Day 2

Jambo! (Hello again)

First of all, Happy 2 year anniversary Steph and Kyle! Can't believe it's been that long already. Give the puppies some love.
Last night I had a full night of sleep in a bed for the first time in 2 nights. It was wonderful! I had a continental breakfast which was sooo good. The fresh fruit is so much better here because it's actually fresh instead of sitting on a truck for a week from California or Florida. ha. When I was walking to breakfast a man staying at the hotel asked me where I was from and when I told him I was from America he got so excited. He personally welcomed me to Africa, and I felt important :)
We went on another tour of the city. Instead of being in awe of the landscape and everything, we did a lot of people watching today. It's strange how much you learn about your own culture when observing someone else's. We always say we are in a parade because everyone stops, stares, and waves at us. The little children chase after our jeep. One even latched onto the back and our driver didn't know. Of course at the time we were going up a huge hill! Luckily, we got the driver to stop in time before the child fell off. We think it is odd because they don't have street signs and I've only seen two stop lights. Everyone kinda drives where they want and if you are getting close to hitting someone (which we feel like happens a lot) you honk your horn. It's not an angry honk like here where you would probably see someone flipping the bird with the honk, its a "just letting you know I'm beside you" honk. We in our room yesterday, and all I heard outside was honking. It's different, but our drivers said there very rarely see accidents (trust me, it's hard to believe!) Our truck is like this big hunk of steel so I really don't think anything COULD hurt it. haha. Our driver is so sweet. We shut the doors ourselves, but he comes around and slams them shut and then he says "NOW, you are safe" :) (Mom, I bet you like that!)
We also went the Genocide Memorial. I'm glad that I knew some of the background of the genocide to prepare me for this experience. It's strange to think that human beings can actually kill their neighbor, family, and friends just because of a difference in ethnicity! It's even weirder to think that it's happening AGAIN in Darfur and honestly, how many people even know about it? We were there for about 2-3 hours (my watch is still set on American time so I never know what time it is here). However, we really got it when we were sitting outside waiting for everyone to finish their tour (we all went at our own pace). We were sitting there and we just heard this woman crying. It was not like a cry I had ever heard before, she was like hyperventilating. We don't know if she saw a picture of someone she knew, she was at one of the specific places it talked about, or she just had an intense flashback. Whatever it was, it was real. It's hard to explain, but our group kinda looked at each other and we all said that it made us understand a little bit better. In all honesty, I still feel like an outsider looking in on this terrible thing. If you want to know more about it ASK ME! I have now read, seen, and heard enough that I feel like I can give enough background info to explain what happened (a little). I also bought a book that shows everything inside the memorial (you can't take pictures inside).
Today we exchanged our money and bought a few little things. Kelsie, I have everyone on the look out for a really cool African spoon!
We also returned to the orphanage. (Side note--- The man that actually started the orphanage is one of the 7 heroes of the genocide. He saved around 400 orphan es from being killed.) Anyway, we met with the man who runs the orphanage and discussed our service project. We also toured and played with the kids some more. They love the camera.
It's interesting to write this blog because I have so many stories to share, but not only would it take forever to write them, I just feel that my typed words do not do them justice.
I really enjoy the people I am with. We are starting to have some funny inside jokes. Our new saying instead of "that's a facebook quote" is "blog it!" haha.

Tomorrow we go to our first school and I think we go to the UN. Leah knows so many people and they just all happen to be really really important people. We have had 2 meals with a man from the UN that Leah went to school with in I think Canada. We went to the Great Britain's Rwandan Ambassador's office. Yesterday the Rwandan Secretary of Education came to the hotel to look for us!! How crazy is that? That is the person in charge of education for the ENTIRE country. 90 million people and she came to OUR hotel. Unfortunately, we weren't even there! She is so busy that she schedules meetings on top of meetings and we were lucky enough to get one with her this week. How crazy is that?!?

Well we have to be ready to go at 7AM tomorrow so I am going get ready for bed. I think I blew up my straightener so my hair should be interesting in pictures!! Oh well, I'll get creative.

Murobeho (Goodbye)