The Boys

Today my mom and I went to swim in Lake Kivu, just down the hill from our little hut.  When we got there we saw 3 Rwandan brothers. At first, they were begging us for food, but my mom said no because when people give them food all they want to do for their free time is beg for food. So the younger boys started doing backwards somersaults. The oldest brother then told us to watch him...then he did 3 backwards handsprings in a row
:o. Then he taught me how to do it.

Steps to do a backwards handspring.

1. Grab your leg and hold it behind your back.
2. Bend backwards and put your hand on the ground
3. Find a flat space and do a backwards handspring.

He was very flexible.
After the backwards handspring, he showed us some flips as well!!!

  

Then we went swimming and some more kids joined us.  Some were my age, some were younger and some were older, we had so much fun.




My mom said all she could hear was laughing, and then kids calling out "Muzungo!"
We went swimming for 3 hours and then we swam 3 more hours.
So we swam a total of SIX HOURS!!! :o:o:o:o:o:o:):o:o:o:o

Then when we left the kids started playing again, so we swam for a another hour!

Finally we were ready for dinner and as soon as we got there my mom said "You should go take a shower." And because she's my mom, I said "Okay." So I walked back to the room, turned on the shower, waited for it to get warm, and got in. While I was in the shower the power went out and I was in complete darkness and couldn't see anything. So I got out, found my clothes and put them on, went outside, and locked the door. But as soon as I went outside and locked the door, the power went back on so I took a really quick shower, and went back to dinner. That was crazy I told my mom.

Did I mention that it takes about 2 hours from when you order dinner to when it is served?  My mom thinks the cow is alive when we order and then they cook it for dinner.

These pictures are for cat lovers, and ESPECIALLY for Brit.

Murabeho - Good - bye!

Lake Kivu

LAKE KIVU

To get to lake Kivu you have to ride a bus, which means you have to deal with the Kigali bus station, which is loud and chaotic. At least we had someone help us there.


It takes 3 hours to drive to Lake Kivu. I got so car sick I almost vomited, so I decided to fall asleep instead.


My mom said I will NEVER ride a motorcycle in my LIFE!!! Until we had to...
... But sadly we had to go slowly, my mom doesn't think we went slowly at all.









We eventually arrived to our destination. The largest lake in Rwanda.
Fortunately there are no crocodiles or hippos. That means we can go open water swimming!









The view from our room is amazing!!!!!



"Murabeho". :)

An African Experience

Hi,
Today we went to a green house and a boarding school.

We went to a green house and learned how they grow plants in Rwanda. This is what they do.

1. They buy seeds.
2. They plant the seeds.
3. They water.
4. They harvest.
5. They eat and sell.

Usually the kids are the ones who get the water.
The kids spend a lot of time pumping water and carrying it far distances like A Long Walk To Water. Rwanda is called the land of a thousand hills, so they have to walk far, up and down many long miles, carrying heavy yellow water jugs. Pumping was very easy except it might get tiring if I had to do it all day long, AND carry it back for miles.





BOARDING SCHOOL

We also visited a boarding school for girls. The youngest girls were 11 and in 6th grade (here it is called "O Level" 1 Secondary School).














Non-Sequitur

My mom keeps telling me that when you're in Rwanda you should never expect the correct food you order. For example last night I ordered a simple cheese pizza. Turns out they thought I said " Add all the vegetables you have," For example Onions, tomatoes, olives, spinach, peppers, eggplant, and kale. Isn't that crazy. Let's just say I went to bed hungry!

"Murabeho"


Mom's note:  Everywhere we go, Finn attracts a lot of attention. This picture illustrates a fairly typical situation that happens to him every day, sometimes multiple times a day.   People whispering, smiling, laughing, talking with him, touching him.  The moment this woman saw him, she came running over and started hugging him, tugging at him and asking him questions in Kinyarwanda. She seemed overjoyed to meet him, and sweet Finn went along for the ride...  

Safari

This is our cool safari vehicle!  The best is to sit on top of the seats!!!

A night Safari - best place to go. You get to stand up in a Safari car that is going 35 MPH, with the top popped up!!!

These are the animals we saw:

Nile crocodile - it is a crocodile that comes from the Nile River, and can grow to 21 feet (7M). The world's biggest reptile.

Cape Buffalo

Cape Buffalo - has horns sticking out of it's head and does not look at all like our Wyoming buffalo.






Topi - a large antelope, that is the fastest animal next to the cheetah.

Impala

Impala - also an antelope that is smaller but still fast.  This is a male impala because it has horns.  That's elephant poop in the background.

Did you also know that I went on a boat ride.  Not like our crazy one on Lake Turkana last year (you can read about that in last year blog).  We mostly saw really cool birds and hippos.








African Eagle - looks almost exactly like a Bald Eagle except it has more white on front and back of its head and it's a little smaller.

African Eagle

Zebra - a Zebra is striped white and black so when an animal is hunting it, it can confuse the animal by running in a group.

Hippo - Hippos are vegetarians, and they are HUGE, their hole body can be under water with only their eyes sticking out.

Hippo in the grass.

Warthog - Warthogs are ugly looking creatures, and yes they can have warts.
Did you know my mom and her dad got chased by warthogs when she was really young. Isn't that cool.



This is an elephant.  We saw a family of about 20.  They are so huge, but did you know that when they walk they do not make a sound (except when they are eating bushes!)






This is an elephant skull. Isn't that super big. It's more than half of me.

"Murabheo". ;)

Stories about Rwanda

Hi, can you imagine 1,500 boys and girls you're age who have never seen any white children in there lives. Well some of you are probably right and some of you are probably wrong. This is what it's like.

















Well it's like you're a super famous celebrity. They are all touching you and you're hair. Sorry but my mom couldn't get any photos with them touching and pulling my hair. And thats all there is to it!

Today we visited an organization called SHE. They help girls go to school in Africa.



Part of the SHE project works with a banana cooperative, a whole bunch of banana farmers.  There was banana farmer who we visited today. His name was Anastuz. One of his jobs is to make banana tree branches into banana fibers. This is a picture of him.





He lost his pinky and ring finger using this machine to make banana fibers.






Sylvere

Sylvere is a participant of SHE ,the organization mentioned above. Sylvere was 8 years old during the genocide. He told us about how swimming saved his life during the genocide. He and some other boys who had also lost their family put there clothes on their heads and swam to an island to stay safe for the war. Some of you know about me and swimming. Well in Rwanda the times to make the Olympics is slower than the US times, so in college he had a choice either to possibly make the Olympics or learn English. And sadly for me he chose to learn English, but good for him.

My mom says if I was a Rwandan citizen I would have made the Olympics by now. I think that's AMAZINGLY AWESOME!!!





This is a picture of Sylvere.



"Murabeho"

Good-Bye.

Now we're in Africa

Hi today we met our driver Bosco. He took us to the Komera school protect which is an extremely poor part of the country. Komera is a place that helps keep girls in school. In some countries, boys are appreciated more than girls, so sometimes girls are not allowed to go to school if her family is too poor.
These are some of the girls we met, they had just graduated from secondary school (high school).  They all come from very poor families, and they really want an education.



We met a family so poor, but they believed in their child's education so much, they literally sold their roof for money for her education. Isn't that amazing!!! Even though school is "free" they have to give money to pay the teacher, pay for uniforms, pay for taking tests, pens, food, and other things we don't have to pay for ourselves. So really it's not at all free.

The kids had soccer balls made of plastic bags and rubber bands, so I gave them one of mine.







Last night I accidentally fell out of my seat backwards and almost fell into a hippo infested lake. Isn't that awesome!!!Actually I hurt my leg when I fell off.



Isn't that awesome!!!

We are staying in a tent at Akagera National Park. There is a board walk so that you don't get eaten by hippos or leopards. Our tent is right next to the 2nd largest lake in Rwanda. Isn't that awesome. I think it's awesome. At night I fall asleep listening to the jungle noises like hippos burping, or birds chirping, and bugs humming. It is so peaceful here.
































P.S. This picture of the leaves is for Brit from Finn and Mom😀


"Murabeho"- Good-bye. :)