To say that Rwanda is beautiful, is an understatement. Rwanda is STUNNING!

Arriving at night is nice and it gives you a good feeling for what is to come, but looking out of my hotel window and seeing the view left me speechless. The first rays of light caught the mist slowly dissipating around the rolling hills in a way that I’ve never seen before. It’s hard to describe and a single picture will never give it the justice it deserves.

We had a lovely breakfast of the international variety including eggs, bacon, toast, cereal and and interesting assortment of Rwandan and Chinese foods as our hotel is owned by a lovely Chinese family and caters to a more eastern type of world traveller.

Afterwards, we took a few mins together as a team to discuss poverty and how it looks in the context of broken relationships which created a healthy dialogue of worldview and our role in it. To steal a comment from our discussion, we are here not to put our lives on hold, but to alter our lives with insight and knowledge we can get by no other way than experiencing it first hand.

We then set out to experience all that Kigali has offer by climbing into Wellsprings 12 seater Toyota van and set about on a tour to see the dichotomy of wealth and poverty. Being toured around the city by Jeff Komant was a pure joy, cracking us up with his quick humour when called for and finding ways for us all to see Kigali through his eyes. Thin crust pizza in an open air Italian restaurant and stops in multiple markets were highlights of the day.

We ended the day with an extra trip to Kigali International Airport to pick up our wayward luggage and a dinner that we could all call adventurous in our wonderful Chinese inspired hotel.

Just ask Barry about the fish, or Mark about the beef, or Barb about the chicken, of Frank about his beef! Spirits are high as we view every part of this trip as a cultural experience we won’t soon forget!

Stay tuned as tomorrow is an African church service at CLA followed by a visit down a dark chapter of Rwanda’s history.

Matt Enns