I wrote this 2 months ago ad then somehow it never made its way up. Better late than never. And as the network or this program is giving me such a hard time to upload pictures please go to the link "more photos".

2 month of 2009 have already gone by so quickly and I have officially wished the last person a happy New Year about a week ago. Since so much time has passed since the last entry i might start with a short update.

I ended the uncertainty that reigned most of my lst year by signing another 2 year's contract with GTZ in Rwanda. This is a little hint to all of you that there is almost 2 more years of time now to pay a visit to the land of the gorillas and the 1000 hills. I didnt make that decision half heartedly, 2 1/2 years seemed a long enough time here already but taken everything into account it seemed the best thing to do and I am actually quite happy not having to move again so soon. Following that decision I also took the next step into proper expat life and bought a car. Some people like to point out the female qualities and features of the car, I just think it suits my needs perfectly including the esthetic ones.
The next step will probably be a cat or two, but more on that later as they are still spending important social time with their mother. That reminds me that I need to think of names, which again reminds me of similar recent exercises for the numerous human offspring in the extended friend-family, including a fabulous new drinking game I invented for New Years at the end of which we were very excited about the upcoming birth of Bob Baumeister (literally Bob the builder in English!!).

So, most of December I spent a well deserved long holiday in Germany after a really busy time at work at the end of last year. I am truly amazed that now we are so many more people in the office there is actually more work than before. What did I actually do before?
Among my fondest memories during that time is the encounter with my Dad's boss - rather my Dad proudly showing me off to his boss - along with his subsequent confirmation per email that my parents didn't do so bad with me after all. Deep breath and wiping tears from eyes....
The reason of meeting him in the first place is the great idea of my Dad when he retired instead of collecting money from his colleagues and family for his trip to the Caribbean or other exotic places to donate that money to a charitable cause. And I had no problem finding him one here in Rwanda. I finally delivered the greetings and money from Germany to the Youth charity rYico and their Marembo centre where oce a week young boys from the street come over to get something to eat, wash their clothes, hang out, sing together and get information and support if they want something in their life to change. (check it out on www.ryico.org)

The first weeks back in Kigali are always a bit hard, getting back into the rhythm and all. But I kept myself busy and focused by doing something useful: planning the next holidays which I just spent on the lovely island of Zanzibar. Boring you might think as I had been there already but one can never quite get enough of the lovely king prawns and tuna tartars not to mention the turquois sea and the beaches. On top of it all we witnessed the "famous" Zanzibar Music festival which was fantastic for someone deprived of live music for so long which of course doesn't take any credit away from some of the great Music acts from Kenya, South Africa and Zanzibar itself (www.busaramusic.com). And as that has worked out so well the next break is just a few more weeks away.