first impressions

I have actually promised some more pictures but I have yet to master modern data transfer.
So I will just begin with an update on my first two weeks in Rwanda.
I have arrived well after a lovely weekend spent with Nick in London and what seemed like an endless journey since I couldn't sleep on the plane... sparing you the details of unnerving Heathrow airport procedures.
I was picked up in Kigali and brought straight to my current domicil which is part of a GTZ compound and hence full of GTZ colleagues including my boss. Its difficult to express my first expressions of this country, or Kigali more like, as it was a strange mixture of the unknown and familiarity. And Iam still yet to suffer something like a real culture shock and I am not quite sure why that is. It could be due to the fact that I live in a really nice house, lovely garden on the slope of one of the numerous hills here ( could well be 1000 as the land's nickname goes) with good connection to the outer world by internet and our skilled housemaid. What else could you wish for? Well...maybe a means of transport. This is still a bit of a problem as walking is a real pain in the neck for me, it's constant up and down, and we are talking real hills, like the ones in Brighton but everywhere!! The local solution are moto-taxis, just reintroduced by the council with better security rules - if that's what you call a crappy helmet for the passenger. I have - not yet quite successfully - overcome my personal trauma concerning motos and use them at least to get to work and back since its only a few minutes drive. But I do have to say that Iam not quite trusting them entirely and hence sit on it a bit tense. For the future I will have to consider bying either a moto - if I decide to trust myself more than the taxi men - or a car, we shall see.
Workwise its been quite hectic on the one hand as we had a big 2 weeks consultancy mission to evaluate the results and processes of our Health Programme. On the other hand for me it was mainly following people around, listening and asking questions. I went on 2 trips to Ruhengeri in the North ( where the vulcanos and Gorillas are) and Butare in the south of the country in the course of which I witnessed some vaginal fistula surgery (the doctors among you, like my boss, would have loved it, I almost fainted), visited several other hospital and health centre facilities as well as district governments. Once my travel sickness pills kicked in I also enjoyed the fantastic views over the hills which are at present not as lush and green as normal as we are at the end of the dry season but when you are used to the Savanna landscape of Burkina Faso its still quite beautiful.
As for the Rwandans its really hard to say, I have heard a lot about them before and I don't want to mix hearsay with my still limited experiences. Its all very different from West Africa thats for sure. On a superficial level they are nice and open and I have encountered some real strong and self-confident characters. My colleagues are nice and my first attempts of speaking kinyarwanda were highly appreciated and giggled upon. But then again, I don't dare to ask Evangéline, the girl I share the office with, where she got that nasty scar across her cheek from. It may well me something else but Genocide is still quite present, at least for me as a stranger. First time I walked into the famous Hotel Mille Collines I tried to translate the pictures of the movie (Hotel Ruanda) and all I read into this present, when Iam out on the streets I imagine them full with blood and dead bodies and when I see the people walking along I ask myself are these the same who murdered their family and neighbours? Returning from our first trip we passed a big village assembly that turned out to be a Gacaca, the traditional courts. So in a way its all very real but for an outsider like me still unfathomable.
This weekend will hopefully be a first real break from constant input and absorption allowing for some reflection. Tonight Iam going out with some friends of Nicky, who I studied with at Sussex, and who has set up a NGO here in Kigali that runs a Youth Centre. Its good by the way to have some friends outside the GTZ world!
So for now its Muramuke to you all and have a good weekend!