For The Longest Time

Yikes. This blog has suuuuure gone by the wayside over the past few months! And I might feel bad about this, if not for the fact that I have been in direct company with, what I thought was, my entire reading audience. Actually, being back in the states has allowed me to become more aware that I do have more of a following than I've been aware. That's exciting :) Granted, it's one person. But still that's a 50% increase... Not bad in times of a recession, right?

K, so I've got lots to cover. I noticed that all my bloggin buds had updated their blogs recently, also after a long sabbatical, so I figured I'd follow suit. The last entry was in March or April or something, and quite a lot has happened since then. If you weren't aware, I am currently back in the states, BUT not for too much longer. Read on for further details. I will begin this blong (get it? Blog + long because this one's gonna be a novel) with some of the immediate happenings that followed the last entry. Here goes.

The last month or so of school was a complete whirlwind. It's hard to recall now exactly all the goings-ons of the final weeks, but they were great. The kids were fantastic straight up to the end, finishing off different projects and preparing to embark on the soon-to-be new chapter of their lives - Jr. High. Yup, 5^th grade at KICS is middle school, so it's a huge transition. I organized a Jr. High shadow day for them so they could have a bitty taste of what it would be like, and the differences between primary and secondary school. It was such a great year, and even though my exhaustion level reached an all time high, it was definitely a bittersweet ending. I just simply had the best class imaginable, and had more fun with them than I thought would be possible. My younger sister was able to come visit as well, which was just so much fun for me and her and the kiddos. I was able to take a few days off of work to show her around, and we even went to Kampala for the weekend, which was also an incredible delight. A lovely end to a lovely year.

SIDENOTE: Despite having quite the chaotic schedule the last few months of the school year, I was able to make room for one rather fun extra-curricular activity... The country of Rwanda is making a grand shift towards adopting English as a national language and using it in a myriad of outlets. One of these outlets is radio, which has called for a need for English speaking DJ's. A Rwandan friend of mine who dj's for a local station was telling me about this, and how they wanted him to take on some more shows at the station and DJ in English, but he was too busy. Luckily, he was talking to the right girl. WHO, I ask you, is better qualified to talk in English than yours truly? Exactly. So, he talked to the station manager and after some minor paperwork/show-proposal, waaaa-la, I had my own radio show. Shannon, one of my roomies and fellow teachers, is my co-host for “The Melting Pot”, where we interview “foreigners” of Kigali and how they see the differences in cultures and try to pry some embarrassing stories resulting from cultural mis-communications. It's incredibly fun, and I'll have to share more about it later, cus there are some nice stories to be offered there as well.

Ok, let's move on. I finished up the year with the kiddos, had a fantastical birthday party, shed some tears over a heckuva lot of goodbyes, and came back to the States. It was so great to see the fam and friends again, have some Taco Bell (a lot of Taco Bell), and dependable, running, hot water. I missed everyone so much, and although it was a great year, being away from friends and fam was definitely the hardest part. The plan was to be home for about 2 months, including a couple weeks in Cali to visit friends, then back to Kigali in August to start prepping for another school year. But as we all know, plans don't always go the way we would have plans go...

This next part, I'll try to keep brief, and not overly dramatic (although let's be real – I love to be overly dramatic, so get ready...) Here's what went down. A couple weeks after I got home, I woke up with a radiating pain in my right shoulder/neck area. It kind of felt like some sort of pulled muscle and pinched nerve. My right arm and hand was tingly, like it was about to fall asleep all the time. It wasn't entirely unbearable, but annoying. I went to the chiropractor a couple times, and a massage therapist, but all to no avail. I eventually went to a doctor, who prescribed some steroid meds, under the assumption that it was some sort of inflamed tissue or ruptured disc that needed to “go down”. But after taking the meds, nothing was different. I decided to go in for a 2^nd opinion, and request some x-rays or MRI's, just to make sure. Upon my request, they obliged and scheduled a routine MRI. They said I should be in and out in an hour – hour and a half, tops. This was about the last week of July/1^st week of August, and I would be heading back to Kigali in about 2-3 weeks time. Unfortunately, that was just not how it ended up. They found something a little peculiar – a mysterious mass/spot on my spine, up near my neck. They kept me for more MRI's for a while, then one of the radiologists came out to talk with me. He said they were worried about the spot, and really didn't know what it was. He said I would have to go straight to the ER to see what was up. I called my parents to let them know what was going on, but no one was thinking too much of anything, so I just waited in the ER to hear any type of news. They did some more tests, and eventually had a neurosurgeon come take a look. This is where everything went afoul. The neurosurgeon, Chuck, my soon-to-be close friend, came in to talk with me. He said they didn't know what the spot was, and needed to find out, and soon. If it was something that would grow or be life-threatening, they needed to get in there fast. He said I would have to be admitted to the hospital right away, and would need emergency surgery within 24 hours. He also said that it could be one of two things – a fungal blood infection, or a tumor. Both cases would require some intense treatment, and he said for sure I would not be heading back to Africa when I was planning, nor did he expect for me to be going any time soon - or at all.

Yep. That's what he said.

Needless to say, I felt as if my world had come CRASHING down. Everything had flipped upside down in a minute. I called my parents and had them come to the hospital, figuring I wasn't quite in my right mind and might need some help making sense of it all. Eventually, they moved me to the main hospital, and said they would be prepping me for surgery all day the next day, and I would be having surgery early the following morning. To oversimplify – it was really scary. It was all really sudden and fast and everything was just askew. Yet, despite all that – I knew I was covered in prayer. And that part was just incomparable. Really.

So, I had the surgery, and was in the hospital for another 2 days in recovery before I went home. They removed about 2/3 of whatever-it-was, but the last 1/3 was pretty small, and right on the spinal cord, so removing it was gonna be too risky. So there it stayed. They were going to do tests on the part they did remove, try to figure out what it was, decide on treatment, and let me know what my life would entail in the following months. Unfortunately, this process sure did take a hot second. And I mean REALLY. They thought they would know in a matter of days, but this turned into weeks. Like I said before, it was either a blood infection or a tumor. We were really gunning for the blood infection, because the treatment for that would just be to take some antibiotics for about 6 weeks, and that would be that. The tumor would require more extensive treatment, namely chemo and radiation. But again, things weren't quite what we were hoping for. I decided to start praying boldly. The first day of school was Sept. 14, about 6 weeks from that point. I felt really strongly that I would like to be back in Kigali to start the school year off with my students, as the beginning of the year is SO important for building a classroom community. Alas, this was not the tune Chuck was singin'. He was saying that it would likely be much more time than that before I'd be OK to leave the country, but wouldn't give me a time frame, since they still didn't know what the surprise mass was. They finally figured out that it was indeed a tumor, which was a bummer, BUT thankfully they discovered it was benign (no cancer!). SO, now they just needed to figure out what TYPE of tumor it was, so they could figure out treatment and when I could get back to work in Kigali (Yeah, I know, who knew there was more than one type of tumor? Either it's a tumor or not, right? Wrong.). About a week and a half later, they found out it was a disease called Myofibroma. Apparently, it's super rare. They had to send it some docs at Harvard Med before they came up with a diagnosis. There are a few documented cases of infants with it, but, get this – only ONE other case of it in an adult on the spine (some gal in New Zealand, apparently). So upside – I get to be in medical journals and stuff. But downside – they don't really know how to treat it. Which is a big downside. They said there were 3 options: 1)Radiation – not recommended, according to Chuck. No real indication that it would work, so that one was pretty immediately ruled out. 2)Surgery – also not recommended. What's left of the tumor is small, and right on the spinal cord, and any further surgery would prove to be really complicated and risky and involve bone marrow fusion or something that sounds gross. Anyways, again – no go. Which brings us to 3) Waiting. And this is what we're gonna do. We gon' wait. Which is kind of annoying, solely because I still have all the same symptoms I did before, BUUUUUUT the best news is, that whilst waiting, I get to head back to Rwanda!! I will have to return at Christmas for more MRI's and check-up's and what not, but the part to focus on is, for the time-being, I get to go back!!! We're still kind of in the middle of this saga, but God is good, and I trust Him. It's hard, and some days I do better than other days, but for now – it's all good :)

So, in just about a weeks' time, I'm on my way back to Kigali! I won't be teaching at KICS this year, but I will be at another school in Kigali. A brand new one called the International School of Kigali (ISK), which will be in it's first year. Almost all of the teachers at ISK were ones I was fortunate enough to teach with last year, and we're under the same headmaster as well! I'm REALLY exciting about being involved in the opening/start of a new school. This is actually what I dream of doing in the future, and am totes magotes stoked about being able to experience it first hand. I can't wait to be back in Rwanda, and although this year has a lot of new aspects (new school, new house, new roomies, etc.), it's a place I love and am anxiously awaiting my year to start there.

So, this is officially the longest blog ever written in the history of blogs... Again, it's a blong. Kudos to you if you finished though. I must say, I'm impressed.

Summer hasn't been too bad, either :)

...'cept for that whole tumor incident, I guess.

Time is on my side (yes it is)

I suppose it's the time again... After an almost 3 month sabbatical, I've returned to my blog. Now, if more than the two of you (hey there parents!) read this, I'd feel bad. But since I've already told you both anything I'm writing here, my guilt is pretty much non-existent.

So, actually, the main reason I'm writing this right now, is because I've suddenly been placed with an extended period of time on my hands. Not by choice, mind you. It seems that my time has come, as I've known it would, to be plagued with an illness that only Africa can bestow. Well, not only Africa, but this type of thing is more common here than back in the States, so I'm attributing my feelings of crapiness to that. Anyhow, yesterday morning I woke up with some hardcore stomach cramps, which gave way to about 9 straight hours of... regurgitation (used the thesaurus for the least disgusting word possible). I went to the doctor in the afternoon, and after some blood tests, I was diagnosed with a fairly severe intestinal infection, and possibility of an amoeba. He gave me some hefty meds and I've pretty much been in bed ever since. Every so often I'll get a spurt of energy and be able to sit up for a while or walk around the house for a minute (keeled over the entire time, but hey – walking is walking), thus my attempts at another blog entry. Hopefully this pesky sickness o' mine will be done with by Monday, as I've already missed two days of work :(

And subsequently, and even more unfortunately, it also forced me to miss the final show of the high school drama production I've been co-directing. Yup, Thursday night was the last presentation of KICS drama presents Thornton Wilder's “The Matchmaker”. The kids have done splendidly, and I couldn't have been prouder :) If it hadn't been past the fact, I'd highly recommend purchasing a ticket down here ASAP to behold the masterpiece on stage in person. Once in a lifetime, ladies and gentlemen, once in a lifetime.

Quite a bit has been going on here, as always, but I'm not sure if much of it's “blog-worthy”.

School's going great, the kids are a hoot (that's them to the right on picture day), and save my current health concerns, life is just altogether peachy!

 About a month ago, one of my friends/roomies/fellow teachers and I went to Burundi to meet up with some other friends that were already there. Burundi, one of Rwanda's neighbors, is just about as small as she is, and also at about the same level of development. We went to Bujumbura, the capital city, which is right on the shores of Lake Tanganyika. The place we stayed at was right on the beach and simply gorgeous! I must admit that at first, I wasn't so sure what exactly Buju (as the locals call it - or just me... hard to be sure..)had going for it, but golly gee, that lake was amazing!! AND apparently home to one of the world's largest and most elusive crocodiles, Gustav. No firsthand encounters there though, luckily.  

A couple weekends after that trip to Burundi, a group of us decided to take a mini-road trip outside the city to a town called Kibuye, about 2 ½ hours out of Kigali, and right on Lake Kivu, the lake that borders

 Rwanda and DRC. But wouldn't ya know it? The gods of travel and fate apparently wanted us back in Burundi, because that's where we ended up. Can you imagine how embarrassing it is to think you're going to one place, and almost 3 hours later realize that you are not in fact in the intended direction, and even more so, are in a completely different COUNTRY? Now, how often has that happened to you? Exactly. Well, after a 2 ½ hour car ride turned into 7 hours, we were all too ready for a relaxing weekend at the lake. Which is exactly what we ran into. :) The lake was beautiful and so peaceful, as was the village that surrounds it. We even took a boat ride out to a couple of the islands on the lake. The first was called “Bat Island”, and if you can surmise where this name comes from, you can imagine what we encountered there. Literally thousands and thousands of bats were on this island. We jumped onshore, our boat guide clapped his hands a couple times, and all of a sudden, bats were swarming overhead.

 I've never seen anything like it, and if you had asked me at any moment before this trip if I'd ever like to see such a thing, my answer without hesitation would have been a firm no. But those rats with wings were quite the sight.  After Bat Island, we went to another island, the name of which I forget. But this island is totally that type of island where aspiring novelists and freshly graduated transients dream of spending a year in isolation. Gorgeous and secluded and seemingly untouched by many aspects of modern civilization. Except for, of course, a shack-turned-into-bar, a few tables with shade umbrellas, and one house for the sole “native” family to dwell in whilst accommodating travelers. Complete with a wooden swing, and friendly monkey, this island was also incredible and a perfect place to read and chill and soak in the sun (I have just re-read the last bit I just wrote, and I'm pretty sure someone should hire me to write travel brochures or ads or something. If you are in a related field, feel free to contact me with job offers). Altogether a marvelous weekend, and if nothing else, made for a blog filler :)

Plenty has been going on, and I'm certain will be continuing to go on. Week after next is our Spring Break, and I'm Uganda-bound once more. I'll do my best to keep this little guy up to date a bit more, since I know you both have work picking up, and hey, it's hard to find a good time to call sometimes, right? Well I love you all and if anyone else happens to be reading this by accident, I'd love to hear from you as well :) Peace!

PS – In case you were concerned, the fact that you are reading this blog online means that I've become well enough to actually leave my bed, find a place with internet, and sit up long enough to post it. Things are looking up, baby!

Faaaameee..... I'm gonna live foreverrrr

Quick story that I know you'll be interested in...

So there's this coffee shop/restaurant I go to alllll the time because they have good wireless and hot chocolate. To offer an example of how often I'm there, I've become very good friends with most of the staff, and they usually anticipate my whim once I arrive (“Kay-deeeeee, Fanta orange?). Well, about a month or so ago, I went and one of the guys that works there, Starford (great name, eh??), asked for a “favor” of me. Apparently, one of his friends was filming a commercial for “Rwanda Coffee” brand coffee, and wanted to know if I would like to be in it. He said he wanted a “mzungu” or white person in it, to show that Rwandans and mzungus can love the coffee, alike. Never one to pass up an opportunity for fame, I clearly accepted. So for about 2 hours, I was filmed pretending to like coffee and chat it up with some Rwandan friends. My co-stars were actually really cool, and invited me to go to karaoke with them this weekend. It was hilarious, but I was kind of doubtful anything would come of it...

UNTIL

Right before I left for Christmas holiday in Tanzania, one of my “co-stars” (I LOVE saying that), told me the commercial was to be played on Rwandan national television. We don't own a TV, so I had no idea if that would be true or not. Until that night, I started receiving text messages that went soemthing like “I think I just saw you on TV....” or “I just saw your coffee commercial!” A couple days later, we were driving into the downtown area, and there is a large TV screen overlooking an intersection and I looked up to see my own face staring back down at me. Yup, there I was -peering down the roads of Kigali, sipping my Rwanda Coffee. Needless to say, I got a little excited. Apparently, the commercial has been playing a bit over the past week or so, and since I stand out a fair amount here, I'm getting recognized pretty easily. Last night, I was with some friends, and a guy came over who was friends with one of my friends. He sat down and then started talking to my friend in Kinyarwanda, which I couldn't understand. My friend then started laughing and told me that his friend had seen me in the commercial and wanted to know if I was that same girl. So, if that's not a sign of celeb-ri-tay, I don't know what is :)

I knew my life of stardom would start someday, I just didn't know it would be so soon... :)  

So far away... Doesn't anybody stay in one place anymore?

Embarassing, embarrassing, embarrassing. It's been almost 2 months since this thing was last updated. With valid reason, though. The last month of any semester is always the craziest, and for teachers, this is no exception, AND I've been on Christmas holiday for the past week, so it's just been a crazy whirlwind and it still hasn't really hit me that I've been living in Rwanda for almost 5 months. Yikes.

With Christmas just past, it really has hit me just how INCREDIBLY blessed I am. Just sitting here, thinking about all the many adventures I have to regale my audience of 2 with, it's hitting me again, what a fortunate lass I am. It's unbelievable, really. I know I haven't done a blasted thing to deserve it all, yet – here I am. God is so good and really is hitting me over the head with that simple fact daily.

Okay here goes. Item numero one for discussion: Thanksgiving adventures.

Although this was over a month ago, I realize many of you haven't heard of my about the excursions over Thanksgiving break (that's a lie – both of you have, but maybe I just want to write them out for my own pleasure... there's nothing wrong with that). For our thanksgiving break, my 3 roommates and I took an exotic journey across the border to Uganda. We took a 10 hour bus trip to Kampala, the capital, and then to Jinja, where the source of the Nile river is (yup, THE Nile). There, we went white water rafting down the Nile.

Um, not sure if you heard me – Whitewater RAFTING down the NILE.

It was SO amazing and crazy and scary and amazing. It was a day long excursion and there were actually some ridiculous class 4's AND 5's (that's the worst they get, for those of you that aren't into the sport, like I am...). Our raft flipped while going down one of the rapids, but we made out alive if you were concerned.

After Jinja we went back into Kampala, which if you can believe it, gave us all mild culture shock. Kampala is much more westernized than Kigali – complete with a bowling alley, mall annnnnd.... movie theater! We were a bit overwhelmed, but hit them all up and undeniably LOVED the city and Uganda and the trip as a whole.

#2 – KICS life

It's official – 1^st semester as a teacher is complete. It's quite an accomplishment really. There were definitely days (and by days, I mean weeks) when I just thought the end would never come. Some supernatural phenomenon would occur and time would just freeze with me teaching for eternity. Like some weird and pretty boring Twilight Zone episode. It's not that I was having a bad time, in fact it was a blast, but tiring beyond belief. An average amount of sleep was no more than 6 hours per night during the week (less on the weekends... ;) ). Nonetheless, it was a great semester. I know I've said it before, but I was truly blessed with an amazing group of kids. Just hilarious and so much fun. Plus I got a ton of cute Christmas stories out of the last week or so (remind me to tell you about Alex asking me to correct his letter to Santa for him...)

Number Gatatu (3 in Kinyarwanda...) – Christmas expeditions

Well we've just returned from yet another RIDICULOUS vacation, this time we went to Tanzania to see Mt. Kilimanjaro and go on safari. Again, after writing that, I can't believe my life. I feel like somehow, it's all a mistake, and God's going to come to me soon and say “Whoops! Cady, you actually weren't supposed to experience all that, so I'm gonna have to take some of those memories back. Sorry!” I'm not sure why I have been so blessed to be able to have experienced it all, but here I am. So, my roommate Shannon, our friend Liz, and I flew into Moshi, Tanzania on Dec 29^th and BAM – theres Mt. Kili, herself. Su-reeee-al. We stayed

 with some “twice-removed friends” (a friend of a friend of Liz's) who was working with the Amani Childrens' Home, a street kids outreach home that works to reunite street kids with their families. We got to go there for lunch and play and hang out with a few of the kids who were still around during holidays. I fell in love with with a little girl named Zufu, and spend the afternoon pretending we were models and taking pictures. Precious :)

We spent the next couple days in Arusha, a more “touristy” town where most of the safaris take off from. We were supposed to meet up with 2 of my other roomies in Arusha on the 1^st and

 start our safari that day, but since things never quite pan out the way you might expect here. We changed our safari plans and left on the 2^nd. We had the most adorable jolly Tanzania guide, Zachariah, who not to be vain, but was quite smitten with our lovely little group and doted on us throghout the trip. He loved to sing whatever he was thinking, so would always call the animals out to see the “beauuuu-tee-fullll guuuuhls” he had in his car. Just a doll, simply a doll. Even while he was fixing our truck which broke down 4 times (no exaggeration there folks – literally required PUSHING to get it to go, thus we rarely would turn the car off...) Another amazing thing was that we could only afford a 3 day, 2 night safari, while most serious expedition-ers spend about 8 days, and we saw every possible animal out there. They allllll came out and it was amazing! We even broke the rules once and drove up right close to some sleeping lions, who woke up and ran around our car. I'll say it again – it was amazing.

We went on safari in the Ngorongoro crater and in the Serengeti, both some of the most gorgeous places I could possibly imagine. The crater is called the “8^th wonder of the world” and for good reason. It was beautiful and amazing! Right when we got there, we got out to stretch our legs and a big ol' baboon came up. We all got out to take pictures, and that little booger, scooted right past us, swung himself through the open door of our truck, went inside and stole our bananas.  It sounds like I'm making it up, but I've got the pic to prove it!

I have a multitude of other stories to share, but I doubt anyone reads this far, so I'll stop right here. I love and miss you all and would love to hear from you soon! Happy New Year!!!