so many things to talk about

on saturday 3 of us went to akagara park for safari. we left at am and our driver was fast to say the least. we were all surprised to see so many people already walking on the side of the roads. they carried water jugs, food, babies so many different items. it was scary because the roads are quite narrow and it is difficult to see anything or anyone unless they are right there beside or infront of you. i guess then it is a good thing that most people like to drive in the middle of the road instead of in a lane. they also like to pass when on coming cars are approaching. there have been quite a few times we thought we may crash. driving is definitely different here.



on friday i got lost and it took me 3 hours to get to the orphange. it started by getting on the wrong bus. i ended up on the bus to kanobe instead of kabuga. there were 2 men that spoke a little bit of english and told me to get off at their stop and they would get me a motorbike taxi to get me to drop 15. they negotiated and found a driver that said he knew where to take me (out of about 50 drivers all yelling at us to be the driver). i got on the bike and away we went...we ended up in kabuga which is not where i wanted to be...drop 15 is about 5 miles away from kabuga. once we got into town the motorbike got a flat tire. we then changed to bicycle taxi and he started biking up this dirt road hill. we got to the top and he started to ask directions and found a guy that spoke english and the guy told him he was in the wrong place. so the driver left me there with the english speaking man in a huge empty lot next to a church. we waited and waited for the driver to return. he finally did and he then took me to the orphanage on a new bike. he then said he wanted 4000 rwandan francs for the ride and i only had about 600 francs with me. i went to get the director and she helped negotiate the price down since the driver was the one that got lost...after a good 30 mintues of arguing and the boys coming out to laugh at me for getting on the wrong bus i gave him 3000 and he left. the boys continued to giggle at me throughout the day and it was quite funny after the fact.



i continue to love my assignment here. although yesterday i was quite sad. i had misunderstood that the secondary boys go away for school. school started yesterday for them and the secondary boys left on sunday. i did not get to say goodbye. i am quite crushed because i had been getting close to some of the secondary boys and now i will not see them again. but the primary boys are here and they go to school for half days m-f. so i only teach for half a day now. the boys told me yesterday how much they like chocolate and how excited they were because they got to eat meat yesterday. i think they had rabbit. i told them i would see what i could do to get everyone a piece of chocolate or a lollipop.

i reminded the boys how to high 5 and that is now their new goodbye with me. although they still shake my hand after it. i am also teaching them to answer something than "i am fine" when i ask them how they are. and they are quite happy about it.

the boys continue to ask me how old i am and if i am married and if i have kids. it is the culture here to marry early and have kids so for them it is quite weird to know i have done neither. i tell them i do not have kids because they are all my kids. and they seem to love that answer so they will have each other ask me at different times why i don't have kids so they can hear me say that they are my kids and they all smile so big and giggle.



oh on sunday night is our eat out night...we went to flamingos the local chinese restaurant and talk about amazing!!! it was sooo good!

this sunday i think we are trying the ethiopian restaurant.



saturday stephanie and i will be traveling to butare. the national museum is there and the memorial which has preserved bodies from the genocide.



on sunday during the day one of the students of a previous volunteer came by to see abby. abby was out but the girl hung out for awhile. we fed her and she seemed to have had a good time. after she left we realized it was the girl abby had told us about. her mother died of aids, she is living on her taking care of herself and she also has hiv. i wish i had done more and talked with her more while she was here. she is such a sweet girl and it is so sad to learn of her circumstances. i hope she comes back to visit again one of these weekends.


i am learning why rwandans are so special. they are more accepting than others because they don't live by time tables. they are so incredibly flexible in all they do that i am learning how it truly makes them better people. it is difficult for me to understand the whole african time thing that things happen and people are late and things will get done when they get done but i am realizing that because of that life is more noticeable. i look people in the eye and say muraho to eveyrone i pass, i have noticed how beautiful rwandan people are, how they smile when i speak to them in kinyarwandan. slowing down is a good thing. to go back to us will be difficult ot get caught up in the hustle.

the safari in akagara located in the north east portion of the country was so fun. frist the countryside is so beautiful! it was the africa i imagined in my head. we saw eagles, impalas, antelope, zebras, giraffes, warthogs, lots of birds, crocodile, buffalo and my favorite the hippos! the countryside with in the park was also absolutely breathtaking. i really widh i could post pics so you all could see what i am talking about.