Rwanda - Hills above Nyungwe Rainforest

Return travels

Home sweet home. Made it back to Memphis on Saturday evening, though my bags haven't yet. No worries! Losing bags on the way back is much, much better than on the way there, isn't it?!? I hear the bags are in Atlanta, and I'm happy that they are so close. I had my doubts when Kenya Airways handwrote my bag tags, including the city codes. Hmm. Maybe they should consider a computer to print the bag tags.

My route back was Kigali (Rwanda), Nairobi (Kenya), London, New York, Memphis. Had a nice drive on Thursday from Kibogora to Kigali with Sheila. Tea stop in Kibuye by Lake Kivo, and lots of time to talk. We had a lovely & delicious dinner outdoors at the Novotel (hotel) in Kigali, with a little live band playing quietly in the background. Friday was Sheila's birthday, and she treated me to breakfast at the luxurious Serena Hotel in Kigali. It's every bit as nice a hotel as I've seen anywhere in the world, and I told her that I was glad to see the other extreme of income in Rwanda. Then I tagged along while she did some shopping on "Indian Street" (so named for the Indian shopkeepers) in Kigali. Kigali driving is pretty civilized by our western standards, meaning that there are traffic lights and traffic laws are observed, including driving between the lines (though Sheila did all of the driving). Indian Street was pretty chaotic though. Best to keep an eye on your valuables there. While I was standing by the car waiting for Sheila to finish purchasing something, someone opened a car door on the other side, presumably to see what he could grab. After that, I kept the car locked and kept a sharp eye on people milling about.

38 hours to travel back, between driving, flying & waiting for flights. Long layovers in busy international airports provide some exceptional people watching opportunities, though! I had uploaded several books on my Kindle (btw, love the Kindle for traveling!) for the return trip, but I didn't read quite as much as I had planned because of watching people and talking to strangers. In the Kigali airport, I met a retired couple from Chicago who were coming back from a long safari through several countries in East Africa. They had taken their children and grandchildren along as a gift. The safari was just for their little group, and it was the kind of safari with your own large stand-up-inside tent containing a (camp) shower and WC (latrine type). Meals are cooked for you by the staff - forget about open-fire weenies, marshmallows & bad coffee - with one-on-one attention from the Africa team the entire time. Now that is my kind of camping! The safari leader was still with them in the Kigali airport, ensuring that their return travel went smoothly. The whole thing must have been incredibly expensive! I got the safari guide's card as he seemed to have done a wonderful job, but I imagine I will have to save for a long time before I can afford him, if ever! (George Mavroudis, gmsafaris.com)

In the Nairobi airport, I saw several mission trip groups with matching shirts - usually brightly colored - I presume so that they can keep up with each other. Spent quite a bit of time talking with an Assembly of God team from Omaha which had been building a chapel for a school in Kenya. They buy the materials pre-fabbed and get them shipped to Kenya in advance, then the team arrives and bolts everything together in a few days. Their church does this every other year. Sounds like a good concept - very organized. Their pastor was from North Carolina, and we ended up comparing barbecue. NC style uses pork too, but with a vinegar sauce. Neither of us understood why Texans use beef, but I guess they just have way more cows there than they know what to do with. ;)

Long layover in NYC, and met some Australians coming to Memphis for 4 days as part of a US holiday. The Memphis portion of their trip is just to visit Graceland! Then they are also going to New York, Disney-Florida, and Las Vegas. They are staying at the Heartbreak Hotel on E. Presley Blvd. And they won't have a car, just a shuttle bus to get around. So they're pretty much limited to that area. Yikes, I hope they are okay there and don't have a bad experience! Perhaps EP Enterprises and/or the City will help to upgrade the area around Graceland - that's what I hear is planned. It's a little embarrassing to think about those visitors walking around EP & Brooks Road. I hope the dad doesn't get propositioned by a lady of the evening.

Eric met me at the Memphis airport and offered to take me to dinner anywhere I wanted to go. I chose Huey's and really enjoyed having a good ol' American burger and fries! Hooray, I'm home in the land of high cholesterol, high calorie meals again!

Thanks Em for handling my mail & bills while I was gone, and even getting my car tags renewed! (above & beyond what a sister should be asked to do) Thanks Eric for keeping my house & yard in great order and fixing up the scary basement! Eric even put up "welcome home" decorations at my house including balloons! It's nice to be home, though I had a great experience in Africa and will miss some things & people there as well. I'm going to try hard to keep the lessons I learned there fresh in my mind, and Sheila has invited me back to Kibogora in the future, probably for a shorter trip next time. I would like to go back. Back to work tomorrow - time to catch up with developments at work and start earning some income again!

July 21

This will probably be my last travel blog entry, as tomorrow I start traveling back and won't have internet access. Thanks, you guys, for being such good company for me! It's been nice to have this linkage with family, friends and close colleagues!

Here's a photo of our dinner tonight - yum! Brandon, the South African, is cooking up these fish (tilapia) for us which came from the huge lake just below the mission and hospital. They cost about $1.00 per fish but were not fileted or gutted - Brandon had to do that. I am not sure if that is a good deal or not. People say the lake is overfished, so I think these larger fish are few and far between. It's probably a good deal.

Took my last 3 mile walk with Lisa today. She's a bit sad because her grandmother just had a stroke back in Great Britain (Isle of Man) and Lisa is thousands of miles away here. She's trying to decide whether to go back. It's a tough call.

Final thoughts from the trip:

- Getting out of your comfort zone is a good way to make new friends (especially if you're alone, because then you are more likely to strike up a conversation with someone new), create some wonderful memories, and learn new things about yourself in the process.

- We have little concept of what real poverty is, living in the U.S. Many U.S. citizens at least have access to public housing and food stamps, so we are unlikely to starve or live without shelter, safe water, and plumbing.

- When resources are few, people figure out how to adapt. This is a lesson that we may have to learn in the U.S. healthcare industry in the next decade or two, as we try to figure out how to reduce our expenditures per capita.

- There are more similarities between Americans and Rwandans than I would have expected.

- English really is becoming the universal global language - that's the good news - but with increasing globalization, we Americans had better try to learn additional languages.

- A place can begin to feel "homey" in as little as 5-6 weeks.

That's it for now! Signing off ......

Rwandan politics

Presidential elections will take place around August 8-9. The current president, Paul Kagame (see photo), has been in office about 15 years, since shortly after the genocide. He held a press conference yesterday, and where I was working at the hospital, the staff were listening to it on the radio. Mr. Kagame held the entire press conference in fluent English. So I could easily understand him, but I wondered how many of the 9 million Rwandans understood what he was saying? I'm told there are 4 candidates, and the elections are held about every 7 years. A couple of expats have mentioned that there could be some unrest around the time of the elections. For a developing central African country, Rwanda seems fairly stable at the present time. However, I suppose that a certain amount of unrest is fairly common in developing countries around the time of any (potential) change in leadership. Mr. Kagame is visiting this district (Nyamasheke) this afternoon, and the hospital is going to let some of the staff off work so that they can go to hear him speak. I asked a couple of the staff what they thought would happen in the elections. Would the president be reelected? One of them said nothing, and the other shrugged and replied, "The people will decide." I reflected on how different this was from American politics, where everyone has an opinion and usually we don't hesitate to share it with each other!

July 20

This lovely secondary school student could be a model, couldn't she? She is carrying a bundle of dried banana leaves on her head. As best as I can tell, there are at least two kinds of bananas grown here. The ones which are eaten fresh like fruit are very tiny (see other picture) and taste much like the bananas we get at home, just in a smaller "package". Larger bananas are not as sweet and are only suitable for cooking - usually frying. Those of us in the Americas would call these plantains, but they do not use that term here.

Finished a couple of hospital projects today successfully - hooray! Took the "3 mile walk" with Lisa after lunch - I will miss that walk. At this altitude, everything looks different - more distinct & colorful - than it does at sea level. Something about the thinness of the air. The road is steep and made of dirt & rock, so it has made for a nice little challenge. Had my last meeting with the English Club this evening. Two doctors and one nurse were there tonight, and I think they enjoyed the yellow fever exercise I made for them (courtesy of the book which I just read about yellow fever, "The American Plague"). We all had a good time! Windows remain open here pretty much all year 'round for ventilation, and we enjoyed listening to the hospital choir practicing nearby while we studied together.