Rach and John in Rwanda

We currently have four people staying with us. Two Drs from the US (one for one month and one for two weeks) and two more permanent lodgers, Jamie and Monique. They are great housemates and we have a lot of fun.

Monique and Jamie - attempting to make peanut butter in the back yard

When we first moved in and realised we had 5 rooms at the back of the house we wondered how we could best use them. Usually the house keeper, gardener and gate keeper would live there but we don’t have a gate keeper (Kigali is very safe), do our own gardening, and Florence already has a house and lives with her daughter and grandmother. John wanted to find someone in need, ideally a single mother……and that’s exactly what he did!

At Church one Sunday a friend asked us if we knew anyone who was hiring a housekeeper. Angelique and her three kids were struggling to make ends meet and she badly needed a job. We found her a job with the help of the Branch President (someone who was working at the embassy needed a housekeeper) and offered her the rooms at the back of the house. I cannot describe her gratitude – she cried and told us she prayed and knew God would help her and he had. We later learned that she was going to give up her three month old baby girl for adoption because she couldn’t afford to keep her. After a lot of cleaning Angelique and her three children moved in last Friday.

Cleaning

Angelique’s expresses her gratitude to us every day and has now started work. We love having them with us (and our lodgers do too). Hers is an amazing story and I am learning so much from her and from having her family with us. If you see me, ask me about it.