June 27, 2009

And I’m back again, but a bit bummed that the Internet on my Blackberry doesn’t seem to be working, nor the email. Sad. I thought for sure I would beat the crazy text messaging rate by sending emails to people’s phones.

As I typed my last blog, I was sitting with other delegates, Samantha Gavagan, Lynnette Miner, Julie Simeone, and Ashley Smith at the airport in Washington, DC. We all got along really great, and stuck together through the whole ordeal. I ended up sitting with this woman named Linda Taylor who was headed to Malawi to do missionary work for two weeks. She was nice, and reminded me of me, a bit—talking socks, telling tall tales, and just being rather interesting.

It was a freaking long flight, though. It took about eight hours, I believe, to get to Rome, Italy, where we refuelled and sat tight, and then it was another six to get to Addis Ababa (we flew over Khartoum and I was really disturbed by being so near to such atrocities). Africa is unlike anything you could ever imagine. We only saw Ethiopia from the sky, but there is so much farmland, and it’s really very flat. The buildings all have flat tops, as well, so it’s kind of like that scene in Slumdog Millionaire where they zoom out and show how close the buildings were together, but just not that extreme. It was scattered portions of houses pulling the slumdog.

There were armed personnel at the airport, too! Or first look at how Africa keeps order. They were nice enough, but it definitely discourages crime if there’s a man with a handgun right by security.

So, we got onto our Kigali plane (I sat next to this cute guy who I was too shy to actually speak to (well, he was really engrossed in his book (but I lent hm a pen later when it was time for customs stuff)) from Doctors Without Borders, and I just thought that was so nice) and this time the flight was shorter—like 2 hours 45 minutes or something. Let me just tell you—there is nothing more gorgeous than the country of Rwanda as you descend into it. It’s laden with hills, and there are also scattered groups of houses, and so much gorgeous red soil… it’s so real and so much less commercialized than the United States. It’s the earth the way it was supposed to be.

We get our bags (after irrationally freaking out because we don’t know the address of St. Pauls’s —it didn’t end up mattering) and met Silas (!!!) right outside. He was the sweetest man, and helped carry my bags to the car/taxi. We arrived at St. Pauls, and it had the most amazing view of the city, and a gorgeous garden to boot! It ended up being the only photos I took the first day (there will be a ton more tomorrow, I promise, when I get a chance to upload these entries, as well).

Silas showed us around the city a bit, helped people buy cell phones and change money (exchange rate $1=560 rwf, BUT thing are NOT cheap in Rwanda). We ate lunch/dinner at a place called Simba café, and then came back to meet (most) of the rest of the delegation, and I met my roommate, Idi (or Edie, I’m not sure how she spells it) Yin, the sweetest girl in the world. She’s from China, but her family moved to Texas, which she hates, and now she goes to Brown University. She’s fabulous, and I couldn’t ask for a better roommate.

Oh! I forgot something! We’re staying right next to a Catholic church, and we hear their choir practicing ALL the time—it’s incredibly cultural and incredibly beautiful. Jesse also ended up taking a few of us to a little café for dinner where there was live music, and that was quite interesting, too. Idi and I really want to go back next week.

Well, I have to get some shuteye! I’m up early for a jam-packed day… we get to meet our Rwandan delegates! Yay!

I love Rwanda!