The last Sunday of the month is Exercise Day, so once again the streets of Kigali were a little quieter, as residents are encouraged to devote the day to physical fitness. The citizens of Rwanda must be the fittest people on the planet, for they are constantly walking and biking up and down the hills - and they often do so with heavy loads on their heads and backs! No wonder it is called the country of 1000 hills (le pays de milles collines)! On this early morning we even observed an enthusiastic fellow navigating these hills (more like mountains) on rollerblades!

Sunday morning we were headed to Munyaga, with a slight detour to Nzige. This landscape was very different from the mega hills we had travelled earlier in the week. We were in the valleys with farm fields and rice paddies on either side of the road. Once off the main road, we once again experienced a Rwandan massage (an extremely bumpy road). Along the road community residents were chopping rock to lay on the side of the deep ditches which will catch the rains during rainy season.

When we finally reached our destination, the children and parents were still calmly waiting for us. They cheered loudly when they heard about our ‘detour’ (we went to the wrong location).

As the items of the bedkit were shown to the crowd, everyone erupted in cheers. The children especially liked the shirt and shorts!

The picture-taking and bedkit distribution went smoothly and relatively quickly. The little ones were a bit overwhelmed by the process but the laughs of our rotary volunteer alleviated their hesitancy and resulted in big smiles!

As the distribution continued, more families from neighbouring communities arrived, but unfortunately they were not registered. All 500 bedkits were distributed to registered children.