Finally - My Rwanda Trip - Part I

So, I have been putting this off because I don't really know where to start. Now I have been home for two weeks and it is silly that I haven't posted this yet. So here it goes.

My adventures started with an impossibly long trip - three planes and two days. We managed to have fun on this trip despite the lack of sleep, the rude awakenings at 1am for "supper", and spending several hours sleeping on the floor at the Frankfurt international airport. So after all this, we arrived in Rwanda.
I have never seen anything as beautiful as this country. South Africa is a stunning place and Canada is full of beautiful places but there is something about Rwanda that just made me fall in love. Kigali, the capital, is a crazy bustling city. So many people everywhere, and you can't dive straight. You are either going up or down at all times.



A view of Kigali from our guest house

The moon rising over Kigali


The church where we spent most of our time when we were in the city.




After a couple days of getting settled and planning we took off for Kibuye, which is a small city on the shores of Lake Kivu. Again, this place is the most beautiful place ever. We spent three days working in a refugee camp outside of the city, on the top of a mountain. While we were there we did leadership training with the Youth Workers in the camp.
Youth Ministry is a pretty new thing there so we talked alot about our experiences in Youth Ministry, what works, what doesn't, and the importance of having relationships with the youthe you work with. It was a really challenging but rewarding time. Three days was not long enough!

Somewhere around 18 000 people live in the camp. They are Congolese-Rwandan refugees who found themselves in the Congo when the Belgians drew the borders. Now they can see their home on a clear day, but they can't go there.

Lake Kivu is a volcanic lake so there are tons of inlets and islands making it great for scenic photos, but also for fish! We ate lots of fish and except for the times when the head was still attached, it was very yummy:)

Rwanda is known as the land of 1000 hills and it is not hard to guess why. Green lush mountains as far as the eye can see. We drove half an hour through the mountains everyday to get to the camp and

were treated to this magnificent scenary on the way.

I have to stop here for now, but the rest will follow soon.