I can’t really believe that I am in Africa, it feels great! I am reminded how much I love to travel and meet people and go to new places. It has been a busy month leading up to coming here, and getting my passport back only a couple of hours before I flew added to the excitement. I had lots of hours in London; but I got to catch up with my cousin, Patsy, who came to the airport with some tickets she had picked up for me and we had a great time chatting in a restaurant. Next was the 9 hour flight to Johannesburg; it was so great to have a long flight!! Sounds strange but long flights means I am going somewhere exciting! Because of the way my flights worked I then boarded a flight to backtrack halfway up the continent to Kigali the capital of Rwanda.
The first thing that struck me was the friendliness of the people. They are so helpful and ready with a smile and greeting. They are also not shy to stare and the children cry "(white person)" when they see us, waving and jumping around. The YWAM base is in the city down a long red dirt road lined with houses and little shops with many many people walking up and down going about their business. The first week I was working with a team from Switzerland to help run a staff training event for the YWAMers. It was a great time of getting to know people from YWAM Rwanda, Uganda and Congo. I got to teach a little on Public Speaking and Learning Styles.
For my second week I will get a chance to go and see the ministries that YWAM has here. I will also go to the Genocide Memorial Museum to learn more about the months in 1994 that saw people murdered by the hundreds of thousands. On Saturday I went on a SAFARI!!!! It was an early start at 5 am and a 2 hour drive to the national park. The first animal we saw was zebras and then giraffes, which was the best because we got to walk around near them. Then we saw several types of deer type of creatures, hippos, monkeys and baboons; only missed out on the elephants!
Here are some photos, but look on my flickr site to see more photos.
I will be here until next Wednesday week and then fly down to Cape Town!
Helen
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3 comments:
Wow, good stuff Helen!
Have a great time in Africa and back home in NZ!
Looking forward to seeing you again in Europe, had a good talk at the Grimerud base.
People are excited and great stuff is going to happen.
that's awesome helen!! i looked at all of your pictures on your picture website....so cool! africa seems like such a different world!
xoxo
mel
Helen, that looks just so.....African!!! Good to hear that you are having a good time there...but I still miss you here...your boots are great, but they remind me of you all the time...and you are not here!!! But just keep on enjoying the African summer!!!!
Love Lenneke
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