i began sponsoring a child through compassion international about 2 years ago(maybe more now) when i was in new zealand. she was from rwanda, and about 5 years old. i got it in my brain that i was going to meet her someday. and today that someday ACTUALY came.
leslie and i got picked up this morning at 8:30 and driven out to the village/project where pelagie and her family live. we were met with hugs, kisses, photos taken, ...all the staff of the project, plus pelagie and her3 brothers, 2 sisters and both her parents. leslie and i were guests of honor and treated so special...we had a big meeting and prayer and gift giving...leslie and i had brought the family things like flour, cooking oil, a few toys and cookies and candy for the kids and some other things..and the mother had made both leslie and i these amazing banana leaf bags.
pelagie is beautiful. she is now 7 years old and in P1 (about grade 1 or 2) and excells in maths(thats where we differ), loves playing ball with her friends and collects the water for her family... being the sponsored child she holds alot for her family with all the other siblings and parents...she was shy when we met her, but after some sweets and tickling and blowing bubbles together...we got some smiles and giggles out of her...and the hoards of children and teens and adults peering in the window to watch the excitment.
i can't express how i felt on the way home. neither les or i said a word for the 3 hours drive. perhaps it was the celine dion tape that played on repeat for the whole time. or maybe the scenery and passing mass grave after genocide memorial after children walking home from school or women carrying clay pots on their heads or prisoners ploughing the fields or..................................................................................................................
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Sunday, July 8, 2007
gorilla trekking!
so saturday morning atfer good ol' community clean up (read the next blog) we finally got on a crampted mutatu to ruhengeri, the town at the base of parc national de volacans(where the mountain gorillas are). after we confused boda boda drivers and got taken to a couple different places that we didnt ask for, they finally understood where we wanted to go and we got taken to this little back alley building with a tiny cramped office for the ORTPN. (office regionale de touriste parc national...or something like that). which made me laugh because the ORTPN is supposed to be, according to lonely planet, the big office where all the gorilla trekking stuff is done and here was this eentsy weentsy dirty office with one desk and a few posters. whatever the case, leslie charmed the officer with her lovely french accent and we got hooked up with a place to stay and a guide for the next morning. the place we stayed at (called touist rest house) left something to be desired..like maybe a toilet that flushed more often or a sink that water would turn off, or maybe a light that didnt disco you to death before actualy turning on...BUT IT WAS CHEAP and we flat out exhausted (stayed up with the people we met a leeeettle late the night before) and fell asleep at 6pm. hahaha. we woke up at 5:30am and were picked up and driven in a landcruiser about an hour to the base of the volcanoes mountains. this is the start point for trekking. there are 56 trekking permet sold per day, so quite soon after we arrived there were loads of tourists from all ages and nationalities.
i'm just going to stop here and let my personality shine through and tell you that the best part of the day(besides seeing the gorillas) was that there was REAL LIVE COFFEE FOR FREE!! FROM A REAL LIVE COFFEE POT MADE WITH REAL COFFEE GRANULES AND A REAL FILTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND i could drink as much as i wanted AND there were nice flush toilets.
honestly, it doesnt take much to thrill me anymore. i would have be satisfied leaving right then and there.
ok so anyways we got into a group with 6 other people(who mostly all work in kigali for the Millenium Village project...if you've read jeffory sachs 'the end of poverty' or stephen lewis' 'race against time' you'll know what i'm talking about and how dang cool a job THAT would be) anyways, we chose a group of gorillas to visit and a guide showed us photos and told us edicate(sp?) about the visit and whatnot. then we drove another..30 minutes to the edge of the rainforest and started to hike. it wasAWESOME. so lush, so tiny paths that werent really paths, you really felt like you were hardcore. about 2 hrs hiking we found the 'group 13'. they are truly phenomenal creatures. there are only 720 mountain gorillas left in the world and they are all found in these mountains in east africa- bordering on the DRC and uganda. i thought it was trulyneat beacuse it was the same gorillas and area that the legend dian fossey did her work with /(watch 'gorillas in the mist'). they are beautiful and majestic and terrifying and gentle all in one. we saw mums, MASSIVE MANLY SILVERBACKS, and 2 week-2 year old babies chasing each other and pounding their chests and racing up trees. wow was it cool. i dont think i can try to describe it anymore. we took loads of photos and videos and got a certifcate saying we 'graduated' as mountain gorilla trekkers.
we got on a bus back to kigali strait away and the drive was breathtaking...i love rwanda. what an amazing place. i didnt even notice how full my bladder was or how revoltingly dirty my pants and hiking boots were or how many bugs and pieces of forest had taken root in my hair until i jumped in the shower at our hotel and realized i wasnt really that tanned after all...i saw it all wash down the drain. ewwwww. but it ended awesome with us staying in a nice hotel (thanks to leslie and her french charm) for cheap, drinking a rwandan beer and eating our first meal of the day. fantastic. now read the blog entry below this.
i'm just going to stop here and let my personality shine through and tell you that the best part of the day(besides seeing the gorillas) was that there was REAL LIVE COFFEE FOR FREE!! FROM A REAL LIVE COFFEE POT MADE WITH REAL COFFEE GRANULES AND A REAL FILTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND i could drink as much as i wanted AND there were nice flush toilets.
honestly, it doesnt take much to thrill me anymore. i would have be satisfied leaving right then and there.
ok so anyways we got into a group with 6 other people(who mostly all work in kigali for the Millenium Village project...if you've read jeffory sachs 'the end of poverty' or stephen lewis' 'race against time' you'll know what i'm talking about and how dang cool a job THAT would be) anyways, we chose a group of gorillas to visit and a guide showed us photos and told us edicate(sp?) about the visit and whatnot. then we drove another..30 minutes to the edge of the rainforest and started to hike. it wasAWESOME. so lush, so tiny paths that werent really paths, you really felt like you were hardcore. about 2 hrs hiking we found the 'group 13'. they are truly phenomenal creatures. there are only 720 mountain gorillas left in the world and they are all found in these mountains in east africa- bordering on the DRC and uganda. i thought it was trulyneat beacuse it was the same gorillas and area that the legend dian fossey did her work with /(watch 'gorillas in the mist'). they are beautiful and majestic and terrifying and gentle all in one. we saw mums, MASSIVE MANLY SILVERBACKS, and 2 week-2 year old babies chasing each other and pounding their chests and racing up trees. wow was it cool. i dont think i can try to describe it anymore. we took loads of photos and videos and got a certifcate saying we 'graduated' as mountain gorilla trekkers.
we got on a bus back to kigali strait away and the drive was breathtaking...i love rwanda. what an amazing place. i didnt even notice how full my bladder was or how revoltingly dirty my pants and hiking boots were or how many bugs and pieces of forest had taken root in my hair until i jumped in the shower at our hotel and realized i wasnt really that tanned after all...i saw it all wash down the drain. ewwwww. but it ended awesome with us staying in a nice hotel (thanks to leslie and her french charm) for cheap, drinking a rwandan beer and eating our first meal of the day. fantastic. now read the blog entry below this.
observing rwanda
ok so apparently none of the computers in this posh internet cafe take usb ports, so i cannot post photos. however, leslie will probably figure out a way because she's just like that, so always check her blog as well (http://www.leslieinuganda.blogspot.com/)
the scenery in rwanda is phenomenal. it is SO different to uganda. uganda is pretty flat and sometimes dry and dirty...whereas rwanda is LUSH like i've never seen, and mountains that are breathtaking. maybe because i haven't seen real mounatins for 2 months. but honestly, we were driving through the parc national de volcans and i couldnt pry my face off the window. also every square inch of land is VERY fertile soil because of the volcanoes, so ever square inch of land is ..agricultured? it looks like a patchwork quilt and all over the mountains as well, which makes for extremely hard farming work i would think. but mind you, these people have endured far more in their lifetime than i will ever come to realize, so pushing a bicycle with 12 jerry cans filled with water up a hill with 8% incline for 10km is nothing.
kigali is an interesting city. we havent explored it too much but there are differences that i wasn't really expecting- small ones, but i think we've been in uganda long enough that we can pick them out quite easily. to the details such as women wear alot more jeans and pants here, and the stndard dress is much more modern. and women and men actualy walk around in public holding hands(you NEVER see that in uganda). the boda boda drivers here actualy wear helmets AND have one for YOU as well!(which kind of grosses me out more than feeling safer, seriously, how many peoples heads have been under that helmet?? HELLOOOOOO LICE!!!). the streets are CLEAN (rwanda has a law of once a month, a saturday morning is designated 'community clean up'. all the stores are closed and everyone..just...cleans. its so bizaare. but awesome. why dont we do that?). the roads here are fantastic compared to uganda. i havent felt carsick once! apparently after the genocide fo 1994 kigali in particular was showered with loads of money to build up the city and economy again and it sure shows. honestly- someone put some money into uganda....it more than needs it. but in turn- we have found rwanda much more pricey than uganda. i guess they need to keep these nice roads nice. and there are NO backpacker hostels. what the??! just hotels, and most of them expencieve. we've found a few that arent too bad and have actualy had some pretty good luck with eric(the man who runs one of the hotels) taking a fancy to leslie and therefore getting us killer deals at a nicer place across the street from his hotel. (i told him she was engaged and back off, but that seems to make him laugh harder. i dont think he understands my pigeon french. good thing leslie is fluent en francais, that has saved our asses many times already)
all in all so far- people are friendly, food is good (mostly the same local food as uganda, minus street vendors here..i think they are illegal, which is too bad for our wallets. and not alot of fruit which surprises me. we are used to eating a whole fresh pineapple every morning. im feeling deprived with just bananas) most people speak french (again, hooray for leslie) or kinyarwanda (whcih we dont have a clue of anything). and a tad of english. today we are checking out the city more or less and meeting up with the guys we met the other day(who have been gorilla trekking in the DR congo..which, btw, the UN has just posted a big fat notice saying DONT GO TO THE DRC RIGHT NOW, so we are hoping they'll come back alive today) and then tomorrow visiting the genocide memorials, churches and the hotel des mille collines..and wednesday we go to the compassion site to meet my girl and her family.
ok...on to gorilla trekking. cept this will be read second, even though i posted it first. grrr. will i ever get the hang of blogging.
the scenery in rwanda is phenomenal. it is SO different to uganda. uganda is pretty flat and sometimes dry and dirty...whereas rwanda is LUSH like i've never seen, and mountains that are breathtaking. maybe because i haven't seen real mounatins for 2 months. but honestly, we were driving through the parc national de volcans and i couldnt pry my face off the window. also every square inch of land is VERY fertile soil because of the volcanoes, so ever square inch of land is ..agricultured? it looks like a patchwork quilt and all over the mountains as well, which makes for extremely hard farming work i would think. but mind you, these people have endured far more in their lifetime than i will ever come to realize, so pushing a bicycle with 12 jerry cans filled with water up a hill with 8% incline for 10km is nothing.
kigali is an interesting city. we havent explored it too much but there are differences that i wasn't really expecting- small ones, but i think we've been in uganda long enough that we can pick them out quite easily. to the details such as women wear alot more jeans and pants here, and the stndard dress is much more modern. and women and men actualy walk around in public holding hands(you NEVER see that in uganda). the boda boda drivers here actualy wear helmets AND have one for YOU as well!(which kind of grosses me out more than feeling safer, seriously, how many peoples heads have been under that helmet?? HELLOOOOOO LICE!!!). the streets are CLEAN (rwanda has a law of once a month, a saturday morning is designated 'community clean up'. all the stores are closed and everyone..just...cleans. its so bizaare. but awesome. why dont we do that?). the roads here are fantastic compared to uganda. i havent felt carsick once! apparently after the genocide fo 1994 kigali in particular was showered with loads of money to build up the city and economy again and it sure shows. honestly- someone put some money into uganda....it more than needs it. but in turn- we have found rwanda much more pricey than uganda. i guess they need to keep these nice roads nice. and there are NO backpacker hostels. what the??! just hotels, and most of them expencieve. we've found a few that arent too bad and have actualy had some pretty good luck with eric(the man who runs one of the hotels) taking a fancy to leslie and therefore getting us killer deals at a nicer place across the street from his hotel. (i told him she was engaged and back off, but that seems to make him laugh harder. i dont think he understands my pigeon french. good thing leslie is fluent en francais, that has saved our asses many times already)
all in all so far- people are friendly, food is good (mostly the same local food as uganda, minus street vendors here..i think they are illegal, which is too bad for our wallets. and not alot of fruit which surprises me. we are used to eating a whole fresh pineapple every morning. im feeling deprived with just bananas) most people speak french (again, hooray for leslie) or kinyarwanda (whcih we dont have a clue of anything). and a tad of english. today we are checking out the city more or less and meeting up with the guys we met the other day(who have been gorilla trekking in the DR congo..which, btw, the UN has just posted a big fat notice saying DONT GO TO THE DRC RIGHT NOW, so we are hoping they'll come back alive today) and then tomorrow visiting the genocide memorials, churches and the hotel des mille collines..and wednesday we go to the compassion site to meet my girl and her family.
ok...on to gorilla trekking. cept this will be read second, even though i posted it first. grrr. will i ever get the hang of blogging.
Wednesday, July 4, 2007
"be the change you want to see in the world" - ghandi
“ God is in the slums,in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house.
God is in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a virus that will end both their lives.
God is in the cries heard under the rubble of war. God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives,
and God is WITH US… if we are with them”
– bono
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
closing time
closing time
every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.
Closing time
Time for you to go home to the places you will be from
…………………………………………………………….
i learned how to dance ' calipso' with leslie and the TASO drama/dance group the other day
what IS this thing around my waist anyways?
good friend charlie lifting herself into a kayak that's attatched to the roof at the ADRIFT rafting base, where we celebrated CANADA DAY the other night...making all our british friends celebrate with us.
these are some of the good friends we live with....bruce, with les
me, with will, pete and sam...
leslie, pete and i on a school bus...
great friend and welcome home director ESTHER!!!! my little porto rican...she is seriously 4'11. i love her anyways. ;)
and of course, my other half leslie
thank goodness i don't have to say goodbye to HER today as well!
Leslie and I leave town tomorrow morning for the capital city of kampala for the night and then jump on a 10 hr bus ride to neighboring country of Rwanda- to the capital of Kigali. I am immensely excited… I have received confirmation in the past few days that we WILL get to meet my sponsor child who lives in Rwanda! I was unsure if it was actually going to happen- but it looks like it is in the cards for us. We are SO pumped… we are going shopping for new dresses, toys and food for pelagie and her family to bring to the compassion international project site they live at just outside of Kigali. I get choked up just thinking about meeting her- this little 7 year old girl that has been able to go to school and her family to eat because of a meager $30 a month. I’m so stoked that this is one dream that’s become reality………how surreal.
I’ll return to kampala after about 10 days for a few remaining nights with leslie and some other good friends that are coming into the city to see us off…then I fly out to London, England for 3 days to be a tourist…luckily I have some friends that will be around that live in London that are going to show me the sights ! And then I will fly into Vancouver on july…19th I think?
Time has flown by as it usually does. What to say when leaving a place and heading for another? Leaving part of my heart in yet another country? Yet Africa has GIVEN me a part of my heart- a new part that I could not have received if I had not traveled here.
And to answer your question- yes, I will be back.
“when Jesus commanded us to care for the widows and orphans, He wasn’t speaking in metaphor. He really meant it. In Africa, that’s the greatest thing anyone could do”-jena lee, hope in the dark
every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.
Closing time
Time for you to go home to the places you will be from
…………………………………………………………….
i learned how to dance ' calipso' with leslie and the TASO drama/dance group the other day
what IS this thing around my waist anyways?
good friend charlie lifting herself into a kayak that's attatched to the roof at the ADRIFT rafting base, where we celebrated CANADA DAY the other night...making all our british friends celebrate with us.
these are some of the good friends we live with....bruce, with les
me, with will, pete and sam...
leslie, pete and i on a school bus...
great friend and welcome home director ESTHER!!!! my little porto rican...she is seriously 4'11. i love her anyways. ;)
and of course, my other half leslie
thank goodness i don't have to say goodbye to HER today as well!
Leslie and I leave town tomorrow morning for the capital city of kampala for the night and then jump on a 10 hr bus ride to neighboring country of Rwanda- to the capital of Kigali. I am immensely excited… I have received confirmation in the past few days that we WILL get to meet my sponsor child who lives in Rwanda! I was unsure if it was actually going to happen- but it looks like it is in the cards for us. We are SO pumped… we are going shopping for new dresses, toys and food for pelagie and her family to bring to the compassion international project site they live at just outside of Kigali. I get choked up just thinking about meeting her- this little 7 year old girl that has been able to go to school and her family to eat because of a meager $30 a month. I’m so stoked that this is one dream that’s become reality………how surreal.
I’ll return to kampala after about 10 days for a few remaining nights with leslie and some other good friends that are coming into the city to see us off…then I fly out to London, England for 3 days to be a tourist…luckily I have some friends that will be around that live in London that are going to show me the sights ! And then I will fly into Vancouver on july…19th I think?
Time has flown by as it usually does. What to say when leaving a place and heading for another? Leaving part of my heart in yet another country? Yet Africa has GIVEN me a part of my heart- a new part that I could not have received if I had not traveled here.
And to answer your question- yes, I will be back.
“when Jesus commanded us to care for the widows and orphans, He wasn’t speaking in metaphor. He really meant it. In Africa, that’s the greatest thing anyone could do”-jena lee, hope in the dark
'
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)