Good Times, Bad Times

Quite a lot has happened in the last couple days, so I'll try to keep this post somewhat bullet-pointed...

Fun things that have happened:

- Had dinner and sang karaoke (mostly back-up singing, due to the uninspired and incredibly random assortment of pop songs available) with a certain Scandinavian ambassador and his extremely quirky wife on Friday evening. They happened to be a friend of a friend of my roommate's. Still recovering from what a random experience that was! Interestingly, neither was a typical Scandinavian, both dark-skinned with dark eyes born from developing countries. The ambassador's wife was hilariously blunt and tried to lend me what she felt was genuinely critical forewarning about arranged marriages. Hah.

- I can say without a shadow of a doubt that being in our lab has prepared me for many things professionally, academically, and even socially -- one of which is the ability to stay out late dancing in clubs to music that is sometimes very poorly mixed and even occasionally, seemingly undanceable. This ability proved to be useful Friday night when my roomies took me to this club in downtown Kigali called Planet Club. I was enticed to go to the club by the prospect of a live band (little did I know it was the UN Band, comprised of UN workers stationed in Kigali). However, by the time we got to the club, the band was on their last song, Jimi Hendrix's classic single "Hey Joe!" What a tease. :/ Oh well, it was nice while it lasted!

- I've noticed that there are at least three ways to physically greet each other here, with a combination of hugs, handshakes, and arm grabs. It is kind of interesting. The most complicated combination I think is one which involves a triple hug (right side, left side, right side, I think), and then is followed by a handshake. The closeness of the relationship between the people is proportionate to the complexity of the greeting, I think. ;) So far, as I am new, I've gotten a lot of handshakes and arm grabs. Hope I'm upgraded to hugs by the time I leave! :)

- Another random shopping update: huge avocados are amazingly cheap (due to their high accessibility) - $0.16/each! Guacamole galore. And there is a LOT of gouda produced in Rwanda, and as most of you know, I do love gouda.

- Was just thinking about the interesting mix of ex-pats that I've met either en route to Kigali or here in the city itself. I guess it's your typical mix of well-travelled, progressive types: UN volunteers, Peace Corps volunteers, Infectious Disease MDs working for the CDC or Ministry of Health, 20/30-somethings working on starting up NGOs or teaching English abroad. We hung out with a lot of ex-pats last night at another friend of a friend's birthday party. Again, the karaoke machine was involved, and this time when "Hey Jude" was suggested as the next song up, I felt I could not sit back and watch it crumble. Although I've sang the song probably 1000 times, what I forgot at the time of impulse in taking the microphone was that it is incredibly LONG. Good God. And we were being scored...so regretfully by the 7th or 8th "Da-da-da-da-da-da-da, da-da-da-da, Hey Jude" towards the end, we were all pretty well spent. Hah.

- Things are going really well at the lab/clinic. Just spent the last few days of the week training the lab director at the site, and I think he's really got the technique that I was training on, and was so happy about it (as was I)! Still getting along well with my roommates and love everyone at work. My Kinyarwanda is improving daily, so that's "meza" (good) too.

Reality Check:
Obviously, coming here to Kigali, I had emotionally prepared myself for confronting remnants of Rwanda's heart-wrenching past. It's hard to believe that it's been 17 years already since the genocide. It is clear in talking to some of the ex-pats that have lived here for some period of time that residual elements of the tragedy are still very much an unspoken part of daily life here for Rwandese residents. Kigali does seem incredibly safe for foreigners, but even after a few days here, I can tell that there is still an air of instability and tension in the country itself. Grenade attacks are not uncommon, there is still a clear military presence in the streets, I've been told it's best to stay off of public transportation, and I've heard too many second-hand stories about the genocide itself. It has been really difficult for me to balance the regular conversations here with some of the ex-pats that have lived here for a while. Suddenly, conversations will jump from talking about the playoffs and UB40 to talking about evacuation plans and bodies found in house lofts. I haven't quite been able to adjust to the rapid change of topics.

Anyway, that's about it for now. Can't believe a third of my stay here in Kigali is already over!! Looking forward to the next two weeks and hopefully getting in a couple of day-trips here or there. I wanted to see the mountain gorillas or go on a wildlife safari, but it is surprisingly difficult to pull together those logistical details fast here. We'll see, but as Dad reminded me, I'll try not to be too disappointed if the excursions don't happen this time because I think this won't be my last time visiting. Hope everyone is doing well Stateside! And congratulations, you've made it through this long post! :)