New house!

Some time back I had a great offer. Here is the background: My buddy Jacques from the French congregation was asked by a sister in his congregation to live in her house while she and her family are in Belgium for the next seven months. Most of the members of this family have already moved to Belgium, with the exception of the sister, who is the mother of the family.

This is a three-bedroom house in Kibagabaga (don't you just love that name?), a neighborhood with a lot of large houses, many of which would be viewed as mansions. The family to this point has not been able to rent their house, which would probably demand $500 a month, a large amount by any standard in Rwanda. It would be difficult to find someone to rent this house, unless it's a foreigner with a family, and then there is the matter of whom you can trust.

So, Jacques, due to his closeness with the family, is considered the "fils aîné," or eldest son (but obviously not literally), entitling him to free rent. But of course, there are two other bedrooms. So, I was asked if I would like to move in also. I could pay the same rent I'm paying now for my present house (100000Rwf, or $116), but look at what we're getting!

The house is fully furnished and has not only the three large bedrooms, but a completely stocked kitchen, including a fridge with freezer, stove, oven, microwave, and all cooking utensils. Then, we will have water every day (hooray!) because there is a 3,000-liter tank on the property. The bathroom has a bidet, if you know what that is. Not to mention the big-screen TV with countless channels, which are all in French. There is parking space for the car, which we don't have to share with anyone. We get a security guard who watches the property and the car all night and cleans the car several times a week, inside and out. He gets 20000Rwf ($23) a month. Then, we've hired Peter, my ex-Bible student, who used to do the cleaning at my old place. Peter will do the cleaning, washing, and ironing twice a week for 30000Rwf ($35) a month.

So, in early December, we met with the sister to discuss arrangements. She said I could pay the $116 a month. I asked her, even though we will be living in the house for seven months, two of those months I will be in the U.S. ... so would it be possible to pay rent for only five months? She agreed! I paid her the five months in advance, and so I'm set until July.

On December 12, we took her to the airport to catch her flight to Belgium. That was also the day we moved in. It took me less than an hour to pack my stuff, and Jacques took about the same amount of time to put everything he has into two suitcases. The advantages of a simple life!

By the way, they are building an annex in the back of the house that will have living quarters, kitchen, and toilet.

The deal is this: The family will be coming back in July for two months during the summer holiday. So, at that time we will have to move out. Probably Jacques will go back to his family's place in Busanza. But there is the possibility that I could move into the annex, assuming that it will have been finished and also that I am still in the country by then.

Finally, I asked my friend Clément if he would like to move in and take the third bedroom. He came over, looked at the house, and readily agreed! (Who wouldn't?) He will be paying rent also, but a smaller amount. So, at least the family will be getting something for their house. And we will be taking good care of it while they are gone!

Jacques

Clément

How about a video home tour? Here you go:

Hey, once I live in this house for seven months (or five, actually), how can I go back to a smaller place? And to living alone again, as I did for the past four years?

Official Chinese course!

Yes, we now have an official Chinese course!

This was approved by the branch, and started in mid-October. As of this writing, we are now in the fifth week.

There are 32 students, which is over the standard limit of 26, but the circuit overseer continued to add others who are classified as "observers."

We are holding classes every Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m., except for umuganda (the public community service day on the last Saturday morning of every month), when they are scheduled from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.

The students, all of whom now have Chinese names, are doing very well, and we are having a blast! We, the three instructors, are using our collective creative abilities to try to make the course as instructive and interesting as possible.

After a video is created of the course, I will post on this blog.

So ... I never dreamed I would be teaching a Mandarin course in Africa!

Offering contributions for car rides—a cultural difference?

As mentioned previously on this blog, I bought a car back in January of this year. It is a bright red Toyota Vitz, which has served me well, especially in reaching with greater expediency the distant reaches of our English and Chinese territory. The car’s fuel economy was probably better in its younger years (it’s 16 years old), but that could no doubt be said of us humans, yours truly included.

However, there is an observation I would like to make—and would welcome any comments from the readership of this blog, which may be international (to some extent) in scope.

I take the car out, on average, four days a week in the ministry. It has been a real help, when you consider the time saved and what can be accomplished. But operating a car is expensive in Africa. Gas (petrol) is twice the cost of what it is in the U.S. So, when giving others in the congregation rides, I notice that rarely does anyone offer a contribution.

On two occasions, when conducting the meeting for field service, I pointed out what was stated in the March 1996 Kingdom Ministry, “Question Box,” about the appropriateness of offering to contribute for transportation provided by others in the ministry. I said that being in a foreign-language congregation or group naturally entails higher transportation costs. Unlike publishers in local-language congregations who walk everywhere in their close-by territory, we end up taking buses, taxis, and motorcycles more often. So, when someone gives us a ride, would it not be a loving gesture, as the Kingdom Ministry mentions, to offer a contribution to the driver?

Well, after these meetings for service, nothing changed. Hardly anyone offered to contribute for rides. Okay, operating my car is certainly not ‘breaking the bank.’ Yet, it is a considerable expense. And the publishers and pioneers take public transportation all the time, every day, so it is not as though they are destitute. (If you are in the English congregation, presumably you have ‘counted the cost’ of serving here in the first place.) They could offer to a car driver after a day in the ministry what they would have normally paid to take public transportation. But this is not happening.

Then, the thought occurred to me that possibly this may be due to a cultural difference. Back home, in the U.S., when I was in the Chinese congregation—and our territory was very large, the entire city of Sacramento—it was almost a standard thing to offer a contribution to a driver. It need not be large, but it nevertheless is a gesture of appreciation.

But, here in Rwanda, I had an experience recently that may explain the difference. I was picked up at the airport at 1:00 a.m. by a brother (and three others) in his car. Of course, I had asked the brother to do this for me in advance. But when I tried to give him some money to cover his expense—and because he had to come get me in the middle of the night—he refused to accept it. He, and the others, said that it would be uncomfortable to accept money in this situation because it would be as though I was ‘paying’ him for the service. And since we are friends, he wanted to help me out—and who pays a friend for a favor?

So, is there a cultural difference? Or maybe—picking someone up at an airport is a one-shot deal, but giving someone rides regularly in service are two different situations?

Readers of this post, what is your observation on this?

South Africa (Durban)

After a great experience in Johannesburg, Bethel, and Ukutula Game Reserve, it was now time to board a bus for the 8-hour trip to Durban, a city on the coast of the Indian Ocean.

I arrived in the evening of August 26, and was picked up by a brother, Wayne, who was to be my host. I knew Wayne because he has come several times to Rwanda as part of his work. He is in a long line of Indian immigrants to South Africa, Durban in particular, which by the way is the city with the largest number of ethnic Indians outside of India.

Here is a list of things I did or places I visited over the next week:

aquarium, bird park, golf driving range, timeshare resort, water park, bowling

Oh, we also attended meetings at the Phoenix East Congregation and participated in the invitation campaign for the regional convention, to be held in mid-September. I saw the stadium where the convention would take place. It was located very close to the beach. Yes, the Indian Ocean!

Moses Mabhida Stadium, Durban

Umhlanga Beach, Durban

Was the water warm, you may ask? Actually, South Africa was just at the tail end of winter, so the water was a bit cool (20 degrees Celsius). When you first get in the water, it feels chilly, but after moving around you get used to it. It is definitely not as cold as the ocean off Northern California.

I stayed with Wayne and his mom and three younger brothers. We ate plenty of seafood and Indian food, not surprisingly, including this dish called "Bunny Chow" at a restaurant. It consists of curried lamb tucked inside a cube of bread. You eat it with your hands. Mmm!

Then, on the first weekend of September, we went to a timeshare resort on the South Coast, about two hours from Durban.

Finally, on September 4, I returned to Johannesburg for the flight back to Rwanda.

Exciting trip!

South Africa (Johannesburg, Ukutula Game Reserve)

I survived South Africa!

First, on August 20, I flew into Johannesburg, via Kampala (Entebbe) and Nairobi, starting in the middle of the night, and over a period of 15 hours. Pretty exhausting! Flying from Kigali to Johannesburg nonstop normally takes about 3½ hours, but of course this is the more expensive option. Have to watch that budget!

Anyway, upon landing I noticed how cold Johannesburg was. Daytime temperatures were between 10 and 15 degrees (Celsius), something unheard of in Kigali. South Africa is coming out of winter and entering spring. And of course, I had no jacket, no sweater. (All of my cold weather clothing is in the U.S.)

I was picked up by Patrick, a Rwandan brother who used to be in our congregation, and two other brothers who had just finished the last day of their regional convention. I was then dropped off at the flat where I was to stay for the next few days. This two-bedroom flat is occupied by Patrick's younger brother Colin as well as five Congolese guys (all Witnesses), most of whom are students at the University of Johannesburg. The university is conveniently across the street, but there are other areas of the campus further away.

Patrick and I went to town one day and looked around. Johannesburg is just a big city, in fact, the financial capital of South Africa, and not much to see from a tourist's point of view, so my main objectives were essentially to (1) change money, (2) buy a South African SIM card and a memory card for my new smartphone, and (3) avoid getting kidnapped. Ha! Just joking, although Johannesburg, despite having the reputation for being the carjacking capital of the world, is probably no worse than any other major city; you just have to be careful at all times.

Though my flatmates were pretty busy most of the time with their studies, we did spend some time in the evenings, talking as well as eating fufu and whole fried fish with tomato sauce. Though the Congolese are not particularly enamored of Johannesburg, they seemed to have adjusted to the lifestyle and the cold weather, and certainly the economic opportunities are much better in South Africa than in their native country.

On August 23, I hired an Uber car to get to Cedar Lodge, where I was to meet my American friend Jerry and his wife and two daughters, who had just come from the Mozambique branch dedication. Also in our group were another couple from the U.S. and a couple from Mozambique Bethel. Between the two nights of our stay at Cedar Lodge, we planned a visit to the South Africa branch. (Though I visited the branch 10 years ago, much of it has completely changed; in fact, they just had a dedication in April due to the enlarged printery.)

Sound wave of the name "Jehovah" spoken in English (wall decoration)

We met one of the animators of the Caleb/Sophia videos. He is originally from South Africa, served in Patterson for a year along with his wife, and then returned to South Africa after they had a child. He gave up a well-paying job and took up farming (something he never dreamed of doing) as part-time work to support his family while commuting to Bethel as an animator. What we didn't realize is that no one animator works on an entire video, because it would take too long and we wouldn't be getting the videos as quickly. Instead, each animator, wherever in the world, is assigned a small fraction of a video. Then, all the parts are put together to create the final product.

I must say, the South Africa Bethel tour is seriously high-tech, with all kinds of videos in multiple languages and hands-on displays, not to mention the elevated, window views of the printery, shipping, and laundry departments. I haven't yet been to Warwick (but probably next year), so the big question is, how does the U.S. Bethel tour compare?

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On August 25, we headed for Ukutula Game Reserve and Lion Park, northwest of Pretoria, where you can see lions, cheetahs, hyenas, and other animals. What an amazing experience! This reserve, interestingly enough, is owned by a Witness family, consisting of a couple and their grown children. They explicitly state that the reserve does not approve of hunting. It has been established for conservation and research purposes. There is a laboratory in the Conservation Center where research is done and biological samples stored for study and testing.

Our guide said that in the past, maybe 50-100 years ago, 70% of lions were killed by hunters. Nowadays, 70% of lions are dying of a disease called "bovine tuberculosis (TB)."
It afflicts cows, which then transmit the TB to other animals. There are only three kinds of animals that are immune to bovine TB, one of which is the hyena. (Hyenas can eat virtually anything and never get sick. How is this possible?) So, research is underway to determine how to create a vaccine that will save lions in the wild.

What is really unforgettable at the reserve, however, is the activity known as "Walking With Lions." Twice a day they take four male lions out for a walk (like you might do with your dog, sort of). It takes about an hour, and on the way the lions get to take a drink and also get fed dead chickens, which they can swallow in one gulp even while perched in a tree!

As tourists, we get to walk with them, only a few meters behind! The guides give you a stick and add that if you place it in front of you with one end on the ground, the lions know they are not to cross it. By the way, these lions are only 2-3 years old; once they pass that age, you can't walk with them anymore. And in the wild, the stick trick doesn't work, unfortunately.

So, how often in your life do you get a chance to have your picture taken with lions in the background? No barriers, no fences, nothing to keep you from being their next meal. OK, it's a bit scary at first, but these guides seem to have everything under control, and they boast of never having had any casualties. Yes, it was a small taste of paradise!

We were also able to get up close to four lion cubs, yes, even to pet them!

And yes, even, pet cheetahs!

By the way, there are two male cheetahs they allow you to touch. (And they are very specific about where you can touch them: head is OK, back is OK, but not the underside.) One of them is named Fast and the other is Furious. Between the two, Furious (the one in the video) has the nicer disposition, according to our guide.

Did you know there are only about 5,000 cheetahs left in the world?

So I would highly recommend visiting this game reserve. By the way, if you are a pioneer, they give you a 50% discount!

Next up: Durban, South Africa

What is a Rwandan prison like?

Interesting experience last week! We were visiting the former Bible student of a brother in the congregation. This ex-student was born in the U.S. to an American father and a Rwandan mother. He came here a few years ago to work as a church project coordinator (I'm not sure of the exact title), married a Rwandan woman, had two kids, and ended up staying here.

He studied the Bible with us for awhile, but then got too busy and stopped. And he never came to one of our meetings, even though he was invited many times. So it was a great surprise to the brother a few weeks ago when he received a call from the man's wife, stating that her husband was in prison and wanted the brother to come visit him.

He is in the main prison of Kigali, which used to be located in town, but recently it moved out of town to a place high up on a hill. It should be mentioned that this prison houses some really bad criminals, including those who were responsible for slaughtering others during the genocide.

We underestimated how much time it would take to get there: two hours on three buses. (The whole experience, round-trip, took about nine hours.) Since we are in the dry season, the road leaving town was full of dust, which is kicked up by all the vehicles.

Then, we still had an uphill hike through two security checkpoints, and a place where you check in your bags, including cell phones, tablets, etc. While the brother was checking in for us, I went to a kiosk where they sell everything from bottled water to beer, to buy something for the prisoner.

After this, we went to a covered waiting area with wooden benches to sit along with 500 other people who were visiting inmates. The way it works is this: You sign up to visit a certain prisoner, and then they call about 50 at a time, wearing either orange or pink jumpsuits (there is no difference between the colors, I was told), to the covered area. You are allowed five minutes with the prisoner, after which someone beats on this drum hanging from the ceiling, and then the prisoners return to their cells. Then, another 50 are brought in, and this process goes on all day until late afternoon. I should mention that the only day that visitation is allowed is Friday. Imagine that! Visitors make the arduous trip out of town, only once a week, for five minutes!

Well, we didn't see our prisoner for several hours, even after the brother spoke to the "chief" prisoner (yes, some prisoners due to good behavior, I would imagine, are allowed greater responsibilities, such as helping to coordinate the visitation process), who told us that, yes, his name was called. Of course, he has an American name, and maybe if it was pronounced with a strong Kinyarwanda accent, perhaps he didn't hear it called. So the "chief" prisoner said to the brother, I know that person you mentioned, let me go personally and try to find him. The result was that finally, after 3:00 p.m., the prisoner we were looking for came out. At first we didn't recognize him, especially with his shaved head, but he knew me because I have been on this Bible study before, and let's face it, how hard is it not to see someone Chinese in a sea of African faces?

So, how much can you say in five minutes? He said he was accused by a pastor in his church of misappropriating money. He has been in prison for two months already, and the trial is coming up in October. How long could he stay here? Anywhere from two months to two years. He did say that the pastor who accused him has apologized, so maybe this will work in his favor at the trial. How many people in his cell? About a thousand. Which means there is barely room to lie down. It's horrible. The prison provides only one meal of maize porridge a day. So, when visitors come, they can bring food, which the prisoners no doubt appreciate.

I asked him, has anyone besides your wife and us come to visit you? He said no, everyone in his church has abandoned him.

I can only imagine the despair felt by this man, who cannot speak much Kinyarwanda and thus has no one to talk to, facing the prospect of possibly spending years in this place. At the end of our five minutes, he was on the verge of tears.

Earlier in the year this guy, by the way, was robbed and beaten while walking late at night on a dirt path to and from his church. For some reason, he had his U.S. passport with him; that and money was stolen. Getting another passport was understandably a hassle.

So if and when he gets out, this is what I would tell him: Go back to America. Find a way to get your wife and kids over there, and don't come back to Rwanda. You will always have this hanging over your head.

The only bright spot of this whole situation is that maybe, after serving his term, he will realize that our religion is the only one that showed love to him and this will prompt him to do something for the truth.

"You are the only Chinese minister we know of"

Here’s an interesting experience:

About a week and a half ago, I got a call from a Mr. Zhang Yu, whom I didn’t know. This is roughly how the conversation went:

“Are you Mr. Zhou?”

“Yes.”

“This is Zhang Yu. I would like to ask of you a favor.”

“Do I know you?”

“You have come by our office, the Hunan Road and Bridge Construction Company.”

“Yes, but I don’t remember you specifically.”

“Well, we heard that you are a minister.”
“Yes.”

“One of my work colleagues died in a road accident recently, and his funeral will be this weekend. So we would like you to come and give a short talk. You are the only Chinese minister we know of.”

“Who was the person that died?”

“His name was Chen Xiong. He was 57 years old. Maybe you don’t know him.”

“No, I don’t. So, how did you get my name and phone number?”

“Mr. Han Kai, who has the auto business, recommended you.”

“Yes, I teach him the Bible.”

“So, the funeral will be this Saturday at 9:00 a.m. There will be a cremation afterward.”

I discussed this with Innocent and Benjamin, the special pioneers, and we decided to meet with Mr. Zhang personally at his office to get more details. Two days later we ended up spending an hour and a half with him, asking some specific questions about the deceased, and saying that we would agree to give a short Bible talk but not say anything about the deceased. We also obtained some assurance from Mr. Zhang that there would be no traditional customs, such as lighting firecrackers (to scare off evil spirits) or burning paper money, that would be out of harmony with Bible teachings and therefore offend our consciences.

So, on the Friday before the funeral, I spent the entire day working on a 12-minute Chinese talk covering (1) why humans die, (2) the condition of the dead, and (3) the resurrection hope. We had arranged that five of us from the Chinese group would drive to the funeral (which was to be in Bugesera, about 45 minutes away) armed with Chinese tracts to distribute to everyone in attendance.

Well, it was late Friday afternoon that Mr. Zhang called me, completely embarrassed and apologetic. He said that because some relatives coming from China would not be arriving until close to 1:00 p.m. the day of the funeral, they would have to reschedule it to 3:00 p.m., which he knew was the time of our Chinese congregation meeting (the second week at this new time). I said, okay, why don’t you give me your e-mail address, I’ll send you the script of the talk, and you or someone else can read it to the audience.

Though it was disappointing not to be able to give the talk I had spent so much time on, there were some positive aspects to this experience. First, it was very gratifying to know that we, the Chinese group in Kigali, are starting to be well-known. Second, preparing the talk was for me like a day of personal study, since I spent the whole day thinking about the resurrection hope. And finally, Mr. Zhang told me later that he did read the talk to the audience, but just the first two sections, because he felt the Chinese audience would not be able to grasp the concept of a resurrection.

My recollection of preaching at the Hunan Road and Bridge Construction Company is that with the exception of one man who ended up returning to China, no one showed interest every time we visited their offices. So, if Mr. Zhang was one of these (and I can’t be quite sure), then obviously the death of his colleague changed his attitude toward our message. In our long discussion, he told me that at 25 years of age, he is suffering a lot of stress and insomnia from his job, he misses his wife and one-month-old son in China, and feels that perhaps the Bible’s message can help him find greater happiness and purpose in life. So, he is now willing to accept more visits from Jehovah’s Witnesses. We will see where this leads!

Almost nothing has happened…

Wow, it has been three months since my last post. Time really flies when…nothing is happening. Okay, maybe that’s not entirely accurate, but after you’ve been in a place for a while, life tends to settle into a comfortable routine (rut?).

So let’s see, what has not happened? My school Edugate hasn’t given me any work for three months, which doesn’t actually bother me too much, because even though I got my work permit with Immigration thanks to my contract with Edugate (said permit paid for by me), the thought of going all the way into town for a $4.75/hr. job isn’t particularly appealing. Especially considering that online teaching is far more lucrative.

That brings us to what has happened. Last month a sister named Abigail came on a bus from Zambia to Rwanda to work with our Chinese group for a month. She belongs to a Chinese congregation in Zambia (of which there are, amazingly, four, when you consider that there are only nine Chinese congregations in all of sub-Saharan Africa). If you look at a map of Africa, you will see that a straight shot from Zambia to Rwanda is under 1,000 miles, and there is a road that connects the two running through Tanzania, so overland it should take less than 24 hours, right? Sorry, this is Africa; that’s not how it works. There is not much demand for travel between the two countries, so the route from Zambia takes you on one bus to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, which is on the coast, followed by a second bus to Rwanda, forming a large triangle. So our sister Abigail spent the better part of four days to get here. She had heard about our group when our special pioneers Innocent and Benjamin attended the Language Instructors’ Seminar in Lusaka, Zambia. So, compared to Zambia, our group in Rwanda could be considered where the “need is greater.”

Anyway, she has been in the Chinese field for about two years, and let me tell you, her Chinese is pretty amazing. She was a big encouragement to the learners in our group.

There was evidence of Jehovah’s blessing on her entire experience here. First, because I believe this was the first time she had ever traveled to another country, she came with the Zambian currency known as kwacha, which is completely useless here in Rwanda. You can’t change it anywhere into Rwanda francs. But, interestingly, shortly after arriving she encountered a Zambian man who was here on a business trip and was shortly to return home. He wanted to change his francs back into kwacha. Normally, one would have to change from francs to U.S. dollars and then to kwacha. So he was more than happy to exchange with Abigail. The upshot was that she ended up with enough funds to last her the entire month!

Then, before leaving, she was surprised that someone in the congregation here bought her a return plane ticket to Zambia. So instead of spending another dreaded four days on buses, she got home in less than two hours!

Recent photo of the Chinese group (Abigail and a visiting couple from France on the left)

On the home front, this week a brother named Emmanuel from the French congregation is moving into the storage room behind my outdoor kitchen. He commutes to Bethel three days a week and doesn’t have much money or possessions. He does photography at weddings, but of course there are not weddings every weekend. So he got this other job as a security guard, working nine hours all night, seven days a week. And you know from one of my previous posts how much that kind of job pays. So he’s paying me only about $12 a month, including the water bill. When I said “storage room” just now, I should mention that it’s a room with concrete floor about 70 square feet, with an electrical outlet and a window. So it’s livable. Of course, he can use my toilet and shower anytime. (He can also wash my car anytime.)

We just had our English regional convention, the second time in as many years. Last year the peak attendance was 198, and this year it was 250, a 25% increase! Last year was almost entirely streaming video, but this year was a mix of live talks and video. We had three baptized, two from our congregation (Lionel, who is 6’6”, and Sano, the sister of David Minani), and one from the other English congregation in Nyamirambo.

And here’s the other big news: as of last week, the letters and applications have been sent out to all the Kinyarwanda, French, Swahili, and English congregations here in Kigali for the upcoming Chinese course! (We had been waiting for the Service Department to translate the letters and applications.) So there should be announcements this week. Once the applications have been returned to the circuit overseer, he will review them with input from the three language instructors, and it looks like we will be able to have our kickoff meeting in early September. The course will run through January 2018. So we will be very busy!

In the meantime, we have entered the dry season here in Rwanda. They are tearing the roads up all over the place, for the purpose of widening and repaving.* So the dust is flying everywhere, and combined with the heat at this time of year and the fact that we are close to the end of the service year, I have already entered my summer malaise.

When I say “heat,” of course temperature-wise it is not as hot here as in many parts of the U.S. The hottest it ever gets here is about 86ºF (30ºC), which is pretty extreme. The difference is that the effect of the sun at the equator is like being under a tanning lamp. Those solar rays just feel more intense. So even on days when it’s not that hot, you still have to wear a hat. I’m normally not much into hats, considering what they do to your hair, but here in Rwanda they are necessary. This reminds me of what a brother at U.S. Bethel told me when I was serving there years ago and balked at the idea of wearing a knitted cap while preaching on some of the coldest days in New York (just like those used by burglars but without the eye holes, and yes, hair was an issue then, too): It doesn’t matter what you look like, or what other people think, just protect your head!

So what can I do about my malaise? Get out of here for a while, that’s what! I just bought a plane ticket to South Africa, and so for all you folks back home, this is to let you know that the last two weeks of August I’ll be lying on a beach in Durban and gorging on Indian food. Hey, gotta do something leisurely before I ‘hit the ground running’ when the Chinese course starts. So your next correspondence will be…well, when I get back.

* All this flurry of activity is in advance of the presidential election on August 4. The current president will be running for his third term, which is the result of a special referendum from 2015 amending the constitution to allow for the third term. The referendum passed with 98% of the vote (hmmm).

New house, new job, new visa, new meeting time

What else is new? Never a dull moment!

First, I moved last month. A sister who attended the latest School for Kingdom Evangelizers got an assignment as a special pioneer in an area about an hour south of here. She had to move in a hurry, so she asked me if I might want her rented house, which is only about 200 meters from my old house.

Well, I came and looked at it, and decided, yes! It is a little more expensive than my previous house ($120 vs. $95 a month) but well worth it. I now have nice tile floor, even tile on the walls in the bedroom as well as the bathroom. OK, the first few weeks I was here, the bathroom had serious problems. The shower leaked, the sink leaked, the shower floor had severe rust, and a brown liquid seeped in from the outside and covered the entire floor, even returning after being cleaned up. Once I paid two months' rent, however, the landlord (an elderly couple) sent workers to fix all these problems. It turned out that the building up against my house belonged to the community and due to a failure to seal properly between the buildings the brown liquid came in every time it rained. So some guy came over and was snapping photos of the problem. It was fixed almost immediately. The other leaks were repaired and now the shower floor is tile. I should say that the water is maybe a bit more frequent than it was at the old place, but the Internet is definitely worse. And I'm living about 50 meters behind an evangelical church that has raving preachers and blasts gospel music most nights and weekends. You can't have everything.

Because the sister who used to live here now has a smaller place at her new assignment, she left me her sofa, clothes wardrobe, fancy curtains, and shoe rack. She didn't want to sell, but just asked me to keep them for the time being. So now I'm really living in style!

You may notice from the photos that where the big table is, there is space for a bed, next to the clothes wardrobe. The curtains can be pulled around to conceal this area, so yes, I could have a roommate, which may happen in the very near future.

My visa expired in March, and so I submitted a renewal application for another two years. This time I had 10 signed contracts with students for private lessons (compared to three the previous time), and so I thought it should be a breeze to renew. Well, it wasn't. Not only had Immigration become more strict since I got the visa originally, they made an impossible request: they asked for a recommendation letter from the Ministry of Education. I made two trips to the Ministry of Education, talked to two different people, and was told that they issue such letters to institutions, such as schools, and not to individuals. The Ministry of Education develops curriculum for primary and secondary schools and universities. So how could I, who simply have a handful of private students in a self-employed capacity, hope to get any type of recommendation letter?

Of course, every time I went to Immigration, I got a different person at the counter, and after a half-hour, this person would return from the back room after examining my file and repeat that I had no choice but to get the letter they were requesting, blah, blah. So I decided to contact Edugate, a language school downtown that I had worked for briefly, to ask them if they would hire me and provide a work contract. Yes, they were more than willing, but only part-time, which is just what I wanted also. So I brought a copy of the work contract to Immigration, and they still insisted on the letter from the Ministry of Education! (It happens that the Ministry of Education does not recognize language schools such as Edugate.)

Even though my visa had expired for about a month by this time, the way it works is that as long as Immigration has possession of your passport, you're legal. You just can't leave the country, not exactly a comforting thought....

Well, after numerous attempts to convince Immigration that they should give me a work visa because, hey, I actually do have employment, they finally saw the light. But I got only one year, which is the same length as my work contract. It's better than nothing.

So now I'm an English teacher. The hours are always changing, because I'm either substituting or assigned part-time classes, but the job is definitely suitable for pioneering. The classrooms are very modern, and the equipment top-notch. Each room has a projector with a large touch screen. You can project the textbook page, blow it up to any size you want, and click on certain icons to get audio files and scripts for the material you are considering. It's really high-tech. One thing I wonder is if this school, which is Turkish owned, is actually making any money, because it seems most of the classes consist of only 3-6 students. In other words, they are not filling up the classrooms. But, hey, as long as I get paid....

And here is the latest Chinese news: the branch has approved an official language class! I and the two special pioneers will be the instructors. We are going to start this class the second week of July, just after the Regional Convention.

Also, because we noticed that few Chinese people have been attending our Sunday meeting, probably due to the time (8:30am), we proposed a switch to Saturday at 6:15pm. Most Chinese people here work six or seven days a week, and are not available until the evening. So it was logical to move the meeting to the evening. The elders have approved this, and we are now awaiting for the branch to approve also. Having our own meeting time separate from the English will have other advantages, one of which is that we can use the main auditorium with microphones, etc., instead of the back room, which is getting pretty crowded (with Chinese learners). Once our class starts, our meeting attendance may even double or triple. So we really need more space!

Chinese on the map!

Preaching in the bush

On Tuesday, February 14, equipped with our newfound mode of transportation (imodoka = car), four of us in the Chinese group—Innocent, Blaise, Jean-Luc, and I—set out for parts further afield. We had some reported locations of Chinese people and were prepared to preach!

The first stop was at a rice growing business a couple of kilometers out of town. We found the house where the Chinese were staying, but the locals told us they weren't home. So we left a magazine and an invitation to pass on to them.

Next stop: a stone quarry. We drove on narrow dirt paths for quite a distance, competing with big trucks coming from the opposite direction and laden with gravel, until we reached what appeared to be an office where we did indeed find a middle-aged Chinese man. Of course, he said he worked seven days a week and had no time, but we did leave our invitation and some literature. He and his colleague are the only Chinese there, but the colleague was in China at that moment.

Then, we found this coffee exporting place, and next door was a Chinese lady who said there are six people in her family living in that house. She was very pleasant, listened to some scriptures read, and took some literature.

Finally, we learned about another Chinese person at a stone-processing area (probably related to the quarry mentioned earlier). We drove through rough dirt roads—this is, after all, out in the boonies—until we met a local man, who said he could show us the place. So we left Jean-Luc in the car and followed the man. Where we went thereafter was a bit more rigorous than I had expected. Take a look at the following videos:

OK, I've done hiking on steep cliffs and crossed fast-moving streams in my life before, but this was the first time doing it while preaching.

Well, this last stop was quite rewarding. We met an elderly Chinese man who was very receptive. Even though his time was limited, he did take about 20 minutes with us. One thing we made sure to do on this trip was exchange phone numbers, because who knows when we can make it out here the next time, or can even find the place again!

Returning the same way we came, we found Jean-Luc surrounded by over 100 kids in uniform who had just gotten out of school, watching Caleb videos. Driving away was a challenge with kids hanging all over the car, even chasing it a distance.

That was quite a preaching day!

Wheels!

After being here in Rwanda for almost three years, I finally got a car! It is a 2001 Toyota Vitz (a model unheard of in the U.S.), with only 121,000 km (72,000 mi), imported from Europe and Dubai, and in near perfect condition!

Even though I still have the energy to hike up and down the hills of Kigali (for who knows how much longer), having a car will make it easier and faster to get places, especially the far reaches of our territory. The Chinese and English speakers in the territory are scattered all over. We have Chinese return visits and Bible studies, for example, in such neighborhoods as Gacuriro, Masaka, Gatsata, Gisozi, Nyarutarama, and Nyamirambo. To get to one of these places by bus and on foot often takes an entire morning or afternoon. So now we can accomplish more! We can also now take the Chinese witnessing carts in the car instead of hauling them over the busy streets in town from their storage location.

I got a local brother (advantage: Kinyarwanda-speaking) who is a mechanic to help me with the car buying and registration process. We took parts of three days to accomplish it all. But it's all done now!

OK, so red is not my first choice. But it is a Chinese color....