It is my last night in Kigali. The last week has been a bit of a blur. I have been quite busy finishing things up, and my head is filled with mixed thoughts. Rwanda is a complex place; it has been a difficult and intense and (mostly) rewarding seven months. I am sad to say goodbye to friends here and will miss quite a few things about Kigali, but I am very, very ready to be home.
The last few days it has been almost eerily quiet on campus. The last exams were Friday, and so there are almost no students around. The KIST science building is mostly dark at night. They have even turned off the streetlights outside the building. It is still easy to see, though, as the moon has been bright.
My exams are graded and I am well on my way to being packed. Tomorrow I will attende the presentations of the senior theses from 8:30 - noon. Then I will spend a few hours in the department taking care of lots of odds and ends. I expect I'll end up taking lots of photos with the graduating students and other faculty. I will then return to my apartment, finish packing, bid farewell to the guesthouse staff, and head to the airport. I expect it to be a busy and draining day, but I am looking forward to it.
I am, as usual, on the balcony. It is darker than usual despite the nearly full moon. A radio is playing somewhere and crickets chirp. I will miss the balcony. It is a peaceful place to work, to eat breakfast in the morning, to have a cup of coffee in the afternoon, and to just sit and think and try to make sense of it all.
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