a whole lot of goodness!

"There's gonna be a wedding... you're invited." -Aidah (our house cook).
A couple of days ago our neighbors had set up this giant white tent and started MCing right in the middle of our literature class. Come to find out that our neighbors were putting on a wedding and apparently we were invited. Sometimes our house staff forgets to tell us things. But don't worry, we used our handy dandy trampoline to see right over the fence at the festivities. Sure, we probably could've walked on over but where's the fun in that? And yes, you read correctly... our Student Life Coordinators unearthed the pieces for a trampoline last week! Go ED Africa will certainly never be the same. Even though the workload has been backbreaking, we always manage to find a mental break by revisiting our childhood years and jumping wildly.

The last couple of weeks have been such a joy. We had an incredible Thanksgiving feast with over 20 guests and even got to play American football in the National Stadium! Definitely felt like a dream tackling my housemates on the very field that I watched Rwanda beat Eritrea. The food was of course beyond delicious and we even had the macy's day parade playing on the projector throughout the day.

beaches in Gisene

Two weeks back a group of us students took a weekend trip in the western province to a place called Gisene. It's right on the boarder of Congo on the biggest lake in Rwanda. It's one of the "must visit" spots of Rwanda. During the three hour bus ride we traveled through the mountains where the infamous silver back gorillas live. I was hoping to spot one with my pretty little eye, avoiding the $500 fee that it costs to travel into the mountains to see them. It was unsuccessful. But! We did get to see the volcano erupting just 30 miles from us which was absolutely spectacular in the dark of the night. We also had made reservations for a hotel but planned on searching for a hostile once we arrived to find some cheaper accommodations. We didn't quite think that one through since we didn't factor in how we'd be arriving at night and had absolutely no idea where the heck we where (or really even the hotel where we made our reservations). So when our bus finally stopped at where we assumed could only be Gisene, we were searching around for our next move. Miraculously we happened to run into a nun who pointed us towards a nearby church hostel where we slept for only $3 bucks. There are definitely nun like the catholics, that's for sure!

learning to weave but most just poking myself with the needle

cultivating and planting sweet potato

our day spent with the artisans

Pottery at a studio in Butare

We're now in the final week here in Rwanda. It feels totally unreal that it's actually December. Nothing about this place reminds me that it's winter and soon it'll be Christmas. I think we're all in a bit of denial that it's really almost been 4 months. I think the only thing that has reminded me of how long it's actually been is how much my hair has grown since I first flew here. We've got a lot of living to do in this last week!