The Land of a Thousand Hills

Rwanda is the land of a thousand hills..

The first thing I noticed after stepping foot on African soil is all the beautiful green hills and all the clean...Not a piece of litter on the street or anywhere else for that matter!  It is a fact that the Rwandans take pride in their surroundings and are very industrious.

 This picture above was taken just outside the Kigali airport..

The very next thing I noticed is we had Paparazzi following us!

Everywhere you go in Rwanda, you can hear people shouting "Muzungu" it means white man (or woman) and it's obviously not something they see too often here hence the excitement.  

What I find hilarious is the literal meaning of this word "Muzungu" it means 

"to wander around aimlessly"  I got a good chuckle out of that, I'm sure some would be offended but not me.

There were quite a few people we encountered that had never seen a white person before in their life!  

Upon our arrival to the church there was a toddler who screamed bloody murder and cried when he saw us, he was so scared of us...it was very funny actually but we also felt sorry for the poor little guy!  

The other was a very elderly woman who summoned us to her house when she heard we were in town visiting her congregation less than 1 mile from her house...When she saw us, she cried too!  But believe it or not, these were tears of joy as she hoped to meet a white person before she died.  We were flattered and amazed at the same time.

 These happy boys are some of the daily Paparazzi we encountered outside the church.
The boy on the left followed me around and would whisper in my ear with a huge smile "GIVE ME MONEY"...I think those were the only English words he knew.
I just loved this kid!

 Just about everybody was happy to see us...I guess this is the closest any of will ever come to feeling like a movie star..

I was standing in the back of the church video taping when I got this shot.

This picture gives new meaning to the saying all eyes on me!

to be continued....

Rwanda...A life changing experience.

Have you ever had a life changing experience?

Back in 2008, I resigned from my job as a Loan Officer and went on a group mission with my church to Rwanda for 16 days.

Darn it, I have a daily journal from this trip that I wish I could find!
I am sure I have a lot more interesting tidbits to share with you other than what is off the top of my head at this moment..In the meantime I will keep hunting for it.
Unfortunately, my memory does not serve me so well these days. <sigh>

I was going through old photo's on Picassa and I was inspired to share some of the pictures and a little story to go along with them.
I am very happy I have these photo's because they will always remind me of this precious time in Rwanda.

My first impression as we stepped of the plane was....the people.
They are unimaginably happy and big toothy smiles, and the smiles are genuine unlike some of the fake smiles that you sometimes see here in the States.

Just look at this smile!

 We met this handsome young man at the open air market..he was so friendly and kind and he just wanted to talk to us because he knew we were American.  

He was quite good at flirting also, we nicknamed him "Rico Suave".

Another eye opener for me.... the children.  

I have never seen such happiness in my life and these children have NOTHING....It absolutely filled my heart to spend time with these joyous unspoiled children.

I wish I could remember her name, she was sooooo sweet!

These three little ladies were my favorites, the one holding the stuffed Mickey is "Angel"

this was the first stuffed animal she ever owned.

Can you tell this little guy was having a "accident" when I took this?

I don't think I saw a single diaper during my visit.  

Children in Rwanda are the sweetest most loving, and happy children I have ever seen, I could not stop being in awe of them.



I have to tell you, I made a big "faux pas" soon after we arrived!
I have traveled to several third world countries and even lived in one, I of all people should have known better!
We even attended classes in preparation for the Rwandan culture at the church, perhaps I was daydreaming because I missed the part where they told us to always  "Ask before taking photo's".
 After a few people gave me very serious stink eye, I asked before taking ALL pictures.


This woman was not happy with me at all can you tell?  Oops!

But these ladies were happy to oblige!

Another lesson I learned the hard way was "Throw your trash on the ground" 

Yes, you heard me correctly!  Trust me, I was a shocked as you are now..

The reason for this is it's someones "job" to pick up trash, if you don't give them something to pick up, they won't have a job.  

These people get really upset if you pick up trash!  

Amazing huh?

To be continued.....

Sandy V.