I was excited to head to the ORI office this morning for my first day of work. It looks like I'll be spending lots of my time sitting at this desk. I sit right by a window, which looks out over the street in front of the office. Here's the view (noticing a theme yet?) from the set of offices on the other side of the hall. I work with another intern, a couple program managers, and some Rwandan staff who include the Country Director, the Service Delivery Officer, the Health Services Officer, and the ORI accountant. All made me feel very welcome.
Despite spending a good amount of time away from the office either bag-searching or having lunch, I did get a chance to hear more about my projects and get started on my first one, which will be to design some skills tests for ORI students to take.
More soon...
Monday, March 31, 2008
Emotional Baggage
Since my first post, I've had a couple fun adventures trying to get my bags back. I know this kills the suspense, but I still don't have them.
Yesterday, I took my first moto ride out to the airport to wait for the flight in from Nairobi. The flight was delayed, and no one really seemed to know when it was actually coming, so I asked around and had someone point me to a food stand across the street so I could have some lunch. I ate next to a guy wearing a Northwestern University Wrestling shirt. I was all ready to talk about the El and the White Sox but I soon discovered he was Kenyan, working in Rwanda training dogs for the police force, and he'd never been to Chicago. After a couple more hours at the airport, the Nairobi flight finally arrived...without my bags.
More than a little disappointed, I then started walking home, eventually found a free moto driver, and then slammed straight into a substantial language barrier as I tried to explain where I wanted the guy (and by guy I mean 15-year old kid) to drive me. Trust me, I tried the hand motions. After I'd attracted a good-sized crowd, someone who spoke english stopped to help, and I was on my way.
It was much of the same today. Back to the airport, wait for the flight, watch my bags not come out of the machine, say hi to police officer who takes my passport when I enter the baggage area, and head home. Today I followed up with the Kenya Airways office in town, though, and, after 3 hours there, managed to get assigned a reference number. Things are looking up.
Yesterday, I took my first moto ride out to the airport to wait for the flight in from Nairobi. The flight was delayed, and no one really seemed to know when it was actually coming, so I asked around and had someone point me to a food stand across the street so I could have some lunch. I ate next to a guy wearing a Northwestern University Wrestling shirt. I was all ready to talk about the El and the White Sox but I soon discovered he was Kenyan, working in Rwanda training dogs for the police force, and he'd never been to Chicago. After a couple more hours at the airport, the Nairobi flight finally arrived...without my bags.
More than a little disappointed, I then started walking home, eventually found a free moto driver, and then slammed straight into a substantial language barrier as I tried to explain where I wanted the guy (and by guy I mean 15-year old kid) to drive me. Trust me, I tried the hand motions. After I'd attracted a good-sized crowd, someone who spoke english stopped to help, and I was on my way.
It was much of the same today. Back to the airport, wait for the flight, watch my bags not come out of the machine, say hi to police officer who takes my passport when I enter the baggage area, and head home. Today I followed up with the Kenya Airways office in town, though, and, after 3 hours there, managed to get assigned a reference number. Things are looking up.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
The view...is a great one
Welcome to my first-ever attempt at blogging!
After about 35 hours of travel, I landed in Kigali yesterday, only to find that my two bags didn't quite make it. They may have done what I wanted to do multiple times during the trip, which was just take a big long nap somewhere, so I can't really blame them for missing a flight. Either way, I'm really hoping they make it today, because my one change of clothes can only last so long.
I was picked up at the airport by Julie, one of the ORI project managers, and she took me to have some lunch and buy a mosquito net, and then brought me to my new home in the Kigali neighborhood of Kimihurura (hence the name of the blog). The view here really is fantastic (posting pictures directly to the blog takes a long time with our internet connection, so I'll be using links to my Picasa album for now).
Here's where I'm actually sitting and writing this post. I can tell already that I'll be spending a lot of time on this porch.
Some of my first impressions of Kigali, which I was able to process after moving past my general feeling of disbelief that I'm actually here:
- people are friendly, and learning some French will definitely be an asset. I wouldn't have been able to navigate the process of buying things at the stores we went to without Julie, who knows a little French and is well-versed in the universal language of bargaining.
- the weather is absolutely amazing. Billowing clouds, blue skies, soft breezes...you get the idea.
- the coffee is just as good as I thought it would be.
- learning the streets and neighborhoods will be a serious challenge. there are few street signs and even fewer streets with names. Apparently, whenever I'm telling a motocab driver how to take me home, I'm supposed to tell him the name of my neighborhood, mention the restaurant up the street, and then explain the rest with some hand motions.
That's about all I have for now. I crashed for about 13 hours last night and am feeling prety rested, but I'm sure the jet-lag will linger for a couple days. I'm off to the airport to see if my bags showed up on either of today's flights from Nairobi.
Tomorrow I start work at the ORI office.
After about 35 hours of travel, I landed in Kigali yesterday, only to find that my two bags didn't quite make it. They may have done what I wanted to do multiple times during the trip, which was just take a big long nap somewhere, so I can't really blame them for missing a flight. Either way, I'm really hoping they make it today, because my one change of clothes can only last so long.
I was picked up at the airport by Julie, one of the ORI project managers, and she took me to have some lunch and buy a mosquito net, and then brought me to my new home in the Kigali neighborhood of Kimihurura (hence the name of the blog). The view here really is fantastic (posting pictures directly to the blog takes a long time with our internet connection, so I'll be using links to my Picasa album for now).
Here's where I'm actually sitting and writing this post. I can tell already that I'll be spending a lot of time on this porch.
Some of my first impressions of Kigali, which I was able to process after moving past my general feeling of disbelief that I'm actually here:
- people are friendly, and learning some French will definitely be an asset. I wouldn't have been able to navigate the process of buying things at the stores we went to without Julie, who knows a little French and is well-versed in the universal language of bargaining.
- the weather is absolutely amazing. Billowing clouds, blue skies, soft breezes...you get the idea.
- the coffee is just as good as I thought it would be.
- learning the streets and neighborhoods will be a serious challenge. there are few street signs and even fewer streets with names. Apparently, whenever I'm telling a motocab driver how to take me home, I'm supposed to tell him the name of my neighborhood, mention the restaurant up the street, and then explain the rest with some hand motions.
That's about all I have for now. I crashed for about 13 hours last night and am feeling prety rested, but I'm sure the jet-lag will linger for a couple days. I'm off to the airport to see if my bags showed up on either of today's flights from Nairobi.
Tomorrow I start work at the ORI office.
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