Liberation Day/Fourth of July

So yesterday I got to sleep in again! WIN! Good Lord do I love my sleep. Then I sketched some, ate sandwiches with the girls, watched as some of the girls screamed in panic when they found a SCORPION in their room (turns out they aren’t poisonous here but STILL), then left to go to the Nyamata Church memorial a half hour outside Kigali. It was a full morning. I also got some reading in.

On our way to the memorial we went through marshes. It was a very different kind of Rwandan landscape than the ones I have seen so far. Apparently, a lot of Tutsi in the surrounding area hid there during the days of the genocide. I would hate hiding in a marsh. I don’t like to be soggy. Or smelly. It’s once again hard to understand their predicament.

The memorial was beyond depressing. It included a shot up church covered in the blood of the genocide victims, piles and piles of their clothes, and rooms full of bones. We went down into the mass grave and I almost passed out. You could actually smell death. I got light headed and claustrophobic. I couldn’t even cry, because I literally can’t even begin the process of wrapping my mind around such a tragedy. Over 10,000 people were murdered in that church, and a total of 45,000 people are buried in those mass graves. I just can’t imagine it. What humans are capable of is astonishing in both extremely good and bad ways. Murder is a crime I will never understand, and mass murder is something I could never even begin to. My heart aches for those still effected by the events that took place during those bloody one hundred days.

The grace and forgiveness the Rwandan people illustrate everyday gives me hope and insurmountable pleasure. It’s easy to focus on the bad parts, but these people live their lives everyday. They are friendly, happy, and sincere. They may be beaten and bent, but they refuse to be broken. My love for them grows everyday. I want to strive to be like them. These people are holy. The level of forgiveness and love they are capable of are truly the gifts of God. I feel His presence here with every moment, every gust of wind, and every sparkle of sunlight. What an experience. I really don’t give it justice with these words…

Well I’ll step off my emotional soapbox for a minute, and give you more details of my day…

After the memorial we came back and had a logistics meeting. Then it was dinner time! We grabbed a mass of motos and went to this Thai restaurant called Zen. IT WAS SO GOOD. Expensive, but wonderful. The atmosphere was also great. It was outdoors with a covered thatch roof, along with glittering black chandeliers. The dining tables and chairs were leather and made of beautiful wood. The waiters were great as well. It was such a lovely evening. I had teriyaki chicken. Yum. All of us ate too much, but it was well worth it. The moto ride back was cold, but we all made it safely so it was a success.

I went to sleep decently early, because we had to be up and about at 6:45am this morning for the Liberation Day festivities. I had a cup of tea, and we jammed into a small Spiderman themed mini bus that took us to Peace Stadium. There we went through a search line. The woman told me good morning as she felt me up. How friendly..? haha! She also took a picture of me with my camera to make sure it wasn’t a bomb. The picture is hilarious. I have the most awkward smile and look at my face, because I didn’t know what to do. I enjoy it immensely. After that ordeal, we waited around and then got to our seats. They were right next to the dignitary and president section. We moved down though, and I got pretty sun burnt. I read some while we waited. I’m reading this book called The Shack. It was an amazing read. I cried, laughed, and felt many other emotions. I strongly recommend it. I finished it today when I had some down time, and it put me at a level of peace I haven’t felt in a long time. Please take the time to read it. You won’t regret it.

Anyway, the Liberation Day festivities were pretty cool. We got to see some traditional Rwandan dances which was awesome. They also sang, and many people spoke (not in English though). We even got to hear and see President Kagame speak, but we didn’t understand a word he said. That was kind of disappointing. They had a marching band. It made me all nostalgic… oh the remnants of my band nerdiness… Overall it was a pretty cool experience. I got handheld flags. Win!

We got back at around 2pm and had some down time so I finished my book like I previously mentioned and got a small nap in before dinner. We tried to go eat chinese but they were closed so we went and had Indian food. It was SO good. I had garlic naan, steamed rice, and this mouthwatering chicken tomato spice curry stuff. I loved it. I ate too much, and am still stuffed even after making the hike back to St Paul’s. Oh well. When in Rome right? Haha!

This next week is full of RAPP volunteer stuff. I only have a little over a week left here, so I’m going to take full advantage of it! I hopefully get to sleep in tomorrow again, but we’ll see. I’m fixing up the RAPP blog, and I’m not sure when I’ll start that work. Today I am missing home though. Oh the BBQ and fireworks! Alas, it is a small price to pay for these kinds of experiences! 

Until I write again!

Goodnight! 

An African Safari and Playing Catch Up

It’s been a very full last few days. The homestay went well for starters. We pretty much just got there, and I went to sleep. Dinner was at midnight, so I didn’t eat much and just went back to bed. The next morning (Thursday), we got up and went to RAPP for the day. At first we just helped moved furniture, because they just changed locations. Then we got to meet the rest of the members of the organization and scheduled out our volunteer days. I’m excited for them. We get to go to a theatre production and practice, a women’s knitting co-op, and we get to fix up the org’s blog and make it accurate and pretty. It should be fun. I’m really looking forward to it. The people we met were also great, so I like everyone that works there. Win!

After we moved furniture and made a schedule, I went to lunch with Sammy, Rose, and Frances at this coffee shop called One Thousand Cups. It was pretty good. When we got back from lunch me and Frances just chatted it up with Sammy for a couple hours. He truly is the most interesting person I have ever had the chance to have a conversation with. He was even nice enough to call his brothers and cousin to give us a ride back to St Paul’s for free. They were all super awesome too. His brother had the coolest head of dreads I have ever seen.

That night we went to a chinese restaurant. IT WAS SO GOOD. I had chicken fried rice and wontons. Yum! It was the first truly satisfying meal I had eaten in a really long time. It was also decently cheap, and a pretty short walk from our guesthouse. Double win. After chinese we just hang out and chatted for a bit. We found a female condom and decided to put it on our assistant coordinator, Gina’s, door. Luckily, she found the prank funny and didn’t get angry about it haha! She’s a good sport. It was nice to just hang out and eat cheese and chat for a bit. The mosquitos weren’t too bad that night either, and my favorite little boy, Peter, entertained us by running around our picnic table laughing. I LOVE HIM SO MUCH.

The next day, yesterday, I got to sleep in! My internal clock, however, decided I needed to wake up from 7am on though. Kind of disappointing, but I did get to lie in bed until 9am. That was epic compared to what we have been doing lately. After we all got up and around we grabbed a late lunch at the super marche, and then had a quick meeting discussing our plans for the day. As soon as that got over, me, Jessica, Stina, and Marissa left and went to Kironko market. It was legit. Gina also met us there later. I got a lot of cool stuff there for really cheap. I love when that happens. Bartering is actually kind of fun now. It doesn’t make me nervous anymore. This muzungu is finally starting to fit in here in Rwanda!!!

After we had all spent too much money, we took motos to Sole Luna for a late lunch/early dinner. It was funny watching all five of us parading down the streets of Kigali on motos. Oh how funny all the Rwandans must find us… haha! The food we had was amazing. I got a calzone and a salad. SO yum. It really hit the spot. It was so much food though. I didn’t get hungry again until this morning haha!

Last night, after dinner, we all went to a dance and theatre performance at an organization called ISHYO. It was really neat. It started with a traditional-ish African dance about the hardships Africa has faced. After that, there was an interesting play put on by a theatre group getting ready to travel to South Africa to compete in a competition. It was interesting. I’m not sure how I felt about it. One of the performers didn’t shave her armpits…and she was American. Odd. I’m a firm believer in a lack of body hair. Especially on women, but that is just my own personal opinion. I also found it odd that several Rwandan audience members left their phones on and answered them during the performance. I thought it to be really rude, but apparently it’s acceptable in this culture. Hmm…

After the performance was a night moto trip back to St Paul’s. ISHYO is on a dirt road, so two people in my group had to ride on the same moto up the hill until we could find a third moto. It looked horrifying, but hilarious. There is no way I would ride a moto with an extra passenger, but it ended up being fine. The night trip back was cold, but relaxing so nothing to complain about.

I wanted to stay out and have a few beers, but we needed to leave at 4am for the Safari so I thought better of that. I didn’t get to bed until after 11pm, and had a short restless sleep before I had to get up at 3:30am. It was liked I just took a weirdly placed nap instead of actually sleeping. Our driver was also late, so we didn’t leave until after 4:30. It was slightly annoying, but it turned out ok. I went with Angie, Cece, and Marissa along with our driver and my homestay brother Philippe who arranged the driver for us. It was a two hour drive there, and it was cool seeing east Rwanda since we hadn’t gotten a chance to see that part of the country yet. It’s gorgeous and flatter. There are still mountains, but there are big valleys as well that we got to drive through.

We arrived at Akagera Park around 7am, and paid the entrance fees and grabbed a guide. It wasn’t too expensive to get in. Overall, the entire trip cost a little over $60. I found it to be well worth it. The park is huge and beautiful. There are mountains, grasslands, lakes, etc. We got to see a lot of wildlife including: water buffalo, giraffes, zebra, warthogs, gazelle, antelope, water bucks, bush bucks, hippos, monkeys, baboons, different kinds of birds, etc. We got really lucky. I’m glad we got to see so much, because it’s really just luck of the draw with those kinds of things.

We brought along peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, so when we stopped for a break we also had some snacks. The whole experience was awesome. Our guide, Samuel, was great and fun. It was just a really good group overall. We were all tired and exhausted, but we all remained incredibly positive and satisfied throughout the entire experience. I even got a little sleep on the way back to Kigali. I really loved it. Going on a safari is a must do when you come to Africa, and I’m really glad I got the chance to check that off my bucket list.

When we got back to St Paul, my roommate was gone so I didn’t have a key to my room. It was kind of annoying, but me Jessica and Stina decided to go to a book store and grab lunch instead of hanging around the guesthouse. The bookstore was anticlimactic. There was a cool selection of books, but they were all really expensive. It was rather disappointing. We went to Shokolah Lite for lunch though, and that was good. I had a grilled chicken quesadilla. It was pretty good, but the guacamole tasted kind of odd. They don’t put all the stuff we do in ours. It’s just plain avocado, so it wasn’t as good as I wanted it to be. It was still satisfying though. Then we came back, and now I’m blogging and uploading all my pictures. It’s a really long process. Tonight, we’re going to a restaurant called Heaven for dinner. It’s supposed to be good. Let’s hope it is. We may or may not go out afterwards. I’m incredibly tired, so I doubt I will but we’ll see. Tomorrow is a laid back day. We just have a memorial visit in the afternoon and that’s it. It has been a really nice weekend.

Until I blog again!!! <3