Caleb's Log v.3 (from Wed 1/9)

Hello Everyone!

Last night for you all and this morning for me, I had my first 3:00am City Council meeting.  It was fine.  I failed to go to bed early, woke up at 2:30 to get ready and went back to sleep from 6:00-7:30am.  Got the kids off to school and dropped Katie off at her OFFICE.  She's got a desk at Lambert's office, who is one of her colleagues on the Bridges to Prosperity project.  It's really fun to see Katie getting to engage with local researchers and you can tell that she'll be in the field in no time.

I drove from her office to the Kigali Golf Course.  That's right!!! I'm gonna be a golfer.  I got a membership this morning and now I get unlimited golf for the rest of my trip.  The idea is to go every Wednesday morning after my council meeting ends to get out, exercise, decompress, reward myself, meet new people, and really just have a selfish moment.  I haven't golfed yet, but it will definitely be a story.  I'll save that all for another day.

I'm going to use the rest of today's post/journal entry/email to talk about my girls.  

As you all clearly understand, this is a huge adjustment for them.  They miss their friends and their pets.  They miss their cousins and their comfy home.  They miss their normal food and their daily rhythm.  

However, they are absolutely amazing.  They have great attitudes about almost everything, including the 25 minute walk up and down hills on dirt and mud roads at 7:30 in the morning. And, on THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL, they walked home alone, just the three of them.  They got a little lost, but backtracked, figured it out, and got home.  They've all made some friends and seem to have someone to lunch with.  Alexa is already planning her birthday party with an extensive guest list of classmates whose names she does not know.

I'm just blown away by how seamlessly they seem to have adjusted and engaged in this community.  Of course, there will be struggles in the future and breakdowns are bound to happen.

They are just remarkable 3 days into school and 5 days into our trip.  They are kind to each other and to their awful parents and they seem to be having a great time.  Alexa is signed up for after school gymnastics and Athena is signed up for football and band, I think.  Mazie's electives aren't available yet, but we're planning on football and cooking.

Enough for now.  I'm gonna go back to that bank and hang out with my friends for a few hours.

Caleb