movin' and shakin'

made the move to tumblr, ya'll.

come on over! (laurenwelch.tumblr.com)

see you soon. thanks for reading. xo.

quick trip

a week ago there was a lovely birthday party for our friend, Isa, who is Puerto Rican. she cooked this wonderful meal (plantain lasagne! salad! beans!) and we all sat around by candlelight and enjoyed it with some rwandan neighbors. then, like all good parties, the tables got pushed aside, Rihanna was on the stereo, and a bottle of tequila made it's way around.

johan cooking

raph napping on the platform

my view

kiddies waiting for the feast

i got up at 4am the next day to leave on a 9-hour bus to Kampala.

and i made it. it was kind of hot. the kenyan lady sitting next to me was kind of feisty. but i arrived and found Justin and a few of his friends drinking a Nile Special and eating pizza at the hostel. the next two days we just wandered like tourists. tried to mail something home (post office was closed. it was sunday.) battled with a few ATMs. ate some chicken and chips. and walked about 4 miles back to the hostel. we had a nice Chinese food dinner (yes. in uganda.) and i "watched" the super bowl with his buddy Tim at the Irish-themed bar, Bubbles O'Leary, in town (by "watched" i mean i had a few drinks for 4 hours leading up to the 2:45am kick-off and then immediately dozed off next to a friendly Ugandan man who had prime real estate in a comfy booth) i woke up in time to see Madonna kill it and moto-ed home.

then we boarded a bus to a town in western uganda. there are so many speed bumps in the road, so bus rides are less than enjoyable. (as Tim brought up, "they spend so much money to pave the road so they aren't bumpy...") and our seats were right over the rear wheel. we reached the town. packed 8 people in a sedan for a shared ride out to the hotel. relaxed. went on a beautiful night walk through the jungle (with a guide) and went to sleep. Justin et al went to trek chimpanzees the next morning and i finished 'let the great world spin' over a cup of coffee (wonderful book).

then we went to check our email before heading out on a bus to a lake 8 hours away. and Justin had received some horrible news that his mother's health was deteriorating. Small-town-Uganda feels really far away when there's an emergency. through broken phone lines and dropped internets he switched his flight and we grabbed the last bus back to Kampala. he never once raised his voice. we spent the next 24 hours talking about favorite childhood memories and trying to pass the time by walking the over-fed dog at the hostel. it may have been the longest 24 hours of our friendship, time just wouldn't move fast enough.

walking the hostel dog

he boarded the plane last night and i came back to kigali. i have gotten quite good at sleeping in bus terminals. i can curl up just right and doze off on my backpack. the african mamas straight up just make a bed for themselves on the sidewalk, but i'm not there yet. i boarded the bus at 1am and pop 90's lady music was blasting (a sample track). i sat down and thought, are they really going to play this for 8 hours through the night? the answer: YES. when you buy the first class bus ticket you get music! and lights! so lucky.

and now i am back in the city. alexa (from d.c.) is visiting for the next few days. there is a dinner cook-off tomorrow night. and i will dive head first into this job hunt. my East African travel plans are tabled indefinitely with the loss of my travel partner. so, for the next 6 weeks, i'll be cozied up in Kigali until i leave on the road in mid-march. makes for a boring blog, but i'll try to take some photos of the city.

week one

i am in a coffee shop in kigali. a nice one. with wifi and iced coffee and big couches to lounge in. i'm here with two friends, having laptop time, reading the news and planning next moves. moves for the immediate future (tonight) and the distant future (next year).

this first week was seamless: i have taken almost daily naps in the hammock in my room. Raph and I have drank a lot of juice and watched louis on the projector screen. there were two parties at the house last weekend. one full of dancing rwandans celebrating a graduation and the other full of ex-pats celebrating the chinese new year. there was a lovely dinner in a Grace's backyard, as her parents were visiting and nearly two dozen of us sat around and ate delicious pasta and salad by candlelight. i have spent my days wandering in search of faster internet. i got horribly lost one day through the poorer part of town and came out sunburned and with a marriage proposal. kigali is hilly. my dreams of getting a bicycle have been quickly squashed due to how often i would have to get off to push it on foot.

wednesday was a national holiday (hero's day. held to recognize the heros who saved someone during the genocide) and a handful of us bussed to musanze (3 hours to the north) to have dinner with a rwandan family. it was nice and quiet. and enjoyable to get out of my house and kigali for 24 hours. we just sat and took some beer and coffee and watched cheesy music videos.

walking in town. volcanos in the distance.

brad, ernest and i outside of ernest's home

new friends

preparing guacamole (a mzungu favorite)

i am working on transitioning to the Lauren that is not dependent on the internet. the one that doesn't freak out when i can't check my email for 24 hours. it's a slow process but i'm hoping to get there.

i have made a plan for the next little while. i (believe i) am laid-back, but there is always a plan brewing. always something that motivates me. i have a handful of contacts working in organizations in rwanda. i hope to meet them in person in the coming weeks and sell myself as a viable candidate for an internship/job position. i really want to stick with the refugees. so, that narrows the field considerably in rwanda. more opportunities in the DRC. it's odd to come to a place where human rights catastrophes and conflicts equal job opportunities. the message certainly gets lost somewhere. but i am applying. and emailing and calling. and hoping.

for something that starts in early May. i'm going to spend the next 3 mos traveling around. first in E. Africa with Justin then i'll be leaving in mid-March for a 6 week road trip in the big yellow bus that will end in Cape Town for Burning Man. more on that to come. but i'm excited. once in a lifetime opportunity to travel with good people through a part of the world i have never seen.

i have been listening to this song a lot. i miss you. i am beyond safe and healthy. and thank you to everyone for militantly posting news about the komen foundation, so i know who to be upset with. 'cause planned parenthood is doing a lot of good.

kigali

air travel is crazy. two days ago i was a real bawl-bag leaving d.c. and now i am unpacked, in my PJs and drinking tea on the patio in kigali. kind of well-rested. a little sick due to pushing my heart (and liver) a little too far in my last weekend.

but i made it!

the flight was a piece of cake. 13-hours to addis ababa then straight on to kigali. i napped and then watched the Godfather for the first time, which is long and a lot of people die. i also watched SJP in 'i don't know how she does it.' i freaked out a bit. it's weird to have 18 hours to contemplate your life choices alone. but then! Grace picked me up at the airport and we went to a super nice lunch with her parents (i got chicken salad and a beer) and i came home (!!) and napped/unpacked/chilled with a ex PCV-couch surfer-dude who was traveling around after finishing his service in Ethiopia. i made some dinner with my adorable, German roommate and as we were all sitting in the living room, Mr. Brad walked in dragging crates of beer and soda (a friend from my time last year in South Africa) and announced there are 2 parties at the house this weekend.

so, i think i'll be okay. today i'm going to wander out into town on foot for a sim card and groceries. it's a comfortable life. there is a puppy here to play with. it's sunny and 70 degrees. i wish i could put ya'll in my pocket and bring you here to hang out.

phone #: (011) or (+) 250 786182026

my room, all unpacked

2nd view (the hammock is for visitors :)

the house puppy

view from the backyard

patio where i took my breakfast and wrote this