Last Few days in Rwanda

We depart for Amsterdam in a couple hours. The past nine days have gone very quickly. We will try to give you a snapshot of all that we did on Thursday , Friday, Saturday and today. We visited Prefer on Thursday morning, a local pre-school. The minute we stepped off the bus, we were surrounded by a sea of little red vests giving us hugs left and right.This program was started by a Canadian woman who has been in Rwanda for ten years. And yes, did we take pictures! The program is for students ages two to five. We also had the privilege of seeing a local drummer run the dance and music class for the five year olds. The little ones were kind enough to ask some of us to dance. They were lighter on their feet than we were!
That afternoon, we visited with the students of Kampanga secondary school where we talked about the curriculum at Berkeley Carroll and the students' studies. We opened with a game called "Step into The Circle", an ice breaker. We then moved into a question and answer session where discussed effective study habits, how to create connections between BC and Kampanga. The students were very open when talking about the challenges they face in a changing education system. The pressure to learn English and their selected areas of study is intense.
On Friday: gorillas! It was magical. We trekked up a steep volcanic colline ( but it was more like a mountain!). The terrain was rocky, narrow, slippery and beautiful. Our guide, whose name is Hope, was a master at his craft; he was knowledgable, patient, intuitive and reassuring. He told amazing stories of the wildlife we saw along the way.
We climbed to an elevation of 2600 meters to see the Bwenge family.
Bwenge is the male silverback who is the patriarch of the clan. We were allowed to view the gorillas for one hour, which passed very quickly.
On Saturday, we had some closing group discussion with Ray, our World Leadership instructor. In the afternoon, we walked around Musanze town and visited the local markets where food, clothing and other goods were sold. The highlight of the day was having dinner with local leaders from the Kinigi District and the Ministry of Education. It was a lively conversation, largely conducted in French. We learned lots, but will tell more when we get home. Today, we said goodbye to the lovely staff at the Kinigi Guesthouse and hit the road to Kigali. We ran into a slight mechanical hiccough, but luckily we resolved the problem and moved on. Once we arrived in Kigali, we went to the Genocide Memorial. Words do not do justice to what we learned; the photos, readings, testimonials and the grave site were overwhelming.

We now need to board. To be continued when we get home. We are grateful for this life-changing opportunity.

Ryan, Vanessa, Suzanne, Amanda and Brandon