Getting A Leetle Overinvolved

It's a gorgeous, bright, sunny morning in Kigali, which was preceded by a heaven-sent, beautiful and sunny week. The rainy season came early (CLIMATE CHANGE IS REAL, FOX NEWS) and we haven't been able to walk anywhere without being at the very least armed with an umbrella since about mid-February, so this has been a truly delightful change. Yesterday your RAs took a trip to the Mille Colline (yes, the Mille Colline, of Hotel Rwanda fame) and sat by the pool for the day. Laying out by the pool is a huge treat here, because it runs anywhere from $6 to the more expensive $10 required by the Mille, but we won ourselves a solid Best Teachers Ever award this week, and we decided to splurge. Even our 60 and 70 SPF couldn't quite stand up to the beast that is the ultraviolet light this close to the equator, and we're both spending the day nursing hard-won sunburns, but it was a glorious way to spend a Saturday. We had two laid-back, quiet hours and then another two full of screaming, splashing children, one of whom ran up to RA2 STARK NAKED and made a grab for her ipod while RA1 looked on, cackling, offering exactly zero help or emotional support.

Since neither of us even want to think about it, this will probably be the last mention of it in this blog, but we are 2/3 of the way through our time here, and staring down the one-month gun barrel. We have squeezed more action into 2 months than seems possible: giraffes, endless trips to the studio, dancing, karaoke, Primus, two trips to Gisinye, tye-dye, English classes, basket-weaving, Primus, a day by the pool, brochettes, Indian food, Chinese food, Primus, shopping, the bus system, and constant new adventures and discoveries, and we have every expectation that the last month here will hold the same.

As we've mentioned, being here for so long has enabled us to create amazing connections with the women and children we work with, and we've gotten particularly close with Claudine's family. Claudine recently gave birth to a baby girl, and both RAs were declared "muzungu Aunties" - we hope to put up pictures of our visit to her at the hospital soon. RA2 also decided to sponsor her first daughter, Sylvie, through school. Sylvie is in the rare and enviable position of having a mother who is very dedicated to and excited about her education, and a father without any inclination to interfere. The only thing she needed were school fees and money for all the incidentals Rwandan "free" public schooling requires: one or two uniforms, a notebook, a pencil, a backpack, a canteen, and a roll of toilet paper (we have no idea, we didn't ask). The cost is prohibitive for most Rwandan families, who largely rely on donors and foundations to scrape by each year, but comes out to just $80 a year for pre-school and about $200-$400 a year for primary and secondary school. University, if a student gets accepted, is only about $500 per semester, at two semesters a year.

Clockwise from top: Claudine, Sylvie's new principal, RA2 and Sylvie, registering for school.

Sylvie, her serious little face, and her new school equipment, which she refused to take off.

Sylvie and her beautiful mother, all set for school.