Posts
When I woke up this morning, my body was shaking with weakness from not eating enough the day before: I had had a granola bar for breakfast, one for lunch and some wheat thins and a piece of a fruit leather for snacks, but since I had gone to bed early, that was all I had eaten the day before. After stuffing my face at breakfast, I stopped shaking but still felt a little lightheaded and nauseous.
We left for the orphanage a bit later than usual and I was overjoyed when we arrived to see Benita running towards my car door! She was back and she showed me her knee under the bandage and it already looked so much better. (She will return to the hospital a few times for followups but I was so glad to see so much progress in just a few days.) I was very glad she was back as it was our last day of camp and I was scared that I wouldn't see her again. (I had decided I would make her a get well card if she wasn't there.) She was by my side most of the day and actually participated a lot, although had to rest after we were dancing for awhile.
We started the morning reviewing the dance together. After a bit of dancing, I started feeling crappy so I went back to the office and started writing out the graduation certificates. When we broke out into our smaller groups, I came back out to practice with my group for the big competition today. I was really impressed how quickly Benita picked up all the steps she had missed while she was at the hospital. After we had practiced for awhile, it was time for the big dance competition! Each group did their dance twice and then prizes were determined by Leonce and Emmanuel, the volunteers and the kids depending on the category. Every group won for something, places one through five for things like "best smiles", etc. The volunteers picked the two best dancers. And then the kids picked the volunteer that learned the dance the best. I was so surprised when our team won first place for the best dance!! GO HENS! :-)
After the competition was over and the prizes were distributed, the boys were back from their soccer camp and it was time for lunch. I finished the certificates during lunch and then I went back to the bakery to take pictures of H and M for a magazine article they will be appearing in.
After lunch, it was time for the big graduation. Each child was called one by one and went down the line of volunteers, hugging each one, and then receiving their graduation certificate and a Skoodlez (a cool new stuffed animal like a WebKinz that was donated by Skoodlez,) at the end of the line while I photographed.
Then we had a lonnnnnnng goodbye and headed out much later than we planned. It was sad leaving the kids and I'm not sure all of them understood that we weren't coming back, (even though the people in charge explained it to them,) since some of them said, "see you tomorrow."
Then a few of us headed to wear the Rwanda Textiles are made for macys.com. (We are starting to sell bags from Rwanda on August 4th.) We took a few more pictures of H and M for the magazine and I took some pictures of the place for the site. After we were done photographing, we ran back to the hotel, freshened up, and headed to Republica, (a really cool African restaurant) for our farewell dinner with the soccer group, representatives from the weaving and textiles groups, Dean and Beth. It was a great dinner but I was exhausted and was embarrassed that I nearly fell asleep at the table. There were some great speeches given, but Janet gave an especially touching one. She spoke about how great what we were doing was, that many people give money but that we were giving time and love and that you can't put a price on that. She also explained that our gift was extra special because we were helping children and therefore we were helping the future of Rwanda. It was very powerful. The Hope Shines group and the soccer group headed back to our hotel for a night cap but I went straight to bed.
Such a wonderful, long day! I can't believe we leave tomorrow!
