How was Kenya?

... Rwanda was great, thanks for asking!

So I know this blog is a bit late, but I've been really lazy busy settling back in! I learnt a lot this trip and wanted to collect my thoughts before I shared!

The hour by hour countdown started as soon as I booked my flight, and with days to go the real excitement and panic began to set in... I've never traveled this far alone before, what if my suitcases don't arrive, who's meeting me at the airport, and most importantly, WHAT IF I DON'T HAVE ENOUGH PRESENTS!?

I finally touched down in Kigali, and was met by one of the most loving people I've been lucky enough to meet, Patrick! As soon as I saw him all my irrational fears worries were gone and it finally hit me, I was back!
Unfortunately my flight landed later than expected so I got the pleasure of staying in a lovely Rwandan hotel before my long and winding drive to the Orphanage in the morning. Needless to say I was gutted I'd have to wait another 12 hours before seeing all the kiddos, but it gave me time to gather my thoughts, have a baby wipe wash and a refreshing 4 hour sleep!

The wait made it all that sweeter when I was greeted by hundreds of smiling faces, hugs and high 5's- I was on cloud 9!

I spent the first day laughing with and loving onto the kids and catching up with old faces, and one special face in particular...

(Tara is so inspiring, funny and clever! The love she has for the kids is AMAZING and I honestly don't know what I'd of done without her...)

The kiddos absolutely LOVE balloons, and a wonderful friend, Sheila Peterman Luke, donated a whole bunch of them! The smiles were contagious and they played for hours!

You may recognise this sweet face from a previous blog!

I spent the rest of my day watching some magical drumming practice...

And taking a cheeky peak at the nearly finished sports ground...

A large portion of the next few days were spent rushing around sorting out the last minute preperations for the eagerly awaited Christmas Day! 

In between my trips into Gisenyi to buy more presents, we held arts and crafts sessions in the library making and decorating paper snow flakes! 

The kids put a lot of effort into cleaning the Orphanage for the Ministers visit...

There is a lot behind this story, and if you take a cheeky peak here you'll get a good idea about whats going on.

A lot has changed in the 6 months I've been away, and its hard to know where to begin explaining.So much amazing work has been completed by The Point Foundation as well as another handful of charities, the kids have all grown so much and have finished school for their loooooooooong Christmas Break! 

Among all this a ton of other stuff has happened and continued to whilst I was there...

• The wonderful new sports ground was finished and the kids spent hours playing Basketball and having SUCH fun on it! 
• Heaps of new bunk beds have been made so the children all have somewhere to sleep!
• 6 of the older boys have started internships at Pfunda Tea Company and absolutely love it... so much so I don't think a day went passed when one of them didn't make an appearance in their dashing red overalls! New shoes have been brought for all the apprentices so they can work in a safer environment too!
• The library has been filled with exciting new bits and pieces which made teaching and playing SO much funner!
• And did I mention how much the kids have grown?!

This blog is nowhere near as good, or as detailed as I wanted it to be... but it's already REALLY late, and I have SO much work on that I can't see when I'm going to be able to sit down and really finish it! Sorry!

Lots of Rwandan love,

Megan 

xx