Muraho (Hello, in Kinya-Rwanda) from The Land of a Thousand Hills!!! I am here safely and sorry that it has taken so long to write an e-mail. I am currently sitting in a tiny little “internet café”. We are currently in Kigali, the capital, and are in the middle of our second week! Where to even start! We have been so busy, and it has been exhausting but amazing.
Our trip here was smooth and had no problems , our connecting flight from Brussels to Kigali was right on time and when we arrived in Kigali even customs went smoothly PLUS all of our luggage arrived so we were a happy bunch! We were greeted by so many smiles and hugs from total strangers, which blew us away. They immediately took our luggage and made us feel right at home. Each one of the people meeting us had made sure to learn one of our names by a gift for each of us. So sweet!
We drove through Kigali and I was surprised at the well paved roads and decorated roundabouts, but as soon as you leave the center the streets are “typically African” or what I had always imagined. The van has to go so slow because there are so many bumps, well not even bumps, holes in the road! HUGE HOLES. It’s crazy, at times you think that the van is going to tip over completely. We are taken to the base and we find that yes, we actually have beds to sleep in! We were not expecting this! There are four of us in a room, two bunk beds and the beds themselves are huge, you can sleep with stuff on your bed and not even realize it. The mattresses have caused many laughs because they are not your typical mattress, where you chose to sleep the first night is where you will sleep the rest of the month. There is a hole from my body, and they do not pop back over the day. It’s like sleeping in a little nest. They also provided the mosquito nets and sheets, so we feel pampered since we were expecting a floor and a sleeping bag.
So this e-mail isn’t too long I will try to summarize everything that we have been doing. The hardest day for me here was when we went to the Hospital of Kigali, my first reaction was that I was fine, but as we entered rooms of patients to pray for them and give them juice and fruit I could not keep the tears back. The hospitals are dirty, they are packed in rooms – and there was just a terrible sense of sadness that you could feel. I then thought about what it must have been like with the genocide 10 years ago, and the tears came even harder. These poor people just lie there with nothing, there is no cafeteria, there is no waiting area that I air conditioned, the emergency room is just a dirty room at the front of the hospital. It is dusty and there is water all over the floor. I don’t know how else to describe it. We will be going back there once a week, and I’m hoping that we get to make some relationships with the patients and even the doctors.
We are also working with the GBUR, Groupe Biblique Universitaire de Rwanda. It is with them that we have made connections with places like the hospitals, orphanages, families in need etc. On our “family day” Whitney and I went to a young lady named Vanessa’s house. We were taken in their “motor taxis” where they squish as many people in as possible – literally around 25 people in a 12 person van. You have kids sitting on your lap and your arm out the window because it cant actually fit in the van. Kind of scary at first when you don’t understand the language at all, but we survived. Anyways so we get to this ladies house, and it is GORGEOUS. The view itself is just magnificent, and Whitney and I just looked at each other with out mouths hanging open. The front door opens and there are leather couches, a big screen tv, sound system, kitchen table, nice tiled floors – this is nothing like the area we were living in. So we sit down and watch the one channel Rwanda has (seriously) and its in Rwanda, so we don’t understand…and we sit there for 4 hours watching tv…we try to ask them if they have any plans for the day, or if there is a market, but they don’t understand us so we shrugged our shoulders. When I asked to go to the bathroom I was surprised because basically as soon as you pass through this living room area the rest is bare and nothing like the front of the house. They only have the bare essentials to give off the impression that they are wealthy. It was bizarre. She prepare us a meal and we tried the traditional Rwandan food which was delicious, but then we were offered Rwandan cheese. We said yes, we wanted to try everything that we could while we were here – It didn’t look like cheese and the husband said it was safe for us bc it had been boiled and everything, so why not? Well mistake, our stomachs did not agree, and the taste stayed in our mouth for EVER! Whitney states “you know I am suddenly full?” looks at me “Lauren…are you ok?” I had suddenly worked up a sweat within seconds and was red in the face…”Yeah, I’m not so hungry either..” anyways moral of the story…if you come to Rwanda, seriously don’t eat the cheese…not even to experience it…I might have just maybe been sick for 2 days.
We have had to get used to peeing in holes, rarely showering, and waiting 8 hours between meals. The constant heat is exhausting, even at night it doesn’t really cool down that much. We take naps “siestas” when we can, but that’s rare. O YEAH sorry random thought, church on Sunday was 9 hours! 9 hours! They sing and dance for forever and ever and ever and ever. It was very entertaining but after an hour our ears and feet hurt so we were ready to crash, little did we know we had eight hours to go.
We eat rice, rice and rice, sometimes bread. We have to cook over coals in the backyard in this little shack , we wash our clothes in buckets and really it all seems kind of normal to be honest. I don’t know how to describe it, but it didn’t take much getting used to.
I love you all so much, and feel free to e-mail me when you want. We should be able to find a café around once a week to use the internet. I am sorry that I cannot attach any pictures, but we aren’t allowed to upload here, so it will have to wait until I’m home! I miss you guys and think of you all the time.
<3
Lauren
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