Imana yirirwa ahandi igataha i Rwanda

The saying goes, "God spends the day elsewhere, but sleeps in Rwanda." It means essentially that above all, God favours Rwanda... and if you could see it, I think you'd agree. Everyone keeps telling me that Kigali is nothing- that the rest of the country surpasses the capital by far. And maybe that's true... in fact, I'm sure it is. But Kigali is beautiful. My office is tiny and empty, but the door opens onto a balcony along the back of the building, and no matter which direction I turn, all I see is hills. They call Rwanda "land of a thousand hills" for a reason. It's just breathtaking. And despite the population explosion and how densely packed in everyone is, there's still so much green everywhere. And orange- the soil is strangely orange, leaving my shoes covered in a pale, dusty film at the end of the day.

I love it here, to be honest. Four days in and I do feel as if I'm home. For all I miss everyone at home (and some more than others, which is hard), I'm beginning to feel as if Kigali is my second home. I went out for lunch on my own today and navigated the streets like a pro. I know it comes naturally to some people who've travelled often but I've never lived anywhere but Moncton, Sackville or Antigonish- big cities with nearly 900,000 people are not my normal stomping ground. I know my way all around downtown; I can locate my home on a map and explain to taxi drivers where I need to go (and bargain them down from their original amounts!), and I can get by on my English, my French and my shortlist of Kinyarwanda, which I'm absolutely determined to add to. I just love it here. I love the dusty sidewalks and the streets packed full of motos and taxis and mini-buses going everywhichway and the children who grin and yell "muzungu!" at me and the persistent boys selling MTN airtime cards and the women with babies strapped to their backs who smile when I try to remember the right greeting ('mwaramutse' for morning and 'mwirewe' for afternoon) and the crowds of men sitting all over the place and the insane number of odd little shops packed into three-storey buildings with rows and rows of signs. I think I might just be in love with Rwanda...