After two layovers in Paris and Nairobi (both in business class lounges so I can't really complain) and 30+ hours of traveling, I've finally arrived in Kigali! I enjoyed lie flat seats, free WiFi and a couple of movies along the way. Once I arrived at the airport in Kigali, I picked up my bags and went out to the arrivals area where someone from WE-ACTx was supposed to meet me. After waiting for half an hour, I realized that no one was coming. Thankfully I had the number for the WE-ACTx office and after some finagling with a nice Rwandan woman I borrowed a cellphone to call. They sent one of their drivers named Alex to pick me up pretty quickly and I made it in one piece to the house by about 2:00pm. For those of you that are interested the address is: 25 Avenue des Grands Lacs - Kiyovu, Rwanda BUT if you're planning on sending me care packages of any sort (fully encouraged and appreciated by the way), this is the address you have to use:
WE-ACTx Rwanda
c/o Lukas Austin-Page
PO Box 5141
Kigali, Rwanda
I was promptly greeted by Josie, the housekeeper (who it turns out will be doing my laundry - YAY). Lara (from NJ) and Eunice (from Australia via London) are two Astanga Yoga instructors who are living in the house and incorporate yoga into the care of HIV+ women and children (http://we-actxyoga.org/). They have been very friendly and are giving me the lay of the land. Logan is a third occupant of the house - she's an intern from Canada working with WE-ACT and her friend Claire (another Canadian intern working for another group in Kigali) has been hanging out at the house this afternoon.
Sarafin is the house cook during the week and she made a delicious dinner for us (albeit at 4pm) of pizza, spinach, rice and stew which I ate cold at around 8. The "pizza" was really just flatbread with cheese, tomato sauce and veggies. Joseph arrived around 6... he is the "guard" who stays in a hut outside overnight but I've been told he's really mostly a figurehead since we are in a very safe upscale suburban-esque neighborhood and he's a lightweight 20 year-old. Good to know he's there nevertheless - his greeting to me was "Are you happy Lukas? It makes me so happy to meet you." Very cute.
We all sat around and had a few glasses of Australian wine (a special treat in Rwanda I've been told), popcorn and snickers minis in honor of my arrival. It sounds like there will be a lot of turnover in the house in January... Lisa Nathan (an OB-GYN chief resident I worked with last year who is now an attending) arrives tomorrow and will be here through the end of February. Two others are coming with her tomorrow - Daniel & Marc... I don't really know their deal but I'll update once I do.
Dr. Kathy Anastos (the founder of the organization that works at Monte and got me involved in the project) and her husband Jon will be arriving on Jan 14th at which time apparently I will have to vacate the house for 3 days since there won't be room for me... I'll update you all on what pans out with that situation but there is supposedly a cheap inn down the street from here.
The plan tomorrow is to go explore the city a bit and buy a SIM card so I can get a mobile phone number while I'm here. I'll post the number tomorrow. The girls in the house are all going out for Ethiopian food tomorrow night so I may tag along with that. As for when I actually start work I'm not sure but my guess is Monday... we'll see. As for now it's almost 10pm here so I'm going to try to go to bed soon and get on schedule. Goodnight all!
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By the way I just realized I wasn't entirely clear about the whole address thing... the street address I gave was just in case anyone wanted to GoogleMap it and see exactly where in Kigali I'm living. If you're sending me anything (letters, postcards, packages, etc) you have to use the PO Box, not the address. They don't deliver mail directly to houses here.
ReplyDeleteAlso, any mail I do receive will not only be greatly appreciated but will certainly be reciprocated!