And this concludes Stephen and Mary @ Rwanda

Children of Rwanda

All good things must come to an end and our VSO adventures really were worth every minute of the preparation, the training and all the hard work. We have made friends for life both amongst colleagues abroad and volunteers in the UK and all over the world. 

VSO Rwanda Group January 2011

For anyone out there who is thinking of doing a VSO placement, I can only encourage you and hope that you have a time as rewarding as the two of us. Why not have a look at their website. Just click on the tab above.

I am a fan of the film "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel", particularly for the words of wisdom imparted by the characters who are facing a totally different life from the ones they have left. Many of the quotes are equally fitting for VSO. Here are a few of them:-

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

“It’s also true that the person who wishes nothing, does nothing, has nothing.”

"He has a dream and he's determined to make it come true."

“Nothing happens unless first we dream.”

"All we know about the future is that it will be different. But perhaps what we fear is that it will be the same. So we must celebrate the changes."

“The only real failure is the failure to try.  And the only real success is to cope with disappointment

-“I have offered a vision of the future.” 

And my two favourites, particularly relating to VSO.........

"What do you see that I don't?"

The light, colours, the smiles, it teaches me something." 

It's like a wave; resist and you go under, ride it out and you arrive at the others side.

My final posts relate to our trip to East Africa one year after we returned from Rwanda. You can see them by clicking on the tabs or going to the pages from here.....

One Year Later

East Africa

You will also find links to the Guyana Blog and NCERLEADERS as well as a few others who shared the experience with us.

There's a section on "Rwanda through our eyes" with photographs of daily lives from the roadside. It helps to visualise what Rwanda is like.

And so I leave you with the following........

"The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page." ~ St. Augustine

"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime." ~ Mark Twain

"A journey of a thousand miles starts in front of your feet." ~ Lao-tzu

"Two roads diverged in a woods, and I took the one less traveled by and that has made all the difference." ~ Robert Frost

And finally my favourite .........

"Travel has a way of stretching the mind. The stretch comes not from travel's immediate rewards, the inevitable myriad of new sights, smells and sounds, but with experiencing firsthand how others do differently what we believed to be the right and only way."
Ralph Crawshaw

Cheers from Rwanda
Murakoze, Rwanda