Beautiful Rwanda

I have only been in Rwanda for a few days, but I already feel at home. That may be perhaps my residence, a Food for the Hungry (FH) guest house is wonderful. Not only is a spacious and has a cleaning/cooking staff, but its view overlooks the heart of Kigali. Additionally, none of us have gotten sick yet and all of our luggage miraculously arrived, which were perks as well. Though it is true that we did lose power for 24 hours, that allowed all of us to play a game of hide-n'-crawl-in (aka sardines) and just us guys to sing aHs we did the dishes. By the way, if you are wondering who "all of us" are, look for the upcoming video.

Though working in my internship starts tomorrow, I have already had many cultural experiences. One of which was attending an Episcopalian worship service in the local tongue. I have also been able to play and converse with many of the Rwandan children in very much broken French. Just today, we visited the Rwandan Genocide Memorial, which was beautiful and crushing. No lies, I cried. I won't describe it to you, mainly because I could never do it justice, but it grew my heart closer to Rwanda an its people.

One Rwandan that we have met who wasn't a small child seeking laughter with the white people, Felix, was kind enough to tell us his genocide story. Again, it is difficult to retell, but it had a similar result as the memorial. It hurt to hear that as an eight-year-old, Felix had to live with the constant fear and expectation of suffering and death. He told us how, to avoid the killers, he had to silently hide underneath a bed for two months. At first, this factoid did not touch me, but later, while playing hide-n'-crawl-in (as previously mentioned), I found myself silently hiding under a bed for 45 minutes. I found myself bored, alone and anxious, but when comparing my experience to Felix's, I had no reason to complain. So I just laid there in dark and thanked God that the people trying to find me weren't trying to kill me as well.

Though most of these memorable events seem depressing, they have given me a new appreciation of life and an excitement for my work this summer. I am having a wonderful and safe time. I am thrilled to begin working this summer and will be sure to continue to update periodically. Thank you for reading and God bless!