"I can't believe a year went by so fast." - Mark, from the musical RentOk, so it didn't always feel fast. But regardless, here I am, finished with CHAI, finished with Global Health Corps. I head home to DC on Tuesday of this week. It's been a great year full of friends and learning and hard work and good lessons. I'm planning on keeping up this blog when I return home not only to rant about Rwanda's (and larger Africa's) news and portrayal in the media, but also to write a bit more in detail about my experience this year. But I won't bore readers with all that now. For now, let's just look at a list of things I'll miss about Rwanda and what I'm looking forward to at home.
DC, I love:
- sushi cheaper than $16 a roll and with almost no risk of food poisoning
- free art museums
- any museums, now that I think about it
- the metro
- not having to take motos as my main source of transport
- fast internet and the ability to stream media
- Camembert, brie, and bleu cheeses
- movie theaters and RedBox
- service industry competency
- blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, peaches, plums
- flat streets for running
- not having to bargain for everything always
- television - Glee, the Daily Show, the Colbert Report, House, the Good Wife
- not having to cook everything from scratch
- cheap booze and wine
- kids playing with home-made soccer balls in the middle of a dirt street
- dancing until 5 in the morning to amazing African beats
- pineapples cheaper than regular apples
- 95% sunny days and dry heat
- taking motos
- speaking French
- cheap Ethiopian
- hilariously misspelled business signs (anyone for a "pedicule" and "flesh milk"?)
- the smell of eucalyptus trees
- drinking whiskey straight out of necessity
- Kinyarwanda
- mangoes, papayas, maracuja
- the look of banana trees on a distant hill
- bargaining prices down
- not having a television
- ridiculously cheap produce
- Ugandan Waragi gin
competent service! berries! YAY
ReplyDelete