June 30

To the right is a picture of Vestine, who works here at the mission cleaning and delivering meals. It's a pretty big place so there are several staff doing this. She knows very little English, but she managed to tell me a week ago that both of her parents had been killed in the genocide, which was in 1994. She appears to be 20'ish now, so during the genocide she would have been age 6-9 perhaps. This hospital made a special effort to care for orphans after the genocide and to keep them healthy. Something like 99% of children witnessed an act of violence during the 100 days of the genocide. Despite all that, Vestine smiles non-stop and seems to be a very upbeat person, from what I can tell during our limited interactions. HOWEVER!!!..... today after I took this picture, she asked me in stilted English, "Would you be my mother?" >: I'm reeeaaally hoping that I misunderstood her. What a blow to my ego, especially as today is yet another birthday for me! (sigh)

I was asked to move into a smaller apartment after Lucas left, and so I moved today. It is very nice and has a lovely garden around it with brick archways and flowering tropical plants. And Lucas, it has a shower! Unfortunately still no internet signal though, so I have to hike a ways up a steep path with my netbook computer in hand to send this. Top left is a picture of my room with mosquito net over the bed. People tie it up during the day. Not much to say about work today; still working on the payroll spreadsheet project.

As there is no television or really any nighttime entertainment at all other than socializing with the other expatriates (which I do enjoy), I have been reading a lot. Here's what I am reading on the trip :

• The American Plague, Molly Crosby, about the 1878 Memphis fever epidemic and subsequent efforts to identify the cause of yellow fever. I enjoyed this book very much, but I don't know if people working outside of the healthcare field would enjoy it as much. It was recommended to me by Dr. Campos, sister Stephanie years ago (I think), and others.



• People of the Book, Geraldine Brooks. Recommended to me by Lee Nix. This is a sort of historical fiction, very interesting. Hard to put down.



• Baking Cakes in Kigali, Gaile Parkin. Recommended to me by Melody Cunningham. The dialogue and characters in this book are exceptional, and it takes place right where I am! It's an upbeat book, though it manages to acknowledge the country's troubled period. A wonderful balancing act. I love the Angel character.



• Say You're one of Them, Uwem Akpan. Also recommended to me by Melody Cunningham. This is a series of short stories based in Africa. Lots of gritty realism. The first story was about an urban street family whose most successful family member was an adolescent prostitute. I had to put this one down for a little while, but I will come back to it when I'm in the right mood!



• Gorillas in the Mist, Dian Fossey. Lucas also read part of it when he was here. The two of us agreed that she spends way too much time discussing gorilla dung. But I enjoyed several parts of it.



• Olivia's African Diary, Olivia Stokes Hatch. This 1932 book just happens to be in my new apartment, and there are some great bl/wh pictures and personal stories about what it was like to travel through Africa during that time.

Tonight there was a group get-together to welcome the new British family which just arrived. Also I was thrown a kind of surprise small birthday party with about 10 of the people here present. They even had cards and a little present for me. That was really thoughtful, especially considering that these people only met me 2 weeks ago. Cake decorations are hard to come by in rural central Africa. But they had frosting, sprinkles, candles, homemade ice cream, and a little sign which said, "Merry Christmas" stuck to the top of the cake ;) It was very cute!