The next few days were strange. There were lots of goodbyes. We really didn't understand how much our lives were going to change over the next week. New renters moved into our house and our van was given to another family to use. All of our things to take were packed into large black boxes, backpacks and little suitcases we could take on the airplane.
The church van took us to a hotel. We got to go swimming and see our aunt, uncle & cousins and our grandparents. Our parents woke us up in the middle of the night. We had breakfast at 2:30 in the morning!
When we got to the airport, we needed to fix some of our suitcases. Some were too heavy, some were too light. After we were done, we dropped off our suitcases and were checked by security. This was kind of fun, it wasn't scary. We had just enough time to get some breakfast before we went on our airplane. That was the first time for us kids (other than Nathan) to be on a plane. When we took off, we thought we might fall out of the sky! After a while, it wasn't too scary, so we watched a movie.
Our first stop was Montreal. We had to wait a LONG time until we could get on our next airplane. We all had a nap in the airport.
We arrived next in Brussels (that's in Belgium). Our last flight was the longest and then we arrived in Rwanda. By that time, it was late at night the next day. When we stepped off the plane, we knew we weren't in Canada anymore. It even smelled different (not bad, just different). After a long time, we got loaded in the van. One of our boxes was broken and another one was lost.
The drive to the orphanage went through the city and then lots of hills. We were sleepy, so we soon went to bed. It was strange sleeping under the big nets to keep mosquitos off. The next day, we saw our new home. Everything was different. It's kind of like camping in a really old house, but different. The walls and floor are cement. The ceiling is high and the roof is tin, so when it's hot, the tin talks and when it rains, it's really loud. We have a living room, kitchen and dining room in one open space. There's a long hallway with bedrooms. The power goes off and we get to light candles.
Just a few stairs up from our house is the orphanage. The kids live there. We can play at the playground with them. We get to have family time with the kids and tell stories and play games. It's fun to play soccer with them. There's always lots of kids to play games. We are trying to teach them English and we are trying to learn kinyarwandan. Because we have white skin, people call us mzungu.
In the city, strangers will wave at us, shake our hand or pinch our cheeks. It's a little weird.
We see people walking, carrying big loads on their heads, taking yellow water jugs to get filled in just a small, dirty puddle of water. Sometimes they don't have shoes and have really old clothes. That is very different from Canada. The houses are small and look broken and everyone has black skin. We look very different to them because we are white.
Every day we get up early. Breakfast is not cereal, but bread, muffins and always fruit like pineapple. There's not many snacks. We have beans instead of meat a lot of the time, so we are learning to like beans--mostly. There's lots of veggies like carrots, tomatoes and zucchini. It's a good thing Naomi and Nathan like to bake bread and muffins, they taste really good.
We know we have a job to do here. We like the kids, but we really don't feel like missionaries. We are the same as we've always been, it's just now we are living in Rwanda. We miss our city, our church, our friends, our grandparents and our house, but we are glad we are here
with our parents and brothers and sisters. Some days we just can't believe we are really here. We know God is taking care of us and has a job for us here, so that's good.
We love to get letters. You can mail them to: Ethan or Joel Wilson, c/o Victory Family Home of Champions. BP box 4918. Kigali, Rwanda.
Bye for now:)
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