This has been my longest flight so far — 24 hours, 35 minutes. Flew from Boston to Washington to Rome to Addis Ababa to Nairobi to Kigali. Ethiopian Airlines came highly recommended and it was more comfortable than my time on long european flights. The layovers were all about an hour so the breaks were all spent on the plane. Fortunately, I sat near a really cool Kenyan family and we had a blast cracking jokes. When the plane touched down in Addis Ababa the cockpit erupted in applause. Applause when a job is performed as expected? Classically African.

Flying into Rwanda I got a look at the country and it’s a stunning landscape. Rolling hills of green streaked with lines of red dirt. Once on the ground, everything is coated with the ubiquitous red dust. Most people walk, but there are a fair number of motorcycle taxis and lorries.

The recent genocide has slowly made it’s way into my conscience. I can’t explain, but walking around the city, it’s hard not to wonder who did what and to whom and how things seem so normal…

I haven’t been suffering the ravages of jetlag and I seem to have avoided any major sicknesses. I’m still in Kigali at the PIH house, making sure the Internet stays up for my colleagues. There were a few PIHers around (all quite cool) and we managed to score some pretty good Mexican grub only a few blocks from the house. I can report burritos in East Africa are quite reasonable…

I’m heading to Rwinkwavu (soon to be home) in a few hours. The server out there was working when I left Boston and now it’s down. Oh, and no hot showers in Rwinkwavu. Sigh.