Breakfast

This morning we went out to breakfast.  I had a ham, cheese and tomato Panini on a croissant at La Galeta, a German bakery and cafe, in Kigali.

A visit from Annie and James

Annie and James came for a visit.  They were here a bit over a week, and now they are back in Massachusetts.   While they were here we went to visit with the mountain gorillas in Volcanoes National Park and we went to Akagera.  We also visited the Kigali Genocide Memorial, the market near KIST, two  artisan cooperatives and a pottery maker.  We kept us and them pretty busy. 

Gorilla trekking was fantastic.  We left Kigali at 4:00 a.m. and drove (were driven) to the north-west part of the country.  It was a nice drive, our driver was full of information, and stopped to let us photograph the countryside. 

The earth seems to be much richer in this part of the country and the farms looked really productive.  We had a long and strenuous climb up the mountain – we had been put in the group for the ‘easy’ hike but the gorillas moved, so we had a much longer and more difficult hike than anticipated.   

It was an absolutely beautiful hike through the forest, and then we got to hang out with some other primates for a while.  The gorillas pretty much ignored us – a couple of babies seemed to be showing off while on their mothers’ backs but the older gorillas just went about their daily business and paid no attention to that other primate pack nearby.  They must be really used to it. 

We were pretty tired at the end of the trip.  We took things pretty easy the next day. 

On Monday we went to Akagera again.  We saw an elephant!  It’s right there at the edge of the water in this picture.  It turns out that elephants look like small black rocks.

Here are a few more pictures from Akagera.

A&J

Annie and James arrived yesterday.  After 24 hours of travel with no sleep, they were extremely tired.  So we will start our explorations today

Engineers without borders

Two civil engineers from Germany, Donata and Mathis, are now living at the guesthouse.  They have come to Rwanda as volunteers from Engineers without Borders to repair a bridge in the countryside.  They have two blogs which will be interesting to follow:

Engineers without borders _ Germany

and

Mathis' s blog

They are working with a group of civil engineering students from KIST and have been out in the countryside working on the bridge.  They are experiencing much more of rural Rwanda than we have.

Annie and James arrive in two days and will be here for 9 days. We have lots of plans for while they are here.

Grades

The final is over, I have finished marking it and have turned in my grades. The process is a little more bureaucratic here than at Emmanuel.  The grades go first to the head of department who signs off on it, then to the department examination officer and to the university examination office.  After the department examination committee meeting goes over them and approves them, they go to the faculty senate.  Only after approval by the senate are they released to the students.  I'm not sure when that will be!

Ron is away for a few days at an off-site meeting creating a strategic plan for KIST.  I am eager to hear his experiences.

End of Semester

I gave my final exams last Friday (29 April - I'm working on the practice here of writing dates day/month/year) and now I am marking them.  Every aspect of academic life is more bureaucratic here:  for final grades, first I compute them, then they go to the department head, then to a department committee, then to the examination office, then to the senate:  I'm not totally sure what happens at each stage, but it appears to be some approval process.  With all this, the students do not find out their grades until the middle or end of next semester.  Most of the students did ok (that means C or better).

We have  had no electricity and no water since yesterday (Tuesday) morning and it is unknown how long this situation will last.  This is a supplier problem and affects a fairly large region of Kigali near KIST.  Apparently a cable burned up.  Only some of KIST is affected (but that part includes my office and the guesthouse) - I am using the office of a friend to charge up everything.   The water problem is because the guesthouse has an electric pump.  I may go investigate the opportunities for using the fitness and pool facilities that are available at several local hotels.  I keep reminding myself that no running water and no electricity is daily life for 90% of Rwandans.