When Dr. Murray (Uncle Paul) is on away from home, he writes letters to his nieces Heidi (6) and Morag (2).  A letter from Rwanda is unlikely to get home so he is posting them here instead so the girls will get them and others might enjoy them.

29/9/2019, 10.22pm CAT.  Good News Guest House, Gikondo district, Kigali, Rwanda

My very dear friends Heidi and Morag.

Dinner on Saturday was spaghetti bolognaise which was very much enjoyed by all. Straight after that it was bedtime to sleep off a long previous day and an early start.

We all awoke a lot more bright and cheerful and well-dressed ready to go to church. Breakfast was French toast (Or “eggy bread” as we’d have it in Scotland) with some fruit and maple syrup (heated up -oddly enough). I also got the chance to try some African tea – a very milky concoction of black tea and ginger. I enjoyed it to such an extent that I’m having some while writing to you now.

The charity we are working with here is “Comfort Rwanda” and is a Christian charity. That being the case, a visit to church would seem appropriate so we headed to the “Living Church” – a place used to receiving visitors such as ourselves. Now, you probably know that I don’t tend to attend church much these days and that my relationship with more “Pentecostal” style workshop has been iffy over the years for various reasons. However, I realised very quickly that I needed to put that prejudice to one side and go with the experience. We were welcomed very warmly by Pastor Paul and the fact that I’d turned up in my kilt attracted some amusement. We all introduced ourselves and the worship continued with sermons, readings, and testimonies. It was pretty tricky to understand what was going on, but it was lovely to see how into it and how enthusiastic all the locals were. They very kindly provided us with translators, so we had some insight into the messages being shared. It was mainly about finding and answering your calling, restoration to happiness and not being scared of the attacks others put your way. Whatever you believe, these seem to me as messages we can all get behind. There was a huge band of singers who were absolutely wonderful. It brought to mind some of the funk, soul and disco music that I love so much and that the roots of that music really do lie in this part of the world. The dancing was fantastic, and the passion being put in was incredible. I could have listened to them for much longer.

After a soup and sandwich lunch back at the digs we headed to the Gasanze Street kids project in another part of Kigali, not far from where we were yesterday. As before we arrived in celebrity style with lots of hugs, handshakes and held hands to accompany us to the building. We all introduced ourselves and this time many questions were asked.

The kids seemed particularly surprised that the KHS pupils were in 5th and 6th year at secondary school. Here in Rwanda there’s only a select few that make it to that stage as you cannot progress to the next year without passing certain exams. David was telling us that he was over 20 when he finished primary school!

We split into two teams for the afternoon. One team ran down a mountain and through some villages to get to a rugby pitch where they played a version of rugby, “bulldogs” and a Rwandan game called “agate”. The rest of us stayed behind. Lauren taught some dancing while I played for her and the kids really picked it up well. She was utterly superb, and she was as proud of herself as we were of her. It also turned out that Hannah was also a beautiful dancer, despite never having done it before. I think she should take it up.

After the dancing we sang “The Red Yo Yo”. I don’t know to what extent they understood the song, but they seemed to enjoy it and clapped and sang enthusiastically. We then did a bit of drawing on some paper plates cut into segments. The kids were to draw their favourite things on each segment while I went around with the frog stamp I use for work at the school. That was very well received indeed.

My attempts at football caused great hilarity. I have avoided footballs for most of my life but taking my lead from the KHS kids in the “out of the comfort zone” spirit I decided to make a prat of myself as the idiot in the skirt who can’t kick a ball.  I couldn’t understand what my football pals were saying but I’m pretty confident it was along the lines of “Don’t pass to that idiot, he’s utterly hopeless”.  Much fun was had though, even by me and I did manage to get both in and out of the middle when I was the “piggy”.

We handed out biscuits, bananas and doughnuts to our new friends.  Parting from was sad – one particular gent was hanging his head after having to walk away from Ben.  He seems popular with everyone we meet as he’s so personable and such a fun lad.  All of the KHS team are amazing though and the extent to which they’re throwing themselves into all these utterly bizarre situations is making me very proud.  I’m always proud of my school and everything we do.

Dinner was beef, rice, tatties and beans and yes, I did indeed sample the beans.  Thankfully no kidney beans were in evidence or the entire batch would have had to be avoided.  Round the table we shared our thoughts on our day.  Everyone had had a wonderful and challenging time.  To my mind, that makes the trip already a huge success.

I remain as ever your very good and loving friend.

Paul ♫ xx