on my way to Rwanda

So it's my last day in the States for awhile. I'm in a hotel near the airport in DC finishing up last minute things before I'm out till Aug 31 supporting the training in Gatsibo, Rwanda. Had a nice few days with my parents and kids in between work -- flew into Indianapolis on Tues night and spent a few days there and in my home town Ft Wayne. The kids will stay there until the last week of August when they go back home to start school. I hate being gone for their first week of school, but with the crazy schedule there wasn't much choice this time. There has been so much to do this past week that I was really stressed. It will be good to be able to focus on one thing for the next few weeks.

Julie wrote up a long report on how things have been going in Senegal that Chrystel (Rwanda coordinator) and I will use to shape the training in Rwanda. There are lots of experiences with Senegal as well as with the trainings I've been involved in to keep learning and improving with each time we do it. So I'm getting excited as well as anxious as I always do before starting something really important. It always takes a few days for everyone to settle into the routine, which is stressful.

Hopefully I'll have some pictures and short videos to post in the next week or so. I get into Rwanda on Monday after flying from DC to Rome to Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) to Kigali, so long flights and lots of stop overs. Think I'll be exhausted but have to go straight into the office for a meeting. Then Tues Chrystel and I will get ready for the partners training that takes place on Wed-Fri. Sunday we go to Gatsibo for the training with the community and youth which will start on Monday. I also have a few meetings/conference calls on other things I have to do this coming week, but after that I will be free from phone/internet for a couple of weeks which will be nice!

More later....