Rwanda

I have been sitting here for the longest time trying to think of what I want to share about Rwanda, and really, there are just too many things that come to mind but no words to describe them. People always ask me, "Oh, how was your trip?" and I have created a canned response that just about sums up everything and yet nothing at all. "Oh, it was AMAZING! It was the most wonderful experience I have ever had in my life, but definitely the most difficult. The people there are so wonderful; I was so inspired by them. I made some friends there that still email me and I think we are going to be friends for a long time. God did so many miracles in the lives of the people there and in me. I literally left my heart in that country and I want to go back so badly." And the more I continue to write and try to think of things to write about, the more these things get buried deeper and deeper in my heart as a personal, intimate secret between me, God, and the rest of the Rwanda team. As much as I want to share about the things that happened there, I just cannot think of where to start, what to say when I do start, and how I would even begin to describe everything in words; to begin to describe everything is just thoroughly overwhelming. I know that if you ask me a specific question about my trip, I will just talk and talk and talk without stopping, but to try and just start talking about the trip, I just don't know what to say. In person, Rwanda is really the only thing I can talk about; it changed my life so much that I can't help but just relate everything to it. Like I told one of the Canadian teenagers I met in Rwanda, "People just don't understand how much you fall in love with a place and a people like that. They don't understand how the way you live your life can be so completely altered; that your view of the world is so wonderfully tainted; that it has become such a big part of your life and there's no way to escape from it; that you can talk about it for hours and hours and it doesn't even come close to the things you've experienced, felt, and lived through. People just don't understand." I know that as I continue to blog in here about my life in college or whatever, things from Rwanda will just come out, so stay tuned for stories from Africa interspersed in my life. But if you really want to know something about my trip, PLEASE ask me and I would be more than happy to answer anything you want to know about. You can email me at coolartic123@aol.com or at allison.sherer@gmail.com or even just leave comments on my blog and I will answer them in blog-form. Basically, I just need a specific place to start and I will just explode with all of the blessings, hardships, eye-openers, heart-changers, life-altering details from the trip. Your life will change once you hear these stories, I can guarantee that. I know my life is forever changed.

Rwanda yanjye nshuti ndagukunda cyane cyane.