Refugee Camp for the second time

The kids are so excited and welcoming. Almost every child asks 'what is your name?', 'Where are you from?',  ' Do you know Rooney?'(a soccer player from Manchester U), and 'How old are you?'  Other than that, they don't speak much english.

 I took a picture of the girl on the right and her baby last time we were at the camp. I develope it in Kigali and was able to find her and give her the picture of her and baby Fiona.  She and the entire market place were so excited to see it. And as you can see, I was pretty happy to be holding her beautiful little girl again!

Mark surrounded by kids that just got out of school. Most of our day was spent like this.

Grade 1.  Over 40 students in one class. 

Christmas in June!  Adorable

This is a view of the camp.  It's about a thirty minute drive up into the hills from the town of Kiboye. This creates a great deal of seclusion and seperation between the people living in the camp and much of the outside world.

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June in Kigali

A good Rwandan meal.

(Jon just won his first boxing fight ever!!)

Mark and I spent a weekend watching some of the Street boys we know in an amateur boxing tournament.  There is a boxing gym in town that doesn't charge the boys to train and be involved in the club. It was a great weekend and the boys were pretty excited to have us out supporting them. 

I (Kim) have started spending 2 or 3 afternoons a week at an orphanage just outside Kigali.  There are 48 kids that live there, ages one to seventeen. I have fun (and some big challanges) with the younger kids doing different activites each day with them.  (bubbles, colouring, drawing, crafts...)

Just a few of the kids at the Orphanage.

Beautiful!!

Adorable little ones!

Out of Kigali for the day!

Beautiful view! Just after this picture we walked down to the lake. The walk down was easyJ

Made it to the lake! Anyone who needs to cross loads into a boat and pays for a boat ride, 300 Rwandan Franks (about .40 cents Canadian)
                                   

On the way to the lake we stopped at a silk worm farm. It was pretty neat to be inside this room. You could hear the thousands of worms eating. (it sounded like rain hitting a tin roof)

Two little boys (couldn’t be older than 3) playing with a tire and sticks trying to get the tire to roll in the middle of a dirt road.

Corn on the cob African style. After you peel away the burnt husks, it actually takes really good! Especially this corn that was picked just a few minutes before they cooked it for us.

I asked this lady if I could take her baby girl home with us to Canada…..  I’m pretty sure she didn’t understood what the heck I was sayingJ



We’re in the home of a pastor and his wife in the village. They cooked a large amount of potatoes, beans and corn for us (this is just after we had already eaten 2 cobs of corn from another home we visited) It’s unbelievable how generous and inviting people are.



A group of kids that followed us around for a good part of the day. Some were afraid of us, but very curious and watched us, what felt like every second. We were told that for some of the kids it would have been their first time seeing a white person. (Mazungu 'white people')

Beginning of June

Mark has been working hard to renovate (re-build) a room for a group of men and women who have HIV.  The group is called Ubuzima. (Life)  He re-did the entire inside of the room, as well as put windows in, a new door, made an office in the back, painted and he just finished a huge wall unit so that the group can display all the stuff they have made to sell. I'm pretty proud of him!!  What makes it even more impressive is that he had to do everything by hand.  There are NO power tools here, and till just a few days ago there was so electricity in the Ubuzima room. 

This is the outside of the Ubuzima room that Mark has been working on.  We are going to pay an artist from the group to paint 'Ubuzima' on the outside of it next week! 

Mark and Mike working on the wall unit.

I made Mark pose for this picture in front of the finished product!  I can't wait to take a picture of it with all the things on it that Ubuzima is going to sell!!

Every Friday afternoon at Vivante Chruch street boys are invited to come and get a meal.  Mark and are have been a part of this program since the first week we got here.  Before the boys eat, we all sit down and talk about different things that are happening in their lives.  Sometimes they sing, dance or just hang out.  For some of these boys, this meal is the best meal they would eat all week. 

An adorable little girl we met in Kayonza village! 

A boy getting water to take back to his family to cook, clean and wash with!  Hard to believe this is where hundreds of families get their drinking water in just one area.