Today we went to the Gihembe Refugee Camp. There are about 20,000 Africans who have fled to Rwanda from surrounding countries living in this camp due to war and conflict. The living conditions are poor, and very heartbreaking. We were invited in to Clovis's house to meet his mother. Clovis is a young man who is in his fourth year at a university in Kigali. He grew up in this camp. His mother was so beautiful. She was wearing a beautiful purple dress and happily opened her house to us. This house could not have been more than 10'x15' and the roof was very low. As a thank you for visiting her she gave us a corn and bean dish to eat. The corn tasted unlike any I have had before. After we left we took a walk around the camp. About five steps out of the house I had no less than five kids clinging to my arms. They rubbed my arms, touched my nails, pulled out my arm hair and never let go.
We made it back to the basketball court so we could perform for a few of the residents. By a few I mean about 300. By the time we were 5 minutes in we were surrounded by roughly 582 people and the little kids were getting closer. What a great experience.
By the way, I clearly made those numbers up. There were most likely more people than that, but there could have been less.
We went back to Kigali to start acting with some students from the Kigali Institute of Education who are also studying theater. I don't fancy myself as an actor, but spending some time acting felt pretty good. These students are smart, very smart and a lot of fun to work with.
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| The boy with his hand in his mouth didn't let go of me the whole time we were walking around the camp |
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