A Day in the Life: Rwanda

Here’s a close-up look at what my average day looked like last month in Kigali, Rwanda!

5:30AM – Our host and the kids are up and about. Getting ready for school and cleaning the house.

6:30AM – I roll out of bed.

7AM – Time for exercise! Usually outdoors. Usually includes some number of people that stop and stare at me (and if you’ve worked out with me, you know that being watched is my least favorite thing ever).

7:45AM – Prayer and Bible reading. The perfect way to start any day.

8:30AM – Breakfast. Sometimes just bread and butter (for me, rice cakes and peanut butter), and sometimes includes omelettes, pineapple, bananas, and/or chapati (African fried flatbread).

9AM – Time to leave for church. We walk nearly a mile uphill to get to the bus station, hop on the bus for a little while, hop of the bus, and walk another mile up yet another hill.

10AM – Arrival at the church. Then we decide which two of our team will help teach kids English, and the rest go out to do evangelism. On certain days of the week, one of us has to preach during the church service, which we all go to around 11 or 11:30ish.

12:30PM (or sometimes much later) – We leave the church to go home for lunch. Some days we’re there until 2PM, but it just depends on how the service goes. 

1:30PM (or sometimes much later) – Lunchtime! We typically have either rice or pasta, and mashed potatoes or homemade french fries, and a vegetable like cabbage or green beans or avocado, and meat with sauce or peas and carrots with sauce.

The afternoon time – free time. We like to nap, and have time to do so, so that usually happens. We also may watch a movie together, read, write blogs, take bucket showers, or whatever. Or play card games with our host brothers (there’s three of them – ages 10, 12, and 14).

8 or 9PM – Dinnertime! Dinner is composed of the same menu as lunch. 

Between 9:15 and 10:30PM – My teammate, Elise, and I have been doing a daily ab workout together, usually after dinner. Fun stuff right after eating a meal. Some other teammates may join as well.

After abs, it’s time for bed! Well, at least for me it is. And that’s all, folks!

This is my day’s schedule more often than not, but there’s also a lot of variation. Sundays look different – we just do the church service, which is 4+ hours long. Fridays, we have church in the evening instead of the morning. Monday and Saturday are our rest/adventure days. We have also been spending some mornings moving dirt at our home, so that our hosts can open their newest church on the same property.

I can’t believe that as I sit here writing this, it’s only 11 days until I arrive back in America. It’s been such a huge privilege to do a trip like this and serve in all the places that I have, but I’m definitely excited about going home. There’s a lot of things that I’ll miss about the World Race, but also some things I’m ready to leave behind.

This month, I’ve been working with a British non-profit called Lightforce International in Lira, Uganda. They do a lot of work in the community, but my main job is working on projects on or near the base. Lots of manual labor, yay! Or not yay. More to come on that.

I have 5 more days here, and then I go to Jinga for our squad debrief, and after that I fly home to America! Please be praying for safe travels for everyone, and a productive last week and a half on the field!