{"id":209589,"date":"2018-01-23T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-01-23T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/louhaveman.com\/?p=209589"},"modified":"2024-08-05T14:58:15","modified_gmt":"2024-08-05T14:58:15","slug":"rwanda-diary-jan-seventh-ninth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/louhaveman.com\/?p=209589","title":{"rendered":"Rwanda Diary – January seventh – ninth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tuesday, January seventh<\/span><\/h2>\n

It was almost 11:00 A.M. when I got up. \u00a0I am rested from the over- night flight to Europe. \u00a0I walked up to Badhoevendorp center, about ten minutes from the hotel. \u00a0I had an excellent sandwich at a place called De Herbergh. \u00a0I asked the waitress what direction I should take for a walk\u2026then I walked the other direction. \u00a0She wanted to direct me to shops. \u00a0I wanted the countryside and ended walking adjacent to the airport. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I forgot my hat. \u00a0I was out about two hours wishing I had checked the temperature. \u00a0It was freezing. \u00a0I realized I needed to pee. \u00a0There are few trees and no woods but there was a deep ravine near the security fence. \u00a0Suddenly there was flashing lights and a couple heavily armed guards approaching me. \u00a0A farmer had alerted security there was a stranger walking down the road watching the low approaching jets. \u00a0I had never been so close to these powerful, noisy, incredible machines only a couple hundred feet above me. \u00a0I was interrogated and warned and stayed out of prison. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

My confirmation came through and new tickets had been reissued. \u00a0I would fly out the next morning at 5:45 A.M.<\/span><\/p>\n

Wednesday, January eighth<\/span><\/h2>\n

I was hit with a surprising $340.00 overweight charge for a bag I had checked all the way through from my point of embarkation. \u00a0I was not going to win that argument. \u00a0I sat next to a returning refugee who had been gone for five years. \u00a0He was a big guy. \u00a0I was jammed between him and the window\u2026in the smoking section\u2026with him smoking. \u00a0Oh yes, those days. <\/span><\/p>\n

There is nothing like the warmth, smell, humidity of Africa up disembarkation. \u00a0It felt wonderful walking on the tarmac to the terminal. \u00a0There are few jetways in the airports of Africa. \u00a0The piece of luggage I had been forced to pay overweight charges never showed up. <\/span><\/p>\n

The local taxi driver, named Abass brought me to a local hotel for $7.00 and $56.00 for the Kabalege Beach Resort Hotel. \u00a0It is named after a Kalabewe King but he was not sure which one since sons often take the names of their fathers. \u00a0The power is on and there is running water. \u00a0A good start for Africa.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Rwanda\u00a0 \"Rwanda \"Rwanda\u00a0 \"Rwanda<\/p>\n

\"Rwanda \u00a0\"Rwanda<\/p>\n

\"Rwanda<\/p>\n

Thursday, January ninth<\/span><\/h2>\n

It felt good being in Africa. \u00a0Some things do not change. \u00a0There are millions of small flying bugs. \u00a0They usually come out after some good rains. \u00a0There are the same unfinished construction projects, broken tarmac roads, people walking everywhere, crowing roosters in the morning, the call the prayer. \u00a0I was in Entebbe, Uganda trying to arrange the last leg of my flight to Kigali, Rwanda. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Even though there were nine people on the stand-by list, I managed to board the twin engine prop plane with a capacity of 20. \u00a0I stayed in a four-bed guest room, not one of them long enough for me, with a bath outside. \u00a0No hot water. \u00a0I am in Africa, in Rwanda, where I will work for the next several months in a food security response to the returning refugees from Eastern Congo.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Rwanda \"Rwanda \"Rwanda \"Rwanda<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tuesday, January seventh It was almost 11:00 A.M. when I got up. \u00a0I am rested from the over- night flight to Europe. \u00a0I walked up to Badhoevendorp center, about ten minutes from the hotel. \u00a0I had an excellent sandwich at a place called De Herbergh. \u00a0I asked the waitress what direction I should take for …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":209590,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_block_theme_hide_title":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[19],"class_list":{"0":"post-209589","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-founders-corner","8":"tag-rwanda-journal","10":"with-featured-image"},"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/louhaveman.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/8-600x400.jpg","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/louhaveman.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/8-600x600.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Lou Haveman","author_link":"https:\/\/louhaveman.com\/?author=5"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/louhaveman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/louhaveman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/louhaveman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/louhaveman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/louhaveman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=209589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/louhaveman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/louhaveman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/209590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/louhaveman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=209589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/louhaveman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=209589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/louhaveman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=209589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}