Hey guys,

This morning, after finally a decent night sleep in the comforts of Solace, we were visiting the Healing and Reconciliation Project. This scheme has been set up to help repair bridges between both the Hutu and Tutsi people after the brutalities of the Genocide. We arrived there to a tradional style of building to a packed room of smiling faces. Men and women, young and old attend these meetings frequently and we definately received a warm welcome ! We were treated to not one but two beautiful songs written by one of the women there complete with tradional Rwandan dancing. Soon we were all pulled up to our feet and danced along side the exhuberant Rwandans ! In response we showed them some Scottish social dancing and roped some of the Rwandans to join us, although some of the moves seemed to be lost in translation ! Afterwards we were given a tour of the maize fields, which both the victims and perpetrators of the Genocide work together on farming which is part of reconciling both sides to learn to live in peace and community. When we returned to the building, Jack showed off some of his amazing card tricks much to the delight and astonishment  of the Rwandans. Next, our good friend Pastor Paul wished to show us some houses that had been built for widows of the Genocide where we heard the heart breaking story of one women. She explained to us how as a Tutsi, her whole family had been murdered and also how her husband had betrayed her and their family by pretending to be Hutu and is currently in jail for this crime. While still trying to understand the tragedy of her story, we were all shocked to be introduced to the very man who had murdered her family. Intially horrified at the concept of calling the man who had caused you so much hurt 'brother' we then reliased that this man was truly sorry for his crimes, and had built houses along with bonds with these widows, in an effort to atone for this past. It was the courage of these people who both forgive and ask for forgiveness from one another that truely inspired us.
After a delicious and filling lunch, we took a small walk through the city center of Kigali which gave us a chance to witness the hustle and bustle of the capital. After this we were all delighted to be able to visit the street kids bakery where we were greeted to the smells of warm fresh bread and delicious doughnuts. Next we returned to the street kids project again. There we were able to play some games with the kids including 'rock, paper, scissors'. Joanne and Katie soon found two adorable little babies, who both have said they want to take home ! After a long tiring day, we retired back to Solace. Tomorrow we're all looking forward to a bit of a long lie and a longer visit to the streer kids again. Cant believe we've only got 3 days left !

Love Claire and the rest of team Rwanda xxx

 Some of the fantastic dancing the group displayed

 We tried to join in but we didnt have theirt rhythm.

 The sound as all the women in the room sang was very moving

 These girls sang and danced for abolut 10 mins.

This house was built by a genocider shown in the photo ( blue shirt) he built the house for the woman in the traditional style dress standing beside him. During the genocide he murdered her family.
She has found a way of forgiving him and he now supports her as she has no support network.
This is typical of the work carried out by the reconcillation group.
A quote from one of the widows " if you do not forgive somebody, you give them the power over your life. Foregiveness is not fro the other person it is for you

 The street kid project has a bakery. The older street kids bake bread and distribute it on their bikes. Here is an example of their produce.

As you can see Victoria enjoyed the donoughts.

Hi Guys. We’re just back to solace after an exceedingly long trip. Bearing that in mind (and the fact that it’s Erica’s Birthday surprise tonight)*, tonight’s blog will be relatively short and we will add more detail in the morning. But what a day! We embarked upon an action packed safari with sightings of;

Waterbuck,

Zebra,
Impala,
Warthog,
Buffalo,
Mongoose,
Topi Antelope

Giraffes,
Reedbuck,

Hippos,
and Olive Baboons.

 On top of all of that, we also spotted 30 species of bird! That’s all that can be updated tonight, more details and stories in the morning guys!!!

* A Massive verse of “Happy Birthday to you” for Erica who turns 17 today!!

 

Callum Hall

For Billy's mum...

What some call disaster....we call banter!

What some call disaster...we call banter!

Early this morning at 1:30 am the whole group were rudely awakened by the sound of Erica's frantic banging on Aidan's door. 'There's a bat in our room!!!!!!!!!' she screeched. Later we all awoke to hear the story of how 'Wilma' the bat, had decided to perch herself on Emma's mosquito net directly above her head. She was not amused (neither was Emma). Erica, reasoning the fact that she hadn't had her rabies jag, nominated Emma for the heroic role of bat catcher.  Thankfully she lived up to the task and nobody was harmed (including Wilma).

The day's adventures had only just begun. 

We woke to the sound of torrential rain and lighting and thunder that shook our rather basic accomodation. However we made light of a bad situation and decided to have showers in the rain as this was more reliable than our showers.  Because of the rain our journey was delayed and our trip to the primary school cancelled due to saftey reasons. Nevertheless we soldiered on to the secondary school. Our bus driver Silas once again proved himself to be not only a complete legend but a very skilled driver as he safley and effortlessly navigated us through very wet roads.  HOWEVER just as we were about to arrive disaster struck!  Due to a flooded road we were forced to go an alternate route when the bus went down a muddy trail and we heard the ominous sound of tyres spinning. Yes we were well and truly stuck.


Suddenly everybody became an expert on how to get the bus out but as opinions were shouted and ideas conveyed, the bus remained stationary.  The locals took pity on us and after a good laugh amongst themselves came to our aid with tools and manpower.  Still the bus remained stuck.  In the meantime some of us had decided to entertain ourselves with tribal mud markings on our arms and faces. Eventually after a lot of standing around pretending to be helpful a decision was made to let the school kids guide us the route to the school.  After some minor mishaps including fire ants and Victoria's flip-flop disaster we pulled through and managed to enjoy the beauty of the African countryside.  We saw many stunning bird species and striking flowers and plants.  Not to mention the looks on local chilrens faces as a group of filthy 'muzungo' passed through their village.  Words cannot describe the feeling of joy when the beacon of the bus came into sight.  Silas has now been promoted from legend to complete hero.

Once at the secondary we were yet again greeted by a sea of blue uniforms and the sound of frantic shouts.  That feeling of being a celebrity never goes away here.  We had decided that Zak would teach the physics lesson on Newton's 3rd law while the rest of us demonstrated how to make a rocket from paper, tape and 2 coins (with some interesting results).  We then launched the rockets outside to the children's utter astonishment.  The looks on their faces were priceless!

On the whole, despite the rain, the mud, the cold and confusion a good day was had by all. Tomorrow we head out to the national park to go on a safari.  We are to be there at 7am, meaning we have to get up at 5:30.  Yes 5:30 AM......HA!

 The men tried to push the bus free while the rest of us 'directed'.

 Building rockets with the classes at the secondary school.

 Billy says 'they've just ruined it for themselves'...they say 'we've found a new hat!'

It was humbling to see children recieve new clothes that were kindly donated from people back home.

Thanks once again for tuning in to our 'daily whinge', it means a lot to us.  Off to bed now for a hopefully bat-free sleep.

Joanne xxx

A Tale of Two Schools

 The one and only primary classroom.

 No interactive whiteboards here

Well today has been a very long and eventful day. After a "comfortable" night sleep....... ha! Some of us began to experiment with the washing equipment we were provided with (i.e. a water filled jerry can, and a basin) which was a challenge.

On arriving at our first primary school visit we were swarmed by children as soon as they saw the bus turn the corner. It was amazing to see the vast amount of children rushing out of the very small school building. After the struggle of getting out of the bus and through the mob of children, Callum Hall began to start a massive game of tig with the entire school chasing him! With help from our legendary bus driver, Silas, we finally gained control of the children and attempted to teach them a few songs such as “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” which was amusing as the children tried to repeat back to us.

We then split up into 3 different groups to teach the children some lessons of our own. It was fun to be involved with the teaching of the children and we were surprised at some of the pupils’ level of English ability especially as we were located in such a rural part of Rwanda. We also experienced our first drop hole toilet………. very interesting?... after having a traditional Rwandan cuisine of cassava, beans and cabbage… and of course bananas.

Continuing our journey of the bus to the second school, which was both a primary and a secondary, we had a great time as we sang a mash up of classic songs and passed many interesting animals on our way. On arriving at the second school the atmosphere was a lot more subdued as the children were very disciplined. They were not used to seeing white people and were a bit spooked, they wanted to touch Ms McKillop to see if she was made the same as them.The school had a small assembly waiting for us where we introduced ourselves and sang a song to them. We met the head teacher and learned more about the school and that some of the children have to walk as far as 15km to get to school each day!!! It was astonishing to lean that the school only has 28 teachers to teach around 1500 pupils, which is in great contrast with our school of 700 pupils and 63 teaching staff. The school has very limited resources with only 2 computers and very little science equipment.

Overall today has been excellent and interesting (even after our weary nights stay at our new location). After coming back from the school visits we ventured down to the shops in the local village where we were offered a cow and a goat for Joanne’s hand in marriage to a local man. However we did not accept the offer as we believed she was worth an additional chicken as well which he was not so willing to give!

 Don’t worry parents (Erica’s mum and dad) we have been wearing our sun cream after being attacked by Gerry with factor 50!!!!!!! Thanks again to all our followers it is greatly appreciated to see so much interest in our activities out in Rwanda.

Good night all.

Love from Lucy and Erica along with the rest of the group xxxx

P.S. Happy birthday dad for tomorrow!!! lots of love Erica xxxxxxxxxxxxx :P

Ceilidh

There is another group staying at the same time as us. A group from Carnoustie who also have some students over from Jackson, Mississippi. This gave Aidan an idea, whack the Vatersey Boys on and have a good old fashioned Ceilidh!

The Americans and Rwandan guest picked it up quickly. It was a great night and everyone had fantastic fun.

We have never Ceilidhd in such humidity.

Genocide Memorial

W visited the National Genocide Memorial in Kigali. There aren’t many photos for this section of the trip and we are only uploading one but we believe that it speaks a thousand times more words than we ever could about the mass graves. It is a photo of a small section of the still uncompleted wall of remembrance and these are only the bodies that have been identified.

Most pupils sat in silence on leaving the memorial centre after hearing and seeing the stories laid bare.