Friday, June 27, 2014

Akagera National Park



During our time at Akagera, we were either singing The Lion King or Jurassic Park. Just to give you a little background...

To save time, we stayed at the lodge at Akagera since it was closer to Kageyo than Kigali is. It worked really nicely and it gave us a fun safari day at the end of the trip!


Dr. Seuss came to Africa for inspiration for the trees in his books
Beautiful view from our room
At the lodge
The beautiful view


Our resident Monkey leader, Wesley Spencer Carpenter

Electric fence...reason for the Jurassic Park theme song

Bees making honey
We were playing cards and this crane landed so close to us!



These are African Longhorns. You won't find these in Texas.

This buffalo was injured above his eye.
Close up
Hippos

Baboons AKA Rafiki :) #disneylove
"When I was a young WARTHOG"

Hippo out of the water


Eagle

Monkeys 
They have to spread their legs to bend down.

Gorgeous bird!
Crocodile 
Baby zebra!

Crocodile bones 
The closest we came to an elephant
Rwanda <3

Thursday, June 26, 2014

Kageyo: The Boondocks

Church met under this tree before they had a building.
Kageyo is a special town. It is the community that was formed when Tanzania decided to kick all of the Rwandan refugees out of their country a few years ago. It is located on the edge of Akagera National Park. It is 4 hours away from Kigali, so you can definitely call it remote.

Despite its distance and isolation, there is something really great about this community. They are doing fantastic things with so little, and it's inspiring. They are joyful people and hard workers. I love spending time here and wish we had more than 2 days with them. They wished we could have stayed longer too. They promised Wes a cow the next time he comes...this is a big deal people!

Precious people!
Paul asked if I would marry an African man...I laughed awkwardly. :)
Emily, Dorine, and I

I was able to watch P5 and P6 classes in Kageyo, which had students from 10 to 16 years old. It made for an interesting mix of students who I LOVED spending time with.

Lots of mud brick homes and buildings.
I've said it before...Kids are kids everywhere.


The government has these boxes that connect to phones and they play lessons in English for P1, P2, and P3.
Solar energy
A laptop for every child, but little electricity and no internet... 
Rebecca and I were bus buddies one day on trip 1. Loved being reunited! 
Watched Dina's P1 class on trip 1. Precious little ones!
African food!



Lots of home visits! <3