Inspiration And White Rabbit Touchdowns

Photo's taken 1/11/13: 130
Photo's kept 1/11/13:    58

    Today we spent all day at the Kigali Genocide Memorial. Really, no words can possibly express the experience I had. My eyes were opened even further to the Rwandan Genocide.
    The memorial had an amazing garden. It had several levels to it and most of it was planted specifically as monuments to the victims of the genocide.
    We talked with Kiki, a woman who started an organization called Professional Dreamers. Right now she is working towards the 20th anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide, and she has big plans. Really big plans. She has been working on a book titled "The Book of Life". It is full of letters written by survivors, bystanders, and the accused. Kiki has really found a way to get Rwandan's to open up about the genocide. She has figured out how to celebrate the 20th anniversary through celebration of those living, and those passed rather than mourning. It is so easy for humans to mourn and dwell on sadness. Kiki has found a way to safely celebrate the lives of millions that were gravely effected by the genocide. She is a true inspiration.
    Tomorrow we head to the Akagera National Park. For me, this is way harder than waiting for Christmas morning.

    Stars, I love them. I stare at them as much as possible wherever and whenever I can. I noticed something peculiar about Orions Belt. It moved from the eastern sky to the western sky in one night. Last night it was pretty much in the opposite end of sky as it was the night before. I've never seen that.

    What do you get when 8 theater students get together to play some flag football? A lot of confusion, a tied game, and a white rabbit. I threw a great touchdown pass though that's for sure.

Time for photos.

The group with Kiki sitting in the middle. K.I.E students also joined us.

   

Still haven't found any of my suitcases. I'm on a great schedule of switching between 2 pairs of boxers, my Phish shirt and my Woolrich flannel. It averages about 80 degrees here, so wearing the flannel is a blast. Tomorrow will be day 6 of wearing the same pair of khakis.

White Rabbit and Coffee

Photos Taken 1/10/13: 243
Photos Kept 1/10/13:   128

"If you see far, you will go far."

    For most of the morning and a bit of the afternoon we were at the Agahozo Shalom Youth Village. Today was their first graduation. The village was started in 2008 and has not stopped growing since. It is a boarding school where the students learn everything from politics to digital design. The campus is located on the side of a beautiful mountain just outside of Kigali. This graduation ceremony was very similar to the ones we are used to, but with some African taste added to it. It was long. Very long. But I had such a great time being a part of this historical day for this school, and all of Rwanda. There was dancing, singing and acting. The singing was a blast and most of the audience joined in by the end. The drumming was great, no surprise really.
    During one of the musical numbers, the president of Rwanda just kind of strolled in. No joke. At the end of the song, some one walked up to a microphone and calmly announced that he had come. I didn't know he was supposed to be there, and neither did a few other people around me. At the end of the ceremony he got up to say some words to the graduating class. He told a story about how the students are shaping the future for the country. There couldn't have been more than 750 people at the ceremony. All I know is that I'll never be able to witness our president just stroll in to an intimate ceremony to say some words.
    After the ceremony we headed back to Kigali to go to the war memorial dedicated to the Belgium Soldiers that were murdered in the soldier barracks. What a heavy way to end the day, but it opened my eyes to the intense reality that happened here back in 1994.
    I'm not saying this because he's sitting across from me, but Carl Wilkens has a big heart and never ending stories, whether they be joyous or sad.

Oh yeah, and in a matter of minutes on the road, my eyes were showing me why so many people are in love with this country and its landscape.

Oh yes! No clothes still. But that is the last thing I am thinking about here. They will come when they come.

The valley leading down to a lake at he youth village

President Kagami 

Rwandan Sunset

And...

All I know is that I'm very far from home, and it feels great.

Luggage lost in Addis Ababa.

Packing The Tech

    As I finish packing for Rwanda I came to realize something. I am bringing quite a bit of technology with me. I have traveled all over the world and I bring very little technology with me. I usually only bring my phone (which never works where I am going) and my iPod (because all I do is listen to music).
   I was in Haiti last week and brought my laptop, which I think I only used once, to book a new flight to New York City because we got stuck in 8 hours of traffic heading to the airport. When I am in the states I am always attached to some sort of technology. I am always on Facebook, Twitter, music forums, technology forums, etc. I am a web master for PhanArt so when I'm not posting new art there, I have involved myself with finding new phan art to post on our site, which involves quite a bit of time scouring the internet. Being a technical theater major, I am often found hunched over my laptop doing research and working on my designs when I have a show to work on. I love technology and have surrounded myself with it on purpose.
    The only time I'm not glued to it is when I'm traveling.  I do that on purpose. I love traveling so much because it allows me to step away from all of that stuff and take in the basics that the world has to offer, such as the amazing people, animals, and landscapes. When I was in Haiti last week I took it upon myself to grab my brothers Canon T4i and shoot some photos. I did this because I am traveling to Rwanda with a Nikon D3100 and a Holga 120N and a few rolls of film (I know, film, right?!) and my laptop so I can keep up with this blog while over there. This is stepping out of my comfort zone in a big way, using so much technology while in a foreign land. Although I say this, I am extremely excited to be able to take photos while there so I can document my travels in a medium that I love so much.
    Tomorrow morning I fly to DC to meet up with the rest of the crew.  

   Very soon the majority of this blog will consist mainly of photography as I am certain that I can speak better that way.

   Here is some Soulive:

A Few From Haiti

Here are a few photos I took while down in Haiti last week.

Cat

Road to Jacmel

The long and winding road

Checking In, Dropping Out

The family and I showed up at the Syracuse airport at 4am to learn that our flight to Newark was canceled an hour before we got there. Our connecting flight to Port Au Prince left at 9:30am. All other flights to Haiti within the next day were full. We still have food and candy canes for 1,500 kids for the party tomorrow night.

We have switched airlines twice. At this moment we are getting a flight out of Syracuse and heading down to Fort Lauderdale. Then there is a flight from Miami tomorrow morning down to Haiti. The next step will be to figure out how we are getting from Lauderdale to Miami and make it in time for the flight.

Now this Jet Blue employee is helping us out tremendously. This is the only person to understand our urgency so far. Well Jet Blue as a whole has been great to us. He is trying to get us down to Miami directly vis JFK. Getting down to crunch time. Plane leaves here at 9:30am, it doesn't look like we are making this flight. Struck in the Syracuse airport until 5pm tonight. Oh boy! 13 straight hours in this airport?! Just what I've always wanted!

In other news, tomorrow is Christmas Eve?

Since the majority of my blog in Rwanda will be based on the photos I will be taking, I've added a photo of my current environment.

Over 24 hours later, I'm finally boarding a plane in Miami heading to Port Au Prince. This is the most difficult time I've ever experienced flying somewhere.

1,500+

I head to Haiti on the 23rd. We've been getting ready for this trip for a few weeks now.

For Christmas Eve we are making dinner for 1,500 kids and for desert they are getting candy canes. We are bringing down all of them, since Haiti doesn't have candy canes. This should make for an interesting Christmas Eve.