First days in Rwanda..

It is so good to finally be in Africa..after so much planning and then travelling for nearly 42 hours on 5 diffrent flights. The landscape flying over Africa on route from Dubai was unlike anything I had seen before, nothing but flat golden sand for thousands of miles that had rake like patterns spaced evenly apart, the sand later changed to a dusky pink, followed by a dark terracotta color and then a marble like pattern of many sand colours. It was almost incomprehendable to see so much land with absoulutly nothing else but sand.
Standing at the luggage carrousel in Nairobi I started to feel slightly worried when my bag hadnt come through and even more so when the only bag that was left was identical to mine but not mine. I resigned to the fact the my bag wouldnt be accompanying me to Rwanda but hopeful that I would see my bag again. I headed over to terminal 2 to catch my next flight only to find that the check in had closed and there was no way they would make an exception. It all worked out ok and I was able to get a ticket for a flight to Kigali at midnight which was flying via Burandi. The passenger who had taken my bag back to his hotel later returned to the airport to swap it for his one and I was reunitied with my bag while waiting for my next flight. At last I was in Rwanda, incredably tired but so happy to finally be here and to see Cait again. We stayed up talking until 3am.
Our first day yesterday was great. We met Claire, the volunteer coordinator from Faith Victory Association (FVA), this morning and visited the FVA offices, a short walk from where we are staying. Claire is lovely and so friendly. While we were at the offices there was a young local teenage girl trying to enrol in the school run by FVA. Claire explained that this girl had lost both of her parents and had no where to live and while FVA were doing everything they could to help make attending school possible that there simply isnt enough money for FVA to fund all children who come to them asking to be able to attend school. Cait and I both looked at each other, knowing that we were both thinking the same thing...what would cost us so relatively little could make such a significant differance in this one girls' life and future. It is so much more confronting and real seeing these people and stories in real life, it is not possible to change the tv channel or to continue on with the day quickly forgetting the story you have just heard. This would be the first story in my time in Africa that my heart would break over.
This afternoon we headed into Kigali city, about a 10 minute journey from the guest house on a local van sized bus, with Claire and around 12 other locals. I sat next to a little girl called Arfia, who sat looking at me with these big beautiful eyes and huge smile. She sat staring at me facintaed for the entire journey. She whispered to her Mum who then let me know that Arfia was so happy to see me. While we were in greeted by many people as we walked around town with Claire, with many of them thanking us for coming to their country. Claire left us in town to buy some supplies and gave us instructions on how to get home and assured us that the many "motos", which could be identified by the green vests worn by the drivers, were not only the best way to get back home but also safe. I was hoping she was right as I climbed on the back of a bike and we weaved in and out of traffic, half petrified and half exhilrated. I was relieved to see Cait waiting at the agreed destination as we had lost sight of each other while on the bikes. Day 1 in Africa has now come to a close and I am looking foward to the adventures and experiences that the 178 days ahead of us will bring.

Axx