Day 1 & 2 in Rwanda!

So the video blogs will be through YouTube since the internet connection is very slow.

Day 1 - We arrived safely in Kigali, Rwanda and unpacked, went for a quick jog around the block, ate lunch at our guest housing, exchanged out money (570 Rwandan Francs to $1), then went out to a nice dinner with our crew of 8 of us plus a guest. The food was amazing - bruchette (goat kabobs), rice, peanut sauce, and lots of bananas (fried, baked, etc...). Most of us were having trouble staying awake at the dinner table, JETLAG, but after about two hours of conversing and eating, we went back and everyone crashed.

The people here are so friendly, with a servant-attitude and radiating happiness.

Day 2 - We woke up at the crack of dawn to the sound of rain (the rainy season) and gathered everyone (except Dr. Dandavati who went with a man named Alex who is a President of Helpage Coordination Regionale for the morning) and we went to one of the memorials for the genocide. No words can explain the impact this had on all of us. It took us about three hours to walk through the entire place...with a beautiful garden surrounding the building with thousands of people buried there. We each had our own electonic guide which explained everything in great detail.

To open discussion about what we had seen, Floriane and her husband took us to Hotel Mill Collines also known as Hotel Rwanda. We sat by the pool for a good hour and had a deep disussion about injustice in this world and what we are all called to do about it. We all were very emotional about what we had seen earlier that morning and openly disussed our Christian faith and how that shapes the way we live and act. We would love to write more but our time is short and the internet is pretty slow.

We went to a coffee shop similar to starbucks and walked around a mall. Little did we know that we had to pay for using the bathrooms and a guy chased us down half way accross the mall to make us pay. At night we all went to q restaurant called Banannas and it sure was tasty...great company great food and great atmosphere. Did we mention we heard the song Beggin by Madcon...

Us four kids as everyone likes to call us played euchre till the wee hours of the night...great fun.