Bye bye bye-eee!

As I settled into Rwanda I stopped writing this blog. Partly because I just got bored of it, and partly because I had no exciting stories to write. On any given day, my head was mostly full of things that aren’t worth shouting into cyberspace (I’m cold, it’s raining, I hope the priests give me beer, I want to hug that teacher, I want to slap that person, oh my God I can’t believe I slapped somebody, etc. etc.)

But seeing as I’m finishing up in less than 2 weeks, I think it’s time for one more short blog to wrap this up.

 I’m going to miss Rwanda so much. Of course, now that I’m leaving, some really good things have started to happen that’s making it even sadder that I have to leave. Little things, like the kids on my road (most of them have spent over a year shouting ‘Julia’ or ‘Muzungu’ at me and asking for money) I left my house yesterday and a swarm of little bodies clung to my legs shouting ‘yooooo deeet a’. Great, now that I’m leaving you know my name. Also on my road, I only discovered this week I have a REALLY handsome neighbour. Who speaks English. He helped me when I got locked out of my house and asked why I never visit him. He's seen me running in the mornings and suggested we go together. Where was he when I moved in?? Oh and the shop in town has started selling chocolate. And the internet in my house is now amazing, I can get youtube. And a few weeks ago, Megan and Joyce showed us a really nice bar in Gitarama, where you can drink and dance without getting too much attention. I didn’t know such places existed. Anyway all these things aren’t really important, but it would have been nice if they’d been here all along.

Of course I’m going to miss the obvious things, like the amazing teachers I work with.  And the other volunteers, although we all arrive at different times and so all leave at different times, it never gets easier to say bye to people. Especially Tricia, who I’ve been living and working with. This week I haven’t seen her since last Thursday and I miss her now already. And the random interesting people you stumble across from time to time, there seems to be a lot of them here. I’ll miss the moto journeys. I’ll miss my house. I’ll miss the sunshine. But not the sunburn. I’ll even miss the Rwandan rain. I know we have rain at home, but what’s good about the rain here is that when it rains you can stay in your house. It doesn’t matter where you’re going or what work you have planned, if you text somebody and say – sorry I won’t make our meeting, it’s raining where I am’ – that’s a valid excuse. That was really annoying when I didn’t know and would get drenched clambering up a mountain in the mud to find no teachers, but when you accept that’s how it is, it’s actually kind of nice. I’ll miss mangos and avocados. I won’t miss fanta and mandazi, or kawunga. I’ll miss the market in Gitarama. I’ll miss the crazy nights with other volunteers where we get a bit excited to be all in Kigali and end up drinking too much waragi and making holy shows of ourselves, waking up with the fear but then realising it’s ok ‘cause everybody else was just as bad! (we have one more of those this weekend) I’ll miss the good days in school when a teacher runs with some idea and shows you a brilliant lesson. Or a good lesson. I don’t like tea at all, but I’ll miss sitting around drinking tea with the teachers.

Anyway, if I were to write a list of every single thing I’ll miss we’d be here all day.  This is just a blog to say: RWANDA I’LL MISS YOU!!!!!