Nyungwe, visas and roast chicken

Nearly the end of February. My time here is going far too quickly. Here's a quick run down of what's happened recently and some photos of a trip I took to Nyungwe National Park.

1) I have a visa which means, for the first time in 2 months, I am actually legally allowed to be in Rwanda. However, my visa is only until the end of March (I applied for a visa til July. The immigration office hated me and my complicated application. As a result I have to leave in a month). I want to stay in Rwanda in April and travel to Malawi in May, so I'm going to try and extend my visa by saying I got malaria and so I was sick and couldn't do anything for a whole month, so pretty please let me stay for April.

2) Wamahoro Claudine was eaten by our neighbours. Because clearly a fat chicken = free meal in Africa. Very sad indeed. Kyogumishu Denise was very upset and lonely so we went to the chicken market (best/worst place) and rescued her new friend, Kwizera Eveline:

3) Miri, Lora and I spent an awesome day/night in Kigali to watch the Superbowl. Go Seahawks! We had an awesome time wandering round Kigali and partying with Peter and Richard beforehand. After staying up all night and whiling away a couple of hours at a 24 hour cafe at the bus station, Miri and I went to immigration to learn the status of my application. We got on the correct bus...and promptly fell asleep, missed our stop, and ended up on the other side of the city. After nearly freezing to death on a moto, we arrived at immigration only for me to be told my application had failed, I was wasting their time and they were sick of my application. Cue vast quantities of angry tears from me. (The following week I returned, in a slightly better state of mind, and managed to convince the immigration officials to give me til the end of March. Will update on the progress of getting an extension!)

4) At the beginning of February, Libby, her father, Lora and I hired a car and went to hike in Nygunwe National Park, an ancient rainforest with a huge biodiversity (photos courtesy of Libs!).

'Look at its nose! Look at its nose!!'

Congolese refugee camp at Kigeme, Nyamagabe

 The past month has been busy with trips to Kigali and finalising the RVCP strategy. Time is absolutely flying past, which is scary because I guess someday I'm going to have to go back to the UK. I have been trying to plan my life but even though I applied for a Masters, my tutor STILL hasn't sent a reference for me and he hasn't answered any of the emails I keep sending him, and I am freaking out that I won't get a place. So I have also been looking at jobs related to the work I am doing here (but paid) and I either need a million years of experience or a Masters (which I may or may not get depending on whether my tutor will provide a reference for me) so maybe when I get back home I will go back to temping at the coffee factory...