I'll Fly Away...

Rwanda: "the land of a thousand hills." - What an accurate phrase! 

Hello my dear friends :)

Welcome to blog 2 of my amazing adventure.  I am happy and grateful to say that we have arrived in Musanze safely after a long 4 day travel.  After leaving Toronto, we landed in London, England, around 11:30am (every one of our flights were on time! That's a first for me!) and headed straight for the exit.  We wanted to walk, see and explore!  If you know me prety well, you can vouch for the fact that I am geographically dense.  Spin me around in a circle and put me in my backyard and I would probably have trouble finding my house.... ok, maybe that's an exaggeration but you get the point.  My two travel ladies, Naomi and Milijana, and I managed to buy tube tickets (like the subway), make our way into London and see Big Ben, the Eye of London, Westminster Abbey and Buckingham palace! I say to myself, 'brava!!'  When you're forced to depend on yourself you can really be surprised at the strengths you may actually poses.

We then took an 8.5 hour flight to Kenya where a baby cried in front of us for the majority of the trip (who says kids are a joy?).  After 2 hours of being in and out of sleep in the Kenya airport, we took off for Kigali where I was greeted by one of my best friends - Karyn Makins.  What a long awaited hug that was! It was an amazing 'ease' into the Rwandan city having her there.  She not only greeted me with an amazing carepackage (cell phone and soup included), she also showed me around the city, convinced me to take my first taxi moto ride (motorcycle taxi), showed me where her home has been for these past months and then took me to a cute and quiet outdoor restaurant, 'chocolate' (shocolat).  It was such a blessing and a joy having her comfort and conversation with me for my first full day in a new country.

My first sleep in Rwanda was in a hostile the our mentor, Jemma, booked for us so we didn't have to rush and bus it to our city.  My sleep was made 100x's better by having my wonderful bear, Tony, that my dear friends from work made me.  Thanks again Jeff and Amanda :)

It was then an early morning to breakfast and lunch, a 2.5 hour bus ride of BEAUTIFUL scenary and lots of stares, a quick settle in at the Fair Children Youth Foundation director's house (where we'll be for the first 5 days before going to our host families) and an amazing meal (complete with rice, veggies and goat) that led me to here! The internet cafe!

I'm sorry this second blog isn't as detailed about the people, the places and my full experiences yet.  I have limited time right now and need to organize the hundreds and hundreds of thoughts I'm having about this country.  Every human I look at that looks 20+ makes me wonder what their eyes have seen and what their hearts have endured.  The genocide only happened 17 years ago and I'm sure it is still fresh in many of their minds.  Seeing the hotel de mes collins (sp?) remined me of the scenes I saw in 'Hotel Rwanda' and of the thousands of dead bodies lining the streets... the same streets that I walked on only yesterday. 

I thank you so much for all your prayers and thoughts as I just begin my time away from home! They truly mean the world to me and I promise that I am repaying them all while I am here.

If you have a spare moment or two and would like to send me a postcard (because I absolutely LOVE getting mail!!), below is the address.  Jemma says it takes approximately 1 month for mail to get to England from here, so I encourage you to start writing now :)

Stephanie Vanden Boomen
Fair Children Youth Foundation
P.O Box 5
Musanze, North Province
Rwanda

Love you all.
Peace and love
-Steph

ps- the blog title is 'I'll fly away' because Christian and Emmette (the director's 2 sons) have had that song on repeat since I walked through their door...apparently it's a favourite...and is already stuck in my head.