Rwanda

I sit writing this from my lounge in England - weird! The last time I wrote was the day before we set off to Rwanda so I will begin from there. We were off to Rwanda to celebrate the wedding of our project manger Alex.

Our 11 hour coach journey from Kampala turned into over 12 hours after we had to deal with not one, but two flat tyres along the way! We were being hosted by a lovely Rwandese family whose nephew is one of our friends from church. They were very welcoming. The first night it was Susie, Shavan, Innocent, Angello, Becky and I from Uganda. However as the week went on, a few more people arrived including some of last year's gappers! The house was very full by Friday but it was full of laughter and conversations in English, Rwandese and Luganda!

Us and some of the family

Another group photo

Six of us girls shared a triple bunk bed which was pretty cosy! We discovered that whether you're from England or Rwanda or Uganda, us girls still talk about the same things! It was so lovely to get to know the others more. Susie and I had decided to get traditional Rwandese dresses for the wedding and on mentioning it, the girls told us that their mum sold them in her shop!

We went off into town one afternoon accompanied by Tessie and Becky. We chose our material and they called the tailor to come and measure up! I went for a blue material with green swirls - photos below. The tailor only took an hour to do our dresses and we were very excited to try them on!

The dress is made up of a separate skirt and top (so I suppose it's not really a dress). They're a lot cooler than the Ugandan traditional dress so it was better for the hot day forecast! They were a great fit and we were excited to show them off at the wedding. On the way home we discovered that people from Rwanda are just as keen at queuing as the British! We joined a long queue to get on the bus home which made us laugh as you never queue for anything in Uganda!

On Friday night was the VOW Concert at Revival Palace Church. As LT Warriors we were making a guest appearance in the concert. I was really looking forward to it as we had done a lot of fundraising and praying to get all the LT guys to Rwanda for this evening. We performed 4 dances and there was a great reaction from the audience so hopefully it was not the last LT Warriors tour! They are such a talented group of young people who deserve recognition.

The morning of the wedding arrived and Susie and I started the day getting a tad lost! We were getting bodas to our friend's house, but we didn't really know our way around, plus there was a language barrier between us and the boda guys. God answered our prayers when we spotted one of our friends from church standing outside the house that we certainly would have gone straight past! Our lovely friend Trice allowed us to have a warm shower and get ourselves ready for the day.

wearing my mushanana

the gappers all dressed up

the girls!

Susie and I in traditional Rwandese dress

After getting all dressed up we had to negotiate getting onto a boda in our dresses! In Rwanda it's also a law that boda passengers must wear helmets so it's a good job I didn't spend too much time on my hair! We headed off to the wedding, excited to see Alex tie the knot.

Alex and his wife Benigne

It was a beautiful ceremony, conducted in both English and Rwandese. I got goosebumps during the vows! There were lots of people there which just shows how wonderful this couple have been, and I'm sure will continue to be to the people around them.

Susie, Shavan, Me and Innocent

Me, Anna and Susie

Gapper Selfie

Gabit, my dear friend from church

After the ceremony the LT Warriors had a chance to perform. We did a couples dance to 'I Wanna Be The Only One'. It was another fantastic opportunity to spread the name of LT and also lovely for us to be able to perform for Alex, who has been so supportive of us.

It was a beautiful wedding and I'm so happy for Alex and Benigne. I pray that they will have a happy marriage that will last for many years to come.

I suppose I'll need to write another blog about coming home.. give me a day or two...