As most of you know, we have been working on building a home for ourselves over the last few months.  We felt that, after continually living in temporary housing for all of our married life (over 5 years) and really, most of our adult life, it was time for us to have a home to settle into.  And none too soon, either, for shortly after we started this venture, we discovered our family is about to grow by one, and having our own home became a little more urgent for us.  (The room we are currently renting wouldn’t really be feasible with a baby.)

We have also had some financial setbacks and extra costs  in the last few months, some of them anticipated (like the “budget” being more of an “estimate,” and having to renew our visas), and some of them not anticipated (such as the falling Canadian dollar).

We have just under two months before we head back to Canada for the birth of our first child.  Before we leave, we would really like our house to be finished so that we can move in.  (Then at least when we return to Rwanda with baby, we’ll have somewhere to go, and something might be easy.)

In terms of time, we think this is a realistic goal.  In terms of finances, we’re not sure.  We are borrowing some money in order to finance this house.  While a fairly modest sum, it is a huge amount for us considering our income.  We were hoping not to be stretched to the absolute limit by the time we are done, partly so that we can buy some furniture and a fridge, but also because we know there are other expenses coming up. (Besides our return airfare to Rwanda, it seems to me that kids cost money?)

SO, all of this to say, if you have ever considered investing in us and in the ministry that we do here in Rwanda, this is a very critical time.  This is a time where any money given will go towards supporting us over the long term in a very tangible way.  We would greatly appreciate any donations towards our home, large or small.  If you are considering this, please look at our How to Donate page, and feel free to contact us if you have any questions.

Thanks for your consideration.

We don’t know exactly when it started, but by sometime last May, Mike was having a serious problem.  He had these small cuts on his leg that got infected, and then started growing.  And the painful infection spread to any new cuts or scrapes or bug bites he got.  On both legs.  We tried everything we could think of to keep the pain down and keep them from spreading.  We don’t have any pictures from when the infection was at its worst, but I know many of you saw them when we were in Canada.  Believe it or not, this picture is actually from after the infection was much better:

While we were in Canada, the infection got significantly better (even though it spread to me for a few weeks).  One of our friends who had worked overseas said “Yeah, I had something like that on my face.  It took 8 months to heal.”  We were hoping it would be less.

It was contained to only one leg and looked prettty good by the time we returned to Rwanda.  We wanted to avoid antibiotics if at all possible, mainly because Mike has had a lot of rounds of antibiotics.  We found, strangely enough, that applying a layer of onion to the infection not only lessened the pain, but also helped the infection heal.  So he slogged away at it, carefully cleaning and dressing the wounds each day, (smelling like onion all the time) and after a temporary setback probably caused by a lot of hours on a plane, they started healing again.  By November, we thought the wounds were going to be healed by Christmas.  They were almost closed up (which may have led to a bit of lax-ness on the daily cleaning and dressing).  Then suddenly, they started getting bigger and more painful again.  (We had learned that it was fairly easy to tell whether they were spreading or healing by how red and angry the surrounding skin looked.)  After a couple weeks of the infection getting worse again with no sign of any change, in discussion with google and one of our co-workers (who is a nurse), we bit the bullet and put him on antibiotics at last.

We were afraid that when he stopped taking the antibiotics, that it would flare up again (but there is only so long you should keep taking those pills).  But, slowly by slowly, monitored and dressed daily, it has gotten better!  This was the last spot:

The scars are going to be prominent for awhile, the to layer of skin is still peeling a little, but finally, after over 9 months, the infection is gone!

Just a heads up before you get too far, this is not a coherent post on one subject.  I realized there were a few things I haven’t updated on – none of them long enough for their own proper post, though – so consider this a collection of updates about January.

The team from Dunham, Quebec was here with us for a little over 3 weeks.  We were a little nervous about hosting a team, because you never know what the team dynamics will be like, but this team was fantastic!  They had a great sense of working together and pitching in, and were quite willing to do whatever was in front of them.  In addition to spending 2 hours early each morning working in the garden with Mike, they shared at support groups and visited numerous homes.  There were a few setbacks, particularly that one of the team members’ passports was stolen, but they took it in stride and she was able to get a temporary replacement.  Cooking for the team was a bit overwhelming for me at times (I’m struggling a bit to cook and eat food, something I never imagined would be a difficulty for me), but Mike pitched in a lot and helped out whenever I felt like it was too much.  Overall, they were an encouragement to us and to the larger community, and it was a good experiment to see what hosting teams here might involve for us.

The team at a home visit.

shelling and cleaning seeds.

I’m well into the second trimester, and except for the nausea, things seem to be going quite well.  Next week we’re scheduled to have an ultrasound, so we are looking forward to seeing what we can of our onion-sized baby!  We will be coming to Canada by May to be there for the birth (currently scheduled for early July).  We are planning to work with After the Grind/YWAM Blackfalds before and after the birth. (I’d post a cute, updated picture of my growing belly, but there’s not much to see yet).

Construction on our house is moving along.  The main structure of the walls is almost finished, and hopefully by next week the roof will be on.  (Just in time for the rains to begin again.)  Besides the fact that we know very little about building houses, the way things are done here is very different from at home.  (For example, someone can give you a quote for how much something will cost, but it is often lower than the actual cost in the end.)  However, we have a lot of confidence in the builder we have hired, and he is reasonable and easy to work with.  We were set back for a few days after the foundation was built because of a material dilemma.  We inquired before purchasing the land if we could build a house using mud bricks, as that was what our budget was for.  However, surprise, either we were decieved or things changed in the course of a few weeks, and the district made a law that all houses had to be built with (more expensive) wood-fired small bricks.  We are hoping that the house can be finished and we can move in before we leave for Canada, so that it will be all ready when we return with baby!  We are still trying to raise funds for the house, so if you are interested in helping us stay out of soul-crushing debt, please see our How to Donate page.

The front of the house

From the back

So now its February, and we have a more reasonable number of things planned this month – more about that another time soon.

I feel a certain amount of pressure to follow up our last post with something equally as awesome, but realistically, that’s just not going to happen.  But without that specific comparison, I do think that this is exciting:

We are hosting our very first outreach team at Mutara Development Centre!  A DTS outreach from the YWAM base in Dunham, Quebec, arrived in Rwanda on December 30th.

When we were first contacted about hosting a team, my first response was not enthusiasm – after all, hosting a team can be a LOT of work, and I wasn’t sure we had enough ministry opportunities to be fair to the team.  (Being bored on an outreach is not a good thing.)   But Mike, Amiss, & I started talking, and thought we could do it, and got really excited.  So we said, “Sure, come, that would be great!”

Granted, I wasn’t pregnant at the time, and volunteered to oversee the cooking.  :p I haven’t been up to as much as I normally would be, especially to do with food, but thankfully (as with many things recently), Mike has kicked in and done his usual work plus half of mine.

Anyway, they arrived a week ago, and after a night in Kigali and a visit to the Genocide Memorial, we piled on a bus and came up here.  So far, it has been great to have them here!  Every church wants them to visit.  They have started going to the support groups (for widows/people in extreme poverty/people with HIV/AIDS), and visiting people in their homes.  They are eager workers, and starting every morning at 6 am, are working with Mike in the gardens or a couple hours before it gets too hot to work very hard.

harvesting seeds

We are very glad to have them here, and looking forward to the next few weeks together.

A couple months ago, right here.  It wasn’t intentional, I wasn’t sure, yet, at that point, I just suspected.

So now, the news you’ve all been waiting for:.

Two steps forward and one step back (here’s hoping its that way, and not the other way around)!  But first, the good news: The pig-breeding was successful!

(This was the next day, the birth-day pictures are gross.)

Our two sows were scheduled to deliver within days of each other, and last Tuesday, the first one delivered 10 healthy piglets!  Woo-hoo!  (Now, we [meaning Mike] are learning about castration – more on that another day).

Two mornings later, we were still waiting for news that the other sow had delivered her piglets (everyone had a guess as to how many we would have), but instead, we got the news that there had been a thief at our land the previous evening.  He had attempted to take the pregnant sow as well as one of our cows.  He was unsuccessful but uncaught.

However, the sow (the one Mike calls “the feisty one”) had had a rope tied around her middle, and resisted with all that was in her.  Whoever it was managed to drag her only a few meters from her enclosure before abandoning her.  There was terrible bruising and rope burn, and we weren’t sure if the piglets were injured, or if she was bleeding internally?

After a day and a half, we were hopeful, as she seemed to be ok, but after 2 days, we got word that she had died.

Its just a pig, you know, but this felt like an incredble injustice; a betrayal by the very community we are here to work with.  More so since this was entirely senseless: the thief got nothing, and we lost a healthy mama pig and a whole litter.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

We are constantly being told things like, “In our culture, if X happens, you have to pay/donate/give Y.”  (Sometimes truthfully, sometimes not.)  For example, if someone is around/helps your cow give birth to a calf, you should buy them a drink.  It often feels like we are constantly demanded of, possibly because we are viewed as an endless source of wealth?  (Sometimes that is the case, but often it really is just the cultural norm of give and recieve.)  In this case, though, when the man who sold us the pig heard that our pig had died, he said he was going to give us a new, female piglet.  Because apparently if you sell someone an animal and it dies, you should, in a way, replace it.

Now, one piglet does not replace a pregnant mama about to give birth to a litter.  But, in my heart, anyway, it was balm to the betrayal; a guesture of kindness, welcome, and justice to remind me that not all the steps we are taking are backwards.

Its the moment you’ve all been waiting for… No, its not Black Friday, its the oppoortunity to give to a project in Rwanda.

We are currently running two campaigns: one is for our personal house, and one is for the MDC Healthcare Centre.

If you are from Canada would like to give towards our house, you can give through YWAM Project Funding, and recieve a tax-deductible donation. The amount will be added to the total.  (And we recieve more of the money that way.

As of right now, we do not have a tax-deductible option for Mutara Development Centre donations (but we are working on it).

You can find the campaign for our house here: www.gofundme.com/house4tallons

The campaign for the MDC Healthcare Centre is here: www.gofundme.com/ywammdc

Thanks for your consideration and if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us!

After months and months of nothing seeming to happen, suddenly everything seems to be happening very quickly.

At the end of October, the foundation for the health centre was completed.  We wanted to invite others to pray and celebrate the building beginnings with us.

We set a day, and invited the YWAM team from Kigali and some local officials to join us for a meal and a time of prayer.

I don’t have much for pictures – I was attempting to cook the meal, and when I got there it was starting to rain.  But we had about 60 people (including 20 who are currently working to build the health centre) join us for the time.

By the end of the month we are expecting to have the walls and roof finished; after that we will proceed as we have funds.

Our team members Christian and Fiona Merrild created a video of the building process so far: you can view it here.

Getting groups of people to stop talking and listen, when you are at a meal or out somewhere is often a challenge.  My favourite way is the announcement song: its is funny, and if a part of your group is familiar with it, everyone is singing or listening by the end, and ready to listen.  Here it is:

What a terrible way to die

A terrible way to die

A terrible way, to be bored to death,

A terrible way to die:

Announcements, Announcements,

Anno-ounce-ments!

 

Did it work?  OK, here goes:

We bought land!

Surveying the land.

Marking the boundaries

We have been very nomadic both before and after our marriage.  You may not believe it, but this is not either of our natural preference.  I’m sure you won’t believe me, but we are actually homebodies.  Our nomadic journey has been partly due to budget constraints and partly due to ideals, but after a year of considering, gathering advice, and researching, we are moving forward with building our own house.

Right now, we think it will cost us $20,000.  We have the ability to borrow some, but we would like to be able to raise more than half by the end of this year.

We will be using the platform GoFundMe to facilitate this.  At the same time, we will be launching a campaign to fundraise for the clinic we are building.  With our slow internet, it is taking me some time to properly launch these.  But in advance, please consider giving to one of these projects.