Just a quick update— I am safe in Kigali! It’s about 6 pm here on Wednesday. We started bright and early Monday with our kinyarwanda, French and engineering lessons. Im having an awesome time. My homestay is so sweet and we have been doing a lot! Monday evening we went into town on a “taxi” which is actually a large van that holds about 30 people including the driver and the monkey boy. It costs about 150-200 Rwandan Francs each ride, which is approximately 25 cents. Last night we went to a bar for our new friend Alex’s birthday!! He is from Rwanda and goes to school in South Africa so he can speak English very well. The wifi isn’t the best here so I think I am going to buy a MTN Internet modem and 5Gb of Internet and see how well that lasts. Email is going to be the best mode of contact at this point. Miss and love EVERYONE! More details when I have more time to write. Xox
After the over 12 hour flight, Alvin and I are safely in Ethiopia! A lay over here and then another 4 hour flight to Rwanda! I barely feel jet lagged at all. Got two coffees and a bottle of water at the sit-down restaurant in the small airport that totaled to $2.
Only used half of my suitcase for my clothes and saved the rest of the room for gifts for my home stay, children, and toiletries. I have been getting flashes of both nervousness and excitement on and off the past couple of days. I remember Mr. Dines (of ALL people) telling us that both being nervous and excited are actually the same feeling. I’ve been trying to keep this in mind—especially today when I was near getting sick. Something I read online was that the people of Rwanda are in need of dictionaries, and I was just about to get rid of a whole set that included a dictionary, a thesaurus and a computer dictionary. I also packed many coloring books and school supplies for the students, along with other toys. For the departure gifts for my two separate home stays my mom and I came up with the idea of wrapping candy-filled bowls in both wash clothes and tea towels. We think this is cute because it is very cute, useful, and special! We wrapped the tea towels around the bowls with different colored twines, too. I think the families will really like them!
I am leaving Pittsburgh with my mom and gram tomorrow around noon and spending the night in Reston, Va at a cousin’s house. My flight is at 11am Saturday so we are going to get to the airport around 8!! Meeting another boy going on the trip there, Alvin. I am getting more and more excited just writing this!!! AHH! Schedule for Rwanda EWH-SI 2013
EWH-Texas A&M Summer Institute begins (May 26) All participants meet at Kigali International Airport (KGL) in Kigali, Rwanda no later than 10:00 p.m. Meet host family. Kigali, Rwanda (May 27 – June 26) May 27: Orientation to Rwanda and EWH; classes begin. Schedule for Mondays – Thursdays: Classes held at the Integrated Polytechnic Regional Centre (IPRC), Kigali 8:30-12:00 Rwandan language and culture: French/Kinyarwanda communication lessons by The East African Language Learning Centre 12:00-1:00 Lunch break 1:00-5:30 Lecture and lab exercises: Healthcare Technology in the Developing World Schedule for Fridays: 8:30-5:30 Lab practical experience: Field work in a local hospital May 29: Cultural activity Host Hospital (June 27 – July 26) June 27: Travel to host hospital June 28 – July 26: Work in host hospital, 8:00-5:00 or as determined by hospital supervisor. Design Problem Identification End of Program Conference (July 27 – 28) July 27: All students return to Kigali for debriefing, presentations, and discussion July 28: Conference concludes EWH Summer Experience ends (July 28) Shuttles to Kigali International Airport |