Hey everyone! So I finally got around to getting this blog started and wish I could say I have a lot of interesting and exciting things to share with you but I actually spent most of the first few days here sleeping, which isn't surprising if you know me =) But to give you an idea of what I've been doing since I got here, here's a quick summary of my life in Kigali (the capital city of Rwanda) so far...
I share a beautiful 5 bedroom house with 2 others girls and I really like living here - it's quiet and spacious, basically the opposite of New York! I've discovered that Rwandans are incredibly friendly and the country definitely lives up to its name of being "the land of a thousand hills". To give you an idea, this is the view from my backyard -
In case you don't know what I'm actually doing in Rwanda, I work at the International Center for AIDS Care and Treatment Programs (ICAP) to help expand services for sexual and gender-based violence survivors in the context of HIV/AIDS. This has been really great so far - I'm already doing cool things like spending the week attending a workshop with experts from all over Africa on violence against women and the role of police, military, etc.
I don't have too much else to add yet so here are some random things I've discovered about living here:
- Street food vendors and plastic bags are illegal
- The weather is really temperate (I actually need a light sweater when I go out)
- Chocolate is not very easy to find =(
And here's a map of Rwanda in case you have no clue where it is or what it looks like...
That's all I have for now!
Lots of love,
Nav! Glad to hear you're all settled in! The pic of the view from your backyard is gorgeous. Keep us all updated of everything you discover about the country and the work you're doing! It sounds so interesting :) Have fun!
ReplyDeleteI feel like you should be a spokesperson for Rwanda Air - you've totally sold me! It looks beautiful. Although... no street food?! I guess you don't always need a cart to get some good chicken & rice. LOL. What's the food like there?
ReplyDeleteThat is very sad about the chocolate...I bet you're wishing you took some Hershey's from here! The view is beautiful though and I'm sure it's a nice break from NYC :)
ReplyDeleteIllegal plastic bags?! &I though San Francisco was progressive...
ReplyDeleteThanks for the map - you saved me the trouble of Googling.