Aspen's (not quite) Brown Chair - 8 months

Bali, Indonesia - Really a pretty fantastic place to turn 8 months!

 

And now, for a little dip in the pool.  Toodaloo!

Aspen Watches You From Her Highchair

 

 

Byangabo, Rwanda - Yesterday

This is the market in Byangabo, Rwanda, yesterday, around lunchtime. 

 

Byangabo is about 2 hours north of Kigali on the border of Congo, a small village in the shadow of Karisimbi, a dormant volcano home to mountain gorillas.

 

I'm sure many of you have been wondering what exactly Ginger has been working on.  Sometimes I ask myself the same question.  Well, the mVisa mobile phone payment system is up and running, and the big marketing push is happening right now throughout September.  For Ginger, this week has been one of the biggest payoff weeks since we moved here - getting their product out to the customers that are so far from most of civilization.  Here are many of them in the picture above.  These are the people that we basically moved here to serve. 

 

Hundreds upon hundreds showed up to the travelling acting show for mVisa, and then signed up during and after the show.  Below is another picture she got of the semi-truck that converts into an elevated stage, full of actors, comedians and MCs.  This is how marketing works in rural Rwanda, and in plenty of other places on the continent.  The truck pulls up, the service tents go up, and shortly after lunch in the market area (the best place to be sure lots of people will show up anyway), the show starts - they use actors role-playing how they sign up, how they use it and how they benefit from mVisa.  How would you write a script that shows people how to get this thing that becomes a bank account on their phone? 

 

Very happy faces around here, despite more hours on the road to get to some of these places.  We are so proud, Ginger!

Aspen's Brown Chair - 7 months

 

 

Critters

 

This picture was simply good enough to be a one-picture post.  I don't think I'll EVER get tired of looking at it and imagining what they could be saying or thinking.  Salespeople?  Shifty-eyed drifters?  Darling children?  You be the judge.

Jeff and Anne take Rwanda!



To sit with Jeff and Anne at our house in Kigali was a serious treat that will not be soon forgotten.  Wow!  They arrived late on a Saturday night/Sunday morning.  The morning gave way to excited kiddos, and unpacking of the traditional 'goods from the West' part of most of our guests' first day.  The rest of the first day was chill - unpacking, catching up on life, driving around Kigali, naps and taking it all in. 

 

 

Sweet Potatolicious!

 

Aspen meeting (again) Uncle Jeff and Aunt Anne on the first morning.

Jetlag sinks in its teeth on Sunday afternoon.  

The next day, we set off for Akagera National Park with Jimmy Bilima, guide extraordinaire.  Jimmy has now met pretty much all the adults in our extended families.  Monday afternoon, we took off after lunch, headed east.  After a brief stopover at our friend Adam's home in Rwinkravu, just outside the park, we were treated to a nice sunset drive up to the lodge, where we saw a lot of great wildlife.

Lilac-breasted Roller



Black-headed Gonolek

 



Waterbuck

 



Cape Buffalo

 



Mama & Baby Baboon

 



Spur-winged Plover

 



African Fish Eagle

 



Black Mamba

 



 

Impala

 



Ruppell's Long-Tailed Starlings

 



Bare-Faced Go-Away Bird

Warthogs

 



African Sneaky Behind-the-tree Elephant

 



Hippopotamus

 



Crocodile

 



African Jacana

 



Topis

 



Baboon Car Valet