rwanda: lovely people

i realize i am running a bit behind schedule since we were in rwanda in february, but for some reason it slipped my mind :)

it was a really short stay, a couple of weeks. as usual it was a pleasure to stay at their lovely bethel. its small and very well maintained.

we had a chance to walk around kigali a bit. in fact we took random matatus and buses and had a grand old time getting lost and finding our way back to bethel again. kigali is a city of 1 million people and set on lots of hills. one of them is in fact called 'Mt. Kigali'.

famous clothes shop 'moses couture'. a step above 'haute', you know.

we ended this day at a lovely restaurant overlooking one of the valleys and enjoyed one of the local lagers. 

one of the nice things about rwanda is the people. as you can see from the yearbook, most of these brothers have gone through unthinkable challenges over the years. brother rwakabubu and his wife.  read his story on page 171 of the yearbook, and the heartwarming story of his daughters prayer on page 198.

and brother niyongira and his wife. his story is on page 212.

we have to include this sister because of her name: happy heart.

we managed to attend the sign language congregation which was grown very well since our previous visit in 2009. so much so that they have split and now have 2 sign language congregations in kigali. this brother is deaf and almost blind - but he takes his assignment to keep the kingdom hall sign clean seriously.

rwanda has an ideal climate for plants - lots of sun, lots of rain. they have several exotic plants just on the property of bethel - from their beautiful travellers palms to fragrant frangipani trees of various colors to this awesome palm which i do not know the name of...

we left rwanda happy to have seen all our dear friends there though we felt that we did not spend enough time, but at least we saw their faces and confirmed their well-being.