Imbabazi

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Last night after dinner all the water in Ruhengeri ran out. It came back on at around 3 PM today. According to some of the locals, the water goes out once or twice a week during the dry season.

We left this morning for Imbabazi orphanage, which is in a very remote part of the country near the Congolese border. We drove an hour down a paved highway out of Ruhengeri, and then moved on to a terribly made dirt road which basically consisted of volcanic rock with some gravel to "level"
it out. On the way we saw lots of interesting things.
-A UNAMIR refugee camp for civilians fleeing the conflicts in the eastern DRC
-Groups of convicted genocidaires in pink and blue prison jumpsuits working on a drainage ditch under guards armed with assault rifles and shotguns.
-A dozen or so volcanoes
We also saw from our vantange point on a mountain road Lake Kivu and the Congolese town of Goma, which is the centerpoint of all the fighting in the eastern DRC. Goma sits right against the Rwandan border. The town was almost completely destroyed in a volcanic eruption in 2002, which caused the relocation of the crime-ridden refugee camps from around the city. The town remains the central hub of the arms trade in the DRC. Our guide told us we were 15 KM from Goma. At one point, we were about 4 KM from the Congolese border.

At the orphanage we watched the kids learn spelling in Kinyirwandan, and then taught them some english. After about an hour in the classroom, we ate lunch with Kellen, the curator of the orphanage. Then we walked with some of the older kids up the nearest volcano and down into its crater. I have some pretty cool video of that.

When we returned to Ruhengeri the water was back on, and we were very thankful.

9 of us went with Bosco to see his family and deliver donations. That went fine.

Eh, everyone else is waiting for me to finish up, as per usual.

Until next time,
-Drew

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