The Journey to Kigali

The last few days in a nutshell: 8 hour flight to Amsterdam, three seats to myself. Very nice. 9 hour flight to Nairobi--intersting. Lots of Christian misisonaries praying for me. Also watched the movie Jackass 2-which is one of the funniest movies I have ever seen (no joke), so I recommend it.

Now a little more detail--the flight to Nairobi was beautiful. We flew over the Sahara desert and saw the mediterranian sea, which was a gorgeous turquoise. I arrived in Nairobi late at night. Someone from the hotel I was staying at picked me up and we drove through the city to the hotel. It was nice, but definitely different than any American or European hotel that I have ever stayed at. Everyone who worked there was incredibly kind. I even made a friend. You will see his picture.

The next morning (this morning) I took a flight to Kigali. It was a beautiful flight, I got to see all of the lakes and hills of Rwanda. I was picked up at the airport and drove around the city and came to my new home for the next few months. It's a really nice little house in a beautiful area. The city itself is spectacular. It's very clean (what I've seen so far) and there are beautiful flowers and exotic trees. It's pretty incredible how beautiful this place is knowing its history.

What is hard for me to understand is how people live here knowing that their neighbors and colleagues may have been involved in the genocide that occurred only 13 years ago. Rwanda is such a small country that virtually every person you see has some incredible history and relation to the genocide; whether being involved in the massacre or losing family and friends. Its like everywhere I look, every road on which I travel, every person I see--was witness and a part of the genocide that happened not so long ago.

There is a woman who works at the house where I live and she lost all of her family in the genocide. She is also HIV positive. I know that I will be encountering these people everyday, each with their own sad story.

I begin work tomorrow, and I am anxious to get going. I'll be here for only two months and I really would like to have some impact during that short time.

Please write posts I would love to hear from you all.