Gisenyi.

We have started our second week here in Gisenyi, Rwanda which is more north in Rwanda, and how they like to say "the cold region". To be honest, I am sitting here in a long sleeve shirt and shorts, so yes it is somewhater "cooler" as before I would be in a tank top and shorts and in the shade still dying of the heat!

So this week in Gisenyi has been awesome, I would say my second favourite here in Rwanda so far, my favourite was working with the preschool and being Teacher Lola. Gisenyi is situated right on the lake, and when I saw right on the lake its awesome because we walk out of where we are staying down the road for five minutes and then we get to jump into cool, clean water! That is however not why I am here so  I will tell you what we have been up to.

We are working with a contact named Patrick, who we met in Kigali, but he actually lives here. He works with two churches, "The Joy of the Lord Ministries" and "Restoration Church" we have been visiting hospitals, helping the people on the street and I got to sing in a black gospel choir...OH SO FUN!

The hospitals, are always a hard visit, but at the same time they are always the ones that make you feel that you have made a difference. We walk into this hospital and it was a lot cleaner than the one we visited in Kigali, it didn't make my stomach churn. We were separated into groups and then each group was handed bananas and lots of milk to hand around. We all went into different wards - im not sure which ward we were taken to because we didn't have the luck of having a translator. It made things harder, not only because we couldn't understand them, but we couldn't sit down and talk to them or find our what they were suffering from. We used the little Rwanda that we know to try and bring a smile to their faces, "Moraho!" (hello!) "Amakuru?" (how are you?) and they would reply "Me nesa" (im fine) and then our conversation ended. One sight that I still have not been able to forget was seeting an elderly man, in the corner of a hospital room look as though we had been swallowed by his mattress. He was so thin and frail, they told us not to give him bananas or milk. It was as thought he had been pushed aside, and they were ready for him to die so that they could have another bed. This unfortunately is usually the case, the more beds they have the better. I sat down beside him and just held his hand, I didn't really know what else I could do. As we got rushed along to the next room a little naked baby, no joke, ran into my arms full on sprint (or however fast a baby can run!) and i picked him up and we had a little cuddle before some doctor yelled at him and i assume told him to go back to his room. Some patients were not allowed to leave the hospital until they paid their hospital fee, but the problem was that some of them had no money so they had to stay even though they were healthy and their bills went higher and higher. A few of us paid for patients like these, or paid for the patients that couldn't afford their medicine. The final ward we went to was my favourite, the baby ward. It was very hard, you see all of these babies in beds with tubes stuck all over them, their mothers watching them helplessly. One baby I saw didn't have anyone around him nd he had a terrible terrible couch, you could hear it rattling in his chest. No one seemed to notice him crying and wincing every time he breathed in and out. I went over to him and just rubbed his tummy, and even though it wasnt much - i think it was my favourite moment. He eyes slowly rolled back as I sang a nursery rhyme and he fell asleep. I then met a woman Justine, and her baby - i don't know his name, it was very complicated. He looked as though he was malnourished, very very time arms and big bloated belly, but he had these huge eyes that were so interactive. I sat with this little boy on my lap for maybe a couple of hours and by the end i had him laughing so hard, which had his mum laughing, she told me thank you. You don't realize that sometimes all they want is for people to take time with them, and even though there is a language barrier your eyes and your smile and communicate so much.

Ahh i have only have 15 minutes left and ive hardly told you guys anything!
What else hmm.....

Oh yeah the choir was soo fun!! Okay so we went to a choir practice, just for fun. Singing and dancing is very important here, and its very important to the Rwandans that we learn parts of their cultre - which we love doing because it makes us laugh all the time, all of thier crazy dances. So we go and they ask us to practice singing with them, so we learn some songs in Rwandan and then we sing some songs in English, but when i say sing i mean like black gospel choir singing, not our lame white people singing haha, and its black gospel choir with a twist of Rwanda in it. So we are singing an English song and the choir leader out of everyone hands me the microphone - i was like Oh really mee!! So yeah I got to lead a couple of songs AND THEN the next day they had a show i guess you would call it - where all these choirs came from all over Rwanda to sing and dance, so we watch them singing and dancing, they make us do our little white people dances and stuff which seem so lame and boring compared to theirs and then they call the choir up that we practiced with the day before and the guy hands me the microphone again. I know it seems like nothing, but it was so exciting for me! I loved it!!!

I cant believe i forgot to say - we climbed a mountain!! Mount Rubavo! It was exhausting and hot and sweaty but we did it, and it was so cool once we got to the top. Some of us girls had to stop because we felt faint from the change in oxygen levels but we all arrived safely. Raphaelle and I kept yelling "danger danger" because with my history of falling here in Rwanda they all worry about me, especially coming back down a very steep mountain.

Anyways I have to sign out,
We are in Gisenyi until Thursday and then we head to Bhutari, well half of us. Something I also forgto to update you on. Half of us are going to Bhukara and the other half to Bhutari - but ill explain later!

Lauren :)