Heading Back to Rwanda Permanently

We have been asked to help run Urukundo Home for Children in Rwanda. In June we visited Urukundo and fell in love with the 41 children! Now we will follow God's call on our lives and head back to help Arlene Brown with the children, build a school and a medical clinic. Andria and I are very excited about what is ahead.....and a little nervous. We also want to start a family soon. Hopefully we will build a house that we can raise a family. Please pray for us! We will be leaving in May 2010.

Saying Goodbye

As we pulled out of the Children's Home the many of the kids came up to say goodbye. It was VERY difficult leaving. We made some special friends. We hope to return soon!

Eating Platforms

Two of the five eating platforms are almost complete. I was able to help (a little) with some of the construction of these platforms. Manual labor is a way of life here. No one is exempt. The platforms turned out very nice. Umbrellas, chairs and table will need to be purchased now. We are planning on driving into Kigali early (right after lunch today) to go and see what the cost of the umbrellas will be. Our flight leaves tonight at 6:45PM. We fly to Burssels (9.5 hour flight) then to Newark (6.5 hour flight) then on home to Phoenix 5 hour flight. We will arrive home on
Wednesday at 7PM.

Andria's New Outfit

For everyone excited to see Andria's new extensions and braid....guess what? They are coming out! She thinks she may be alergic to the extensions and they were driving her crazy so she and the girls spent a couple of hours pulling them out!

Andria's new dress!

The neighbor next door (we literally walk at roof level of her house) fitted Andria for a new dress yesterday. She sews on a foot pump sewing machine on this patio by the light off one of the Children's Homes building. They have no electricity or water.

Tombs

This is the view from the tombs of the Genocidce Memorial at Kigali of the nearby homes wedged in together on the hillside.

250,000 individuals have been buried so far in the memorial, all victums of the genocide. The total count is somewhere over 1 million deaths occured during the tradegy. Many remains are unidentified but are still brought here. Pictured here are the most recent tombs that are being filled.

Genocide Memorial

When we first entered the Genocide Memorial we came to this torch. It is a reminder about the horrible things that happened during the genocide and the effects that are still taking place in Rwando today. Rwanda's motto is "Never Again". The torch is lite for the 100 days that the genocide took place in 1994.

The Babies

This is a picture of Andria and Sarah. We were trying to help the Mamas by keeping Sarah wake during the day instead of her being awake all night long. As you can see it was a difficult task.

Natete saw Andria caring Sarah on her back and then decided that she needed a baby to carry also.

Andria still has baby Sarah. It looks like she is carrying a backpack. She is thinking this might be the way to take Sarah to America. (Haha)