back and we put it in the staff room Rebecca invites Colleen and I to attend all staff activities and meetings she keeps saying we are part of the family which she certainly makes us feel that way so I don't have much more to add I haven't seen the monkeys for a couple days and everything is fine I love these people I love these kids and I will post a few pictures from the past two days

School has begun

 A few observations I wanted to know one is that there are so many electric vehicles here more than I've ever seen in my own area in New Jersey. They are cheaper to run obviously than gas and it's sunny here very often so I see electric cars electric buses electric motorcycles and much more than I had anticipated. I've also noticed when we have our lunch that the kill the students eat first and then the staff will eat after the students have been fed the food is the same as it's been before cabbage beans potatoes and it's actually quite good. Absolutely shocked at the Mounds of food that people put on their plates and they eat it all but I also know that many of the students and the staff that this is the only meal of the day. So today was the first day of class for Colleen and for me

Classes started at 9:00 and I had a class at 10:00 of lovely students who are all in their twenties and did very well with today's lesson on pronunciation. We broke for lunch and had some time off until 2:00 I had a 2-hour class with the younger kids who are very sweet but a little rambunctious but very sweet and participatory they all wanted to participate especially when I was giving out little Tootsie Rolls when they got a correct answer. Colleen brought 5 Pounds of Tootsie Rolls and we hardly have any left Period Went through all the dum-dum lollipops Period And now I am Giving out stickers We came back to the Hotel pretty early about 6 30 It's the first time we had to walk back to the hotel totally uphill. My heart rate went up to about 1:25 but I felt okay. So I took a shower and now I'm ready to get ready for bed and maybe watch something on my tablet I'm going to include some photos that I took today

that was for one student!

my younger kids and yes I look fat ugh

older students 

Alice

julius