Hello all,

I can't even explain how much I have enjoyed my time here so far. It has only been a few days but we have had the chance to experience the most wonderful things, with equally wonderful people.

We got to spend 4 hours hiking through the Gishwati Forest (which made me feel like I was walking through a Jurassic Park movie), stand next to a beautiful waterfall, survive a mad rush of rain water, and persevere through it all as a team. I really learned about how strong we all are.

Later that night, we all went out into the street of the Gishwati to talk with the locals. The children came up to us right away and we spoke with each other. The conversation was not easy because I only know a few phrases in Kinyarwandan and only they only knew a little English, but
the adults stood back and watched. They were more skeptical of what we were doing.

This experience happened because our Professor began to try and dance an African dance, although the children laughed, as we joined in we could see how more people became interested in what was going on.

As more people joined the group, we began singing a few songs we had learned in Kinyarawandan, then the children sang songs for us. We even got them to do the Hokey Pokey with us! I found that through body language we could communicate, and in turn we could all learn a little about each others' culture.

It was the most AMAZING time, just learning about each other. As we embraced their culture (by basically making fools of ourselves), they became more acceptive of ours and even the adults joined in on the singing and dancing. I can positively say this was one of the best days of my life!