So, my Grand Gorilla Adventure turned out to be pretty much a bust! It was 10 minutes of “Gorillas in the Mist” followed by 30 minutes of “Gorillas in the Torrential Downpour”. I didn’t get many good photos at all and not a single photo of me with a gorilla in the background. The more evolved, philosophical, Buddish side of me says “that’s the way it goes”, “who can predict nature?”, “at least I saw 10 good minutes of Rwandan mountain gorillas which is more than most people ever get”. The other 70% of me (it’s a [View Full Entry]

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Greetings from Rwanda! All is well here and I am fine. My work is going well and I am actually ahead of schedule. I’ve had some great meetings so far with another one scheduled for Friday afternoon. Friday evening there’s a dinner party at Jennifer’s house. There are five Americans visiting Rwanda at the moment so we’re having a get together. I’ll meet more co-workers from North Carolina that I haven’t yet met there here. My first day here, I gave three bags of candy to the receptionist. They are big fans of chocolate here and all US visitors bri [View Full Entry]

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I'm here! I safely arrived in one piece with all my luggage right on schedule! I cleared Immigration, the Swine Flu Inspectors, and Customs with no problem. There was a driver waiting for me with another woman from my office whom I had never met, but who was on all of my same flights (except she flew business class). She's very nice and I should see her at the office here during the next week. This is my second trip to Rwanda and the second time I have met someone from the North Carolina office here that I had not yet [View Full Entry]

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I have spent a month in Rwanda and have enjoyed the experience, although I’m now ready to go home. I have finished everything I needed to do for work, including a three hour training presentation this morning. My flight out is at 7:45pm this evening. I'm just wrapping a few things up here at the office and will then walk home, get some lunch, take a shower, finish packing, and head to the airport at 5:00pm. Just four flights later (three in business class so I can't really complain too much), I'll be back in NC! I’ve seen quite a bit [View Full Entry]

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Another day, another adventure! My goal today was to see Lake Kivu and I accomplished that. The lake is 100 km long and covers 2,200 km2 and it’s among the 20 deepest and 20 most voluminous freshwater bodies in the world. I took the 8:10am bus from Kigali to Kibuye, a two to three hour trip depending on traffic. I was a bit unsure about the bus since all of the ones I usually see are very crowded, but the ticket cost $8 round trip vs $150-$250 to hire a car for the day so I decided to give it a [View Full Entry]

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On Friday afternoon I walked to Camp Kigali, the military school and barracks where 10 Belgian UN Peacekeepers were killed at the beginning of the genocide. Part of the base is now a memorial with 10 pillars arranged in a circle, one of each of the soldiers killed. Each pillar has notches in it representing the age of the soldier killed which ranged from 25-32. The school room where they took shelter and defended themselves for a few hours is still standing and marked with bullet and grenade damage. Inside the room where they ultimately died is a plaque with each [View Full Entry]

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Monday: I woke up very sore this morning, a bit bruised and battered from bouncing around in a 4x4 for two days. The roads in the park are bumpy and when you stand up with your head through the roof opening, you really need to brace with your legs and your arms. The walk to work was a good way to loosen up and it's down hill or flat the whole way. The walk home was tougher as it's up hill for quite a ways! My backpack seemed much heavier at 5:30pm than it did at 8:00am! There are quite a [View Full Entry]

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I am back from an amazing two day trip to Akagera National Park in eastern Rwanda! Brief history of the park: The park was created in 1934 by the Belgians as a nature reserve and was originally 2,500 square kilometers in size. The park borders Tanzania to the east with the Akagera River the natural boundary. During the 1994 civil war in Rwanda, many people fled to Tanzania and as they started to return, they were resettled on park land so that only 1,085 km2 now remain in the park. Akagera is similar in landscape to the famous savannahs of Kenya [View Full Entry]

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Monday: Another good day at work! There's another woman from FHI-NC here this week so there are dinners planned at different people's houses for Tuesday and Wednesday evenings. I finally caught Lizzie the Lizard tonight and set her free. She ventured out of the bathroom and into the hallway so she had no corner to hide in. I do miss her - the bathroom seems lonley without her there. I tried a new restaurant tonight and mt stomach is starting to suggest that it was not a good idea. I was trying to expand my list, but I think I'll cross [View Full Entry]

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I have successfully completed my first weekend in Kigali! On Friday night I went to see the new Star Trek movie at the American Embassy with two people from FHI. There’s no movie theater in Kigali, but the embassy shows films once in a while. We had to pass through a metal detector and have our bags searched before we could enter the main compound. You could take in cell phones, but not cameras. The movie was shown in the conference room of the main building and we paid 2000 RWF (about $4) for a ticket. Beer cost $1.50 and the [View Full Entry]

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