Days one to three

Day One

A good and easy flight after being turned over by security at Brussels Airport.  I had my camera tripod in my hand luggage.  Not a prohibited item, but not sensible!  The highlight of the flight was seeing the Sahara from the air.  Endless tracts of tan brown spotted with dark pools which were the shadows of clouds. We landed at Kigali airport at about 7.30 p.m. local time and were met by the VSO team and taken to our guest house (Amani).  Comfortable enough with running water and electricity!  After a meal a few of us went out for a beer at a local bar.  Sitting under a thatched pergola in the dark was interesting, but everyone was very friendly and I practised a few words of Kinyarwandan.

Day Two

A late start, as many of my fellow travellers were tired and wanted a lie in.  We gathered together at 11.00 a.m. to go into Kigali centre by bus.  The city is busy, but not really crowded.  The streets are clean and you can go about your business without being constantly hassled like in some developing countries.  I am already becoming complacent about the mosquito peril.  I have not seen or felt one yet!  I now have a plug in USB modem so I can use the internet and Skype Jane back in England.  The food in the guest  house is good with fish meat and a variety of vegetables for both lunch and dinner.  I have eaten both fruit and vegetables I have never seen before and I cannot find out what they are called. 

The town is built on a number of hills.  The main roads are good quality but the side roads are very rough.  Down these side roads you find little communities and all sorts of stores and of course a number of bars.  Often these are very small, seemingly only  8 or 10 foot square.  I even found a bar at which to watch Spurs v Man Utd.

Day Three

At last I know a little bit more about where I am working and living.  After at first being told I was going to be living in Kiramuruzi Trading Centre (supposedly in a beautiful area near a lake).  However the trading centre is really very small although it has a thriving market and no accommodation could be found.  Consequently, I have been moved further north to Kabarore Trading Centre.  This is more like Savannah with more dangerous mosquitoes and further from the schools with which I will be working.  The good news is that I might as a consequence be trusted with a motorcycle to get to my two schools.  And Kabarore is the town in which the District Education Office is based, so I will perhaps be able to spend sometime building capacity beyond that of the two Headteachers in their primary schools.

We had our first power cut today.   The bathroom has no window.  My headtorch was invaluable and the floor was still dry after doing my business!