my week

I have been in the process of making a dress, I have cut out the fabric, but the amount of sewing seemed too daunting and all I could think about was how quick it would be to do on a sewing machine, so I went over to the nuns and asked if they had a machine I could use. They did and said I could bring my stuff over and we’d work on it. Well, sister Dormina is a pretty good tailor and decided to take over. She measured me, recut my fabric and sewed my dress. I helped her to understand what I wanted it to look like and showed her how to put it together, but she did the majority of the work and I finished the dress in one day! I got my inspiration from the show Rome, which I’ve been watching on my computer. I’ll take a picture and post it of my dress soon. One day after work, I heard a knock on the door and three boys were there, they said hi and that they wanted to visit. So I talked to them for a while then Emily came out and she recognized them as the boys who walked with her when she went out the other week. We looked through their class books and I ended up correcting some of the English and then I got out my Kinyarwanda book that I used in training and they had a fun time reading the dialogues. Emily got a small football in one of her packages, so we got that out and played catch. The boys didn’t stay a ridiculous amount of time and they were the ones who said that they were going to leave. It was really nice. I hate being bombarded and then feeling uncomfortable when people stay forever and it gets awkward because you no longer have anything to talk about. I went into town on Friday and picked up packages and bought some groceries and had lunch with two friends. On the way back the moto driver said he couldn’t come get me for another 3 hours, so I decided to go back with my friend and hang out, but just as we were passing my town on the road, I got a call saying the ambulance was coming to the clinic and I could just get a ride in there. So my friend turned around and dropped me off in town. A co-worker was in town, so I talked with her and we both went down to the dirt road to meet the ambulance. Two men carried my boxes for me and we all sat down together on the bridge to wait for the ambulance. Well, two hours later, I was informed that the ambulance actually wasn’t coming, so the moto driver will come get me now. He took longer than usual (about an hour vs. half hour) and the guys who were sitting with me decided we should start walking. They carried my boxes and my helmet for me, so I just had my backpack. We walked for about 25 minutes and the moto showed up, but he had the lab tech on the back and had to take her to town, so he passed us and went into town and we kept walking until he came back to get me. I have had terrible luck with transportation as of late. I think I’ll just stay in my village for a while. Saturday, Emily and I went to our host families house, she had been in the fields so she was all dirty and they had a wedding to attend, so we held and played with the baby while she washed and got dressed. Emily’s mom sent some cloth diapers, so we showed her how to use them and gave her a box full. She was really surprised and happy. I hope she understands how to use them correctly. This is her first baby, so she’ll get a lot of use out of them through the years. There are these square pieces of plastic that most babies wear, moms put a piece of igitenge (the cloth they all wear as skirts) and then tie the plastic around the babies. After that we ate lunch and when I was laying in bed reading, I heard someone yell “mwiriwe!” and they sounded really close. Most kids yell from the fence but this kid sounded like he was at the door, which was wide open. I got up and went to see who it was and if they were in my yard and didn’t see anyone but saw that the gate was open, so I went to close it and a boy came running towards me. He asked if I wanted to play soccer, so I told him I was coming and went to put on my shoes. When I got to the field, he and another boy (they’re about 8) were sitting down so I went and sat with them and we just sat in silence for a while. A mom sent over her 7 children to greet me and the kids weren’t scared of me! This little boy about 3 and his 2 year old sister came up to me and said hello, how are you (in Kinya, not English). It was so cute. After that the boys and I got up and started kicking the ball around. We played for a while and it was really nice, I didn’t get surrounded and stared at. Three girls about the same age as the boys came up and stared at me for a bit, but then they started practicing their dancing. So, the six of us were on the field, kicking the soccer ball and dancing. It was a good time.