Week 1 in Kigali

The first week has been eventful, yet not so eventful. Emily and I were whisked to the office on Monday morning, however not knowing that Rwanda is one hour behind Uganda we thought they were an hour late in picking us up!

Up to this point we had been told very little about the office, staff and capacity. So we were taken aback when we pulled into a large 2 story house with the a sign out the front. It turns out that there are about 30 local staff. We were given the grand tour and warmly welcomed by everyone.

We had lovely meetings with the Programs Director and HR man. The country director was out of the office as she was in Hanoi for a governance seminar. We have since been settling into the office and finding our respective place within the office. We walk to lunch each day and eat a buffet style of Rwandan food, which consist mainly of “Irish” potatoes, rice, plantains, salad, soup and either a beef or goat stew. Not bad food, but the starch based diet takes some getting used to.

On Wednesday and Thursday Emily was taken to field and shown a few AA project in the East, which consisted of a new school and toilets, water distribution and sponsorship programs. She is now writing reports based on the interviews they conducted. It looks like I will get a chance to visit the field on Monday and Tuesday. We will be heading to the Northern Province to investigate the possibility of implementing a new project. I’m waiting for more details, but it will be dealing with Food Rights and Women’s Rights (which is streamlined throughout all programs).


The Northern Province is where the volcanoes and mountain gorillas are located. Of course we won’t be doing any gorilla tacking, but it is a very mountainous region and the landscape is supposed to be stunning. I’ll be sure to bring my camera and to get few shots along the way. I’ve read a lot about the Volcanoes National Park and I’m very excited to be heading that way.

We haven’t had much time to settle into our new place, but we are getting comfortable with our new neighborhood. We are located just down the street from the American Embassy and the main Kigali police station. They are in the process of completing the new asphalt road outside our home. It should cut down on the amount of dust blown into our home.

As we were warned things in Kigali are not cheap! Kigali is very isolated, Goma being the closet city just on the other side of Lake Kivu and closet city of consequence being Kampala a 10 hour drive to the north. So things that do make their way here are very expensive. Electricity is also a major issue here and is very expensive. We have to prepay and enter a code into our meter. We have a hot water heater for our showers but only turn it on for about 10 min before our shower. All of our wash is hand done in buckets out the back. The tap water is safe to drink if you boil it ahead of time, but they put chlorine in the water, so you have to get over the taste. Most of the coffee in this part of Africa is awful, but we have found a local brand that is very nice, but it is about $6 a bag! Time for me to get a paying job!


Last night we meet up with an American from Seattle that is setting up an IT business based in Kigali. He took us to an expat type pizza place. It was nice to enjoy something a bit closer to home. However, the African cheese has done a number on our bellies, and it make take a few goes to get used to it! We are starting to meet a number of people living here and I’m sure in not time we will feel like “locals”! That said our Kinyrawandan needs A LOT of work. We are happy to have learned to say “I want”. Our first fully sentence being, “I want cabbage”. The first time we put this to use was at our local, where we were able to change it to “I want chicken”, with the intention of receiving 3 pieces of chicken. Unfortunately an hour later and many confused looks between us and the chef we were given 3 whole chickens! Thankfully we had had a few beers and the result was us laughing as we each attempted to consume our chickens! All is not wasted as they are waiting in the fridge and will be turned into a huge pot of chicken soup! Lesson learned!

Tonight our boss is taking the 3 of us “out”. We don’t really know what this means or will entail, but I’m sure we will have some stories to tell.

Photos of Uganda have been posted on my Facebook and Rwandan photos are soon to come!

Whew!

We finally made it to Kigali. Our time in Uganda was wonderful. I fully recommend the country to those looking for a trip to Africa in a bit less traveled country. The countryside is amazing, the people are friendly and the food is... well starchy (but not so bad in flavor). We didn't have enough money to do they typical things such a visit the National Parks and go on Safari, but we managed to squeeze in a few
amazing days mixed with a few days of pure relaxation.

We are very saddened about the bombings in Kampala. We were lucky not to be in Kamapala during the bombings. Uganda is struggling to find a legitimate lot for itself. The bombings were from terrorist outsiders and do not reflect the general safety nor tone of the country. It has been nearly ten years since any violence of this magnitude has happen. Hopefully Uganda will be able to move forward and tourist will still come.

To save some cash and for the sake of adventure Emily, Joss and I hopped on the Jaguar bus from Kampala to Kigali. The bus departed at 3 am, so we were up at 1:30 and out of the hostel gate by 2:00 am. The bus was full and it was a struggle to fit our LARGE suitcases under the bus. Thankfully after adjusting the sacks of flour, jugs of juice, americandy and cardboard boxes they were able to spare our luggage from riding the 12 hour journey on top of the bus.

It took about 6 hours to reach the boarder. From there we were stamped out of Uganda and sent over the walking bridge to Rwanda. As an American it was easy to get into the country. I was given an entry stamp and sent on my way. Joss and Emily each had to pay $60 dollars and smile nicely. While we were at this, everything was removed from the bus for inspection a process that took an hour and a half. They set the "muzunga" (white person) suitcases aside to be looked at first. They opened the first suitcase and asked us to describe what was inside, but before we could say anything another man came up and said something in Kinyarwandi. Turns out they made the decision that there were airplane luggage tags on the bag, so they must have been inspected by the airlines and are therefore fine. They then put our things back on the bus and sent us on our way.

We were told it would take about 2 get to Kigali, but it was much closer to 4. Either way we were happy to arrive in one piece and with all of our things. We hopped in a taxi and headed to our new home. We were lucky to find a place before arriving. It is a lovely little home on top of one of the many hills in Kigali. The house comes with a man named Esron. He is a guard, cook and cleaner. He is learning English and has agreed to teach us a bit of Kinyarwandi. Today he showed us how to use the taxi buses. We managed to find the 1 and only ATM in the city and thankfully it took our cards.

There are more photos and stories to come. Emily and I are on our 2nd of our Internship in Rwanda and it has already been an adventure!