First and Second Days Journal

Just wanted to send an update on how life is in Rwanda. So I arrived here three days ago and I already have so many stories to tell! I am so excited to be here and ready to start work on Monday with NAR and help the people of Rwanda. Everyone I met so far has been incredible. The people here are so generous and kind.

So let me tell you a little bit about my experience thus far... so I arrived at 9 PM Rwandan time two nights ago. The airport was really small. My boss and her fiance were at the airport to pick me up. It didn't take too long to get my luggage...and it wasn't lost! I thought for sure something like that would happen to me (since bad things always seem to find their way into my life). It was too dark to see much of Kigali at that point though. We went to my workplace/where I'm living and they dropped me off with keys. The front has a gate and security guard. There are locks on everything here....the gate, the front door, my bedroom door. I feel very safe. We got in the house only to discover that my bathroom had flooded and the water had run into my room as well. After cleaning that up, we moved my stuff in my room, I got on SKYPE and chatted with Andrew, unpacked my room, and went to bed. I went to bed that night a little homesick.

Yesterday was my first full day in Rwanda. I woke up, ate a small breakfast, and hopped in the shower. Mind you, the water is cold and I can't drink the water. But I got out of the shower only to realize that it had AGAIN flooded the whole bathroom and part of my bedroom. So I cleaned up that mess, and realized that the shower drain was too small for the shower. They suggest that I get a bucket and clean myself that way. I'm really roughin it, huh? Then, my roommate Sonia took me out on the town. The experience was interesting. We jumped on a bus with about 20 Rwandans. It was four people to a row, and one of the chairs in each row folded up so if someone from the back needed to get out they could. The driver was playing music the whole time, which I thought was really cool. When we needed to get off, we simply knocked on the side of the bus wall, and they stopped the bus for us. Then we paid them 180 rwandan francs (its 570 rwandan francs to 1 US dollar).... so we rode for really cheap! They actually say that Kigali is one of the most expensive cities in Africa, but compared to Fairfax, everything here is cheap to me! So we got off in the downtown area of Kigali, where the Union Trade Centre and a bunch, and I mean a bunch, of shops are. There were SO MANY PEOPLE. It was pretty intimidating because I don't know anyone. Luckily my roommate is fluent in English, French, and Kinyarwanda, so she managed to get us around. She already taught me a few words "muzungu" which means "white person", "yego" which means yes, "oya" which means no (and I had to use this one A LOT), and she taught me thank you, which I heard a lot but can't remember. So we went shopping for some stuff I needed. We got some toilet paper, coat hangers, cleaning supplies to clean my clothes (I have to hand wash my clothes), and a bottled water. Then we went to get me a cell phone. Everyone here has one, and I would be REALLY at a disadvantage if I didn't have one. We got it from one of the 3 Rwandan cell phone companies MTN. It's pretty much a pay as you go phone. There are people that sell MTN credits along all Kigali. I paid about $30 US dollars for my cell phone and 3,000 credits. It takes about 30 credits to text, so who knows how long this will last me. But since I only know work people at this moment, I don't think I will use too many minutes. They said the big thing to do here is "beep" someone...which is basically calling them and hanging up when they answer so they have to call you back. I guess minutes only count against you when you're making outgoing calls, not accepting incoming calls. I don't think I'll beep anyone until I feel comfortable haha. After the cell phone shop we went to the bank. First we visited the Bank of Kigali, which didn't accept travelers checks and I got a little freaked out. But they directed us to another bank, and they did there. After about an hour long dealing with the tellers, I finally got the money that I needed...some Rwandans were mad I think that I was taking so long. Then we met up my roommates friend Alex. He's from Mexico and in Kigali to help build the business plan for the first language center. Because Rwanda is transitioning to having English as their only official language, he was chosen to develop the plan. It's a pretty awesome thing what he's doing. He was a great person and I was excited to meet someone who had gone to college in the US. Then we went back to the office/home for a staff meeting. I met the NAR staff, and all the Rwandan people working with NAR were SO NICE. I work with a girl named Lydia and she is so sweet. She came up and gave me a big hug when she met me. Thats a big thing they do here in Rwanda is hug. After the staff meeting, I went and unpacked some more and got settled in. We just kinda all hung out and I took some pictures and walked around a bit. Then by that time, Sonia told me that there was this birthday party that we could go to for a girl she met at the Embassy (they have get togethers at the American Embassy every Tuesday night). We got dressed up, and I was lucky she had visited France and had a European hair straightner that could plug into the outlets here! I got to straighten my hair and look decently nice. Then we took a bus out to the house (that was a whole other story in itself)...we got there, and I met a lot of Americans (2 Yale graduates, and one from Brown, working in Kigali with the CDC and other offices) and some Rwandans/Ugandans/other Africans. I was stoked to talk to them and they had some amazing stories to tell. We hitched a ride with some people from the party, and came back home to sleep.

So here I am. Awake at 10:30 in the morning, writing this email to you all. I love it here so far. I'm sure some people will rub me wrong at some point, but so far people are so intrigued why I'm here and how I got involved with coming to Rwanda. I love to tell them my passion for Rwanda and they are so excited to have people here who can go back and tell Americans how Africa really is. I know a lot of people had their reservations about me coming, but it really is a great place to be. I love it, and I can't wait to tell more stories about my amazing experience in Rwanda. I need to go get ready though because I'm going with my roommate to the Genocide Memorial at 12 and then grocery shopping. This should be VERY interesting today.

Love you all <3