Today was a good day! We went to the health center, which was very typical for us but we did not realize that there was going to be a surprise waiting at the end! But before the surprise, we sat in the waiting area with the patients that were there waiting to receive health care. One of the nurses got up and talked about HIV/AIDS. It was interesting to see them reaching a group of people and helping educate the locals. It was nice to see that they were all open to questions and were able to clear up some misconceptions about the disease. I think that this is something that could be useful in the US to educate people on how to protect themselves from diseases and help improve the quality of life. I'm surprised to see that Rwanda, a developing country, has things in place that could be beneficial in the US, a very developed country. Okay and now for the surprise! There is a kindergarten attached to the health center and we all went down and as we went down the stairs around 100 children came running at us and gave us hugs. It was so adorable. We sat and listened to them sing and dance, which is where most of the pictures from today came from. It was so nice to see children that were so open and welcoming. I work at the BYU kindergarten and the kids would have been hesitant to come up and hug strangers but they treated us as if we were their friends. The songs were stuck in my head all day! I had brought a bunch of stickers to give out to children and I thought that this would be a perfect time to give them away! So I brought the stickers out and gave them to the small girl standing next to me. As soon as one child saw me give out a sticker, they all came running. I probably gave out over 80 stickers, I’m glad I had enough! After all the singing and dancing, we went into our meeting with the director of the health center and provided reports on the specific areas we were given. Mine was about the waiting area and we had given her some suggestions such as spreading the benches out more, providing a hand washing station, and educating the people on how to cough properly. As soon as we concluded she told us that the hand washing station was about to be put in! It was nice to hear that the health center is conscious and aware of their problems and they are still trying to fix them even with their limited resources. After our meeting, we returned back to the guesthouse and journeyed out into the city to grab dinner. We had a delicious meal at a restaurant close to where we were staying. After dinner, we went around the shops and ran into a few locals that had recognized us. It was an eventful but fun day!
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