It was a very long day...

Yesterday (Saturday) was incredible. I can't really believe everything that happened in one day. So in the morning Taylor (friend from Dartmouth) and I walked around the city. He showed me all of the best places--like where to get good samosas, chai tea, book stores, and places to catch busses when I want to travel around the country.

After that I took my first moto which is a motorcycle....I was scared for my life. I was holding on to the poor driver for dear life. Even though I was wearing a helmet...it was hardly on and was too big for my head, so if we had fallen I was surely a downer. But it was a real thrill being on that motorcycle (sorry mom).

Then we met Taylor's friend called Joseph who is a preacher from Kenya. He is a really interesting man. He introduced us to his family--three daughters, ages 4, 2, and a one week old. He lives in not the safest neighborhood where there are hundreds of prostitutes on the streets during all hours of the day. He decided that he would try to help these women get off of the street. So for the past year, he has been going out on the street almost every night to talk to these women and encourage them to join his congregation, where he will help them become self sufficient without having to sell their bodies to put food on the table and pay for their children’s' education. The reason Taylor and I went was because Taylor was going to record music that a group of the prostitutes were singing. They started a choir and sang beautiful songs. I got to play with their babies while they sang. I am amazed at how well behaved and happy these babies are who have literally nothing. I gave one of them my nalgene water bottle to play with and he seemed like he was having the time of his life playing with it!

After the choir finished recording, Joseph (the preacher) actually took us to the "neighborhood" where the prostitutes live. It was very sad to see the conditions in which they lived. First of all--there is no running water anywhere and no toilets or sanitation at all. They live in these one-room shacks usually with many kids. Most shacks contain only a mattress where the mother lives with her children (usually over five kids per mother). Joseph translated for me and told me many of the stories of these women. Ninety percent of them are orphans, many because of the genocide. One story in particular was very sad--the oldest prostitute with whom Joseph works was a Hutu, but was married to a Tutsi, and so her kids were considered Tutsi. During the genocide her entire family was murdered before her eyes. She had no choice but to go to the street. A large percentage of the women have been sexually abused in the past--many times at the orphanages where the lived. Most of the men who see these prostitutes are foreigners--Russians, Chinese, Americans. The women say that they have no choice but to be prostitutes. They have no education and no chance of getting a job.

Joseph has really been great to these women. His persistence with them is what has gotten many of them off of the street. We got to meet many of their kids while visiting their homes. As soon as they see a "Mazungo" or white person, they come running and hug your legs. They love it when I take digital pictures of them because they can see the picture immediately appear on the camera.

After visiting that neighborhood for a few hours, we walked to a house where a friend of Joseph’s lived. We took his car to go eat at a restaurant in town. Apparently it's one of the best in town--and I ate goat for the first time! It was.... interesting...they literally slaughter a goat right before you eat it so its probably really fresh--but still freaks me out. It was good but very tough to eat. We met my friend Pacifique there; she invited a friend called Ivan. It was a fun dinner and it was great talking with Pacifique and Ivan. I foresee myself becoming better friends with both of them. It cost me less than $5.

After my goat feast--I went home. I was pretty exhausted as we had walked around all day and I was ready for a shower, as I had been playing with little kids for a while. After showering I fell asleep at 8:30...I was awoken at 2:30 AM by Taylor, the boy from Dartmouth, because he was feeling really sick. He had a really high fever and probably had malaria. For some stupid reason, he decided not to take his malaria medication while in Rwanda.... and got it pretty bad. He was going to the bathroom and passed out on the floor. Since there is no one else in the house...I had no idea what to do. It's not like there are ambulances or taxi companies with phone numbers here...even the police are completely useless and unreliable--so I called someone from his phone. Fortunately he spoke English and had a car--I tried to describe where the house was located (there is basically no such thing as an address here) and eventually he got here. I tried calling the two hospitals around, but none of the numbers in the travel books worked! Finally I found one number online that worked.

He's fine now--but it was definitely an exciting night to say the least.

Today I am going to attempt running for the first time and I'll try not to get too lost.... and then this afternoon I will be going to work with the WE-ACTx family program--teaching English to the mothers and playing and teaching English to the kids.

I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekends! Miss you!