End of Week 1

This is a bit of a reflection on the past week.

This is indeed a city of many hills, and they are very disorientating. I doubt after three weeks I will be much the wiser. I know a few big landmarks like the airport, football stadium and UTC where we go to have great coffee and blog. The rest is a set of weaving dust tracks, some wide and flat and driven at 40 miles an hour through busy housing communities, and others are as lumpy as the sea of Prestwick promenade during a gale

Then the streets have their own particular gulleys where the rain pours along and gouges out deep tracks that 4 wheel drivers desperately slide to avoid. I cannot conceive what it is like when the heaviest rain comes in October and April, because many of the street buildings must have rivers flowing through them.

Newer houses are protected by being surrounded concrete trenches, and other land has deeper cuttings lined by very well fashioned stone sides and bases. All these seem rather odd given that we are in the dry season and there is no rain at all.

So travel has been slow because of roads, but really also by poor time keeping. If a meeting is at 9am, that means we leave at 9 - 9.30, stop several times on the way to buy messages, or to get a new driver, and arrive around 10.30 f we are lucky. The really odd thing is that you can go to meet someone really important and she does not mind. Its just Rwanda!

But do not mock it - they get things done, they are very astute, polite and caring, and they are very determined to make their new country work. They refuse to allow you to pay for anything because we are their guests, they know everyone and are always stopping to chat to friends, the mobile is king, and when you greet each other its a firm handshake or a big hug and a slap.

What I do not like is the poor plumbing, and what I think is brilliant are all the kids, their smart uniform dress and their zest for life.