Getting the "real" Africa experience!

We arrived in Kigali on Wednesday night!

Tired but happy to be reunited from our dear friends Elder and Sister Wilkes.

We stayed up late talking, but got up early ready to see the sights of Rwanda

and "get a real taste of Africa" from the Wilkes.

We drove up to the Musanze Hospital and watched Elder and Sister Wilkes

 drop off 600 pairs of glasses to Dr. Ladislas at the Opthamology department.

Elder and Sister Wilkes are doing wonderful work here in Rwanda 

on behalf of Deseret International Charities, which is funded by the LDS church.

 We stopped and had lunch at the Virunga Safari lodge which overlooked the Virunga volcanos.

 We spent some time trekking the next morning to see some big furry animals.

It was unbelievable and a post about the gorilla trek will be coming shortly.

This big guy is considered the largest silverback gorilla in the world!

 The next day was the 18th anniversary of the Rwandan genocoide.

It was a somber and moving day as we visited two genocoide memorials with Brad and Karen. 

We stopped and did some grocery shopping at Karen's favorite market.

Kind of like Raley's... or the next best thing!

Brad stayed in the car in the parking lot, or as he called it "SPL!"

And I wanted to share a picture of my bath this morning.

Since Brad and Karen promised that we would "get the real experience of Africa"

they kindly arranged for the water to go out for 24 hours.

You know I'm kidding. They didn't have to arrange it, it just happens periodically...

 every so often... but we were lucky to experience it:)!

But don't worry, Brad quickly boiled some water for us and we were able to enjoy a warm sponge bath!

It was quite lovely and we are happy with all of the wonderful things we are experiencing so far in Africa!