What a Weekend

Many of you by now have seen the pictures of our trip to Akagera! I had a blast going to the animal park and seeing such beautiful creatures. I am now in love with giraffes… specifically one I named Josephina :)

One of the dad's at our school, Mr. Robinson, offered to take many of the teachers at KICS, along with a visiting friend from Texas, to the park on Saturday. The drive to the park was about 3 hours, driving mostly east. Akagera National Park is on the eastern edge of Rwanda and borders Tanzania. We got to see a lot of Rwandan life along the way and my favorite part of the drive was waving to kids as we passed.

I wasn't really sure what to expect, as I had heard that this park did not have as many animals as parks in other countries (and it is also MUCH cheaper), and I did not want to get my hopes too high. As we got to the entrance to the park we saw a few zebras in the distance. As we drove through the park, at first, there was a lot of burned area and therefore not much wildlife. Then someone spotted baboons! They were far away and hard to see and I did not get a picture, but I think someone else did. It continued to get better as we drove. We stopped at 'Hippo Beach' and though there were no hippos surfaced, there were lots of beautiful birds! Soon after we drove towards some plains and we began to see lots of impalas, zebras, and even some cape buffalo and a warthog! My favorite however were the giraffes. It was so cool to stop, get out of the car and walk towards them! They were not to sure what to think of us, but thankfully they did not go away! We stayed in the area for lunch and were able to get a lot of great pictures. As many now have said, "I'll never be able to go to a zoo again!"

Today was a very different kind of day. This afternoon, after church, several of the KICS teachers went into town to the orphanage. I had never been to an orphanage as they do not really exist in the US anymore. I've often heard friends say "I just want to go hold babies in…" some country. That's what I did today. And it was hard. This facility allows visitors every day but Thursdays, from 3-4pm only. So that means for 80-100 kids they only have a few nuns to take care of them the rest of the time. It takes me a long time to process events mentally and emotionally - I have a feeling I'll be working on this one awhile. I could not comprehend the life I got to be a part of for one hour.

As soon as I walked in, little girls came running toward me and just latched on. So I sat down and let them sit in my lap. One girl did not let go until I had to leave. During the hour several other kids came and went, sitting, jumping, playing around me. They played with my hair, they counted marks on my t-shirt, they looked down my t-shirt (yup, the skin is white there too!), and just held on. I would say the average age of the kids was 2, but the range was probably 1 to 3. We 'talked' and sang and laughed and played.

It was hard to see them in a physical state that would be considered unacceptable in the states. They (and their clothes) smelled of old urine, many had scabs on their heads, the little girl I was holding had a very deep cough, and some of the young ones showed signs of malnutrition. There were flies everywhere. So what does one do? James says "Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world." (1:27). Is visiting enough? Hopefully for now. I pray that these children do have visitors and that the women in charge have the strength and endurance to continue to provide the love and care these children need each day.

That's all for now. I'm quite exhausted. We have the day off in Rwanda tomorrow as it is Inauguration Day. (It was just declared a national holiday last Friday!) I hope you all have a good Labor Day!

Love you all~