We Made It!

We made it! Today was our first full day in Rwanda! Things sure have taken a turn for the better, as of last night we were both wondering if we needed our heads examined. Both of us are suffering from major sleep deprivation and Carol is black and blue from our experience in London, upset stomach's, headaches, blah, blah, blah. This has felt for me to be one of the longest trips ever! I don't remember it ever taking this long to get to South Africa, but who knows.

Our day started out at approximately 4am this morning as both of us were wide awake. Apparently Carol went to bed at 1am and I am not sure what time I went, but it was before her and I just died. Whatever it is we are not getting enough sleep and we are now considering Primus beer as a possible drug for sleep???? OK kidding, we haven't even tried one yet!

This morning after breakfast, we spent allot of the morning very dazed and confused as to what we were going to do and how we were going to do it. We acted like stupid tourists and asked a few people their opinion on cab's and rates and eventually had the front desk phone one for us. Just when we thought all hope was lost an "angel" walked in and after 2 full seconds of negotiations, we were off! Our angels name is Enock and we can confidently say without a shadow of a doubt that by the end of the week he will become our closest friend in Rwanda. He took us to the Kigali Genocide Memorial, where Carol and I proceeded to lose track of time and I am not sure how long we were there, but I do know that after all those months of reading books and watching documentaries, there are no words for what we experienced there today. It is too hard to comprehend that over 300,000 Rwandans were buried below our feet. That number continues to grow as more mass graves are uncovered all the time throughout the country. The children's area of the memorial was too much for either of us and no amount of reading could have prepared us for the pictures and descriptions of how the children were murdered. When I came down the stairs from seeing it, the girl at the reception desk asked me what I thought of it and I could not even speak, but my tears told her what I was feeling.

Enock patiently waited the entire time for us outside in the car (I wish my husband was that patient!)and off we went on another adventure in another direction (or so he told us). We found ourselves being driven through the most magnificent area of Kigali where the "townships" are being bought up by the government and being turned into very swanky resorts and homes. I'm not a betting person, but allot of those homes must be in the millions and too me it seems a bit mad especially when right across the alley from some of them are people living in shacks that would not be fit for our animals to live in. I only pray that the beautiful country of Rwanda never sells its soul to the devil again and lets foreigners take over land that is so badly needed by the Rwandans. I fear that this is true. At some point Enock pulled into a brand new shopping mall and immediately we smiled with excitement, there in front of us was a huge sign advertising that there was a "Bourbon Cafe" inside! To those of you that don't know, this is the Rwandan Starbucks and Starbucks had better hope that they never come to North America because they would have a run for their money. Carol got to experience first hand the length of time it takes to order drinks/food, etc., and the number of people that it takes to facilitate that order. We told Enock to order one of the wonderful pastries that was in the glass case and a drink. I never paid much attention for the first little bit because I myself was mesmerized by the sights in the glass case, but Enock came up behind us and we again repeated our request for him to pick out something that he would like. He walked over to a shelf that held a water thermos and told us that he would like one. We bought him that thermos and you have never seen a grown man who is 47 years old, so moved and so appreciative. He was beside himself with thankfulness -- it was like we had just bestowed upon him a million dollars. Let me tell you how silly we both looked as he with tears in his eyes told us he loved us and we sat there and cried. Starting on Tuesday, Enock is going to be touring us around Rwanda and we are scheming!!!! More to follow.....later!!!!!

Back at the hotel.....oh yeah.....for those of you from World Vision that will be joining us in a week....nothing electronic works!!!!!! For our husbands....good news...we haven't used our credit cards, but the wad of cash you sent us with is nearly gone!!! At this rate we might be coming home early because we are being told that nothing electronic (in the whole country!!!)will be working again for another week and if that is the case once the cash is gone we are in big trouble!!! Anyways, back at the hotel we had a short break in our room and then off to the restaurant where our waiter was a spitting image of Forrest Whittaker just 150lbs. lighter! Carol had the BBQ local chicken that looked like it was still running on the plate and I again had the Tilapia that was coated in flour. Yes, eating is a huge challenge when you have food allergies and I am very thankful that I brought 3 boxes of protein bars because pretty soon I am going to look like Carols chicken and it was the skinniest chicken I have ever seen! We tried to convince Wally to come with us today but he was so jet lagged he can't see straight! Really, his eyes are pointed in two different directions, Wally looks like we feel, Vickie says it's okay he can pull it off because he is cuter than us!

We put a few pictures on and will download more today, it took forever! Anyway will post more later.

Vickie & Carol