Birthday Weekend!

For the first time in my life, I spent my birthday in Africa (although it is not the first time spending my birthday overseas - had 2 birthdays in Cambodia). My friend Epi, another VSO volunteer from Canada, and I went to Gisenyi which is on Lake Kivu in the northwest part of Rwanda. It has nice beaches and feels like you could be on the Meditteranean! We spent Friday and Saturday night there and came back to Kigali on Sunday where I had a lovely dinner at the Serena Hotel with another volunteer friend, Portia. All in all, it was a pretty decent 41st birthday! Here is a picture of me relaxing on the beach - still a young naive 40 year old....and by some strange coincidence, this is picture number 41 in my gallery!

VSO Family Dinner

Early September saw the arrival of 19 new VSO volunteers to Rwanda (unfortunately, none of them coming to my district). They had a week and a half of In-Country Training followed by the VSO Family Dinner, where all VSO volunteers are invited to meet the new volunteers, have a free meal (including alcohol!) and watch some fantastic entertainment by local Intore dancers. The new volunteers seem keen to start their new placements - some are short term (3 - 6 months) and some are here as long as 2 years. Most are in the Education sector as Management or Methodology 'experts' and some are in disability. All seem like excellent additions to the VSO family in Rwanda. Murakaza Neza, new VSO volunteers - I hope to work with you all in the near future!