cow kidney and african karaoke

Oh my gosh this week is one for the books!

First of all, life is flying bye. I've stopped using my homemade countdown calendar because it was making me too anxious. I have a million things to do and it just seems impossible to get them all done.I've been here three weeks and i'm almost to the down hill side.

Second of all, I have friends! And they want to hang out with me. And they take me on adventures. and make me laugh hysterically.

Third of all, i've learned that Africa is a gift. All her problems and ineffeciencies and dirt and craziness is a gift. A gift for me to learn patience. A gift for me to provide service. A gift for me to learn gratitude for what I have. A gift for me to tap into that celestial love that flows directly into you when you really get to know the heart of these people. And a gift for me to relax and release and just follow the process.

My favorite parts of this week:

Sunday - two different men offered my host family cows to marry me. Flattering. Thanks guys.
Monday - a moto driver that dropped me off realized that i was lost, let me walk for a good 5 min
and then came and picked me up and took me where i needed. It was sooo nice.
Tuesdsay - meeting with the guy in charge of women's education for all of Rwanda. It was like my research paper of the last 6 months came to life right before my very eyes. I was on the edge of my seat listening to all the work that he's trying to do here. I love male gender activists and think the world needs more of them.
Wednesday - my friend decided to cook for me. He lives a little bit in the ghetto in this weird compound where everyone shares a pee-hole and a water bucket. His neighbors find me hysterical and like to play with my hair. So Godfrey (that's right, his name is Godfrey) decided to cook me something he learned from his American friends while serving his LDS mission. And we invited the neighbors from the compound to come to our little picnic. It was a picnic only becuase the compound doesn't have furniture. And he cooked all of these things on an old coleman stove on the floor of his green carpeted apartement. So we had spagetti and some kind of sauce. And advocato and banana of course. There was some kind of gooey meat in the sauce but I didn't want to know. I didn't want to vomit. It was only later I was brave enough to ask. And that's right, cow kidney. Yup.
Thursday - oh my my. First of all I ate a hamburger. it cost me 6000 RWF (which is like $10) but I splurged and went for it. Thats only becuase of a day spent at a coffee shop becuase the internet connection at the director's house blew up. But to really compliment the perfectness of this day was African karaoke. I was excited for this plan becuase i LOVED Japaneese kareoke. It's just so great. But i was so unprepared for African's style. The genius part is - no one sings. and it's not an open mic at all. Its an auditioned for, hired for, prepared and rehereased and planned for, lip sync. We're talking costumes, moves, glitter - the works. And these people have moves. And i laughed my freaking head off. Which i think was a little offensive to those performing and those watching who take this sort of thing very seriously. Becuase African lip syncing is very very serious.

I have a video if i can freaking figure out how to load it.

and now...it's friday. I'm going to a town on the border of Congo and Rwanda. I have no idea where we're sleeping but i'm pretty sure it's in a hostel with bunk beds. and i'm taking Godfrey, my host sister Annah (who's never been there), 2 other white chicks, and a few more Africans that i don't know yet. And we're going to swim in a methane infested fault line lake that all the locals think have a sea monster in it. And we're takign a 3 hour bus ride to get there. And we're going to try to cross the border into Congo just to say we've done it. Except that it's believed to house rwandan rebels there. So we will see.

A totlaly great week in Africa.

Blessings,

Shai