Drinking fountains amaze me now. Clean, purified water just flows with the push of a button! One of our full water bottles fell out of our jeep once and some kids picked it up. It seemed they had never seen clear water before! They smelled it, poured it on their hands, set it on the ground and stepped back to see if anything would happen... they never even drank any! It was a very strange sight.
It's also weird constantly knowing what time it is and having the ability to reach anyone at any time by texting or calling. However, I really did enjoy being alone with my thoughts and having the time to journal while reflecting. There's so much noise here, being consumed in silence while in Rwanda was honestly quite scary because it was so unfamiliar.
One of the things I keep thinking about is the Genocide Memorial. Some of the statistics remain permanently etched in my mind: Every 20 minutes, 1,000 Tutsi citizens were murdered. It was extremely painful to actually see some of the machetes used and the cracked skulls that were beaten. Sometimes, I would catch someone's eye and could sense the amount of trauma they endured.
The thing I miss the most are all the friendly people we would encounter. Everyone would drop what they were doing and wave. When I returned, I excitedly said, "Hi!" to several people, and not one acknowledged I had said anything! I'm disappointed with the lack of excitement in our culture, things don't fascinate us like they do with the Rwandans. They truly have taught me so many life-changing things. (Even now, my friends are talking about playing some board games but everyone has already packed them away. In Rwanda, the kids would use anything they could find to create games. I loved their creativity!)
I am beyond glad that everyone in our group was able to experience everything we did! It wouldn't have been the same trip if even one person wasn't present. Thanks for all the great memories, group!
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