We got to relax for the morning until lunch which was at 1pm. It was soup today so I opted for two rolls with Nutella (must say this was much needed).
We then travelled to our second set of genocide memorials of this trip.
We met our guide and went into a massive room filled with the skills and clothes of the Tutsis that were killed during the genocide. It showed some of their belongings. They believed they could hid there for a while and wait for it to pass as they wouldn’t be killed in a religious place. They were wrong. 5,000 people died in this place, the holes from hand grenades were all still there. We then went in to a building showing all of the old school books, and then we went in to the kitchen where many people died this was then preserved so visitors could see where everything occurred.
We then travelled to Nyamata. Firstly we entered a church. This was once again filled with many clothes, in this case many were babies or toddlers clothes, we say some belongings, such as watches and the identification cards. We went down to a room showing a closed coffin and skulls with some bones. You could make out the way they died from many of these. From the outside you could see all of the bullet holes in the roof and the places that the hand-grenades were thrown. Outside were many graves you could go down some stairs however I decided not to as my leg is still partly sore.
Overall I did not find that I was emotional at these memorials as much as I was at the very first one. I believe it is because in the first one there was the names, faces, favourite food etc. So this made you realise that it was a person. It can relate to you as it could feel like your cousin sibling auntie uncle. However in the two today it could be anyone which in one was it harder but you can’t feel a personal connection, as the clothes tell a story that something happened to the place. The faces tell a story of what happened to an actual person, that still had a whole life to live.
It’s a difficult thing weighing up the highlights of this trip so far. We have had everything from the highs of working with the babies and children of Comfort International’s babies project to the ridiculousness of watching Dr Murray scrambling in the back of the bus to save escapee potatoes that we were bringing to one of the communities at Nduba.
In February 2018 I had planned to go visit the MindLeaps project in Kigali on my last day here before flying back to the UK. However, the African Union cycle race effectively cut Kigali in half meaning I could not make it to the project. It seems to have worked out for the best though as yesterday we took the team there and it was an absolute privilege to take them.
My former RME teacher, Jim Bell, was a major funder of the project in Kigali and after his passing in 2017, the MindLeaps centre in Kigali was renamed The Jim Bell Centre. Pulling up to the centre yesterday was emotional for me and I managed to pull myself together once we were in. After my Dad, Jim is the next most influential man in my life. Without him I would not have pursued teaching. Without him I would never have ended up on that trip to Rwanda in 2008; which was the first Rwanda trip for both of us.
If that wasn’t emotional enough, one of our pupils Kieron decided to suggest he would do a zumba class demonstration in the centre. To see one of our KHS pupils taking such a class in the centre named after Jim is a feeling I can’t quite describe. Proud doesn’t cut it. Saying their are no words to describe how proud I am of Kieron for this is probably better. What he doesn’t realise that I know for a fact that some of Jim’s family will read this and that will move them to tears. Lynsey, your boy did good!
Yesterday morning was definitely the highlight of all 6 trips I have travelled to Rwanda for and I could not be happier that KHS were there alongside me.
During our journey, I made sure that I brushed up on my Kinyarwanda with our bus driver, Mathaais, before we arrived at the MindLeaps studio where we were going to learn more about their project and participate in some of the dancing. MindLeaps is a not-for-profit organisation which is dedicated to bringing more children into education and creating positive livelihoods through dance. We had a very warm welcome once we arrived and some of the dancers gave us a performance which was beautiful to watch. We then participated in the dancing with Kieron leading an excellent Zumba class with the children. I loved participating with all the children bringing good vibes into the dance room as Kieron taught. 
We were shown around the studio which taught me more about how exactly MindLeaps function. They have an excellent procedure and one thing that really stood out for me was how great they were with engaging with each specific child and tailoring their action plan for each child. When we taught the children Ceilidh dancing which was great fun as the children learn very quickly and showed us the dances themselves before we left. They truly were very quick learners.
When we arrived at the Nybasindu Street Kids Rescue project, we again received a very warm welcome. Warm welcomes and friendliness are both things which I have noticed consistently during my time in Kigali, the people are so great and the culture is soo welcoming. We sat with the young children as we were told more about the project. They are all children who had been saved from disgusting conditions and helped to restart their lives in conditions which were easier than before, they have been reintroduced into the education system. We decided to walk down with the children to the fields to play some games. We began by playing Agati which is a team, racing game – everyone got involved for this. Then the whole 
group, including the children, split into two with one playing football and the other playing some more musically influenced games. I decided to join the musically influenced games as there was less of our group apart of this. Hannah led the ukulele session and played some excellent songs for the children – they loved this, which was obvious through the big grins on their faces. We played various other games with the children. I helped Dr Murray, Ben and Mrs Cunningham teach the children ‘head, shoulders, knees and toes’. 
Ben and I then distributed strawberry lollipops to the children, they loved this, the rest of the group then got in the bus while the both of us walked them back up to the project site. It was really hard saying bye to the children as we probably would not see them again for the rest of the trip.
So our KHS team of 9 students and 3 staff have been in Rwanda for over week now and with 3 nights left I feel it’s time for me to add my voice to all the already existing and beautifully written blog posts to date. The posts so far have been so heartfelt and from such an honest place that I feel like I have my work cut out for me with this one!
An experience such as this changes you. I’m certainly not the same person before I started my visits in 2008. I can already start to see this in multiple ways. I have the least ‘huggy’ member of staff with me who gave me a spontaneous hug the other day and another member of staff who is also pushing himself out of his comfort zone with team sports and the common Rwandan culture of breaking out into dance at any possible point! They’re already talking passionately about wanting to do it again so, who know, you’ll have to watch this space but I do hope that this happens.
Ben is our comedian of the group. He knew this before he went and he has not disappointed. He’s funny and his smile infects all the projects we visit. I know his family well and know that his wonderful mother would have been in tears if she had seen his interaction at the Comfort Babies project. I first had to convince him he wouldn’t break a baby by picking him up and once he got over that he had kids climbing all over him. Check out his post to read about how he felt about having to give ‘his wee boy’ back to his Mum!
Dominika has risen to all the challenges this trip has thrown at her so far. She was particularly taken with the Comfort Babies project…when I say that I mean there was a child glued to her and I began to worry how we would separate them! Dominika has been a massive strength to the team, mucking into everything needed! Plus she’s been a musical support to Hannah which has been amazing to see.
Esha appears to have surpassed our Comfort International rep in the Kinyarwandan linguistics front. What a talent! Esha, your affinity with children and women has really been key this past week and you have been a strength to the team in many ways. She has a keen interest to understand how a country such as Rwandan has had to deal with the aftermath of the genocide in a judicial way as well as the personal way every Rwandan has had to. This passionate interest and genuine concern to understand means a lot t people here.
Gavin has had to deal with a slight age issue this trip. Whatever we say and whatever he says, Rwandans will not believe he is a teenager and instead age him in his 30s! But just like these trips teach you various skills…Gavin is learning to roll with these Rwandan cultural quirks. He became ‘Uncle Gavin’ to a wee one at Comfort Babies as I’m pretty sure the wee one recognised Gavin’s massive heart.
Hannah really pushed herself to the forefront of the group when we visited a Survivor’s Group at Nduba. Hannah played a song, solo I might add, on the ukulele and it was such a pure and honest performance. I’m so glad she did this as our group rendition of 500 Miles was, perhaps, a little rough around the edges! Hannah added a bit of class to our musical offerings at Nduba!
What a card shark Kieron is! He’s been keeping our team going with cards and uno on the evenings after dinner and daily discussion. This is essential for a team…you need someone to keep people going when trips are intense like this. What Kieron’s post earlier also failed to mention was he returned from playing rugby with the Batsinda kids and said he wanted to gift them with one of the rugby balls we brought over. Sure Kieron, shall I do the speech? He said he had it covered. For someone who doesn’t like public speaking I was impressed. This is what the love of Rwanda does to you!
Lauren is our highland dancer of the team and although the prospect of doing this in front of groups you don’t know, she has done this on 3 occasions in one week! She also had the Batsinda Street Kids Rescue wee ones copying her so we are passing these wonderful skills on to the wonderful Rwandans we meet. She should be super proud of herself…the rest of our Scottish dancing is a group effort but Lauren has gone solo and that takes guts!
Sophie can peel tatties! That’s what Sophie was faced with on her first day. I had at least 5 Rwandan women show me how to do this and eventually got ‘moved’ to another activity but Sophie’s were up to scratch. Sophie’s warm smiles are going down well wherever she goes and it’s an honour to see her working alongside Rwandans here.
Zaynah is honestly the only person I’ve ever taken round Gisozi Nationa Memorial taking notes! She has been so keen to soak in everything like a sponge and probably also deserves the accolade of most creative journal entries! Every project we go to Zaynah has children sitting around her, on her, playing with her hair within seconds. She exudes a warmth that is a magnet for young people and we have no doubt she’s headed into teaching in the future
In the morning we finally had a long lie that i think we all needed. Breakfast commenced at 9:30 when we are normally at the table for 8. I think we all benefited the long lie, we were all more awake and just generally better.
At one we set off to go to Bumbogo the school that KHS are in partnership with. We took the time of our visit as a way to get acquainted with the teachers and some of the senior pupils. We were asked to join the senior pupils for a brief dance. We also watched the pupils partake in a brief fashion show. We also gifted the head teacher a few Scottish related things. After we had met everyone it was unfortunately time to leave.
This morning we visited “Mindleaps”. This is a project which engages street kids and hard to reach families through dance. Suzie’s RE teacher from school, Jim Bell helped to set it up and the centre is named after him so this was quite a special day for her. The dancing was amazing and very quickly a bunch of us piled onto the floor and attempted to follow the moves – with some success. We found that we were present at the return of a former student of the school who had been studying at a dance school in Seattle. He was now back to pass on what he had learnt and I could see how excited everyone was to see him. His mum was standing next to me and was clearly very proud!
After lunch (spaghetti Bolognese), we visited one of Comfort International’s newest projects. A couple of years back, the CI staff were on a walk and found a bunch of kids on a swamp. They then founded a centre specifically for those kids and this is where we were to visit. These kids were some of the most joyous and most tactile we had met so far and within seconds we were being prodded, poked and crawled over. After introductions they had the chance to ask us questions and one gentleman (aged 14) asked me “what is a compound?”, “what is valency?” and “what is the skeleton?”. It turned out that he was a total science fiend and we made friends. He was a delightful lad and very enthusiastic about his science.
We made our way down to the pitch where we played agate and football (we discovered that I’m just as bad at football as I ever was). We also sang some songs which culminated in me leading “Singing in the Rain” and “The Music Man”.
We presented Jean with a quaich and a KHS tie which he put on with some pride. We left at about 4.15pm after some chats with our new friends. I look forward very much to seeing them on Monday. They are the best kind of people and a huge amount of fun.
We travelled for about 2 1/2 – 3 hours to get to Akagera National Safari Park. When we eventually arrived we got an amazing guide named Justus.
Finally, our last sighting was the best of all many would say. We had spotted an elephant in the distance. We went as close as we could and we all got some amazing photos.
At the gate we met our guide, Justice who was absolutely charming. He talked us through the map of the park and explained that it has a natural border of a river in the East and a solar powers electric fence in the West. There are guard houses along the fence with 4 guards in each one. Every so often 2 guards swap with another two and inspect the fence for holes due to animals getting out of humans (poachers) trying to get in. Gavin bought a hat made of banana leaves in the gift shop and spent the rest of the trip looking very stylish.
We set off through the park in the bus and very quickly spotted warthogs. The cry of “Pumba” went through the bus and I considered as to whether these ones were as flatulent as their fictional compadre. Some beautiful giraffes followed – nibbling away at the tops of the trees that their long necks allow them to reach. The zebras looked like they were from Mars and we learnt that each has a unique set of stripes – a “fingerprint” if you will.
We had lunch next to some hippos who were sunbathing by a lake. Apparently they have quite sensitive skin and can sunburn easily so we offered up some Factor 50. Needless to say, Justus declined the offer on the hippo’s behalf. At one point a hippo started to come towards us so a concerned looking Justus instructed us to move. When a park ranger tells you to do something you’d be extremely foolish to do otherwise.
Justus was the world expert at spotting creatures in bushes and that was epitomised when he spotted….an elephant! It was quite far away and quite hidden but a side track took us to where it was. We spent a long time looking at it through the bushes before it took the decision to come right towards us. Folk on the bus were swearing blind that it was posing for us as we had such an incredible view. I did detect it had a cheeky smile so perhaps they were right. It was so beautiful and so graceful and quite the contrast to my previous elephant experience in Thailand where they were captive. Not one I would ever repeat – these animals deserve to be wild and should be left to be so.
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