FYI

I'm going to do my best to answer direct questions my dad and mom are dying to know.

Am I taking lots of pictures?
Not really. I've taken a couple from the back porch of the guest house that I'm staying at, and I will post some of those soon, but I'm still trying to get a feel for this place and what to carry around when I go out and stuff like that.

I am, however, going to go to Akagera National Park this weekend, where we will go on a couple of "game drives," or safaris without guns. I will definitely take pictures then. I'll try to get a good shot of a Nile Crocodile to see if they compare at all to Fido and the rest of the gang in Bridge City.

Are there other Americans or foreign nationals working with my group or with other groups?
Yes. The Country Director, Dwight Jackson, is from Illinois I think. He's got a wife and three kids here. He was a Sociology professor at Greenville College for a while, and he's been Country Director of Rwanda since 2005. He just got promoted to Regional Director of the Great Lakes Region of Africa, which includes Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Kenya, and maybe some others. He's a very visionary man who knows his limits and listens well. I'm excited about working with him.

Also, there are at least five Hunger Corps members here from America right now (four stationed in Kigali and one in Gitarama), and there are a couple others from the UK in training right now who will be working in Gitarama I think. There's also a Hunger Corps girl from Switzerland coming in a couple weeks to work in Kigali. FH has a corporate office in the UK, Canada, Switzerland, and maybe some other places. This probably accounts for the high participation rate of people from those places.

There's also a professor from Greenville who's on Sabbatical right now, his wife and two kids, and an graduate school intern assisting him in some research he's conducting.

I think there may be some more people coming later.

Most of the Americans here are working in a supportive role. There are a few Rwandans in similar positions, and most of the non-administrative workers are Rwandan.

There are NGO and non-profit organization signs everywhere. The FH Guest House (where I've been staying) is on the same street as a number of other NGOs. I see USAID logos on a lot of signs. The UN is here also. I don't think they have any troops, but they're here through the High Commision on Refugees (UNHCR) and some agriculture project.

I don't know how many ex-patriots there are in Rwanda right now, but NGOs have a very prominent place here as the country confronts HIV/AIDS, poverty, and other pertinent issues.

Are there radio and television stations?
I've heard some music while riding in bus-taxis. I think mainly Swahili hip-hop, but I've heard Shania Twain is popular here as well. They don't usually have talk radio on in the taxis, if it exists.

As for television, there is one Rwandan station, and it is a hodge-podge of content from sub-par theater plays on film to BBC World News. I've also heard that the Lizzie McGuire Movie has graced the tube. I haven't found a TV Guide to figure out when any given show will be on. I think they may just draw names of shows out of a hopper to decide.


That's all for now. I've got to go to bed. This is more intense than I thought it would be.