Rwanda 2017 | Day 6
Well, I didn’t succeed in my goal of recapping our complete 2017 Rwanda trip before our 2018 trip but we are back home and settling back into a hopefully calmer life for a few months. It is my absolute mission to finish the 2017 post, recap the rest of our summer activities and Baker’s 2nd birthday, and get going on our 2018 trip. We had a great trip and I can’t wait to share all about it! But for now, let’s get on to finishing our Rwanda 2017 trip.
Friday | October 20th
On day six, our last day in Nyabihu, we got up and packed our things in preparation to leave Musanze. We got an extra blessing this trip and on our final day, we were invited to the civil wedding ceremony of our friend Onesme, who was hugely instrumental in the beginning of Nyabihu Christian Academy and who has been our friend from the start. Cory was asked to be the person who signed as a witness and guarantor for him, so we all dressed up and headed out.
I had to share this picture of us all piled up in this car. When we got bumped down to one vehicle, this is how we rode.
Cory fulfilled his role and signed the papers he needed to.
The ceremony was amazing and went so well. This is only the first of two ceremonies, the second being the traditional/religious one and taking place in December. However, in the eyes of the law they are now married. After the ceremony was over, we went back to the school and got changed, ready to feed the kids lunch and deliver some more things we brought. We had gotten them notebooks the night before and each child got a toothbrush as well.
After all the supplies were handed out to the students, the porridge was ready to be dished out and served.
These ladies are volunteers at the school that help prepare and serve the porridge.
After an hour or so had passed, we were serving porridge when Onesme showed up at the school on a motorbike and told us that everyone was waiting for us at the reception! We had no idea that there was another part of the ceremony. Slightly mortified that they had been waiting on us, we all jumped in the car to head over there except Jordan and Keneth- they rode the motorbike, in the rain.
When we got to the hotel, they had brochettes, fries, and Panache to feed us. It was wonderful!
The Rwandans got us on the dance floor even though I’m pretty sure “Hero” by Enrique Iglesias was playing on repeat the whole time.
It was all fun and games until one man put a few too many hip thrust in there.
After the reception was over, we headed back to the school. We were able to give all of the older kids (who gave up their toy cars the day before) their watches and they loved them! They immediately put them on and you could see how proud they were of them.
Divine is a little girl that Cory connected with his very first year in 2013. She no longer goes to the school but we always manage to see her every year. She remembers Cory and will seek him out when she hears he is there.
Jordan and his Passion Fruit Quartet.
Our little family, complete with the first little girl to steal our hearts, Harriette.
There was one more home that Ben wanted us to visit, so Cory, Joel, Baker, and I walked down to the girls’ home. The home is in awful shape, with the back wall collapsed and holes in the roof. The lady lives there with a little fourth grade girl whom she found as a small child crying by the side of the road, both parents dead, as they fled conflicts in Congo. She adopted her and has been her caretaker ever since. This lady struggles so hard and has almost no prospects for work or food for the two of them, so Joel stepped in to become her sponsor and to provide them a new place to live.
The kids were given the rest of the day off to enjoy games and fellowship with us. Greyson and Jordan taught the kids fundamentals of basketball (which turned into a pickup game against the teachers) while Donnie and Dorian started volleyball and other games with other kids.
One of the things I was most impressed about after not coming to the school since 2015 was the playground and basketball court. I just love that the children have an area to play!
These little hands…they adored Baker!
I was making silly faces at them and they were making them back and then laughing so hard at themselves when I would show them the pictures. We may not speak the same language but you don’t have to to have fun.
It’s not always smiling faces and laughter. Sometimes, the mama comes out in us and you have to clean up skint knees and wipe tears away.
Goodness, I just love this girl and her beautiful smile.
This view will never get old!
After more fellowship with the kids and a few group pictures, it was time for the hardest of goodbyes as we left, stopped to load our stuff up from the house, and made our drive back to Kigali.
Is one decent picture too much? She literally has her fingers up her nose.
And this was the best I got…
Whatever. Hulk can be in our family photo.
Mad props to Donnie for being a Tetris master and packed the car full! Don’t worry, we had gotten the second car back by this point so we all had a place to ride back down to Kigali safely.
On our way back to Kigali, we had to stop at Nyiangarama for brochettes and potatoes. They were out of potatoes (my favorite!) but we still enjoyed the brochettes and Agyasha (a pineapple nectar)! It was around 10:00pm before we got to the house and dinner was waiting on us when we got there. We got settled in and did a quick devotion before crashing from a physically and emotionally tiring day.
Need to catch up on Rwanda 2017:
