Lake Bunyonyi Getaway

I just came back home from a weekend trip to Lake Bunyonyi in Kabale Uganda.  First of all, you should know that traveling anywhere in Africa is quite the effort, especially when going over a border.  I feel like I can travel anywhere as long as I’m with a group of people… it doesn’t even matter if none of us are knowledgeable of how to get there!  A group of five of us got bus tickets to take us to Kabale.  The bus was great and big and we were in the front seats, which made for a much more enjoyable ride.  It was only 1.5 hours to the border where we had to get out of the bus and go through immigration.  We had to get a stamp to get out of Rwanda and then physically walk across the border to pay for our visa and get a stamp into Uganda.  Then we had to exchange Rwanda Francs for Uganda Shillings, which should’ve been more thought out before we started bargaining with random dudes on the street trying to make a deal.  But, it worked out all right and we hopped back on the bus to get dropped off 5 kilometers down the road to Kabale, just to have to find a taxi to take us to the lake.   After we got to the lake, we took a motorboat to our little resort called Byoona Amagara.  Luxurious.  We stayed in the deluxe geo-dome and it was amazing.

   

It was out in the open, each bed having a mosquito net so we didn’t swallow bugs in the night or get mosquito bites, of course.  As soon as we got there, we all fell asleep and stayed asleep for hours!  After all the traveling and this being our first long weekend in a while, we were totally exhausted.  Even though we were presumably directly on the equator, the weather was quite chilly!  We wore sweatpants with socks majority of the time!  It stormed almost the whole first day, which was fine with us because all we wanted to do was nap and read our books anyway. 

We had an outdoor shower, which if you ask me, was one of the highlights of the accommodations.   It was really awesome to be outside and get to see the spectacular view of the lake while showering.  The first shower I took, it started to get really windy and it seemed I might get a second shower before I finished with my first one!  I hurried to finish up so I could stay warm from the solar powered heated shower!  The second shower wasn’t that dramatic.  I had the sun beaming down on me and it was glorious. 

We took a couple canoes out on the lake for a few hours, which turned into the wind taking us far away from the dock and us paddling against the wind to get back.  The canoes are hollowed out trees basically; pretty vintage :)  My friend, Hannah, and I rowed zigzag back because we had a pretty difficult time steering… we blamed it on the wind, but as much as I hate to admit it, I think we were partly to blame as well. 

This short trip was very much needed after 10 weeks of school slipping out from under us and 8 more to go before Christmas break.  I knew being a first year teacher would be a lot of work and a lot of preparation and a lot of brain power.  After going and going and going, it was nice to get away and spend time focusing on rest and reflecting on how awesome and good God is.  It’s so easy to get zoned in on what I have to get done rather than why I am doing it.  Day in and day out, I’m whipping out lesson plans, grading papers, preparing power points, practicing art projects, etc etc etc.  If I just focus on these things, I’m reminded that I’m really not built to be an art teacher.  I love art and I love kids, but my passion is not for these kids to love art, rather it’s for them to love Jesus.  I’m built to be a minister of the truth, an example of God’s love, an ambassador for Christ.  When I don’t bring that to the forefront of my lesson planning, I get bogged down by details instead of inspired by the real purpose behind it.  I needed this weekend getaway to refresh my perspective and to build my confidence in traveling outside Rwanda!  

Dysfunctional Day

You know how there are days that just don’t seem to go as planned?  Without them, life would be too predictable and boring; but with them, I have to wonder if I somehow need them as a reality check.  Yesterday, my day started off a bit backwards.  The night before I sent an email response to one of my friends and instead of just replying to her, I hit reply all.  It went out to a bunch of people, some I knew, some I didn’t.  Let’s just say that email was only meant for a few people’s eyes… not 50.  So, I started my day with embarrassment when I learned of this mistake. 

I should have know it wasn’t going to be a normal day when I punctured my lip while washing my face in the morning.  I guess I have an abnormally long pinky nail because while I was vigorously scrubbing my face, it struck my upper lip and instantly started bleeding.  Seriously, I’ve never washed my face hard enough to injure myself!  I spit out the blood and bravely went on with the day.

On Fridays I have duty during Chai Break (recess for the whole school).  Another teacher and I have made a tradition of choreographing an interpretive dance by making up a move to add to it every Friday at Chai and performing it to see if the students would notice how great of dancers we are.  Well, this Friday, we didn’t make up a new move because after the first leap off of a ledge, I toppled over and wiped out in front of 100 students who all just stopped and stared as I lay on the ground laughing with total embarrassment, avoiding all eye contact with anyone around me.  I became even more embarrassed when I realized blood was dripping from my elbow as a result of my tumble.  I see elementary kids in the office all the time nursing wounds from falling while they are playing during recess.  I never thought, as an adult teacher, I would need the same doctoring :)  My pride was definitely knocked down as I went on with the rest of the school day, acting as if I didn’t just make a huge fool out of myself in front of all of my secondary students.   At least my students now know that I’m human!  I’m sure they thought I had superhuman powers to always do the right thing and never get hurt before this incident, right? 

Nothing too dysfunctional happened the rest of my time at school, besides the fact that I was still dealing with the aftermath of my crash landing.  But then, a bunch of friends and I went out to dinner at this really nice Chinese restaurant called Zen.  We walked there and, although it was further away than we thought, we made it there without any problems.  But when we got there, we realized we were a bit underdressed.  Most restaurants I’ve been to in Rwanda have been more fancy than one would expect, but this one was especially nice.  As we were dining, I saw a guy that is in our bible study eating dinner with a woman… and so under my breath I thought I whispered something about how we should yell his name awkwardly, since it seemed he might have been on a date.  Yeah, I didn’t need to carry through with the rest of that because he heard me scheming, looked over and waved at us.  Oops!  Turns out, since all restaurants are outdoors, sound travels quite a bit easier.  

If that wasn’t enough, we ordered sweet and sour chicken to eat… and although it was delicious, I would not say it was sweet and sour.  One thing you need to know about restaurants in Rwanda is you can never actually see what you are eating.  The rooms are normally lit by a few candles on the table and no overhead lights.  It’s actually a blessing, because I would not be adventurous if I saw everything I was eating all the time.  But this time around, it would have been nice to see if I was about to eat a chili pepper so I could have avoided having fire erupting in my mouth for about 5 minutes after what I thought was just another bite of chicken.  My lips and tongue were useless for that duration of time, so it’s a good thing I was almost finished eating by that time. 

The last dysfunctional thing that happened to put the icing on the cake occurred right before we left Zen.  We were walking to get out of the way of cars leaving the parking lot and I tripped over a bowed drain that was conveniently sticking up about 8 inches off the ground.  At that point I decided I needed to go home and remove myself from any more potentially embarrassing situations. 

I’m not going to say it was a bad day.  Because, it wasn’t!  A part of me feels like for some reason, I needed to be reminded of the fact that I am a mess!  Wait, no.  I already knew that.  Maybe it was to reveal to the people around me that I’m a mess….  Or maybe, I just needed to be humbled 6 times yesterday!  “Ok, I get it, God.  I need you.”   I probably won’t struggle with pride for awhile now, thanks to this marvelous dysfunctional day.

Crippled by Fear

I'm starting to realize how much fear really does control my life. Ok, so it's not like I ever thought I was particularly brave or anything, but I just didn't think I let fear be my god! I act upon fear more than I act upon the Spirit. Fear makes rash decisions like, "No, I shouldn't go out of my way to talk kinyarwanda to these people because I will sound stupid and I won't know what else to say if they ask me more questions". How much more love could I show to them if I tried harder to speak their language? Fear makes me do stupid things like ignore intimidating situations with disciplining students because I am too scared to confront them about it for fear they will be upset with me.   How much more love would I show them if I was firm in showing them where they’ve crossed the line so that they learn, in the long run, how to treat people and how to be responsible?  Fear also doesn’t allow me to experience the freedom of expressing my struggles to my brothers and sisters in Christ.  What if they won’t understand?  What if they never think of me the same?  What if? What if?? What if???    If I allowed myself to be more vulnerable with people who cared about me, wouldn’t I also be allowing God to change the ugly parts of me as well?

God says we should fear Him. I've struggled with this in the past because what kind of God wants us to be scared of Him? But I understand more fully that fearing God is the opposite of fearing what people think. It's generally one or the other. When I make a decision, is it to please God? or to please the people around me? If it's for the people around me, is it for my benefit? or for theirs?  To fear God is to fear his opinion and his power more than the opinion and power of the world around you.  In a lot of ways, the fear of God in a general sense has lessened significantly in churches over the centuries.  Now, God is seen primarily as our Father and Friend… which he certainly is.  But, He is also completely Holy and Sovereign and Just.  God’s wrath still exists even though, nowadays, we only like to talk about the rainbows and cotton candy version of God.  His grace did not come without a price.  His wrath fell on one person for all time.  Come on, you know who I’m referring to, right?  Ok, I will say it.  JESUS.  Before Jesus, remember all the times God wiped people out?  He brought on epidemics to people just like us, naive and ignorant of the consequences of our rash decisions based in fear.  It’s the same God, he hasn’t changed.  So why do I/we place our concerns on what people think of us and how we are perceived when God’s opinion and knowledge is what really counts?   I am mulling or that question this week.  If I am living for God, I should strive to be lead by the Spirit of God rather than by fear that cripples me.  

God says, “Be strong and courageous!” He says that because He knows the impact fear has on us.  He isn’t oblivious to the things that influence us in our decisions.  That is why he emphasizes, “Be strong and very courageous!  Do not be afraid or discouraged.  For the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9