My last days in Rwanda and Paris, Round 2!

Well, here I am... at another airport. A lot has happened since the last time I’ve posted, so hopefully this won’t be too long! And again... no internet right now, so this will be posted when I finally do have it...

My last couple days in Rwanda were amazing! We got to go out to Kayonza one more time to see the finished house that we built... well, almost finished. They were still working on the floor, doors and windows and the front porch, but overall it looked really good!
The highlight of the last days though was that I finally got to go visit Manude and his family! Serge and I went to go find him just before heading to the airport. He was actually really easy to find too. He lives with his mom, 4 year old sister and his grandparents just behind the house that my cousin and friend lived in while she was working in Kigali with World Vision. (Literally right behind your house, Laura!) Serge and I talked with them for a little while and we got to hear Manude’s story, a bit about his mom’s life and got to meet his little sister who has pretty much the exact same personality that Manude did when I first met him at 4 years old! I told his mom about how Manude has been a large part of my thoughts over the last few years and told them that I want him to go to school and would be paying for him. I think also that next year I’ll make sure his sister goes too... she already reminds me too much of him when he was younger and I don’t think I would be able to not get her in to school also! So, we visited for a little while, I told Manude that he needs to study hard and make sure that he practices his English (All schools in Rwanda now teach in English) so that next time I come we can talk without an interpretor... he seemed to really like that idea!
Another fun thing was that Friday night before we left was Serge’s birthday. We all went out together to a new restaurant that no one there had ever been to and it was a lot of fun and great food! It was good to be able to celebrate both Serge and Beni’s birthdays and go to a wedding while we were there! ...so many congratulations and celebrations!

After visiting with Manude and his family it was time to leave Rwanda  We all had one last meal at Bourbon at the Kigali airport and loaded on to the plane. We had a 5ish long hour layover in Nairobi which was pretty uneventful and then after another long flight we made it to Paris in the wee hours of the morning. The first day in Paris was really cool, but very tiring! Most of us didn’t really sleep overnight on the plane, but we weren’t going to waste a full day there by sleeping. We found our hotel, dropped off our stuff and went out on the town! We spent the morning together, wandering the streets and taking care of a few things we needed to do together and then split up for the day. 5 of us took the train out to Versailles and spent the afternoon being amazed by the palace. It was INSANE! So much gold, so many paintings... it was huge! Lots and lots of French history and art. We didn’t have a huge amount of time, so we went through pretty quickly before walking out to the garden, which is massive and really nice. By the time that we got back in to Paris to meet everyone else for supper most of us were more than ready for bed. But we all went out for a really good supper just up the road from our hotel, across from Gard L’est Metro station. After supper, pretty much everyone just went straight to bed... it was the best night’s sleep I had had since leaving Canada!
Our second day was really good too. We went out for breakfast at a little cafe on St. Michel and then split up again. Some went on a walking tour of Paris, and some of us walked around St. Michel and did some shopping/browsing. After that we took the Metro to the Latin Quarters and walked around there for a bit. For some reason almost everything was closed, so we jumped back on the Metro and went back to St. Michel for a bit before heading over to the Chaps Ellyese, where we met up with everyone again under the Arc du Triumph. We walked down the Boulevard together for a bit, checking out the stores, doing the tourist thing. I had my fill of shopping, so I went off on my own to go see the Grand Palace, Small Palace, and a bunch of really cool things around there and then I just walked. For a long time. Got very lost. Eventually found a Metro station and headed back to the hotel to meet up with everyone again. By this time it was around 9pm and we had reservations to go up the Eiffel Tower. The view was really cool up there and I’m happy that we did it, but I don’t think I’d do it again... it’s just one of those things you have to do at least once if you’re in Paris. The coolest part about it was that 3 of us went up to the very top and up there they had signs pointing in the direction of different cities around the world and how far away they are. Toronto was 6,014km away and Sarajevo, where I’m heading to right now, was 1,355km... Kigali, where we just came from was 6,234km and Manila where I’m heading to in a week...10,761! Makes me wonder just how many kilometres I’m actually traveling this summer!
I have to admit... Paris is actually a lot better than I thought it would be!! But too much walking! I’m so sore and tired. I walked so much that a wore a hole through my socks, which could have passed as brand new at the beginning of the day! My first day or two in Sarajevo will be spent lounging around at local cafes with not much walking, me thinks.

But anyways, it’s about time to board my flight from Paris to Belgrade, Serbia where I have a 5 hour layover before flying to Sarajevo this evening, so hopefully there’s something to do and/or internet in the airport!!
I’ll let y’all know how things are going once I’m in Bosnia! So far, so good... and safe! See y’all in a few weeks!