Sup guys, its now the evening of our second night in Rwanda and what another day we have had. First up was a rare taste of hard work, spending our entire morning manually plowing a field on a farm in Kabuga. Kabuga is a small area just out side of Kigali, the farm we worked on is heavily linked with Solace Ministries and the farm consists of widows of the genocide, supplying them with support and a job. We were greatly welcomed by these women, saying that they even considered us as their own children! We gathered together and had a time of singing and even some dancing, before getting out lunch.
       After a much needed shower, we all headed to the genocide memorial. Dont think anyone was fully prepared for what we would learn there and the graphic nature in which it was presented. We spent the following hours wandering around the beautifull gardens and among the mass graves of genocide victims. Inside the building we learned the history, reasons and consequences of the genocide. All of us found it very difficult to take this information, in particularly the way in which women and children were brutally murdered. The day has been good though and i think i can speak for everyone when i say that we are having the time of our lives in Africa...were not coming home :)

night xxx

Jonathan & Jayne

Muraho !!!! (Hello)

Well the day is almost over, and we have just finished reflection time. It was an emotional time thinking about our day meeting the genocide survivors, we all had a reality check and felt more grateful for everything we have. The two young men that we met witnessed their families being murdered at the early age of 6. They only survived because they were hidden amongst the murdered bodies. We heard about their struggle growing up without parents for support and finance. They are struggling to keep their homes and find money for food, one of them had not eaten in 3 days. It really made us think about our lives and how lucky we are. We have all realised it while out here, so maybe we should tell you "thank you parents we appreciate you !!!"
Unforunately our day changed slightly, as we ran out of time. We were unable to go to the National Genocide Memorial, but we are visiting it tomorrow so no worries, instead we went to see the vocational training centre and got the chance to help with the work.
       Best part of the day was being greeted by all the children and adults, we have never waved so much in a day. Their happy faces put smiles on our faces and there was an amazing atmosphere for the rest of the day. We sang for the genocide survivors and they also sang to us which brought tears to a few peoples eyes, as we did not expect them to sing for us.
    We have a had such a great first day and can't wait for tomorrow now !!!!

Thanks, Eilidh McLachlan and the rest !!!!

Good Morning Africa!!!

Everyone is here and is safe. The entire journey passed without a hitch and we even arrived early.

The night also passed without a hitch, except from a few scary insects that is!

And, as I am writing this post, we are all enjoying an excellent breakfast of breads croissants and fruits at the solace guest centre. The plan for today is to visit the genocide memorial this morning and then we are all going to head out to meet some opf the genocide survivors this afternoon.

That's all that  I have time to say just now, but I will hopefully be able to post again this evening.

Thanks for reading,

Callum Hall.

Rwanda Eve

I'm settling down to write this on what is a fairly big evening for the group. The eve of the trip! The cases are packed and the anticipation is building. We will be leaving the Broch at 3am on the 21st to catch a flight from Edinburgh at 6:30 to Schiphol airport in Amsterdam where we have three hour changeover. Then it's just the small matter of the 8 hour flight to Kigali! All to arrive there at 10pm Rwandan time and head over to the solace guest house for a well deserved sleep. At the moment there isn't much left to say other than me including a wee map for those still in the dark to where we are going. 

I am also going to include a picture of the house from which we will be basing our operations.

Solace ministries guest house:

Finally, from myself and on behalf of everyone else who is going, I wish to thank everyone who supported us both in raising the money for this experience and also for encouraging us as much as you could. We couldn't have done it without you all, so thank you all very, very much!!!

Callum Hall

P.s.- Just an interesting thing which I found, the distance from Kilsyth to Kigali (i.e. the red line on the map) is exactly 4444 miles! 

6 weeks to go now.

With around 6 weeks to go, I thought that I would once again, update the blog. Preparations for Rwanda are going fairly well. Many of the students have now raised the required £1600 and all of the students are near the end of their vaccination schedule. Once the exams are over and school is back in, we will begin final preparations such as deciding what equipment to take with us. Well, that is you all up to date. More updates after the exams everyone!!

Callum