Home Sweet Home

Bité everyone,


I am back on Canadian soil, feels so good to be able to speak proper english and have people understand without having to speak super slow and clear and have the worse grammar ever! Thank you canadians! haha

The flight wasn`t super bad, but my day ended with a huge amount of pain due to turbulance and apparently i have the tendency to sleep on my right side, on my right shoulder, which is my bad shoulder, which was ...dumb.
But my day got that much better when my shiny blue truck pulled up and not only was my Mike inside, but there was a squirrel that almost jumped out of her skin which was a very nice welcome home.
`Now I`m relaxing and cuddling with the fam on the couch watching a movie and laughing over photos, then a SHOWER... WOOO!!!! very excited about that, and then the mumz place for dinner and prezzys. :)

Just a not. I`ll be adding photos and video collaborating with stories from while we were in Rwanda, so if you`d like to keep checking back, there will be stories posted.
Thanks so much to everyone for staying with me for my stories and my trip! Hope you enjoyed.

Just to start here are a few photos to keep you occupied.

Twimpala School. A refurbished facility in rural Ngeruka sector in Bugesera district. Playing with a few of the young kids on the RTP basketball - volleyball court.

Playing at the first school of the trip with out activity group in Kigali, Rwanda.

Tree climbing; A universal entertainment play-toy.

A little lady plays on a hanging tree branch looking out on the passers-by near home.

Sabina, a kindergardener at the Memorial Center orphanage on the outer limits of Kigali, Rwanda.

Gisimba Memorial Center & Genocide Memorial

Bité and good evening everybody.

Welcome to day 6 and our final full day on our week long trip through Rwanda, Africa.

Though we were becoming more and more sad as the morning went one since Helen had to leave at 1:05am Saturday and the other 3 of us have the whole day tomorrow to do stuff before having to be back and to the airport around 5pm.

Although the sadness was there a little our day was quickly brightened.

We knew we had one more stop off on our "Right to Play programs list", Gisimba Memorial Center which was an orphanage for children 1 yr and younger to as old as 25. Many of the children in the orphanage were victims of war, or disease. Parents bringing children to hospitals while they were sick and when the parent died the children were left helpless, street kids, older kids effected by 1994. Kids of all backgrounds, shapes and sizes were welcome at Gisimba.

we started our visit by meeting the director quickly where he explained the age groups which he then stated were in school that morning, "so we only have out kindergarden kids to play with today" we looked at eachother and replied "oh damn, only kindergarden!" like really? Whats cuter then kinder gardeners that just want to hold your hand and copy you to whole time?

The first class came out of the far building and followed a stone path perfectly down the middle of the playground, most of the kids had they're fingers to their mouths, implying they were taught not to yell out or say anything when they came out for play time.

Within 20 minutes we had 4 different classes out playing, and so we all took a group. Its amazing how interesting you are to these kids and how much they just want to be the ones that get to hold your hand and play with your watch and in my case, stick they're hands in my cargo-pant pockets.

we played a few warm up games and dances then went into a sharing game, the kids that were around me were much more interested in what I was doing then participating with the games.

At one point to get to they're level I crouched down, what I wasn't expecting was for 22 out of 30 of the kids in my group to crouch down like myself. haha.

We played with the kids for about 45-60 minutes and then they were called back to class, we went into visit with the classes after a quick photograph with the staff at the orphanage who were amazing RTP coaches and leaders. We taught a few really quick games, listened to some of they're little songs, watched the teachers/coaches play verbal games with the kids and then we had to say our final goodbye, though it was inevitable that NO ONE wanted to leave!

We gathered into the truck, trying to stay on schedule and headed off to headquarters to have a de-brief with the Kigali, Right to Play people, all were very interested in our stories and notes on the programs and the coaches and the amazing kids! We talked for a while and after a quick video clip of Helen's silver medal bobsleigh race in Vancouver and Roz's gold $10K win at the championships a few years back, to give the team at RTP Kigali a jist of what the girls do when we say "its like skatboarding on ice" or "its like race car driving down ice", those explainations never really did work out too well. We realized we were late for lunch with the Canadian ambassitor of Kigali, so we rushed off to meet him.

His name was James and he had brought his family to live in Kigali a year ago, his colleague was Willow and she had just moved to Kigali 2 weeks ago, all were very interested in our experiences and our ideas and especially hearing about the sports and how the athletes enjoyed the kids and the programs and what they're doing to be more supportive of RTP and get into the programs more.

Lunch went late, till around 2:30pm when we finalized our afternoon schedule.

20 minutes later we were walking through the entrance of the Kigali Genoride memorial museum and park.

We had started to brace ourselves once we walked through the door, the first rooms explained what it was and how it happened and why and then the aftermath. Luckily, I picked up a trait from my father, to read every little caption on every picture and every piece of information I could get into my head, so the emotional side of everything I think was muted to a sence by the information I was taking in, which was so interesting and devostating and amazingly explained all at the same time. The museum went on for just under an hour, I did skip through a few rooms, the room dedicated to children lost with they're names and photos up on the walls I didn't go through. But I did take my time to walk through the picture room where people had brought pictures of family members in and hung them up on the hooks, some with quotes underneath others with names, others with final words I guessed. Beside that there was a room of human remains they had found, glass cases of skulls, where you could see machette marks and where their skulls had been smashed in with whatever it was they got hit with. And the 3rd room was some belongings of the people they found in mass graves around Rwanda, t-shirts and kids clothes and blankets and dresses and etc.

As you walked through it explained about other "genocides" around the world including the holycaust and a few other massacres that are historical events. Each with a very detailed description and meaning behind it.

After about 30 minutes I noticed that the girls had burst ahead, walking through most of the museum without looking at much, I knew Roz and Steph especially were not handling it well it was the bones room that got them I think, it was alot to take in so I didn't blame them. As yu walked outside there were beautiful gardens and fountains all with different meanings, you followed paths until you came to a gate, when you walked through there were very large concrete slabs, about 35 feet by 13 feet, each of these slabs, were the final burial place to 150,000-250,000 bodies each.

I felt slightly guilty, walking around, though I was moved by everything I saw, I did not cry. I felt sadness, I felt upset but i never got to crying and I never really felt like I was going to start to cry... I thought that was a little strange, as I walked down to the names listed on the walls around the mass graves, many bodies they had told us were unrecoverable, and could not be identified, the others were those who were on a "murder list" so to speak where they were individually hunted down in their own homes.

You really don't understand until you come here, until you stand on the streets of Kigali and realize that blood flowed through them not long ago, till you see the Congo-Rwandan border where neearly 300,000 lives were taken.

As I walked alone through the 6 + mass graves I thought to myself how can this feel so fake when it is so very real, like I wanted to believe it was all a bad dream but one I couldn't wake up too.

As I stood looking over a single mass grave I found my hand raise to my forehead then to my chest then to each shoulder and I heard myself start to speak. No one was around so I guess thats why I was quietly talking out loud like someone was very close beside me. By the time I realized what I was doing my hands were folded and my speech slow and clear. I stood and prayed for the families, I prayed they continue to have strength, that the ones who are still very scarred be healed to the best they can. I prayed for the children who lost mothers and fathers, to the brothers and sisters who lost brothers and sisters, to the mothers and fathers and uncles and aunts and grandparents.

I am not a super religious person, but without knowing I had drawn myself to pray for the souls that left before they're time. I thanked those who saved lives, those who protected and sacrificed themselves to buy time for family or friends or complete strangers.

I prayed for peace and love and healing. But most of all I prayed for the fallen.

Just before I crossed my body and said Amen a quote popped into my head, one that I had seen inside on a plaque "This is about our past and our future. Our nightmares and our dreams. Our hopes and fears". So I made a last plee, I prayed for the future to shine like the lights of Kigali, I prayed for they're dreams to never become nightmares and I prayed for love instead of fear, beside the hope that we've seen on our trip already I then crossed my body and paused, "amen" came from my lips and I felt free... free from somthing that grabs onto you, something you can't see and sometimes can't feel till its so big that its erriversible.

The rain started to fall as I made my way to the path and through the beautiful canopy of flowers to the main building.

And I thought to myself...

"Rain to end this, maybe is proof that someone is showing these people and the world we are allowed to feel sad, because the rain will wash away the past and leave only the future of new life".

Amen.

~a.grange~

Bugesera District Adventure

Bité!

Welcome to day 5 of our African adventure which landed us in rural Rwanda yet again.

The day started nicely woke up on time, and was at breaky and ready to go by 8:15am. Jumped in the truck with Fred out Right to Play driver companion, who then took us out of town.

We were heading for meetings and a trip to a school in rural Kigali area, in a district called Bugesera in a sector called Ngeruka. The road out to Ngeruka took us 2 hours to complete, over red sand, through windy roads and flood lines throughout mountains and over creeky bridges, all avoiding the people seen along the road side, but we eventually were standing at the door to the Right to Play office in sector Ngeruka of district Bugesera.

We arrived at the Right to Play office and picked up our two friends, Edwin and Peter. From there we all hoped in Fred's 4x4 and made our way out onto the red sand path, through the trees and little towns till we came to the gates of Twimpala School. The children were excited to see visitors especially white ones (as all the schools seem to be) so when we exited the truck we gathered crowds are nearby doorways and class windows. There were 3 classes with Right to Play activities for us to join in on, Peter explained that the class would give us a demonstration before we joined but that didn't stop us from jumping into the circle.

After a few minutes I looked over to the 2nd group and ran off to join it since we had 4/4 of us in the one group. I got to play "dog catch" which was what it translated too, after a few warm ups and a quick stretch and hi to the kids around me, we started in one chalked off box, a "dog" person was chosen to be in the middle chalk box, when they barked or woofed, all of us had to run to the other side of the "Dog box", if they caught you, you became a "dog". I was caught by a very cute boy who giggled histarically that he was the one that had caught the "musungu" (white person). After this game the class went back to studies and I returned to the rest of my Right to Play companions in they're group where we answered questions about HIV;s and AIDS and played a game to help us associate between the symptonms we might see if someone has these illness', the kids were fantastic and such good listeners and such good creative children.

We then had a meeting with some teachers and coaches of the school, we entered a classroom where they had laid out a table dressing with flowers and chairs so we could sit at the head of the class. Behind us on the chalk board was a drawing with the words "Dear athlete ambassators you are welcome at Twimpala groupe, scolaire as one of the schools working with Right to Play in Bugesera district", a very welcoming entrance. After a talk with staff our meeting with the principal came as a strange surprise when he thought most of the RTP funding should go to his school so the coaches can have new outfits, the kids can have sweats to play in, he can get more coaches and he even asked if we had enough to get him a secretary, since all the other school head masters were so amazing and caring and for the kids, we didn't think it would be so ... greedy anywhere but he showed us wrong I guess!

As we walked out of the classroom the rooms around us buzzed with attention, some kids followed, others stared, most just clung to the doorways of they're classrooms watching the "musunga's" walk through they're little school of 2132 students.

We were told about a RTP funded play area, so obviously our excitement to see it guided us around a corner and down a small dip onto the cement of a basketball/volleyball court, a very beautiful one might I add, with the RTP logo in the back-boards of the basketbal nets. Helen in all her glory thought my idea to get a photo under the nets would be that much better if we all jumped into the air as the photo was taken, 5 photos later, we had one with us getting ready to jump, 2 with us just taking off, one progression shot with Steph barely off the ground, me a little higher, Roz a little high and Helen up in the clouds! When the children started to gather we desided we needed the kids to participate, so the results of 2/5 of the photos were te kids not understanding and the next one is posted here, and I think it was a huge success as does the rest of the RTP volunteer squad.

Our adventures were cut into by the crowd of small kids gathering watching us jump up and down, up and down so Steph decided they needed to learn her favorite RTP dance.

*3 claps* hands shaking over right leg out to the side "a zigga zigga" *clap 3 times* hands shaking over left leg out to the side "a zigga zigga" *clap 3 times* jump up and down hands out over head to right side "a zigga zigga"*clap 3 times* jump up and down hands out over head to left side "a zigga zigga" *clap 3 times* hands on hips shake butt down to the ground "ooh cha cha cha, ooh cha cha cha, ooh cha cha cha" .

The kids loved it! and picked it up so fast, espeically with Helen, Steph, Roz and I doing it in front of them, it was alot of fun and we trained the smaller kids, then tried on the bigger kids though ther was no way it would work.

After the fun and games were done we waved goodbye to the older kids who had now gathered along the bank at the edge of the basketball court to watch us dance, and headed towards the vehicle in a sea of small bodies following in toe behind us.

  Its hilarious how these kids follow us around like we are so special, they are the special ones to us! We made our way through the masses and arrived at the vehicle with enough time to get a few candid shots with all the kids that surrounded the truck like a title wave!

Such good kids just excited for visitors from far away.

We waved goodbye out our windows and made out way back to the office for a meeting with coaches.

I would like to just justify my gratitude towards the coaches that met with us, they were so amazing and excited and generous towards us and our questions (in which everyone of the 12 of them had an answer for), they were amazing to talk to and they signed off with a traditional goodbye in African terms, a silly little clapping dance and at the end a big MUAH! 2 hands on the lips and throws you a kiss, which is a huge thing here in Rwanda, seems everyone young and old show they're gratitude that way, its silly to us but respectful to them I believe.

After a short stop to have lunch and a quick chat with the assistant director of the Ngeruka sector of Bugesera district, we were on our way home. Its amazing what you see in Rwanda, everything is so fresh and green and beautiful, so when we saw pineapples on the side of the road for sale it prompted Fred to take us to a market, it was amazing to see all the people and they're stands with all the fresh fruit you could ever want! After a few minutes we realized that this market didn't sell special African made items, just cheap china made products and then all the fresh fruit and etc. So we stopped and picked up the best banana's I've ever had, just little ones, we grabbed a pineapple for breaky tomorrow and a kilogram of passion fruit  (7 balls), also a breaky snack tomorrow which we are quite excited about! Not many can say they've bitten into fresh passion fruit from an African market!

When we brought up the question about the cheesy tourist crap, Fred smiled told us to get in the truck and within 20-25 minutes we were outside a shop circle, just an area with many shops built into a small space. The stuff was beautiful! I managed to get a few things for my brother Tyler's birhtday that I missed last weekend, sorry bro, love you :), as well as a few things for myself, and something for my mum. We had arrived as the shops were closing so the rest of the family will have to wait till we get the chance (if we get the chance) to make it there tomorrow.

(P.S - No Ty your presents aren't in the photos and yours either mums, I'm not that dumb!)

After the evening darkened we found ourselves showered and dress and headed in a taxi to an interesting place. We arrived and heard beautiful music and talking and the smell of fresh tropical flowers, the smell of barbados (for those who have been and know what I'm talking about *little white flowers*), we walked down the stars at THE Hotel Rwanda destination and had a wonderful dinner, its somewhat unsettling to be sitting there, knowing that though the movie was a dramatization by hollywood, that that information is mostly factual, that all that happened and that everything that went wrong a mere 18 years ago now, is forgotten or pushed aside by the natives but guests obviously still feel it by the looks on some faces at tables around us, I don't know how you'd stay there... I think it would be too eery all the time just thinking about everything... *shiver*

Anyways... I want to add that over the last few days I have grown to like Helen Upperton and Roz G, they are greatly talented people and both love children and are amazing at what they do and explaining why it helps kids and life and etc, they are nice and funny and smart and athletic... but I couldn't help thinking as we were waiting for our dinners, talking about biographies and science novels and povety novels and novels about peace and war and child rights and helping the world and facts and stories of history (etc), that wow... I feel really really dumb right now. Helen asked what everyones favorite book was, I automatically said "Ender's Game" which is my favorite book, I have read it 11 times and am now on the series and its a wonderful read and well writen in every aspect. Apparently though, no one was looking for my opinion and so it was ignored, as Roz tried to pick a favorite from the french revolutionary days and Steph threw in "the power of one" which is the story of a boy in Africa in the middle of Hitlers rain and he is harrassed and his life story is told through the book, it is a good book. It just seemed like Steph, Roz and Helen were quite happy talkign about "have you read this?" "YES! it was amazing so moving and inspiring" while I'm sitting there staring into the candle like...'I read poetry and orson scott card novels (enders game's author)' but no one would care why I read poetry or how I feel about it because it wasn't about an orphanage in Sweden or starvation in the middle east or war in Africa or something else, I may know alittle about alot, but I've never been in a situation where I feel like I am an inch tall. Its not fun, feeling like you are completely incompetent, I wouldn't recommend it anytime soon.

I now just want to go home and see people that appreciate who I am and think I'm talented and smart and bigger then this, as my Mike has been trying to explain to me for 30 minutes.

I guess I'll go to bed and read "The Power of One" which I started on the way out here, and strive to be as intelligent as an olympic athelete on day cause they apparently know how to create a better world from a few books and a few week long vacations...ya...right.

Thanks

Cheers from Inside Africa hotel, Kigali, Rwanda

~a.grange~

Gisenyi Finalle

Bite (bee-t-a)  or hello from Kigali, Rwanda.

Let me start by saying thanks to everyone who is following this and I hope I don`t disappoint!

We started out our last day in Gisenyi quite early, out of the hotel by 7:30am after a nice breaky, drove to the mayors office and met with his very nice very good english speaking assistant mayor, who was very interested in our ideas and stories about our trip and our country.

The meeting didn`t last too long and before we knew it we were back at the Right to Play Gisenyi office for another meeting with the whole group (from left-right back row then left-rigt front row) Yves (RTP Coach and main headquarter manager), Roz G (extreme world champion skiier), president of CN (Coaches Network), Stephanie Buryk (RTP representative from Toronto), secretary CN, president CGN (Community Group Network), Vice president CGN, financial expert & coach Right to Play Gisenyi, Rwanda, (bottom row) secretary CN, vice president CN, Helen Upperton (bobsled olympic slver medalist), 2 women from the Female participation sector of CN.

All of these people were so wonderful in explaining and outlining everything to us, it was so interesting to hear exactly what groups like the CN and CGN do for these kids, its inspiring to hear about all the effort they are putting in to make life for these families as happy and fun and educational/healthy as possible!

With some extra time before heading off to a rural school, we had a photo session with each of us and the partners with Right to Play, having a good talk trying to explain how to jump a horse, drive a bobsled and do flips on ski's 30 feet in the air, safe to say Rwandese do not understand the art of SNOW or horses very much since they really have neither.

Our day progressed quicker then we figured so on the way to find our wandering reporter friend who was already tagging along and being a pain in our ass, we decided to go look around the beautiful Gisenyi. I found this particular walkway just opposite the Mayors office, on the left was a volleyball court, on the right a soccer field, both public, both in use although my photos of the kids playing turned out fuzzy and disoriented so they were deleted so I hope amazing canopy made by African native trees will suffice.

Not only were the sites amazing and though I would love to post ever single picture I have, I really do not have that much patience or time and I'm sure with the descriptions or even just the photos alone it would be incredibly ridiculous, so for now these are some of the most interesting ones. Helen especially loved the women of Rwanda and how everything they needed to carry was placed in a basket, bucket or bag and then balanced on they're heads, she was so excited in fact that when she struggled to get photos of these women they would come out awful! So I took a few and this is my best result so far I believe. We are determined to try this ourselves but have not met the right ladies to jump out of the RTP 4x4 and take a basket off their head!

As our trip continued we arrived at a few very interesting places in history, one of which was the home of legendary Jane Goodall. For those who are thinking "who the hell is Jane Goodall!?!" you'd know her better by the crazy monkey lady, Jane fell inlove with chimpanzies in the 1960's when she travelled to Africa for research, she founded her research institute in 1977, Jane lived in Gisenyi, Rwanda for most of her life where she wrote many books and articles for famous magazines like National Geographics.

We didn't go in (obviously) but we did manage to stop just outside the gate and get a few photos of the vines that now encase her home where she once lived. (the photos are not loading so use your imagination).

The second turn around I should say was at the border of Rwanda and the Congo, we had taken a few photos and noticed some angry motorbike taxi's when a border police guard came to the window and yelled at us for using our cameras saying we weren't allowed to take photos of the border... but by that time we already had a few each and so we gladly turned around and left...quickly. Just a brief note, the border between Rwanda and the Congo's history revolves around alot of murder and devistating loss of life, but when you think of that what do you imagine? Because this is what it looks like ---->

Those motorbikes are in RWANDA... that house is in CONGO... and this is where a masacre happened... unbelievable? We thought so.

After that fun trip to the crazy monkey ladies house and the Rwandan/Congo border we embarked on a mission up into rural country outside of Gisenyi to visit 2 schools. The first one we went to was built on a mountain in a very rural part of the country where the roads, if you could call them that were beaten and broken and barely roads at all, it was like going 4x4 without the mud everywhere. I wish I had got the entrance to the school (which was surrounded in a rock wall to keep the kids from wandering too much), because it was a hill, just a little one but the truck in 4 wheel drive, pedal to the floor barely made it up, I though it was fun, my friends apparently didn't agree! haha.

Anyways, we had come to this school to meet with the teachers, principal and coaches to get an idea of how a school functions more efficiently with the support of Right to Play.

The first thing we saw when we came in was amazing... 3 large water tanks on each 3 of the classe room buildings, all marked with RTP logos, that brought fresh drinking and washing water to the children of 1059 students, 250 of which lived in an orphanage up the road 1km.

We stepped into our meeting already feeling awesome to have the logo on our shirts as it was on those 3 purified water tanks, we walked into a room of 6 coaches, 9 teachers, the principal, the 4 of us, Massamba our guide, Yves a RTP Gisenyi member and our translator, a few other RTP reps and some parents and children that are presidents of some groups at the school.

The meeting was quick, starting with introductions and then a brief explaination of what each section of the school does. When it came to question time and Helen, Roz and Steph got they're questions through I stood up and asked; "In Canada, we see music as being very important to learning and having fun which as you know is what Right to Play is about, I was wondering if your school has any clubs or programs that use music to inspire or help build creativity or let creativity out of the children here?" I got a responce that the children do it themselves! There is no class or program the kids organize and sing and dance and clap and are awesome! We even got a deminstration from a student who was pretty good for a 14 yr old R&B/Rap artist ;)

We didn't have time to stay and play with te 700 + students with our busy schedule but we had time to get mobbed on our way to-waiting-from the bathroom which was ... unpleasant to say the extreme least about it, a real African experience as Roz put it after the fact.

So we jumped in the truck and headed farther into rural Rwanda to another school where we were going to have an activity session with some of the students.

Its funny some things you see in Africa and think... wow... that is truly beautiful or amazing. One thing that stuck out to me was 2 boys, not much older then 12 riding they're bikes.... which sounds normal enough, but these bikes were special.

The 2 boys stopped to see us pass like many of the younger children did and when we realized what they were on we were all very impressed and extremely amazed at the creativity and impressive work of these kids imaginations!

Moving on since I just realized how much I am gabbing, the towns we passed through some full, some empty, all had the looming intimidation factor since everyone here in Africa stares at us... It is slightly funny because the children, mostly younger (2-5 yrs) were yelling at us words we obviously didn't understand "MASUNGU MASUNGU!" "MASUNGU GUCHUPA!~!" (ma-zoon-ga & ga-cho-pa), masunga meaning white people and guchupa meaning something along the lines of audience, we are now know as the Masunga ladies in Gisenyi!

We had alot of children follow us through they're villages and to the next school, by the time the kids had come out to see us andstarted activities the crowd was overwhelmingly large! With a student body of 1200 + kids, plus the kids from the villages and they're families including mothers and some grandparents, it was a huge spectical to have 4 white women in they're sites we were told. We played games for a while then concluded the evenings fun with a friendly basketball game, unfortunatley the team of Steph, Roz, Helen, Yves and myself was... quite bad! we went down 2-0 and at that point I opted out for camera duty since I could barely lift my arm after running around bouncing it all over the place.

We tied it but for kids who had only been playing for 7 months... ever... in they're whole lives, they were pretty freaking good!!! This site was a Right to Play contribution to the school, including water tanks and new refurbished buildings they created this large concrete slab for the kids to play on and they put basketball nets on it aswell so the girls and boys teams could play!

After the game we got in a circle for Roz and Helen to make a speech about sports motivation in life, and within 15 minutes our little circle had turned into a mass of children who had pushed through to hear or see or be near the "masungas" we knew it was time to go when Helen reached out and grabbed me to hold herself up from faling on the children who were now so many in mass that we were being bombarded and pushed over, it was unsafe and some kids were getting squished so we quickly made way, hand in hand to the truck and the mass of kids followed as you can see there were quite high numbers around the court, imagine that around you!!

Unfortunatley my videos aren't uploading from my IPhone correctly and the photos of us inside the mass of kids are on Steph's camera which I have yet to get off her, so it will be here eventually I'm sure.

We got in the truck and made our way home in silence, waving to a few people every now and then and smiling at a few yells of "MASUNGA!!" along the way. We were/are very drained it is alot of stuff to cram in everyday here and alot of travel (the ride home was 3 + hours), and alot of kids that not only take your energy out of you with the activities and fending for you footing in the mass', but the overwhelming sites of beauty that Gisenyi has to offer but mostly the perfectly content poverty that these people live in with no running water no hydro, they just sleep, eat and farm, thats all.

*interesting fact: to this day the Tutsie and Hutu still excist, mainly Hutu who are farmers on the land (90% of population are Hutu) and the Tutsie farm meat. But still live alongside one another.*

The late return prompted a wonderful "brouchette" dinner in fish, pork and beef aswell as a few extras (brouchette is a Rwandan specialty and DELICIOUS! just really skewers with meat on them but seasoned and amazing).

As I was looking out the window in the vehicle I had to catch my breath... The lights were like stars thrown over the mountain sides, so beautiful.

Note to readers: write on your bucket list - "See the stary hills of Kigali, Rwanda, Africa!"

Murakoze (thank you) everybody!

Until tomorrow, have a great night!

Cheers from beautiful Kigali!

~a.grange~

Gisenyi Paradis

Hello agai, sorry again for the mishap last night, topping that last blog off with all that happened today was quite confusing and so it was cut short, sorry! Hope you liked it anyways.

Hello from Gisenyi day 2, I wish I could say that I was up and ready to bounce out of bed today like I did yesterday morning but that would be a complete and total lie... I'll start by explaining that last night, I did not sleep to save my life, I closed my eyes at 1:30am but am quite sure I didn't coast off to sleep till late morning, so safe to say morning (7am) came very wearily. With a quick breakfast and a quick packing of the bag we headed off to a meeting at the Right to Play office in Gisenyi were the people and especially Eve taught us some great stuff and treated us like family.

After a good family photo and quick explaination we found ourselves learning the "inspirational motivers" as Eve our guide and one of the head honchoes at the Right to Play office in Gisenyi, which consisted of some french and some italian sayings built up into a song and dance. Unfortunately my dumb internet access won't let me upload them so I will try tomorro when we return to Kigali.

My 7 minute video of Steph, Helen and Roz dancing to the story game which went so very wrong (haha) including a challenge between "quality" and "karate" for a confused Helen Upperton.

After the funny stuff was over we all moved on to the meeting with the assistant to a contributing organization for children, creating a place for them to come and play and learn and be apart of something, much like Right to Play. A Mr. Nouvelle I believe, he really only spoke french and so we needed Eve and Massamba to translate and that didn't go too well, since I was already completely dead tired from little to no sleep last night, I had already nodded off a few times in Eve's 30 page powerpoint, 2 hours presentation, so listening to french then english for an hour was very hard and took alot of energy just to stay awake and listen.

Other then the long speeches and conversations in languages I really couldn't understand anything, we were quite busy it seemed until we hit Paradis!

Paradis was a little restaurant built into a cove on the rocks looking out over the water at a few islands, all the fishing boats and all the native homes and people, bathing in the waters, swiming for fun, kids playing, women and children gathering water to make food and drink. It was one of the most beautiful place I've ever been, so peaceful and amazing. We had the privilege to eat with the team of Right to Play Gisenyi on the sand of the cove, as well as got to look at some very pretty wild life, beautiful flowers, wonderful company, and little fish... ya the whole thing. Something called Samoosa, a type of small fish hat they cook up and you just eat the whole thing, head, tail and all, they were fine not terrible fish but bad texture... and they were looking at me... CREEPY!

Along side that we also had Tailapia that was fantastic as well as very woderful chips and a few other African dishes.

After our lunch in Paradis we headed off to a scouts center or something like an after school program for these kids to keep them out of trouble!

We arrived to play games and immediately all 4 of us went in opposite directions and jumped into the circle to start playing the games, it was warm ups first in which the kids taught us how to run when the coach said something and to attack when it said another, after that we played "share the ball" you had someone in the middle of the circle and passed a tennis ball around the outside until the person in the middle said "STOP!" and the person with the ball had to pass it along and then stand up and answer a question about HIV or AIDS, which was very informative! Then if your answer was right you went in the middle and got to say "STOP!".

After this the children showed us a surprise display of arrcobatics, flips, climbs, bends, etc, it was incredible, these children are so talented and so special they could be something so big they don't even know, its just a game to them but they know that they are proud and feel good doing it and that is all that matters, that the smiles stay on te faces of these kids.

We were ready to leave, all the games were done and we thought our time was over there, then they started singing... and dancing and hanging out and just being so awesome, everyone joined in and it was so beautiful they're songs and they took us all into they're dances and danced us all the way to the car doors! it was hilarious and awesome and amazing and when we finally got into the car and drove away it was sad to leave all the wonderful kids! we met and made so many new friends! The kids are just s amazing!

The night came very fast, once we got to the hotel we had about an hour and a half we went to the beach for dinner and dancing but once we found out we would be eating the same food we did for lunch we lft and went to a n ice restaurant just down the street from our hotel and we had a lovely dinner, although some talk about politics came up and Eve got a little over excited which led us into a 30 minute conversation about african and american and canadian and any other places politics and governments... woohoo... take me to bed. So I am laying in bed ready to sleep but I wanted to get this done!

Unfortunately my photos didn't load and I don't have time or energy to wait for them so I'm sorry but there is only the one photo tonight but I promise there will be muh more tomorrow as I am charging my phone since I forgot to last night and it died today.

Just a note...

Do me a favor. Stop what your doing and think about your life... forget about all your friends and family and possessions, just stand... and ask yourself "What do I want?"  What comes to mind?

Now try again, clear your mind. Now ask yourself "What do I need?". What comes to mind?

would it be strange to hear someone say nothing... that right now they needed and asked for nothing, would you believe them?

Being here in Africa, in Rwanda of all countries on this continent I've learned that I don't NEED anything... that I may want things now and then but my want for my love and my family is just something that needs time to come. I will be home to my love within a few days, I will see my family soon aswell, so those WANTS aren't that at all, they are really just ideas that will happen with time.

I don't NEED anything, I have everything I want and need, I have a family that I love and that loves me, I have a wonderful job and beautiful, amazing horses, I have friends that I charish and adventures I'll never forget, I have a wonderful family of my own and my love for Mike to top it all off.

I NEED nothing... but it is not because I have everything in the world, its because I am around people that have nothing, or that have lost everything. Think, what would it be like to move to a country after your father is murdered and 7 months later have your 5 older siblngs murdered alongside your mother and friends from a disgusting war... Or to loose your siblings, mother, father and be left with nothing, but still work everyday, still wake up and get on with your day. I wish I was as strong as these people... they amaze me with their courage towards life and their strength to move on, to be something and to live the life they need to live and leave past in the past.

I wish I was this strong.

People say that someone who has gone through something like that can never survive it, well I have met the people that do... I have shook they're hands and greeted them with hellos and hugged them goodbye and all the while I could barely contain how much strength they showed.

So next time you think you need something, or you want something that is really unnessessary, when you whine about anything... think of these people.

Next time you loose someone, think of they're strength and learn from it, learn to wake up in the morning and go on with life.

No matter how hard your past might be, it is always and will always remain the past, it can never come back and replay in your future. So for these people, for those who live through hell and come out stronger and braver and wiser, go on... and leave past to be past. And leave memories to be memories.

Cheers from Gisenyi, Rwanda. Africa

~a.grange~

Hey guys, I wrote this last night and the internet wet out so I couldn't get it posted so instead here it is now.

Sorry!

Hello from Gisenyi. Our first day in Africa was a success, lots on our schedule and ofcourse it all was finished on time. My day started with the noise from my alarm clock at 6:30am, giving me time to get up, get dressed, suntan lotion on, pack my little bag I'd carry with me all day and still get to have breakfast before we had to leave for a meeting at the Right to Play office at 8:30am.

                                                                    First Rwandan morning outside our first hotel in Kigali, Rwanda

Our day we all knew would be packed full of things to start our trip, but exactly how much toll it would take on us was a whole other story.

The day began at the Right to Play office in Kigali, Rwanda, there the whole team sat and we all introduced ourselves and what we do to be apart of Right to Play; Helen Upperton - Olympic gold medalist, Roz G - World champion extreme skiier, Stephanie Buryk - representative from Right to Play Toronto, Ontario and myself introduced as Ariel Grange - Sponsor and owner/groom to horses and specifically an olympic horse who won silver in the Bejing olympics.

Once we meet the Right to Play team of Kigali the presentation started where they took us through most of they're goals, mainly to get the Ministry of Education's help to put the Right to Play organized sport and learning together into all the school programs in Rwanda, as well as to teach the children about they're rights and protection as well as protect the children and give them places to go after school, holidays and weekends that will be safe for they're needs.

After some delicious Samboosa's (a meat pastry) and some cold bottled water and tea, we took a quick photo and packed up our things. The people at the Right to Play office in Kigali were so welcoming, and I do wish them much luck and thanks so very much for treating us like they're own.

After our amazing trip through the goals of the organization we packed up and headed off the a school 15 minutes up town where we were welcomed by smiling faces and waves. We were there to see the Right to Play programs in the schools so the 4 of us broke into 2 teams and with a translator each (even though the kids spoke some english the coaches spoke the native language) we joined 2 classes in they're activities on the school yard. Helen and Roz joined a P2 class (grade 2) in a singing and dancing game, while Stephanie and I joined a P6 class (grade 6), it was amazing how welcoming everyone was, the children and they're coach who was amazingly talented with the kids.

We began by watching the kids interact with the coaches, each coach for these children are employed by the school but are taught by Right to Play teachers on how to communicate, how to take the games you play with the kids and turn them into life lessons. We played a game called "chimpanze race" we were told to bend over and grab the back of our ankles and you had to run about 30 feet and then turn a cone and run back in this akward position, the kids were great at it and listened so well to split them into 6 groups (Stephanie in group 5 and me in group 6) and we raced eachother in this strange position 2 times until my kids won!

We had such a great time with those kids and they taughtus alot about what the kids are like here, they were great listeners and such good kids and fun and appreciative of us showing up and playing games with them which were oh so much fun.

Once we were done playing games, a man came out of a classroom and started to beat on a large drum, I asked the coach and our translater what that was for and they told me it was to tell the younger kids (primary) that they're finished for the day then they tried to shoo us to the main building where we were going to meet with the head master/principal, we couldn't understand why we had to go so quickly, until the kids saw us.... I've never seen that many kids rush that fast to see us, they were all very young and wanted to touch our skin, hand shakes, high fives, they would hold your hand, we couldn't go anywhere without them jumping all over us and fighting to get a photo taken or touch our skin or wave or shake our hands, it is by far only something you can understand after you have been there and experienced it first hand.

Our meeting with the principal/head master went very well, he was very nice and interested in finding out how much we liked all his kids and was very proud to hear that we thought they were some of the best listeners we've ever seen, which was not an exaggeration.

We stayed for a bit but eventually packed up and headed off to a quick lunch before going to meet the minister of Education, with a quick meeting with a man that seemed more interested in getting out of his office rather then talking to us, we headed back to Right to Play head quarters, where we got to sit for 10 minutes, then got in the truck and headed for Gisenyi, a long and beautiful ride.

The hills of Kigali and the rest of our path from Kigali to Gisenyi the hils wind through the mountains and as you look over the edge to the mountain sides below, we find the crops and houses on the small lips from top to bottom, then you realize that that fog you just hit is indeed a cloud... andthats when my igrane started...

But for now, its late and I'm tired and I'm going to sleep. New one tomorrow.

Cheers,

~a.grange~