May 27, 2008

Wow, I'm getting really bad at this posting every day thing! We left for Butare Saturday morning. On the way, we saw an accident- the first we've seen. It was pretty bad, the truck looked awful. While we were waiting to get past we made some more new friends. They were very surprised to see a truck full of 'muzungus'. I started reading a book called 'Left to Tell', and I read that the whole way to Butare. It's an amazing book, and I definitely suggest it for all- I got it done it two days! It's written by a genocide survivor, and it's been really neat to see first hand all the places she's talking about. Butare is not very big at all. We explored a little and then went to the National Museum and the National University of Rwanda. Then we went and saw the church we were going to the next morning. It was huge and so beautiful. We bought a game called 'igisoro' which is kind of like moncala. Aloys taught us how to play, so we did that Saturday night.
Then we had 7AM mass Sunday morning! What a treat! It was a beautiful mass. It's hard when you can't understand what they're saying, but it still didn't seem like the two hours it lasted. We left Butare after breakfast. We went to the Murabi genocide memorial. It was very intense. I read before we went that this was a technical school that was being built and wasn't in use yet at the time of the genocide. People were told to go there by the government and church officials as a safe place. 64 rooms were filled with between 40,000 and 60,000 people when the interhamwe attacked. They have exhumed some of the bodies from a mass grave and placed them in the rooms in the way they were. I can't describe the way it felt to see that and be in the exact place that it took place. It made me sick to my stomach. Our 'guides' were two of the very few survivors of the attack. It was an indescribable experience. Then we went to the King's Palace which is the first and only palace for the king of Rwanda. It has been turned into a museum about the history of Rwanda. Then we got back to Kigali and went out dancing for the first time! It was very fun- we're going to throw our own going away party on Tuesday night!
Monday we worked on our project and then got to spend our last full time at the orphanage. It was very fun. I got to spend some quality time with the new little boy. I'm not sure if I added this earlier, but since he came they've found that he's mute and deaf. This was the first time I really got to spend with him. He was surprisingly cuddly and content. He was with me for about an hour and then he fell asleep while I was holding him! He's so cute- I told the patron I was going to take him with me. Then we got to spend some more time with our dynamic duo- Aimee and Jeaneen. They are so much fun! They were counting in English, it was so fun! Then Jeaneen was sitting with me and said “Hello” so I said “How are you?” and she said “Fine, thank you Muzungu.” It was hilarious! She is so funny! We met with the patron to discuss what we had done thus far on the website. He was very impressed and gave us some more information as well. He and Damas were both very impressed and appreciative. I'm so not ready for our goodbyes today- it's not going to be easy! Hopefully I can blog tonight quick about today and then tomorrow morning we're off to Tanzania. We are leaving our computers here, so I won't have internet again until we're back in the States. Hopefully there will be more tonight!