from jeff. other new entry below also.

special guest blogging by maggie’s boyfriend, jeff…just wanted to give everyone a visitor’s perspective aside from the joint blog maggie and I both wrote…some of the biggest questions/concerns I had about Rwanda were regarding maggie’s safety…in my short time here I’ve seen many rwandans go out of their way to help maggie…whether it was getting on the correct bus or getting items at the market, or even getting to the market…as long as maggie is smart and follows simple common sense things like not being out late at night by herself, or out drunk late at night (just like in the US), all indications are that she will be fine…maybe I should knock on wood, but I think maggie will be just as safe in Rwanda as she would in the US…especially as she becomes more well known in the community…

all and all I think maggie will do great in Rwanda and I’m excited that her schooling is starting soon so she can get to work and get even more involved in the community…I think she will do a great job and although it will definitely not be an easy adjustment she can certainly do it (she can always use our phone calls also) ..

as for Rwanda…maggie has been blessed with a beautiful site (with electricity and running water/I found out today there are some volunteers with neither who don’t have nearly the view or luxuries that maggie has….when I initially heard maggie was going to Rwanda this wasn’t the terrain or the climate I had envisioned…geography class was so long ago…I figured the equator would be hot and dry…but that isn’t even close..it rained many of the days I was here in short strong bursts…this rain keeps the countryside green, and the weather nice…some days were hot..but not nearly what I was expecting (ie. Palm spring hot)…maybe that season will come, but it didn’t while I was here…


the people were nice as well…as I mentioned, many people helped us out, and not once did I feel like they were trying to take advantage of us..maybe it had to do with the fact that we didn’t spend too much time in the “touristy” places (mainly Kigali)..but I did appreciate that fact regardless…I also enjoyed the “hustle” displayed by many of the people of Rwanda…of course all countries have beggers, but most people that I watched were hard at work….and doing hard work as well…it was refreshing to see and actually made me want to go out there and work with them..i hope to be able to participate in some form when I get to Albania as one of my secondary projects…I really haven’t done much manual labor and think it’s about time I started to do a little bit just to get the feeling…

its so cliché, but being here really helps put things in perspective…the people here deserve so much more than they’re getting, and I think that is part of what draws people to organizations like the peace corps…it’s clear to see that there isn’t a thing I deserve more than any of these hard working rwandans so it’s feels almost like a responsibility that we help out in any way that we can after seeing what a huge head start we’ve had in terms of possibilities…