Muraho from Kigali!

Two days of travel and I finally made it to Kigali!! Took off from Atlanta Tuesday evening and spent 12 hours floating around Frankfurt on Wednesday. Spent some time doing my own little walking tour and meeting with a former family exchange student - it was really a great little break from my flights. My evening one hour flight to Brussels was uneventful, but arriving so late at night, I had no choice but to try and sleep in the airport....this did not work so well... Very hard chairs, extremely bright florescent lights, and temperatures in the 60s perhaps, did not make for the best sleeping environment. 13 hours later, my flight to Kigali finally left Brussels around 11:30am yesterday and I arrived to town around 8pm Thursday night....48 hours of traveling was enough for me!

I was so eager to smell the Africa air again....they say it is something so different that will keep you wanting to come back.....For me, Rwanda did not smell as I had expected. The air has a strong burning-wood smell....I thought perhaps it was the night air, but no....it is the same today as I have tried to venture through town.

I can tell you that getting oriented here is sort of on-your-own or learn from another volunteer. Arriving last night I was left to my room on my own....and the three attendants at the house did not speak French nor English very well. I actually didn't know for another hour if this was my actual residence for the next three months or just a hotel. The other three volunteers were out last night bidding farewell to two women leaving this morning. So they came to the house an hour or so after I had arrived. Learning it was my new "home" was very comforting....I decided to clean up and took my first bucket bath last night....although it was cold, it felt soooo good from the 2 days in airports. In fact, I am pretty sure my body is still sleeping! :-) I slept okay last night, but was definitely missing home and familiarity....but I reminded myself that the first night is always the hardest and everything was going to be just fine. Thinking of the kids I will get to meet next week just put things back into perspective. :-)

So right now there are three other volunteers in the guest house and one guy who arrived just this morning. John is older (40 or 50) and if from Australia. He will be here three months, but I think he has already been one month here. Natasha is probably in her late 30's and is from Salem. Annie is the third, 21 from Montreal and helped show me around this morning. Natasha and Annie will both be here just a few more weeks. I will have a roommate arrive on Sunday, I think. The kid who arrived this morning is from South Korea, but he came as we left to come to town, so i don't know any more than that.

This morning Annie had to get to town, so she showed me how to ride the back of a moto-bike to get around. This, or buses, are the way to get around town. It was very interesting but the driver was pretty good - so long as I didn't look to see how close we were getting to the gutter on the side of the road.....Everything here is pretty dusty....apparently they water the main road in front of our house cuz they are doing construction to help keep the dust down some.

Everyone seems pretty nice here. I went to the FVA office this morning (Faith Victory Association - the organization I am here with) and met Claire and Willy who are the two in charge of my volunteer placement. I will get to do orientation on Sunday, I think, so I will know more then.....

Breakfast this morning was a banana and a roll :-) From what I hear, that is standard for the guest house. They will prepare dinner at night, too. Yep....this is about all I know so far.... My minutes are winding down....I hope to get a phone and make some visits around town later today. Please stay in touch!! More to come as my senses get more engaged :-)