We have arrived!!!!


We arrived in Rwanda early this morning. I am so tired. It was quite the adventure as far as traveling goes but it was a good trip. We left Thursday from O'hare and flew through the night to Amsterdam. When we arrived in Amsterdam it was 7 am local time. Since the airplane wasn't an easy place to sleep, most of the team ended up pulling an unwanted all nighter. We spent the day in Amsterdam on a canal tour, touring the Anne Frank house and just walking the streets of the city. It is such a pretty city and with a very unique feel to it. Not very many cars, but there are bikes, trains, and people walking everywhere. I didn't seem to figure out the rules of the road so we decided we were pretty lucky to get out without getting run over by anything :)

We got back on the plan late that night and flew through the night (another night that I think most of us got only an hour or two of sleep) until we arrived in Nairobi. We only were in Kenya for about an hour and then got on another plane and headed to Kigali. Needless to say, I am not going to download any pictures at the present time. I am going to try and catch a little nap, get cleaned up a bit and then I will spend some time writing more tomorrow.

The good news is we are safe and in an amazing place. Looking through the right lense, Rwanda is a beautiful country. In some ways, it reminds me of the times I have spent on the Mexico border but it is so much cleaner. The landscape is very hilly, there are flowers all over the place and there is little streams and lakes of water. Our housing arrangments are almost too nice but at the same time, I understand the safety precautions we have to take and our reasons for having to stay where we are.

Look forward to writing more later...