Update Seven from Rwanda

July 13, 2009

HEY EVERYONE!!

Just wanted to give you guys one more update on our trip to Rwanda.  It’s strange that today is the last day because in many ways it feels like we just got here and we are just heading to our next destination.  It’s amazing what all we have been able to experience and accomplish in the past two weeks and to be honest, I’m not sure how I feel about heading back to the U.S.  It has been a truly surreal experience and one that none of us will be able to forget.  We all have fallen in love with the children, the AMA staff, and all of Rwanda so it’s going to be very difficult to say goodbye tomorrow.

Anyway, I guess I should fill you in on what all happened today in Kigali.  We got up this morning and headed to a genocide museum and memorial near downtown.  It was definitely enlightening and an educational experience that left us emotional on many levels.  I don’t think any of us will ever be able to explain what we experienced at that museum well enough so that you can feel the weight of it all.  I really encourage all of you to check out the story of the Rwandan genocide that PBS filmed.  It was the very last thing that we watched inside the museum before walking outside where there were multiple mass graves decorated with flowers to honor the hundreds of thousands who perished here.

After the memorial we had lunch at the restaurant that we ate at right after we landed.  It was strange that we ended right where we began, but it was at this moment that I think it hit most of us that we are definitely leaving here as changed individuals.  After dinner, we headed to the markets and finished our last bits of shopping for all of you (and lets be honest…for ourselves, haha).  We left there and had a few hours of down time before our final dinner together.  The AMA staff took us to dinner at the hotel that the book and film, Hotel Rwanda, were based on.   It was an experience, once again, that I cannot explain well enough for you to really grasp it all.  I feel that we all came here with knowledge of the history of Rwanda, but experiencing Rwanda took all the education to the next level.  Having the opportunity to visit some pivotal locations and standing in places where history was made, was something I will be forever grateful for.

So now it’s time for me to get back to packing, but I want to leave you with part of a song that has been my theme song on this trip.  I pray that you will be as changed by the stories you hear from us as we have been changed by the experiences we have lived in the past few weeks.  Thank you so much for all the support and love you have passed onto us!  We will see you all soon!  :)

“Now that I have seen I am responsible.  Faith without deeds is dead.  Now that I have held you in my own arms, I cannot let you go till you are…” - Brooke Fraser

Forever changed,
Zach Schemenaur