Happy New Year from Kigali

We arrived in Kigali December 30.  Ravi (from Cornell, taught math at KIST in 2009) met us at the airport and helped us get to our hotel.  We are temporarily at the Iris Guesthouse, until KIST opens for the new year and we can move to housing there.  The Iris is very nice, and very comfortable:  I strongly recommend it.  Yesterday Ravi took us on a long walking tour of this part of Kigali; we went to KIST and looked at buildings, classrooms and the housing there – all was open despite it being break.  The three of us celebrated New Year’s Eve early with dinner at Heaven – Ron and I were pretty tired from both the traveling and the walking tour.  Today we got telephones, and an adaptor - now I can use my computer.

Kigali is beautiful.  I will upload pictures, but I will wait for a better internet connection.  It will still be slow, so there will not be huge numbers of pictures.  Everything was open yesterday and also most things were open today, New Year’s day.  There is much construction going on in the city – we are in a prosperous area, and there are many buildings being built or renovated.  The plants are amazing – there is a lime tree covered with limes in the courtyard of the guesthouse, on our walk I saw avocado trees, and there is a sheflera  (I do not know how to spell this one but I've got one growing in a pot in the dining room) growing up the side of the restaurant building of the guesthouse.  Amazing plants and amazing birds – I do not know their names, but will perhaps learn some of them.  

Tomorrow I am going to KIST with Ravi – he is meeting with some of his former students and I am joining them.  I’m looking forward to this first unofficial meeting of people from KIST.