Welcome to Rwanda

Thank you for all your messages and well wishes.  I have been in Rwanda for 3 days now, so thought I’d share a few of my first experiences on the eve of my first day at work.

The country is absolutely stunning.  There is a perpetual backdrop of (often mist covered) hills and mountains, and the red African soil contrasts beautifully with the lush green vegetation.  The rain storms that sustain such plant life are pretty intense.  When it rains, it POURS, the tin roofs pound, the thunder and lightning sound worryingly close to said metal right above your head, and every pathway turns to a muddy water flow.  It is quite exciting!

On first arriving in Kigali on Friday morning, a guard at the Partners In Health (PIH) house took me on a tour of the city.  We walked up a massive hill (I’m so unfit) to his main attraction... a supermarket!  Not quite what I imagined my first Rwandan adventure to be but apparently it was so I could see how Rwandans do business.  It was huge (two stories) and sold everything from English football team doormats to Chinese banquet tables, and of course all of the usual more conventional supermarket products...

I am now at my main base for the next 4 months, Rwinkwavu, in rural Rwanda (about 3 hours from Kigali, including a bumpy 45 minutes drive down a dirt track).  Having only been here for a couple of days, I have already become:

-          Fish-eating – I hate fish so when a plate was put in front of me with 2 barbecued fish smiling up at me and I was told “we eat it with our hands” I was a little worried, but it was actually yummy and eating it with your fingers takes away any fish bone worries;

-          Football watching - the first few days were a little lonely, so when I was invited to the local bar for the Man U/Liverpool game (and a beer), I jumped at the chance;

-          Spider-saving (sort of) - a massive spider appeared in my bedroom this morning and usually I’m scared and kill them, but today I caught it, put it outside, and minutes later watched a bird eat it!  A satisfying triumph for the circle of life.  The critters in Rwinkwavu are BIG.  When I turned the (very cold) shower on yesterday, a flying creature that must have been more than 2 inches long came back up the plug hole.

Today, I went on a great walk, up (another) big hill, all along the ridge between our valley and the next, and through an umudugudu (favourite word I’ve learnt, it means village).  As I left the village, I turned around to find 10-15 kids following, one or two who wanted to practice their English and asked surprisingly difficult trivia questions.

So now I'm waiting to start work, a little nervous but also quite excited.  I am being thrown straight into the deep end with interviewing local candidates on Monday for the position of Internal Auditor...