Getting ready

On January 21 I expect to wake up, pull back the mosquito netting from around my bed, and start to figure out our life in Kigali, Rwanda.  For those who do not know, I will be in Kigali from January until late June as a Fulbright scholar lecturing and consulting at the Kigali Health Institute http://www.khi.ac.rw/.   Exactly what that means I'll learn in the next few weeks.  At this point I am still packing, getting our housing settled and finishing up some work at Springfield College.

Some months back I was at the Fulbright predeparture orientation in a room with a few hundred grantees each of us learning about our destination country and being inculcated to the Fulbright program and our new responsibilities.  Here is how the program was described to us:  "While each grantee has a specific teaching, research or professional project to pursue, it is important to recognize that your ultimate goal as a Fulbrighter is to promote mutual understanding and respect between the United States and other nations.  Fulbrighters are “cultural ambassadors” to their host countries and active and involved members of their communities upon returning home."   So now, Jim Phelps and I have something in common, my mission, should I choose to accept it (and I did) is to be a cultural ambassador, to participate fully in the experience in Kigali and to speak and write about my experience as widely as possible. 

Welcome everyone to my blog!