Kids, Books, Rain

On Friday we did a bit of everything. In the morning we volunteered at a school in Rwanda. We helped a class of 1st and 2nd graders with math and reading. We helped a 3rd and 4th grade class learn about the environment and ecosystems in their science class. We told some older students about college and ourselves. After lunch, the group split up with two staying to help out in computer classes that afternoon. Four others, myself included, took what we thought would be a short walk to another school to help sort books for a library they were building. The walk turned out to be roughly an hour, in retrospect, we should have listened when we were told to take a taxi. We spent the afternoon beginning to sort through a massive stack of books, which had been donated by a group from Florida.

While most of the books were textbooks, we did have some fun revisiting our youth while sorting through children's books. We had a bit more fun trying to find the "wackiest" religious text. In the end, "God's got your number" and "Satan is alive and well on planet earth" were close ties. My personal vote was for a textbook that attempted to "debunk the myth of evolution". While we only had a few hours to sort books, we made significant progress in the massive pile of books.

Later that evening, we met up with our driver from earlier in the trip, Abdul, for dinner. He took us to a very fancy Italian restaurant, which served some incredibly authentic Italian (especially when considering where we are). The meal was great, the view over Kigali unbeatable, and the company fine. The only drawback was that it started to ABSOLUTELY POUR about 10 minutes before we were going to leave. We tried to wait it out, but ended up scrambling into a taxi and then back to our rooms. In the maybe 20 seconds I was outside between the taxi and front door, I got completely soaked through. The force of the rain was downright impressive. We all went to bed tired from the days work, full from a good meal, and eagerly anticipating the coming adventures of the next day.