I am a slacker - it's definitely true sometimes. I apologize for not writing in the past ten days - rest assured I was busy and productive! I also haven't been sleeping well and have been a little cranky and weak feeling. Hopefully it's just a bad week and it'll be over.

Last week we went to a flower farm a half hour outside of the city. The farm is one of Dano+partners' clients, and since they had been there before they asked "the women" if we would like to join them. The drive out was great - once again, great to get outside of the city, and the farm was beautiful. There were twelve large greenhouses filled with roses - the farm's specialty. There were tons of plants, shrubbery, trees, rare-ish green things I hadn't seen before ... the farm is also attempting to start an organic fruits/veggies co-op, so we all bought some organic lettuce, carrots, and green peppers. The owner of the gave us all a bouquet of roses - mine were a tremendous orange - they were alive and beautiful for a few days and now they're dead and beautiful forever. (I hung them up and they're drying.) Anna and I had quite a good time running through the rows of plants and having a photo shoot while the adults talked.



The weekend was pretty slow - I did make brownies though, and they came out quite well. Jen and Dano loved them so much they actually never told their kids I made them (I made them one night after they were in bed) and the three of us polished them all off in a few days. I found this pretty amusing. Thanks to mom who insisted on putting the baking chocolate in my suitcase - it's gone now! Also, clearly Dano is thankful; he licked the pot clean.

The bunnies also arrived last week - J+D got two for the girls. Anna named hers "Joy" and Lian's is "Sunglasses," but referred to as "Sunny" for time saving purposes. They're very cute and the girls love them - we bring them up on the porch and chase them around, constantly cleaning up rabbit poop. They've quickly become neighborhood pets, and the boys on our street will frequently knock on our gate, arms full of random greenery to feed them, or just an excuse to come play with them. We also will bring a soccer ball, or chalk, or games out and play with the rotating group of kids who hang out outside our house. Communication is null at best, but they don't refer to us as muzungu much anymore, so progress is evident.


The best thing that has happened in this week, however, is that I have very quickly and quite shockingly found and signed a contract for a studio. I had trouble finding space to hold classes in, and after a lot of talking and some encouraging words from various people decided to lease my own place. I found a larger office space in a fantastic location - on a main road, with parking, and not too ridiculously priced (unlike most real estate in Kigali). I decided to risk it, and put my every dollar (or Rwandan franc) into the first month's payment. I put out ads, spread the word, and pushed myself over the ledge - classes will be start November 9th. I got two kids signed up in the first few hours of the ad being out (yesterday), and am feeling encouraged by the response I've been getting.



It's crazy for me to think that I essentially own my own fully functional dance studio. It was something I always dreamed of being able to do, but hardly expected to, especially at 22 (then again, I never expected it to be in Rwanda!) I made a full schedule of 12 classes a week, and actually will be taking on a pilates instructor, and am trying to get in touch with a "great hip-hop teacher" I have been told about. This gives me an opportunity to offer more classes to adults and hopefully have a little help with covering the rent. There really is very little to do in Kigali, extracurricular-wise. Every day I meet someone new who says "YOU'RE Ballet Rwanda?! When do classes start?!!" It feels great, while simultaneously makes me want to run for the hills (a total possibility in Rwanda).

I got a builder in the studio a few days ago and we designed the barre, a cubby/bench apparatus, and a small desk. Those will be done next week, and I hope to have painted it fresh before they're ready. All of my buddies at Ivuka Arts have offered to come and help clean and paint. They're all convinced they're going to be ballerinas (20-30 year old men). Last night Collin had a reception for a new show (my first social event since being here!) and the place was packed. The kids did a performance - it was phenomenal. When they saw me they all shouted my name and started prancing around. Also, there were at least 15 people who knew me whom I did not know - again, more "You're the dance teacher?! When are you going to teach me?!" I felt like a Kigalese celebrity for two hours - it was great. Here's the sky today, which looked ten thousand times more amazing in real life.