June Happenings

June has been super busy for us. Matt has been out of the country three times this month so far for work, and we have a trip back to the states next week! On top of that, I've joined a women's bible study, we took a beach vacation, and we got a couple new additions to our family! (and no, that does not mean I'm pregnant)

About a week ago we went to Mombasa, Kenya for three days. It was a beautiful, ALL INCLUSIVE resort that spoiled us rotten. We even got to watch a guy climb up a palm tree to get us some coconuts to drink/eat!

And check out the view from our room!

Hanging out on our balcony drinking our coconut milk straight from the source.

We have also gotten to be a part of a few community events that Jibu has sponsored. We got to hand out water to runners and community members at two different marathons.

We finally got BABY CHICKENS!!! Friends and family, we are pleased to announce the newest members of our family. Meet Meep and Peep.

This is right when we found them, the morning they were born. You can still see one of their hatched eggs.

Here they are at a day old and Momma is teaching them how to find food. Chicks eat EVERYTHING. Its so fun to get to watch them roam around and mimmic their momma. 

Now they're about two and a half weeks old and roaming the chicken run with all the other chickens. Momma is raising them completely, which is great for us. No heating lamps!

Matt's latest project was to build me a standing desk! Why? There are a lot of health risks strongly associated with the amount of time we spend sitting every day (which Wellnessmama has thoroughly researched and sums up really well in this article). Also, sitting too long was starting to give me back pain and super tight hip flexors.

I love the design Matt came up with! Its actually a standing podium rather than a whole standing desk, which works really well because its easily removable if I need to sit for something. He also connected the top of the table with a hinge and a prop, so my laptop is closer to eye level, AND it can be used as an easel or a foot stool as well! He's so smart.

Woodworking In Rwanda

Something I never realized about moving to Rwanda was the length of the day.  EVERY day is 12 hours long.  The sun rises around 6am and sets around 6pm.  That may sound like a long day when comparing it to a Colorado winter day.  But a summer day in Colorado begins around 5:30 am and ends well after 8:30pm.  

Combining the short days with the relatively limited number of familiar activities available here in Rwanda, you have a good recipe for cabin fever. 

Proverbs 16:27 says "Idle hands are the devil's workshop, idle lips are his mouthpiece."  I never realized that was an actual "Proverb".  I always just thought it was a "proverb", if you get what I'm saying.  A few months after we arrived I was going a little stir crazy so Katie encouraged me to start woodworking.  I'm not even sure why.  I think it had something to do with an outdoor dining table that she wanted, but that we couldn't afford.   

I have always loved building things and working with my hands.  It is one of the many traits that was passed to be from my dad, and one that I am very grateful for.  There is something incredibly rewarding about a day of manual labor, working with you hands to create something.  I would be lying if I said I have never contemplated quitting engineering and taking up a trade like welding or carpentry.  Thats a topic for another day, but suffice it to say that I realize my skill as an engineer is a talent from the Lord and to walk away at this point would be the same as burying it in the ground instead of investing it.  

Anyways, back on topic, WOODWORKING.  I knew very little about woodworking 7 months ago.  I had built things out of wood, but I wasn't really woodworking.  I didn't know what a mortice and tenon, dovetail, or dado was.  The only time I had ever used a chisel was to (poorly) install a door strike.  I thought that the only way to attach two pieces of wood together was with screw or a nail.  I have learned a ton thanks to the wealth of information also known as the internet (specifically youtube).  I just wish I had paid more attention and asked more questions when I would " have to be" Mr. Doug Sander's or Mr. James Andrew's helper for the day.  I could have learned so much more from those men.

OK, less talk more photos.  Here are some photos and descriptions of some of the things I have made over the past 7 months.  Enjoy.  PS. You may have to click on some of the photos to see the details.

You have seen this photo before, but my workbench was my first project to undertake. 

Since Rwanda is a mostly cash based economy, I made us a budget box to put our cash in at the beginning of every month (Dave Ramsey style minus the envelopes).  It is a little comical to see this guy at the beginning of the month, especially since the largest bill in Rwanda is a 5000 Rwandan Fracs note (the equivalent of $6.50 USD).  

Here is our outdoor dining table.  We enjoy weekend breakfasts and dinners in the cool evenings.  If I did it again, I would do it very differently, but I learned a ton while working on this project.  

Rwandans use 2 spices in everyday cooking, Salt and MSG.  Needless to saw we were in need of some storage space for our spices.  So I built us a simple spice rack.  

I had really neat looking piece of African mahogany (which is as common as pine here) that I wanted to use.  So I build Katie a small box to put a necklace in that she was wanting from a local jewelry maker.  

I learned a two lessons while building this one.  1. If you want to put something inside a box, it is best to know how big that something is before you build the box.  2. My wife likes really big necklaces.  Who ever heard of a necklace not fitting into a 3inch x 3inch x 2inch box.

I have really gotten into building my own tools here.  Partially out of necessity since very few tools are available here and those that are, are complete crap from China.  Left to Right: A hack saw blade in a very crude bow saw frame, a bench hook, a panel gauge, a rabbet plane, a cutting gauge, a router plane, and a jointer's mallet.  

I forgot to take a close up of the jointer's mallet, but essentially it is just a big hammer used to pound chisels without destroying them with a metal hammer.  

A bench hook is just that.  It hooks on the front of the bench and provides a backing to saw against with a handsaw.

A router plane is used to clean out the bottom of a groove (dado) in order to make the groove a uniform depth and distance from the surface of the wood.  I made this one out of a 6inch piece of black walnut thanks to Jan Sesler and an allen wrench with a bevel ground and polished into the shorter leg.  

A panel gauge is used to draw a line parallel to reference edge of a board.  You extend the arm with the pencil to set the desired distance from the fence and tighten it in place with a small wedge.  Then you butt the fence of the panel gauge against the edge of the board and draw a line.  This is used to mark the width of boards before I cut them to size with a handsaw since dimensional lumber (2x4, 1x10 etc.) is non-existent in Rwanda.  

The cutting gauge is a very similar concept just smaller than the panel gauge.  And instead of having a pencil, it has a small knife edge that I ground down and sharpened from a bent masonry drill bit.  The knife blade is held in with a small wedge. The arm slides in and out to set the distance and again a small wedge holds it in place.

Last but not lease is the rabbet plane.  Don't ask me why they call it a rabbet, I have no idea.  But a rabbet is a groove along the edge of a board.  These are used to recess the bottoms of boxes (like the necklace box) or the backs of cabinets.  I made the rabbet place from a busted chisel (again crap tools from China) and a scrap piece of african mahogany.  One neat thing about the rabbet plane is it creates the cute little curly shavings.  

Well, thats what I have been up to.  If you made it all the way to the end of the blog, thanks for sticking through all the woodworking terminology.  If you ignored the text and just enjoyed the pictures, no hard feelings.  Katie zones out when I start talking about woodworking too. 

Learning Thankfulness

I wish I could say that its so easy to be thankful for the things we have here. We aren't financially forced to eat beans and rice every meal, or suffer from waterborne sicknesses and parasites because we can't afford to buy clean water. We have a water tank to store city water when it comes so we're not as affected by the water rationing schedules during dry seasons. We have a car, a motorcycle, and money for public transportation if we need it, so we don't have to walk for HOURS every day just to get to work. These things aren't true for the majority of the population here, or the majority of the world for that matter.

Yet for some reason, instead of choosing to be thankful for our GOOD and EASY life here, I find it so easy to get frustrated when ALL OF KIGALI is out of my favorite imported product...or I want to take a bath and the water is a gross shade of brown or green, or when our daily internet allotment runs out in the middle of our favorite streamed tv show, or ....etc, etc. The list of my petty frustrations can go on and on. The truth is, most of the time, I feel entitled to these things. I feel like I deserve vermont extra sharp white cheddar, real maple syrup, and unlimited internet. News flash to me... I DON'T. Contentment and thankfulness are choices we make. They don't come naturally, and they are not situation dependent. I think Paul said it best in Philippians.

"I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. 12I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13I can do all this through him who gives me strength."

Here are a few things we've been thankful for lately:

First of all, we have an abundance of some very tasty fresh fruits and veggies. For that I am thankful. Colored bell peppers are nearly impossible to find though, but somehow Matt happened to find red, yellow, orange, red, and even PURPLE bell peppers! They were beautiful, tasty, and one of our most exciting finds here to date.

I love all the beautiful color that comes from fresh fruits and veggies in our house!

We got this beautiful rooster a couple months ago, and recently he has started learning how to crow. He sounds like an awkward teenager trying to find his voice and its pretty hilarious every time he tries. We got him in hopes of getting some baby chicks someday.

Not too long ago, we cracked open some eggs and found these! The ring around the small white dot that you can see in the top left egg, and the one furthest to the right means they've been fertilized!

At the same time, we happened to have one of our ladies go broody, which means she's mama hen and will sit on the eggs till they hatch, and then ideally take care of the babies once they're here.

We'll keep you updated if/when we get some chicks, but we're super thankful that they might be here soon!

We're also very thankful we get to hang out with these little ones every day. This is also Esther's blog debut. She's about 2 months old now.

We're thankful for the beautiful view we get from our office

Our heirloom tomatoes are growing! Oddly enough, Rwanda only grows roma tomatoes locally, so we're excited to get some variety!

Bella finally has a tug-o-war partner. Its only her favorite game in the world. She's got a *slight* weight advantage, so she's usually pretty good at winning.

Last but not least, we are thankful that we are usually able to find the things we need to make most of the foods we might be missing from the US, like cinnamon rolls the size of your face and homemade greek yogurt. 

Daily Life

Several people have asked that we share what our day to day life looks like.  Granted our week days vary throughout the week, here is the synopsis of a typical day.

5:30am - I am usually waking up to the world's loudest birds right outside our bedroom window.  It is 50-50 whether it is me or Bella who wakes up first.  If I am the first one up, I will stealthily get dressed and sneak out of the room and leave Katie to sleep for a few more hours.  Bella is not so kind.  If she is the first one up, she immediately puts her big wet nose right in our faces while we are still sleeping and lets us know that she is ready to leave the bedroom.  She doesn't want to go outside. No, she just wants to relocate to the rug in the living room for another hour of sleep.

6:00am - By now I have made my first cup of coffee for the day and am out in my workshop doing some woodworking.  I just recently finished this small table to go by Katie's prayer nook.

My Workshop and Katie's Prayer Nook

8 -8:15am - My goal is to leave the house for work around this time.  I'm super grateful that I can start my work day a little later that the average Rwandan (I think the official Rwandan workday starts at 7am).  This means that I get a little bit of me time in the morning and I get to avoid rush hour traffic.  Granted, Kigali traffic isn't that bad when you drive a motorcycle.  I get to avoid a lot of the stop and go by driving on the shoulder, squeezing between the lanes of standstill cars, and generally just taking the path of least resistance.

My commute is something like 4.5 miles and takes me about 15 minutes from the time I walk out the door to the time I am sit down at my desk.

My 180cc Beast of a Motorcycle and Katie's Rav4

8:30am - 5/5:30/8pm - My work days are semi consistent.  Maybe 60 percent of my time is spent in the office designing a new store layout, developing a build out budget, or other normal office work.  The other 40% of my time is spent visiting our water production sites doing repairs, training, quality control checks, or checking up on construction progress at new locations.

Probably my favorite part of my job is working directly with the water production operators.  On the one hand they can frustrate the crap out of me at times.  But it is super rewarding to see their eagerness to learn and their progress.  Many of these guys are high school graduates at best, some didn't even finish high school, and we are teaching them chemical dilutions, plumbing, and quality control practices.

Katie's work day is much less consistent.  She works roughly half time for Jibu.  She is currently serving in two separate roles.  She has been doing a bunch of graphic design of marketing material for a lot our stores.  Her main role has been identifying, developing and supporting young female entrepreneurs.  She finds young girls between 18-23 y.o. and helps them launch their own Jibu water store, with financial support from Jibu.  These are girls who have finished high school and may or may not have any possibility to attend university.  For many of them, they have struggled to even find a minimum wage job.  FYI, minimum wage is 30,000 Rwandan Francs per month or about 38 US Dollars per month.

Not only are these girls getting a source of income, they are gaining the skills to run their own business.  They are learning customer service, how to manage income and expenses, and how to maintain adequate inventory.  It doesn't come without its challenges and Katie could probably (and justifiably) rant for a whole blog about the frustrations, but at the end of the day seeing these girls succeed is super rewarding.

Joyce in Her New Jibu Store

When she is not working for Jibu, a large portion of Katie's time is taken up by day to day task like grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning, tending to our farm animals and garden, and generally keeping us healthy.

Speaking of Garden, Here is Pitori with a Beet That We Might Have Left a Little Too Long in The Ground

6 - 10:30pm - Monday nights we are typically home and spend the evening hanging out, going on walks, reading, playing board/card games and sometimes (most times) binge watching TV shows on our computer.  We also eat a typical Rwandan meal on Mondays (and Thursdays) which consist of 2-5 different starches (plantain bananas, white sweet potatoes, red potatoes, rice, and casava) and beans with some sort of sauce.

Tuesday nights we lead a community group/bible study group at our house.  (We are very grateful for our church.  It is a good mix of people from all over the world.  It is probably about 50-60% African (mostly Rwandan) and then 40-50% foreigners from everywhere.  The service is all in english with an American pastor and it is typical American church length.  Anyone who has ever attended a typical African church service knows they can last 4-6 hours every Sunday.

Wednesday nights are similar to Mondays.

Thursday night I have a conference call for work which ends up taking up a good portion of the night.

Friday is typically date night for us.  We have a few favorite restaurants we like to frequent.  We are very grateful that Kigali has a good selection of tasty (yet somewhat expensive) eateries.  There is also a movie theater here in town that show the most recent releases.

Well, I feel I have probably bored you with the details for our day to day life.  As you can see, life here isn't all that different than that in the states.  There are many details that are different, like literally going to 10 different stores every week to buy our groceries.  But for the most part, life in Rwanda is pretty normal.  Maybe in the next few posts we will point out some of these differences.


Katie Finished Her Christmas Present Puzzle and Here Are Some Roses From Our New Flower Garden

Revisiting the Magical Kingdom (of Saudi Arabia)

As many of you know, Matt and I met in Saudi Arabia at grad school. In January, we had the opportunity to go back to KAUST and speak to students about Jibu, the company we work with here in Rwanda. People showed a lot of interest in Jibu and the work that we're doing in East Africa, which was encouraging. We also had such a wonderful time reminiscing about our friendship during the semester we were at KAUST together and reconnecting with some old friends. Here are some pictures from our trip.

 

This is the KAUST beacon. I always loved how beautiful it was when it was lit up at night.

Another one of my favorite spots on campus, shallow 

pools that always caught the sunset just right!

We spent hours riding bikes around campus, which has drastically
grown in the past 4 years since we've been there.

We went by the entrance to my old apartment and our favorite bridge. Matt's old apartment is under construction in the background. So many good memories in both of these places!

We took a sunset cruise on a very fancy yacht and got a beautiful view of campus. I miss the Red Sea! I used to see eagle rays flapping their wings in the harbor on my walk home from classes.

We got to leave campus and eat some pretty scary looking fish
 with our hands at a restaurant right on the Red Sea.
Very fresh seafood, DELICIOUS!

In more recent news, we have been in Uganda for the past week and this is a picture of all the color and chaos that happens right outside our office every Friday here.

And THIS happened before we left....

Bella (with a little help from Foxy) knocked her freshly cooked dog food off the counter and ate an entire 5 days worth of food.

Does she look guilty or what

and just in case you were missing this cutie...