Thnks fr th mmrs

So its been another crazy week in central Africa!

Last week we had the luck of being in Kigali on the 4th of July National Liberation Day and it was the 15th anniversary so Museveni, Nyerere and Zaweri were all there plus Kagame! We arrived after eight to find thousands of Rwandans around the gates waiting to get in and we were right at the back! Luckily waiting for Justin we found a side gate for white people with invititations however our invititations must have got lost in the post so we didnt have any. However after a while a large group of rwandans had spotted the gate and another crowd grew so much that the guards at the gate couldnt hold them back. So started the stampede for the gate people were falling everywhere but we managed to slip in before the gates were closed in front of the pile of bodies which were strewn on the ground. One woman was screaming in pain and rubbing her foot which was clearly broke I told some guy to stop massaging it and tried to get the medic 3m away to help but he just smiled!

We left the madness behind and tried to get into the stadium but there were presidential guards and metal detectors everywhere so running the guards wasnt a plan! There was a white gate again so we waited but didnt have an invitation so had to wait but it paid off and we managed to get into the VIP area n front row seats score!

There was a media section to our right with a massive army contingent beside that with some conspicous white people beside generals at the front! there were a few americans there too all dressed up for some reason we were rough looking literally rolled out of bed with all our water!

Kagame, Museveni and yer man from ethiopia all arrived in big jeeps n mercs only two meters from us got out and waved. The stadium floor was full of soldiers and police men who marched around and looked right which the crowd went crazy over - easy crowd. Then two red beret MPs marched around with the flags literally like duracell bunnies it was hilarous! Museveni looked like a turtle and barely smiled until he started speaking and he started cracking jokes and was quite funny. Somehow ethiopian troops had fought in 1994 surprisingly and Museveni and Pauly must have made up after Pauly killed his friend then tried to fight the ugandan army in the congo for the last few years over gold.

Then the attack helicopters which had been flying over our house the last few days flew over all ten of them would hate to meet them in the Congo! Kagame spoke in english then some itora dancers came out with like three dozen drummers it was awesome! We as the army was moving out but couldnt leave and so had to stand surrounded by soldiers and all the top guys in Rwanda and at one point we were standing beside a couple of generals they didnt want a photo with us harsh!

We left the stadium and had the worst lunch ever in the Le Banjo just down from the stadium we ordered some chicken n chips and the chicken came out and you couldnt eat it it went everywhere as we tried to split it then the fanta got spilt a few times by the time we finished we were covered in orange sauce and were still so hungry!

Most of this week we have been writing up testimonies and our report and newspaper article it has been so long and boring but we got it done!

Yesterday we had to meet with human rights commission to get permission to visit the prisons were children are being held but we ended up get half a dozen different buses to four different ministries to get permission and in the end we were told we just had to write a letter rage! but we somehow ended up in the defence ministry which was fun mark was taking sneaky photos but his camera is so bloody noisy that the guards at the front armed with aks nearly caught us!

Then yesterday afternoon we were in the amazing market near our house were you can buy anything and mark started teaching the locals irish dancing it was hilarous! Then last night with the locals we had a wee concert singing and playing the guitar it was alot of fun some guy came up in the dark took the guitar and started playing the house of the rising sun in kinyarwandan it was excellent!

Now we are chilling this afternoon then heading to an ethiopian restaurant beside our house! food here is amazing and so cheap!

Probably heading to congo on wednesday I have been in contact with the UNHCR about how the children in the camp we visited are now dying in droves from cholera so they want to meet but they say that no children have died my arse! they also say they feed everybody in the camps and there have people working in the camps and are surprised I didnt meet any of them!