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Published: September 12th 2008
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A retroactive entry from last weekend... But first, let me tell you a bit about the Maranyundo School for Girls in Nyamata, Rwanda.
Kate Harrington, one of the most amazing and gifted people I know, and you know that if you know her, is teaching English at this all girls boarding school. I have come to visit her and hang out. There are two American volunteers here, Mary and Andy. They both just graduated from college and have each raised $5,000 to come here to volunteer. They have been dubbed the "Minister's of Fun," because the school is run by nuns who apparently are not as into fun as the rest of the crew...They are super cool and although they have only been here for a month, the three of them seem like they've been friends forever. It's really fun to come into such a neat group of people.
The school is set just outside of a small town, Nyamata, and is about 40 minutes outside of Kigali. The campus is beautiful, with new brick buildings, a state of the art computer lab, and 60 of the coolest, cutest, smartest girls I've ever met. The girls board here and their
kivu
More of the view from our guest house days are packed with studies. They have a study hall from 6-7am, then breakfast, and classes all day from 8 until 4:00 when they have activity time for an hour. Which, of course, is when we play basketball (My favorite part of the day)! From 6-7pm they have a study hall, dinner at 7, and then another study hall until 9, when I help tutor them in Math or anything else they need help with (My second favorite part of the day)! from 9 until 10 they get ready for bed, and a 10:00 lights out pretty much does it until the next morning when they get up and do it all over again. There's no messing around here, that's for sure. But, everything the girls do, they do 100% and usually with a smile on their face!
Last weekend, the four of us, Andy, Mary, Kate, and I took a weekend trip to Lake Kivu, in the western provice of Rwanda, Kibuye. The bus trip was almost worth the entire weekend. They don't call this place the Land of A Thousand Hills for nothing. As we wound around turns, with an impatient bus driver going a little too fast for my taste, we looked upon the most breathtaking scenery. Banana trees, and lush green hills with a backdrop of the deepest red soil I've ever seen. And every turn we took, the hills just got better and better. I can't even describe it, so I'll stop trying, but believe me it was amazing.
We got to Lake Kivu, another breathtaking scene, but this time we got to stay there and look at it for more than a few seconds. We immediately jumped in the water for an afternoon swim and just admired all of the hills that were coming right out of the water. Fantastic. We were so happy and giddy and giggly, we could hardly stay afloat.
That night, we joined some Canadian comrades that we had met on the busride, Job, Kara, and Mitch, along with two of their Rwandan friends, Media and Alan. We went down to the lakefront and just sat and admired our surroundings. Job got his guitar and harmonica out and we had a serious jam session for about 3 hours, singing Green Day, Bob Dylan, Weezer, Pearl Jam, the classics. The best part of the jam session, and hence the title of this entry came during the freestyle portion of the evening, when Mitch made up a song about the Annoying Mzungu, Dana. He sang the story of Dana, a 50 year old volunteer with his organization, Building Bridges with Rwanda, who apparently came to Rwanda in the midst of a midlife crisis. and the first part of the song was about how Dana gave them money to buy her a bottle of liquor, and when they didn't return in sufficient time, called them and started yelling, "I'm not a bank! Bring me the liquor." So, of course, the chorus of the song became, "I'm Not a Bank!"
I don't know if I got the hilarity of the song across, but it was funny anyway!
Around 1 am, we noticed two boats in the distance, carved out canoes with some locals in them. Our Rwandise friend Alan called over to them and they rowed over and showed us the fish that they had caught that night. It was really neat. I'm sure they were enjoying our music as well.
It's time for computer class, so I must go.
Hugs and Kisses from Rwanda!
Marissa
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