Yesterday was our last day at the orphanage. It was so hard to say goodbye to everyone, especially thinking about the future of these children. But God is sovereign and I have to rest on that and to just do my part. We had such a cool farewell. As you will see in the video, I was humbled by the performance they did for us. What a cool experience for Chloe! Sister Deodona was translating the song for us and in Kirundi they were wishing blessings on us. We were certainly blessed with their dance! After they finished, Sister Deodona translated a few words I wanted to share with them, appreciating them for all they do. Chloe and I had been putting some money aside for a while. So we gave the nun money to buy a New Testament Bible for each of them and along small monetary gift. Believe me is was very small but equivalent to what some would make in 2-4wks of work. They started dancing and singing all over again....lol. Money collected from my work was donated specifically to purchase meds and vitamins for the children which the government does not supply and they have to purchase themselves. There were enough toothbrushes to give all the children and workers and even extra for future. Guess what they did with their old ones....they gave it to the surrounding poor people that live nearby....ewwww....and they were happy to take them:(
So today was our LONG drive back to Kigali. Eventful as always....sigh. I wasn't able to blog my first few days when we arrived in Rwanda and took our bus to Bujumbura but it was stressful to say the least. Everyone sees "muzungo" which is white person and they want to take advantage of you. The brutal bus driver that brought us from Kigali, agreed with our wonderful Rwandan taxi driver, to drop us off at the hotel for 5,000 Burundi francs and the stinker asked me to pay him 20,000 Burundi francs when we got to our hotel. He tried to say it was 5,000 for Chloe, 5,000 for me and 10,000 for our bags....do you believe that....and I told him it was for an orphanage but clearly he didn't care. The hotel receptionist got involved & I agreed to give him 10,000 but made sure he knew that he took advantage of us. Before that...at the border the immigration police was processing our VISAs to enter the country ($40USD each) then asked me for a "new years gift"...stinker....I told him I was gifting his country by bringing stuff to his country's children. He didn't care. He wouldn't let me go so I asked him what he would consider a "gift"....he didn't even want his country's money. So he said "I don't know... $10USD.....I blessed him with ten $1.00 bills....lol....shame on him. I know I sound cocky but I was quite afraid & its very intimidating. They could have detained us just for fun or torn apart our 4 huge bags of stuff. From Bujumbura to Kigali, there are buses that run every hour. So now on our way back to Kigali lo and behold, we get the exact same bus driver. Not impressed! I was very intimidated on the way there....started to lose that on the way back. We now only have 1 hockey bag (as opposed to 4) to hand out in Musanze, so I have to buy only 1 extra seat....for Chloe, myself and our big bag.... or there's no room on the bus. Our awesome Taxi drive in Bujumbura (Pappy) tells them to put it on the bus. They said later, "no problem, no problem". Chloe and I go to sit at the back of the bus and watch our bag from the window. People are loading. The bus driver is impatient and with the door still open and my back outside leaning up against the bus he starts to take off. (remember this is the same bus driver that cheated me the last time, so he has a reputation) Well I completely lost it! I banged the window and started screaming, holding up my tickets and said " I bought 3 tickets, 1,2,3...I want my bag on this bus now or this Muzungo wont stop screaming!!!" Oh my gosh, everyone was looking at me and then they started coming down on the bus driver in Kirundi. They finally fit my bag on the bus. I sat down and then whispered to Chloe "I can't believe I just did that".
The bus ride was crazy up and down the sides of mountains, passing other vehicles on only one lane going in either direction. The driver pretty much honks his horn all the time to make people and cars aware that he's coming through. Definitely praying during that trip....but they do it every day. Chloe was such a trooper because the bus is very crammed and the ride is 7hrs long with 1 pit stop and a stop at the border.
Now at the border, of course, I meet the same immigration officer. He asks me for the receipt of the visa I paid when I entered the country. I told him I didn't keep it because no one told me I had to. I told him to look in his record book the day that I arrived and sure enough our names were there. But still he insisted on the receipt. We went to talk to another man and he confirmed that I had paid and that I didn't need to pay anything BUT the immigration police said this matter was between me and him. So he took me aside and said that if I was to call a lawyer right now this would take a long time so what was I willing to give him as a pardon....rrrgh....I know what I wanted to give him but then I would get arrested! He even stated that what he is doing is not corruption, it is a "pardon". So I had to pay him equivalent to $12....rrrgh. As we walk across the bridge and get back on the bus, there is a HUGE sign with a picture of a cartoon police blowing a whistle and it says "BLOW THE WHISTLE ON CORRUPTION...CALL ...." Really?!?!?!
Oh well, we got back safe bought our ticket to Musanze for tomorrow morning where Chloe gets to finally meet her Compassion child that she's been sponsoring the last 5 yrs. She's so excited.
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