At long last – Back on the blog…

Even I, the guilty party, never thought I could let 4 months go by without an update to the blog.  Shameful. 

In a place where the unexpected is now expected, there is way too much ground to cover since my last posting.  I’ve been thinking how I might best catch everyone up and I think a select list of highlights of interest for each month (in my overly verbose style and with some pictures of course) is the only way to do it. 

June:

• School ended on the 12^th and Kristen and the kids left on the 13^th
• Greg moves house on the 14^th with the poor souls he was able to wrangle into helping him.

(Side note: As fun as moving furniture across town in equatorial heat is already, it was extra exciting when our mattress went flying off the truck on a dirt road under construction.  It made a beautiful lazy full back flip through the air to land in traffic (as I watched in horror from a different vehicle).  The fun didn’t end there – a banana leaf dresser I had arranged on its back in the truck was (unbeknownst to me) set back upright in the truck with the drawers facing out, to make room for more stuff.  This meant that when going around a turn, the top drawer containing all credit cards, business cards, PC cables, adapters and other critical items went flying out and showered down (again) into traffic.  It would be hilarious if it weren’t happening to me.  Actually I have enough distance from the event now for it to be funny.  Plus almost everything was recovered. This is what happens when a bunch of us “efficient” guys are responsible for packing and arranging.)

• Enjoyed World Cup fever in Africa – it was a great time to be a bachelor enjoying evenings outside at various places with friends and locals watching the games and eating (what else) brochettes.
• Dano and I were holding down the fort locally and working on finalizing negotiations on some projects that had been under discussion. 

It is a weird feeling to be alone in a new, empty, quiet house – and particularly when I cook cereal and that’s about it.  (Hence previously mentioned world cup nights out – it was also a survival tactic given it was usually my one meal a day).  We did have many guys’ nights at Macgregor Magruder’s house – burgers, beer and action movies or UFC fights that our wives wouldn’t waste 30 seconds on.  It was great.

• Started riding a motorcycle which I bought off of my brother-in-law, Levi, when they left Rwanda to move back to the US. 

They say there are two kinds of motorcycle drivers:  Those who have crashed and those who are going to.  I crashed in my first week.  It’s good to get these things out of the way early.  Minimal blood and I was coming into my own driveway so the embarrassment was limited to an audience of one: my guard.  Of course, he was so concerned by my bloody hand and ankle that despite my smiles and pantomime assurances (he speaks no English or French) demonstrating I would live to ride again, he proceeded to call everyone he knows that knows me, and within 10 minutes I was getting texts and messages asking if I needed to go to the hospital, etc….  One good friend here was told via his driver, who was told via Afrika, who was told via Theopista (our Ugandan friend), who was told via our guard.  This is all while I’m in the house cleaning my wounds.  It was around 10 p.m. and the friend tried calling me but I had already plugged in my phone for the night and was turning in.  I had an early meeting the next morning and was gone and missed the message.  Turns out they all came to the house and sat outside thinking I was inside with a concussion or in a coma and not answering the bell.

I now ride the motorcycle nearly every day, it is super practical here, saves an incredible amount on gas, and I’ve only almost been creamed once (maybe twice) in the past two months.  The only downside is that other drivers pretty much act like you don’t exist.  My theory is that they are insanely jealous and annoyed at how we weave in and out of traffic, skip all the blockages, drive through all the closed-to-traffic construction areas, and generally have it better than them.  I mean seriously – how great is it to ride a motorcycle when practically every day meets the description of the perfect riding weather!

• Dano and I traveled back to the US for to rejoin our families at the very end of June

We felt a little guilty about flying back alone without responsibility for kid management of any kind on 30 hours of traveling. Our wives, by contrast, traveled alone with all the kids both to and from Africa.

July

• We spent July moving around the U.S. seeing family and friends, including holding events for Karisimbi Partners to update our supporters (Seattle and California)

It was a great time but far more hectic than we originally envisioned.  We wanted to see everyone we could, and yet that entailed moving back and forth from CA to WA to CA, on to TX and then the rest of the family back to CA again while I left at the end of July to return to Kigali.  The family spent a bit over two months back in the U.S. while I spent just under a month.  So, all our travel around the US occurred in July and while in Seattle we were constantly on the go every day.  This unfortunately made it much less relaxing than planned, but did not allow us to see everyone we wanted to – and certainly not for as much time as we would have liked.

We had nearly two weeks in TX and that was the most relaxing given we had some real downtime out at Cedar Crest Lake in a borrowed lake house belonging to friends of my parents.  We used a ski boat several times a day to go ‘tubing’ and water ski, and enjoyed wave runners as well.  It was a great place and my parents spoiled us, as they always do, our entire time in Dallas.  It was also a great chance to spend time with my brother Jason and his wife Christina.

August

• Kristen and the kids headed back to Auburn, CA and I was sorry I had so little time there during my time back in the U.S.

 They finished off the time there with a camping trip with the extended family in CA.

• Back in Rwanda, Carter, Dano and I hosted five guys from college and supporters of Karisimbi Partners who arrived in early August as part of an East Africa trip. 

They stayed for 5 days and we did our best to give them a taste of the country.  Is it just me or is it normal to (at least mentally) feel no older than I did in my 20s even though I turn 40 soon?  College friends really bring that out and we reverted back to the same hilarious interchanges and conversations like no time had passed.  Good deep encouraging discussions as well, it’s just that they were interspersed with dares that would make wives and mothers cringe and/or roll their eyes, moto-taxi races through Kigali, monkey hazing in Nyangwe forest, impromptu dawn patrol nude  Lake Kivu swim in Cyangugu (the guesthouse guard had no idea where to look when guys came out of the water – poor man).  P.s. it was a remote spot.

A highlight (or lowlight depending on your perspective) was a hike in Nyangwe forest to see the mountain and blue face monkeys.  We picked a route where a canopy bridge had just been installed far out over one of the mountain gorges.  All hikes require a guide, which, while a bit of a bummer, I can understand, given that if you are lost out there – that’s pretty much it.  No such thing as rescue teams, helicopter search, etc.  So, we arrive at the canopy bridge and surprise surprise it’s not actually finished.  There are bolts on the floor of the midspan and the main bridge is hanging down at an angle, as the support wires have not been fully tightened.  The bridge is narrow – allowing for only single file, and the netting hand rails are loose and stop halfway across on one side.  Lastly, they are only just above waist high so you feel like you can just tip over the side about 150 ft down.  The guide said he would not go out there, so of course, we did.  It was one of those moments when you know people that love you would not be happy at this decision.  It is also one of those moments when you feel really, really alive (given threat of imminent injury or death

We obviously survived and driving on the roads here feel just as dangerous – particularly out in the countryside.  We saw one passenger bus completely on its side after flying around a sharp turn.  All the passengers had crawled out the shattered windows and were sitting or standing forlornly along the road.  It never ceases to amaze me how drivers will go to pass on blind turns here.  Total disregard for their own safety or others, and as a result there are many, many accidents.  They say you can become accustomed to anything, and I’ve found this to be pretty true – regardless of how different it may have seemed at the start.  For example, power outages.  It struck me the other day when we were doing a strategy workshop with a client at a remote location and it was after dark.  We had a projector going and were going through a topic.  The power cuts, we are plunged into darkness except for the laptop that was being used (battery power).  None of the 7 of us say a word or miss a beat.  Dano flips the laptop around to face everyone and we just keep moving.  Normal life.  

However, one aspect of normal here never becomes ‘okay’ for me and that is Rwandan pedestrians seeming obliviousness to traffic and its dangers.  Everywhere you go you encounter people stepping directly into the streets (if they are not already walking well into it) without a glance in either direction.  Invariably they will take a look but usually after the second full step has been taken.  I’m not talking about lonely country roads either – I mean busy city streets.  They are always “shocked” to see cars bearing down on them.  I never get used to it.  It seems such an inherent self-preservation response and I always expect it to be more automatic than it is.  Kristen was driving along with Afrika one day and observed a guy running along the road with another in hot pursuit.  Clearly he did not want to be caught, and as she watched in horror, rather than be grabbed by the guy behind him, he ran directly off the curb into oncoming traffic.  Her last image as they passed going the opposite way, was his being catapulted straight up into the air by an oncoming car.  No time for brakes.  Hard to imagine it wasn’t fatal. This is another reason we don’t have Kristen drive.  Regardless of the actions or responsibility of pedestrians, by law it is an automatic 6 months in prison for the driver, and, as we have seen, you do NOT want to be in prison here.

• An interesting client engagement in late August involved a project with a new client that we’ve been talking with and wanted to work with for a year. 

We left at 6 am on a Friday morning to go out east to conduct a 2 day overnight strategy workshop with the organization leaders. They are a technology company and had done some networking work at a orphan youth village out East, and suggested we go to the guest house there to do the strategy session.  The youth village was set up and is run by a Jewish foundation that cares for genocide victims.  Apparently the organization did this model in Israel following the holocaust.  They take orphans from the genocide (from all over the country) and widows from the genocide who have lost their children and create house families.  This place had its own working farm, about 250 orphans, living in groups of 16 per house with one house mother (widow).  There is a school right there, soccer field, basketball court, giant hall / cafeteria, with views over a valley and down to Lake Mugasera.  It was an awesome place and they have a very simple guest house there with a conference room.  You take your meals at the cafeteria with the kids and everybody eats the same thing.  Basically, rice, matoke, some sort of vegetable sauce mix to put on the rice, and then maybe some meat on the side.  It was simple but filling and great to be helping such a great cause just by being there.  It’s a huge property and they are in the middle of building additional homes and adding gardens, etc to make the guest house more of a destination.  The farm on the property (bananas, avocado, matoke, potatoes, tomatoes, etc, etc..) is managed by the kids who all work on it, and so far the farm provides 45% of the food eaten there.  Pretty awesome.  They will have capacity for 500 + orphans by next end of next year.  We didn’t have water or power off and on over the two days, but  we are used to that!

• The family arrived back in mid-August just in time for the start of school. 
  

  First day of school

I was more than ready to welcome them back.  It was great to have a noisy, active house again and we love the new place.  It fits us so much better and is rapidly turning into a small farm.  We have a vegetable garden, three new citrus trees, three new banana trees, an avocado tree, guava tree, mango tree, and a paypaya tree (neighbor’s tree but hanging into ours). 

 

We have two new kittens, a bunny, Weston is searching for a puppy, Kristen is threatening chickens, and we have vervet monkeys that visit from time to time to compete for the fruit.  Fruit bats love the mango tree and make a lot of noise at dusk as they move through it eating.

Our guard/gardner, Apollonaire, is very proud of the flower garden he has created at the back of the house and he is starting another beside our front porch.  When not in meetings with clients or my partners, I am often able to sit on the porch working on business plans, etc and enjoying the true beauty of Rwanda, God’s creation and can reflect on how fortunate we are.

Even here I often find myself disappointed in my attitudes, judgmental tendencies, impatience, selfishness and inability to act in the way I desire.  As I often say – it’s as if I fall into the worst version of myself – all my negative habits or tendencies overwhelming me, and ironically most often on the days when I’ve determined to be my best.  It’s a great lesson that my will (power) and efforts on my own are worthless.  Without a dependence on Jesus to live through me, I will fall into a nature that is more about me than Him or others.  These times (like now) on our porch are special and give me a chance to stop, pick up and start fresh.  I’m encouraged by Romans 7:19 , as even Paul, the great apostle, writes, “For what I do is not the good thing that I desire to do; but the evil thing that I desire not to do, is what I constantly do.”

My point is that despite moving to Africa, being surrounded by need and having the mission, opportunity, and the desire to be a help to the poor, to give to the needy, to be a friend to the friendless, it isn’t automatic.  “Wherever you go, there you are..”  so it is a constant need to be on guard and pray for strength and encouragement not to become cynical, or untrusting of people when I’m let down, and to be grateful, more than ever, that no matter my faults and failures, God loves me and has a plan to use everything for His good.

September…Octoberish (It’s all starting to blur…)

Another reason I’ve been slack on the blog is that I have responsibility for our Karisimbi Partners monthly newsletter.  As hectic as things have been both professionally and personally over the past two months ramping back up after the summer, I found myself allowing the newsletter to replace my blog updates.  That is not nearly as fun, as I always have at least one experience per day that falls into the “this would make great blog fodder” category.  Over the past month the car gremlins have returned and we have had the car in the shop about 5 times (with a blown tire or two thrown in just to keep it spicy).  I spend very little time in the car these days, instead using the motorcycle quite a bit.  Dressed up on a motorcycle is not the greatest, but it still beats riding in a car without air conditioning.  Although when you pass through a dust cloud following cars on a dirt road it is not fun.  It is fun to have the kids jump on the back and take them around to various activities.  Ava was the most hesitant on the first ride, and if she had been any stronger she would have made me black out from lack of oxygen – she held on to me so tightly.  They are all pros now and view it as a special treat.  Kristen on the other hand, leans forward to tell me from time to time “um, reminder: you have precious cargo behind you…maybe a bit slower?”  Rats.    The best was a recent ride taking her up to school for her to work in the library. Racing along, we hit the halfway point which is a major traffic intersection and I weaved to the front and stopped at the light.  She complimented me on my advanced driving skill, the light turned green, and I promptly stalled the bike at the head of the line of traffic.  Awesome. 

We have a great men’s Bible study going on Wednesday mornings that includes Carter, Dano, Macgregor and another friend Mark Thiessen.  We are using the book Prodigal God by Tim Keller as our study focus and it has been really great.  Although not yet through it, I highly recommend it, and its driven some great dialog and discussion for us.  We meet most often on Carter’s front porch and this is another time when I feel so grateful to be in this place, in this time, for this purpose.  It is so much easier to be here than many people believe.  While the decision to leave the traditional life in the U.S. was certainly tough, for myself, I love the lack of distraction, false urgency, and temptation to focus on acquiring “things” and having as much or more than those around me.  By any standard, we are “rich” and it is constantly sobering to see how fortunate and privileged we are.  If you think of the most enjoyable times you’ve ever had, I would guess that you would find and agree that is was related to simple things – the company, a beautiful place, family, friends, laughter, games, etc – and much less to do with money, luxury, and stuff.  Anyway, I wax eloquent – apologies.

• Probably the biggest update to give is the submission of our adoption dossier to the Ministry for the Promotion of Family and Gender. 

After more than a year spending time at the orphanage(s) here we’ve developed a number of special relationships with the children and feel led to welcome a young boy into our family.  This is proving to be another neat experience as a result of our being here and has extended within Kristen’s side of the family, where one of her sisters and one of her brother’s families have also submitted dossiers for adoption from Rwanda.  If all goes well there will be three Rwandan children at our family get togethers!

Admittedly, I’ve had some “I didn’t sign up for this!” moments in September.  We have had some good and bad work “adventures” over a very short time in the past month.

In the consulting world, while you shoot for consistency, it tends more towards a “feast or famine” scenario – worried that there isn’t enough work and then overloaded with more than you can reasonably handle.  September has been like that and October isn’t feeling much better.

Motivated by an urgent request from the Prime Minister, we ended up being requested by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Trade & Industry to complete (in 3.5 days) a strategic assessment of a struggling business and evaluate whether the Government of Rwanda should financially intervene to eliminate debt and invest in future growth.  As I communicated in our monthly newsletter:

The company is the only pyrethrum factory and refinery in Rwanda (one of 6 in the world), which represents potential impact to 12,000 farmer households.  Pyrethrum is a natural plant oil derived from the pyrethrum daisy, and its extract forms the base for ‘green’ insecticides protecting people, crops and animals.  It is only able to grow in unique high altitude conditions such as Rwanda provides.  The work required two days onsite up north to Ruhengeri, consultations with experts around the globe, review of 35+ documents and reports, and a few all nighters, culminating in an assessment and recommendations report. At four a.m. packed in Dano’s office, on a caffeine high, it felt like we were back in college cramming for a final. 

Here’s a side note of my exotic work life: I drew the short straw to go out to see the pyrethrum fields and evaluate the farms.  I started the trip near a cave, and while waiting for a second car, wandered down into the cave mouth  – and found an unexploded anti-tank gernade.  Oops.  We had to wait for security to be called to dispatch it. I walked back to get in the car and one of the men graciously opens the door for me.  Aw, how nice.  I slide in. He slides in.  The door on the other side opens.  Another guy slides in. Trapped. This was a 3.5  hour drive with me squeezed between two large Rwandan men in the small back seat of a Hilux, riding the hump over the worst road you can possibly imagine.  It’s made of volcanic rock and you would swear it is impassable by modern transportation.  And yet – somehow – it is.  Bone-jarring doesn’t even begin to describe it. Congo is just 2 km beyond the fields and the active volcano, Nyamuragira, could be seen smouldering in the distance.

Two days later, back in Kigali, we worked 18-20 hour days right up until the due date when we finished at 5 a.m., slept til 7 got up and finalized it til 11 for a 12 noon meeting at the Ministry to present it.  We had committed to our families two weeks prior to get away to Lake Kivu by 1 p.m. that day (a Friday) since the kids had a half day of school.  We were exhausted but on schedule, feeling great based on the Permanent Secretary’s feedback and basking in our glory – right up until he said “Great – now if you can just turn this into a slide deck for me over the weekend and be ready to present it to the Prime Minister on Monday by 10.  Awesome.

We went to Kibuye as planned and had a good time, but this presentation was weighing on my mind – particularly as I am the designated Microsoft Powerpoint “slide jockey” of our group. 

We returned to Kigali on Sunday and I started in on the presentation using my typical Microsoft style – working late into the night.  We took it in to review with the PS again (as the Prime Minister meeting was, surprise, surprise – postponed), and it turns out that he wanted a presentation that could be given in 10 min – 15 tops.  Minor detail we were not given the first go round. Brutal.  Given the importance of this company bailout request involving millions of dollars I figured this needed to be thorough.  Instead we did our second late night – reworking the entire presentation until 2:30 a.m. and then showing up for me and Dano to present it to the Prime Minister and the cabinet at 8:00 a.m. Five minute before the start of the meeting the Prime Minister says he wants the PS to do the presentation (to prove he knows and owns the material) and we are requested to wait outside so that he has to do it alone.  This was a huge bummer for us, but it worked out okay.

We are proud to have been instrumental in convincing the Prime Minister to support and intervene to save this strategic business. This is exactly the type of work we came here to do (albeit in a more reasonable timeframe), we are excited by both the impact of the work, and the opportunity to play a continuing role in the development of this sector. 

Incidentally, the PS has contacted us to do the same thing urgently for two more companies, based on how well this project went.  Kill me now. This work pace feels familiar and not in a good way.

We are also engaged with two other clients on an ongoing basis – starting an IT company and working with an industrial bakery, plus have another new client deadline of completing diagnostic reports for 4 agricultural businesses by the end of October.  Uncle!!

Lastly, we were set to climb our namesake, Mt. Karisimbi in the Virunga (volcanic) mountain range in the north of the country the first weekend in October, but it was called off.  I have to say I was both looking forward to it and dreading it.  It’s 14, 787 ft and described as more difficult a climb than Kilimanjaro.  The guides we were going with said – “Well, we can go ahead and go now but we recommend postponing to January”.  Bummer – why?  “Well, we can still do it, but it’s snowing up top, raining daily below now, temperature is 0 centigrade, and at 12,000 feet we will pass through a bog of mud up to our knees”.  Uh – January sounds fine to me.

Okay enough already.  I will get on a more frequent update schedule…… (but don’t hold me to it).