This is our last day in Kigali until we depart for home in five weeks! Tomorrow we head to Gisenyi, which is apparently beautiful and by a lake! We can't wait! We don't know if we are going to stay in Gisenyi for 1 or 2 weeks, it depends on the work that we find there. The bus ride is three hours, and it's going to be hilarious to see all of us try and fit with our huge backpacks and all of the other things we have seemed to accumulate as the weeks pass on.
This week was amazing! Amazing, amazing, amazing! Definitely my favourite so far and I am sad to see it end. This week we changed locations to La League, where the rooms are let's say not the ritz, but the location is beautiful! When you walk out of your dark room, you see hills, flowers and beautiful greenery. We eat our breakfast on the grass and stay up late talking and playing the guitar. We are very close to Ingrid's so have had a few more bonfires to keep us occupied! We have not seen what we looked like in over a week due to not having a mirror anywhere except for the odd reflection in the glass - we are kind of happy to not know the sweaty messes we are in. We appreciate cold showers after the long days and always fall alseep as soon as our heads hit the pillow!
This week we worked with YWAM Rwanda - I was very surprised when I saw their base because I had thought it would be just a tiny little organization - but they are doing great things! They have a daycare, primary school and secondary school. They run a ministry called Mercy Ministries where they work with HIV/AIDS people and so much more! It was really cool because they actually had three other YWAM teams there, from Switzerland, England, and...the other one slips my mind so we had the opportunity to meet a lot more people and have some good conversations in our free time. We had to wake up at 5am, in order to get to the YWAM base for 8 a.m., so they were long days but Whitters and I were happy when we had the opportunity to work in the daycare and the primary school - finally!! 5am wake up was definitely worth it! We were separated into different classes, i had "top class" which was the class at the top of the stairs. They are learning to speak English and I had to help with their alphabet, numbers and sounds of letters. It was tiring as every child wants your hand and attention but so rewarding, by the end of the week I even saw an improvement and even knew almost all of their names - go mee!! They called me Teacher Lola, because they somehow got that from Lauren and enjoyed all of the songs that I taught them. During this week I fell in love with a little boy named Joshua, it's funny how there can be a playground full of children but one always seems to pull on your heart strings. He was a trouble maker in class, but at the same one of the most intelligent, he was a brave boy until he fell and burst into tears with a bloody knee - I showed him mine and that we were the same, everyone falls - he seemed to like that. After bandaging him up we were inseparable - unfortunately this got him in trouble with Teacher Robert. The children only had school until lunch time, but it was a full course load until then, with a snack time (yumm!!) After lunch Whitney and I headed back to help the teachers prepare their lesson plans and they also asked us a lot of questions about the school systems in Canada and how they discipline their children etc. Here in Rwanda all children are beat with a stick as discipline, and this school is trying to change the parents mind set that a stick is not always the best option. They said it's very hard to get through to the parents because they do not agree, but they can see the children responding to them as the teachers more and more each week. It was also great to see that all of the teachers YWAM employs are Rwandan. During this week we also worked with the HIV/AIDS ministry. We went into anther remote little area and we went to just spend time with the people. They didn't speak any English but we had a translator with us. Basically we were all a teary mess by the end. All of them are struggling to survive, most of them were women - men had slept with them gotten them pregnant and left them, while also giving them HIV. They said that no one in their community wants to touch them and that they are an embarassment so they stay in their house. Also, because of the disease they don't have the physical strength to take care of their families - to get water, find food, make the meals etc. They said every day is a struggle. The "house" we were in was also crumbling and with the next rain storm it could be completely destroyed and then the woman will be homeless. All they wanted was people to be with them so we shared testimonies, stories, played the guitar for them, we had each brought them something that we made, we prayed with them - anything they wanted. For all of our likings we left far too soon, we could have stayed all night!
Today was our day off, so as a team we all went into town to eat at a "restaurant" - had a delicious burger and milkshake (again!) and then went to look at the stores in town. Sam - the leader of our base in France came to visit us for a week and left today, so that was sad to see him go, but it means that we are beyond half way.
This week was full of a lot of laughter, lastnight I laughed the hardest I have all week. It was due to exhaustion and just laughter. We are all creating lists of things we long to eat once we get home, of things we long to do - including hot shower and a clean bed.
After Gisenyi we head to Bhutari and then after Bhutari we dont know where we are off to, but we'll see. Tonight we have to pack our big backpacks in order to walk up the hills again, but luckily this time its in the morning so it wont be too hot.
To answer the questions from home:
How blonde is my hair? - not so blonde, but getting long!
Have i lost weight? - negatory, the food is not what you think!
Do you really have to pee in a hole? - yes, not all the time, but yes!
Following that - have i gotten used to it? - no, and i don't think i will haha many funny experiences
I should go so i can give someone else a computer!
Love love love!
Teacher Lola!
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