Everything You Need to Make a Difference : 2015

To all who follow and support me by reading my blog, thanks a lot you inspire me to write more. It is been a while since I last posted anything about my trip. So far I am doing great , performing well at TTR work and for that I am grateful.

The last four weeks I have been busy with meetings and stuff, it is strange that sometime I even forget to take a moment and breath.

The parents conference happened on June 3rd. It was a success many parents showed up and were attentive. we started at 8 am and ended at 3pm, of course we hard to provide food and that is one thing Rwandans love! Party with food. I was brave leading the meeting and I can say that God is amazing and so good to me.

Our first staff meeting happened before the official parents conference and we had organized everything as in who will do/say what! I had so many helpers aside from TTR staff. Natalie one of my many friends traveled all the way from Canada and cut her summer fun short so she can volunteer with different events and meetings and with TTR in general, Noela who is my sister in God was there all along and helped a lot. Fabrice and Agnes our college volunteers were around to help as well. Germaine who is always with me every time I am in kigali was suppose to be with us but unfortunately her father had a major surgery and was enable to make it but called to check in and finally Jane my sister in the lord who is on my side all the time. This conference could not have happened without all you volunteers work I can only praise the Lord for that.

I have been meeting parents personally and listening to them and their concerns, it is so amazing how much parents in our programs go through and yet most of them still praise God for his righteousness. I have learned a lot through the years in this country and there is is still so much to learn.

Ten Talents Rwanda staff have been doing amazing job in taking care of other peoples'needs, Honestly if you serve so many people with different needs at the same time you would understand how amazing our staff are. To maintain a good work habit we have established weekly meetings where we meet every Friday morning and examine what we did in the last week while we plan for the next week, this had helped a lot with everyone in the office and those we serve.

Beside work I have hard friends visiting me, my auntie come over and stayed a night not willingly but she did, she always gives me headache and sometimes I am positive I don't want to see her ever but I love her and it's because of that love that I still let her come visit and drive me crazy anyway. My birth father left a land for me and my lil sister as our inheritance and we have been wanting to sell it so that we can by one near where we are and where we can be able to develop it but my auntie has been difficult on that she thinks it's her brother's land and it should not be sold by his daughters and that she has all the rights to keep the land. We know that it has been in the family for a while but it's so far away and we can not use it for anything we really need to sell it as soon as possible so my sister can do something for her and her daughter. Please pray that God will soften my auntie's heart about this and that she will be able to only mind her own business and let us be.

My sister and her baby Gwiza came over for one night, I had prayed for this day to come because my sister and I were not in good terms for her poor choices but I have learned that we all make poor choices now and then and I have learned to forgive over the years thanks to my mom! I have forgiven my sister and we both have decided to move on. With that I got to meet my niece Gwiza and picked out her names, what an honour!! Both her and her mother are still struggling with life and need your prayers so that God will guide them through the life.

Natalie, my Canadian friend came over as well and I enjoyed her company for the two days. my foster nieces and nephews visited me and spent nights on different days! it was a busy week for me trying to play auntie for the weekend! Stacy and her mom Vava come most times to help me clean and cook when I am so busy with the meetings I love having a big sister.

Speaking of a big sister! Vava is doing well to those who know her , she is one of the two mothers in the home of purpose and my older sister she is going through life major event right now and she needs your prayers and support, if you want to now more about Vava please email me on kelly@tentalentsint.org and I will give your the details as it's a private matter.

I want to introduce Jane to all my readers, I met Jane last year through Vava and she has been my friend/sister since then. Jane's parents passed away in genocide when she was so young, she has no idea what her parents looked like but she recently met someone who knew them and told her a brief story about them. now all she has is only their names which she is grateful about.
Jane's whole family were killed and she has been staying with friends for years. Jane has completed high school and is been sitting for 2 years now, she is 22 years old but behind in development both mentally and physically. She has been helping me and as of recent I have had a privilege to detail chat with her and discovered that she has a desire to complete her studies but financially she is unable. If few people put together Jane could be able to complete her studies in 3 years, she has no where to live, she stays with friends most times and she wishes she could be responsible for her life because she is tired of moving every time. TTR houses only children under 18 years old which means Jane can not fit in them. I will be helping her with few personal stuff, if you are reading this and you believe in changing the world through women and children join me so we can send Jane to school in September. I will be setting up a Fundme page for her in case you want to only be a one time giver. but Jane can also be sponsored through ten Talents to those who are already partnering with us.
if you wish to know more about Jane please email me and I will give you details.

Thank you for reading, may God bless y'all abundantly
Oh and enjoy the pictures.

Jane and I

Me and My sis Vava( Mama Stacy)

Esther(TTR bookkeeper) with her baby, Juliet(TTR leader) and Sanyu(TTR cashier) After staff meeting

staff meeting at my home (I got to meet Esther's new baby)

Parents who showed up for the conference

It wouldn't be a meeting without food of course!

we had a large room for everyone to stretch during the meeting

Sanyu greeting parents before we began

Jane serving the meals

Meal time! happy time for everyone

Juliet speaking to the parents

Waiting for more parents to show up

after the meeting with everyone who attended

they were all happy for the information they learned on parenting styles

Everyone including all the volunteers

Vava,Cici (Stacy ) and I

We bade farewell to the parent at exactly 2 pm Rwandan time

To all my readers, especially my family and friends, It had been a full week since I arrived in Rwanda, things have been off and on at times. on the afternoon of Monday May 18th my family saw me off at the Portland international airport, amazingly enough there was no tears somehow I knew I was going to make it on my own for two months since this was my second time going away on my own. I arrived to Kigali on May 19th and Robert Mugabe along with my Rwandan family and friends come to pick me up from Kigali International Airport. I was so eager to get out of the airport and start moving around the busy streets of Kigali, just in case you did not know, Kigali has more people on streets than cars! Just as we were getting out of the airport my heart jumped with Joy and happiness I could not believe that I was finally here.

As we were pulling into the gates of my new house for the next two months, I was overwhelmed and overjoyed to the feeling of being the owner and manager of A FULL HOUSE all by myself! and I thought to myself" what am I doing"? but again "I am here, there is no going back" I had so much mixed feeling at the moment. the next day which was a Wednesday of May 20th I went and got my money exchanged and did some grocery shopping just like a big girl would.

Although I was finally here in Kigali and happy some things were messed up, firstly my fridge was not working which made my food spoil the next day and as you may understand I was not happy so I talked with my rentee to do something about it since I was promised a working fridge, she tried to get it fixed but she was not so lucky, unfortunately she had to take it back to the store and exchange it but apparently the store is out and I have been waiting since last week for the new fridge but I am running out of patience right now.

By the time of my arrival, my father's car was not running which made my life a bit difficult, I had no ride to anywhere, and the guy who was suppose to look at it was no where to be found. I was taking private taxi everywhere and it was not cheaper. I finally got hold of the guy who could come and fix the car and made an appointment with him to which he never appeared. eventually my father worked something out for me to have a car to drive. It took awhile to find the right car with no problems to be fixed. 2 days after my father's car got somehow fixed and I used it to drive the staff of ten talents Rwanda to the bank but I could feel it was not all the way fixed, luckily the mechanic guy knew but wanted me to drive it first and feel the problem.

My water heater is not working since my arrival, no one knows why so taking shower is been a bit problematic but I am managing. the rentee says someone will come over and look at it but there haven't been anyone, I am learning to be patient with all this on the outside but honestly I am so dying inside with so much things not working properly in the house.

I finally got my visa and I am so happy that I will not be dealing with this anymore, they made it complicated at first but later when I got them everything they require (not mentioned on their website) I had to wait for only 3 days and now I have my visa lasting till July 24th. Praise the Lord for this. As for now I will not cross path with the government offices anymore at least I hope I shouldn't.

I worked in the office yesterday, met some parents and helped few things with staff. I also got a chance to visit one of the girls who transitioned out of the home. Her name is Leah, she gave birth to a super adorable baby girl. I , Sanyu, Vava(my sis) and my other cousin Jane we all went and visited Leah. I was honored to wash the baby and dress it up.

I also visited the home of purpose and I could not believe all the changes! the home has new couches , new dining room arrangements and the walls are so decorated. The previous team has done a wonderful job decorating everything and I am very thankful that they did.

For the next few weeks, I will be doing school visits and meetings with different individuals in our program. Our parents-staff meeting will be on June 3rd and we have already booked the place of the meeting. we have worked our budget so that we can be able to feed everyone at the meeting a nice meal.

Thank you for all your prayers.