Rwanda Updates

We're back in the homeland.

Our Girimpuhwe Conversational English Class ended at the end of March, fulfulling its 10 week course. This Saturday we are having a celebration with all of the students to have one last hurrah and give them little certificates for participating.

Kabuga High School doens't resume until next Monday, April 21, so we do not have class until then, but are planning lessons for our last few weeks with them. It's hard to believe we have just over a month left!

We arrived home from Zanzibar on Sunday morning to a flurry of action. The new guest house at the compound has been finished and we were expected to move in that day. The only furniture currently is a bed, so we have our clothes laid out on the floor on towels. We are happy to be in our new room - it is bigger, as is the bed, but we do miss our comfortable little room down by the kitchen that we had made our own. Nachi Baso (no problem).
(Vanessa learning to jumprope with her first missing tooth!)

A friend of both Glenn and Erika's, Paij Wadley-Bailey who is working for Women's International Peace and Freedom is staying in the new house for a few days also. She seems to be a wonderful woman. She has visited Rwanda before and works with woman from all over the country. This trip she has a 14 year old companion, Aaron who is from Vermont as well and is learning to love Rwanda as well.

Troy Sooter and his/our good friend Roshimya Robert came by to visit for awhile. Troy is leaving on Sunday to go back to USA, but is hoping to come back in Rwanda on a one way ticket.

Tomorrow (Wedn.) the Harwood Union H.S. Group is arriving for their annual trip. This year there are 10 students coming, (wo returnees), and 3 teachers. They will be here until May 1, traveling around, meeting the people, visiting KHS and falling in love with the country as we did last February. Hopefully a few of the students will be as inspired as we were and follow in our footsteps and continue to develop this idea that we have started.
(Godance and Dinah in front of the new guest house).
Not only KHS, but all schools are still on holiday, so some of Erika's siblings have come to stay the compound and spend some time there. Her sister, Linda always lives with us, but Godance who is 20 years old and in Senior 4 is with us, as well as Evode who is 18 and in Senior 3. We have become friends with them both and with so many people around these days its like one big family, including the rooster who makes more noise than anyone.

So our stream of visitors continue as we head into our last 30 days but we couldn't be more excited and are starting to plan a celebration in Waterbury/Mad River Valley when we return, so those interested, keep it in mind and we'll post details when we know.
Thanks to everyone for been reading, our apologies about the long stretch of nothing. We appreciate everyones continuing support.

Zanzibar

We're still alive!
We've just been on holiday and unable to update the blog. The past two weeks we have been in Zanzibar, an island off the coast of Tanzania. It was a wonderful holiday for the both of us, as well as Bert Senning who got to spend the second half of his trip there with us. We spent our first week in a guest house outside of the island's famous, Stone Town. During this first week went on the island Spice Tour which took us through the farmlands learning, smelling, and tasting the different fruits and spices that Zanzibar grows and trades. The food in Zanzibar is amazing - perfectly seasoned with tons of flavor and variety, a nice change from Rwanda. We also rented a boat for the day and went snorkeling on a reef out by islands off of Zanzibar and got to visit the giant tortoises that inhabit one of the islands. We saw the oldest tortoise who is 175 years old, but can live to be 300 years old! We also spent some time wandering through the narrow windy streets of historic Stone Town shopping, eating and relaxing. After Bert Senning left, we headed to the northern part of the island, Nyungwi, where the really beautiful white beaches are. We stayed at this great little place and spent our nights in a Banda - a very small room made of bark and rugs with a thatched roof. The bandas are perfect for the Zanzibar weather, hot and humid. We spent most of our time lounging on the beach reading, swimming and chatting with the locals and other guests - we met a lot of interesting people from all over the world. Anna ended up getting sick for a few days, we aren't sure of what or why and we also encountered some rain, but overall it was such a relaxing and beautiful place. Although Zanzibar is a mainly muslim island, the beaches are okay places to be in a bathing suit and show your skin. However, when going into Stone Town for example, it is expected that one be respectful and cover their shoulders and wear long shorts or skirts. We had no problem with this and were fascinated with the new culture. We both found the woman and their head dresses and burkas to be stunning as well as very colorful and fun. They were all very kind and friendly as well.
Overall we had an extremely relaxing holiday and Zanzibar and both hope to go back someday to vacation - its like the caribbean with culture and much cheaper accommodations. We are glad to be back in Rwanda, but are still grudgingly adjusting to the colder climate.

Below you will see some scattered photos of Zanzibar and Stone Town. Enjoy.


Kendwa Rocks - our hotel in Nyungwi

The sailboats in Zanzibar are called "dows". Very elegant.



Sophia on the porch of our banda (top floor).

Where there's fish, there's cats. Stone Town especially was full of cats. Cats in Rwanda are used to abuse and afraid of humans, it was nice to be able to play and pet the cats in Zanzibar. :)




The harbor in Stone Town


The streets and sights of whitewashed Stone Town.


On the flight home, we flew right by Mt. Kilimanjaro! What a beautiful mountain. But that's the next trip....