Day 1

. So today we traveled roughly around 30 hours between bus rides, plane rides, and layovers. Despite us leaving before 6am est. time we were all excited to go on this great adventure. After going through customs at the U.S./Canadian border we got to the Toronto, Canada airport a short while later to board the plane about two hours after we had arrived. Our first flight was about 13 hours. Out of those 13 hours I slept about 30 to 60 minutes. I guess I just couldn’t calm down knowing that I was leaving so far from home for two whole weeks. Maybe I was anxious? I don’t know. Restless was an understatement for me. I tried to fill my time with the movies offered on the plane and catching up on Riverdale on my laptop. I remember before I left my mom told me to pack snacks in case I didn’t like the food, but what I didn’t realize was that it wasn’t that I wouldn’t like the food, but I would be constantly hungry. I probably eat too much for my own good. But I was so hungry despite being served food about every four hours. I went through half of my snacks. So we had landed in Ethiopia, Africa it was probably 12:00a.m. est time, and 7:00a.m. Ethiopia time. I was so relieved to get a good stretch off of the plane. Our layover there was about 3 hours. We kinda just walked around the airport, freshened up, and sat until we boarded our next flight. Now I promised the second flight I would take a nap because, 1. I needed sleep and 2. I wanted to have some type of energy when we landed in Rwanda, Africa. So I did keep my promise and for about an hour of that couple hour flight I went to sleep, but then we landed. We got off the plane, paid for some visas, got our luggage, and was greeted as soon as we got outside. We were welcomed and it was beautiful. I then took in my surroundings and it was amazing. The trees, the air, and the view of the mountains in the distance was just magnificent. We took our bus to our guest house where we rested for a couple of hours before we met up for dinner, and I got my first experience of tasting Rwandan food. It was like nothing I’ve tasted back in Buffalo, NY. But one thing that really stuck out to me was the pili pili sauce, which is a very hot sauce. Anybody who knows me knows that I love spicy food and when prompted to try some I did, but with precaution. I dipped the tip of my finger in it and licked it and I swear I licked the sun. It was hilarious. But nope, never again. At least I tried it. After that we proceeded with dinner and then had cake for our wonderful Professor Drew for his birthday and then it was lights out. It was an exhausting day, and we all went right to sleep in our rooms.