THE LAND OF A THOUSAND HILLS...

Hi all,

We have been in Rwanda for 2 weeks its been amazing, great views, good people and fun times.  We first traveled to Kigali had 3 days of orientation. This included meeting our Rwandan team mates, chatting with the other teams and learning what we would be doing for 9 weeks.

On Friday 3rd of October we traveled to Huye, our home for 2 1/2 months. It's been really nice settling in and getting to know the Tearfund partner we are working with, African Evangelistic Enterprise (AEE). 

The journey to Huye (Butare on the map) took about 3 hours from the capital, Kigali,  we left at 9 am but the 3 hour journey was defiantly worth it! The views on the way were glorious and we can't wait to see more as we travel around.

We had a very long meeting on Monday last week with the partners AEE finding out what we can help them with and which programs they do.  We have had a kind of taster week this week working with different place. We worked with a street kids center which helps to teach the children skills to give them good futures. We also worked with a kindergarten that is just down the road where we taught English. We then had our first taste of the self help groups that AEE work with. We helped them plant banana trees and maize. It was hard work that we were not really used to but it felt great to work alongside a community and both groups were really encouraged by our presence; they even asked us to go back! 

On weekends (which we have off) have found a few places around Huye that are becoming our favorite places. For example, we found a ice cream parlor called INZOZI NZIZA (Sweet Dreams) that does amazing passion fruit ice creams and also the chocolate is very good.

We have been attending an Anglican church called Saint Paul's, which is a 30 minute walk away. On our first visit we had to sing a song to them which was brilliant and slightly embarrassing! But we were welcomed in warmly and happily.

We have had rain pretty much everyday since we got here which is crazy cause it's not anything like English rain! It's warm but very very hard so you wouldn't want to be caught in it for very long. Every time it rains our Rwandan team mates put on loads of layers and for us it's still hot!

We will be uploading at least once a week so if you want to follow our adventures enjoy :D

A series is starting at the end of each blog which follows my (Noah's) adventures with pineapple; trying them with different things. As we have been here for 2 weeks, here are 2 weeks worth. I have tried pea soup and pineapple which was oddly delicious but no one else agrees and I have tried meat and pineapple which was okay but not the best!

Peace, Love and Live Life,

Noah (on behalf of the team)