Saturday, November 19, 2005
on my way to a new place...
On Saturday November 5th, I had an amazing opportunity to travel to a small country just south of Uganda: Rwanda!
Friday afternoon, Darla and Mark got here from Kampala. One of my roommates, Amy, had a kidney stone, so she wasn’t able to go with us – or cook dinner! So, great-in-the-kitchen-cousin-Kati (She’s great other places too, but I think she really excels in the kitchen and can make ANYTHING taste delicious!) was drafted into helping me prepare a meal for us and Mark and Darla. Of course, the power was doing a strange thing…it was out all day and supposed to stay out until 7ish at night. SO, we took all the ingredients to make chicken, mashed potatoes and zucchini to the Bakers so we could use their gas oven and stove. FINALLY, we walked over in the dark with a delicious meal, but it was much later than expected. Bedtime couldn’t come fast enough for me…although I still had to pack!
Departure for Rwanda was at 6:30 am, which sure did come early. Darla and Mark were driving in her truck with a trailer behind it and Terri, Kati and I were in Terri’s truck. It took about 3 hours to get to the border of Uganda and Rwanda, with one "potty" stop. (*It was my first time using a "cho" – a hole dug in the ground over which you squat!) The border was a little hectic and confusing. Lots of people wanted to be our "runners" to help us across or sell us Rwandan phone chips or change our money for us into Rwanda francs. They all just came up to the windows of the car in search of our "business." We had to fill out a couple of papers on each side of the border and the trucks had to be registered and insured and all sorts of other junk. I got to go with Darla to have all our passports stamped. One man tried to direct us to the front of the line, but Darla was pretty adamant that we would wait in line like everyone else, instead of receiving special treatment because of our skin color. We finally made it through the border…took about an hour. (It’s NOTHING like crossing the border from Michigan into Canada where you can just stay in your car and drive right through a window!)
The first thing I noticed in Rwanda is that they use ALL of their land, right up to the TOPS of the hills/mountains. Any farmable land is being farmed. There are tiers and tiers of crops and vegetation growing. (*The only place NOT being farmed seemed to be valleys with lots of lava rock!) IT WAS ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL!
Now, I know you want to know MORE about this trip….don’t worry! More is ON THE WAY. So check back later to hear all about meeting 93 year old Ros Carr and my experience at the Imbabazi Orphanage playing with the most beautiful children in the world!
Friday afternoon, Darla and Mark got here from Kampala. One of my roommates, Amy, had a kidney stone, so she wasn’t able to go with us – or cook dinner! So, great-in-the-kitchen-cousin-Kati (She’s great other places too, but I think she really excels in the kitchen and can make ANYTHING taste delicious!) was drafted into helping me prepare a meal for us and Mark and Darla. Of course, the power was doing a strange thing…it was out all day and supposed to stay out until 7ish at night. SO, we took all the ingredients to make chicken, mashed potatoes and zucchini to the Bakers so we could use their gas oven and stove. FINALLY, we walked over in the dark with a delicious meal, but it was much later than expected. Bedtime couldn’t come fast enough for me…although I still had to pack!
Departure for Rwanda was at 6:30 am, which sure did come early. Darla and Mark were driving in her truck with a trailer behind it and Terri, Kati and I were in Terri’s truck. It took about 3 hours to get to the border of Uganda and Rwanda, with one "potty" stop. (*It was my first time using a "cho" – a hole dug in the ground over which you squat!) The border was a little hectic and confusing. Lots of people wanted to be our "runners" to help us across or sell us Rwandan phone chips or change our money for us into Rwanda francs. They all just came up to the windows of the car in search of our "business." We had to fill out a couple of papers on each side of the border and the trucks had to be registered and insured and all sorts of other junk. I got to go with Darla to have all our passports stamped. One man tried to direct us to the front of the line, but Darla was pretty adamant that we would wait in line like everyone else, instead of receiving special treatment because of our skin color. We finally made it through the border…took about an hour. (It’s NOTHING like crossing the border from Michigan into Canada where you can just stay in your car and drive right through a window!)
The first thing I noticed in Rwanda is that they use ALL of their land, right up to the TOPS of the hills/mountains. Any farmable land is being farmed. There are tiers and tiers of crops and vegetation growing. (*The only place NOT being farmed seemed to be valleys with lots of lava rock!) IT WAS ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL!
Now, I know you want to know MORE about this trip….don’t worry! More is ON THE WAY. So check back later to hear all about meeting 93 year old Ros Carr and my experience at the Imbabazi Orphanage playing with the most beautiful children in the world!
# posted by beth @ 5:28 PM 
