Home Safe & Sound

Hello from Rwanda!

We have been home now for 4 days and we pretty much feel like we never left. Baylee and Julia have picked up right where they left off and Dean and I are really enjoying being back with the kids and the mamas…its kinda nice to have been missed so much!

As we drove up to the property the Friday that we arrived we could see the kids clapping and singing already but we hardly made it out of the car before they forgot about the song and came running to surround and embrace us! I was too tired to think to get the camera ready before hand so I have no pictures of our welcome :(

The first day we were fairly mellow, it was an extremely long trip this time…not so sure that we will fly here via Ethiopia instead of Nairobi next year…it just seemed to take forever! Four take offs and four landings really tires a person out!

Our second day we went into the city to get some groceries and Joy-Lynn (the missionary who covered us) told us that there were two new grocery stores in Kigali. Now, I know that this probably wouldn’t excite most people, but here it is a BIG deal.

I don’t think that I have ever been so excited about something so simple in all my life! The first store – Simba, was just like a Safeway from say…the 80’s! There was so much great stuff! We had so much fun looking at all the “cool” things that they had. Things like dog food, and flavored canned cream for baking, and shampoo that doesn’t smell funky! I kicked myself in the butt a little bit though when I found a pair of what I am choosing to believe are authentic Nike Airwalk runners for $10!! I had just bought Julia a pair of runners in Canada! Simba is now my most favorite store in Rwanda!

A very close runner up is the Nakumatt aka “Wal-Mart”. I totally spent the first 20 minutes of my visit here walking around with my mouth open!! This is a much larger store but it is also quite a bit more money BUT they have bacon and cheddar cheese and also the all important………Scor Bar Ice Cream – too bad its $18 for a ½ liter, don’t think that we will be indulging in that too much, but at least it is there if we want it. If you can believe it, the “Wal-Mart” is open 24 hours!? Who in Rwanda needs bacon at 2 am?

Okay I think that is enough about my dreams coming true….. :)

Joy-Lynn is flying back to Canada on Thursday, even after much trying to convince her to stay a bit longer. She didn’t get an opportunity to go to any of the great restaurants while she was here so we are going to take her to one of the best. Indian Khazana is one of our most favorites as it has the best Indian food ever, with the exception of the famous “Luck” restaurant in Calgary, they definitely make the best but unfortunately we couldn’t fit them in our luggage.

We have had a great time reconnecting with the kids and the mamas. All of the children have grown quite a bit over the summer- much like many of the trees we have on the property. Abby is very, very chubby! A little too chubby actually, it was discovered that they were feeding her almost the same amount they would feed an eight year old because they felt bad for her - we cut that back pretty quick! She has two teeth, is walking and is blowing kisses and saying “mama”, “papa”, and now “dada”….Dean is pretty pumped!

That covers our first four days and I don’t think that I can, or should talk about my dream shops any more! We would love to hear from you so feel free to email us!

Talk soon and blessings,

The Torgersons