DAY EIGHT

Today was another amazing and very busy day.

First of all the ladies who had African dresses made walked up to town after breakfast to pick them up from our lovely dress maker. Although we did spend a lot of time with her talking about different styles and the looks of our dresses I think we were all very surprised with the patterns that we ended up with. Mine was very different than what I thought I asked for but hey, you couldn’t doubt the quality and finish of the dresses. The finish products were really very beautiful and we all looked truly striking with wonderful block colour and mad patterns. There is something about African dresses that makes you stand out from the crowd, oh and boy did we stand out!!!!!

For the rest of the morning we were at the Centre for Champions. We got the boys and girls to show us how to do some of their traditional African Dances. Although there were some good efforts by all there are two notable mentions. Chiz for his “right up the front” fancy foot-work and Kate’s really good try, in getting one of the girls to stand in front of her and copying everything she did.

After the Dancing it came time to give all the children a pencil cases that had been donated by the many people at Riverview. These pencil cases were very special. They had been personalised for all the children, with their names on the front as well as on 8 pens and one ruler. There was also a bunch more stuff in there including a photo of them which was had taken and printed in the past couple of days (This was more than a mission but I am happy to say that there was only one boy who had to wait for me to print him out a photo - only one!!!).
The giving of the pencil cases was truly amazing and humbling experience.

Chiz has been talking about, in the previous days at the centre, that God knows them. That He knows every hair on their head and that He knows them by name. And we were able, thanks to the generosity of Riverview to prove him right. God knows them all by name and so do we. The faces of the kids as they saw their names on their own pens is something that will stay with me forever. It was beautiful, even the biggest boys were running about showing off their new stuff and pictures of themselves.

After the centre it was a quick lunch and off to a wedding??? It was one of the AEE staff member’s wedding days and we were honoured to be invited. So off we went to Kigali all dressed up in our best clothes, which now included 10 women in traditional African Dresses. We were a sight I tell you! No lies. The colours were almost blinding but we all pulled it off amazingly.

A wedding in Rwanda is very different from one in Australia. First of all the ceremony can go for 7 hours and the reception doesn’t involve food and mingling, but one soda and sitting and listening to speeches and watching dances. We missed the ceremony as it had been going since 11am but we made it for the reception, which we were sitting right down the front for. It was in a room set up for school plays and the bride and groom and their family were all on the stage. It was so different to a wedding in Australia but so incredible be involved in. We left the wedding early, after only 4 hours at the reception and went for dinner. And then we crashed.......ahhh sleep.

A long, lovely, amazing day here in Rwanda. Thank the Lord for giving it to us.

Sophie