tuesday 25th

today was the day i found out which of the boys stole my money. it has been over a week now and i am still so hurt by the whole thing. the boy and i have made up and all is forgiven but i am sad that it changed the dynamics of the rest of my days with him.
this was the same day that claire called me at the last minute to distribute some more of the donations i had brought. we went to gahanga where i was orginally supposed to be placed at. the drive was lovely but pretty far from the city. i met a couple of the teachers and they raved about suzi and lisa the previous volunteers fva had placed with them. it is a beautiful campus there and the children were so excited to see another muzungo on the campus.
i went back to work after dropping off the donations. that afternoon the 12 boys picked to be penpals were writing their letters. i had chosen with the approval of the EDD staff 12 boys to correspond with 12 us kids. i had 11 us girls and 1 us boy. only 2 of the rwandan boys wanted a boy so i had abraham and mj choose a number between 1-10 and abraham was closest so he got the boy. all the rest wanted girls and seemed to fall in love instantly with each of their letters. i tried to match it up by age wise but most of the rwandan boys chosen were 13-16 and most if not all the US girl were 7-14. the boys took forever to write their letters. they were so serious about what to say and how their writing looked and sounded. they each decoreated their letters with stickers and some added gifts ( a leaf off the tree outside the classroom door, one added a balloon, and one added a pipe cleaner ring he had made). i would say 1/2 of the letters were more appropriate than others by US standards and the other 1/2 i will need to include explanations regarding rwandans being very open and loving toward everyone. there were some "me and you forever" " i love you always and forever" "i want you" type writings in the letters that could possibly be misconstrude...but it is all innocent and from extremely grateful hearts of these boys. i am very excited to see how many of them keep in touch. and i would like to get more of the boys involved and hopefully will be able to find a classroom here in the states to get involved with the boys there. at the end of the writing extravaganza....mj sat down next to me and asked me if i knew his penpal personally. i explained i had met her and thought she was lovely and he replied with one of his huge smiles and a sigh " i love her so much already" it was one of the most rewarding statements i heard the whole time in rwanda. it still makes me smile so hard to hear him say it in my head. i am proud and happy for all the boys at the center but those 12 boys i am a bit extra proud of for the hard work they put into their letters and the genuine care and joy they got out of writing.