Rwanda – day one (Friday)
(well, day two, but today we are actually awake)

We have seen so much here…and yet, I am aware that we have just begun. I can already tell that our week will pass much too quickly. Amy, I’ve only been here a day and I’m already sad that God was not asking me to be a part of your April trip to Burundi.

Shami is beautiful enough to drive us around this week so we have not only a ride, but a friend for the journey as well. Today, as Billy was working at World Relief, Shami took the kids and I out to see the town… or rather the country. We traveled up and down and around the hills… the road of red earth pockmarked with deep puddles and waterless rivers and uneven terrain.
(If we move here, I will need to learn to drive all over again. Between the free-for-all traffic in the city and the rough rural paths out of town… I wouldn’t stand a chance!)
The outlying areas were so beautiful. If I were here as a photographer, I could live in those hills for a month and still not be quite ready to leave. Unfortunately, it wasn’t only me driving through and so I didn’t ask shami to stop so I could photograph the people and houses and banana trees and cattle and children and beauty of the country. It will be tucked inside my own heart forever though. Lord, help me not forget.

For lunch, we went with a crowd, to an African buffet – we had these juices filled with large chunks of tropical fruits – and we ate cow tongue smothered in some sort of cream sauce served over rice. I gave Avery a bite without telling her first what it was. Later, when it was revealed, she looked at me kind of funny and burst into laughter saying “I just HAVE to write about this in my journal! The kids at school won’t believe I actually ate a cow’s tongue!”

Later in the afternoon, we passed a large field at the base of a hill with hundreds of kids playing. Shami explained that almost all of them were/are street kids. Through a program similar to fostering, some of them now have a home but many more are needed. We descended down the steep hill and parked the SUV among curious faces.
Mady took a Frisbee and quickly started a game with a large group of boys.
I had my digital camera out and was mobbed by little boys pushing and shoving and shouting “And me as well!” in French and then crowding to see the images on the tiny screen – and laughing with excitement to see themselves there.
Avery, from the beginning had stayed in the car. After only a few minutes she was found out and boys were saying to me “Tell that one to come out”… and then began surrounding the car to peek inside the windows. Pretty soon I saw the window come open and Ava stick her head out. I was busy taking pictures when I heard an explosion of cheers as Avery bust from the car and ran at full speed- tickling any boy she could catch. They all ran and laughed and crowded and smiled. We drew the attention of some older boys and men – and I can’t help wondering what they thought. If we could have gone in with a purpose- perhaps I would have felt less guilty. As it was – we came down into the valley of the street kids- we pop out of our car with our muzungu faces – play for 30 minutes and then pack up and head back to our lives, leaving them in theirs. Is it okay?
Shami and Emily said it was, and I would guess they know, they are as Rwandan as those boys or the men that watched.
All I know for sure is that I have seen brokenness and I have seen joy and I didn’t want to drive away.

Scroll down through the previous posts every once in a while because one of these days I am adding more pictures.. at least I am going to try to... the internet connections are patchy. but I To accent the stories. There are hundreds more where these came from. You are just going to have to make a plan for us to spend time together after we return to see the rest. :O)