Overview
On the 7th of July I (Iona) flew to Rwanda for the second time with my best friend Anna and a team of 12 other volunteers. For Anna and I, this was the start of a six-week trip volunteering with Comfort Rwanda. We enjoyed a jam packed first two weeks with our amazing team, visiting different projects from many of Comfort Internationals partners.
Highlights from these visits include:
- A trip to the Good News community in Karengera where we helped them with making mud bricks for a house they are building to store their pineapples.
- Visiting women supported by the Africa Hope Initiative at their workplaces.
- We were lucky to be introduced to the Jari community by Billy and Fiona McClung who have supported this Solace Ministries group for many years.
- Sunday church services at the Comfort Babies Nursery bringing together many people from various Comfort Rwanda projects were some of my favourite days!
At the end of the first two weeks the rest of our team returned to Scotland and we moved in with David (Comfort Rwanda Director) and his family where we stayed for the remainder of our trip. David, Agnes and their friends and family welcomed us with open arms and treated us as part of the family. Whilst staying with David, we worked on mid-year reports for the Nyabisindu, Gatenga and South Sudan Street Kids Rescue (SKR) projects. We also attended many Saturday project gatherings and church services at the Comfort Babies Nursery. This is a brief overview of the trip as I could go on forever about every single day I spent in Rwanda, I have chosen three highlights to share in more detail.
Kanombe SKR Project
Anna and I first met the children from Kanombe on the final day of our trip last year. At this time many of the boys were new to the project and were not yet sponsored. We spent time playing with a few of the boys at David’s house before heading to meet with the rest of the group. On this day, I spent a lot of time playing with one little boy and during this time I began to feel so much love for him. Near the end of our time with them, Chantal approached me and asked me if I would like to be Kennedy’s sponsor.
I have now been Kennedy’s sponsor for a whole year. When I was in Rwanda during the summer I was fortunate to spend a lot of time with Kennedy. The transformation I saw in Kennedy from last year was incredible. During one of our visits to Kanombe we played parachute games with all the children which they all loved! Kennedy was smiling and giggling the whole time which filled my heart with joy seeing him so happy. After this, we went with Kennedy to his home and met his family. He is now living with a new family who care for him and show him so much love. Kennedy had completed a full year of school when I saw him. He has now started back to school and is attending regularly thanks to encouragement from his new family.
Kennedy still has a long way to go on his journey of transformation but over the last year he has made great progress. I believe with encouragement from Comfort Rwanda and inspiration from the older members of the project Kennedy will achieve whatever he sets his mind to. I’m excited to see Kennedy grow up and see all the amazing things he does.
Nyabisindu SKR Project
Last year the final visit we did before going home was to the Nyabisindu SKR Project. We met with these children in a big field near where they live. On this day we met a young girl called Divine. Whenever we’d got in the bus and were waiting to leave, Divine came to the window where Anna and I were sitting. At that time she wasn’t on the project and we weren’t sure if or when we would see her again.Â
When back in Rwanda, one day when we were hanging out with some kids at Comfort Babies nursery, we were so surprised whenever Divine arrived. We were so happy to see her now on the project and doing really well. Whilst doing Mid-year reports for Nyabisindu we discovered that Divine was unsponsored. We knew that between us we were called to support her. My family are now sponsoring her, and I am so thankful that we will forever be sisters.
During our time in Rwanda, Anna and I were blessed to spend a lot of time with Divine and her sister Ururabo. We spent a very special evening with Divine, Ururabo, Bosco and Iriza where we went into town with them. Bosco and Iriza (from the Comfort Rwanda team) kindly gave up their evening to make this possible. We got ice-cream and samosas with the girls, then we went to pick out some shoes together. Anna and I needed shoes for a wedding we’d been invited to, Divine and Ururabo needed trainers for school. Sharing the joy of looking through the shoes and choosing our new shoes together was a real blessing. These are memories that we will all hold close to our hearts forever. With support from their family and the project to nurture their talents I know that both Divine and Ururabo have bright futures ahead of them.
Trip to Lake Kivu with SKR and Comfort Babies
On our last Friday in Rwanda, Anna and I travelled in a packed car with David’s brothers Jackson and Paul, as well as some of the kids, to stay overnight in a hotel together at Lake Kivu. It was a really long drive to get there so we stopped for some snacks and water. When we stopped, we saw that loads more kids and some of the mums and their babies had got on a bus to come too!
When we arrived at the hotel we were all assigned rooms, this was very exciting for us and all the project members. Anna shared a room with Queen (a recent graduate from the SKR project) and I shared a room with sisters Divine and Ururabo. We hung out at the hotel for a little while before it was time for a few of us to go out for dinner together. The next day when we woke up, I had a very special moment with Divine telling her that my family are sponsoring her and we’re now sisters.
After having breakfast, we met with some more kids who had woken up really early to take a bus to meet us at Lake Kivu. We got on a bus with everyone and drove to the beach. As we approached the beach the excitement in the bus increased and when we arrived at the car park at the beach, everyone was out of their seats shouting, laughing and clapping. I’ve never seen anyone so excited to spend a few hours at a beach, it was so nice to see them all so happy to be there.
We spent the next few hours in the lake, teaching some of the kids to swim and splashing about. I had kids asking me to teach them to swim for a couple of weeks before the trip, so it was fun to help them improve their swimming. Once everyone was done swimming we got back into the bus and drove part of the way back to Kigali before we stopped to eat some lunch that had been prepared in Kigali early in the morning which the kids brought with them. We had rice, beef and beans, it was so good!
Our bus ride back with all the kids was full of singing, dancing and great chats. While we rode in the bus David drove on his motorbike and every so often he would ride up beside our bus to see everyone. The cheers that he got while zooming past were phenomenal. Bus rides with these kids will forever be my favourite. After a few hours of travelling we arrived back to Kigali, and we then had to say goodbye to the kids as we were leaving to come back to Scotland the next day.
As we were about to get in David’s car to head back home to pack our bags, we saw that Claude and Iddy had just made it back, having taken the public bus back to Kigali. We were so happy to see them as we didn’t think we were going to get to say goodbye to them. Saying goodbye to so many amazing friends all at once was really difficult but we trust that in the future we will be reunited with many of them and see their dreams becoming a reality.
Reflection
Choosing what to write about was so difficult and it took me a long time to decide what I would focus on. Firstly, I shared about the Kanombe SKR project, specifically Kennedy the little boy who I sponsor. I love him unconditionally and he is like a little brother to me. Next, I shared about sisters Divine and Ururabo who are part of the Nyabisindu SKR project. As I said earlier on, we didn’t know if we would ever see Divine again. God brought us back together in the most amazing way and I will forever be grateful we have her as a sister. Finally, I spoke about our incredible trip to Lake Kivu. This was a special experience and not something we would have had a chance to do on a regular group trip. Going on this trip with many of our friends was so special.
Planning our trip to Rwanda for 6 weeks was at first quite daunting as we’d never been away from home for that long. Once we arrived, we were welcomed like family everywhere we went and the love we got from everyone we met was so pure. By the end of our 6 weeks, we wished we could stay for another 6 weeks because we were having the time of our lives. We made so many amazing friends during the time we spent in Rwanda.
We went to Rwanda with the intention of inspiring and encouraging the children, young people, mum’s and babies to grow in their faith and work hard to achieve their dreams. I never knew how much many of them would inspire and encourage me to be the best version of myself I possibly can be. There are so many things we can learn from our friends in Rwanda. For me the main things are love for one another, never giving up on a dream even when times are tough and always trusting God’s plan for you.
Thank you so much for reading my blog and I hope it gives you a flavour of what life was like for us during our time in Rwanda. If you have any questions for me, I would be very happy to answer as best I can, just ask the team at Comfort International to put you in touch with me. For now, I send my unconditional love to our sponsored children through letters until the day I can give them the biggest hug again.
