Blogs from Kigali, Ville de Kigali, Rwanda, Africa - page 6

Hello from Day 3 in Kigali! All is well and I’m completely adjusted to the time zone. Things are starting to feel routine and I am enjoying it all! I’ve been busy at work and have two productive meetings today. Tomorrow is a catch up and reflection day and then I’m touring the largest referral hospital in Kigali on Friday. Jessica and I met today and started mapping out next week. There is a lot to do and my list is growing, but it’s still reasonable to accomplish by 14 Aug 2009. I'm especially excited about the day I will tour a primary health care facility, a districy hospital, and a referral hospital - all three levels of the health care system here. Plus, they are all either on the way to or in Butare (now ... read more

Greetings from Kigali! I arrived safely last night after three flights. Although I still feel a little guilty, I must say that business class is a nice way to travel! The food was excellent (lamb stew, ice cream with fresh berries and whipped cream) and the seats were really comfortable. I slet for a few hours from RDU to Heathrow and then a few more from Heathrow to Nairobi. My connection there was tight and I could only check my luggage to Nairobi rather than all the way to Kigali. The woman at the Transfer Desk was helpful, but when my flight for Kigali was boarding, the luggage from my flight was still being unloaded. I did the paperwork when I got to Kigali and my bag arrived this afternoon. My driver was at the airport ... read more

I warm further to Rwandan minibuses when we leave Gisenyi on time and only half full but the comfort levels drop at Ruhengeri when the remaining seats are filled by other Kigali-bound passengers and their luggage. There are many wooden cylinders in various roadside trees, and it's only later that I figure out that they are beehives. We pass numerous signs along the way - I can't read any Kinyarwanda but the word "Jenoside" in red letters presumably means the obvious, and I come to the conclusion that these are memorial sites from the madness of 1994. There are many. Like in Uganda, carrying one's luggage/goods on one's head seems to be popular. We drive through one village where I see several people wearing Father Christmas hats, presumably for warmth, as well as one fellow in ... read more

Forty hours, seven time zones, and two dismal lay-overs after leaving New York, I arrive in Kigali at half-past three in the morning, a somnolent mess of rumpled clothes, dried-out contacts, and skin like wax paper. The bunch of us debarking in Rwanda shuffle through the airport’s halls like refugees; apart from a young, eager barrista manning the bar at the Bourbon Coffee shop, the place is lifeless. You can’t help but feel like a fugitive creeping into a country under the cover of darkness. I think of my first visit to Rwanda last year, whisking across the smooth tarmac from Uganda, when the tall stands of eucalyptus trees and the bright green tea plantations and the banana plants like starbursts made my arrival feel like a triumphal parade. Now there’s something ignoble about my hunched ... read more

We zijn weer 'thuis'! Het is gek maar het voelde vanochtend echt een beetje als thuiskomen toen we terugkwamen in Kigali. We slapen weer vertrouwd in het klooster van St. Pauls. Het aftellen is nu echt begonnen, helaas. Morgen gaan we naar Akagera national park in het oosten, wildlife spotting. We hopen giraffen, olifanten, zebra's, nijlpaarden etc te zien. Vrijdag gaan we een dag op stap met 2 vrienden uit Kirinda, Mike en Everist. Zij hebben iets bedacht om ons mee naar toe te nemen. Ik denk dat het een lange, maar erg gezellige dag gaat worden. Kunnen we de volgende dag tenminste goed slapen in het vliegtuig... Zaterdagmiddag vliegen we via Entebbe naar Addis Ababa. Tegen middernacht vertrekken we daarvandaan om via Parijs naar Brussel te gaan. Als het goed gaat komen we daar om ... read more