Murabeho Kigali

Spent my last night down Stella with Cathryn. My last morning in bed with D, recovering from a hangover. My last couple of hours at the airport with some of the best people in the world.

Cue excessive number of photographs:

Me & D with Catheryn's leaving card.

Cathryn & D with iced frappachino.

Insanely happy Ruairí & Martine.

Insanely sad-to-be-parted Marion & D.

Cheeky twins, partners in fun: Me & Cathryn.

I SO want that hat!

Rose :)

L-R: Rose, Ruairí, Cathryn, me, D, Martine.

Oh ho ho ho ho ho.

L-R: Cathryn, Ruairi, me, D, Rose.

L-R: Martine, me, Ruairí.

L-R: D, me, Rose.

L-R: Martine, me, Cathryn.

L-R: Martine, me, Cathryn (one of my fav. pics)

Ermn...Cathryn trying to grab my leg to stop me from
leaving, but kinda looks more like she's trying to
bite my arse - like the monkey wasn't enough! ;)

Needless to say I miss them very much :(

The flight left at 7:45pm and I had to check in at 5:30, so made them promise to go to Stella and drink themselves silly (well, sillier than usual), which they did, and thankfully provided many amusing texts whilst I was sitting in departure trying to use up the last of my credit. The conversation went something along the lines of:

Martine: Hi! Guess what? We are all at Stella!

Marion: How come you are sober enough to text? Less texting, more drinking.

Martine: We ar Peerfekly abll to textt properli and drrrink at the sane time xx

Cathryn: Hang on in there girlie, u can drink yourself silly on the plane.

Marion (to Martine): ;)

Martine: ;;;;;))))) from the 5 of us.

So, you can see the last hour of my time in Rwanda was engaged in highly intellectual contemplation ;)

Cathryn wrote me a beautiful card, and Martine wrote me one in Braille, which I have to decipher. D also wrote me the sweetest letter, which caused me to burst into tears in departure.

The night before, at Stella, Gerard, the best waiter in the world, brought Cathryn and I free food and the most amazing gifts: I got a yellow shawl and matching bag with zebra and giraffe prints, a necklace, pen, and a banana leaf picture with a message written on the back that also almost had me in tears. I've had so many kind words and gifts. Even my neighbour came over with jewellery for myself and my mother. I don't actually have pierced ears, but I'm going to get them done so that I can wear the earrings. Even my boss apparently started referring to me as their 'beloved' Marion. The words of kindness and love have been overwhelming. Truly, you don't realise the ways in which you touch other people's lives and the ways in which they touch yours. I can't begin to describe the depth of friendship I have found in Rwanda.

I slept most of the trip to Brussels, but cried the entire flight across the channel. I find it very hard when people say 'welcome home!', or 'I bet it's good to be back?' It sounds like Rwanda is somewhere I survived for two years, rather than somewhere I lived. If you measure 'home' as he place where your house, job, friends, boyfriend, hobbies lie, then Rwanda is my home still. It will take time to feel at home here. I have no job, no house of my own, my friends exist but live many miles away. This is really hard. I miss D. I phoned him, he's okay, missing me. I knew this would be hard, but I need to really look forward.

I'm talking to a guy later about possible training. I'm having a career thought, will explain more depending how this conversation goes. I've got my DSS interview next Tuesday, so joining the dole queue - glum :(

But on the up-side I only needed one rabies jab here, not five. King Faisal got the dose wrong, as I'd already had the immunisation before leaving the UK. That's nice. So, all clear.

Driving up to Scotland Thursday for Samhain, Pagan New Year. Should be nice.

Finding the cold hard going. It's strange seeing leaves falling off trees for the first time in two years.

Going to put together a PowerPoint presentation and maybe go pester Rotary and WI clubs about Single Parent Network funding.

I feel like I've got a lot to do - certainly plenty of things to keep me busy. But it is really hard, and I really miss everybody so much. I miss my house. I miss my neighbourhood. I miss the weather. I miss lazy evenings in watching movies with D. I miss the way he smells, and soft, warm kisses. I miss calling up Giudi and Cathryn and going for a cold beer in an outdoor bar, eating tilapia and ibirhy with my hands. I miss sitting on Martine's porch in Nyamirambo smoking SM and putting the world to rights.

Essentially, it sucks.

But, despite the UK being cold, wet, grey, full of colourless birds and devoid of hippo and impala... got to make the best of it.

So. Now I need to shower, try and work out how to make the car work (which one's the gas pedal again?). Maybe I could find somewhere to get my ears pierced, or maybe I'll avoid town driving today, get back, talk to this guy later about training options. Think things will be clearer after that. It's whether I find a job here to get me through training, or whether I give up on the idea and start going for development/admin/funding positions again. All depends on how long the training options would be. I couldn't hack too long in the UK (and in saying that, have probably jinxed myself to never getting out again).

[NB 2013: Yup, I had. Still here four years later...]

Anyway. Farewell Rwanda! Be seeing you x