Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Arrived in Goma at noontime.

The drive up from Kigali, and the view out across Lake Kivu – spectacular.  Rwanda is unbelievably picturesque, with muddy streams slicing green hills – waterfalls & hillside-farms – even in the rain, it’s lovely.

(We’re in the 2nd month of the 6-month rainy season – great timing on my part! Ugh.)

It stopped raining just as I got into Goma.  I have two new stamps in my passport (exiting Rwanda, entering Congo) and many, many, many thoughts in my head!

To be honest, I’m COMPLETELY overwhelmed.  The office is HUGE.  The house is HUGE.  The house is right on Lake Kivu.  Freaking hummingbirds* fly out over the lake!  We can swim in it, just not put our heads underwater, because it’s filled with poisonous gases and we may drown.

My new supervisor gave me a tour of the office and introduced me to oh about 50 bazillion of my new colleagues.  So far, I have remembered exactly zero people’s names.

I came out of the house after lunch to walk to the office, and one of the women I work with now was in the garden, crying.  I don’t know why.  I don’t know what was up.  But she is totally my new favorite colleague.  Because eventually I’m going to get so overwhelmed that I start to cry – thank god I saw her doing it first!  That will make me feel far less stupid once I do it.


*UPDATE: Um, apparently, they're Kingfishers. Still awesome, though.

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