The Hacienda of Dreams.... is what our house is called.

I have arrived at my new home and it is beautiful!! I did not expect this! After being in Kigali for 10 days I was getting worried that Gitarama would be just a smaller version of the big city , so I was amazed when we drove off the main road and came into a little semi- rural location with goats and turkeys wandering about. Our house has 4 bedrooms, a dining room, sitting room, kitchen, and a bathroom each! We also have a lovely vegetable garden. My housemate is a good cook and she made me a lovely meal on my first evening.

Today I went into the office as requested and introduced myself. The boss was friendly but busy and asked me to come back on Monday morning at 7am (we work 7am -5pm!) So I had a lovely walk home again. Later, another volunteer who has been here since September came to call for me and we went to open a bank account so that my small allowance can be paid in . We only had to wait for 2 hours so that was great! Gitarama is quite a hub for volunteers from all over the place and they often meet up for social occasions.

The local people are very friendly and helpful, stopping to say hello with a smile and a greeting. Today the sun was quite hot with little cloud cover so when I returned I was exhausted with the heat and the walking. I lay down on my bed and slept for an hour – I won’t be able to do that when I start work. Tomorrow I am going to visit a school with a colleague and it will involve my first excursion by motorbike into the rural areas, so I’m really looking forward to it. Click here to see a map of Rwanda in detail.

I hope you are all well, thank you to those who make comments either on here or on Facebook or by e-mail – it doesn’t matter how brief they are they are very welcome.

Going to a new home

Today (Tuesday) is the last day of our ‘In Country Training’ and tomorrow we go to our placements and I see my home for the next two years!

I am lucky because my house has all mod-cons including running water, electricity and gas...we even have a warm shower! There is a photo of the outside of the house on my blog page and I will post photos of the inside when I take some.

Some of my new friends will be taking a whole load of items to their new homes – water filter machine, kerosene stove, kerosene lamp, great big jerry cans for carrying water, pots, pans– you name it – yes even the kitchen sink (plastic bowls). For some of them they will be the only English speaking person for miles round – what a challenge! We are all really keen now to get out and unpack, make our beds up and create a new home space. Not everyone is here for two years, some are here for 3 months, some for 6, some for 12. Some have come with their partners, some have come without their partners. Some are educationalists, others are business managers, advocates, social policy workers for the Disability programme – all sorts in fact!

I’ll probably be out of touch for a couple of days now until I get to find out where I can go on line. Hope everyone is well and that it is not too cold and rainy!! xx