where we at

If you have GoogleEarth installed on your computer, you can see my parents' house. It's at 1^57'38 S, 30^03'54.5 E

I used ^ instead of a degree symbol because I am too lazy to figure out how to make a degree symbol

I mean, I am too busy doing important things.

The school is at 1^58'44.5 S and 30^03'03.5 E

If you look right now maybe you can see us outside waving up at Big Brother! (and at you of course)

just wait

we went to the Genocide Memorial Centre today, so now we're cranky and mad at the world. We're drinking wine on the balcony and complaining; we'll have something else to say tomorrow.

here's another movie of driving around, in the meantime

driving around

Will you be having pig or cow tonight with your Fanta?

It seems my friends that another Friday is upon us..which means another dinner party!! Woop woop! Sam has been cooking dead animals alllllll day (Sam: So Lindsay, if the people do not like pig then they can eat cow. Lindsay: okay, that sounds good Sam.), and we have a lot of beer and Fanta to hold us through the night. It should just be downright lovely. (oh- I made brownies ALL BY MYSELF.)

oh yeah! we did research today. However, someone forgot to mention that on Fridays everybody gets done early. So, after only an hour at the school all the kids and the teachers were making their way toward the door. Oops. This happened also to be the one day that we did not have a car. So we waited with some of the kids until someone picked us up. They were all very worried about the idea that we might be walking home. Or that we lost our car. And they were very very concerned that we did not have a cell phone. (I later found out, anyone who is anyone in Rwanda has a cell phone. Including, apparently, most of the deaf kids. Eh.)

It was fun. Yay for research! Yay for dinner parties!

grog vlog

In reality, this post is not about grog. It is about beer.

Sam took us to buy more beer the other day. Because as it turns out, we drink a lot of beer. We went to the place I told you about before to buy it. And it was another exciting adventure.

d

dog vlog!

at last!

d

ready set GO!

Lindsay and I are racing to see who finishes a blog post first. I should totally win because she is uploading a photograph and I am not. Except I keep getting distracted by emailing people and stretching and looking at facebook. I am the hare in this race and she is the tortoise.

We made and edited and captioned a VLOG yesterday but we're having some trouble getting it live. My attempts to upload to youtube kept failing (I think because it was a thunderstorm maybe). Then I put it on google video which worked, sort of, except it has said it is "processing" for like 10 hours now. I have never really uploaded any vlog before so I can't tell if this is normal or not. Should I try it again? Should I recompress the movie in a different whatever-it's-called? (um. I should know this word. ooh CODEC!) Is there a better program or website for uploading videos on a really slow African connection? People who know answers to these questions should share the wealth please.

Today was a fun research day. We had 6b: the second half of the sixth form. That means 15 year olds. They were awesome and told us a lot of ridiculous stories. Then we all watched the recordings we had just made on triple speed and laughed our heads off.

Then it started raining again, all sudden storm like. At the beginning of the drive home, all the people outside were running to get somewhere before it turned serious, and by the end of the drive home the streets were deserted. I've never seen so few people in the road. Lindsay suggested that maybe we should always drive in the rain, to make sure we avoid pedestrians. I said no because where's the fun in that? I suggested that she steer while I held the camera but she told me no. What a killjoy.

Ha! I win! See guys, never trust what you read in a book. Slow and steady got CREAMED by inconsistent and disorganized.

this blog always gets an A++

okay- so we made a vlog about dogs. say that three times fast-- hah, for fun say it four! BUT, it is taking a very very long time to upload. (it is raining after all) So, y'all'll just have to wait. sheesh.

Today cecily and I bought beer, videotaped children, drank beer, made a vlog about drinking beer (although what you will see is mostly about dogs), and are now watching the hilarious comedy 'napoleon dynamite.' We just got to the part where Napoleon has a date and now he's shopping for an outfit. "That suit-- it's incredible." You know where we're talking about.

It's been a hard and trying day.

hopefully tomorrow if the technology gods are smiling upon us (and you know how much they smile at me) the vlog will be READY FOR BUSINESS!

a+

***

(note from Cecily: Lindsay wrote "a+" and I laughed and said it would be funnier if she gave herself a B+ instead. Then she explained to me that "a+" is trendy French slang. And also PHONOLOGY. It stands for " à plus" and that means "see ya later" if you're French.)

day one

Nancy came home for lunch and then Lindsay and I took the car and dropped her off at work and then headed over to the school. Lindsay was excited to be driving around with me and she thought I did a really excellent job of driving and that it was not at all scary or threatening.

We were planning to spend a few hours at school. We didn't really know what we would be doing for those hours because nobody has been answering my emails lately. But we thought maybe discuss scheduling? And maybe start filming? We were prepared for anything.

Except we couldn't get in. We pulled up to the gate and honked, which is the standard way to announce your presence at a gate around here. Usually when I do that somebody opens up right away. Today, not so much.

So we waited a few minutes, and waved at the people who had gathered around the car to stare at us and yell "mzungu mzungu mzungu". and then we honked again. And still nothing happened.

Lindsay got out to peek through the bars and look for signs of inhabitants. She couldn't see any. We decided to go home and try again later.

Luckily, the "later" plan worked out well. We got let in and hung out with the directrice and agreed on a schedule and were paraded around to all of the classrooms. All the children hugged us a lot and spelled their names at us a lot and asked me where Emily was and told each other that Emily didn't come this time.

Those kids really love Emily!

The actual project starts tomorrow.

school's out

Papers are all finished!

stay tuned for adventure.

status report

Since Lindsay's run yesterday, here is what has been happening:

-dinner party
-wine
-Flight of the Conchords
-coffee
-Ultimate Frisbee (Lindsay)
-paper about word order and copying in ASL (Cecily)

Research starts tomorrow!

introducing: LINDSAY

So- isn't it just super nice that Cecily let ME be a part of her blog awesomness? I think so. But, anyone who knows Cecily knows she's a rockstar like that. Ahem.

BACK TO THE POINT PEOPLE (although Cecily being a rockstar is a perfectly acceptable point in and of itself)... The impetus for this blogging debut is that I recently finished my FIRST EVER RUN ON AFRICA.

go ahead, take a moment to read that last part again-- I know I'm still adjusting.

For any of you who know me, you know I have a thing about running on all seven (it is seven right?) continents. And, now, thanks to Rwanda (and Cecily's dad), Africa has been checked off my list. And, I have to say, it was soooooo much better than my most recent running adventures in in Asia (China) and South America (Brazil). I was dealing with some things there that'd I'd rather not remember.... ::shudder::

Anyhooooo-- this afternoon, Cecily's dad took me to run with the Hash Harriers of Kigali. Interestingly enough, this was my first ever hash run too. It just keeps getting better. We met at a bar somewhere in the city (i'm not oriented yet) and then after a while, we set on our way. The course was about 6-8kms depending on who you asked, and the scenery was very new and exciting. Oh, and it was high. I don't remember the exact number but Kigali is way higher above sea level than DC...or Georgia. Oh and there were hills too. Usually I'm not a fan of hills, as some of you know, but today I just didn't mind it.

The weather was not too hot either, which was nice. We started off and were soon on trail/ road/ something that people walked along. Kids called out 'Mzungu mzungu!' and ran beside us. They were laughing. I decided to laugh too, because then it was like we were laughing together and not them at us. I saw chickens. I saw cows. I saw goats. YAY- farm animals! (I did not touch them however, b/c well 1. I was running and 2. i'd have to mark the 'yes' box on the American customs/ immigration form on the way back that asks if you have come in contact with farm animals-- and there's NO WAY IN &%*! that I'm doing that.)

The flour marked trail led us through fancy areas with big houses inside big gates and not so fancy areas where the houses (made of mud/ clay?) were small and very VERY "basic." We got odd stares often. "Why are those crazy people running," I imagined them saying to themselves. Hah, or maybe they did say it out loud-- my kinyarwanda is a bit lacking.

We finally wound our way back-- after an hour or so through fields and over creeks. What a lovely run--Full of people, and flowers, and animals, and...and...and I recommend it to any traveller to Kigali. Oh- and I found out there's a marathon tomorrow. The Kigali Marathon. Perfect timing right?! WRONG-- there's no way I could run a marathon right now-- crazy people. crazy talk.

Now, me and Cecily are drinking beer. She's been working too hard on a syntax paper. She probably needs beer more than me--but I never leave friends to drink alone. Plus, I need to celebrate my recent accomplishment. Now all I have left is Antarctica....

BRING IT!

Vortex!

My uncle's friendly neighborhood Aeronautical Engineer tells us about the airplane science:

My initial thoughts were that it was a pair of vortices coming off the engine nacelle or off the end of a leading edge flap (called a slat). This photo appears to have been taken at low altitude during takeoff or landing. You see only sky in the photo, no ground or horizon, so it was either at high angle of attack during a climb out after takeoff or was in a banked turn to the right either after takeoff or to maneuvering for a landing approach. Also, you generally only see a vortex in a high humidity environment, which is usually at low altitude. The vortex becomes visible only when you have condensation within the vortex as you do in a high humidity environment. The vortex motion drops the pressure and temperature within the vortex and the air becomes supersaturated causing the condensation.

He is right, it was during takeoff and landing. Both! On the flight between Addis Ababa and Kigali. The picture's from the landing takeoff part.

we still haven't left the house

It's a little ridiculous. But I'm still not done with my homework.

I finished one of two papers and Lindsay finished one of ONE paper (Lindsay's a way smarter worker than me) so now we have to go out for Indian food.

Later I'll upload you a picture. But not right now, the internet is too slow and I am too hungry.

Update:

OKAY IT'S LATER!

not done yet

We didn't leave the house yet. Maybe tomorrow! Fingers crossed!