So since its Sunday we got to attend a church service here in Kigali. It was such a great experience! I will apologize ahead of time because it is about to get religious for a moment. The service was at the New Life Bible Church where the missionaries home where were staying belong to. It was a little different than what I’m used to as far as church goes but hey I was still worshiping the Lord! There was already singing going on when we entered the church. It’s a huge building with tons of places to sit. The music was my favorite part and their sound system was fabulous. The guitar player, the ladies singing harmony, and an entire church singing made me so happy. I got super excited when I knew two of the songs they sang. One being “Our God” which I know because of Life Teen Camp and “How Great is Our God” also because of Life Teen. I was so excited that these songs were all the way in Africa. I sang loud and proud :). The church had the visitors all stand and we were hugged and welcomed by people. The rest of the service was the pastor preaching about the bible and what we, “followers of Christ” are called to do.
Got back, had lunch and got ready to go to Gisimba Orphanage. This is where Carl spent most of his time during the genocide supplying kids and adults with food and water. He is a hero there. I met other people that I had heard about from reading Carl’s book and what a feeling it is to actually meet them! The head of the Orphanage, Damas and his brother Jean Francis saved many during the genocide and know Carl very well. I spoke to Jean Francis about how Carl doesn’t even know how much he is a hero to them. I loved it because it’s so true. When we drive through Kigali and Carl talks about how he managed to get food and water for people it amazes me because he’ll point over there and say “see that was the road we took to get to the water because there was too much shooting going on here…” I can’t imagine being here for that. Carl is amazing and so humble. So when we got out of the car (and we were warned about this) we were surrounded by kids. They immediately grabbed our hands as if we had always known each other. As soon as we took the cameras out….GAME OVER! Kids would literally just take the camera out of your hand and start trying to take pictures. You had to be a bit pushy with them if you ever wanted that camera back. They did that the entire time we were there. Anyway, we started hugging the kids, asking their names, things like that and it was so exhilarating. They are all so cute!!!! These kids have no family, barely an education, and really know nothing other than this place they live and yet they have so much life inside them. As soon as you wave to them, they are all over you. This one little girl, whose name has sadly left me, kept trying to steal my bracelets. She was adorable though because as we walked through the orphanage she held on to my arm so tight. After we visited a bit we then proceeded to head into their little school room I guess you could call it. All the benches were filled with people of every age from the Orphanage to watch our Theater piece. We were so nervous to perform for them and the songs we were singing and the acting going on just impacts us so much more after everything we’ve experienced so far. And now to be in front of these beautiful people in Africa, performing for them was nerve-racking. They responded to our performance 100 times what I expected. The first song “Will I” from Rent really got their attention. One the first half of the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet done by Kara and Lewis they were hooked. Whoever tells you Shakespeare is not universal they are lying. Even the kids understood what was going on. They were responding out loud with ooo’s and ahh’s and laughing the whole time. During “Take Me or Leave Me” from Rent, sang by Tiesha and I, their reactions were cheering and clapping a lot because they actually recognized what we were singing about. Extra cheering went on when Ti or myself acted a little flirtatious or belted a bit. The second half of the Romeo and Juliet balcony scene done by Shabar and Brittany were also carried by heavy laughter and oral understanding by everyone. I was jumping for joy the entire time we were in front of them. We ended with “Seasons of Love” also from Rent and by the end of it had everyone stand up, clap and sing with us. We went around to the kids and guys in the back and interacted with them. I had quite the adrenaline rush all throughout that! Afterwards the kids stuck to us like glue even more. Everyone really seemed to like the performance. Right after we finished Eve and I were sitting with a couple of young girls and we asked if they sang. One, very quietly started to sing and the others joined in. It just so happened that Eve and I knew the song too. They sang “Our God is an Awesome God” and “Come, Now is the Time to Worship.” That was just so remarkable to be singing with these girls.
Following that, that’s when the soccer game, basketball lessons from Drew, and hair styling started. Lewis, Paige, Eve, and myself got onto the dusty dirt they call their field and started sweating in the sun. I had so much fun playing with these kids. We didn’t even make teams…More so we didn’t even speak the same language and it was just a huge bundle of joy and competitiveness. Once it got more competitive Lewis was happy to sit down. Eve went off to the side where she proceeded to have her hair put in beautiful braids ;). Paige and I kept playing and then before I knew it, I was alone ha-ha. Stacey and Shabar were in the hair salon getting braids put in by the girls. Drew was passing and dribbling with some of the kids. They are great soccer players and they are just like all kids…they just want to run around and have fun. By the time I stopped playing my jeans were stuck to my legs from sweating so much and I had an awesome dirt line under my socks. I then went and visited more with the people in the orphanage. I talked to one guy who seemed to be about my age and we talked about music, dance, school, teaching people how to douggie ;), and sports. I filmed two boys singing Bruno Mars’ “Lazy Song”, it was so cute.
The time at the orphanage was a plethora of things. I had never been to one before so that in itself was new for me. I saw life in people that when I think about their lives it makes me thankful for what I have. I loved every second of being at that orphanage.
For dinner, Pastor Seraya and his wife had invited us to their place. From what Carl and Drew have shared these two people really have incredible stories. They were both here during the genocide and have saved many alongside Carl. My goodness, they cooked for 400 people! Once again, the food here never fails to satisfy. We ate until we couldn’t anymore and then just hung out with each other. These two little Rwandans that are Pastor Seraya’s neighbors came over and we hung out with them. They spoke no English so sitting there trying to communicate was a challenging but fun time. The one boy taught us a fun little game and just made funny noises and laughed a lot…….Rwanda is full of surprises!
Tomorrow I’m so pumped because we go to Akagera to see some animals!!
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