stress relief

What a difference one day makes! Thursday I woke up stressed and anxious – couldn’t really eat breakfast. I mentioned in my last post that I had seen where I was supposed to stay and that it was really small. Well, I don’t think I conveyed exactly how small. It would have been ok I guess for a week or so – but 5 months? So as I thought more about it and started picturing the next five months I started to freak out a little. We had discussed with the WV Canada staff during our orientation that we needed to make sure that our accommodation was appropriate and comfortable so remembering that I decided to talk to my boss thursday morning and ask if there were any other alternatives.

Turns out there aren’t really any options in Nyamata. So I will be living in Kigali! It is only about a half hour drive to Nyamata from the city so it isn’t even a long commute. And I will probably be sharing a flat with at least one other Canadian so not only will I have room to turn around, I will have roommates again! I am very very very excited about this!! We are still looking around for flats, though one has caught our eye and it is fully furnished which is a big plus. It is near the church I attend here and not far from the main road where I can catch buses to get into the centre of town or to work. It is all an answer to prayer and it happened really before I even prayed about it!!

As for what I am doing at work, it is a little dull at the moment. We are working out of the main office right now and there is no space for us. Thursday I was sharing a desk with two other people and the day before that there were four of us. On friday Apollo (my supervisor and the coordinator of the project) and I snagged an empty office. We are working on the budget for our project right now. It is boring and slow work but it has to be done. We are nearly finished so early next week we will sit down with an accountant and figure out how many mistakes we made! Also on Monday we will be heading out to Gashora, the other area in which this project will be operating. It is near Nyamata, about 30km from there, so somewhere around 60 km from the city, if the roads were straight. Which of course they are not!

It is the rainy season now in Rwanda. What this means is that it is sunny and hot in the mornings and then the wind starts to blow harder around noon. The clouds come and there is at least one sustained downpour in the afternoon – Tuesday we had two thunderstorms – and then the winds calm down, the sun comes out and it is nice again, if a little cooler.

Today is saturday and it is 'work day.' The last saturday of every month people have to do work to clean or better kigali as a city. This lasts until 11am and nothing is open. I walked up to the main shopping centre this morning around 10:45 and it was down right freaky. No traffic - at all. Almost no people on the street. Nothing open and it creeped me out. I met up with two american girls who were also waiting to get into the coffee shop and we chatted and hung out until we were able to get in. I have met some really interesting people since I've been here. People from all over the world are in Kigali doing all sorts of interesting things!