Snippets of Life

Here are some random goings-on in the life of the Hines Family, in no particular order.

Rwanda Trip
Until we get our work visa, we have to use a tourist visa that must be renewed every three months.  The simplest way is to drive about 30 minutes over to the border of Rwanda.  We decided to make a full road trip out of it, and go down to Kigali for a brief exploration of Rwanda's capital, and in hopes of finding tasty food and palatable coffee.  Here's an email Leslie wrote that captures part of the trip:

The Kigali report:  short drive, nice paved roads - you could tell the minute we crossed the border - kind of crazy... you're just driving past these tea plantations and rice fields and hundreds of women working harvesting the crops on these beautiful green hills and then you see the city skyline and hotels... the roadside is cleaner on the Rwandan side and once we got to the city it's very metropolitan, lots of European influence (I think b/c after the genocide they received so much foreign aid and it really shows in the infrastructure)  The shopping mall and coffee shops and restaurants looked more like what you would see in the ritzy part of Dallas - prices to match!  Jesse said, "how come there are so many white people here?"  The whole city felt modern and organized and the service was fast and friendly... lots of Europeans and westerners - several Koreans... I didn't use my french much... but it was nice to think I could understand what people were saying and I could read the signs.  Wendy and I felt like the country/village hicks coming to the Big City!!!!  The border crossing is prohibitive though, and you have to fill out a lot of paperwork, not just passports & visa checkpoints, but vehicle registration, separate car insurance for Rwanda and customs for luggage... 3 windows all told and we waited in the car 1 hour each way... driving time 2 1/2 - 3 hrs... so 4 hrs total travel one way - it was a lot to do in a day with all the kids in tow, but we made it!  I'm so glad we had a Ugandan driver b/c it made it so much easier to navigate the border crossing - he drove us all day and we paid 20, 000 shillings ($8 dollars).  So - I think between the border crossing and the exchange rate, we will not go frequently, but it is better than the 8 hour nastiness drive to Kampala and the city of Kigali is much nicer - less congested and beautiful.

And part of an email I sent:

Thank you for your prayers for our travels today.  We had a full but uneventful trip down to the border, into Kigali in Rwanda (where we found some very good coffee), and back again with renewed visas in hand.  We are especially grateful for David Habaasa, our driver, who made the trip so much easier for us.

By the way, Habaasa told me something I found encouraging, and thought you would as well.  He and I were talking of how we're settling in Kabale.  At one point he said, "They know you in town, now.  If I'm there and you drive by, they say, 'There goes your muzungu!' This makes us feel good, because we know they know you belong to us, so we know you are safe.'"

Fruit of the Land
Our garden, planted and tended by our faithful friend Protase, is beginning to bear fruit.  The girls and I enjoyed cutting, transporting, and washing our own lettuce, and Leslie turned it into a wonderful salad!

Art

The more homes we visit in Kabale, the more we realize how hard Bishop Barham University College worked to provide us with a comfortable, attractive home.  We are so grateful to them!

Nevertheless, concrete floors, borrowed, mismatched furniture, and bare walls become somewhat depressing after a while.  We've been yearning for beauty in home.  This yearning first began to be met through Leslie's sister, when she sent via a traveling friend beautiful prints that we put on the walls of our house.

Next, our shipment from home arrived after almost 4 months in transit, and a few pieces of art were quickly hung.  Our favorite is this piece prayerfully and lovingly created by Jesse's godmother for his baptism.

Then we met Edward Ssajjabbi.  We first saw his paintings of African wildlife hanging in a hotel here in Kabale.  Georgia LOVES zebras, and Jesse is very drawn to cheetahs, and so we began negotiating via text messages with the unknown artist for the purchase of two of his works.  This went on for a couple of months, and it was time to make a decision.  We went to the hotel to look at them one more time, and they were gone!  In a slight panic, we called the artist, and he told us he had them at his studio, and was preparing to take them to the States for an exhibition.  We drove quickly to his studio in Kabale to meet him face-to-face at last, and to see the paintings again.


We parked in front of rather dreary store front, squeezed between two buildings, then entered a courtyard where a woman was washing clothes and cooking over her charcoal stove.  There was Edward's studio, a tiny room with almost no light.  Then he began pulling out his artwork to get to the zebras and the cheetahs...but, oh!  The other artwork!  Here are our favorites, and they're now hanging on our walls, turning a house into a home, bringing beauty, life, and color.

The Vendors

Untitled, but you can see the women going to market with children on their backs.

Wedding Portrait

And here are the pieces that led to the discovery of Edward, now hanging in Georgia's and Jesse's rooms.  (The art, that is.  Edward is not hanging in their rooms.)

Acacia Dwellers

Brotherhood

Edward is native to Kabale, and is a self-taught artist.  His wife teaches at a secondary school we pass every morning on the way to the kids' school.  We're becoming friends with both of them, and both they and we see our meeting as clearly the result of God's work in our lives.  The timing, the relational connection, the provision for our family, the provision for their family...it's a beautiful thing on several levels.

Ordination

One final tidbit.  On Sunday, I will be ordained to the priesthood by Bishop George Katwesigye at St. Peter's Cathedral, Rugarama.  I'll write more about this later and what I see God doing in preparing my family and me for this time.  One part of that preparation, however, is a pre-ordination retreat with another 12 or so ordinands and their spouses.  The retreat began today (Thursday), and is conducted almost entirely in Rukiga (roo-CHEE-gah), the language of the tribe of this region.  While we are only understanding about .2% of it, I am loving it.  The overall sense I keep having is: This is beautiful; this is where I belong; these are the people I want to be with.  I look forward to more.