It's FINALLY Monday, May 11, 2009

Muraho! We have officially arrived in Kigali! We arrived at 10:30 this morning. Our flights from DM>Chicago and Chicago>London BOTH landed early, so we were off to a great start. London was very good once again, lots of sights to take in! We were lucky enough to have Barbara Smith, who grew up in Ames and now lives in London, help us around for the day. The big highlight of Sunday was that we got to go to the Rwanda Embassy and meet the ambassador! It was so amazing! It was a beautifully set up office and they had a wonderful little reception/meeting set up for us. Then London>Nairobi landed early as well. It was a GREAT flight. There were tons of empty seats so we were able to spread out and really get comfortable! That did not stop the final flight from seeming to drag on forever! Of course our Nairobi>Kigali flight didn't board on time, and then once we got on we realized we had a stopover in Burundi! More time separating us from our destination! However, it was very cool to see the Burundi airport – maybe I'll just go there someday! Then, 36 hours after leaving Des Moines, we FINALLY landed in Kigali! I couldn't believe it! All the familiar sights were such a relief! I was FINALLY back! We got off and appreciated the sights and smells of Africa. ALL of our 30 bags made the tumultuous (some were misplaced, mislabeled, and even broken) trip all the way from Iowa. How lucky! Then we of course couldn't fit all of them and all of us into the cars, so Nakeesha and I waited for them to be dropped off and our driver to come back and get us and the rest of the bags. We made a great friend who happened to have been supported by our orphanage (Gisimba) through secondary school – what a small world! Anyway, when our driver Guillaume got back, it was a struggle to even fit us two and all the bags in the truck! But we finally made it and cruised through the city to get to Chez Lando. When I was talking with our driver he informed me that Alloys (our driver from last year, who we loved and miss so much) got married AND had a baby over the year! He is on leave right now, but he said he was excited to see us at some point while we were here. Once we got to the hotel we showered and ate lunch and then we headed out for the mini city tour. It has changed SO much! So many new buildings and so many old ones disappearing. I was SO happy to be back! Then we got Leah and headed to the orphanage! I was so excited the whole way I couldn't even pay attention to conversations! I couldn't wait! As we were coming around the corner I saw some damage to one of the buildings. As we got closer I saw that one of the classrooms at the nursery school had been completely smashed in! It was crazy! When we pulled in it was SO good to see the kids. I couldn't believe it – it still seems like a dream! I saw every one of our close friends from last year. I was able to talk to Ildo (the patron) on the phone while scheduling our visit and he was so excited to see us when we pulled in. He's always so appreciative of everything we do, and so involved. When I asked him about the classroom he said a truck went off the road and smashed into it! It was during the day, but earlier the lights had gone out so the students had moved to another classroom! What a blessing! That conversation didn't last long with the kids around, though! Jeanine, Aimee, Joshua, EVERYONE was there! And they were so happy and playful as always. It was great to see everyone else getting to meet them and see how wonderful they are. I can't believe it's all happening! Obviously I could talk about this all day (or all night) but I've had enough of 4hrs/night of sleep! Early, busy day tomorrow! Hopefully I'll be able to keep updating regularly! LOVE!