Feet down in Africa

Hello Africa

I’m here. And after all the planning and list making and phone calls and anticipation and endless comments on packing dilemmas, being here doesn’t even feel that strange. The sun is warm, feet are flip-flopped, and the earth is red. From chaos and turmoil to relative calm and rest, this is the beginning.

The flight was comfortable, and straight forward and got me here, which is basically the whole point! We were over fed and well watered and I don’t think I’ve ever passed out into so many intense open-mouthed embarrassing drooling airplane sleeps before. But I guess severe sleep deprivation will do that to you! We arrived to a welcome of flowers and smiles after about eight hours of flying. It was overwhelming in a beautiful way, the I-can’t-stop- grinning-but- if- I- grin- too- much-I- might- start- crying- sort- of- way!

For the next ten days the group of 23 intrepid volunteers will stay in Kigali. Our timetable and training starts tomorrow, early! We’ll have our Kinyarwanda lessons (which is apparently pronounced Chinyargwanda ) which will probably have me mildly hysterical as the words are stupidly long and full of consonants and we’ll be properly orientated and filled with fear and excitement in equal measures. We’re being over fed and well looked after. It’s a nice start, but we’re probably being lulled into a slightly false sense of security.

Today we’re were taken into Kigali to give us a basic tour and set us up with modems, credit, Rwanda Francs and allow us to feel like we’d actually arrived in Rwanda, having arrived at night fall and promptly eaten and gone to sleep! The city is clean and calm (relatively speaking) and it felt surprisingly un-hassley and friendly.

We’ve all got a good feeling about this country already. It’s quite possible we’ve landed on our feet. Let’s see what happens come next Wednesday.

Quote of the day “It’s fine to be quirky, but eccentric is borderline!”