The last few days have been very busy, traveling around, meeting more of our group members and now getting settled into Kibungo. There's one good computer at the internet cafe, so the eight of us have to take turns.
Denise and I went to Ruhengeri on Tuesday and hiked to see the gorillas on Wednesday. We started early in the morning, first starting out with a briefing from our guide Patience. We then hiked for two hours through some pretty thick forest and up the mountain. Patience told us to put down our bags and get our cameras out, we walked through a clearing and there were the gorillas! The silverback was gigantic sitting upright in the middle of the group. The others were spread out some with two little ones fairly close to us. Patience talked to the silverback, which sounded like grunting and the silverback grunted back. He told us that he has to ask the silverback if it's okay to bring the visitors. It was absolutely amazing! We got to stay an hour with them and watch them. If they came close to us, we were to step backwards. The little ones were really cute, sometimes pounding on their chests, clapping, or rolling around in the grass. Their eyes were very intense and they would look right at you. It was such an amazing experience. I've never experienced anything like it. The people in our group were neat too. We had a couple from Germany who are now working for a nonprofit in the Congo, a restaurant owner from NYC, and a student from England.
We headed back to Kigali where we met Brad who had just gotten in that afternoon. The next morning, we had a meeting with the US Ambassador. We met the rest of our group, Bob, Nancy, and the students from Westminster, at the meeting with the ambassador. The meeting went well and was very informative.
That afternoon, we headed to Rwamagana, where the Center for Champions is located. It is a home for street children which is officially opening this coming Tuesday. We got a ride to Rwamagana with Antoine from AEE where we were staying in Kigali; but from there to Kibungo, we had to take a mini-bus taxi (motatu). We paid for two seats for our bags and Denise and I were crammed in the back row. The buses are used mainly by locals, so they were always surprised to see mzungos (white people) on the bus. At one point, we had 18 people on the bus. It was fun to see their faces and to greet them as they got on or off the bus. Many people like to practice their english and we were trying to learn their local language basics like hello and thank you.
Today we visited an orphanage run by the Catholic Church Sister's of Charity. We were not allowed to take our cameras into the facility. The first room we entered was the baby room. There were about 40 babies, all under 1 year old, in a room. All the cribs had at least one baby, some two in them. They have been orphaned by mothers with HIV/Aids, mothers who didn't make it through childbirth, etc. There was a row of little babies, under 5 months or so. The next room housed children up to 2 years. We played with the group of 3-5 year olds. When I entered the room and they were playing with our group, there was not a sound. None of the children made any noise. There was one girl who wasn't playing with anyone, so I tried to play with her. Finally, she slowly reached out her hands to mine and we began playing.... which consisted of clapping our hands together. Later, they began quietly talking and making noise. We moved outside and played, which was fun. The girl I was playing with didn't want any other children to play with me. She got pretty attached, so it was hard to say goodbye. At the end of our visit, we went into a classroom with 5-6 year olds. They sang us a song and then came outside and did a dance for us while their teacher beat the drum. It was amazing and so precious. They were all very happy and some of them had some pretty good moves too! It was fun, yet at the same time, very sad. I hope to go there again before we leave. The sister said we could come back and teach something to them. I think that will be fun!
Things are going well with the planning for the women's and children's clinic. We visited the plot of land today and I took tons of pictures, like Brian asked me to do.... he will be doing the design. Everything's going well and we're having an awesome time! The people here are so kind, generous, and beautiful. It's also one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. Love to all!
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