Welcome to Gisenyi

After our meal in Kigali we ventured off for Gisenyi. It was a 4 hour drive in heavy rain that consisted completely of steep inclines and sharp S turns. But like I said, we made it. Everyone was quite tired but so excited to arrive. It wasn’t long before the young children were crowding around the bus trying to catch a glimpse of the new the Muzungu’s (white people). We went to Simone Pierre’s home (he is the Pastor who is hosting us) where his wife and neighbors had prepared a lovely feed for us. There were many great dishes but what stood out, and we would all agree on this, it was the BEST pineapple we have ever tasted!! Next stop was our housing facilities at the Presbyterian Guest House. We got unpacked fairly quickly and grabbed a nice cool shower before we settled in for the night on our mosquito net covered beds.

For the most part we all slept very well and came to the realization that folks here in Gisenyi like to get up nice and early! We woke up to a loud drum beat followed by a church service in progress right next door. We gathered together as a team, ate breakfast and then hit the road for the work site. Each day, all but two of our team travel to the work site. The other two members join Pastor Simone Pierre’s wife at their home to prepare the meals for the rest of team. It is hard to put emotion into a blog like this and so to express the feelings of seeing some of the living conditions in this area, what it was like to have so many children crowd around you and watch you work all day and then get so excited if you simply asked there name, would be impossible. When we arrived there were a number of local men already hard at work and we were able to quickly jump in and for some of us, learn a new trade. Though the communication may have been challenging at first, we all very quickly caught on to how things worked and were able to learn quite a bit about one another in the process. The amount of progress we made in the first morning was unbelievable. So much so, we moved ahead and began to lay bricks on 4th and 5th school rooms while continuing to work on our original plan of constructing 3 rooms.

Our day was cut short due to the rain, which actually turned out to be a blessing. It gave us this afternoon to get all of our supplies organized, take care of a few necessary items and even get a little bit of down time as we continue to recuperate from the travel. Everyone on the team wishes that you could all experience what we have already have in such a short time. THANK YOU so much to all those who are praying for us and we ask that you continue to as it is opportunities like these that we can truly show the love of Christ to our “neighbors”. We love you all and miss you already. Check back each day and share the site with your friends and family, as we will keep you in the loop with the all that is happening in Rwanda.

With Love,
Project Love Rwanda Team