A Night To Remember



Dr. Caleb King with Ambassador Koran and wife



Last night we had a special celebration to honor the outstanding accomplishments of some of our friends here in Rwanda, and it turned out to be one of the most memorable nights of our time here, for a variety of reasons.  One friend, Caleb King, is a pediatric gastroenterologist who has worked in Rwanda with his wife (Louise, one of our Family Medicine faculty members) for the past 10 years – the first 8 of which were in a small district hospital with no electricity and far from the paved road.  In his quest to bring electricity to his small hospital, he was told it would be easier if he were to build a power plant for the entire district, and that the Rwandan power grid would purchase the power he generated.  So, over the past two years, he has done that – forming a power company, constructing a small reservoir, and installing a special low-flow generator.  He flipped the switch to turn on the power flow just two weeks ago. 



Mimi and Jolli - just voted one of the 25 top women achievers
in Africa



Another friend, Jolli, is a Rwandan woman who put her 8 younger siblings through university by working as a laboratory technician, but in the past several years has been working with poor farmers in the rural areas with the Ministry of Agriculture to improve their crop variety and yields.  She manages project funds totaling hundreds of millions of dollars each year, but has maintained her humble spirit and open generosity.  Just last week she was voted by the readership of the Guardian newspaper of England as one of the 25 top women achievers of Africa – the only woman chosen from Rwanda.  You can read more about her at http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2013/mar/08/top-25-african-women-interactive?CMP=SOCNETTXT6967. 

Tables ready for the celebration in our garden

Since Mimi loves both celebrations and a party, she took the opportunity of hosting the first concert of a newly formed 7 member classical ensemble to invite their families and others to share in the celebrations – doctors from other rural hospitals, agricultural specialists.  Because these celebrations involved some American expertise, we invited the U.S. Ambassador to Rwanda, Donald Koran and his wife Cynthia, who also came.  Many of the 35 guests brought dishes for the dinner, Mimi made a series of wonderful desserts, and together we ate at tables spread across our lawn under the stars.  Of course, African reality was also part of this – a brief thunderstorm just as the dinner was being readied delayed the dinner by about 20 minutes as everything was brought back inside for a bit, and a power outage created a 10 minute unplanned intermission during the classical music concert, but also gave a chance to enjoy the multiple stars that were visible after the thunderstorm. 

After dinner, the entertainment began with a recitation (by memory) of one of Shakespeare’s sonnets by Lydia, the 8 year old daughter of Caleb and Louise King, after a discussion of the difference between a sonnet and a common poem (“the sonnet is composed in iambic pentameter with the emphasis on the last words of the first two lines…”).  After hearing from our two honorees and congratulating them for their service to Rwanda, the ensemble treated us to a wonderful collection of classical music with a variety of styles and presentations (violin and cello solos, string quartets, duets with piano accompaniment, etc.), with our veranda as the stage.  The air was cool, the sky was completely clear and full of stars, and the atmosphere was enchanting.  The evening was capped off by tucking into bed three different couples who had come from outside the city, and who spent the night and breakfast the next day with us.  Mimi loves a full house!

The next morning, as Cal cooked breakfast (really, just flipped the pancakes!) for the overnight guests, Mimi spent the morning at the church we attend in Kigali to speak at a morning retreat for the women of the church.  Over 60 women came, and loved Mimi’s thoughts on beauty and a holy life, and their time together – one of the first for these ladies in several years.  We are now resting and reflecting, and thanking our Lord for giving us the privilege of being so involved in the lives of so many people here.