oh, virunga...

To catch you up...

Sunday, we went to church with the primary students at Sonrise. It was very sweet and fun. The kids there are full of energy and loved to sing and danced to pretty much every song. The von Trapp siblings sang too, and we even got to hear them sing the yodeling song from The Sound of Music. It has been stuck in my head for about 2 days now. The service started at 7:30 and lasted 2 hours, but it was great. We were introduced to all the kids, and the pastor prayed for us before we left. We ate lunch at a hotel, Las Palmas, and played a lot of cards that afternoon. It was a relaxing day, we were all pretty exhausted. We waited until about 10 that night and walked down to the hotel to call our dads to wish them a happy father's day. It was good to hear a familiar voice!

Yesterday, we went to Sonrise to work on profiles for students who need sponsors to help pay their fees to be able to go to school. We have about 175 to do...which means taking pictures and a 1 minute interview for each. Most speak English but a few only speak French. We got about half way through, and we are going back today to hopefully finish. It was great to be able to talk to them and hear things they loved about Sonrise and what they wanted to be when they finished school. We also asked how they wanted to help Rwanda and become a leader for their country, and all of them are eager to create better living conditions and help the less fortunate. Honestly, I can't imagine many 7-9th graders at home being so eager to help and work hard to make their home and country a much better place. 

After we finished, we took a 30 minute taxi up a mountain to the village Virunga. We decided to have dinner at a lodge there, but first, we hiked about 20-30 minutes to a small village. When we were almost there, we heard a little voice yell "Muzungu!" (white person) and then we saw about 30 kids running to us. They walked with us through the village and were eager to know everything about us. They asked our names, where we were from, our favorite country in Africa (Rwanda, of course!), our jobs, and even our email addresses...how they were going to email, I'm not sure but they gave us theirs. They LOVED having their picture taken and would practically knock us down trying to get in the picture with us. We saw mothers with their babies, and we even got to hold a couple of them, although I think they were a little afraid of muzungus! Mandy and I wanted to take a couple of the babies home with us, but surprisingly, they wouldn't let us! They followed us throughout the village and almost all they way back to the lodge. They were the sweetest kids, and it was hard to say goodbye to them. I wish you could see pictures of these kids...words don't do them justice. We walked back to the lodge and had a really great goodbye dinner for Mandy and Kell. When we got back to the house, we didn't have electricity so we just laid around and talked. It was a great day.

This morning, our friends Mandy and Kelly left. I was sad to see them go, we had become good friends and it was nice to have them around. Blayne and I are getting ready to go back to Sonrise to work on the profiles some more. The house is feeling a little more empty everyday...people keep leaving us! We are working hard and having a lot of fun! Love you and miss you all!

More to come soon...

jess