Another Allen Boy

We have had a steady, non-stop stream of truly wonderful visitors since I returned to Rwanda at the end of February. There has been an explosion of activity, with at least one group (often more) "in country" every day,… until now. This is my first opportunity to crank up ye ole blog, and this post is for my skinny sister, Teresa, who is a huge American Idol and Kris Allen fan.

Kris Allen, the currently reigning "American Idol", and his bride, Katy, stayed at the house last week and performed at a dinner for President Paul Kagame. The 24-year-old rock star visited Rwanda to assess and support the work of Bridge2Rwanda and assist in our partnership with TOMS Shoes. (More about TOMS in a subsequent post.) Kris took off time from his work promoting his eponymous debut album, “Kris Allen”, which I enthusiastically recommend, but it does not compare to Kris finger picking in your living room and singing at the ceiling. His unaccompanied, unproduced vocals are incredibly rich with emotion,... the kind of emotive voice that can bring tears.

For fans who are interested (like sister Teresa), Kris is an unbelievably easy going, "good guy", who doesn’t have a single corpuscle of arrogance, pretentiousness, or conceit. He is super “low maintenance", demands nothing for himself, and is so mellow you sometimes wonder if you should check for a pulse. He is, indeed, warm and thoughtful, with still waters that run very deep. Yes, I know, I should have introduced Tommy, Nathan, and Wesley to their other brother long ago, as they surely would enjoy each other very much.

Postscript: Have a look and a listen, by copying and pasting the following link into your browser:

http://www.examiner.com/x-25310-Little-Rock-Pop-Culture-Examiner~y2010m4d9-American-Idol-Kris-Allen-walks-barefoot-in-Arkansas-for-Rwanda