Am feeling quite tired tonight, so will give a quick resume of this very hot day.

As it was excursion day I was told that breakfast would be an hour later. But my lift arrived at the same time. :(

After breakfast, a fair amount of waiting around (I could have been sleeping!), and some last minute changes to the excursion plans, a large group of us were transported over the the genocide memorial. I was glad to have been there already, and had a better opportunity to absorb it all in my own pace. This is a place you can’t rush, or have your thoughts crowded. It was quite heart-rending to see one of the students break down in tears as she remembered the horrors that happened all too recently.

The memorial was due to be closed today as it is a national holiday, but was opened as a favour to the UGBR president (who holds a senior position in the national bank). Randomly, there was also a couple from Ireland at the site too, and what looked like an outing for the cabin-crew of Brussels Airlines.

A small group of us were then taken over to the IBC offices, and had opportunity for discussion with the graduates who have set this enterprise up. It’s great to see graduates leading the way in business and fostering entrepreneurial initiative amongst their fellow graduates. Many of the projects they have been working on sound very exciting, and I hope they felt encouraged by our visit.

After getting back to KIST later than planned (and therefore missing my meeting with the local pastor – now rearranged for tomorrow), we had a rushed lunch before I found out that my meeting with the national director of World Vision had been set up for 4:00pm. We ended up chatting for over an hour, and am sure there is some great material that can be used in various ways. There’s a real synergy between UGBR and World Vision, and it’s exciting to see how God is developing people to work in some pretty difficult areas.

I then had a good couple of chats with various General Secretaries about the challenges of fund development in their individual contexts, and enjoyed dinner with a group of students keen to extend my grasp of the Kinyarwandan language. There was also one of those ‘laugh til you cry’ moments over dinner. For much of the conference there has felt something of a distance between me and many of the students, despite best efforts to break down these barriers. What a reminder this evening of how easily this is done when you make a fool of yourself and have a good laugh.

It has felt like a slow, but very full day. And because of the heat I am feeling really tired, so am going to sign off and get some rest. Until tomorrow.