Rwanda and more

Hello Everyone,
We got back from Rwanda on Sunday night and started class monday (yesterday) morning. It has been a whirlwind and most of the time I no one knows what is going on but everything is going wonderfully. Rwanda was an incredible experience that I hope will stay with me throughout my life. It was a very eye-opening and humbling opportunity that has left a lot of us with more questions than answers. The first two nights we stayed in Gahini, which is the starting point for the East African Revival. We stayed on a beautiful lake and went to church on Sunday. The church experience was incredible and I absolutely loved it! There was one solid drum that played through the worship and at least three different choirs. The mission group split into different teams and went to different churches, each team was responsible for two-three songs, a testimony, and a short sermon. The sermon for out group ended up being the actual sermon which was fun and we sang a swahili song (that was taught to us by one of the Ugandan students) and an English song. It was three hours long and amazing, I loved it!! While in Gahini we head a lecture from a pastor and a testimony from a woman who lived through the revival in the 1930's. They were both wonderful and it was interesting to hear this before traveling to Kigali and hearing of the Rwandan genocide that starting springing up in 1959. We were in Kigali for four night and heard many lectures, went to the Genocide Memorial, and the Nyamata church. It was devastating and horrendous. The Nyamata church held app. 10000 Tutsi and all but seven were slaughtered over a three day period. Our guide was one of the seven survivors. He was 23 years old and told his story at the end of the tour, he only survived because his older brother covered him in blood and hid him under dead bodies. It was unbelievable. The church contained mass graves that you could go down into and see all of the caskets of known bodies and then caskest full of bones from the unknown. The memorial started with genocides that have plagued the world since the beginning and then leads into the childrens ward. This hit everyone the hardest, it has poster size pictures of children and lists their favorite food and game, their best friend (which was usually a sibling), what they wanted to be when they grew up, and how they were killed. It was devastating. And then you go into the rest of the genocide- detailing deaths, survivors, support, a lot of lack in support, crimes that were committed etc. Then we watched a documentary untitled The Ghosts of Rwanda. It was a very hard day for all of us. Where we stayed in Kigali, it was part of the guest houses by a church. The church was mentioned in the documentary and it was where a couple unarmed UN soldiers were actually able to save those in the church, which was incredible. We were given a free afternoon to walk around the city which was fun and we my little group of four people went to the church of Hotel Rwanda. We just walked into the lobby and went up the elevator and started looking around and we were able to see the swimming pool that the people had to drink out of. Our last two nights were spent back in Uganda on an island in a lake. It was one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. We spent the day debriefing and finally being able to relax. It was amazing. Classes started yesterday and so far I have had three of fives classes and they are great. My history teacher is very jovial and laughs over everything and my literature teacher reminds me of yoda its going to be great:) It is wonderful to be back home! I am loving my family very much even though they keep feeding me too much. I will start to slow down eating and my mom will say "Rachel, what are you doing, you need to eat more, you are cheating me" I look into her eyes and relunctently hand her my plate to refill. Last nights dinner was amazing though, it was a pumkin that is stuffed with potatoes, corn, peas etc. then wrapped in bananas leaves and steamed. Its was fantastic! Our brother Alex is teaching my roommate and I Lugandan (their language) which is fun and interesting:) and out brother Samual is telling us folklore of night dancers and creation stories, that is when we are not arguing, which happens most of the time. His other brothers call him 'calamity'. He is something else:) Our sister left for boarding school down the road yesterday which is sad because I didn't even know she was leaving. Though we have only been gone a short time the entire group already knows what we want to eat as soon as we get home, it is very funny to sit around and tell each what foods we are dreaming of:) the food is good here it is usually just the same which is why the dreaming. I hope everyone is doing wonderful and I would love to read your comments!