Turns Out You Do Need Grace: Breaking for Pleasure

It’s important to take a break every once and a while. To completely remove yourself from normal life and rid yourself of routine. It’s healthy. Yes, it’s important to be productive and active, but there’s a balance. While some people choose to brake for children, I break for pleasure.

Life here in pleasant Rwanda continues. We've been enjoying a two and a half week break off of school. We started our break by going down to Gitarama, a town about an hour outside of Kigali. There we made a few sound panels for a children’s home, Urukundo (the Kinyarwanda word for love). The next day, we traveled a little further south to a town called Butare to learn a bit more about Rwanda’s history. While there we visited the national museum and we saw the king’s palace from the early 1900’s. For those of you who are picturing a beautiful castle, let me put your imagination on hold. The king’s palace was a one room hut divided into four different sections. The last king, King Mutara, built a modern-palace that was quite a leap from the hut used for the past several hundred years. Mutara’s palace was more like a large house with six or seven individual rooms. Rwanda has quite a unique history. I won’t go into it all now because some of you were hoping for a few minutes of leisure reading rather than a history lesson, but I do encourage you to do a bit of research in your own time.

We stayed in Kigali for one full week, visiting friends and relaxing at home. Then, on Monday, of this past week, we packed up the car and headed north to Uganda. It was time to safari! (Pun intended, for those of you who know Swahili.) We drove eight hours on a combination of well-paved roads, smooth dirt roads, and roads littered with potholes. We arrived at Queen Elizabeth game park and were greeted with one of the most spectacular views our eyes have beheld thus far. Truly incredible. We went on a game drive (safari) the next day and saw elephants, water bucks and kobs (native animals), a family of baboons, a family of warthogs (including the little babies) and many, many birds. In the afternoon we went on a boat safari and saw hippos and water buffaloes galore, along with a few crocodiles. And for those of you who are wondering, yes we did see one snake, but it was just a tiny one. Unfortunately Queen Elizabeth does not have any giraffes or zebras. They do, however, have lions and leopards, but sadly we never found any. The day after the safaris we enjoyed a full day at the lodge swimming and relaxing. Then, it was time to begin our journey south. We drove five hours on the aforementioned roads and arrived at Lake Bunyoni. Our intent was to spend the night on an island but the rain was relentless and the air was colder than I’ve ever felt it on this side of the world. So, we canoed across the lake, in the rain, read books by a fire, and tried to entertain ourselves. We ended up leaving early the next morning because the weather was far from agreeable. Back to Kigali we came. There is something special about coming back in to Rwanda and Kigali after you’ve been away for a few days. Rwanda is unique. It’s hard to explain, but I always release a sigh of relief and smile the whole way through the city.

It’s back to school now. The break has been nice, and much needed. Only five more weeks and then I’ll be a high school graduate! Exciting times ahead, let me tell you. We all move forward one step at a time and anticipate the future.

And because a picture is worth a thousand words...