Well it's been another amazing day in this incredible country we love to call Rwanda. I think it's fair to say that even after 5 years of coming to this unbelievable nation you still never know what to expect and today was certainly no exception. Most of us enjoyed a very welcome lie-in this morning before heading off to the pool for some much needed R&R (yes parents we're spending your money chill-axing by the pool and drinking coca-cola ... !!!).
However it wasn't long before we were back on the road and headed back out for what was going to prove to be a very intense four hours at the Street Kids' Rescue Project. When we arrived we were once again swarmed by an army of children that we are finally beginning to recognise and able to reply in our scant Kinyarwandan to. It's quite an amazing experience to know that these children who have known so little love in their lives are so excited that we 'bazungu' would bother to spend so much time and money to make them feel like we care. Anyway, back to the project, soon enough we were getting stuck in with the kids with Victoria teaching the children the legendary rainbow song with a rather dodgy-looking rainbow illustration, Jack wowing everyone with his characature-drawing abilities and Erica being slightly stressed showing children how to make hamma beads. Nevertheless amidst the chaos we were able to spend some quality time with the kids being continually amazed by their incredible creativity, intelligence and talents. It seems that every day we seem to learn more from them than we could ever try to teach them. After the craziness of the crafts we all headed down to the sports field to do some sports and were once again wowed by their gymnastic abilities and though it's safe to say no one was ever at any given point completely sure of what was going on, we had an amazing and incredibly fun time but thank goodness for the incredibly gracious, patient leaders without whom the day would have been a mess!!
Much as we loved the street kids we all breathed a sigh of relief when we got back to the safety of the bus but it was a quick turnaround before we were back out to dinner with a very dear friend of ours Ben Kayumba, although he was a new face to the most of the group. Ben has an amazing story of strength and forgiveness when he returned to Rwanda during the genocide through his own free will after the murder of his fiancee to run various projects with Compassion, reaching out to orphans and survivors of the genocide. He is a man of incredible grace and compassion with an unshakable inner strength and the heart and wisdom of an angel who welcomed us all into his home as if we were members of his own family. We had an absolutely delicious dinner and some enthralling conversation along the way!! It's impossible to get away from the fact that everyone in Rwanda is affected by the genocide but also the fact that there is an undeniable hope that shines so far into the darkness that it is impossible for the darkness to overcome. Everyone here is so filled with this hope and eager to share it with us for which we are honoured. Can't wait for tomorrow to come around and we can do it all again!!
Thanks once again for all your support - it's brilliant to know we have so many people thinking of us back home and it won't be long before you'll all have your kids back and happy to eat a nice roast dinner and sleep in a room without looking at a gecko crawling along your roof ... not that I'm jealous or anything!!
See you soon, stay safe, from Ailidh and the team :) xx