I love you, Mom!

Hello all! HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!! (Mom :])

It seems like we've been here for a lot longer than six days... and I can't believe we're not even half way done yet! We have seen so many insane sights, like today when we saw the gorillas. It was such a humbling experience because they are so massive- we were five feet away from them! The "teenage" gorillas were classic; they were constantly climbing a mass of branches then jumping off and rolling. At first, I was pretty intimidated by the Silverback, but he didn't do too much.

I'm fascinated by all the languages we hear here. Almost every adult knows at least three: French, English, and Kinyarwandan. Yesterday and today I spoke with someone in Spanish whose native language is Congolese. It was really cool! I'm learning a lot more about the culture than I ever expected to, about things like weddings and gender differences. The women here are so strong! They will be carrying a baby on their back, a sack of potatoes on their heads and a jug of water in their arms at the same time for several miles. It's incredible. The clothing is also very beautiful and the food isn't too much different than the U.S. except for the majority contains starch and carbs: potatoes, rice, noodles, etc. We also have several bananas a day. A few of us have gotten sick, just a couple of those from the food. I hope we will continue to stay healthy. (For my parents... I have been taking Airborne... haha)

Tomorrow we start working with the school kids! We met with Julie, the founder of Art of Conservation, today for lunch. She gave us song and work books to assist us with the lesson plans for the kids. Tonight my professor will sketch one up and we will all learn the songs in Kinyarwandan to teach them. I also learned that we will be constructing toilets on a dirt tennis court outside the school. This is exciting considering the current "toilets" are holes! We will bring all the donations to the school tomorrow (or on the last day) and I know that Julie has also received a lot!! It's quite exciting.

Us girls are going to the market tomorrow to have dresses made from the fabric we've purchased. We're going to ask the girls at the school to teach us to walk with items on our heads. Then we'll be true Rwandans! (to go along with our new names, of course.)

I hope everyone in America is doing well!

Mukundwa :)