Day 2 - Lakeside Fish Farm

Quick update from slow internet to let everyone know we are still here and STILL having a fantastic time! This morning we woke up and continued to help the children hone their frisbee skills. Which is difficult with the puppy here, who keeps stealing our frisbees! Haha :) We now have all 6 of their names down, just in time to meet the other children later this week! They do not know us by name quite yet, but more by our mannerisms,which they imitate to get our attention.

We went and helped set up the younger childrens' new home which they will move into tomorrow or Wednesday. It's a nice place with pleanty of rooms for the children and we can see the school from the back steps. Out the back gate is a banana tree grove, which is very cool (temperature wise) to stand in and full of facinating vegitation. There are so many banana variations here, some sweet like lemony-butter desserts, others bitter and needing cooked like potatoes. We are still learning how to identify them. As we stood there a huge thunderstorm rolled in. Which was amazing, especially as we were completely sheltered under the huge banana leaves!

Front of the new house

Roger, demonstrating their basketball "hoop"

The Banana Tree Grove!

Later we went out to the fish farm -- a huge piece of land on a lake that feeds into the Nile. On the drive out Faith stopped along the road to buy food. Children ran up to the car and stared at us,asking "what is that?" as they pointed at us. Kelly asked one "Wuzzup?", which sent the crowd into giggles. They continually tried to reach in and touch us timidly. A short time later, down a VERY bumpy road (we hit our heads on the roof a few times... with our seat belts on!), we made it to the farm. We were able to see the beautiful building they built on the Ishimweh side of the land, as well as the trenches that have been dug for the fish hatchery. We walked the whole land and thankfully didn't meet any snakes. They have snakes on the property that can spit venom at you to paralyze you before they ever bite you and poison you. Oh, and let us mention that they live on the ground... AND IN THE TREES! AK! Tara did step into a red ant hill on accident but got away with only one extremely painful bite on the ankle, despite being covered in them. The staff on the land report that hippos eat on the land in the evenings. We all decided to go camp there for a night or so in the near future to see them soon! REAL HIPPOS!

The well Tara was photographing..
when the ants got her ...

One of Faith's cows!

The drive to Lakeside ...

Faith's garden

The "trick" to carrying things on your head!

Faith on the porch of the new Ishimweh house!

Relaxing on the porch of the new house,
enjoying the view of the lake!

While driving down the "roads" (term used lightly) we saw these bare patches with planted shrubs. These are where the houses were of people killed in the genocides. When they were killed, their houses were looted and destroyed. This is all that remains. It was truely heartbreaking to hear Faith tell of the genocides, of the rivers and lakes being filled with bodies of adults, children and infants. Tomorrow we will go to the Genocide Memorial Museum with some other Americans we have met while here. Faith has been twice and has yet to be able to make it through either time. She will not be returning with us tomorrow. People have been known to become ill, pass out, and just collapse in sorrow while in the museum as it paints a very vivid image. But Faith makes the excellent point that it is important for us to understand this part of Rwanda history, as it is a part of the current Rwanda culture. Please pray for strength for us ....

If we have time tomorrow we will add pictures to this post from our local coffee shop "hang out" spot!

- Tara (and Kelly!)