Heidi...suffering and laughing

I would like to introduce you to my family...way left is Logan, Heidi's oldest and in the plaid shirt is my son, Alex. Chris, Heidi's husband is leaning over Heidi trying to get her to focus in on what is going on while she is experiencing her most recent seizure. Both Kristin and I, today, cried and we decided that Heidi is blessed to have a husband and mate who can handle the stress of this situation, calmly and in a supportive, loving fashion. He is upset, cranky, tired, frustrated and more...but constantly and consistently loving, calm and in control. He helps her through this difficult time and we are so blessed that he is her husband and the role model for us all. This is an incredibly emotional time and we do nothing for hours on end except listen, love, cry and pray.

The kids went out for a break and stole flowers, which upset Kristin, Here is McKenzie, also known as Kenz, Heidi's second born with Alex and Logan. Heidi has two flowers in her hair, complements of the children. She said I could take her photo but I couldn't put it on Facebook or My space...she didn't say anything about my blog!! And below, note Heidi's fashionable gown with a huge S drawn on her chest in honor of MSU, my alma mater. Heidi's TV didn't work this morning and she was quite concerned that we get it arranged so she could view the MSU/Butler NCAA semis. MSU lost...we are all bumbed.

You all don't know my daughter. Heidi, unlike Kristin and me, is always beautifully arranged and looks lovely. To her right you can see the huge array of wiring which she fondly called her dreds and extensions. Her hair is a mess which just never happens in real life. Heidi is doing OK...we are worried about her and the love being sent, the warm wishes and the prayers are being felt all day every day. Thank you all. While she looks less than gorgeous here, Heidi is a wonderfully strong wife, mother, employee and daughter. Her sister, Kristin and I, along with brother, son, daughter, mother in law, and husband are by her side watching and waiting for some clue as to what is causing her this horrid distress.

We are loving Henry Ford Hospital and its staff. The difference is amazing...nurses kid her, laugh with her, push her, encourage her to eat and more. Kristin reminded me that not one person mentioned she wasn't eating...five days and NO food at McLaren and today, she ate a bit of soup, some chicken nuggets, a granola bar and more. Not a lot for a 6 ft. woman but she ate. And someone noticed. Long commute to Detroit but we think, well worth the effort. Tomorrow is Easter and HE has risen.

Back Home

Here is a banana tree found at the Genocide Museum in Kigali...got home several days ago, spent 12 hours in the house and Alex and I boarded a plane to come to Michigan. Heidi, our 38 year old daughter is in the hospital...she was moved from the hospital here in Flint to Henry Ford in Detroit last night. She is having horrid seizures, headaches and is totally drugged to keep her functioning at the most basic of levels. We are very very worried. Kristin, Alex, Logan, Kenz and I are trying very hard to be support for her and for Chris. And so, prayers are needed/wanted and I will try to update everyone as best I can.

Heidi's neighbors took up a collection and gave me their card and funds to take to Chris so he won't have to worry about gas and food. Taking a care package to him today.

Posting from the Kigali airport

Up way too early this morning but got tons of work done. My reports are almost finalized and should be able to get those done while waiting around in the Brussels airport. Takes 10 hours to get there...arghhh. Going to miss various things here and especially love to hate the toilet at the IREX office. It has a toilet seat with a mind and motion of its own.

Heidi has been ill and is shortly off for a much needed vacation with her husband, Chris. So, hoping she gets well enough to enjoy every minute of her time with him. They have had a very rough time these past 18 months or so. So, good wishes are being sent across the ocean to you both.

Taking a lifetime to upload a photo...so will do that from home. Enjoyed the work and the people here and sosoosooso happy that I got to see Eddie, enjoy her home and meet Diana and Toni. Nice to make friends...and of course, they are now, "my people." We keep kidding because Eddie has "people" to help make her very busy life special. Diana and Toni helped me considerably and that isn't counting driving, shopping and chatting. And of course, in countries that are sometimes a bit inefficient or ineffective, it is nice to come home to vent with compatible "people." Wondering if Richard and Alex will be "my people?"

Jesus Christ and Genocide....

It is Easter week and it seems appropriate to reflect on the life of our Lord, Jesus Christ, his death and the deaths of those who have died in horrific situations like genocide. Here is a picture of Jesus Christ, written across a roof top here in Kigali...lest we forget Him. This makes me smile...can you imagine code enforcement allowing the roof tops to be printed in a city with Jesus Christ? If it is done, I haven't seen it in the US.

The Genocide Museum is snuggled on the side of a hill, surrounded by greenery of all types. A beautiful reminder of how quickly the sublime can become dust.

There are 100 days of mourning for those who died here in 1994. The eternal flame is lit to commemorate this and will be lit here shortlyas we enter April. Elephants stand at the ready in each direction to warn and remind people of the atrocities and that we must be vigilant so that planned destruction of peoples will not happen again.

As I travel, I am asked how unique a country and the people are. And it is photos like this that remind me that we really are so very similar. These ladies are working in the gardens at the museum...check out their handmade brooms. Just like in Tajikistan, Honduras, Colombia and Kenya. Different colors, different sizes, different clothing and climates...we are the same. Jesus, I think has that covered, as well.

Now, just like in Honduras, grass is cut with machetes...except at Eddie's house where the gardener has a lawn mower!

And let me tell you what happens here when you have scared the guard at 3:45 a.m. I woke up at 3:30 a.m....worrying about work and Heidi, who is ill and excited to go home. At 3:45, I turned on the lights and in about 1 minute, the guard was peering in the window at me, waving as if to say, "are you OK in there?" I smiled and waved and he crossed his heart and walked calmly back to his station. I felt protected and watched over...oh, Jesus has that one covered also!! While you all sleep, I am off to work. See you all soon. Much love.

Genocide

Close to the entrance of the Genocide Museum are mass graves and around the museum one can see flowers which have been left in honor of the dead. I am not sure why they are left all wrapped in plastic but these bundles were everywhere.

The graves are separated...families, children, men and women and the graves of concrete are surrounded by the living plants and trees from around the country. Out of death springs life.

I visited the Genocide Museum here in Kigali yesterday and moved emotionally and was very very impressed with the quality of their museum and dedication to those who lost their lives here in Rwanda during the genocide. The gardens are lovely and there is a garden of unity, division, reconciliation and protection. There are fountains and many many elephants and animal representations. Elephants represent long memory and this fellow has a cell phone to his ear and he is telling the world about the atrocities committed here in Rwanda and asking that all be aware...genocide is not new and it can happen again! Besides the mass graves there is a portion of this museum that reminds us of the genocide which occured in the Balkans, Namibia, the Holocaust, Cambodia and of course, here in Rwanda when the Hutus were killing the Tutsis.





Here is a portion of the wall remembering those who died by name. This wall is yet incomplete.



As I am writing about the horrors of genocide, I am listening to the bird chirping and watching the sunshine glisten off the greenery outside. God is good...out of ugliness grows beauty!





One cannot take photos inside the museum but there is a gorgeous stained glass window created by the son of a Holocaust victim that literally made me cry and I have been to Auschwitz and Dachau...hard to imagine the level of destruction these horrors have caused. Beatrice, our maid here in Eddie's house told me that she hid out during 1994 in the bushes with her oldest daughter.

I have been having issues with the blog the last couple of days so am not going to press my luck. More coming but going to post this so it actually uploads.

Reading, Exploring and more...

This would be me holding up my leftover shrimp pasta in the "take away" container given to me at The New Cactus restaurant last night. We thought it a hoot. A huge hunk of aluminum foil but not foil like we have. This stuff stuck together...it didn't just close like ours does. For an old lady, not looking too bad...whadyathink??

On our travels on the way towards Lake Kivu we saw traffic signs just not seen closer in to Kigali. We saw one that said "Rappel" which we thought fun because we WERE in the mountains but it just meant that there were crazy hairpin turns ahead.

Diana persisted in driving like a crazy woman and at one point, Toni took Diana's camera because we were in heavy traffic and she was shooting a video of the street chaos while driving! I saw this colorful woman from afar...took her as she walked by but the front of her dress was much prettier. Note the landscaping nearby...this is not unusual. Gorgeous plants everywhere and in the mountains yesterday, we could smell eucalyptus in the air everywhere.

Again, these women were very suspicious as I tried to aim at the shops but I wanted photos of the colorful dresses many African women wear. When I go back to Kenya, I am going to get a wonderful outfit made for me. Typical street scene....note the paper bag. NO plastic here at all.

Oh, Toni and I checked out sanitary pads at Nakumatt...very small packages and hugely expensive which is why the woman is creating the women 's co-op to make them. I was told that the women in the Democratic Republic of the Congo...a few short hours from here are the workers. Men rest, drink and beat their women and the women are nothing better than pack mules, carrying water, wood and heavy construction materials. One of my drivrs told me this...I want to go see what the DRC is.

I took this photo outside of a construction site and what looked like an impromptu market on Sunday. I just put the camera out the car window and as you can see, folks were looking at us very strangely.

I brought four books with me that I will leave for Eddie's next guests and one I brought from home, worth mentioning was, "The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio" by Terry Ryan, and yes, I know this should be underlined, not in quotes! Another book I read, of Eddie's is called "Expat" a book about foreigners living abroad and their experiences trying to fit in and fit their experiences into who and what they were becoming. I could relate to many of those essays.

This bundle of wood secured high in the trees was rather interesting to us. Interesting because with thousands walking by and with no heat, one would think someone would take it...but not. And then, is this for shelter in the mountains if it gets horrid out?

The trip that almost was...

Diana, Toni and I took off a bit late today to head towards Lake Kivu, a few hours outside of Kigali. The weather was horrid...like Michelle says, "a grade A, grey day." Rained most of the day so all the photos are hazy but we drove through some gorgeous countryside. Rwanda is called the land of a 1,000 hills and today, we were definitely in the hills and later, the mountains. Steep, windy roads which were actually in very good repair for most of the trip.

We did not make it to Lake Kivu which is a good thing because we would not have made it home before dark. Dark people, in dark clothing on dark roads with vehicles that either use headlights OR tail lights...they never have or use both. As you can see, the river is incredibly muddy...red dirt everywhere and we have had some horrid storms so everything is full and running quickly. Interestingly, the roads and the drainage is incredibly well planned. I compared the systems to those found in Honduras and Honduras has a lot to do to catch up.

This country is going through "reconciliation" to try to mend the terrible rifts caused by the genocide which ended in 1994. It is not uncommon to see people in their 40's and 50's with no arms, legs, gashes in their heads where they were attacked, but survived. Almost no Rwandan has his/her whole family alive.

In April, the first two weeks will be dedicated to "mourning" and we passed this building and a couple of signs regarding genocide. The Hutus and Tutsis are now first and foremost, Rwandans. The country is working very hard to mend and I have asked various people about this and they genuinely believe that the government and even some of the radio stations and media companies have been instrumental in leading the charge. Tomorrow, I will visit the Genocide Museum and praying it doesn't affect me like Dachau did.

It was unclear if this is a museum or not. When we went by, the gates were closed and I hopped over a culvert on the way back to take this photo. Some guys were inside, as you can see, working to repair something. Almost fell into the rock lined deep culvert which was running with coursing water.

Took this photo on the way back into Kigali. This is a typical street scene...tons of people on foot and on the move. We noticed today that people walking miles over the mountains with bundles, water etc. had on flip flops, were bare foot or had on fake crocs. Toni, only here now for three days, was amazed at the little kids lying right next to the road watching the world walk or drive by.

Meet Toni on the left and Diana on the right. Both are housemates with me here at Eddie's house. We went out to an outdoor restaurant tonight...and for a change, it was a bit cool so we had jackets on for a change.