Pictures from Nyungwe

As promised, here are some pictures from Nyungwe National Forest, the largest remaining tract of protected rainforest in Eastern and Northern Africa, which is sad because it is really pretty small, about 1000km2. Regardless of the biting ants, poisonous snakes, and excruciatingly steep hikes, its an amazing place and worth the pain (although in the middle of our 10k hike I did wonder what would happen if one of us just collapsed in exhaustion...)





Unfortunately I tried to post more pictures but it just isnt happening. So here is the good old facebook link and I hope that at least some of you will be able to see it...

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2026550&id=48101028&l=96d4e32172

Apologies for being terrible

Hello all... after recently reading my friends blog I realized that I am a terrible blogger and decided in the last ten minutes of the day to give a quick update. It just seems that after ten months, nothing exciting really happens anymore. But of course thats not true and I will briefly update on the goings on in my life.

First, as some of you know, I will be attending Johns Hopkins in the fall to get my Phd in Population Family and Reproductive Health. So that means that I will be definitively leaving Rwanda on July 31, spending two weeks at home, and then moving to Baltimore. For all of you who worried that Rwanda might be dangerous, I think it has nothing on Baltimore. :) I guess Im just drawn to a place with t little thrill.

Second, the main update is the load of people who have been coming through in recent weeks. After my visit to Uganda, my friend Philip came down to visit. The weekend after that, my friend Angela who works at our sister site in Lusaka came up for a weekend just to see how the different projects work. While she was here we went camping in Nyungwe national forest. I really should (and will) provide pictures of that because it was stunning. After Angela, Cait, a friend from Emory came through for two weeks, and now my friend Thomas, who worked at CARE with me is here for a couple weeks. So although no one is specifically here to see me, its still pretty great to see all of these familiar faces.

Third, umm third... My lovely mother and aunt are coming to visit in the end of July and I am so excited for them to see Africa in all its varied wonderfulness (is that a word?). They are going to Kenya for a week, then coming here for a week, and then we will have four days in Ethiopia for a quick and dirty tour. I wont lie, I spend a lot of my time day dreaming about the food. So I am very much looking forward to that.

In the mean-time, life continues on as normal. Which I guess is an important lesson... no matter where you go, people are pretty much the same.