Blogs from Rwanda, Africa - page 35

The Youth Conference was, to say the least, awesome. Or at least I think it was…I wasn't there for very much of it. As it turns out, Linda, the Conference Coordinator, needed me to drive her all over town not just for the Wednesday and Thursday in preparation for the conference, but also for Friday through Monday, making it a round six days of driving all day around town; buying stuff, picking up stuff, picking up people, transporting goods and running like madness to try to get everything done on time. My one consolation for having missed most of the conference was that Linda missed it too. Haha, take THAT, evil Linda! The time that I had at the conference, however, was great. There were youth from Rwanda, Uganda, the DRC (Congo), Burundi, Ethiopia and Eritrea, ... read more

"Doucement! Doucement! Il y a un trou!" "Gently! Gently! There's a hole!" Such was my trip to and from Gikongoro. Washboard dirt roads with potholes, ditches, rivulets and log bridges, all of which I had to go over at no more than 10-15 km/h. Thus did my first village trip without Chris begin. It makes me wish that he was still here because he always insisted on driving. Trust me, I didn't argue against this insistence very much. More like, not at all. But I should start at the beginning. The Days After Chris began at noon on Tuesday July 17th, when I took Chris to the airport to catch his flight home. The rest of the day, nay, the week passed rather uneventfully, mostly taken up by making budgets of the money we have left, ... read more

So, we returned from Gisenyi last night. I should explain that I barely made it to Gisenyi because we had bus tickets for 9am and they leave on time, on 'mzungu time' as Africans would say. So, I was planning on getting there at around 8:20, change money and head over to the bus with plenty of time. I was waiting for a taxi into town for over 30 min and then I finally had to take a moto ( like a boda boda/motorcycle that are one of the quickest and easiest ways about town) into town and I got there at 8:25 which was fine but, then I just had a nightmare experience at the bank. The woman helping me was just being completely difficult and kept liek telling me all this stuff, it was ... read more

So, the movie Hotel Rwanda is based on Hotel des Milles Collines ( a thousand hills because Rwanda is the land of a thousand hills). But, it is one of the swanky hotels in Kigali and has received new found success and popularity after the movie, kind of wierd, I know. But, they have free live music and karaoke by their pool on thursday nights and I think I may be attending. It is strange that this hotel is one of the most populat places in town, as a hotel and as just a hang out place (they have a pool) because of everything that has surrounded it. But, if you think about it this is one of the most hopeful places in the city because this is one of the only places where there weren't ... read more

Chris Anderson (Mr. Big Boss Man of the Anderson Association) arrived here on Saturday the 7th, around 6pm. Within twelve hours (i.e. at 6am) Chris, Faustin, Gad, Fidel, Madine, Irene (the mother of a youth who came last year, who also arrived on Saturday) and I were preparing like crazy for a trip to the boonies. Another hour or two, and we're off. We headed to Gishanda, the first village I visisted and wrote about (though I may have been mistaken as to its name...I will check the entry and edit any errors later). We took massive amounts of materials; books, videos, posters calendars cards key-chains and other gifts from Nepal (where Chris currently lives), candies, etc. etc. etc. plus stuff for eating and sleeping at the house in Muhazi on Sunday night (we took all ... read more