Interested in Chinese?

This past week a Rwandan sister, Denise, came from Canada to visit her family here. She has been learning Mandarin for about 3 years and is associated with a Chinese congregation in Ottawa. One day she accompanied me on a few Chinese return visits. Also, she brought me a large stack of literature, including the new jw.org tract. So now I have plenty of literature, just need people to help me work the territory...

Interestingly, Denise said that the last leg of her trip to Rwanda was a flight from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to Kigali. Would you believe that half the people on the plane were Chinese! When the immigration forms were passed out, they couldn't fill them out due to a language problem, so Denise spent considerable time helping them. Yes, the Chinese keep on coming to Rwanda!

Around the same time Denise was visiting, I started a private class with a few in the congregation. A brother asked me to give him lessons, thinking that this might start the ball rolling somehow, and others would follow. So I met with him and another brother and we had our first lesson (and piano lessons are included also, by the way).

No sooner did this happen than there was an announcement made at the end of the meeting this week. As a preliminary survey, any interested in learning Chinese were invited to sign a list placed on the platform table. The whole congregation broke out in applause! (I almost got choked up.) Then, when it was all said and done, 38 people signed the list! This is nearly half the congregation! Not even including the results of any surveys to be made of the French and Kinyarwanda congregations!

So, what do you think? Will we need two, or maybe three Chinese classes? Decision will be made by the circuit overseer. I will keep you posted.

Latest experience: Last Tuesday, I woke up tired and was thinking strongly of staying in but decided to push myself to go out preaching (you know, it's still the campaign, gotta show my support). Well, it is always on such days that you have the best experiences. My partner was Ernest, one of my biggest Chinese supporters, and naturally he wanted to work Chinese territory. One of the places we went that morning was Tangren restaurant in the area of Gishushu, where I have a return visit on a guy who has shown interest, but is usually too busy to talk when I come, so I just leave magazines. He wasn't there, but there was a young guy I didn't recognize behind the counter. I asked him, Do I know you? (Sorry to say this, but often Chinese do look alike.) He said, no, my name is Li Long and I've only been here for two months, from the city of Xi'an (where, as we all know, the Terracotta Army is located). I had barely gotten out a sentence explaining the purpose of our visit, when he said, "Can you get me an English Bible?" He showed me his Chinese Bible, which contained the name Jehovah, and added that he wanted one in English to compare, because he "really wanted to understand the Bible." So I placed the red brochure and a couple of magazines, showed the 4-minute video, and gave him my cell number and e-mail address. I also showed him on jw.org the answer to the question on the back of the tract, "What is the meaning of life?" After we left, he didn't waste any time texting me to express appreciation for our visit.

Hey, I'm getting too many of these! Need help!

Luxury—or necessity?

When folks in the Western world—and that includes me—think of what are life's necessities, we usually think of far more than just food, shelter, clothing, and basic transportation. (Chinese:  衣食住行) We think necessities include a TV, a computer, and a cell phone.

The fact is that in a developing country things such as cars and electronics are usually more expensive than in the U.S. This is because imported goods are hit with duty and other taxes upon entering the country. Not only that, but you cannot always rely on the quality of the goods. So if you're going to buy a computer, it is usually best to get it in the U.S. or Europe.

Whether we consider something as a luxury or as a necessity depends upon the standard of living we are used to. For example, although I am surviving on about US$400 a month, there are brothers here who live on the equivalent of US$60 a month. I think I'm just getting by with bare necessities, but am I really? I pay $3 to eat at a Rwandan lunch buffet, and think that's pretty cheap, but the fact is that many people cannot afford such a "luxury," so they subsist on rice, beans, and vegetable for about 75¢. Sources say that Kigali is a fairly expensive city to live in, but by whose standards?

That brings up the subject of car ownership. The fact is that 95% of the people in poorer countries do not have cars, because 95% of the people are not rich. True, Kigali has a lot of cars. But when you take the number of cars here with its population of 1 million, compared to, say, Sacramento, the fact is that there are more cars per capita in Sacramento because there is not a decent public transportation system so everyone has to have a car.

In Malawi, a few my Western friends directly told me that it was wrong for me not to have a car. Hey, I survived there two years without one, and will survive here in Rwanda without one, just like by far the majority of people around me. In Malawi and Rwanda cars are more expensive to buy than in the U.S., and petrol (gas) is more expensive ($5.50/gallon). Besides, to hop on a bus and go to town (about 8 miles) is actually quite convenient. Once you get there, you don't have to worry about parking, which can be a big challenge. You need not be concerned about dodging motorcycles, about traffic jams, or about getting pulled over by the Rwandan police, who can be very strict about the least infraction and will lecture you in no uncertain terms. And another benefit of public transportation: it forces you to walk more, which will keep the kilos/pounds off! In 5 months I have lost 9 kgs., or 20 lbs. How do I know this? Because sometimes on the sidewalk, you see these guys with a bathroom scale who invite you to step on and check your weight, for 100Rwf. Hey, whatever it takes to earn a living...

Right now, my jeans are about 2 sizes too large. Usually, my shirt is worn outside to cover them. Any more weight loss, however, and I may have to go on one of those commercials asking for donations. :)

Oh, one more benefit of the bus: witnessing! One time, I distributed all my invitations on the bus, including two handed out the window to people standing at a bus stage! People here will gladly take anything you give them and not view it with suspicion, as is the case in the developed world.

But . . . if I ever did get a car here in Rwanda, this silver Mercedes (parked at the convention) is the one I want . . .

DREAM ON!!

Gastronomically branching out

Even though I'm on a tight budget, which means my funds have to last until the end of the year, every so often this urge arises to get away from the starch-filled buffets here in Kigali (cheap though they are) and try something different—namely, starch-filled Mexican food.

There is only one Mexican restaurant in Kigali, though strictly speaking it is an Americanized version. (But, hey, I'll take it.) Its name is Meze Fresh and it specializes in burritos and tacos. So the other day, in conjunction with doing a return visit in the area, I decided to splurge on a burrito for lunch.

The interior, including the bathroom, was clean and the décor tasteful. The young guy behind the counter pulled out a large tortilla and proceeded to pile on it whatever I wanted. There was the usual rice and beans, plus pico de gallo (mild or fiery hot), grated cheese, tomato, mushroom, sauteed onion, purple cabbage, guacamole, pineapple salsa, mango salsa (extra charge), and choice of meat (beef, chicken, pork, or goat) or vegetarian. I learned that the owner is from California. He wasn't there at the time, but the server said that the employees get free food, which is quite a special perk for them.

I had the chicken burrito with mango salsa (4400Rwf, or $6.30), and was it huge and delicious! I thought I might save part of it for later, but then instincts took over, and it was gone in no time. Mmm! How great, I thought, to experience a part of "home" away from home. 

Restaurant review number two:

After visiting the burrito place, I was starting to get into eating something other than local foods, and so during a day in field service working with a brother visiting from South Africa, he suggested going to this Italian restaurant called SoleLuna. This place gets positive reviews on a website for expats and is noted for having the best pizza in Kigali.

There were dozens of pizza combinations on the menu. We ordered one pizza (cheese and spicy salami) and one calzone (tomato, ham, capers, artichoke), each roughly 6000Rwf ($8.60). Both were excellent; the pizza in particular had a thin crust, which I like. The sauce was flavorful with the right amount of spice. Ambience is relaxing and there is a nice view of the city.

So, there you have it. One burrito place and one pizza place, both highly recommended. What do you think? Should I become a restaurant critic?

By the way, I think I may suggest to some of the local brothers that eating spicy food will help them cope with this current run of "freezing" weather (64º-68ºF, or 18º-20ºC) during the evenings. One of the young brothers running microphones at the meeting this week had a thick sweatshirt on! I tell them that if they ever hope to visit America, they had better start conditioning themselves now for real winter cold, yes, the kind where your breath freezes in midair. (Nobody believes me, of course.)

Fire, Kinyarwanda convention

Good news: my electricity returned on the third day! Now I don't have to go to bed at 7pm anymore!

Funny thing, on the first evening of the blackout, my landlord sent me a text message—shortly before I dropped my phone in the water—stating: "Sorry about the fire at your place. Will be sending a technician out tomorrow."

"Fire"? I don't see any flames. Or any smoke. What was he talking about?

I asked Bernard, the brother who is my neighbor. He said that the word in Kinyarwanda for "power" (electricity) is the same as "fire." OK, I thought, so someone would be coming the next day to fix the power problem.

But as proof that misunderstandings can occur, especially across cultural and linguistic lines, a brother in the congregation called a few days later to ask me if my place was still burning. I should have said: Yeah, do you want to come see it? Bring a chair.

No, I said, my house is not and was never burning.

Then, later that evening, I mentioned this strange question to Bernard. He said, no, Brian, your house really did have a fire. It started in your neighbor's place—which is physically in the same house as yours—and they put it out quickly, but it damaged the power lines. Bernard didn't tell me on the evening it happened because I had some guests visiting at the time (sitting in a darkened room with one candle) and he didn't want to bother me.

So, all's well that ends well. My house was saved from incineration, even without my knowing it. I learned another example of Kinyarwanda usage. And I'm back in the cyber world to tell about it.

On Thursday, the day before the Kinyarwanda convention, there was a good-sized turnout for field service. We still had a stack of over 500 convention invitations, and since this was the last day we could use them, all were encouraged to take as many as they wished. I had this notion of bundling up a large stack and tossing it in the middle of the open-air market, but instead my partner and I faithfully followed instructions and distributed them individually to passersby, businesses, and students at a college. In about two hours we placed close to 300! (When you don't speak Kinyarwanda, the conversations are bound to be very brief: "Convention. Bible. Stadium. Free. You are welcome.") We also placed some of the new tract as well, in English.

After a relatively uneventful next two days, on Sunday afternoon I attended the convention. As everyone expected, it was a packed house. I wanted to see how they would pull it off, from a technical standpoint. There were many screens placed at various locations throughout the stadium.

My tie is color-coordinated with the convention badge. Very important!

Wow! Look at the screens!

The section I sat in, with a rather unhappy kid in the foreground.

As close as I could zoom in to the stage.

My first thought, since I came during the lunch break, was to find somewhere to sit and eat a couple of hardboiled eggs I brought. But I couldn't get 10 feet without being stopped by someone I either knew or who wanted to introduce himself. Every kid I passed wanted to stop and shake my hand. When you are the rare non-African person at a convention, you are quite the celebrity! So by the time I found a seat (at that point there were no seats in the shade, only in the sun), I had 5 minutes to scarf down my eggs.

It was then that the program started. And our section had its own screen! It was very entertaining to watch Biblical characters speaking Kinyarwanda in the video drama. The sound quality was excellent, but the picture cut out several times, so a brother had to be on hand to restart it.

So now I can say I've been to a Kinyarwanda convention. I didn't understand much, but it was a great experience! Peak attendance was 11,589, with 189 baptized.

Exciting events

This evening I'm lying here in bed--under the mosquito net, of course--listening to some very loud insects in the roof and pondering recent exciting events:

• Water has gone from nonexistent to intermittent. This is a definite improvement, since in competing for the tap with the people next door, at least now I have a fighting chance.
• We have experienced two full days of a power blackout (think: ninth plague on Egypt), causing me to reflect on how boring the world would be without any electronic devices.
• On the first evening of the blackout, while I was using the bathroom, my cell phone with the light on was perched on top of a cup half-filled with water. Unfortunately, it slipped into the water, and promptly went dead, unable to be resuscitated.

Lying here, thinking about all this, I notice the beam of a torch (flashlight) passing repeatedly by the window. Someone, in an attempt to fix the blackout problem, is examining the many meters of exposed wiring running under the roof. Then, I hear some loud hammering, probably coming from the same source.

So, if you've had similar exciting experiences recently, I'd like to hear about them.

Actually, the real excitement has resulted from the regional convention here in Kigali, which will take place August 8-10 at a stadium in Nyamirambo, the last of the convention series. This convention is distinguished by the fact that it will be the second year that Kigali has one convention for the entire city (previously 8-9 smaller conventions held at the Assembly Hall). This will also be the first year that large screens are used to transmit video. So in the weeks leading up to the convention, the brothers at Bethel have been working feverishly to make sure everything turns out smoothly, from a technical standpoint.

So, for the first week or so of August, we have had the distinct privilege of engaging in two campaigns simultaneously: inviting people to the regional convention, and distributing the new tract about jw.org. Here we are on the first Saturday of the month--on which more than half of the congregation came out preaching--ready to participate in the campaigns:

Though normally the congregation schedules meetings for field service only on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and the weekends, for the month of August we also added Fridays. This would accommodate the numerous auxiliary pioneers that signed up that month. So August thus far has proved to be an exciting month of increased activity, here and worldwide.

Since the convention is to be in Kinyarwanda, probably we could invite most anyone, excepting the English speakers from other countries such as Uganda and Kenya who would not understand the local language.

Prior to the convention, a long letter was read in the congregation, advising everyone (1) not to save seats overnight, (2) to arrive at the convention early enough, if taking a car, so you can be helped to park, and (3) to remember that you have children when you get back to your accommodations. Seriously. There have been reports of parents completely forgetting their children, the latter being placed in Lost and Found until the parents suddenly remember to retrieve them, often late in the evening. I guess when you have 8 kids, it is easy to forget one. Or, maybe it's a convenient way of giving them away (just kidding).

I plan to go to one day of the convention (at this point haven't decided which day) just for the experience. Will keep you posted on the result!