Homesick

I needed a few minutes away from reading long french documents so I decided to write this post. My eyes are starting to cross!

I am working from Starbucks this morning since I needed the motivation of actually leaving the house to start working. There are so many distractions at home! So since my mom needed the car and I've been stuck either in the car or at a desk for the past couple days I decided to walk to Starbucks. It isn't far - maybe a 15 or 20 minute walk. As I was walking I was thinking of all the times I walked to the internet cafe while I lived in Rwanda. It was something I did often. Sometimes I would use the internet cafe and sometimes i would go to Bourbon Coffee (oh how I miss you!) where they have free wireless. Sometimes I would take a moto into town, or my driver would drop me off after work, but sometimes on the days I "worked from home" I walked just to kill time, or I would walk home from town (nicer because it is downhill on the way home). So it was a normal part of life.

Walking today, again with my laptop hanging over my shoulder, I was struck by how completely different it is here. For one thing, it was pretty chilly today, only 4 degrees celcius. Also, there was only one hill and it is like a bump compared to the hills of Kigali. I only passed two people in the 20 or so minutes I was walking, there were no children chasing after me shouting 'muzungu' or asking me to give them candy/money/food. No taxis or motos honking at me to see if I wanted a ride, no shocked looks that I was actually walking somewhere (apparently muzungus aren't able to walk?). The only reason i stood out, if at all, is because I was walking while everyone else was in their cars and because my coat is a little bright by Canadian standards since it was made in Rwanda.

Now I am at Starbucks and another difference became clear. We like to think that because we are in north america we are ahead of the rest of the world on so many things, especially technology. This is not true. Technology here is made so complicated and inaccessible. Cell phones are stupid here. For example paying for incoming calls? Automated voice systems that take super long to get anywhere? African cell phone systems are so much easier. And wireless internet. I can access free wireless from so many different places in Kigali, and here I have to pay 7.50 per hour? So there is a lot we can learn from the way technology is used and provided in Africa!

So while I am glad to be home and am adjusting to being back in canada fairly well, today I am 'homesick' for Kigali. It would be nice to look out the window at the hills and banana trees and sights of kigali rather than the traffic jam at the corner of King and Weber :)