PhD?

The applications are in! Hopefully all the time I spent in Kigali working on my computer pays off and I am offered a scholarship to do a PhD. Today is the first day I've been able to focus on my field research. I always feel a bit shy contacting people to meet, but I know if I don't take initiative my research will never get done! So, today I meet with the Deputy Director of SPREAD (Sustaining Partnerships to Enhance Rural Enterprise and Agribusiness Development), a USAID-funded organisation that works with coffee cooperatives on fair trade and organic production and health. I am also meeting with the Rwandan representative of Transfair USA. Hopefully the meetings will help to get the ball rolling!

Once I get going on my research, I think the homesick feeling will diminish. When I'm back home going on and on about how much I like Rwanda, I always conveniently forget the period of time it takes to adapt, and that there are always lows in addition to highs that come and go. I'm grateful to have a Rwandan home that welcomes me with open arms. It's also exciting to see the changes that have occured in Rwanda since I was last here in 2007. There are now street lights in Kigali, and crosswalks, and these are obeyed by drivers. There is a campaign against drinking and driving, and police roadchecks enforcing this with breathalizers. You can also be fined for talking on your mobile phone while driving. So things are quite orderly on the road, although I am still nervous on moto taxis and prefer to take taxi buses.

The food is the same as when I was last here. I was happy to buy fruit at the market for the house the other day, as I am already tired of eating meals centered around white rice, cooked green bananas, and potatoes with a tomato or peanut sauce and beef all the time. We sometimes have green beans and carrots mixed in the sauce, which I like, but more often we have little green eggplants or 'legume vert', which I think is amaranth. I love vegetables, but I find the green eggplants inedible and pick them out like the kids I live with. The amaranth greens I eat only because I know they're good for me and I can disguise them by mixing them with the potatoes/rice/bananas and sauce. So, I keep reminding myself how lucky I am to be able to buy and eat 2kg passionfruit, 1kg Japonese plums, 1 papaya and 1 pineapple for only $5.

That's all I can think of with regards to updates for now. Miss you all!