Umunsi Waka Biri (The Second Day).

Today the Social Work team visited the Urwego Microfinance Bank where a Baylor alum has made it possible for people who wouldn't normally be able to be a part of a bank, able to open their own bank accounts.

The General Ministry, Youth Sports and Religion teams visited a local school where one of our guides, Zachary, is a teacher. At this school they take old parts from dvd players, TVs, and computers and learn how to put them back together and to repair them. Zachary began by showing us the math skills he has taught his students - none of our students were able to solve the math problems on the chalkboard without help from everyone else, but one of his students was able to solve it in less than two minutes. Amazing.

It was great to meet the students who are so glad to be able to learn, who are so smart and hard-working. We hope to find a computer company, such as Dell, when we return to the States that will donate computers to them. We brought a computer that was donated from Baylor to give to Zachary so that he could teach his students html, web site design, etc. We also hope to be able to donate old textbooks to the school since the math book Zachary was teaching out of was from 1986 - which means the book is older than a number of our team members.

In the afternoon, the Social Work and Religion teams reunited to attend a conference that is being held in Rwanda that focuses on reconciliation - ever since the 1994 genocide reconciliation has been a major focus of Rwanda. They don't even discuss being Tutsi or Hutu anymore, but instead like to consider themselves Rwandans. One of the speakers is actually a pastor in Kenya and several of the members of the two teams knew him (Ben C. even spent a couple of months living with him in Kenya).

The General Ministry and Youth Sports teams did what they do best - got out their giveaway t-shirts and their basketballs, footballs, frisbees and volleyballs and headed to one of the poorer neighborhoods of Kigali. 

It was an eye-opening and amazing experience for every member involved. We were able to play with children ranging from just-learning-to-walk to about 20 years of age. We taught them how to play American football (Paul showed his amazing Joe Montana stance) and set up a game of volleyball. 

There were several students we were able

to meet that spoke english - one boy about the age of 13 told us how he wanted to be an engineer and go to college in America. Another was currently attending the university in Kigali and studying as an electrician. After a few hours of visiting and playing we were sad to go but left the behind all the balls for the children.

The G.M. and Y.S. teams then headed to a local church that they had visited last night - this time they were bearing t-shirts and drinks for some of the members. We were able to fellowship with a few of the members  and even taught them how to sing "Lord I Lift Your Name on High" in english while they returned the favor and taught us in inkinyarwanda. We hope to do a duet of languages on Sunday during service.

Our time here has been amazing so far - we've met some wonderful people that we'll never forget, we've seen the beautiful faces of Rwandan children and we've heard stories that will change our lives forever. And we've only been here for three whole days.