Sunday June 3, 2007

I arrived safe to Kigali yesterday morning. The flights were really nice. Everyone I sat next to was great. I had a very long conversation with two African men I was sitting next to on my flight to Nairobi. We chatted the entire night (over a couple glasses of wine) about their new lives in America, Africa, racism, movies, politics, and music. The Nairobi airport was very crowded and not nearly as nice as the Amsterdam airport, which by the way, is incredible. I met a young US military man who works at the US embassy in Kigali at the airport. He was very friendly and gave me some nice advice on living in Rwanda. The flight to Kigali was very short - only 45 minutes or so - and on a much smaller plane. As we passed into Rwanda, I could see the beautiful hills and the agricultural landscape that everyone speaks of who has been here. It really is a magnificant country. We landed in Kigali International airport, which is very tiny and not very modern, about 8:30 am saturday morning. As it took 3 flights to get here, one of which was cancelled and rescheduled, I was not suprised that one of my bags did not show up. My new teva sandals were stolen from the bag that did arrive.

Taylor, my friend, new housemate, and coworker, picked me up from the airport. Our study has a driver, who took Taylor to the airport and took us back to the house. I got a nice view of Kigali during our drive from the airport. The city is just beautiful! It's very poor compared to Cape Town and especially the US, but much better than some other African cities, such as Maputo. The city is very clean and very green! Beautiful trees and flowers are everywhere. Our house is located next door to the study site, so I will never be too far from my work - which may or may not be a good thing. The house is very simple, but nice. It's of similar quality to the flat I was living in while I was abroad in Cape Town. There's two other interns and 2 visiting students in the house now. It's very large. I have my own bedroom, that has a double bed and not much else. We made burgers, fries, and salad last night. The fries were cut from potatos - nothing bagged and frozen! Packaged food is very expensive here. A bottle of salad dressing or box of cereal is about $10 USD. I imagine I will eat a lot of pasta, bread, fruits and vegetables, as these are relatively inexpensive items. Oh yes, we went to go see a national soccer game yesterday. We saw Rwanda play Equatorial Guinea. We won! 2-0. We didn't know it at the time, but Paul Kagame, Rwanda's president, was there. We were likely sitting very near to him. It explains the soliders with machine guns/AK47's and riot gear, metal detectors, and tough security. It was really fun, although I was very tired from the flight. I slept a good twelve hours last night.

Today, I'm at the new and more recently famous Bourbon Coffee Shop in downtown Kigali. I am writing to you from here via my laptop and wireless internet! This place is amazing and so is the view from the outdoor veranda that I'm sitting on. The internet connection is surprisingly good, although Taylor informs me that our internet at the project site is not nearly as good. The coffee in Rwanda is tremendous. It may be some of the best I've ever had. By the way, I took a moto downtown- which is basically a taxi motor bike! It was a little scary, but much cheaper than any other mode of transport.

I start work tomorrow. I'll have two weeks of rotation, before I start my real job in the lab.

That's all for now! Take care.