Global Citizens

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Originally uploaded by come and see africa

NUR is blessed with many talented professors. The talents are pulled from all over the world. Elena and Oleg are from Russia, and they teach physics and astronomy. Jose and Jahwar are from India. Some of these professors are from Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya. And yours truly who is a Korean-American came to Butare from SF. Most of these professors speak three or four languages fluently. They are holding a certificate of completion of Web 2.0 workshop. Each of these professors are now have their own blog and their wiki site.

4th of July

Four of us celebrated 4th of July in Butare, Rwanda. We celebrated it as Independence Day, Rwandans celebrated it as Liberation Day.

Morning Glory

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Originally uploaded by come and see africa

These children get up at 5 am, and come for the morning devotion at CASA house. They sing and dance, and hear God's words before they go to school. Many of these children go to sleep without a dinner, and they go to school without a breakfast. And yet, they give thanks to God. Bless are the poor... This picture is taken at 6:30 am, right after the morning devotion.

What can you see when you are in Rwanda?

I have visited Rwanda eight times, and yet I have not seen any animals other than goats and chickens. Rwanda is famous for gorillas, and yet I have not seen one. You have to go to a special park to see it, and also it is quiet expensive to get into to the park. Chris was lucky to see a monkey on his way to Congo.



These two mujungus are enjoying goat meats they bought from a street vendor.

Visiting Burundi

We drove around about an hour to buy gas in Burundi. We paid over $10 for a gallon of gas.


A grocery store in Burundi. We bought goat meats and peanuts for lunch


Queen Leila and Pastor Chris


Spoke to students about January conference. The theme of Jan. conference is Joseph in Egypt, it is about leadership. There are 16 universities in Burundi, these students are leaders from each campus.

Photography.English.Bible.Techology Classes

Twenty students from NUR learned to use 35mm camera. Don collected 10 cameras from his church in Tiburon, and taught students.





Nate teaches English to children and youth.



Pastor Chris teaches NUR students about Christian Leadership


Professor Kim teaches NUR professors on Web 2.0


Last year, Prof. Singleton taught these students. They meet once a week and practice.

Building a house

Students and CASA team build a house for a widow. It took a week to build it, and it costed under $2K.

Praise and worship in Rwanda

Litte children and widows praise and worship at 5:30 am. University students gather at noon to praise and to worship. Instead of partying at night, students gather together from 10 p.m at the stadium, priase and worship.

Richest woman in Africa.

We had a house dedication for the widow with four children. Our team members and local people came out and built the house for the widow. After the completion of the house, we had a party. Students bought her 8 blue plastic cups and 2 plastic bins. The CASA bought her a large bag of beans and rice, and a mattress. Her church bought her a blanket, and many neighbors brought her tomatos, avocados, beans, and corns. Many neighbors participated in building her house, even little children carried water to the construction site. After finishing the house, everyone came to the site and celebrated. You have to be here to see her big smile.

Pastor Daive who was in charge of the house construction shares Words.













This is her new house with 3 rooms in side. She was happy about a door so she can lock up.











This is the kitchen. If you want to remodel your kitchen, here is some idea for your new kitchen.












This is latrine. Do you see the little hole between two bricks? Again, if you have an urge to remodel your bathroom, I can give you a tip. Just let me know.











She is standing in front of her new house with her mother who is in yellow top. The widow is wearing a t-shirt with words printed, "when you look to Jesus, everything look up". I am not sure if she was wearing the T-shirt intentionally. I doubt it. But it is so fitting.

This morning at the CASA devotion, she stood up and blow kisses to God. She said that she is the richest women in this country, she slept on her own mattress, she feels like she is a queen. She gave thanks to God then she blow more kisses to God. This house was built under $2000. She said, she is the most blessed woman in this country. She humbled me with her grateful attitudes.


NUR rector giving out certificates to the workshop participants. He is a dynamite leader who is decisive. He is the new president of this university.










After the ceremony, professors came to the CASA house for tea and coffee







The way to Burundi. These kids are getting a free ride.








Pastor Jeremy's family in Burundi. What a happy family. They have 8 children, three of them are adopted.








I stayed in Rwanda today. Chris left with Frank and Don to go to Congo. He will talk to university students about January conference. Burundi students were so excited about upcoming conference, they want to save bus fare to come to Rwanda. Our deal is that the CASA will provide lodging and food for 4 days and half of their transportation money. Even then many students can not come up with the money to attend the conference, especially those students who have to travel far. However, we want students learn to contribute, not just taking in. Robina informed us that about 300 to 400 students will attend the confernce. We want students to their part. We are talking about $5 to $10 of their bus fare.

No pics with this blog, internet connection is soooo slow

July 5^th: Workshops are finished. Professors came to the CASA house after we closed the workshop. The Rector gave speech on how important for professors to learn to use technology, and the needs for distance learning in Rwanda.

July 7^th: David continues to work on the Widow’s house. Here is Widow’s house in progress. We have a house dedication party next Monday, after we come back from Burundi. Bujumbra is about 2 hours away from Butare, but it is a all day trip. We were at the borders for almost 2 hours to get our visa stamped. We left Butare around 9 and arrived in Bujumbra around 3 p.m. We visited Imaculee’s home for a dinner; as usual, her mother prepared a feast for us. We had to leave their house early for a wedding reception.

July 8^th: We went to Edmond’s church. There were lots of visitors from different nations; Canada, Netherland, England, Uganda, USA, etc. After the service, we had a lunch with students. We discussed January conference in Butare. There were about 30 students from different universities in Burudi. They were so excited about the conference, Joseph in Egypt is the topic, it is about the leadership. We are planning to have Christian students from Congo, Burundi, Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda, and USA for January conference.

July 9^th: After the lunch, we spoke at the Pastor Jeremy’s church about marriage. Marriage is like a partner dancing, like Tango. It needs practice to be good dancers, needs cooperation. After the dinner, we went to Beach, and had a fish dinner. Children played, and we adults sat around and talked. I was glad that we are out on the beach from hot, muggy hotel room. Cool breeze, good company, good music.

Before we leave Bujumbra on Monday, we stopped at the Korean Mission Center in Buja. The Center building is completed but the seminary is not opened yet. There were 200 people from Time Square people came and treating sick people at the Center. When we got there, we could not even drive into the center because of so many people want to see doctors and nurses. There has to be more than 500 people at the gate to see doctors.

We came back from BJ just before the house dedication and goats giving ceremony. It was so great to witness the widow and her family. She was so happy as you can see in her face. She was wearing a T-shirt with a logo, “When you look to God, everything looks good”. Here is her brand new kitchen, which is right next to the out house. She has a three rooms, mud floor, but her own home. She was so happy that she has doors to prevent thieves coming to her house.

Faculty Workshop

Workshop

We met on Monday, July 2nd at 9 am, and the Vice Rector came, opened the seminar. I learned that the University is requiring professors to put their course online by November. Most of professors use e-mail, and many of them know how to use Office. I introduced Web 2.0 tools. They also created iGoogle homepage, and then they personalized their homepage by adding calendar, clock, etc. Electricity went out several times during the morning session. They also learned what are the RSS feeds. They subscribed to my blog site and this seminar site, which I created with Wetpaint wiki. They learned the difference between Bookmarks and Goggle Reader.

On Tuesday, July 3rd, everyone created their own Blog account with Blogger, and then wrote about what they learned yesterday. They also created an account to manage and sharing photos using Flickr.

July 4th. Rwandans are celebrating their Liberation Day. School was closed, and shops in town also were closed. It was very nice to take a break from intense schedule. The workshop begins at 9 and stops at 5, but I usually linger around little bit longer.

Last year's group

Ready to take pictures
Originally uploaded by come and see africa

Four people out of 13 people showed up for this year's seminar.

In action

This is the second day for building the house. Nate and Gordon were working at the site most of yesterday and today.











Chris teaches pastors form 9am to noon, then he goes to the campus to teach for an hour. We have a lunch at 1 pm at the house, then he goes back to teach pastors from 2 to 5 p.m. He also preaches at 9 p.m at the university stadium.


I went to the campus, and taught professors from 9 am to 5 p.m They created iGoogle homepage, and today they are learning about blog and Flickr. They are really good.

We are doing well

Our day starts at 5 am and ends at 10 p.m. For example, mamas and children from neighborhood come to the CASA house for a morning devotions everyday except on Sunday. Even at 5 am, they praise with passion, and usually dance too. I get a good aerobics workout. There were about 45 people in the living room. We push benches to the side, and children sit down and adults sit on the benches. So many great testimonies were shared today. They all praise God with whole heart, and I see they are really glorifying God. When I see these children and also adults, I am reminded that how much they are richer than those who have so much material things in US. They are so grateful to God for what they have and they share them with others. They really don't have anything, but their heart is so rich and full.

Happy widow

We arrived in Rwanda last Thrusday, and our team and students have been building a new house for a widow who has five children and she has Aids. She rents a room in a house where three men also live. She told me that they give her bad time because she is a woman and also she is Hiv positive.

Last Friday morning, I visited her family.This is the place where she lives now.


Her new home site


Don is saying something to kids


10 feet hole for the outhouse