In the Home Stretch...

Well I can hardly believe that it has been 2 months since our last newsletter and we are already more than 200 days into our first term here in Rwanda! I guess getting a monthly newsletter out is more difficult than one would expect.

So, where do I begin?

The T.I.G prisoners are still living next to us but thankfully, right after I wrote the last newsletter someone else from the village complained to the government about the noise and now they are, for the most part, so quiet that we hardly even remember that they are there. Thank you for your prayers concerning this.

At the end of March we brought in our doctor friend, lab technician, and nurse to complete the HIV testing on the children and mamas. It took the better part of a day but in the end each child had a new stuffed animal and a colorful band aid to show for their bravery. In total we have two HIV positive members of our family, one child who actually tested positive shortly after we arrived in Rwanda last fall and one mama who had no idea. So that means that of the 32 children who were tested in March we have 100% negative!! Praise our Mighty Lord!!

When it came time to tell our one mama of her test results we were a bit afraid, I mean, who would want to either receive or deliver that kind of news? Her first response was shock and second was fear. She was afraid that because she tested positive we were going to make her leave here. We assured her completely that she was a member of our family and that our only concern was that she remains healthy and the best way for her to do that was to stay with us. Ever since that day she displays such connectedness and gratitude for her acceptance into our family.

She is a wonderful woman who loves these kids and she also works very hard. She has been here the shortest amount of time but she integrated very quickly and is just as much a part of this family as the mamas who have been here since opening last May. Our goal is to keep her healthy, so for both her and Redemptor, our little girl with HIV continuous lifting up in prayer is essential. God is good as both are very happy and doing absolutely wonderful!

We decided, that since for many of our children we have no idea what their actual birthdates are we would just have one big party for all of them. April 5th was the big day and we decided to keep it a surprise for the kids until the night before. We wanted them to be filled with all kinds of anticipation when they tried to sleep. It didn’t quite work that way. Right before bed when we told the kids that the next day was going to be their birthday they just looked at us like “what’s a birthday?”!

So they went to sleep as normal with probably no anticipation but maybe wonder as to what exactly are Mama and Papa talking about?

It was a huge celebration! We had 3 legged races and water balloon tosses. We had balloon animals and bubbles. We even played the fishing game for gifts!

We had beef shish kabobs and french fries and FANTA!! Along with all kinds of Rwandan fare, and just when they thought they were all too stuffed to fit another thing in their bellies we brought out a HUGE colorful cake! We were deafened by the shrill screams of excitement and joy for a full 5 minutes!

Each child went to bed exhausted, full, and with a new toy. It was such a great and tiring day….I am so glad that we only have to do that once a year!

Our second fish pond is completely dug but still sits empty. Evidently it is not just a simple “dig a hole and fill it with water” ordeal. We had to purchase a chemical to sprinkle over the entire surface which dries it out and kills all the bad organisms. We will be filling the pond with water this Monday and transferring the fish into it the following week.

Our cow shed remains empty as well…T.I.A (this is Africa). We have put in a formal written request for the cow but still no word yet as to when old Bessie will make her appearance.

For the month of April, life takes on a bit of a change as it is memorial time for the Genocide that was committed in 1994. The children were only in school for about 5 days the whole month.

There were memorials and burials performed throughout the entire month as well as Gacaca (ga-cha-cha), which is genocide court where perpetrators are still being tried by victims families and their own peers for crimes committed in ’94.

Sadly, during one of the memorial ceremonies, held in Kigali at the main memorial centre, someone threw a grenade into the crowd killing a soldier and other participants injuring still others. It is so sad that after 15 years there is still so much hatred and intolerance among many people in Rwanda. Please lift up the nation of Rwanda in prayer for peace to take hold of the hearts of everyone in the country.

During the memorial week life remained fairly constant out in the village, but in Kigali businesses closed early and there was no music played on the radio. It was a very somber time. It is shocking to hear that after all this time there are still bodies being located by the people who killed and hid them. When they are discovered their remains are interred at one of the many memorial sites throughout the country. It is very difficult for the families left behind but I imagine that it also helps to give them closure as well.

I was a bit afraid about what life was going to be like in Rwanda during this time, but very soon discovered that many people really just want to move forward – not forget – just move ahead.

With all the time off from school, during the memorial season, the children have been busy learning how to weave. It amazes me how quickly these kids catch on. Monicah has even taught our youngest to weave and I smile so big when our 3 and 4 year olds bring me a length of weaving their little fingers created! Baylee has actually taken up this craft as well and she is quite proficient at it too!

Most of the older children have taken a keen interest in this craft and they are weaving purses and bags for me to bring back to Canada to sell for them. Any money collected from the bags will go directly into supporting the children at Victory Family Home of Champions so I don’t anticipate it being too difficult to sell them. They are working so hard and so quickly that we may not have enough room in our luggage for our own clothes and what not!

We have a group of 14 children who have formed a children’s choir. They are really quite good and we have started to take them around to other churches to perform. Of course, they absolutely love this as it gives them all a reason to cram into the imodaka (car). Dean and I would love to one day see these kids able to travel out of country to perform, what an amazing experience that would be for them.

During one of the choir visits into a small village, called Taba, a woman approached Dean with a baby girl. She said that the child was abandoned at her home 3 months ago and that she was a year old. This little girl is the size of a 7 or 8 month old! The woman said that she herself is very poor and also pregnant, therefore unable to care for the child herself. Dean came home and explained how this little girl was so badly malnourished that she was quite literally bones covered with skin. All of her hair had fallen out and what was starting to grow back was copper in color, a sure sign of severe malnourishment. She also has no teeth. I had a meeting with all of our mamas that night and asked their opinion on what we should do. We were already at 60 kids and adding a baby to the mix would mean a lot more work. On the other hand, without intervention of some kind, this baby would surely die.

They all agreed that there really was no option. We had to save this baby. The next morning Dean and I drove back to Taba to find her. I was shocked when they put her in my arms. It was like trying to hold a bird. She was all bones and no muscle. I was afraid that I would break her if held her too tight. We went directly to the government office in that area and had the chief officially release the baby to our custody. At that time we named her Uwimana Abigail Rose. Uwimana means “child of God”.

So, Abby has moved in and stolen all of our hearts. It is amazing the changes in her in just two weeks. Her skin looks so much better and she is starting to plump up quite nicely. She smiles and gabs up a storm. The only problem is that everyone loves to hold and cuddle her that she doesn’t like to be put down!

It absolutely remarkable what a bit of food and a lot of love and prayer can do!

For those of you who have been here and know Fulgence, here is an update to his schooling:

He finished his first term number 1 in his class. We are very proud of him and he is also very proud of himself which is great! He came home from school for the memorial month of April and he spent time reconnecting with his friends and family. He also did a whole bunch of work around here helping us. It was great to have him back, he has become very much like family here and the kids love him.

There was enough money donated by missionaries from the November team, to not only pay for Fulgence’s schooling but also to help another young man with his book fees for university as well. Theogene is a bright young man who won a scholarship to post secondary school but unfortunately the scholarship did not cover the cost of his required text books. One thing that needs to be looked at in the national education system here in Rwanda is that it doesn’t make much sense to give a poor villager a scholarship to university but not give him financial support for books to learn from or money for a bus ticket to actually get to the school where he will be learning. $92 for book fees is not a lot of money by western standards but it is more money than most people here earn in several months and certainly an unattainable fortune here in a village like ours. It could be likened to giving someone a car and withholding the keys.

Dean happened to meet Theogene while up at the government office one day. After engaging in a conversation Theogene took the opportunity to share his story with Dean. Since education is the key to changing lives in this nation it only made sense to do what we could. Theogene also finished first in his class this term.

For the most part, our children did very well in school the first term. There are a couple of kids who struggled with learning last year but really turned it around starting this first term. We do have a small group who are falling below the passing grade so they will need a little extra attention, patience and your prayer support.

We find ourselves in rainy season and the deluges are amazing. I love the rain so I think that it is great! Also, it’s free water for our gardens. However, what isn’t so great is all the washouts that we experience with every big rain. Often I have stood at our door with a squeegee trying to keep the water out!

We did get new concrete stairs built for the children down to the toilets so they no longer have to brave the slippery hill to get down there. Our biggest problem with the rain is the erosion. Our hills are completely washing away in many spots and new rock retaining walls are proving to be quite pricey and out of budget right now so please pray about this for us.

Another huge problem for us is the inflation here, food prices have risen 87% over the last 3 years a whopping 49% in just this last year.

This problem is making it difficult for us to remain on budget for the children’s home as it takes quite a bit of food to feed 67 people 3 meals a day!

For our family personally this is also difficult as you don’t anticipate things like hyper inflation when you create a budget before leaving to go on mission.

When Dean and I sat down and figured out what it is actually costing us to live here each month we were both shocked to discover that it takes $800 a month to feed our family of 4!!! Trust me, we are not eating extravagantly by any means, we have meals with meat 3 or sometimes 4 times a week and all of our meals are pretty basic. But essentials like milk which is $42 a can and cereal which costs anywhere from $8 to $10 a box really make the food budget skyrocket! Gas is at $1.40 a liter so there are no unnecessary trips made anywhere. Our water is still not good to drink and bottled water is costing $9 a case which lasts 3 days. In saying all this I am sure you can imagine how important every single penny of our sponsorship is so thank you so very much for your faithful support of our family here.

In closing, we are all healthy, we are happy, Baylee and Julia are within 3 weeks of finishing their entire year of school so they are really happy, and we are all excited about the daily changes that we experience with the children here.

We will be heading back to Canada in just 7 weeks. We are very much looking forward to seeing you all again. We will have much to share with you and hope that you will be just as impassioned about this place as we are.

God Bless,

The Torgersons