Well my trip to Kigali was quite successful and I accomplished all I had set out to do. I left early Saturday morning and met up with another volunteer on the bus. When we arrived in Kigali we were walking away from the bus stop when I thought I heard my name. I turned to see 2 other volunteers that had come in for the weekend. We ran to each other and made an embarrassing large scene for all the Rwandans around us to watch. We never noticed a thing though, we were so happy to each one another. After we settled down we proceeded to Bourbon Coffee which is Mecca to a foreigner here in Rwanda. You can get everything from iced mochas, burgers to ice cream and wireless internet. Needless to say we spent a lot of time there over the weekend! I had come to Kigali with a huge list of things I needed to buy and places I wanted to go but most of my time was spent sitting around catching up with the other volunteers. I did manage to get a few things I needed though and most importantly went to the PC office. Since we came to Rwanda all of our mail has been going to the PC post box in Kigali, occasionally during training they brought mail to us but I had only received one card that my mom had sent the day after I left. I had been told there were some things on their way so I was anticipating a nice pile of cards and packages when I got to the office and I was not disappointed. I was literally shaking with excitement opening all the letters and packages. It was so wonderful to have things from home and it wasn't so much about what the things were but just that they were from home. My sister sent some beautiful pictures made by the kids, spices and some other treats but in one of the packages was a plastic bag with leaves from fall. She said that Anna picked them out to send to me and I know this sounds completely ridiculous but I love the idea that she was the last one to touch them and now I had them and was touching them. (So cheesy, I know!) It was so fun to read all the cards and notes from everyone back home.

The rest of the trip was spent just hanging out, eating some good food and laughing about all the bizarre and awkward situations each of us have found ourselves in on multiple occasions. It was a much needed weekend to relax and recharge.

I was talking with a friend today about how great it is to go to Kigali but it's also such a strange feeling. We talked about how as PC volunteers we sort of live dual lives here but don't quite fit into either one. We have our lives in the village where we interact with Rwandans daily and integrate into the culture and community but clearly we are always on the outside to a certain extent. And then there is the ex-pat community in Kigali. These are the people that live in Rwanda but don't really live in Rwanda. They spend all or most of their time in Kigali, have electricity and running water and spend their free time shopping at the "muzungu" stores and eating at the expensive restaurants. As PC volunteers we definitely indulge ourselves and enter this world when we can but still are never fully a part of it. It's an interesting contrast that I'm still trying to figure out and feel comfortable with.

In other news, I found out Friday I will be teaching English. The Rwandan education system is rather complicated and the S1 students (freshman) just began classes last week. The school had planned the schedule for 3 sections but ended up getting more students than they had anticipated so they decided to add another section and asked me to help with English. I'm actually really excited about it. Unlike Biology the national curriculum for English is very vague (Example, Objective: Speak interestingly) which leaves a lot of room for creativity. I will be able to do fun activities with the kids since we won't have specific material we have to cover and I can take my time to make sure the kids really understand what I'm teaching.

I'm off to bed now, I have my first visitor coming tomorrow. Another volunteer who lives nearby is coming for the day. I'm looking forward to showing her my village and introducing her to my friends here and to seeing their reaction to her. Should be interesting!

All my love!
Annie