Teacher Johnson Goes to School

It is the last day before everyone leaves.  The internet lab--the first of its kind in Arusha and maybe even Tanzania--is humming as the kids type their tweets back and forth to one another and then their new counterparts around the world.  Teacher Johnson, handsome as always in his dress shirt and freshly polished shoes, logs on--could it be?--on the last day, for the first time?

Teacher Johnson!  You don't have any followers!  Where are all your tweets?  I don't know what he'll do on Monday when everyone is gone.  Did you go to the class for the teachers?  He feels my panic and flashes me that sheepish, worried smile. We both know how hard the volunteers worked; how insistent they were this could happen, that it would be easy, even if we both had our secret, silent doubts.

I'll get it.  I'm getting it, he says, as he hunts and pecks his way forward into his new responsibility as internet advocate extraordinaire. 

This is how it is when we bring new things halfway around the world.  We have no idea how foreign things  feel.  We glide right over how strange it is to trust that we'll still be together when we've always been so far apart.  We have no comprehension of what it means to be over and over again left behind and then in one instant, forever included.

I promise to retweet him religiously.  To help him get the most followers of any tweeter in the school.  His eyes flash with the spark of competition.  His fingers move a little faster as we joke and smile.  He is deciding to believe it might stay, this tiny thread connecting divergent worlds.  He is deciding to put a sliver of hope in it.  He is deciding to try.

You can follow Teacher Johnson's clever quotes and honest questions at @teacherjohnson1 on Twitter.

Kiss and Tell

Greetings in Rwanda are warm and lingering.  Men in Rwanda, for example, have a custom of gently letting temples touch, first left, then right, then left, when they first see each other.  Women and children extend not just a hand but their whole arm for the other to clasp for as long as a minute before letting go.  It's not uncommon to see two people draped around each other, simply as a way of saying hello.  Still, for all the endless displays of cozy affection, kissing each other--even on the cheek--really isn't very common, and kissing with a big smoochy, smacking sound?  Never.

All cross-cultural correctness taken into account, I still couldn't bring myself to get with the no kissing program.  The babies were too delicious.  The children were too sweet.  The old people were just too loveable for me to keep those kisses to myself.

Thankfully, this unheard of practice of covering someone's cheeks or face in loud smoochy kisses was met with laughter and much delight.  I think everyone was glad I didn't hold back----those old ladies most especially.  What can possibly make you feel more loved than a spontaneous smack delivered with enthusiasm and so much love?

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Do you have any kissing pictures that make your heart take a little leap?  A little moment there of unbridled affection?  Show us your kisses.  We promise not to tell.

Everything is Going to Be A-Okay

Just one stop, Innocent said, as a very sluggish Mutoni slid into the backseat next to me.  Two stops, it turns out, to find out if this kid has malaria (she did), and then fifteen more to run our errands before our friend and driver William would turn around and bring us back home again.

To our credit, we didn't know she had malaria until we got the second malaria test back and the day was almost finished.  Still.  We dragged that kid from shop to shop looking for the converter we needed and then from bank to bank looking for a Western Union so we could get more cash.  She spent the entire afternoon sweltering in the car, playing with my camera, taking pictures of her feet, the upholstery, people walking by, without one complaint or the slightest concern.  When was the last time that happened at your house?

Of all the photos from our trip, this one is one of my favorites.  Mutoni in the foreground, taking whatever comes.  The doctor, accomplished and confident, knowing just how to treat her.  President Kagame, the darling of Africa, looking on from the poster in the background, telling you every five seconds on television or the radio that with hard work and faith and love, everything is going to be a-okay.

I have less complicated challenges and I'm not always sure of such things, but being with Mutoni that day, I believed.  There's just something about faith.  Something about trust.  Something about believing it's all going to work out, that blows everything else away.

Picture Hope: The Truth of the Matter

"I don't think there's anything wrong," my friend tells me after the tenth hour of hashing things out at a weekend long planning meeting where I was less engaged than usual.  "I just think you're not on this continent anymore.  You're there."

I start to object, make my case for why it's not true and then I come across this picture, taken by one of the kids running around in the yard with the Rebel XTi I can hardly keep track of the second we get to the village.  I can't tell if it's 1950 or 2010.  The only thing that makes sense is the ease and peace of mind I feel looking back on myself in this scene and the hope that stirs in my heart whenever I think about my future.

Embedded was one of the words Stephanie used to describe me in Rwanda.  Seamless was another.  Merged.

Whatever the term, I think my friend got it right.  Something deep in me has made the move.  I know what I'm meant for now.  I know what I need to do.

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How about you?  Do you have a photo that reminds you of a defining moment?  A version of you that helps you know who you are and what matters to you?  Share your favorite self-defining portraits in the comments below.

Fanta = Love

It's not a minute over 10AM and there he is sending the girls out for a treat.  In Rwanda, there's no greater privilege than when someone serves you Fanta.  It doesn't matter if it's really coca-cola or Sprite or orange soda, the word for this treat is Fanta, and for momentous occasions, nothing else will do.

So go ahead, take the cap off that warm soft drink and sling it back like it's champagne on New Year's Eve, even if it's bright and early on a Wednesday morning.  Fanta says someone is happy to see you.  Fanta says you're an honored guest.  Fanta says you're presence is a moment to remember.

We sat in silence and drank our fair share and then some--our host's eyes shining with happiness.  A houseful of girls giddy from a sugar buzz.  How is it that the simplest things can tell you that you matter?  How is it that the magical appearance of a lukewarm soda can let you know you're loved?

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What simple thing is making your eyes shine with happiness today?  Lend us a look in the comments below.