Weeks 7&8

First of all, I apologize for this delayed entry. To be honest, I completely forgot that it was time to continue the blog. Anyway, quite a bit has happened in the last two weeks. In the meantime, I have found a circle of closer friends, at work, I have let the kids take their first tests, and of course, the Marburg virus has broken out in Rwanda. But let's start from the beginning: in the seventh week, not much happened overall. I continued exploring the parks of Kigali (where a very friendly security man showed me a secret pond), visited one of the very few bookstores in the city, and generally took it quite easy. During the week, I was still busy with teaching, my own training, and my daily life here. In the eighth week, the first tests finally began, which is why I now have over 350 papers to check. Luckily, one test only takes about 5 minutes to grade. Additionally, I was requested to help at the preparation seminar for the Rwandan volunteers going to Germany, and there was a rather strange spontaneous sports festival where 2000 students cheered for their teachers in a relay race. This weekend was rather less peaceful, as we celebrated a 20th birthday in our house, where besides a broken refrigerator, we also had about 40 guests on our small property. So that’s everything that has happened.

Regarding the Marburg virus mentioned earlier: some may have seen in the media that this fairly deadly disease has broken out in Rwanda. The situation seems to be well under control at the moment, which is why there are no significant measures in place that would restrict my daily life, but depending on how it develops, there is certainly the possibility that the Foreign Office may have us evacuated. However, that seems very unlikely right now. Generally, there is no need for major concern. And I am, of course, keeping a close eye on the situation myself, as leaving would come at a very inopportune time for me, but I still prefer that to getting infected.

So that’s it for now regarding weeks 7&8. Depending on what happens, I may switch to publishing an entry every two weeks from now on. We'll see.