We are about 20 minutes until boarding – waiting at the airport in Kigali. Today was a pretty ‘chill’ day – we spent a lot of time buying souvenirs at an artist co-op. It was kind of a struggle to spend all of our money, but we all managed. There was some really awesome stuff there ! After souvenir shopping, we headed to the UTC to have some lunch and get a chance to buy coffee or tea. (Matt : I even found a screw in my schwarma ! Luckily, this unfortunate discovery yielded a hefty discount on lunch. After lunch, we headed to the airport, and checked in. We’re waiting at the gate now !
Before heading out this morning, we all went to see the sun rise over ASYV. It was really beautiful, and despite our exhaustion from waking up at 5, we all enjoyed it. After heading back and eating some breakfast, we were witness to the planting of a new tree at Agahozo Shalom – one commemorating the Tufts 2010 trip ! The tree will hopefully one day grow to be a beautiful African Tulip tree.
-----
Sorry about missing yesterday ! Here’s a brief summary of the happenings :
Yesterday morning, we did our final portion of the construction project. As Rachel said the night before, we had an incredibly strong finish and pulled through with flying colors. We then had a fantastic discussion about how we are going to bring the spirit of ASYV over the summer – writing newspaper articles, speaking at our high schools, churches and temples, organizing parlor meetings, etc. and then back to Tufts. It was really inspiring to hear everyone’s ideas and I cannot wait to get started.
Next, we packed and took breaks to hang out with the kids. I hung out with the photo club for a while- admiring the breathtakingly beautiful pictures they have all taken of each other, capturing a magnificence I hope they recognize themselves. We then played the mostly especially fun game of soccer (or futbol as they say in Rwanda) I have ever played in my life. Although ASYV won 1-0 against the mighty Tufts Jumbos, the camaraderie, teamwork, and love on the field was palpable.
Closing the day with an amazing family time was the most wonderful ending to a spectacular week.
The plane is starting to board so we have to go.
Signing off !
-Matt and Hillary
P.S. This just in. Rachel asked a Ethiopian Airlines staff member why we weren’t boarding (as our boarding time was about 24 minutes ago). She looked at the ticket, and said that the boarding time was 3 :00. Rachel informed her of the time, and the woman said : « Oh my goodness ! We need to board ! » and ran off. See you tomorrow, hopefully !
P.P.S. Boarding now !
Friday, June 4, 2010
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Tikkun Olam, Repairing the World
Muraho!
Matt and Hillary again!
Matt: We had a very productive day in the village today – spending a whole lot of time with the kids as well as doing many, many hours of service. All in all, a great day. We started it all off by working inside the village with some of the Rwandan day workers on various projects.
Because the football field was not available today, we were split between the construction of the new science labs (Matt: I’ve gotten a brief glimpse at the curriculum proposed, and it’s really really amazing!), the amphitheater, and building new houses for next year’s students. It was nice to get the chance to work with our hands. Hillary and I worked primarily in the amphitheater. We all had some great conversation carrying stones (Amabuye) and cement (sima) from one place to the other. We got the stairs done in record time, and it is our understanding that the actual stage is up next. Needless to say, the amphitheater is drop dead gorgeous. The head of the health and wellness center at the village even paid us a visit at the site, and we had the chance to ask her all sorts of questions. It was definitely a valuable experience.
After our volunteer experience, we had lunch (always fun) with the students of the village, and headed off to do Tikkun Olam (repairing the world in Hebrew) projects! I was paired with a group of Rwandans who were building a garden for the local clinic in Rabona. Getting the chance to really learn different aspects of construction (especially when you can’t use electric power) was really valuable. Also seeing the fruit of our labors was really interesting.
An aside: as I was leaving for home before Rwanda, my boss gave me a bunch of shoes that his kids never wore for one reason or another. These baby shoes, while being absolutely adorable, could not be used by the kids here as their feet are way too big. Instead, I brought them with me when we went to the clinic. At the clinic, I had the chance to give these shoes to some Rwandan children. I feel like I gained in two ways. The first is the more obvious: seeing the children’s smiling faces while putting on the shoes that had come all the way from Massachusetts was really rewarding. I received at least one hug and many smiles. The other way in which I gained was that I saw how far different the village is from what I had done – the village is designed to be a sustainable service project. Handing out shoes is a band-aid. What the kids at this school get is a real chance to improve their lives and those around them.
With this revelation on my mind, I turned around and headed back to the village. Once back, I had the chance to go to the Learning center and tutor a couple kids. Though my geometry skills are sub-par, the students and I were able to work through a bunch of problems. Great fun :-D. After a change (because my clothes are SO filthy – the red dust really gets on everything), I headed to dinner, family time, and a quick meeting with the group. Then… off to bed! Hillary’s turn now:
Hillary: So today I had the distinct privilege of accompanying my friend to the nearby school in Rabona during Tikkun Olam. He had been telling me how proud he was of the work he was doing at the school. He had a lesson plan all set and was looking forward to teaching his group of 30 ten-year-olds English. When we arrived at the school, he was greeted with squeals from swarms of little kids each trying to grab his hand. For one hour these children sat at full attention, hanging on his every word as he introduced the concept of superlatives and comparatives. He transformed from a teenager to an adult and took full command of the class. If you ask any of the kids if they like Tikkun Olam, their unvarying response is a raised eyebrow shrug “of course.” These kids have taken full ownership of their projects, allowing them to both share the gifts they have been given by the village and, in turn, receive the self confidence to know that they can make a change in their world.
See you all soon!
-Matt and Hillary
Matt and Hillary again!
Matt: We had a very productive day in the village today – spending a whole lot of time with the kids as well as doing many, many hours of service. All in all, a great day. We started it all off by working inside the village with some of the Rwandan day workers on various projects.
Because the football field was not available today, we were split between the construction of the new science labs (Matt: I’ve gotten a brief glimpse at the curriculum proposed, and it’s really really amazing!), the amphitheater, and building new houses for next year’s students. It was nice to get the chance to work with our hands. Hillary and I worked primarily in the amphitheater. We all had some great conversation carrying stones (Amabuye) and cement (sima) from one place to the other. We got the stairs done in record time, and it is our understanding that the actual stage is up next. Needless to say, the amphitheater is drop dead gorgeous. The head of the health and wellness center at the village even paid us a visit at the site, and we had the chance to ask her all sorts of questions. It was definitely a valuable experience.
After our volunteer experience, we had lunch (always fun) with the students of the village, and headed off to do Tikkun Olam (repairing the world in Hebrew) projects! I was paired with a group of Rwandans who were building a garden for the local clinic in Rabona. Getting the chance to really learn different aspects of construction (especially when you can’t use electric power) was really valuable. Also seeing the fruit of our labors was really interesting.
An aside: as I was leaving for home before Rwanda, my boss gave me a bunch of shoes that his kids never wore for one reason or another. These baby shoes, while being absolutely adorable, could not be used by the kids here as their feet are way too big. Instead, I brought them with me when we went to the clinic. At the clinic, I had the chance to give these shoes to some Rwandan children. I feel like I gained in two ways. The first is the more obvious: seeing the children’s smiling faces while putting on the shoes that had come all the way from Massachusetts was really rewarding. I received at least one hug and many smiles. The other way in which I gained was that I saw how far different the village is from what I had done – the village is designed to be a sustainable service project. Handing out shoes is a band-aid. What the kids at this school get is a real chance to improve their lives and those around them.
With this revelation on my mind, I turned around and headed back to the village. Once back, I had the chance to go to the Learning center and tutor a couple kids. Though my geometry skills are sub-par, the students and I were able to work through a bunch of problems. Great fun :-D. After a change (because my clothes are SO filthy – the red dust really gets on everything), I headed to dinner, family time, and a quick meeting with the group. Then… off to bed! Hillary’s turn now:
Hillary: So today I had the distinct privilege of accompanying my friend to the nearby school in Rabona during Tikkun Olam. He had been telling me how proud he was of the work he was doing at the school. He had a lesson plan all set and was looking forward to teaching his group of 30 ten-year-olds English. When we arrived at the school, he was greeted with squeals from swarms of little kids each trying to grab his hand. For one hour these children sat at full attention, hanging on his every word as he introduced the concept of superlatives and comparatives. He transformed from a teenager to an adult and took full command of the class. If you ask any of the kids if they like Tikkun Olam, their unvarying response is a raised eyebrow shrug “of course.” These kids have taken full ownership of their projects, allowing them to both share the gifts they have been given by the village and, in turn, receive the self confidence to know that they can make a change in their world.
See you all soon!
-Matt and Hillary
Monday, May 31, 2010
A Day Without Thorns
After getting back to the village after 12:30 am yesterday, we were all happy to have a later start this morning, as well as a less emotionally draining day planned. We met at 7:30 to start our service work, but split up into different sites today.
Sara: I stayed at the same construction site that we have been working at because I have been really enjoying spending time with the day workers there. Today I learned even more names and made up a silly song about sima, which is an adaptation of the French word for cement, which I sang with the workers. They helped us pick out amabuye amato, which are "small stones," to carry to the stadium seats we are building.
Even though the language barrier with them is almost insurmountable, I have felt as though I am actually making connections with the workers -- who ask when we will be back when we leave! -- because we are laughing, working, and struggling with language together.
Julie: This morning I worked on constructing a science center. I worked with four other Tufts students stacking clay bricks in groups of 5-6 that are easy to carry. We then brought the bricks around the building from the large pile of bricks, that included broken bricks that we had to sort through. I was surprised to be working next to a women, since all the other construction workers I have met are men. She had almost no knowledge of english but asked me if I was married and laughed hysterically when I said no. I found out she was 18 and married. That was the extent of our conversation but we continued to work side by side sorting through the bricks and stacking them.
After our service work, we had meetings in small groups with some of the house mothers and counselors of ASYV. Both our group and those from ASYV had the opportunity to ask questions of the other side of the discussion. A lot of our discussion focused around the opportunities for their students to apply to and come to Tufts! We were excited that so many students are curious about coming to our school, but tried to explain the reality of not only the difficulty of the admissions process, but also the financial barriers that stand in the way of attending such an expensive school. This was difficult for many of us, especially since we all want the students to reach as far and for as many opportunities as they can. It was also interesting to realize that some of the counselors are interested in applying to Tufts for graduate school!
We also presented the staff with individual gifts of messenger bags, which were donated by Tufts Admissions and absolutely adored by the recipients. We saw mothers comparing their identical bags and immediately putting the things they had brought with them in the bags.
After the meeting, we had the opportunity to visit Austin's family friend at his amazingly beautiful lake house. The waterfront views were breathtaking, which certainly made up for the cramped and bumpy bus ride there! Buses in Rwanda are very different from those we are accustomed to...
After an amazing meal including goat, which many of us had never tried before, freshly caught fish, and many other delicious treats, we thanked Austin's friend and piled back into the bus to return to ASYV in time for EPs (enrichment programs) and sports. The bus ride back was a wonderful bonding experience, most of which we spent having a very loud sing-along that kept up our lightened spirits and made the ride fly by.
After EPs, where both of us tried to weave traditional baskets, we met with Nir, the current director of the village, who gave us a unique insight into the philosophy of the village and the Rwandan educational system.
After our nightly Thorns & Roses session, during which the two of us had a very difficult time coming up with any Thorns, we were very excited to head to dinner, because it was the first meal in two days that we had spent with the students. It was great to get back into the rhythm of village life, especially when students with whom we have been forming friendships told us that they had missed us and were happy to see us.
We are looking forward to spending as much time with the students as we can in our remaining two (!) days at the village. Tomorrow we will be participating in the students' own Tikkun Olam service projects in addition to our own.
Murabeho (goodbye) for tonight!
Sara and Julie
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Two days in one - Butare and Murambi
Hello!
Today kind of felt like two days. As many of you may remember from seeing our itinerary, we were scheduled to see the Genocide Memorial in Murambi today. Therefore, the day was mainly separated into pre-memorial and post-memorial experiences. Honestly, it feels like days ago before we went to the memorial, but we’ll attempt to speak of it as if it was a mere 12 hours ago.
First, we had to get up at the unfortunate hour of six to get breakfast and be at the gate by seven for the bus. Groggy and disoriented, the whole group crowded on the bus and headed first to Kigali to pick up several members of the staff who were to accompany us first to the national museum in Butare, then to the memorial in Murambi. The national museum was fascinating! It contained explanations of things as simple as the hunter-gatherer culture of the ancient Rwandan tribes to things as complex as their language, social structure, and the making of banana beer. As we are all still very much on “Rwandan time” as Rachel likes to call it, we came roughly 45 minutes late to lunch, as we all wanted the purchase items at the national museums bookstore.
Lunch was, in a word, glorious. We dined at a hotel’s restaurant in downtown Bustare, and were treated to such rare delicacies as pasta, pizza and French fries! French fries!!!! Needless to say, while we are all enjoying the fine cuisine Rwanda has to offer, we are looking forward to a hamburger and fries upon a safe return to America (although not so soon!). Lunch, then another round of shopping at a local co-op were a lot of fun, though we were by this point roughly two hours behind schedule. Shrugging our shoulders, we packed back into the bus and headed to Murambi. It was at this point of our journey that we were confronted with possibly the most breathtakingly beautiful sights yet. The famous Rwandan “terraced hills” surrounded our bus as we traveled along packed roads towards Murambi. People crowded the sides of the highway on bikes and on foot, carrying heavy loads of bananas, hay, or sugarcane. We arrived at Murambi while the sun was still high, yet past its zenith. You know, four o-clock or so.
The Murambi memorial was a school where Tutsi people were told to go, because they would be safe. Over 55,000 people gathered in the school buildings. It was April 21, 1994 when the soldiers came. Of the 55,000, only six are known to survive. Today, this site is maintained as a genocide memorial center, and is the only of its kind in the world. When the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) came to the school site, they begane to exhume the bodies for a more humane burial. They came across bodies that were not entirely decomposed. Instead of interring them in the traditional way, the RPF decided to preserve their bodies with lye (made by phosphoric acid and lard – a variation on traditional soapmaking or saponification). These bodies are presented in twenty four classrooms. There are 821 bodies in total. It was a highly visceral experience for the whole group. We had a beautiful memorial service outside of the memorial, and with grief in our hearts, we headed back to Kigali, taking the lives of Murambi with us.
Throughout this entire day’s journey, we were lucky enough to have the accompaniment of Wilton, the principle of the LiquidNet Family High School at the village. As one of the long term volunteers, Ido, so eloquently stated, Wilton is a man who does not care about Hutu or Tutsi, simply goodness. He spoke with us about reconstructing Rwanda and what it means to live side by side with your neighbor as fellow human beings. When I asked if he is able to forgive the people who killed 13 members of his family, he said that he could not, but that he wanted to live with them and form a more peaceful society. Wilton made an analogy between the students of Agahozo Shalom and the 12 Apostles. These children would carry with them the message of love and goodness and would create a brighter Rwanda. Both the memorial and Wilton’s speech touched all of in different ways. Both Matt and I felt hope at the idea – that this amazing group of 250 students could really change the country. The fire in Wilton’s eyes as he spoke this was truly inspiring. Like Will said in his speech at the memorial service- we witnessed an extreme amount and sadness today. But because of our work at the village, this reality of destruction became a message of hope. As Tufts students, we vow to tell the stories of the dead, the stories of these students, and the stories of this country. We will bring their memory and legacy into the future and just like the apostles and the students of ASYV, we will carry their message of hope with us around the world.
Murambi prompted some important questions about the nature of humanity. On the ride back, a volunteer (Barry) told a story: Last week, many students in the village ran in a marathon commemorating the genocide, Barry ran along with them, and after the race, a student who ran a half-marathon offered her his biscuit. Barry asked him why, saying she already had a biscuit. He explained to her that “I share everything I have. We all have to share everything we have. To be human is to share everything we have.” He then proceeded to share his biscuits with anyone around.
It is with this inspiring story, we bid you a good night. It is exceedingly late out here in Africa, and we have to get up early (again!) tomorrow to work on the stadium seating for the soccer (football) field. Ijoro Rwiza! (Good night!)
-Matt and Hillary
Today kind of felt like two days. As many of you may remember from seeing our itinerary, we were scheduled to see the Genocide Memorial in Murambi today. Therefore, the day was mainly separated into pre-memorial and post-memorial experiences. Honestly, it feels like days ago before we went to the memorial, but we’ll attempt to speak of it as if it was a mere 12 hours ago.
First, we had to get up at the unfortunate hour of six to get breakfast and be at the gate by seven for the bus. Groggy and disoriented, the whole group crowded on the bus and headed first to Kigali to pick up several members of the staff who were to accompany us first to the national museum in Butare, then to the memorial in Murambi. The national museum was fascinating! It contained explanations of things as simple as the hunter-gatherer culture of the ancient Rwandan tribes to things as complex as their language, social structure, and the making of banana beer. As we are all still very much on “Rwandan time” as Rachel likes to call it, we came roughly 45 minutes late to lunch, as we all wanted the purchase items at the national museums bookstore.
Lunch was, in a word, glorious. We dined at a hotel’s restaurant in downtown Bustare, and were treated to such rare delicacies as pasta, pizza and French fries! French fries!!!! Needless to say, while we are all enjoying the fine cuisine Rwanda has to offer, we are looking forward to a hamburger and fries upon a safe return to America (although not so soon!). Lunch, then another round of shopping at a local co-op were a lot of fun, though we were by this point roughly two hours behind schedule. Shrugging our shoulders, we packed back into the bus and headed to Murambi. It was at this point of our journey that we were confronted with possibly the most breathtakingly beautiful sights yet. The famous Rwandan “terraced hills” surrounded our bus as we traveled along packed roads towards Murambi. People crowded the sides of the highway on bikes and on foot, carrying heavy loads of bananas, hay, or sugarcane. We arrived at Murambi while the sun was still high, yet past its zenith. You know, four o-clock or so.
The Murambi memorial was a school where Tutsi people were told to go, because they would be safe. Over 55,000 people gathered in the school buildings. It was April 21, 1994 when the soldiers came. Of the 55,000, only six are known to survive. Today, this site is maintained as a genocide memorial center, and is the only of its kind in the world. When the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) came to the school site, they begane to exhume the bodies for a more humane burial. They came across bodies that were not entirely decomposed. Instead of interring them in the traditional way, the RPF decided to preserve their bodies with lye (made by phosphoric acid and lard – a variation on traditional soapmaking or saponification). These bodies are presented in twenty four classrooms. There are 821 bodies in total. It was a highly visceral experience for the whole group. We had a beautiful memorial service outside of the memorial, and with grief in our hearts, we headed back to Kigali, taking the lives of Murambi with us.
Throughout this entire day’s journey, we were lucky enough to have the accompaniment of Wilton, the principle of the LiquidNet Family High School at the village. As one of the long term volunteers, Ido, so eloquently stated, Wilton is a man who does not care about Hutu or Tutsi, simply goodness. He spoke with us about reconstructing Rwanda and what it means to live side by side with your neighbor as fellow human beings. When I asked if he is able to forgive the people who killed 13 members of his family, he said that he could not, but that he wanted to live with them and form a more peaceful society. Wilton made an analogy between the students of Agahozo Shalom and the 12 Apostles. These children would carry with them the message of love and goodness and would create a brighter Rwanda. Both the memorial and Wilton’s speech touched all of in different ways. Both Matt and I felt hope at the idea – that this amazing group of 250 students could really change the country. The fire in Wilton’s eyes as he spoke this was truly inspiring. Like Will said in his speech at the memorial service- we witnessed an extreme amount and sadness today. But because of our work at the village, this reality of destruction became a message of hope. As Tufts students, we vow to tell the stories of the dead, the stories of these students, and the stories of this country. We will bring their memory and legacy into the future and just like the apostles and the students of ASYV, we will carry their message of hope with us around the world.
Murambi prompted some important questions about the nature of humanity. On the ride back, a volunteer (Barry) told a story: Last week, many students in the village ran in a marathon commemorating the genocide, Barry ran along with them, and after the race, a student who ran a half-marathon offered her his biscuit. Barry asked him why, saying she already had a biscuit. He explained to her that “I share everything I have. We all have to share everything we have. To be human is to share everything we have.” He then proceeded to share his biscuits with anyone around.
It is with this inspiring story, we bid you a good night. It is exceedingly late out here in Africa, and we have to get up early (again!) tomorrow to work on the stadium seating for the soccer (football) field. Ijoro Rwiza! (Good night!)
-Matt and Hillary
Saturday, May 29, 2010
A Sky Filled With Stars
Today we went on a tour of Rabona and a hike through the neighboring village. Every single one of us felt like a celebrity- we had trails of people (mostly adorably scrumptious little kids) following us for the three hours we were walking. My favorite moment was when Sarah taught the girls following us who may have only known a word or two of English, how to sing a song about peace in Hebrew called Ode Yavod. These three beautiful girls sang along with us for hundreds us yards and even taught us a couple songs of their own. While it was hard to see the poverty of the surrounding region, it is amazing to see how welcoming and kind these people are and that around the world kids can be kids no matter where they come from.
We then sprinted back up the hill to make it make it back in time for Havdala, a service marking the end of the Sabbath. For me, I can honestly say that the most meaningful religious, experiences I have ever had have been in this village. The service was all about tuning into all of your senses through the candle, the wine (i.e. water with grape flavored crystal light), and the smell of cinnamon. So no matter how people connected spiritually, that fact that we were singing both Jewish songs and “Lean On Me” under a sky filled with the most amazing stars you can ever imagine, surrounded by a village of passion, affection and love was truly the most amazing experience.
Matt Davis, Rachel Olstein and I were interviewed today for the ASYV newspaper. They students asked us questions like “Why did you want to come to ASYV?” We said that we came here to learn from them because they have so much to teach us. We also came because of the connection between Tufts and ASVY, because they are a sign of hope and because we believe in the motto – If you see far you will go far. They asked, “What is the greatest thing you see in ASYV?” We said the philosophy of Tikkun Halev and Tikkun Olam (Repairing your heart and repairing the world)..and many more questions that we will try to blog about later.
Also today, during the Umuganda community service time, I worked on the soccer field. And as was said before, a slight “slacking off occurred,” but it meant that I could have an hour long conversation with a boy about history- everything from the Aztecs to the Boston Tea Party. In return, he taught me about Rwandan geography and economy. This is just one example of many in which Tufts students are constantly blown away by their intellect and passionate curiosity.
One final amazing moment, just showing the amazing capacity for love in this village was at dinner tonight. The students always insist on clearing our plates for us and we tried to refuse tonight- culminating in a tug of war battle for a single plate. The girls were all laughing and when Daphne asked why it was so important to them, one beautiful and sweet girl replied, “Tikkun Olam.”
Signing off for now!
Hillary and Matt
*Sorry for any grammar mistakes!
We then sprinted back up the hill to make it make it back in time for Havdala, a service marking the end of the Sabbath. For me, I can honestly say that the most meaningful religious, experiences I have ever had have been in this village. The service was all about tuning into all of your senses through the candle, the wine (i.e. water with grape flavored crystal light), and the smell of cinnamon. So no matter how people connected spiritually, that fact that we were singing both Jewish songs and “Lean On Me” under a sky filled with the most amazing stars you can ever imagine, surrounded by a village of passion, affection and love was truly the most amazing experience.
Matt Davis, Rachel Olstein and I were interviewed today for the ASYV newspaper. They students asked us questions like “Why did you want to come to ASYV?” We said that we came here to learn from them because they have so much to teach us. We also came because of the connection between Tufts and ASVY, because they are a sign of hope and because we believe in the motto – If you see far you will go far. They asked, “What is the greatest thing you see in ASYV?” We said the philosophy of Tikkun Halev and Tikkun Olam (Repairing your heart and repairing the world)..and many more questions that we will try to blog about later.
Also today, during the Umuganda community service time, I worked on the soccer field. And as was said before, a slight “slacking off occurred,” but it meant that I could have an hour long conversation with a boy about history- everything from the Aztecs to the Boston Tea Party. In return, he taught me about Rwandan geography and economy. This is just one example of many in which Tufts students are constantly blown away by their intellect and passionate curiosity.
One final amazing moment, just showing the amazing capacity for love in this village was at dinner tonight. The students always insist on clearing our plates for us and we tried to refuse tonight- culminating in a tug of war battle for a single plate. The girls were all laughing and when Daphne asked why it was so important to them, one beautiful and sweet girl replied, “Tikkun Olam.”
Signing off for now!
Hillary and Matt
*Sorry for any grammar mistakes!
Hike to the Rice Paddies
After our contribution to community service day, we went on a 3 hour hike to the rice paddies outside of Rubona, led by Prosper, an ASYV counselor and agricultural specialist. Seeing rural Rwanda was an amazing experience. On our way down, we were greeted by many of the locals with smiles and shouts of "Muraho!" ("Hello!"). When we got there, a group of Rwandan kids immediately ran towards us and began to play with us, somersaulting over bales of hay. It was truly heartwarming.
Community Service Day
Today is a nation-wide community service day. Everyone throughout the country participates in giving back in some way so we have been helping the students of the village in their service activities (weeding, cleaning). We've really been able to spark up great conversations with all the kids here as we work. (They've learned the slang word, "slacking off" from us while we learned history from them). It's just tempting to talk rather then work when you're in the presence of such positive energy. We may be really tired, but we are put to shame when we see how much these kids work. They even got up for a 6am run this morning!
After lunch, we are now going on a hike. Apparently the scenery will be spectacular!
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