The Perfect Birthday

Haha, well, almost...
This weekend was kind of crazy. Friday night Peace Corps put on the benefit concert at the small stadium in Kigali to raise local money for Books for Africa. THe event itself was pretty cool, and almost every single volunteer from our group was there, plus many other volunteers and people who work with PC. While the performances were cool, the turnout was very bad. Most of the people who came and bought tickets were people we personally knew, which leads me to believe that promoting did nothing to recruit people. I'm not sure if the event raised enough money to cover the amount of money that is supposed to come locally. I unfortunately left a little early, and missed a happy birthday serenade by the Ben, the closing act, which the other PCVs had set up for me, so I was kind of bummed. It was really nice of them to set that up, though I do feel a little bit bad since my birthday wasn't till Sunday, and it was actually Brandon's Bday!

The next day I went to Gisenyi, my favorite part of Rwanda, with 3 friends. We spent the night there and swam in the lake. We ate two meels at the Serena and ordered drinks while we laid out on the sand and pretended we were back on the beaches in our hometowns.

Sunday we got back to Kigali. Most PCVs were in Kigali this weekend to help out with Operation Smile, which is a week long campaign to give surgeries to people with cleft pallet. Sadly, there are only so many surgeons who volunteer their time, and half of the people who travel to Kigali and show up don't get picked for corrective surgery. I saw some pictures and videos, and it looks like a really awesome project.

Monday was a holiday so a lot of people stayed on in Kigali Sunday night, and we went out to my favorite resuraunt in Kigali. It was nice to have everyone together, including two of Ahmed's friends who are here visiting from Chicago. I asked if I could get a free desert and I got serenaded by the waiters who gave me an ice cream and fruit plate.

Monday was nice since I didn't have to work-God I miss 3 day weekends! I'll be working pretty much every weekend from now until July so I'm going to be a very busy bee! I thought I'd write a blog entry while I"m on a high instead of when I'm stressed out, so it might be a while until I write again! Miss all my friends/fam abroad and thanks for the bday wishes!