friday figuring

this is a second and final try. lost the last poste i just put up as the internet went down. quick things to respond to:
- my phone is up and working (or so i think), so m&d, give that a try over the weekend or anytime today. phone is on 24-7.

- there is a very long story to go with the whole bit of transferring pounds over here and basically the gist of the story is--- because they say "the bank of scotland" it's not going down. they wanted to give me a "deal" yesterday and would take my "scottish pounds" for 1/4 of what they are worth. while i cannot aruge with them like my dear old friend aims, who is AMAZING at this kind of thing, i dropped my head down on the guy's desk to show my frustration of the situation and got "ohhhh... pole, pole mama". since WHEN did i get old enough to be considered a "mama" here? needless to say, i am fine at the moment and just want out of kigali as it is a little expensive for me.

- weekend plans are to head to Gisenyi by sunday. will hopefully meet my contact at the border on monday and go from there. need to discuss a few things with my friend grace first. she's a young somali girl i met the other night who is just a WEALTH of information. amazing what you can learn from people over a simple drink.

- while i am trying not to dwell on the events from 11 years ago, it's hard to walk around this city and NOT think of it. everything is even familiar to some degree just from what i've read and then of course the movie "hotel rwanda."

- much to say, but too much to report on this simple blog. my friends adam and jessica have been great to hang with the past few days, but as we are all headed in seperate directions now, maybe i'll be able to clear my head a bit of the surroundings i find myself in.

not sure i'll have internet access in Gisenyi, so if i do not, no worries. i'll catch everyone up afterwards.