First week of work...so far

So I have not been able to blog since Sunday night because our supposed 3.75G internet provided by Airtel has been acting up. Also, we started work on Monday and have been quite tired since then--I think it's a mixture of still getting adjusted to the time and having to read country reports at work!

Monday, we started off our day with a meeting to get to know the key players within the WHO country office as well as to be debriefed about the ongoing and completed projects. It was fun to learn all the exciting projects that we might get to work on whilst we're here.  We spent the rest of the time reading the official demographic reports for Rwanda.

Lunch time, Carmen and I ventured to explore the options Kigali has in terms of restaurants. Well, we didn't really have to walk far because we spotted one just 3 minutes away from the office. It was a nice lunch buffet that cost 3,900 RWF (800 RWF for a bottle of soda; 1USD=640 RWF). The food was good and the proprietor was really friendly. He even gave us coupons for half of pizza!! I think this is going to be our new lunch spot.

Tuesday, we pretty much continued with the country report review as well as reading other articles about mortality and reproductive health in the context of Rwanda. It was interesting to find out that HIV prevalence was 3.0% and the contraceptive use was above 90%. We went back to our lunch spot, Orange Courts Bar & Grill to enjoy some curry chicken (it seems its the lunch spot for quite a number of UN personnel in our building).

Today (Wednesday) was by far a long day. We decided to walk to work this morning (about a 30 minute walk). I underestimated the steepness of the hills in the neighborhood. I have officially concluded that if I keep climbing these hills to work every morning, I will have the perfect body by the end of this summer (lol). We got to the office and continued with the articles we had been reading but we had to attend a general meeting at 10:30 to take minutes (the life of an intern). The UN Secretary General is coming to Rwanda next week and all the UN agencies have to present a joint survey that was conducted to assess the needs of the Rwandan people. This executive summary is also to tie in the country's efforts in attaining the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. Another meeting was held at 4pm. Though both meetings were long, it was fun to sit in on such a vital decision making process. It was nice to see and be part of the behind the scenes process of producing the executive summaries and reports published by WHO. I definitely cannot wait for the finished product.

For now, I have to go to bed because I have a feeling tomorrow will go just as long as today did as we have another meeting.

Stay blessed y'all :)

Our new lunch spot!!

Lunch: take 1

Lunch: take 2

The American Embassy--it's right along our walking path

Road infront of WHO. The president's office and American Embassy are right down the road!

WHO meeting to discuss the preliminary report.