Last Day (Saturday)....Leaving tonight

Were very sorry we havent blogged in a few days. Weve been eating dinner at Florianes friends houses and meeting up with some local Rwandan friends. We have had many activities like visiting the Millenium Project (http://www.millenniumvillages.org/aboutmv/mv_mayange.htm) where we did some volunteer work moving big rocks along with the Youth Conference of Human Rights members (over 30) for a morning then took a tour of their villages.

We also spent an evening with Richard, the man who drove 3 of us up to see the Gorillas. We learned all about his story of the genocide....which was insane. He said that there were 7 kids in his fanily and one of his brothers was killed in the street trying to get food or something. Then all his siblings ran to south Rwanda which was a three week dangerous walk to their grandparents house in May and dug a hole in their backyard to hide in. The neighbors helped feed them every few days and they stayed in the hole till August. He said he lost everything....but 6 of them survived.

All of us on this trip are amazed that nearly everyone we see has a story about the war. Almost everyone. How do you cope with something so devastating? How do you move on and live life? How can a country work towards reconciliation? ...only through the trust of a higher being, a God our God who sacrificed his son whose blood was shed for humanities sin. Yes, this war in Rwanda was like Shaking Hands with the Devil as Roméo Dallaire, Canadian General that was assigned to lead the United Nation troops in Rwanda during the war, but genocide shows that there is good and evil in the world and Dallaire said that this proved to him there must be a God to save the world from this brokeness.

Today (Saturday) we are going back to the Runda Kids to talk with the older ones and hear their stories. We hope that the translator will be able to help us communicate with them.

We are also planning on going to a soccer game at their national soccer stadium. Hopefully we can fit this all in...plus a little shopping on the side of course.

Our flight leaves just after 8pm tonight (or 1am back in the states) so pray for safe travels for us. We are flying into Belguim and have about a 5 hour layover. We will have more time to put up videos and picture.

Well it has been an amazing experience for the past two weeks. We have packed every day in with meetings, projects, and activities that we managed to accomplish everything for our very complicated agendas. Weve been through our highs and lows which every group faces especially being around each other every day but weve grown into a family and have created a bond that will last the rest of our lives. This group was surly in Gods plan to be here in Rwanda together, each trying to figure out the bigger calling for each of our lives. It has been one of the best trips most of us have been on and we are really sad to come home so soon, even though we do miss our families and friends very much. What a beautiful country with the friendliest people with huge hearts...We will miss all the shouts of MAZUNGO which means white skin and the joy and happiness when we wave or wink at Rwandans. Its incredible to see this universal language that doesnt require words to show love and to communicate with another...that upon many other things will be missed but not forgotten. Everyone should make a visit to Rwanda at some point to understand their history and culture...its truly a land of a thousand hills.