A Day in the Life of Nora the Explorer

So after talking to Meg for over half an hour the other night, spending the millions I’m worth, I realized I never let any of you know my day-to-day. So how about I take you all through a day in my new life? Would you like that?

I get up around 7:30-8:00am, which is fine because even with ear plugs it is so GD loud outside. There are some sort of pterodactyls and my guard making a raucous outside of my window. Oh yeah, I have a guard. I immediately make a cup of instant coffee before even talking to anyone. I shower (sometimes) then get dressed, nicely, and walk the 5-10 minutes to work, stopping at my local place to get bananas and bread for breakfast, using Kinyarwanda - jealous? No? Well it costs me about 30 cents. So - jealous?

At work I check email (gasp! So different) and upload these fantastic little blog posts. I chat with my coworkers about whatever is going on – all the Rwandan gossip - then get down to business. But first, we French press some Rwandan coffee so we can really get it going. Sometimes students come in and we work one-on-one with their CVs and/or cover letters. Other times, we do trainings on how to write a CV or cover letter. Other times, we are organizing internships, so I read over CVs and cover letters and short-list. Another task I’ve taken on, and this one is a real shocker, is social media for the organization, which keeps me pretty busy. Students come in and out of the office pretty frequently, so there is usually something going on.

Wednesdays and Sundays I go to the orphanage to see my babies – the nuns are letting me bring bananas this week! And at night, I either hang out with the other volunteers, get dinner and/or read – lots of reading. Since I have trouble falling asleep here for obvious reasons – I PRAY that someone sent me Tylenol PM -, I usually stay up pretty late reading and writing, until I am about to pass out – but not too tired to fashion my mosquito net around my bed, which I wake up to as a blanket. One time, when I was absolutely exhausted, the entire thing fell down on me (it’s supposed to hang from the ceiling), and too tired to care, I slept with the metal ring and net literally on top of me, rendering it useless and just really uncomfortable. And then today, I woke up and what did I see?? A mosquito in my face, literally cuddling me as I greeted the day. Soo yeah, apparently I can’t get those mechanics down.

Weekends I either work or travel, if I’m in Kigali I go out or meet up with friends. Travel is easy and cheap, so I’ve already been all around Rwanda…and outside Rwanda.

So that’s what I’m doing here pretty much. Questions? Concerns? Concerns that I don’t already know?