Come fly with me, lets fly, lets fly away
on Rose Hardman (Rwanda), 05/Sep/2010 11:44, 34 days ago
I've arrived!!Pete took me to Heathrow airport for 6pm yesterday and helped me to decant one bag into the other to avoid paying the£40 excess baggage charge. Following goodbyes via phone and hugs I made my way through to the departure lounge to meet fellow volunteers travelling to Rwanda. In total, 12 of us left from Heathrow on 04/09/2010 to embark on a new phase of their lives. Whilst long, the flight from Heathrow to AddisAbaba was as enjoyable as a flight can be. A film took up a couple of hours, another hour was pleasantly spent eating very good plane food, a few hours sleep and a good natter with Julia, another volunteer. When we arrived in Ethiopia at 7am I wasn't feeling too bad. A long wait at Addis Ababa saw our moods fluctuate as tiredness hit us. However, we remained positive in true VSO style and used the time to get to know each other and practice our Kinyarwanda. A further flight, this time to Uganda, where we had an hour wait on the tarmac to refuel (and an urgent wait for the toilet which luckilydid not end in disaster), and we finally arrived in Kigali at approximately 3pm. About 18 hours of travelling in total for me, and more for others, four countries visited (albeit two very briefly) and yet we were still all grinning at the other end!We were met be most of the programme staff from the VSO office. It was lovely to receive such a warm and heppy welcome and really gave me a second wind. A pleasant drive through Kigali took us to our accommodation for the next ten days. After a five minute introduction we were free to relax in the capable heands of a current volunteer, Christine. The afternoon was spent attempting to make my phone work which culminated in a phone call from my Dad (in true Sunday evening fashion). It felt bizarre but lovely to be able to talke to him, and other than a slight delay the conversation was as clear as when we skyped each other from the same room!Tomorrow the in country training starts and will continue over the next nine days. And so I am retiring to bed in the hope that I will be more awake tomorrow. Let's hope I can remember some of my Kinyarwanda!Highlight: meeting all the fellow volunteers. In additions to the twelve of us who flew in from Heathrow there are a couple of Canadian volunteers, a French volunteer, an American volunteer and a few Irish volunteers. Every one is absolutely lovely. I think it is going to be a fun nine days of in country training.