I can't believe how fast time has flown! I have less than a month left here in Kigali. This week at work was good, and I made progress on my projects. Since I normally only have about an hour and a half after work before the sun goes down (the sun sets at about 6:00pm here), my evening activities have been fairly limited. On Monday night I had dinner with my co-worker's wife - pizza. On Tuesday I checked-out Nakumatt (African Wal-Mart). Wednesday I went for a longish run (the Land of a Thousand Hills is still slowing me down). And yesterday I went on an adventure to a local orphanage to try and volunteer.
As I mentioned, I've been trying to find a way to volunteer with one of the many orphanages here when I'm not at work. It's been harder than I thought to try and find an opportunity. Several people mentioned a local orphanage called Mother Teresa, which is run by the Missionaries of Calcutta (i.e. the congregation started by Mother Teresa). I couldn't find a phone number for them, so I decided to just show-up. My favorite way to travel now is by moto (mo-ped) taxi. It costs about $0.50 to $1.00 to get most places. When I finally found the orphanage, I knocked on the gate (every building here has a gate) and was greeted in Kinyarwanda by the security guard (every building also has a security guard - even homes). I didn't see any children at all and the guard didn't speak English or French. Thus, unfortunately I wasn't able to communicate and/or figure out what was going on. I must've come at a time when they were out. So, I walked home and decided to call around today in hopes of better luck next time. I emailed a couple of people today who run similar organizations, so hopefully I can arrange something soon.
Referencing my title, "inshuti" means friend. Aside from the people in my office and my new friends at the guest house who are teaching me Kinyarwanda, I still haven't really met anyone here. So, I joined a Yahoo group called, "Kigali Life," that is apparently very concentrated with ex-pats and Americans. I made plans to try to meet-up with some of them in the near future, so, it looks like I might be making a few new friends, or "inshuti," here.
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| The gorillas we hope to see in Uganda this weekend |
And of course, as I mentioned before, Elizabeth and Colleen are coming in tonight and tomorrow! I'm very excited for our gorilla tracking. We'll leave Sunday for Uganda then wake-up early Monday morning to throw on hiking boots and try to track down 6'4 gorillas in the mountains. Rwanda actually has the largest population of mountain gorillas; however, since they are on the brink of extinction (<1,000 left in the world), the government is very protective and only allows 64 people per day to see them. So, Rwanda is sold out of gorilla permits through October, and we were actually lucky to get a permit for Uganda. Here's a Google image of the types of gorillas we'll be tracking.
And finally, I'd just like to say that I will never eat PBJ again after I get home from this trip. I honestly can't think of a non-perishable food that I can eat regularly,so until you all send me suggestions, I will be eating at least one PBJ per day :)
Hope you all have a wonderful weekend! I'll have more pictures and updates soon!
Love,
Meredith
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