Every New Day

Today is a new day. I decided to stop moping. I got up early this morning and went jogging. The burn in my lungs felt great! I also bought a bunch of fresh fruit for snacking on between meals. Tomorrow I will probably do some other exercises after jogging. I was already thin in America, but now my arms are like sticks! I gotta gain those inches back!

I think I may have broken every rule in the travel handbook except one. I won't go into details, because who knows who reads this?

I finally got the package my parents sent once upon a time long ago. Just in time for Christmas! I was filled with overwhelming joy to see the pictures of my family.

From 2011-12-21

Dad, this photo is for you. It's a giant ant! We have them here out East.

From 2011-12-18

Yesterday I saw a man with his face burned off. Today I saw a girl dragging her limp legs across the sidewalk at the bus station. A mentally-impaired lady begged me for money. I can't assume, but it is hard not to infer that these things are a result of war. And being a "Muzungu" gives me a taste of what life is like for someone who gets stared at and called names. Yet, I cannot compare my life to theirs because my struggles are nowhere near the same level as theirs.

Sometimes my heart completely breaks when I recognize all the problems in the world. In fact, I recently had a conversation with someone about my tendency to want to always be the hero. I have to stop myself from becoming overwhelmed by it all when I realize that I can't fix everything myself. And though there are big problems in the world, my God is bigger. The best thing I can do for the world is to live with sacrificial love for others.

Apparently Rwandans don't have the same standards of censorship for their children as Americans do. My headmaster's children were watching a film last night, and they had it on again this morning. It was a horror film which included bodily dismemberment, impalement, nudity, and lots of blood. Oh, and cannibalism. The film was originally in English, but was dubbed over with a Kinyarwanda narrative. That's right, a narrative; not a direct translation. Basically, it's a guy explaining in Kinyarwada everything that is happening in the movie. Sometimes the movie will pause while he takes the time to explain what is going on. Sometimes it will even rewind and play a scene over again. The end scene, where the cannibal is killed by taking a hook to the face, replayed literally five times! I might have laughed more if the movie weren't so disturbing.