News on the home front

Good news: After almost 3 months, I finally found brown rice, plain yogurt, and tofu here in Kigali!

OK, this is not quite as significant as, say, finding a job. But there is something to be said for eating healthy, particularly in a developing country.

Of course, everywhere there is white rice. You can get basmati rice from Pakistan, or a really nice variety from Tanzania. But brown rice? Both Rwandans and Chinese have the same distaste for brown rice, despite the fact that it has more nutrition than white rice. But one day recently we were working business territory and came across the offices of a rice company. At first I thought they were simply wholesalers, but no, you can buy almost any type of rice--including brown--from them directly. So I got a 2.5 kg (5.5 lb) bag for $3! Same price as the white rice! What a deal! I made my partner carry it in his bookbag until we got home (well, actually he offered to, and I didn't refuse).

The same thing applies to yogurt. Almost all yogurt here is sweetened and flavored, with other things added for texture. For a long time I thought the plain variety didn't exist, until this guy named Gilbert at the Elim Supermarket I shop at close to home, with whom I'm on friendly terms (and, additionally, he is very eager to study the Bible), said he would ask the boss to order and stock some plain yogurt for me, just for being such a good customer! When a shipment came in, he actually texted me about it. So now I'm probably the only one buying it, since everyone else doesn't like the sour taste, which is fine with me.

Finally, on the question of tofu, there is a lunch buffet in town that in addition to the standard fare has braised tofu in tomato sauce. One day my friend asked them where they get their tofu, and they said, at Simba. (For extra credit: What does "simba" mean, and in what language? Think very hard, back to a Disney film.) Simba is a big supermarket in town that has a good variety of local and international products.

Although tofu is something difficult to describe to Africans (even exactly what a soybean is), they do understand the concept of a food that is basically tasteless and has to be mixed with something or spiced up to be enjoyed. Think ubugali (Rwanda), ugali (Kenya) or nsima (Malawi), which is a porridge made by mixing corn meal with boiling water.

Finding these made my day!

Now, about accommodations: My free lease on the current place expired on June 2, which was the day I was scheduled to fly back to the U.S. Only, I didn't take the flight, and decided to stay here. So now I had to look for another place. My original Rwandan contact owns a compound with four residences, and offered me one at a reasonable price, but only after the present tenant gets married and moves out in the middle of June. It's a decent place, but I will have to buy all the furniture, including bed and appliances. It also has a metal roof, which means the heat is trapped inside and you bake. I guess I have been spoiled by the places I have lived in thus far, with high ceilings and non-metal roofs. So I will have to experiment with leaving the windows open most of the time, balancing that with the problem of mosquito entry.

The last week of May was the visit of the substitute circuit overseer, Brother Ricardo Braz from Canada, which was very encouraging. (He and his wife are missionaries in the Kinyarwanda and Sign Language fields.) Brother Braz actually accompanied me on my Chinese Bible study at the Beijing restaurant on Thursday afternoon. Beforehand, I sent him by Bluetooth (amazing that I was capable of doing this!) the 3lines.org Bible Teach book material, so he could follow along, more or less. He enjoyed the experience, and I hope that a good word will be put in to the appropriate parties about the Chinese field!

Finally, on Sunday after the meeting of the circuit overseer's visit, I went with a Bethel brother in one of the Kinyarwanda congregations to the house of a Chinese man he had met while doing door-to-door work. The man, Mr. Lu, invited us in, said he has been here for 3 months, and will be staying in Rwanda for 5 years working on an agricultural project, which involves training locals how to plant and cultivate bamboo. (This is the basic idea I got, anyway.) First of all, I didn't know that bamboo had to be cultivated. I always thought it grew wild, and that you can't keep it from reproducing even with a blowtorch. But that shows you how much I know about this subject.

Anyway, we showed the 4-minute video, placed the Lasting Peace brochure and a set of the May Chinese magazines (by the way, Epimaque got me 51 sets of this issue in Nairobi!), and promised to return the following week.

Latest on Bible students: Mr. Liu, who has been studying twice a week, has read the Bible from Genesis to Psalms in only 2 months, and whom I basically cannot keep up with, has gone to China for a month due to an illness in his family. So now I get a breather, which allows me to catch up on my preparation. But I will be ready for him when he returns!

Mr. Han, the one who works at the motorcycle manufacturing place, on my recent visit showed me how he downloaded the New World Translation in Chinese on his laptop. He has been reading Genesis and has many questions. In fact, he had so many questions that I recommended him to download (which he did on the spot) My Book of Bible Stories, which will not only give him some background on Bible characters but also be good material for his two small children. (They are going to school and learning English, by the way.) He then explained that he has been thinking lately about his life working practically 7 days a week and what the purpose of it all is. Sure, he's feeding his family, but could there be more to life than this? I said, YES, do you know what Jesus meant at Matthew 5 about our "spiritual need"? He didn't know, so I added that it concerns our inner qualities, our relationship with our Creator, and understanding the answers to such questions as, Why are we here? What is the meaning of life? What does the future hold?

So I recommended that if he wants to satisfy that spiritual need, he needs to set aside time each week to systematically study the Bible. This time needs to be inviolable, which means, no answering the phone, no addressing clients who may come in. (Because during our discussions we frequently have these interruptions, even on Sundays.) If he has additional questions, I will be happy to send him some information by e-mail. So now we have agreed to study earlier on Sunday mornings at 8:00am, when there are fewer interruptions, although this now means I will have to get up super early that day! But also we will have plenty of time, and I won't have to rush off to the meeting as I have in the past.

When I got home, I sent him 6 articles on the subject of why people in Bible times lived so long, whether it is possible to live longer, even forever, etc. Hey, one day we will get the Research Guide in Chinese and that will be a great boon!

It is so gratifying to see these Chinese people who are so hungry to know, to get answers to questions about life. Being available to help them is what makes the experience of living here so worthwhile.