Another post, and I promise not to complain about food anymore. My mother and I went to Gasabo yesterday, where I will do my research. Most of the orphans and widows who would have been at the meeting we had were either at school or a meeting that had been called by the government. We had to be quiet in our meeting because government officials were walking around to make sure everyone was at their meeting. We didn't want the people at our meeting to get in trouble. We gave out candy, toothpaste, toothbrushes, medical packets and bracelets. They seemed to like them. I also got to explain my research to Leocadie, the Gasabo orphan who will help me find the participants I need.

I my translators for my research. I will use Harriet, a Solace orphan who speaks great English but is in school part of the time. I will also use Michel who got his bachelor's in Psychology this last year from the national university. He's translating my interview questions and informed consent today. I think it might be a problem to use a non-Solace translator but he's too good and has too much psychology training to not use him. He's also the one translating for my mother when she teaches at the Baptist university at night. His dad is a pastor there and he makes a lot of his money translating for visitors. He still doesn't make a lot though and so I'm going to try to use him as much as possible to get him money.

Today we went to a meeting with widows. We passed out all of the shawls made by the Methodist women but there weren't enough for all the widows so more need to be made. My mother preached to them and then they sang and told us a couple of stories from the genocide. When the second women was telling her story (she survived Ntarama, a church where over 10,000 were killed) another widow had a seizure. She has epilepsy and the trauma from hearing the stories brought it on. Instead of taking her to the clinic, they prayed over her. Instead of getting her medicine, they say they can just pray for Satan to leave her alone. I admire their faith but sometimes I wish they would use more counseling and medicine in addition to their prayers.

Finally, I found out today that I'm supposed to be charged $25/day in rent for the guest house. That works out to almost $2000 for the summer. This is a little more than I was expecting, especially considering I have always stayed here for free before. Please pray as I work with the staff to figure out a way to make my stay here affordable because I definitely can't pay that much for my time, especially when I don't even want half of the emenities that make this place so expensive.