Here comes the rain again...

It's rainy season in Rwanda! Believe it or not, yesterday I was wearing jeans, a sweater and a jacket. Probably not the Africa many people had in mind! I miss my wool socks...

My room at the KHI guest house (sans mosquito net)

SO since my last post I have moved houses, from the richer part of the city, full of embassies and large businesses and banks, to what the people I work with at KHI call the "sketchy" part of the city. It's a really safe place though, we're in a gated compound and our landlord lives right in front of us. Here, finally, are some pictures of where I live!

My new room in Nyakabanda, pretty ballin' ! Who knew
the biggest bed I would ever sleep in would be in Africa

And a picture of the mosquito bites that I am now recovering from as a result of said move.

Nyakabanda is right next to Nyamirambo, the part of town where a large Muslim population exists. I had never lived near a mosque before, so needless to say when I was awake at 4:30 one morning (as a result of too much Primus, one of the types of beer in Rwanda with which I have become acquainted) I was terrified when I heard a strange voice outside of our house. Turns out it was the call to prayer and that I had better get used to it as it happens every day, several times a day. I'm starting to find it soothing.

University basketball court: people standing RIGHT on the
sidelines and baselines, and sometimes just right on the court.
Some guy even went out on the court and took a picture with the
referee...

Well this weekend Caroline, Sarah, Anne (a young woman from France who works with Sarah) traveled to Butare, the small city where Caroline did her nursing placement in April. It was a beautiful drive, with its many hills and corners it kind of reminded me of the Monashee with wider roads and more houses along the way. I was astonished that there were villages along the whole way. Then I realized that there are 11 million people in a country the size of Nova Scotia/the Kootenays, and that if 900,000 people live in Kigali, the rest of them must live somewhere! We took a 2 hour bus ride that cost 2,200 frw (Rwandan Francs, 1 USD = 500 Frw) to this town that houses the National University of Rwanda, where we came across this basketball game. SO NUTS.

View on the way to the genocide memorial, with terraced farmland and at the bottom of the valley, potatoe gardens. Somewhat reminiscent of Peru.

S, A and I visited the genocide memorial near Butare (C had already done this in April) and it was quite intense, to say the least. This is one of the only pictures we were allowed to take.

Hard to explain how it felt realizing that the bodies we were looking at were the result of a horrendous situation that took place just sixteen years ago. Whenever I had seen bones before, it was in a museum and they had been preserved from centuries ago. This was much closer to home than that.

Sarah, Anne, Caro and I enjoying African tea (noms!) at our motel in Butare

C took us to CHUB yesterday, the hospital where she did her nursing placement in April. Saw some more stuff there that I had never been exposed to before, having never spent a lot of time in a hospital (I'd better get used to it, knock on wood). We toured the pediatrics department, the neonatal clinic and some other rooms and it was all very open with no curtains between the beds, and sanitation was not at its best. I really appreciated that C brought us in there as it gave me a new appreciation for our Canadian health care system and how our health care workers are trained. Totally different standards of care, that's for damn sure.

Okay time for work, this is the first full week I will be doing (alone, the lovely Anthony Cotter is en route to Montreal after having finished 5.5 months with KHI) as last week was shorter because of Kagame's inauguration on Monday and the end of Ramadan on Friday.

Biggest billboard I have EVER seen! Kagame is the lankiest
president ever. His strut reminds me of Kyle/Terry.

I miss everyone at home and am so appreciative to hear from some of you :) It really is difficult getting used to being in a huge city, no matter what country you are in. Having lived in only Nelson and Antigonish (both population of 10-20,000) Kigali makes realize that fresh air and nature are hard to come by.

Stay tuned for my next blog post about how people perceive my freckles (hint: 'is that an allergic reaction?') and about possibly one of my favourite things in life: FOOD. Also, C and I have spotted many matatus (Vans they cram 16 people into for transportation within Kigali), with many a rap-star/soccer team/name-brand painted on them. A personal favourite: Justin Beiber's face painted all over it. Pictures soon to come.