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~