Tours

Monday, November 26

Are there any of you out there who miss us so much that you wish you could feel what we are feeling? If so, then I recommend taking an “African Shower.” Because water is not readily available (it’s actually delivered from a truck), conservation is imperative. So here is what we have to do: Turn on the water and immediately jump in, don’t bother waiting for it to warm up. Get wet. Turn water off. Lather up. Turn on water. Do a couple of well aimed spins. Turn water off. The water should not be on for more then 30-45 seconds. You’d actually be surprised how effective this is. Although, I say that now, it may be a different story next week.

Today was all about touring around and seeing where we will be working for the next few weeks. We checked out the New Life Church, the Family Center (where many of your presents will be coming from), and the Dream Center. The Dream Center is located on the top of one of the tallest hills in Kigali and has a gorgeous view of the city. It is mostly used for the street kids’ ministry but is a large enough space that it will soon be the home of the church and offices. We got an amazing treat upon arriving. Inside their main hall were hundreds of singing kids. These are children that live day to day on the streets of Kigali. Africa New Life feeds them, bathes them, and teaches them about the Lord. Most, if not all of them, are boys. If a girl ends up on the streets she is usually adopted very quickly, the boys are not so lucky. After introductions we had some time to visit and take some pictures with them. Street kids love having their picture taken. What they love more is seeing the picture you just took of them. It was both heart-breaking and hilarious.

What’s more hilarious is that we ate goat at a Chinese restaurant in Rwanda. I don’t think I need to say anything more then that.

We ended the day at the Genocide Memorial Site. It contains a museum dedicated to the Rwanda genocide as well as a general overview of other genocides throughout history. In addition it contains mass graves of over 258,000 victims. This number keeps getting higher as they find other mass graves throughout the country. Last year it was at 250,000. I’m not going to get into the specifics of this experience because it’s far beyond words. What I would recommend is if you would like to know more about the events of 1994 then to do your own research. What I can tell you is that it’s one thing to read about it. It’s quite another to see the graves. TK