You know how they say your life flashes before your eyes?...

I had some excitement on Saturday afternoon. Although, frankly, I can do without this brand of excitement!

Pip and I were at a friend’s house in Gikondo, a part of Kigali near to where we live in Kimihurura. We stayed longer than we planned and were in a hurry to get home since we had someone coming to our place. So instead of the 40 minute walk or the 20 minute bus ride we opted for motorbike taxis. These are much cheaper than car taxis – 300 rwf compared to 1500 or 2000 rwf for the same distance. I try not to take these very often and only when I am with someone else, but they are faster, cheaper and more convenient than other modes of transport. Also, I really like riding the motorcycles which is funny since I hated Dad’s so much when I was a kid! On Saturday Pip’s moto left ahead of mine since I took extra time to make sure that my helmet was tight enough. Good thing!

About half way home I was in the left lane and a minibus taxi driving in the right lane decided to pull a u-turn right in front of us. Let me tell you, this scared the crap out of me! I can still see the bus and remember how it felt realizing that we couldn't avoid it. My driver did manage to avoid actually hitting the bus, which is good since that would have really hurt, but we still ended up on the pavement. We ended up sliding on the bike's side. I remember laying on the pavement thinking, ‘I can’t be ok. Where does it hurt because I can’t be ok” Everyone stopped and the police came and we caused a big scene - it is not everyday that a muzungu is in a moto accident in Kigali. But I was totally fine. When two guys helped me up, I didn’t even have a scratch on me, which is a little crazy since I was wearing a tank top and we slid on the pavement a couple of meters before stopping. I have a few brightly coloured bruises to remind me of the occasion from where the bike and I collided and from where I hit the pavement, and I am still a little stiff. Nothing is broken and I don’t even have a cut or scrape on me. A couple days from now I will hardly notice, but you will not find me on a motorbike again anytime soon!

I know that I am lucky. It could have been worse but God was definitely watching over me and his hand was on the whole situation. My driver was also fine, just really really angry with the bus driver. Even the bike seemed like it would be ok!

Talking in Circles

I am leading a workshop with Apollo my boss, for World Vision staff in the Northern Region - close to the Ugandan border. Apollo starts the workshop by welcoming and introducing in Kinya-Rwanda, the local language. Then he turns and translates for me the general idea of what was said. Then I give a presentation on Systems Approaches in French and when a question is asked or discussion is raised I turn and translate to Apollo into English who responds in Kinya-Rwanda and then translates what he said for me into English. This gets very tiring!! But at the same time I love that these workshops are effectively tri-lingual. I leave not knowing if I am thinking in English or in French until I start talking in the wrong language to someone who only speaks the other language.

Bush in Rwanda

American flags are flying beside Rwandan flags all over town. Security is visiable and there is a lot of it. It can only mean one thing - U.S. President George W Bush is coming to Rwanda. The new american embassy (which looks a lot like its counterpart in Ottawa) has just been completed so Bush is comint to open it this week. This means road blocks half an hour before the president leaves his hotel until his large entourage of black land cruisers passes by. It means lots and lots of security. The entourage has already arrived and has booked Serena in its entirety - the only 5 star hotel in Kigali- for more than a week. I don't even want to imagine what this is costing the american tax payers!

Wasting Time

Once again my boss called me this morning and told me not to come into work. So I did some reports from home and now am at Bourbon Coffee - my 'other office' having coffee and people watching. So I have some time to think about my time here so far. I know I have done a 'what I love about rwanda' post, so without repeating too much, here are "Things I will miss when I go home" in no particular order:

1. Being able to reach outside my window and pick fresh lemons from the tree for stir fry and other cooking needs
2. Going to the market every Saturday morning, talking with the women and going home with a weeks worth of fresh fruit and vegetables for under 10$.
3. Motorbike taxis
4. Daily dirty hugs from the kids in our neighbourhood
5. My Rwandese friends
6. The Coffee
7. The weather - hot but not too hot, cooler in the evenings and enough rain to keep the dust from taking over the country - you have to live here to understand.

There are many other things, but my internet time is almost gone, so cheers

earthquakes and camping Rwandese style

Sunday morning I was getting ready for church when the ground moved. The shelves in the dining room shook and the bed I was sitting on shuddered. My heart went into my throat. The tremor was hardly noticeable actually – at first we thought a big truck had driven by or something, but it was a weird feeling. Later it was confirmed that it has been an earthquake. The epicentre was about 100km from Kigali along the Rwanda-Congo border. Apparently it measured somewhere around a 5 on the Richter Scale. Just over 40 people were killed, last I heard, and a couple hundred injured. Nine people were killed when their church collapsed. Here in Kigali there was no damage or injuries at all.

There was some concern about aftershocks and so it was advised that people spend Sunday night outdoors. Since my roommate Pip was out of town I slept outside with my landlord’s family. Aside from the mosquitoes, it was actually kind of fun. It was a good thing I didn’t have to work on Monday though, because none of us really slept very well!