You can smell Jack Daniel's Barbeque Sauce in the air on your way to Nkore

We just got back from a 2 day trip to Nkore, which is about a 4-hour drive from Gatanga. Half the trip is on a narrow dirt road that goes high up into the mountains. The scenery is absolutely amazing. I took a lot of pictures, but it would take forever to post them up, so I’m shooting for 3 right now. I hope it works. Anyway, the river valleys here look like some of the pictures you saw in geography class when you were learning about ox-bow lakes and all that good stuff. Whenever the car stops, you are surrounded by dozens of curious faces. They look at you like you just landed from a foreign planet, and you can tell they have a thousand questions that you won’t be able to understand. Language is a huge barrier for us. Everyone here speaks kirwanda. French is spoken mostly around the city, and English even less so. So, we have Papias, our translator and good friend, wherever we go. He is quite a personality, and is amazing with children. Papias’ life story is really interesting. I’ll have to share it with you some time.

We had a small mishap on our way to Nkore. The bus got stuck on a bridge, after jamming into one of logs. Many of the bridges here are made out tree-logs, and one the logs had gotten stuck under the car and pulled almost 10 feet away from the bridge. So, one of the back tires was suspended in the air and the trick was to roll another log under the back tire so it would have something to push against. Anyway, people began to gather around us, as everyone started yelling their suggestions. Good times. Actually, it wasn’t that hectic. There were some good suggestions, but way too many cooks for this meal. It all worked out at the end. I have it all on picture and video J

Whenever you walk around in the rural areas, you are followed by dozens of children who walk along side you, looking in your face, smiling at each other. As they walked around us the first night, on our way to have dinner at a friend’s house, they started singing in unison. I don’t know what the song meant, but it was absolutely beautiful. Anyway, that is Africa for you! I have learned a few words in Kirwanda. Merakosay means thank you. Jambay, a Swahili word, is hi. Amakourou is how are you? And that is always followed by nimayza, I am fine. It’s either that or nimayza chani, I am very well. Moramochay is goodnight. So, we played some games with the children, gave out whistles and candy. Papias taught them a song, and Jamsheed, our latest volunteer from Germany, taught them a step dance. I think they really loved it. We had a question/answer session with the adults after we all introduced ourselves. It was sweet. We spent the night at the Baha’i center and took off at noon the next day.

There has been some sweet group bonding experiences this last week. Note to self -Family Guy and Arrested Development can make some awesome midnight chatter.