Nairobi to Kigali

August 26th 7:00 PM Philadelphia to Washington, D.C. Flying domestic in the U.S. is terrible. We sat in a line of 40 planes waiting to take off from the 1 runway at PHL. No air conditioner in the plane.

9:40 PM Washington, D.C. to London. This flight went smoothly and I landed in London August 27th at 10 AM.

10 hour layover in London. Luckily I signed up for NorthWest rewards before I went and was automatically upgraded to "Gold Elite" status because of all the flights booked. So, I got to crash in their lounge for my layover.

August 27th 8:00 PM London to Nairobi. Kenya Airways. First time I've seen Swahili written and heard it spoken in almost 3 years.

August 28th 10:00 AM Arrived in Nairobi. Went through customs, bought my $50 Visa and got my bags.

I went outside to grab a taxi and head to Adam's (Peace Corps friend) house. The Swahili came right back to me and the cab driver and myself talked the whole 1 hour ride to Adam's house. I thought I might have forgotten, but other than some vocab here and there, I was good.

Nairobi looks much the same as when left it. I didn't notice any post-violence problems, neither physically noticeable or even inter-tribal. A few things had changed - there's a new phone company, smoking is illegal almost everywhere - even outside, and Nairobi seems more crowded than ever.

It was great to be back - for the goods and the bads. Good to know also that I didn't forget how corruption works in Kenya. It actually seems more rampant now than ever - or maybe I just noticed it anew this time. Adam's room mate got stopped driving home one night for no reason and was forced to pay a fine when threatened with jail time.

I was leaving Nairobi for Kigali on Sunday August 31. In the airport, before checking in, there is a man with a scale weighing bags. He says to me that I'm 14 kg over weight and will have to pay more to check these bags. I was a bit skeptical and half smiled at him and asked him in Swahili what I needed to do. He walked away from his post and told me to come with him into another room. I laughed in his face and told him I was going to wait in line. If there was a problem with my bags at the check-in, I would pay them there. We argued for a while, but I wasn't buying it. Sure enough, I checked in a few minutes later. Guess how much I had to pay? Zero. I looked over at the guy who had tried to scam me and I just shook my head. He sat down and waited for the next unsuspecting mzungu. Blatant.

Off to Kigali.

Back to Africa

On Friday August 8, 2008 I received an email from a woman with T-S offering me a position within their Agronomy program in Rwanda. I accepted and she asked me when I could leave. I said, 'When do you need me?' She told me that a new training class was going to start September 1, and it would be great if I could be in Rwanda by then. The next day I found 2 guys that wanted to rent my house from me. The timing was perfect, and it was time to go. I quickly moved out of my house, back in with the parents, and then back out again.

T-S is an international development organization which promotes "business solutions to rural poverty." The project I will be working on seeks to increase private sector economic development in East Africa by further developing the coffee sector. T-S empowers and educates farmers to increase the yield of their crop, thereby allowing the individual farmer to gain a higher income. The project therefore indirectly injects an economic stimulus into the local economy.

The position I was offered is termed a Voluntary Consultant. So, I won't be getting paid, again. T-S pays for flights, medical evacuation insurance, lodging, transportation and a per diem while in country. The per diem amounts to a about $30 per day, which is about 4x the amount I was paid in Peace Corps. So, maybe a good way to look at this is: I made less than $10 a day in Peace Corps. Then I got my Masters Degree. Now, I make a whopping 4 times as much, at $30 per day!