I walked to church this morning. It must have been about 30 degrees when I left the house at half nine. My shoulders are looking pretty toasted. The weather today was beautiful. I hear its pretty cold in the UK...
So I spent a couple of hours preparing food for the street kids and then cooked it over an open fire. Initially I was asked to chop the carrots, but was quickly demoted after dropping them on the floor. Without all the amenities of a western kitchen, cooking can be quite a challenge! And I made quite a stir when I sat on the floor to chop the tomatoes. They were all like 'No muzungu! No!' Apparently its a chair or nothing here. But everyone is being very gracious about my cross cultural faux pas. And it turns out that they use the term 'street kids' to refer to all homeless people, regardless of age, so most of the 'kids' we served food to were older than me!
Some of the neighbourhood kids were hanging around because they knew we had food, so we gave them the leftovers.
There was a garden of cacti to represent the fact that Rwandans had to try and protect themselves because no one else was willing to come and help them.
So I spent a couple of hours preparing food for the street kids and then cooked it over an open fire. Initially I was asked to chop the carrots, but was quickly demoted after dropping them on the floor. Without all the amenities of a western kitchen, cooking can be quite a challenge! And I made quite a stir when I sat on the floor to chop the tomatoes. They were all like 'No muzungu! No!' Apparently its a chair or nothing here. But everyone is being very gracious about my cross cultural faux pas. And it turns out that they use the term 'street kids' to refer to all homeless people, regardless of age, so most of the 'kids' we served food to were older than me!
Some of the neighbourhood kids were hanging around because they knew we had food, so we gave them the leftovers.
After this, I went to help out the Ubuzima ladies. They tried to teach me to use a sewing machine, but after realising this was beyond my capabilities, I was asked to make beads instead. These beads will be painted and turned into necklaces in the coming weeks. Mama Deborah, who runs Ubuzima, was the only one who could speak English, so communication was quite difficult!
Then in the afternoon I went on my own to the Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre. I managed to hold it together until I got to the section about the failure of the international community to prevent the genocide or intervene. We knew what was going on, were even on the ground to witness the massacres, but we did nothing. Shame on us.
There was a garden of cacti to represent the fact that Rwandans had to try and protect themselves because no one else was willing to come and help them.
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