Day 2 From Elizabeth's Perspective:

 

We all woke up around 8 and ate a breakfast made of eggs, carrots, and bell peppers. The home-cooked food was delicious and felt so African (I am sure that it was more luxurious than a typical African breakfast). After eating, we packed up to leave to go to Elsie's shop and proceed to Musanze. We were quickly introduced to African time- the bus driver arrived about 2 hours late. During our waiting time, some people went to play soccer with the neighborhood kids while others sat with Elsie in the courtyard. The soccer kids quickly learned that the certain hand gesture called "pounding" does not translate well. When the kids attempted to fist pump the African children, one child responded " I don't do that, I am Christian." We have yet to figure out what that means. Meanwhile, Gretchen was able to talk to Elsie about her experience with the genocide- what an amazing experience to listen to someone who has lived through such a tragedy. Both her mother and her father were killed; she was able to escape Scotland with her two kids and husband. She lived there for 6 1/2 years and returned to Rwanda where she couldn't sleep for nearly 2 years. I can only image the thousands of conflicting feelings that she possessed towards her fellow citizens, her family, and her country. Recently she was able to speak to her father's killer who later told her the location of his body. Her father's body was found and will be buried in August.

  When the driver finally arrived, we went to Elsie's store were we bought some handmade items. We stopped by bourbon coffee for lunch and drove two hours to Musanze. The drive was gorgeous as we were driving into the mountains and it gave everyone a chance to sleep, and think about our trip so far. After getting to the city we drove around quite a bit and then went to the cultural village- it was extremely entertaining (pictures will never do it justice). Brett and Gretchen were so sweet to be our queen and king- they fit the part well. After the cultural village, we went to the volcana lounge where we had pizza with another group from Saudi Arabia. It was fun to get to talk to them and hear about their trip- they leave Friday. I wish I could talk in immense detail about everything that we did today but I didn't want to make this longer than it already is. I do want to say thank you to all of our parents- this is an amazing experience that I, and hopefully everyone, will never forget.  I cannot help but see God in everything here.

-Lesley