The Twelve Days of Christmas, or...

...when gifts become a little burdensome and generosity goes over the top!

A wonderfully funny Irish version of a popular and extremely silly song.

Click here, download and enjoy your last day of the Christmas period!

On Rwanda, not from us...

...but from the journalistic professionalism of the Guardian, so, if you were sceptical about our not-so-positive comments on this country, elsewhere widely praised, or if you just want to read more about its deep problems, we believe you'll find the below articles extremely interesting, especially because it is quite rare to see anything as strong as this apart from human rights specific publications:

on Paul Kagame's lust for power

on crushing freedom of press (a bit old but still very relevant and true to the current situation)

Happy New Year.. "a la John"

So this is Xmas and what have you done?

Well, we've worked with the poor:

trying to live with them, walking with them around their areas, visiting their homes or no-homes, striving to speak their language, and we think we've done decently well at all that, despite our faults, like keeping living as Western people, sending our children to a super-expensive private school, driving our car, playing tennis, eating much better than them;

and for the poor:

from children to disabled people, from the youth to the mothers, from street kids to Mattia's drunk friend, and this is the reason why the "church" didn't like us much, as some people told us bluntly: "you worked for us, not for them, that's why they don't want you".

trying to "do good":

we've sent crowds of children to school (from primary to secondary and vocational training), we reintegrated a few in their families (with some success...), we've taught them (more chess than English), we've let them sing (Gospel, and literally so, not just music, but God's word in music), we've saved some families from their hopeless surviving in the city taking them back to the countryside, we've given children loads of sport&grinds and even some first-aid&food, we've organised Christian dancing and bible evenings, we've had a few as adoptive sons for a while, we've taken  the youth to Church (until the "church"  put them aside), we've explained disability is a problem to tackle not a curse to hide, we've trained them on how to take care of their "special" kids, we've "physio-treated" them, we've funded very small businesses, we've created paper furniture items for them (starting to teach them how to do it), we've gathered them in a small cooperative or in several saving groups, we've provided a market for their crafts and commissioned some sewing work...

Another year over

It's been tough,

as the "church" has never been with us and often against us; as Rwanda is not an easy country (for its troubled present rather than past and its dependency on aid) and Rwandans are not easy people (from their lying habit to their tendency to take help for granted); as being white and rich here isn't easy either (the former is not our fault but race is an issue anywhere - the latter is and we've been trying to work on that, but it's a long way and perceptions are hard to change); as the language is very difficult (and that's a fact, though another fact is we could have studied more); as we were learning and shaping our work by the day; as poverty is hard to digest yet it cannot be solved by a family in a year.

It's been good,

as the weather is among the best on earth and the same goes for fruit; as the boys settled in well and have always been happy, at home, at school (where they made friends and learnt plenty) and on the football pitch, where they played with the local kids; as we've found a few friends, a couple of good people who helped us and many more who sincerely appreciated what we've done; as the short summer holiday and the current long Christmas break have been very nice, with the highlights of the animals and plants of the national parks (savannah and jungle) and the fun and beauty of Lake Kivu;  as people visited us and gave strength and encouragement to keep going, confirming us in our ways; as the youth, the disabled and all their parents are tiring but pleasant company.

It's been amazingly great,

as we've never felt more blessed ("Imana ibahe mugisha"/God Bless You, often just a formula, yet many times seemingly heartfelt), more fulfilled, more needed and helpful ("there are some people who are giving us hope and help for the future"), more "in step" with Him ("Jesus come back for street children"); as the boys have been our greatest supporters, proving themselves strong, righteous and faithful; as we've learnt so much about Him (we've seen Him in the people, we've heard His voice so loudly, we've felt His hand on our shoulders, we've found what following Him means), about us (what we are, what we can do, what we must do), about poverty, about history, about aid, justice and equality.

It's been awfully bad,

as having to chase away children and mothers is the worst thing that can possibly happen to you; as stress affects you in a lot of terrible ways (from your behaviour to your stomach...); as we came hoping that partnering with a church would help us to avoid a lot of negative approaches and instead it was that partnership which made everything so hard; as our sending agency let us down completely, never taking into serious consideration or even respecting our work, never siding with our Christian approach and finally treating us at best as simple employees and at worst as parcels for which to arrange flights&freight.

a new one just begun

an uncertain one, hopefully a better one, surely a good one if we keep being a unit, certainly a great one if we find out His way and follow it with complete, faithful abandonment.

-----

The near and dear one

So many of you to us are dear

and really you all felt near 

throughout this year

so thank you for reading, listening, writing, sending, praying, thinking!

A Happy New Year

Let's hope it's a good one

without any fear

No fear of doing what we all feel called to do;

No fear of what is new, different, challenging;

No fear of doing what we know is right, whatever the cost;

No fear of being rejected, attacked, mistreated, for the good we do!

Christmas' family tradition

Some people have traditions for dinner, for presents, for decorations, for invitations... we have special traditions! What happens in the Leoni's family on Christmas Eve? Sam gets sick, meaning he vomits: yes, it's already two years in a row, so we can call it a tradition, can't we?

Well, if you want something more Christmasy from us, why don't you go to soundcloud (see bar above) and listen to our Christmas greetings? 

If you really don't want to (why?), here we go

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL OF YOU!

Pre-Christmas update

Long overdue update on our situation here: for the sake of clarity and shortness, as factual as can be, leaving extensive comments for another occasion.

As you might have guessed from reading posts below and/or listening to our sounds (see bar above for soundcloud), things are not going well at all, and have not for a while. 

Mattia was stopped from his very good work with children, youth and mothers at the end of October and therefore resigned from his post, as he cannot work with/for an organisation which chases children and mothers out of its (and his!) premises. Resignations were not accepted, but after a month of soul-draining wait for a supposedly helpful visit from our coordinator, the outcome was simply having to listen to the Bishop firing Mattia, quoting as reasons that he goes to the slums and even to the police (not to be arrested, but to plead for the release of youngsters) and that he gathers too many unknown children and mothers: if all this is wrong, well then it is right to be fired; sadly, our sending agency just accepted the Bishop's decision and, to add salt to the wound, decided to fire Elena "as a consequence", meaning that now both our contracts have been terminated, though, despite all her troubles and frustrations she was willing to continue her job, the Church had nothing against her doing so and we were ready to keep going with only one contract and/or to look for alternative options, such as being re-deployed to other centres managed by the Church, to keep the partnership alive without the constant clashes we have been experiencing in Kigali. 

Not only they let Mattia down without saying a word and fired Elena without any real reason, but they even expect us to go away "immediately", or "as soon as possible"; yet, not being parcels but a family, we are trying to stay as long as we can, to manage the transition to our uncertain future in the best possible way, taking as much time as we need, also to finish as decently as we can all we started and worked on so passionately for nearly a year. 

We are currently arguing about our departure's date and it is hard to understand what we really want or feel like we should or actually can do in the near future, so we are not in a position to tell you anything more specific yet.

In the meantime, to escape a destiny of mental breakdown, we've stuck to our pre-disaster plans and  now that the kids are off school for their Christmas break, we have fled Kigali to seek shelter in Kibogora, a village in the West, on the beautiful shores of Lake Kivu, where the Methodist Church   founded a hospital decades ago; we are staying in one of a wonderful group of houses for missionary families, for some much needed holidays and for Elena to spend some days (both before Christmas and in the new year) training the hospital's physiotherapists in Paper Furniture, so that they can manufacture assistive devices using cardboard and paper, and homemade glue.