on thursday was my personal d-day (departure-day) - the day I've been longing for ever since that grey and cold morning in november when I found out that the job in Kigali was mine and that that meant that my dream of working in Africa for Peace was going to become real - I still can't quite believe it!
well, after months of packing and re-packing, stressing and denying I finally managed to squeeze all my worldly possessions I had not got rid of into a couple of bags and a suitcase and made my way down the hill one last time to catch the bus at preston circus - it felt so normal because I'd been getting that bus from that bus stop twice already in the last month; it felt like just another excursion which would bring me back to siân and helen's sofa-bed - it still feels a bit like that actually. the bus came, I loaded my bags, we drove to heathrow - there was some traffic congestion, england was slowly sinking into the shadow of the night before my eyes - it rained a bit - it was one of those non-descript english days, neither particularly good, nor particularly bad - as good a day as any to leave. the closer to the airport I got the more excited I got - I'm getting closer to my dream with every mile the bus puts behind itself.
I arrived at the check-in with plenty of time to spare and was looking forward to a last blt sandwich and a pint in one of the bars. I lugged all my bags to the desk - admittedly a bit worried about the weight of them, mentally psyching myself up in case I would need to start crying to avoid paying for the extra kilos. The girl took my passport and ticket and went: how long will you be staying in kigali? - two years - have you got a visa somwhere? - no, I don't need one - but you've only got a one-way ticket; I can't check you in, you either need a return date or a visa. BANG! the blood left my face and adrenalin started pumping through my veins - it's impossible, I've double checked with the travel agency, I don't need a visa, and I don't need a pro-forma return ticket - and I AM CERTAINLY NOT STAYING IN ENGLAND!!! I did almost start crying and didn't know what to do. The other guy then went and got the visa regulations directory and said, well, the only way we can let you on the plane is by you signing this waiver that you take personal responsibility in case of a deportation back to the UK through the Rwandan border control - I signed without blinking. But I did panic, having experienced Chadian immigration which is extremely complicated and long-winded and unless you have all the right papers, you can go straight back home again.
The second problem was that my hand luggage was twice the weight of what I was allowed - so I had to pack all my papers (degrees, p60s, work references and the likes) in a bag with my backpack; knowing that that could go horribly wrong (it didn't!) - so I ended up with at least 7kg more than I was allowed but nobody flinched - ace!
the flight was hillarious - haven't been on such an old plane in years - the ones with screens coming down above the seats and you have the choice of exactly 1 film; I didn't watch it. they served us dinner straight after take-off and by the time we stopped over in Rome I was sleeping. I woke up as we were flying over the lybian desert - always a sight flying over the desert! Then stop-over in Addis Ababa, then another one in Entebbe and then finally Kigali. By that time I had calmed down about immigration - thinking, I have NEVER been asked to present a ticket when I traveled to a country - and low and behold, the guy welcomed me very nicely, asked me about what my reason for visiting Rwanda was and told me he'd given me a 3 month tourist visa... sorted! I think that's where I fell in love with this country - no sleazy immigration officer, just a nice young man doing his job.
I was picked up by a representative and driven to the guest house in one of them big f**k off white 4WD with a sticker on the side and a humungous radio antenna on the front. The guest house is a lovely big house with a porch at the front and a terrace at the back; the garden is full of banana trees, lime trees, guava trees, an avocado tree (they actually just rot away at the bottom of the garden because there are so many of them.... wish I'd bought myself an avocado slicer too!) it is constantly nice and warm (at least in the 24 hours I've been here ;-)) so that you can lie on the sofa outside in a tank top reading a book and the mattress I'm sleeping on is extremely comfortable.
Today we went for a little stroll along the high street of Kigali and you can buy everything - some of it a bit more expensive than in Europe but from what I could see you can get everything you could possibly need.
Ok, I'm going to leave it at that now - I will write more when I have seen more - now I'll get back to my beautifully sweet pineapple and maybe eat some Rwandan Gouda cheese - which is amazing by the way!
well, after months of packing and re-packing, stressing and denying I finally managed to squeeze all my worldly possessions I had not got rid of into a couple of bags and a suitcase and made my way down the hill one last time to catch the bus at preston circus - it felt so normal because I'd been getting that bus from that bus stop twice already in the last month; it felt like just another excursion which would bring me back to siân and helen's sofa-bed - it still feels a bit like that actually. the bus came, I loaded my bags, we drove to heathrow - there was some traffic congestion, england was slowly sinking into the shadow of the night before my eyes - it rained a bit - it was one of those non-descript english days, neither particularly good, nor particularly bad - as good a day as any to leave. the closer to the airport I got the more excited I got - I'm getting closer to my dream with every mile the bus puts behind itself.
I arrived at the check-in with plenty of time to spare and was looking forward to a last blt sandwich and a pint in one of the bars. I lugged all my bags to the desk - admittedly a bit worried about the weight of them, mentally psyching myself up in case I would need to start crying to avoid paying for the extra kilos. The girl took my passport and ticket and went: how long will you be staying in kigali? - two years - have you got a visa somwhere? - no, I don't need one - but you've only got a one-way ticket; I can't check you in, you either need a return date or a visa. BANG! the blood left my face and adrenalin started pumping through my veins - it's impossible, I've double checked with the travel agency, I don't need a visa, and I don't need a pro-forma return ticket - and I AM CERTAINLY NOT STAYING IN ENGLAND!!! I did almost start crying and didn't know what to do. The other guy then went and got the visa regulations directory and said, well, the only way we can let you on the plane is by you signing this waiver that you take personal responsibility in case of a deportation back to the UK through the Rwandan border control - I signed without blinking. But I did panic, having experienced Chadian immigration which is extremely complicated and long-winded and unless you have all the right papers, you can go straight back home again.
The second problem was that my hand luggage was twice the weight of what I was allowed - so I had to pack all my papers (degrees, p60s, work references and the likes) in a bag with my backpack; knowing that that could go horribly wrong (it didn't!) - so I ended up with at least 7kg more than I was allowed but nobody flinched - ace!
the flight was hillarious - haven't been on such an old plane in years - the ones with screens coming down above the seats and you have the choice of exactly 1 film; I didn't watch it. they served us dinner straight after take-off and by the time we stopped over in Rome I was sleeping. I woke up as we were flying over the lybian desert - always a sight flying over the desert! Then stop-over in Addis Ababa, then another one in Entebbe and then finally Kigali. By that time I had calmed down about immigration - thinking, I have NEVER been asked to present a ticket when I traveled to a country - and low and behold, the guy welcomed me very nicely, asked me about what my reason for visiting Rwanda was and told me he'd given me a 3 month tourist visa... sorted! I think that's where I fell in love with this country - no sleazy immigration officer, just a nice young man doing his job.
I was picked up by a representative and driven to the guest house in one of them big f**k off white 4WD with a sticker on the side and a humungous radio antenna on the front. The guest house is a lovely big house with a porch at the front and a terrace at the back; the garden is full of banana trees, lime trees, guava trees, an avocado tree (they actually just rot away at the bottom of the garden because there are so many of them.... wish I'd bought myself an avocado slicer too!) it is constantly nice and warm (at least in the 24 hours I've been here ;-)) so that you can lie on the sofa outside in a tank top reading a book and the mattress I'm sleeping on is extremely comfortable.
Today we went for a little stroll along the high street of Kigali and you can buy everything - some of it a bit more expensive than in Europe but from what I could see you can get everything you could possibly need.
Ok, I'm going to leave it at that now - I will write more when I have seen more - now I'll get back to my beautifully sweet pineapple and maybe eat some Rwandan Gouda cheese - which is amazing by the way!
.jpg)
No comments:
Post a Comment