Friends, can you imagine....

Victor’s favorite saying is “Friends, can you imagine…” as in:

Friends, can you imagine in the middle of nowhere there is a place as beautiful as this.
Friends, can you imagine the first orphanage in the world to gain self-sufficiency and economically independence (I love his English)
Friends, can you imagine how we can support almost 130 orphans on $2000 a month.

I went to high school for a bit today.  Friends, can you imagine a classroom with only a blackboard and chalk for teaching aids, with limited textbooks, shared pens and one notebook each.  For Physics, the questions were written on the board and then they worked in groups to answer.  English was a little more fun.  The teacher wrote the lesson on the board and then interacted with the kids to complete the examples.  They all raise their hands and snap their fingers and say ‘me, teacher…me, teacher’ when they want to answer a question.  Despite never raising my hand nor doing any of that, the teacher called on me four times!  My name was ‘newcomer’.   I guess my English is a little rusty as I rarely use the verb ‘shall’ and never use ‘shan’t’ and was a little confused as to which pronouns they apply.  The teacher was quite patient with me and I answered all my questions correctly including the definition of ‘must’.  I was quite proudJ

As time runs out here I realize how much I have grown to love some of these kids.  Jeanette (or Bora) and Elena are a couple of my favorites.  Jeanette (Bora) wrote me a letter and gave it to me last night.  Here is what she said:  

“To you my dearst:  How are you firstly I greet you in Jesus name.  I think that you are okey just that the problems can’t goose in our life continue.  Jean, since I look at you, you are believed for me ‘oh’ faithfully just to say I will never and ever forget you in my life.  My aim is that when I have life I will remember you.  You are very sorry for that you are going to miss you and you pray for you.  Thank you so much, for your friend, Bora."

Friends, can you imagine the struggle it is for any volunteer here to stay in touch with these kids.  They don’t have phones.  There is no post office nearby (the orphanage PO Box is in Kigali and mail is picked up sporadically) and it would be difficult for them to even purchase stamps.  They do not have access to email except if a volunteer will let them use theirs, as I do.  Their English is so limited that they can’t express themselves as much as they would like.  And they all ask ‘when are you coming back’?  So hard to answer.  Maybe soon.  Maybe never.   What must it be like to constantly have people walk in and out of your life? 

I can only hope we do more good than harm.