A Late Night & A Flying Light

I stayed up way too late last night. Meredith, Brittany and I just hung out and got to know each other. We realized how much we had in common and it was great to just talk to them. Both are really interesting, and I am quite happy that I have made two friends that share the same passions I do. By the way, Meredith is in the Peace Corps and lives two houses away. She just comes over a lot to take showers and use the Internet, which she does not have at her house. She is really fascinating and knows quite a bit of Kinyarwanda. She took three months of classes before coming here. The kids love her. She is of Chinese heritage, and the kids don't really know what to make of her and they either refer to her as “muzungu” or “la chinoise” (the Chinese). She is able to communicate with the kids pretty well and they all love her, she is great with them.

After Meredith went to her house, Brittany and I tried to stay up so that we could greet the new volunteer that was coming in at the airport at around 10:45. We stayed up until 12:40, but then we went to bed because we were too tired. At 5:00 in the morning I heard knocking on the front door and I went to open the front door, and it was the guards with suitcases. It figures that Andi's plane had been delayed for four hours in Nairobi. Her plane had landed at 4:00 AM instead of 10:45 PM. Mama Arlene had waited for her the whole time at the Kigali airport. Andi was exhausted and she went to bed, while Mama Arlene rested for 30 minutes and she was back up on her feet running the business as usual.

This afternoon, I taught the biggest Taekwondo class yet. There were easily 40 or more kids. A lot were from the neighborhood. We had a great time, and everything went better than usual. Brittany helped me out as much as she could, and class lasted for about three hours. At the end, we formed a really big circle, and the couple of students, who have taken martial arts before, did some demonstrations, which were really great. Of course they wanted me to perform and I made up a combination that ended up in splits. I found out later that I ripped my jeans and so now I only have one pair of jeans left! Brittany, Andi and Meredith made so much fun of me for it, and we had a good laugh about it throughout the night.

Right as we were about to go down for dinner, the kids started yelling and pointing at the sky, and I looked up and I saw the most amazing thing ever. I am not sure if it was a shooting star, a comet, or whatever, but it was very low in the sky and very bright. It was absolutely breathtaking and incredible! I really wish I knew what it was, because I have never seen anything like that before. According to Mama Arlene, it was too low in the sky to be a shooting star… but it was just amazing!

After that, we also found out that there was no electricity so we had to eat by candlelight. The kids were not fazed in the least by the lack of electricity because it is something that happens regularly.

When we were all walking back to our rooms, the sky looked so pure and clean and the stars were so bright! There was no electricity at all in the town so we had a perfect view without light pollution. I thought that the Iowa sky was amazing, but it doesn't even compare to here. It was as if an artist had painted the stars in gold on a black canvas.

After that, the girls and I hung out and we got to know Andi a bit better. She fits right in with the group. She is 21, from New Jersey, a fourth year at Vanderbilt, and easy to talk to.