Photos: Rwanda

jennpete — Fri, 11 Jul 2014 08:01:00 GMT

Crawling

jennpete — Fri, 11 Jul 2014 07:07:00 GMT

Kigali is starting to make a bit more sense. I've gotten lost about three times in the past two days which just means that I know my way around even that much better now. Luckily Rwanda is a really safe place so I don't have to worry so much about being the tall and obviously confused white girl. I have now braved my first moto taxi, bus ride, regular taxi, Rwandan lunch buffet and, as of tonight, grocery shopping. I'm starting to (somewhat) get into the rhythm of my morning work routine, having now explored every imaginable means of transport. One thing I've learned about my travel self is that it's pretty standard for me to feel completely paralyzed and terrified my first few days in a new place. Africa has proved no different. Thank God for the nice volunteers I've been staying with. I probably wouldn't have even left my room yet had they not held my hand for the past six days.

Volunteering with African Entrepreneur Collective is proving to be a pretty cool gig. The branch here in Kigali is called Inkomoko (pronounced "in-ho-mo-ko" ..emphasis on the "ho") which is the Kinyarwanda word for origin. My post and pic should be up on their blog by tomorrow so I'll be sure to share the link on here. Until then, here are some teaser pics. Blandine is one of my entrepreneur clients who started her own magazine for Rwandan parents and families. Below is her holding her first issue and the two of us looking really productive. Enjoy!

Here

jennpete — Wed, 9 Jul 2014 16:23:00 GMT

This is the official start of my fourth day in Africa. The people and landscape of Rwanda are beautiful so far. It's really lush and mountainous, the perfect contradiction to NYC's noise and tumult. I'm finding myself a bit overwhelmed, which is to be expected. People always say that the insanity of New York makes going anywhere else easy to handle. New York is chaotic, but it's a familiar chaos...and that makes all the difference. I don't think my body quite knows where it is or what's going on. I'm either waking up at 2am ready to go or coming home and sleeping for 12 hours straight. Hopefully that will all balance itself in due time.

This is Africa

Photos: Rwanda

Crawling

Here