Nighttime in Kigali

Well, for me it is already nighttime, for you it is probably around lunchtime. I laugh because it is only 7pm here and already I am very tired and getting ready to settle in for the evening. It gets dark at 6pm, so you feel like it is later than it really is. The missionaries say that 9pm is "missionary midnight" here. I'm not going to lie...I like going to bed early here because the days start so early.

As I sit in my 2 stacked blue plastic chairs (we use 2, because 1 is not sturdy enough to hold a "well-nourished" Westerner, like myself) using the Internet in the promenade area of the Kigali International Community School, where I am staying, I am quietly listening to the sounds of Kigali. There are nighttime bugs that sound like Oklahoma nights, cricket-sounding bugs and occasionally this sharp kind of squeaking noise that Jane says are the lizards. I'm a big fan of the lizards. I'm thinking of letting some geckos go in my house in OKC when I get home.

There is very little traffic noise, but we are located on the top of a hill, so I can hear faint sounds from the valley below. The traffic noise consists of a friendly honk that you do when you are passing someone, just to let them know you are coming or maybe to say hi. There are lots of friendly honks. Two honks are a little more serious...I'm coming and I'm bigger than you so get out of my way OR I'm coming and I'm smaller than you so please watch out for me. So, if I meet you in traffic when I come back and give a little toot from my car...I'm not being rude...just saying hi!

There are voices, probably from some guys standing in the street talking. They are speaking Kinyarwandan so I have no idea what they are saying. Or maybe they are sitting there listening to their radio as I see them often do. Occasionally, our night guard will say something to someone passing by..also in Kinyarwandan.

It is so still and so quiet. I know God is here.

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