Update: A Baby Makes 3

On October 1, 2011, Paul and I welcomed a beautiful baby girl into our lives- Amelia Grace. So much of my time in Rwanda will stay with me forever. I hope to take her there one day and show her why it is so special to me. We hope to inspire a sense of adventure, global curiosity, and commitment to helping others in our daughter as well.

Marriage and Honeymoon Adventures

Paul and I were married on June 5, 2010 in Indianapolis, Indiana. We had a beautiful wedding with about 200 guests and a great reception at the Indiana Historical Society. We were so lucky to celebrate this special event with so many close friends and family. We are incredibly appreciative of our parents love and support that helped make this wedding so amazing, and made it possible for us to be who we are for each other.

After our wedding, we enjoyed a week long honeymoon in Soufriere, St. Lucia. We stayed at Stoneyfield Resort & Spa and stared in awe at the Piton Mountains all week. We'll cherish the memories of this sweet and romantic week together forever.

Back in the States...Planning a Wedding

I am back in the US and Paul & I are moving full speed ahead planning our lives together. I recently started a new job at the National Cancer Institute where I am working in the Office of the Director providing strategic planning for multiple offices and divisions in the institute. Unfortunately, I won't get to travel internationally for work (for the time being at least) but I will get to travel within the US occasionally. Paul and I will definitely continue to explore the world together in our free time. We have decided to settle in Bethesda, MD (just 10 minutes outside DC) as we plan our wedding for June 5th, 2010 in Indianapolis, IN. I have enjoyed multiple visits with my family since being back and we look forward to spending more time with Paul's family over the holidays. It is such a blessing and something to always appreciate having close family to visit often. We hope that many of our friends and family will come visit us too (and I very much hope that my Rwandan friends and colleagues will get to come visit too!)

Paul and I took engagement photos with our wedding photographer over Thanksgiving weekend (http://www.twiceshydesign.com/blog/2009/12/paul-wendy-indianapolis-engagement-photography/). We thought she did a great job and we are excited for the photos that will be taken on our upcoming wedding daytoo!

Saying Goodbye...Again

I left Rwanda on October 17, 2009 when I completed my 9-month "loaned" assignment with the CDC Rwanda team. I experienced an incredible amount of professional growth in this short time: I was responsible for two positions most of the time I was there- "acting" in a senior team role; supervised many of the 25 person team; led human resources, budget planning, retreats and strategy setting; enhanced collaborations with other federal agencies and grantees; provided development and learning opportunities for the staff; provided input into the programming of important HIV/AIDS prevention efforts; and hired/trained my replacement before leaving. It was the most challenging assignment in my career thus far, and pushed me to "sink or swim" in so many ways. I swam most of the time, though Paul probably knows the most about some of the early days when I was sure I was sinking. I am so grateful for this rewarding professional opportunity and I can already see in the short time back in DC that my skills and energy were revitalized through my time in Rwanda.

In addition to professional growth, Rwanda continued to change me and inspire me personally. I met and remain friends with many colleagues, community members, and neighbors who were so kind to let me into their lives. Rwanda has an inspiring spirit, in spite of their tragic and conflictual history. Rwandans are hard working, and want to get things done "today, not tomorrow". They live in a world that is a unique mixture of highly developed things (media, internet, job requirements) and yet in a physically limiting and very much still-developing environment (power, water, food, household goods and other basic challenges). At times, to me, they seem precariously on the edge between successful unifying business-minded development vs. growing disparity in wealth and totalitarian control. Despite this push/pull in their leadership, I am optimistic their growth will lead them to prosper. For me, although I was not living in difficult conditions, living in a developing country has impacted me and will continue to impact me for the rest of my life. It is appalling that sub-standard housing (sleeping on the ground!), lack of food and opportunity for income generation, basic un-treated health problems, and lack of clean water are still major issues in Rwanda and world-wide. I was not there to solve those problems, but I experienced them and once again I return home appreciating that we have SO much and marveling at how much we take for granted.

I had the wonderful privilege of receiving two traditional Rwandese outfits called Mushanana's (one for me, one for Paul to be worn after you are married most often to attend other formal events). My close friend Francis generously had these made as well as bought the necklaces, bracelet, and earings which he said complete the outfit. He also unexpectedly met me at the airport as I was rushing through the check-in line and handed me a hand-made beaded king's staff for Paul. He said every husband should have one. What a gift!...The perils of carrying it through security once in Belgium is a whole other story. This is the woman who made the dresses for us.

Daniel and other colleagues went all out for my festive goodbye party- there were delicious baked goods including rice krispie treats!

Everyone was surprised and happy to see me wearing traditional Rwandese attire. My good friend Laurie came to the Embassy to say goodbye too.

Louis and I.

Louis, me, Enan, Sylla

Thanks to Janean and Derrick's magic, I had the best Reggae band in Kigali at my party. Sadly, we had envisioned a garden party but it rained 20 minutes before the party. :( Not surprisingly, Daniel made it all work, and got the green light to have the band play in the conference room of the US Embassy. Everyone was shocked, and the building was a rocking club for these couple of hours.

Gauhar, Roopal, and Tye.

Some of my colleagues said they hadn't danced in 10 years.

The band scheduled 3 additional gigs after playing at my party!

I pretty much told everyone they were required to dance.

Goodbye Daniel! I'll miss you.

Saying goodbye to my good friend Richard the artist.

I will miss Francis dearly. He was very kind and generous to me.

My very good friend Gloria.

Emah, me, and Sylla

My colleagues gave me these amazing goodbye gifts- a beautiful hand woven traditional basket in Rwandan colors, and a home-made collage of all the amazing people I worked with in Rwanda.

Last Hoorah in Bujumbura!

I was able to squeeze one last weekend international trip in before heading home to the States. Daniel, Kathie, Laura and I drove to Bujumbura, Burundi (6 hours from Kigali) Sat.-Mon. Bujumbura has some safety concerns so the American Embassy in Kigali only allows permission to travel there if driving in a two+ car convoy with a sattelite phone, first aid kit, and GPS system. We found that three other groups from our Embassy were driving, so we had a four car convoy and left very early Saturday morning.

The road was very curvy. We had multiple passengers suffering from car sickness, but thankfully I did well. This is common site of bicycles hanging on to the back of large trucks to get up the steep hills. This is so dangerous for them!

This was a welcome sign just over the border into Burundi. The border crossing was surprisingly easy and very well organized. We paid $20 for a 3 day Visa at the border. The hardest part was changing money with a chatoic group of Burundians swarming our car trying to offer us exchange rates. Burundi is primarily french speaking, although the local language is very similar to Kinyarwanda. I enjoyed working on my french more over the weekend. It is also known to have a higher rate of pick-pocketing, or people who reach in your car and try to take things. We did not have any trouble like that over the weekend though. As soon as we crossed the border some things seemed very different to us. The roads are not as nice as Rwanda; the weather was almost immmediately hotter; and the trees are different including tall palm trees and coconut trees.

We stayed at the Club du Lac- the nicest hotel in Bujumbura on Lake Tanganika.

We had a large group checking-in. I was especially impressed with one Embassy family who travelled with us and their 22-month old twins and older 4 year old son. Some of them got motion sickness and cried a lot of the way there, but the parents were upbeat and handled it with smiles!.

A breakfast buffet was included with our rooms which we enjoyed every morning.

Although the rooms were a little less than hoped for (mosquitos and bugs; no fans or A/C), the pool and beach felt worth the price. We immediately headed to the pool upon arrival.

The lake had a nice big beach, gusty wind, and waves.

We walked down the beach to the neighboring Bora Bora Club which is a lounge restaurant on a nice deck with a pretty pool.

We met up with other Kigali colleagues for a drink.

Kathie and I enjoyed trying their mojitos.

Daniel and Kathie lounging. After the Bora Bora club we all went to Botannica for dinner.

We explored the downtown area one day, and visited a craft market to check out the local crafts.

We had fun dancing at this bar- Havana on Saturday night.

Everyone enjoyed trying an Amstel Bock beer which is a local favorite and not available in Rwanda.

Two boys selling eggs and peanuts on the street.

I was told by a friend that we could not come to Buj without visiting the Musee Vivant (a small, low budget zoo) where we got to hold a snake.
There were chimpanzees in one cage.

There is an unusual and somewhat shocking option of having the guide feed a guinea pig to a leopard and a crocodile. I was not too keen on the idea, but we did see this happen while we were there.

I was a little concerned that the crocodiles were looking at us and seemed only to be kept away from us by a short cement wall!

The grounds also include a series of traditional Burundian huts so we of course posed for a photo.

On our last night there we strolled a little further down the beach to the Saga Beach where we heard live music. We stopped and ate some delicious fried fish with yummy sides.

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Burundi Info and Recommendations:

$1 = roughly 1200 Burundian francs

Hotel Club Du Lac- +257 22 250 221

Other hotels: Botannica in town +257 22 228 873 or +257 22226792; Saga Beach next to Bora Bora)

Restaurants- Botannica, Tanganika, La Fantasia, Khana Kazana, Belvedere, Bora Bora, Resha Beach

Clubs- Havana, Toxic, Raggae Place

Activities- Buja Day Spa massage- +257 22 22 7000

Musee Vivant- crocodiles/leopard