A note about language

A comment was made inquiring about the language that the children speak at the orphanage. Kinyarwanda is the first language of Rwanda, followed by French, Swahili and English. The children all speak Kinyarwanda, and a bunch of them speak some French, but very few of them speak English. Some of the older children know a little. I was actually surprised by how much more they knew this year than the amount of English they seemed to understand last year, but it's still a very small amount so we have two translators with us that help us communicate. I've tried to pick up a few key Kinyarwanda words here and there, and I've found the most useful word to know with the children is "muraho, (hello) and "oya", (no.) They do have English in their greeting song and we are trying to teach them some basic English while we are here because it will make them more marketable in the future.

I hope that answers your question Aunt Judy. :-)