My Trip to Rwanda!: Day 1 Success!!!

Our plane---it's huge!

After a very long day of travel we are finally here in Kigali, Africa! We were traveling from January 4th at 4am to the 5th at 7am our time. It's 6 hours ahead over here so we have some adjusting to do.
I still can't believe I'm actually here. When we got off our last flight it was hard to swallow that I was half way across the world. The airport is definitely not as big as ones back home but still very nice inside. We thankfully got all our luggage and headed to meet the our driver, Stephen. He held up a sign saying "Anne Frank Project, Buffalo State College" which made me feel so special and welcomed. Also meeting us before we got in the van to head to the guest house, Carl's very close friend, Pastor Seraya greeted us at the airport. It's so cool to actually meet him because in the play back at the Buff, "I'm Not Leaving" some of us played him. He has a great story.

Then we had some Rwandan helpers pack our luggage in a truck and the 11 of us piled into the van. It was pretty warm out at this point. It was 2pm--ish when we were driving through the beautiful city of Kigali. I can't believe how pretty it is! The city is different here in that there isn't the feeling of rush like there is in most places in the U.S. We passed so many people, markets, little shops, dirt roads, cute homes, and LOTS of people on motorcycles--Motor taxis actually. I'm told they are pretty cheap. People walking everywhere, women carry things on top of their head. So many people looked into the van and were so surprised to see a bunch of white people staring back at them. We passed a lot of kids who waved with warm smiles and kids playing soccer in a yard. The city of Kigali is really big and so different. I just love it. I've never been anywhere that's this different.

We then arrived at the guest house where we met the head of the house, Judith. She is a beautiful woman. The guest house is so nice! When you walk in there's a big meeting room with pretty couches and a TV--which we won't be using :)... The dining room is behind that. Then to the left and right of the first room we entered there are hallways leading to the guest bedrooms and bathrooms. The girls are using 3 out of the 4 rooms on the one side and the boys occupy the other side. Some rooms have bunk beds some big single beds. Very comfortable and clean. The fans cool the room down nicely. I'm sharing my room with Eve and Kara--love them. Ti and Britt are in one and Stacey and Paige in the 3rd room. We unpacked our things and we had about 2 hours until we were gonna be heading to the ISHYO Performing Arts Center to meet and share with the Rwandans also studying theater. Took me about 2 seconds to fall asleep right up until we had to be out the door. The girls actually tried waking me a whole bunch and I didn't move---can you say jet lag?

Again, the visuals that we see from just driving are amazing. That's when you really get to see the country. Passing so many people and a different way of life. We turned onto the dirt road that led to ISHYO and to be honest it is in desperate need of some care. If you think speed bumps are bad......I actually don't mind it because it's part of the adventure but man was it bumpy. We got out of the van and immediately met some children that followed the van and the theater students themselves. We didn't hesitate to start taking pictures of the kids. You can't resist. They love getting their pictures taken and then to look at the image after...Oh! It's exciting! At first, we (Americans and Rwandans) were shy about talking and it wasn't until we went inside the theater to warm up did we start to become a group to start doing what we came here to do. The two groups were warming up separately and we were all doing our own thing until we started a group warm up which was accompanied by some music. One of the Rwandans, Simon, led it. We started just moving our shoulders, than our arms, and walking in place, then began started making simple movements to warm our entire bodies up. We each took a turn in the middle of the circle, performing a movement that was mirrored by everyone else. I LOVE how they warm up. Rwandans are so physical and in tune with their bodies. Quite fascinating to watch them. Then Drew announced that we would show our piece to them and then they could show us theirs. Eve introduced our piece and we were on our way. I think I could speak for everyone in our group that we were pretty nervous to be performing it for them after such a long journey. We were all dead. But the warm up was all we needed because it was the best we've done it! We were all living and loving in the moment the entire piece. I felt the most involved this time around and I think it was because I knew that I had Rwandans watching this! We had so much fun performing with them. We laughed tons at each other throughout the piece and by the time we were finishing "Seasons of Love" the Rwandans were sharing their appreciation. We ended and they clapped and cheered so lovingly. They were yelling like a yoddle sound but more African if you can kind of imagine that. I felt so blessed more than ever at that moment to be in Rwanda performing for them. After ours, Hope Izeda, who is the artistic director there introduced their piece and the show started. It was about "tomorrow" and what that means to a child. It was a story of struggles and hardships and how society reacts to it. Specifically, about child abuse and molestation. There was singing dancing and acting that all were interpretations of emotions, feelings, struggles, sounds...etc---Kind of sounds like Theater :) Just like the end of our piece, when there's was coming to an end we were cheering and yelling for them. I loved what I saw. What's so great about these guys and girls is that they were telling this story together with a shared purpose. There really is a powerful sense of community among them. Every single second they were on stage they were putting their whole minds, hearts, and souls, into their piece. I had so much fun watching them. Afterwards we all hugged and thanked each other for the work we all saw. After this we all felt we had been here for weeks and we knew these people so well.
Tomorrow we're rehearsing with them for a few hours and we're all stoked!
We came back to the guest house where we had a fabulous dinner. Chicken, rice, fresh pineapple, lots of cooked veggies. Yum Yum!
It's only Day 1 and I've been impacted so much. Thank you God!!!!!