Happy Birthday Papa!

Dedicated to grandpa whose birthday is on Monday:
We had our first worker come on Monday. We refused to hire a cook because we wanted to be in control of what we eat and we have been doing our own laundry and sweeping the house, but after being ridiculed by both the nuns and my counterpart, we hired a girl to come mop the floors once a week. She was here for hours doing an amazing job both inside and outside of the house. So, I think it was a good decision. I asked the nun at the clinic what her name was and when we should pay her, everyday or once a month, she told me she didn’t know her name and it was up to us when to pay her. Then she told us she lives with her brother and cares for him because both her parents have died probably because of AIDS. She mentioned that she was going to just send over one of their workers, but then decided that it would be best to give this girl some work. We had a heck of a time communicating, but I think it’ll be a great way for me to work on my Kinyarwanda.
At the market this week, I decided to play wheres waldo with myself, a tip from one of moms friends, and it was sooo easy. I’ve also been noticing that the shirts come in different colors too! Red and white is by far the majority, but I saw an orange and white, a green and white, and a pink and white one. There must have been a giant shipment of this one shirt into Rwanda. Oh, and when I went to Cyangugu, I saw the most amazing vintage UW sweatshirt ever. I must find another; it is now my mission for the next two years.
The nun whom I teach English to at my house every morning brought me a crochet hook on Wednesday, so I bought some yarn and she taught me how to crochet while I taught her English. She said I was an umunyeshuri mwiza (good student).
We have a mouse in the kitchen. He is eating our food and making me jump every time I hear a noise when I am cooking. There is also a praying mantis that is taunting me. He was in hallway one night and when I walked by he took a swipe at me! Then, when I went looking for him to put him outside, he had disappeared. I was so afraid he was in my room and I didn’t want to sleep with him in the room, so I searched the house for him and couldn’t find him. I sat down and read for a while and then went to brush my teeth and when I got back he was standing in the middle of my room, so I took my flip flop and pushed him out of my room and shut the door, checking that he couldn’t fit under the door. The next morning, Emily was looking out the front window and told me to come look at my sheet, which was drying on the line, and the little bugger was on my sheet! I tried to shake him off and he wouldn’t budge. He finally flew off and onto the line, so I was able to grab my sheet and bring it in. Then I find him hanging out on my door frame. I was sitting on my bed on my computer, when the jerk decides to dive bomb me and then land on my curtains, where he stayed the whole day until I captured him in a Tupperware and took him outside.
Em and I went to Butare this weekend to buy some “essentials”, chocolate, couscous and soy sauce, and to meet up with Madison. We also got to see one of our trainers, which was fun, and we met a group of people who work for PIH. We hung out with them most of the night and were constantly marveling at how many muzungus Butare has! When you haven’t seen white people in so long, its like a shock and I end up being like the Rwandans, “Oh, look a muzungu!”. It was a fun weekend with a lot of good food and I made some new friends to share movies and books with!