Hi from Rwanda

Jambo from the beautiful Kigali, Rwanda.  We arrived here Saturday evening after a much longer than anticipated plane ride from the Kilimanjaro International airport.  We spent the previous week at the United African Alliance community center.  Upon arriving we were greeted warmly by Pete (The Panther) O'Neil, and his twenty-one adopted children.  We then settled into our comfortable sleeping quarters.  It is safe to say that everyone was enthused to have warm running water, clean clothes and electricity once again. 

We started our first full day with a one hour yoga class at seven-thirty in the morning.  After a delicious breakfast we split up into groups of two and sat in on English classes.  All of the teachers at the UAACC were volunteers, and the ages of students ranged from fourteen to forty.  Many of the student traveled long distances to attended free schooling at the community center.  The advanced English class students were virtually fluent in English and were very easy to converse with.  On the contrary, students in the beginners class needed a lot of assistance from there teacher to translate.  All students were eager to hear about American culture, politics and language.  Later in the afternoons Carpe Diem students attended computer classes to teach students of all ages the basics of computers.  Everyone seemed interested in making facebook and e-mail accounts.  The concepts were difficult at times to explain unless the students were English speaking. 

Following our first day of teaching we attended a dance class in the early morning.  A group of ten locals met us out on the basketball court to teach us a dance from a local tribe.  Though learning the dance was difficult enough, we also had to sing at the same time.  This proved to be quite a challenge but, after a couple hours of practice we were feeling confident in our ability to perform the dance during the UAACC talent show that afternoon.  Our performance of the dance went well, as did our rendition of the Cha Cha Slide; the American dance we all decided would be the easiest to perform without any practice.  The talent show went on for several hours and included dances and skits performed by locals, a fashion show and musical performances both by UAACC and Carpe Diem Students.

The rest of the week was spent in relaxation; learning how to make batik paintings in the art room, collaborating with local artists in the music studio, and interacting with students at the community center.  During some evenings we were able to casually chat with Pete about the life he was forced to leave behind in America and his new life in Tanzania.  Many evenings we would watch both educational and slightly more irrelevant DVDs from Pete's extensive collection. 

Thanks to Emily who verified both flights to Rwanda as well transportation from the airport to our hotel we arrived safely in Kigali on Friday Evening. Though finding a hotel was a bit of a struggle we were able to fit everyone in to two generously sized rooms at the Kigali Hotel, with help from Lilianna.  We spent our weekend exploring the city and attempting to emerge ourselves in the culture.  After almost a month in Tanzania we found our Swahili to be no use here as the predominant languages are French and Rwanda.  There appears to be a strong french and English Influence and the city is much more developed than the previous towns we visited.  We are all very much looking forward to our visit to the Rwanda Genocide Museum on Sunday before we travel to Uganda the following day. 

   

We will keep you updated on more events soon!

Love,

Adam & Sarah