Google Earthing

Friends have asked/encouraged me to continue with my musings...so here I am.

I've been back a month already (how? I do not know, but it feels like the fastest and the slowest month of my life all at the same time!)
I'm feeling somewhat out of place...still...
2 successful job applications, 2 unsuccessful interviews and I'm left with a sense of uncertainty.
Perhaps my confidence has been shaken - for what I thought I knew to be true of myself appears to no longer stand...

So what's the rush to apparently 'settle' into life here again?  (I avoided using the word, 'back' because I don't want to go backwards...) Thankfully I am in a privileged (and luxurious) position to be free from financial responsibilities (although I do miss my car...), I am surrounded by the love and support of my family (and friends) and I am grateful for the years of squirrelling I did before volunteering in Rwanda.  It would appear that I need to ease off the self-imposed pressure upon myself.

My mind may be tempestuous, but with a little faith, I know the storm will pass.  (Matthew 8:23-27)  So much to be learnt from this story - despite knowing what has been before having lived and breathed the miracles passed, when the winds roar and the waters rise, what do I do?  I call out to God but in panic rather than in faith.  In truth, I'm not in such a dire position at all, I simply miss my life in Rwanda.

So here's what I did, I Google Earthed* where I used to live:
*A new verb that I decided to create

Kinda cool eh?  What the above image doesn't quite show are the contours of the land - basically, between 'The Stadium' and 'The TTC' there is a deep chasm/valley (rather than what you perhaps thought of as flat fields that you could easily pass through to reach the other side.)  The paths are there for a reason...and 'My house' was at the very edge of a massive drop - which you might be able to see more clearly in the next photos.

Even though I have put countless pictures of my former house on my blog, here are a few more to give you a bit of perspective on exactly how compact my life was...

The Tigo building on the end, closest to my (former) house was my local shop, where Jean-Paul, my friendly neighbour, who often used to give me eggs for free, relocated to after being evicted from the mud-hut house next to mine.  (That house actually looks a lot like my old house but with bigger windows!)

The next photo shows the road to the district office at 5.30am, the day I was due to fly back home.  I was standing in the same place as where I took the photos above, only I turned 180 to have two boys from my neighbourhood hug me goodbye and go on their merry way...I don't know where they were going but it was a long road ahead.

This is basically 'The Centre' - i.e. Cyahinda Centre

The path ahead (veering slightly left) was my route to work each day with 'Mama Kabebe's' (my local friendly watering hole) just to the right of that path, just beyond the electricity pole.

I miss the beauty, the simplicity and the disorganisation of Rwanda living but most all, I miss my community.  Only a few elements from my pre-empted reverse-culture-shock post written a couple of months back ring true now.  Mostly I am in mourning for a life that I wonder if I'll ever taste again.