We are so thrilled Flat Stanley came to Rwanda to visit our family!! If you don't know who Flat Stanley is, then you should read the book about him. Because he is flat, he can travel in envelopes or by email around the world meeting new people and discovering new places.
Our friends, the Johnsons from back in Austin, Texas asked if Flat Stanley could come visit us. And we said sure! Here is the story of his adventures with us in Rwanda!
Flat Stanley came to visit our home in the Kibagabaga area of the city called Kigali, in the country of Rwanda, located in the middle of the continent of Africa.
First, Flat Stanley went to Abigail’s school called Kigali International Community School or KICS. The mascot is a bird called a kite, kind of like a hawk, but black and white.
He even got to sit at Abigail’s desk in Grade 1. These are pictures of Stanley in front of the school banner, sitting at Abigail's desk, and of Abigail holding Stanley in her classroom wearing her PE clothes.
As we left the school, Flat Stanley tried to read the street signs, but couldn't because they were in French. Rwanda has 3 official languages: Kinyarwanda, French, and English.
English only recently became one of the official languages, so most of the signs around town are either in Kinyarwanda or French.
And that is the same for the spoken language. Most people speak 2 or even 3 languages everyday. It is amazing how Rwandans can switch languages when they talk to different people.
Next, Stanley got to help plant corn (or maize) just like Rwandans do. Every day for about 2 weeks, many, many people were in the fields around Rwanda tilling up the soil and planting seeds for corn.
Now, Stanley got to see the baby plants growing in a field. In a few months these plants will be tall and have corn ready to pick and eat. If Stanley lived in Rwanda, this corn would help feed his family.
One day, Stanley rode on a "moto", short for motorcycle taxi. Most people in Rwanda don't have cars, so this is a really popular way to get around town. There are so many on the road it sometimes feels like the motos are flies buzzing around your car.
He went to the International Justice Mission office, where Abigail's daddy works. Her daddy works with about 18 Rwandans and 4 Americans to help fight for justice for the poor. The people in the office are mostly lawyers, investigators, and counselors who want to help children. Here is a picture of Stanley at the gate to the IJM office.
Here is a picture of Stanley looking across the street at the Rwandan flag and a view of some of the city.
Kigali is the capital of Rwanda and it is up in the mountains so when you look out your window you can see many mountains and all of the buildings and houses on the other mountains.
He liked looking at some of the signs in our city. Here is one sign for a Dry Cleaners business that Flat Stanley liked because it had a picture of a person ironing some pants.
He was right that many of the signs are painted by hand by someone in the city instead of made by a big printing machine.
He learned a new word "Umudugudu" which means neighborhood and thought it was fun to say! Once he learned how to say the new word, he wanted to take a picture next to one of the signs near our house. It had a Rwandan flag on the sign too, which Flat Stanley liked.
Driving to our house Flat Stanley noticed that the main roads in the city are paved, but all of the small roads by peoples houses are still dirt and some of them are really bumpy!!
This is very different from the roads in the USA. It is kinda fun to ride on the bumpy roads, but we told Flat Stanley that during the rainy season we have to use the 4-wheel drive in our car to get to our house through the muddy roads.
Flat Stanley was really muddy and decided he needed a bath. When he was done, he hung out on the clothes line with all of our other clothes to dry since that is what Rwandans do. In the background, you can see our water tank that we use at our house. Sometimes the water doesn't come to our house from the city pipes, so we use the water in the water tank to take baths, flush toilets, cook dinner, or wash dishes.
As he was walking around the yard, he noticed round green things hanging from two different trees in the yard. We told him that one was an avocado tree with lots of avocados on it and that the other was a citron tree with just one citron and some flowers next to it.
Flat Stanley had never heard of a citron, and so we told him that is was like a mix between a lemon and a lime. Someday Flat Stanley will have to come back to Rwanda when the avocado and citron fruits are ready to eat!
The distance between Flat Stanley's home in Austin, Texas and our home in Kigali, Rwanda is about 8,475 miles. whew! That is about 17 hours on an airplane. If Flat Stanley wanted to call back home to Texas, he would be careful when he called because Rwanda is 7 hours ahead of Texas. That means if it is 3pm in the afternoon in Rwanda, then it is only 8am in Texas. So, if he calls any earlier than that he might wake someone up in Texas.
Some other interesting things about our city of Kigali, Rwanda is that it was voted the "Cleanest City in Africa" a few years ago. The whole country of Rwanda is about the same size as the small state of Maryland. Rwanda has about 7 million people, which makes it the most dense country in Africa.
Rwanda also has many animals to see in the national parks: zebra, giraffe, elephants, baboons, wart hogs, gorillas, impala. And there are cows and goats around the city that might even walk down your street while you are trying to drive home, so you have to sit and wait until they moo-ve over. Ha Ha! At one of our friend's houses they have turkeys, rabbits, chickens, fish, 2 dogs and 3 cats. Abigail loves to visit this friend!
Rwanda also has many animals to see in the national parks: zebra, giraffe, elephants, baboons, wart hogs, gorillas, impala. And there are cows and goats around the city that might even walk down your street while you are trying to drive home, so you have to sit and wait until they moo-ve over. Ha Ha! At one of our friend's houses they have turkeys, rabbits, chickens, fish, 2 dogs and 3 cats. Abigail loves to visit this friend!
Thanks Flat Stanley for visiting us in Kigali, Rwanda!!
Come again!
from Abigail
