Still in Love with...AFRICA

"These are just a few of the children in whose lives we fight for, and in whose honor we raise. Having met them, and served them, what an honor it is to be hosting this concert on their behalf. May God's hands bless them... with ours."

Help Africa Benefit Concert

Thursday, September 25, 2008
Time:
6:30pm - 10:30pm
Location:
American Fork Amphitheatre
Street:
851 E. 700 N.
City/Town:
American Fork, UT

Performing artists include:
T Minus 5
with guest performance by Lone Peak High School Choir
Cherie Call
& Debra Fotheringham

Live video of the performance, raffle - with prizes donated by the Utah Flash, UVU, and other local businesses, Auction of African artifacts, Uganda volunteer service video, and much more.

All proceeds go to the children and families in Uganda, Africa through HELP International and those involved who have and will continue to serve, empower, and cultivate growth in Uganda.

For more information about the organization, visit www.help-international.org or www.help-uganda.blogspot.com

You must be in your seat at 6:30pm. Tickets are $8.00 in advance and $10 at the door. To purchase tickets, please call ME or email me @ toriruth6@gmail.com or go to the HELP International Office - (801) 374-0556, the UVU ticket office - (801) 863-7469, or the American Fork Arts Council Office - (801) 763-3081.

AFRICA is still a huge part of my life and will continue to be, mm probably forevvvver. And thats a good thing. This is a benefit concert for Africa. But, it is even cooler, because I personally know these people we are raising money for and supporting. This is real and personal and I am inviting all of you to be a part of this concert. Thank you for all of your support with my African adventure, and here is another opportunity for you to be a part of it. Please come! It would be great to share this experience with you!
Thank you come again,
Vickitoria

TORI, isn't it about TIME, you post?

I know, i know.



My apologies my dear blog readers. Here's the thing...Once i actually get up enough courage to write 'my last blog' for Africa I will have to face the fact thats it is over...So i am struggling with this and instead of writing about my whole LAST MONTH of my african adventure and my being-home-in-america- feelings, i've pretty much done everything in my power to ignore this inevitable post....like, start a new personal blog! SO, visit my life after africa at tortotime.blogspot.com. (don't be confused with, tortortime.blogspot cause that is not it...TORTO is a nickname from my dear friend jonesa. so i thought i'd give it a try)



Anyways, here i go again ignoring what i know must be written...it is 2:39am and i do have work in just a few short hours. But i promise all my thoughts are just waiting to be written in this blog and i will soon.



Thank you come again.

love,
Vickitoria



To keep you sane until then...here are some pictures.














"A Little Bit of Love, a little bit of hope is all you need."--song that my choir would sing all the time.
Here are some kids in our neighborhood.
More than anywhere on earth I found that Africa is a place where there is much love and yet so much is needed.

















African women at our mayor's home town. Aren't their dresses cool?
















DJ (the one who saved me on the hike..) and Corbin the day we tested 100s of people for AIDs. Can't wait to write about that experience...





















My ridiculously sunburned face with my dear monkey, Fiona. She was a part of our Persons With Disabilites group. She was CRAZY and wrapped around me like a monkey and would rip our shirts down and act insane. Loved her so much. Most people couldn't stand her b/c she was so hard to handle and very very mischevious (sp??). Lindsi and I loved her w/ all of our hearts and she loved us too.
A group of us from our team went up to GULU which is Northern Uganda where the war was just 2-3 years ago. We taught business training in the displacement camps and this is a picture of one group after they successfully completed the training and their proud certificates. Seriously, my life was so incredible in that place.

What an adventure i was blessed to have this summer. Very honestly, there are many emotions involved and it is difficult to remember my life that seems like worlds away, yet so very close to my heart. (sorry for the cheeeeeze). Not an hour goes by every single day that i do not think about my dear Africa and this past summer, the relationships with the ugandans, the experiences in rwanda, and my best friends i made in my team.

Well, until the next time i can sit down and face the end of my adventure,

:(

heart,

TOR

Random pictures

Gash In the Ash

“Laugh uncontrollably…It clears the mind.” –one of the dove chocolates I ate this morning.
As most of you know I love to laugh. Laughing is probably my favorite thing to do in this world…mmm, perhaps it is tied with eating. Yes, eating and laughing are by far my favorite activities on this earth. Also, as most of you know I laugh quite often, quite loudly, and when I am laughing I have no control over my limbs or body. While dying of laughter I also often 1)start clapping 2) slapping my leg 3) stomping my leg 4) and in extreme situations I have no control over my bladder. This is me. I would just like to thank you all for being my friend even though I am an embarrassment to women everywhere and perhaps even humans in general. Well, here in Africa life is extra funny and I laugh just as much as usual if not even more so. I will admit that it can probably get annoying to my fellow team members. Gosh, they are so great to put up with me at times. Okay, so back to my story. This happened on June 11th. It was the night before the 2nd wave volunteers came and all through the house our little team was preparing and getting our lessons and lives together for the new comers. Well, everyone except for a select few who were helping Heidi fix her braces or watching her do so. Corb and Ashley were at the internet—that’s important for later…. So Heidi was on the couch with Amberlee laughing hysterically as they were trying to fix her braces. I was watching and laughing as well. Then after that surgical experience Heidi and I were looking at Amber’s huge swollen arm. While we had all been in Rwanda Amberlee stayed back and had injured herself. She had gone outside to save her laundry from the rainstorm when she hopped skipped and then skidded across the cement and completely biffed it and fell. She hurt her arm badly and had a gash, but instead of taking care of herself like any normal human being she slapped a band-aid on it without cleaning the cut. Now her arm was swollen and as Heidi and I examined it we decided that there must be rocks inside of her cut and it was getting infected. For some ridiculous reason this was the funniest thing in the world and we were acting like surgeons that needed to cut her open and get these infectious rocks out. By the way, Amber, Heidi, and I all laugh really loud and each other’s laughter makes us laugh even more—it is great. Anywho, we are dying of laughter when Heidi all of sudden busts out the best phrase of this journey in her best surgical tone, “Amberlee, you’ve got pebbles.” All three of us including Lester absolutely lost it. Everything happened so fast. Amberlee jumped up and ran to the bathroom b/c she too has a bladder problem like myself, and we are all screaming with laughter when Jackie says from across the room, “Heidi do not pee the couch.” I lose it and run to the bathroom dying of laughter and I am in the doorway not breathing because I am laughing so hard and I thought I was screaming to Amber to get off the toilet but apparently no words came out because she was not moving but just laughing even more. She then screams through her laughter, “Watch out for the pee on the floor.” And I of course can not take it and jump skip and plop myself into the bathtub and lose all bladder control. So friends, if you are picturing this your dear twenty year old tor is squatting in the tub laughing and going to the bathroom while our dear twenty one year old amber has gotten back on the toilet to relieve her self once more when suddenly Heidi comes in looking for any drain possible to relieve herself and the sink becomes her only option. Unfortunately, she does not make it in time and has already peed herself so she turns to lean on the sink and we are all dying and can’t breathe when CRAAAAAAAAAASHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! Porcelein pieces go flying, boiling hot water began spewing, and Heidi had crashed to the floor as well. The sink had completely and fully shattered. (Sidenote: Heidi is the smallest human being in the world and she was not sitting on the sink, just leaning. ) We screamed and all three of us were completely shocked but began taking action. I jumped up from the tub the same time Amberlee jumped off the toilet. Heidi stuck her thumb in the pipe that was spewing scalding hot water and the Amber and I were yelling for people to get some towels when I turned to Heidi and asked her if she was hurt. Our team started running in and poor Heidi was in complete shock and had no idea if her bum was hurt, but I looked at it and my word it was gushing blood. I automatically got into my “take charge” mode and got Heidi out of there and the commotion. I started barking orders as people came in, “we need alcohol swabs, guaze, get me a garbage bag, go get some clean rags, help in the bathroom, get the water turned off, we need a bucket in there, I need to stop this bleeding, she’s going white help me get her to the bed, get your first aid kits-now!, Heidi talk to me.” It was chaotic and stressful and unreal. Again, we couldn’t believe our lives. It was absolutely insane, ridiculous, and hilarious. It was the funniest time ever, but scary as well. Poor Heidi kept asking for Corbin because he is like our father in the way that he can fix anything, even her bum, but he was gone at the internet and no phone. She had three gashes in her bum and I knew immediately that one of them needed stitches. I could not get it to stop bleeding. I was literally tending to her bum for quite a long time. She had other scratches on her leg and one on her arm as well. The team was very helpful and cleaned up the bathroom and got the water turned off and helped me by getting bandages and alcohol swabs and butterfly band-aids. It was crazy. The family that lives with us kept saying, “So sorry. So sorry.” Really!? We’re the ones that were sorry!!! By the way Heidi was a champ and was so funny and was doing great while I was tending to her and everyone and their mom literally saw her gluteus maximus (sp?). FINALLY, about a half hour later Corbin and Ashley came home. We had the cameras and video camera out and recorded them coming in and their reaction. It was hilarious and I wish someone was recording our life at all times. They left and there was a sink and they came back and there no longer was one. They then turned and we presented Heidi and her bum and they started freaking out and laughing and Corbin kept saying, “Shut up. Shut up.” He then became all doctor on us and got all of his stuff and I was able to help him fix her bum. He agreed that her one of the gashes definitely needed stitches and he was so upset with himself that he hadn’t brought any. So he and I continued to clean out all the gashes and super glued the ones we could. He even injected some numbing stuff ( he is a medical assistant by the way) into the large gash. It was quite the night to say the least. Poor Heidi had to sleep on her stomach and not move much. The next day Corbin, Heidi, and I went to Jinja to the doctor we know there to get her stitched up. It was really great explaining to the doctor why she needed stitches in her bum. She got four stitches and is going to have the best scar ever. It was hands down one of the funniest nights of my entire life. We didn’t have water the next day which was perfect because the new volunteers were coming. Seriously, our lives are insane. I love every second of it. And I love Heidi and of course amberlee and her pebbles.

New Volunteers/praying in the the latrine/ Mt. Elgon/ DJ is my hero
Well, after quite the sink fiasco everything was running smoothly with the new volunteers. Heidi had a sore bum, but a great story to tell and our sink got fixed surprisingly quite quickly. The new volunteers came which meant that Jeff, Dan, David, Les, and myself had to move ourselves to the mayor’s house because we only have space for 16 people in that small home and we now had 24 volunteers. They came on a Thursday afternoon and we showed them all around our sweet town. Thursday night was my first night at Deo’s and it was quite a funny one because Lindsi S ( a new volunteer) and myself get a long quite well and think everything is hilarious especially the game of pogs we played. I went to bed feeling good about the new people in our group. However, I woke up around three freezing and needing to go to the bathroom. Our bathroom is located outside and though it is a flushing toilet it is right next to the latrines. Les woke up too and said she would come with me which I very much appreciated. We have to go through David and DJ’s room to get outside so we tried to creep past and be as quiet as possible and as we stepped off the porch the dogs started barking so loud and came running at us so Les and I naturally freaked out and ran to the bathroom. The dogs were still barking and I couldn’t go to the bathroom because there was no toilet paper. So les and I had to sneak back to our room, but the dogs heard us and started running back at us so we ran back into the house. I got toilet paper and we waited for the dogs to calm down and leave. . .by the way we had awoken everyone at this point. Feeling bad we rushed out the door and the dogs started chasing us again and this time were surrounding the bathroom barking and waiting for us. Les and I were so scared (I’ve gotten bit by two different dogs two separate times fyi!) because we were half asleep and not thinking properly and we didn’t know these dogs at all. So les looks at me and says should we say a prayer?!?! Uh, sure I said. So I said the prayer with both of us in the latrine. Please picture two girls praying in a latrine surrounded by barking dogs. Aren’t our lives cool? We are cool too. Then the dogs did leave and we briskly and stealthily walked back to our room and locked the door and apologized to everyone as we were laughing that we just prayed in a latrine. Everyone was laughing at us as well. Whatevveerrr. I woke up the next day with a strange burning behind my right knee. I looked down and there were 2.5 huge blistery bubbly bumps growing on the back of my leg. Many of you know any type of random unnecessary bumps on a human body really grosses me out so this definitely did. We just kind of assumed they were bites of some sort but drained them like blisters. Unfortunately they filled up quite quickly into gross small version of the first bumps. We kept draining them and no worms of any type came out so that was a good sign I think. Corbin cleaned it really well and took care of me like a good father would. The blistery bumps filled up again, but not as bad. We got a new mosquito net that day because ours had holes and we did not know what kind of bug did that to my leg or what was going on. My leg is better now though and there were no eggs inside the bumps or anything so no worries!!

Wow, so much to write about and so little time! More updates soon i hope!!
please keep praying for us--we need it. AND i promise an update on mt. elgon and all of my projects soon! Life is so good here! thanks for all of your prayers and thoughts!
love,

Ten Points Uganda, Zero Points Muzungus

So after a great experience in Rwanda learning about the genocide and talking with the survivors we came back to the hotel and had nice showers and some of us went to bed while the rest of us realized we had quite the money issue that needed to be resolved. We had a lot of money that we owed for the taxi, for the gas for Nadine’s truck, and for our hotel rooms. In fact, we realized that all of us did not have enough francs for all the money we owed. AND, it was too late to exchange money at the store and no atm would take our cards and no banks were open. We were short thousands and thousands of francs. Well after probably a good long stressful hour plus some of Jackie, Ashley, Emily, and me figuring it all out and who will owe who and how to exchange money we planned to be up by 4:30am and leave by 5:20am. Well, by 5:20am there was no taxi outside our hotel and we were getting worried that we might miss our bus. Finally, by 5:42am the taxi came and we hopped quickly inside and sped to the bus. The plan was for Corbin to jump out and exchange our last shillings for more francs to pay the taxi man and the rest of us were supposed to run to the bus. Corbin got the shillings and tossed them to Ash while the rest of us ran to the bus that was pulling away. We got on board and had to find seats sporadically throughout the very packed vehicle. It was pulling away and some of us were screaming out the window to Ash to run for the bus while the rest of us were screaming at the driver to wait for her. Chaotic and stressful the bus would not stop so we screamed louder to Ashley and she ditched the taxi driver and started booking it towards us. She literally jumped onto the moving bus while we were screaming at the driver to stop. It was a very stressful and intense couple of minutes of panicking. Ashley came to the back of the bus where there was one seat open next to a rather large human being. She had to sit sideways and was very much in the aisle just kiddy corner from me. Good thing she is little, but we felt bad for her and she was quite miserable. (SIDENOTE: some of this entry may seem like a lot of complaining, but in actuality it is really me just telling the facts)..I was sitting with Heidi and Rylee and across from Corbin and Les. For the first time in my life I was getting car sick. What a super great time to get car sick—at the beginning of a nine hour bus ride from H. E. Double Hockey Sticks. Corbin was great giving me hard candy, fanning my face, and filling out all the immigration cards for me. Les also kept the window wide open so I could have the cool wind on my face even though she was freezing. THANKS friends. Well while I was feeling ill and all thoughts were trying to focus on the funny things les and corb were saying something incredibly ridiculous happened. Ashley was still falling out of her seat and in the aisle when I looked up and all of sudden the man sitting directly in front of me and across the very narrow aisle from Ashley turned his body and crouched over and a consistent spew of some sort of liquid came out of him and landed on Ashley’s leg and foot. REALLY? Really. The liquid was going everywhere on the floor so I quickly picked up my backpack and gifts I had gotten and lifted my feet. Ashley was so grossed out she had no words for the current situation. The man that was to blame was acting like absolutely nothing had just occurred. No one had really noticed except for me and Ashley. WHAT JUST HAPPENED?!?! Did this man just vomit? We thought he seriously had just vomited everywhere, but as we thought about it more we realized it was a steady flow of liquid and there was really no vomiting sound which could only mean that mmmm, he did, in fact, just urinate all over the floor and Ashley on the very VERY crowded bus. GROSS. So, me being car sick instantly started praying that I would not throw up and add to the body fluids on the floor. Corb and les did not believe us, but they finally got the whole story and could obviously see the evidence. RIDICULOUS. Well, luckily we had reached the border of Rwanda and Uganda and had to get out for customs so we all got the heck outta there as quickly as we could. We were having a great time in the fresh air where we could stretch our bodies and breathe and not be sitting in someone else’s urine. We got through everything and then we all lined up to get our visas stamped which was just a routine and no big deal, right? WRONG. Apparently all of our visas had originally been stamped for ONE SINGLE ENTRY into Uganda and yes, you guessed it, since we had left this grand country and we were now RE-entering we had to pay $50 US dollars to enter once more. Needless to say, we were ALL VERY UPset. Infact, some of us were refusing and getting quite mad because a majority of us had absolutely no money and we were already owed each other money because we were short from the francs. But really, several of us just simply had no money. Thankfully, I randomly had $50 in my passport and was able to get through and then I had $20 more US dollars in my wallet that I gave to the money pile to try and get our friends over the border. I can’t even begin to express the chaos and the stress and the freaking out mode we were all in because all we wanted to do was get home and our bus was pulling through the border and half of our group couldn’t get through so we were scrounging up every cent we could find and discussing (yelling actually) back and forth about who is going to stay and if you stay who will take a taxi back to Kigali to get to a bank somehow to get more money for the group, etc, etc. So through all the chaos I got a phone and les and I ran to the bus and then Heidi and rylee got on too and the others were standing outside the bus frantically deciding what to do. Then somehow we had pulled enough money and we got two more of our group over the border and at the last second Jackie and Trent literally jumped onto the bus as it was pulling out. Lester and I looked out the window at Corbin, David, and Ashley left at the border and we felt like we had just betrayed our friends for life. It was the saddest feeling ever and they looked so devastated. Apparently nothing had been resolved and no plan had been laid out and everyone who could just jumped on the bus and we had both phones. Thankfully we realized Corb also had his phone so we were able to keep in contact with them. We then endured the worst bus ride I have ever encountered and will ever encounter. The bus ride to Rwanda really wasn’t that bad whatsoever, but the bus ride home was literally from H.E. Double Hockey Sticks. Horrible. I got even sicker and have never felt more claustrophobic in my entire life. I was so hot and sweaty and literally had a person on top of me for the whole nine hour journey. The people behind me also kept buying things from the side of the road when we stop (like cow brains on a stick) and kept hitting me with all the items and dropping crap on me. I also specifically remember them pulling out my hair. It was quite upsetting. In addition, my little ipod died within an hour of the bus so I couldn’t even drown out the horrible situation and had to listen to the blaring African music that gave me the largest headache I have ever had. Poor les also had a freak out moment. It truly was horrible and all the Africans kept staring at us. Not fun. AND, of course we felt awful for ditching our friends at the border. They had their own adventure too when they lost Ashley but then got everything resolved and she was able to get money for them to get on a bus back to kampala. Our bus made it to kampala at around four and we headed to Garden City mall to eat and to wait for the other three to show up. There bus didn’t come until around 9pm because it stopped in every village on the way home. We couldn’t even believe our lives….I know I say that every day, but really it is because every day that is true. Rwanda owned us that day. We have never been so happy to be back in Lugazi in our little crowded home.
That horrible journey home almost made the trip not worth it. Almost. Overall, Rwanda was incredible and unforgettable, but that last little stretch was quite insane.

CHANGED.

Me. I am changed. I thought I knew stuff. I thought I understood the genocide from the hours and hours of research and the numerous papers and books I've read. I thought I got it. I thought I could handle it. I thought I knew. I was wrong. Please note that I will try desperately to express into words the things I saw this weekend (sorry, now two weekends ago...), but I nor any one I have spoken with will ever be able to relay into any written language the experience we had in Rwanda, Africa. As most of my readers know there was an atrocious genocide in the 1990s in Rwanda that killed almost 1 million Tutsis. Our small group of mzungus had the sacred opportunity to walk the grounds where thousands lay dead and to pay respects to their graves and to the Rwandan people. We left our little house in Lugazi around 4:40am Saturday June 8th and traveled to Kampala to get on the huge bus from the Jaguar Bus Company that would take us to Kagali, Rwanda in approximately nine hours. It was supposed to leave at 6am and left 20minutes later of course. Strangely our seats were sopping wet which was uncomfortable and awkward, but we were all so desperately tired we ignored that. I sat next to Jackie in the very front and the bus ride was fairly enjoyable with no complaints other than the massive pot holes in the road. Then to my complete surprise (though I should have known better) a couple hours into it we pulled over. People began hopping out and I was thoroughly confused because we were literally in the middle of no where until I realized this was our little potty break. The bus just pulls over and everyone gets out and lines up next to each other and does their business, quite literally, on the side of the road/bus. Well, a bunch of my mzungu friends got out as well and joined the peeing party. It was beyond hilarious. (SIDENOTE: I am the only one awake sitting here watching the ridiculously huge black cricket/cockroach jump or fly or crawl on the couch Ashley has fallen asleep on. It scares me every time it moves. AND I just saw a gecko scurry across the wall so I am hoping it will find the large black insect of sorts and eat it. EW. Also, all of this doesn’t phase me one bit and I am thinking of capturing the large black insect maybe…oh shoot it almost landed on Ashley. I really should get up and get it before it gets lost in her blanket… ALSO, I really have to go to the bathroom, but we have absolutely no water—which is an absolutely ridiculous story I will tell later, and it is too late and scary to go use the latrine, especially if these types of creepy animals are inside our house next to me I can’t even imagine what is out in the latrine waiting….so sorry, back to the important weekend.) So we had our potty break and then an hour or so more into the ride our bus pulls over again, but this time it is because uh the clutch broke. UGH, no big deal right? Who needs a clutch anyhow?! So we waited and waited. And it was so hot and stuffy and lame so a few of us got out and sat in the grass on the side of the road and played travel scategorries. We were on the side of the road for about two to three hoursssss. ALSO not a big deal, they fixed the clutch with grass. It took several hours on the side of the road, but that is what they used to fix it and it worked. We arrived in Rwanda much later than anticipated, but we arrived and were greeted by Richard, the contact Aunty Peggy told us about. Richard is the General Secretary of the National Town Council for all of Rwanda. . . and he was the nicest man we have ever met. We were all starving so we went to a bank ( which did not take our ATMS. It became quite the hassle the whole weekend) and then to a sit down restaurant. Several of us got pizza (very popular w/ our group when we go to any type of restaurant that looks legit). I got a chicken salad which had an odd dressing on it, but I actually liked it a lot. Rylee got a vegetarian pizza which was quite disgusting in fact. We tried once more to change our shillings into francs, but alas no success. We went back to our Chez Rose Guest House which was pretty nice set up. There were two of us to a room and I was with Rylee. There were two beds to a room and a nicer bathroom than what we are used to with a very tall shower with HOT WATER. Oh my gosh we were all in heaven! We had a great night sleep and the next day (Sunday) we woke up and had a complimentary breakfast of bread, omelet, bananas, and steamed milk. We went to the Kigali Memorial Centre which was an incredible place. We walked around the grounds and the several mass graves that surrounded us were filled with 250,000 bodies. It was very intense. We had the opportunity to place a large bouquet of flowers on the mass graves and had a minute of silence out of respect for those lost and the lives affected by the atrocity. We then entered the building and walked around the numerous rooms that explained the history of Rwanda and the genocide. Reading the very detailed explanation, movies from survivors, and very intense pictures became pretty emotionally draining. They had a room full of photographs of people who were murdered and another room of skeletons. There were also rooms explaining other genocides that have occurred throughout history and the whole experience was overwhelming, but necessary. Upstairs there was a room dedicated to the children. There were large portrait sized photos of individual children with a plaque underneath describing who they were. It would say their name, age, favorite song or food, best friend, and favorite activity. One little girl, Channel’s favorite song was, “This Country My God Chose for Me.” I will never forget staring at her picture and having a ridiculous, helpless, devastated feeling overwhelm me. Tears just started and continued pouring out. I’m sorry if this is sounding dramatic, but I guess it was a pretty dramatic experience that won’t be forgotten, ever. I walked outside and sat with Corbin and Heidi and we just had to talk through the process that we were experiencing. We had spent four hours learning about the genocide and being surrounded and educated about the horrendous inhumane events. We felt helpless and sad and that we didn’t deserve the lives were living and couldn’t understand how something so cruel could happen in our world. How can power corrupt people to harm one another, but not just to kill, but to kill with such force and in such a gruesome manner? What we saw and what we learned was absolutely unreal. . . . . .except that it was very real.
We decided we needed a break from learning about everything and went to lunch at a buffet because our last restaurant experience took us three hours to get food. Literally. The buffet was delicious and we were all rejuvenated and continued to try to process everything we had seen. We then had the incredible opportunity to go to The Hotel De Colline. As most of you have seen Hotel Rwanda this is the exact hotel where all of that took place. Richard had arranged for the hotel manager to show us around and we got a small tour. The hotel is completely different from the movie set up and looks nothing like it. It is a very large hotel in the middle of Kigali (pronounced CHigali). I thought the hotel was more protected like in the movie but on one side there are only bushes separating the hotel from the street. We also met a man ( I think his name was Andes or something like that) who was the technician at the hotel during the genocide. He told us his story which was amazing to hear. His wife actually had their baby in the hotel while all the chaos was occurring. Also, during the movie (HOTEL RWANDA) there is a part when Paul sends his wife and family in a UN truck to escape the hotel and then the truck gets ambushed and barely gets out of the hacking machetes and returns back to the hotel. This man’s wife was also on that truck and barely survived. He also said that they lived in the hotel for two months and their were 1,000 people living as refugees there as well. He said that out of those months he only saw the front of the hotel maybe two times and he kept repeating how dangerous everything was. I asked him specifically why the Hutus didn’t attack the hotel like they often attacked churches full of people and murdered everyone inside. He said that he wasn’t sure, but that he did know that they had a huge UN flag on the top of the building so maybe that kept the Hutus from attacking. No one died out of those 1,000 refugees staying in the hotel. It was so great to be there and to hear his story and especially after I have seen the movie I could place in my mind how it must have been. Amazing. We then went home early and hung out at the hotel and then went to bed. The next day Richard had his friend, Nadine, take us to other places we were planning on seeing. We got in a taxi and drove for about an hour until we reached a little store where the locals sell peace baskets and other carvings and crafts. After stopping for an hour we jumped back into the taxi for 2 ½ hours and traveled to a museum that told us the history of Rwanda and all of it’s culture which was pretty interesting. There was a huge life sized hut of a king and queen that we went into which also seemed like a pretty saweet set up . We then got back into the taxi van and headed into the mountains. We had no idea what to expect or where we were going. We knew we were headed to a memorial sight but we assumed it was going to be similar to the Kigali center we had been to the day before. We were wrong. We were up in the middle of no where in the gorgeous mountains when the taxi turned down a dirt road and took us to this huge beautiful landing. There were mountains all around and we were on the top of this hill that had nothing except a random building. So we got out and walked up to the building which i guess used to be a technology school of some sort. They began talking to us and explained what happened at this site. The government in the area had told all the tutsis to gather atthe top of this hill at the school so that they could be protected better. 50,000 tutsis were living here expecting to get some the promised help from the government during the genocide. The government came and counted all the people and told them they were doing so so that they might know how many supplies were needed. Instead they were planning a systematic attack of this group of Tutsis and needed to know the exact number of people. After a few weeks of living there the people began starving and getting very weak which was a part of the Hutus plan. Then on the night of April 20th the Hutus attacked with guns and other artillery weapons supplied by the French. The Tutsis were weak and only had bricks and stones to throw back at them. 48, 996 people were killed that night within two hours. A complete massacre. The French then came back and put the bodies in a massive hole to and covered up the evidence with a volley ball court. Only four people survived that night and we met two of them and heard their story. It was unreal. One was a women who was a Hutu but her husband was a Tutsi. She had her identification card which saved her, but she saw everyone around her slaughtered. She was holding her baby and they kept trying to go after her with a knife to kill her daughter. Miraculously, her daughter also survived and is now in secondary school. A hutu soldier actually helped her escape because he said, "I have killed enough. I do not want to kill anymore." The other survivor was a man and we could see where he had been shot in the head. He hid under all the dead bodies and then escaped after they all left and went into the mountains. It was so insane to hear their story and made it so real. We also toured the grounds and the took us into the different classrooms in the buildings. Each classroom was full of skeletons. There were at least 10 bed frames to a room and they were completey covered with skeletons. Everywhere. The stench was overwhelming. Some of the skeletons still had hair. A few still had a shirt on. One still had their wedding ring. In several of them you could see where the machete had killed them. You could see the position they had died and their facial expression. It was like a nightmare being in those rooms, but i couldn't get myself to leave. I felt helpless and weak and small. I could do nothing for the dead that surrounded me. All i could do was enter every single room and pay respect to them. One room was filled with smaller skeletons....children. A room full of dead children broke my heart. Les and I started crying. We were these children's ages when the genocide happened. Why did we get to live and they had to die? These kids would be our ages right now if they hadn't been hacked by a machete. It was the most frustrating experience and the most devastating. We could touch their skeletons if we had wanted. It all seemed so unfair and wrong and cruel. We also saw the room full of the people's clothes and saw the mass grave and talked more to the survivors. We couldn't believe what we had just seen. On the bus ride back to the hotel we had some serious conversations about life and what we were doing with ours and what those children would be doing with theirs if they had the opportunity. Again, why was i born in America instead of the rolling hills of Rwanda? I was sick to my stomach. It is experiences like that that make one wonder about the life we're living and motivates you to be better everyday. Well, to me at least it makes me wonder why have I been given this opportunity and this life that i could never have deserved, and what am i doing with it???

more updates later.
please keep praying for us--we need it.

love,
tor

My African Life in Pictures

1). Jeff Looking like a doctor. Please note the sign.
2). The nicest church we've seen in Uganda. Part of the day with Deo.

3) Charts in the hospital. Look at the number of people coming in for malaria.



4) Our friend Patrick who is on the town council and headmaster/ teacher at St. Edwards. Giving the students directions.


On the left 5). An empty classroom at St. Edwards.