June

I’m sorry this post is so late and we missed blogging about the 2^nd part of our trip! Tess and I just got so caught up with doing workshops and being with our new friends that we completely forgot to blog. So here is how the rest of our trip went and what we have done since we got back!

Workshops

The workshops continued to go extremely well! Everyone was learning so fast and they all continued to want to learn more. For a lot of our final workshops we let everyone have free time to practice what they wanted and we would stay close to help them out and answer questions

Rwanda attempt #2

So we successfully received our Visas for Rwanda and finally managed to go. Unfortunately the trip to the boarder was not as smooth as the first time. We got to the bus stop very early to make sure we did not miss the bus, but for some reason, the bus didn’t stop there! The ticket seller was on the phone yelling at someone (probably trying to figure out what was happening) and he told all of us (including the other people at the bus stop) to get on bodabodas (motorcycle taxis) and follow the bus. After a nice long ride, we finally caught up with the bus. And then there was fighting between the bodaboda drivers and the bus ticket seller over who should pay for the ride…it got pretty intense!

After an extremely tiring 8 hour bus ride, we finally make it to Kigali! Kigali is an absolutely amazing city! The infrastructure was so modern, the streets were extremely clean, the roads were maintained, the bodaboda drivers wore helmets, and the people are very friendly! If I didn’t know I was in Rwanda, I might have mistaken if for a city in North America!

We spent the night at a very nice guesthouse. First thing the next morning we went to the National Genocide Memorial Museum. This was the most emotional museum tour I have every done in my life. I cried harder than I have in very long time and felt feelings that I have never felt before. I left the museum feeling very depressed, but I am glad we did that first, because the rest of the trip was extremely inspiring because I knew the details of the horror that had happened in the country just 17 years before.

That afternoon we walked around the city to see the sights. We were both very excited when we found North American food! After pigging out on pizza and pastries, we went to a market to do some souvenir shopping.

The next day we went to go meet a woman from Vancouver, Cathy, that Tess had been connected with. Cathy works street children and runs a nursery school in Northern Rwanda. She is a very inspiring woman and has done some amazing things!

Unfortunately that was the end of our trip. The next day we bused back to Uganda. Rwanda was a very emotional and inspiring trip. I know that I will go back there, hopefully for much longer than 4 days! Everyone can learn so much from Rwanda and their history.

Final Goodbyes

As the end of our trip neared, we had to start saying goodbye to everyone. We had dinner with Victor and the rest of the board from Ankole Secondary one night, and we had dinner with Laboire from Kimunyu as well. Victor and Christine also invited us over for lunch with their families on the weekend.

We went to Ankole Secondary one last time to say goodbye to the students. We showed some movies on the laptops and took lots of pictures. The students at Kimunyu did a little show for us to say goodbye the next day. All the classes sang songs and danced. It was very nice, but sad. I do admit that I cried when I was saying goodbye to the students.

Jinja!

After we left Ibanda, we did an “End of Trip Adventure” to Jinja in Eastern Uganda. In Jinja we did white water rafting on the Nile!!! And we did a horseback-riding trip along the Nile as well!! It was absolutely amazing!!

The flight home

The 2 months past so quickly! On June 28^th we had the long trip back home. Unfortunately we didn’t have much time in London like we did on the trip to Uganda, but that was probably a good thing.

Back to Reality

Being back in Vancouver was kind of weird at first. It kind of felt like Uganda was all just a dream. I started appreciating the things that I missed while I was in Uganda, for example; fast internet, a large variety of flavourful food, and reliable electricity! While I was glad to see my family again, I really didn’t want to be back. Being back meant having to be back in the reality of school, work, and money…Eventually I started to accept the fact that I was not going back to Uganda, at least not for a couple of years, and that I had to get back to my life here in Vancouver.