2nd week

the week has been good. i forget what i have done because the days are so busy. last night my boys had a going away party for abby. they danced and sang (sort of) and it was really fun. during the day the orphanage had visitors from the netherlands and the boys did a traditional dance and drumming...it was really cool! i was so excited i got to see it. they then played football (soccer) with the visitors and of course my boys won. today i gave my boys the shoes and some of the other donations and they were really happy about it all. the rest of the donations will be split between some other organizations that really need it. i met another survivor this week. and it has become difficult for me to share the stories on the blog because i consider the people i am meeting here friends. the short story of his is her lost his entire family in the genocide. he was around 8 years old. he has done so well with himself and is so caring to others that i feel blessed to know him. plus his laugh makes me crack up. i love hearing him laugh.
tonight is abby's last night so we will be going to salsa tonight( yes salsa dancing in rwanda). we will be getting new volunteers over the weekend so stephanie and i are now the resident experts on rwanda.
i had a rough day with my boys today... i ended up kicking some out of class because they were just too rowdy. i think they are comfortable with me now so they feel more comfortable testing the limits.
oh and tomorrow i will teach them how to play baseball. i gave them the ball and bat today and they had no idea what to do. i had to show them that you hit the ball with the bat. i am pretty excited to play tomorrow. it should be hilarious with me trying to explain it to them.

yesterday i took over 200 pic of the boys and i showed most of them the pics today. they get so crazy excited at seeing pics of themselves. next week i will give the boys my little camera for the week and let them take pics. should be interesting what they come up with.

last night watching the boys dance and organize a going away party..i get so emotional and feel so happy for them. they love having visitors and really love anyone that comes into their center. they amaze me everyday because they have such positive and loving attitudes. the conditions they live in are better than on the street but they aren't standards any one of us would consider acceptable. but the boys do great. today i hung out by one of the doorways and just watched the boys for about 10 minutes and i can't get over how they work together so well. they do what they need to and just get it done without complaining. i have not heard one boy complain ever.

it still warms my heart to see how affectionate people are here. i am loving holding hands and being hugged by the boys. the little ones will sit on my lap and the others will lean on me or hold my hand or my arm-i love it. and i love how they do the same to each other. i really feel that they have accepted me as one of them. and i really think of them as my kids. i have been trading emails with quite a few of them already and am really looking forward to staying in touch.

i am hoping to update again on sunday...about the new volunteers, saturday steph and i are going to the national museum and to the biggest memorial, how baseball went, and pizza night sunday :) every sunday night we are on our own for dinner...so we are going to take the newbies to the italian restaurant with the great pizza and beautiful view of kigali!
...and i hope to remember to tell you all about my favorite girl i have met here.