A special invitation, Virginians in Kigali, and ROP

A day in Sophie's neighborhood

Yesterday, I was very excited and flattered to have been invited to my friend Sophie’s home in a neighborhood of Kigali. We made plans several days ago to meet at 11:00am on Saturday to go to her house and walk around town. However, I wasn’t too sure of the details since unfortunately my French still isn’t very complete. Regardless, I was honored to be invited to someone’s home!

On Saturday morning, Sophie came to the guest house to meet me. We immediately walked to the bus stop, and I must’ve looked confused because she laughed and asked if this was my first time on the buses. The public buses here are similar to VW buses and at any given time, there are about 15 or so passengers. I’ve avoided them mostly because I was afraid I wouldn’t know how to tell the driver where I wanted to go (i.e. I’ve been a wimp).

After a few stops, we arrived at Sophie’s neighborhood and she introduced me to the driver of the bus, who happened to be her cousin. As we started to walk through the neighborhood, it became apparent that Sophie knows everyone. She introduced me to perhaps 10-15 people during our walk, always calling me her friend (inshuti). At one point she introduced me to a gentleman who asked where I was from. I replied that I was from the U.S. and then waited for his reaction. I guess I’m used to assuming that Americans are not the most popular people around the world; so I was pleasantly surprised when he excitedly replied, “Ah yes! American! I knew it!” With that, he shook my hand again. Afterwards, I asked Sophie if the Rwandan people liked Americans, and she said that, in fact, they like us very much because Rwandan people like Obama. I thought this was interesting, although not surprising considering how many Obama shirts I’d seen people wearing, so I asked her why people liked Obama. Her response translated literally to mean, “It is good that he is a mix of both black and white. Many people can like him.”

Our first stop in Sophie’s neighborhood was a home that she called her “family’s home.” We walked down an unpaved road into more of a residential area and came to a nine-foot tall, bright red gate. She opened it (which is odd because normally you have to knock and have someone open from the inside) and we stood in front of a one-story stucco house. Right after we walked through the gate, a woman walked out of a concrete-walled area across from the house that looked like showers. Sophie introduced me briefly, but I was surprised when she didn’t tell me that this person was her family member. Instead, we turned around and walked back out of the gate. I was a little confused and worried that I’d misunderstood her, so I asked again whose house that was. This time she explained that it was her family’s house but that sadly both of her parents, her two brothers and one of her sisters had been killed in the genocide. My heart dropped. Of course we all know that anyone over the age of 20 probably remembers the horrors of the genocide, but this was the first time that someone had spoken so openly to me about it ; or spoken about it at all. I gave my condolences as best as I could in French. This is one of the biggest challenges of not being a native speaker – I don’t know which words to use to express the correct emotions, especially for such a sensitive situation.

 

After leaving her family’s house, we walked down the street a bit further to where Sophie lives now, along with her sister, her niece (15) and her nephew (12). I was welcomed as if I was a long-time friend. Immediately Sophie and her sister showed me a photo album of their family. I was happy that I’d brought my camera because I was able to flip through and show them a few pictures of my family as well. They were both surprised to see that I had not one, but two grandmothers! (Grandmothers are unfortunately not common in Rwanda). While looking at pictures, Sophie's sister asked me what kind of Fanta I wanted. Fanta is popular here, but I've only really seen the orange one. That's when I realized that, like "Coke" in the South, "Fanta" is synonymous with "soda" here. So, I said that I liked, "Coca-Cola Fanta."

After talking about family, Sophie showed me around her house. The house was new, only five years old, and was quite large with four bedrooms and a living room inside, and then a kitchen, showers and a laundry room detached from the house. A young girl was cooking our lunch and she was introduced to me as “the girl of the house,” which is a literal translation. I think she works for their family full-time, and she is truly an incredible cook. We had fried bananas, rice, beef and curried vegetables.

Before lunch in our wraps

Before we sat down, I finally convinced them to let me help set the table. Sophie brought me a large, colorful wrap and showed me how to put it on like a skirt over my clothes. Both she and her sister had done the same. When I asked why, she said it was “the culture.” Everyone laughed hysterically when I put mine on (mostly because I couldn’t get it to stay up) and we started taking a bunch of pictures!

After lunch, Sophie and I said our good-byes and we started walking back towards the center city. I thanked all of them continuously – they were such kind hostesses, and I felt privileged to have been invited to their home. It’s fun to meet someone here and see what real Rwandan life is like!

This morning when I saw Sophie, she said that her sister said “say hello to my new friend Merida!” (“Meredith” is a pretty unpronounceable name just about everywhere I’ve ever been). As I’ve said several times, I am continually amazed with how warm and welcoming the Rwandan people are!

Reason number 1,398,999 why Virginia is the best state

Yesterday at breakfast I met a group of Americans who are volunteering at a camp that provides mentoring and creative learning for orphaned children. As we kept talking, I realized that they were almost all from Virginia! The founder, who graduated from Virginia Tech, started this organization in 2007 and has been bringing groups of volunteers here every year since. Her organization (www.hopeshines.org) is really inspiring and I encourage you to check out her website. They invited me to dinner last night and it was nice hearing what brings other people to Rwanda. Several of them came to love Kigali and Rwanda as much as I have and have come multiple times to work at the camps. I'm going to go help-out at their camp on Friday after work.

Church and Rwanda Orphans Project

This afternoon, I had plans to meet for lunch with an ex-pat from Germany who's working for a Catholic aid organization. At 11:00am I went to the church across from my guest house, assuming that I would have plenty of time to meet for lunch at 12:30pm. The service was lively and fun and I didn't even realize that it went for about 2 hours! Part of the reason for the length is that each new person was asked to stand-up and introduce his/herself (myself included). So, I was a bit late for my lunch meeting, but church in Rwanda was a really neat experience!

 

When I got to the restaurant after church, I met Christine, who has been living in Rwanda for several years and has been working in Africa for even longer. It was fun hearing about her experiences! She's a life-long ex-pat and said that she can't imagine ever returning to Germany. In fact, she said that she may want to live in Montana, which is where she went to college. I think she and I may go to "Swahili Night" this week.

During lunch, I was excited to get a text from the Rwanda Orphans Project (ROP) saying that I could come out for my first visit today. ROP was started in 2005 by a group of doctors from San Diego. They’ve been through several changes and now have a center for almost 100 boys on the outskirts of Kigali. I spent a few hours there today tutoring one of their older boys who is about to take the national exams for his senior year of school. Unfortunately he did not have a textbook, and I wasn’t exactly sure how helpful I was considering that he needed the most help in economics. One might think that since I just graduated from business school that I’d have a firm grasp on this subject – but no. In fact, I emailed a few people from Kellogg tonight hoping that I can “phone a friend” for the answers to a few questions.

However, I was extremely impressed by his perseverance. He was orphaned during the genocide and lived on the streets for several years, so I’m told. Now, it is very likely that he will go to college. He is very serious about his studies and when he heard that I wanted to tutor, he immediately ran and got his books despite the fact that it’s his summer vacation.

All of the boys were extremely kind and polite, and I am excited for my next trip to see them. They love visitors, and the next time I visit, I’m going to try and find a creative way to teach a class in their new activity center. The people who run ROP are inspiring, as you’d imagine. They don’t have much funding at all – it all comes from private donors. So, meals consist of cornmeal and beans and they’ve had to be very creative with donations. The activity center has two book shelves of toys and books. One of the girls at the center told me that most of the boys had never seen or played with toys / books until they arrived there. I’m really impressed with all that they’re doing for these children; I wish I could do more for them. It's all a little overwhelming at times because there are so many ways that these children need help. In fact, along the lines of wanting to help, I heard a wonderful quote this week that perhaps encompasses the feeling:

"We can do no great things, only small things with great love."- Mother Teresa

So, with that I'll end this very long post. I hope that everyone has a wonderful week! As always, I love and miss you all!

Love,
Meredith

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Weekends in Kigali

At the car wash....
Last night, Colleen's last night here, we went to a place called "Car Wash," that's literally a car wash but also has a restaurant attached to it. Well, there is a gravel, fenced-in area that has tables and chairs and the food is really good. The last time I was there, the entertainment was lip syncing to American hip-hop, and this time there was a live band! It's more of a local place than an ex-pat place, which is fun. But alas, after a fun week exploring Kigali with me, Colleen left this morning to climb Kilimanjaro! I am still having trouble running the hills of Kigali, so I admire everyone doing that climb this summer.

Weekend plans
I'm going to have a pretty low-key weekend exploring the city a bit. Tomorrow one of the ladies from the guest house, Sophie, and I are going to meet in the morning and walk around the city before having lunch. I see her every day and she kindly (and patiently) helps me with my French and Kinyarwanda.

I mentioned before that there's a Yahoo Group for the whole city called Kigali Life. It's heavily used by ex-pats buying and selling things as well as organizing social events so people can meet. I responded to a message about yoga and pilates and am hopefully meeting-up with some people from that group this weekend for lunch or something. Anyway, the rest of my time will include some work on my projects for EGPAF. If the weather is nice, that may happen at a pool! You can buy day passes to the pool at Milles Collines.

Umuganda
Today I learned another interesting fact about Rwanda. At work today I was advised that tomorrow morning there will be no cars on the road and no businesses will be open. Why? Because tomorrow is Umuganda. On the last Saturday of each month, people across Rwanda are obliged to participate in community service. Digging ditches, sweeping the grounds, making composts, building houses, clearing land, or any other activity that is helping the country becoming better.Therefore, no businesses operate and no one is allowed to drive. It goes from 7:00am until noon. Even more interesting is that this tradition dates back hundreds of year, prior to colonization.

Things to know / lessons learned when traveling in East Africa
At breakfast this morning Colleen and I were talking about all of the things we learned about traveling in East Africa that weren't explicit in any guide books.We thought people might find some of this interesting / helpful.

1. Just because your flight is confirmed doesn't mean you have a ticket - it really doesn't mean anything actually. Make sure you have an eticket number or you will not be getting on that plane. This almost caused me to miss my flight to Tanzania a few weeks ago.
2. Always exchange currency through dollars. Never exchange East African currency directly for East African currency. When we tried to exchange Rwandan francs for Ugandan shillings, we realized that we were going to lose about 20-25% of the value of the currency. So, instead we converted to dollars first. I don't understand why this is the case.
3. Don't assume you'll have wi-fi anywhere. If you've tried to Skype with me, you know that the internet connection here is truly a tool used to develop patience :)
4. When you do have internet, don't assume you will be able to download anything. For example, it took me 30 minutes to download a 3 minute song on iTunes.
5. Mini-flashlights are key. Headlamps are even better. My power doesn't go out much in Rwanda, but it went out frequently in Tanzania, and it was only turned on for 3 hours a day in Uganda.
6. Always have an adequate supply of US dollars. For example, in Tanzania you can only pay for your visa in USD, not the local currency. Interestingly, this applies even if you're not from the U.S. So if I were from Australia, I'd still have to go get US dollars to pay for my Tanzania visa.
7. ATM's only work sporadically, if they're available at all. As some of our friends unfortunately learned this summer, ATM's here love to eat up your debit cards :) 
8. Credit cards are not commonly accepted. If they are, then only VISA works in many places.
9. Bring an extra voltage converter. I learned this the hard way. For some reason, last week my voltage converter from Wal-Mart melted and shut down. I really only needed it for my hair dryer, so I figured I'd just go buy a little hair dryer at Nakumatt. That was before I realized that a hair dryer costs $140 in Rwanda....wow.
10. Don't assume it's cheaper to visit here. For reference, lunch costs between $5 and $10, depending on what you have. A coke is about $1.25-$2.00 in most places. A bottle of water is $0.75-$1.00. Hotels in Kigali range from $50-$60/night for a basic guest house (like mine) to $250+ at Milles Collines or Hotel Serena. A jar of peanut butter is $5-$6. And laundry is $1 per piece. Keep in mind that these are Kigali prices, which are inflated due to the influx of ex-pats and the overall economic strength of the economy here.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Always,
Meredith

Driving to Uganda to track mountain gorillas...and other fun things :)

Elizabeth on a moto

My favorite public transportation in Kigali

I hope all is well! I have been a little delinquent with updating this blog, but that's mostly because there has been so much going on these last few days. Last Friday night, Elizabeth arrived from South Africa after several exciting adventures in Namibia. Since she only had one day here in Kigali, we tried to make the most of it and took motos around town, ate Rwandese food, visited the Memorial, and of course checked out the local craft store. One craft store, Nziza, was a special discovery. The crafts are made by a co-operative of HIV+ women here in Kigali to help them make money. The special souvenir from Rwanda is called Imigongo and is made of cow dung (don't worry - it doesn't smell like cow dung!) It's kind of like a painting made of clay with vivid designs. I've been keeping my eye out for a cool one to bring back.

For a Rwandese lunch, we went to a local buffet called Chez Robert ("Robert's House"). Buffets are very common in Rwanda. I'm told that there is a cultural fear of poisoning in many African countries (dating back to folklore, etc), so people are careful to eat communal food that lots of people are eating and never drink something that hasn't been opened in front of them.

Eating Rwandese food in Kigali

Rwandese food - matoke (bananas), rice, curry chicken, veggies

Colleen with wine made from bananas

Saturday evening, Colleen arrived from Kenya where she'd been camping on safari for 10 days! Though everyone was pretty exhausted, we managed to have a cocktail at Milles Collines (Hotel Rwanda) and then experimented with a Rwandese restaurant that's supposed to be very good called Republica. Since Republica is popular, I wanted to make a reservation, which interestingly I did via text message since I couldn't get a good signal on my phone. (I have a temporary Rwandan phone, by the way). Anyway, since it was dark when we left Milles Collines, we took a cab to Republica and encountered a situation that demonstrated how wonderful the people of Rwanda are.

When we arrived at Republica, the cab driver told us in French that the fare was 10,000 francs (the exchange rate is approximately 600 francs to the dollar, so that was almost $20!) I thought that sounded like a rip-off, but since I hadn't negotiated the rate prior to getting into the cab, there wasn't much we felt like we could do. So, we paid begrudgingly and then walked into the restaurant. Halfway through our meal, the impossible happened. The cab driver appeared at our table and explained that we had overpaid him (since my French is not great, I'd mistaken the word for 2,000 with the word for 10,000). The cab driver then gave us the difference between the actual fare, 2,000 francs, and how much we overpaid him by (approximately 5 times!) We couldn't believe that he actually drove all the way back to the restaurant once he realized our mistake to refund us! I can't imagine another place where that might happen!

Driving to Uganda

Rwandan countryside

On Sunday morning, Ahmed from a local tour company arrived in a jeep to drive us across the border to Uganda - about a 6-hour drive. This was my first time seeing the more rural parts of Rwanda, which is actually where the majority of the Rwandese people live. The country-side was gorgeous:  rolling hills; miles of farmland with coffee, tea, potatoes, and sugar cane; and of course quaint villages. (Side Note: We thought it was interesting that in both Uganda and Rwanda people call potatoes "Irish's.") Along the drive we were the only car on the road in most places and passed hundreds of people carrying goods, fresh water, etc. We passed one group of ladies who were balancing at least 5 baskets each on their heads! Very impressive. As another side note, I mentioned that people were carrying fresh water because running water is not common in the more rural villages so people take large plastic jugs to a local well to supply their homes.

Uganda countryside

Crossing the Ugandan border was fairly easy - we just paid for a visa and walked through. But the difference in road quality was almost immediately apparent. Ahmed called it "African massage" because the entire ride was pretty bumpy along unpaved and/or loosely-paved roads. However, the scenery was incredible! Uganda has a lot of volcanoes and impressive mountains like Rwanda, so we got a lot of nice pictures.

One of the roads we took in the Ugandan mountains

Wagtail Camp

Colleen rolling up our tent flaps

For our time in Uganda, we decided to stay at a camp called Wagtail, which is located in the small town of Nkuringo outside of Bwindi National Forest. Bwindi is a large national park, mostly comprised of mountainous rain forests, on the border of Uganda and Rwanda and is home to the mountain gorillas. We weren't sure what to expect at Wagtail and were pleasantly-surprised on a number of fronts! When we first walked-in, we learned that we were the only people there for that first night and were taken to a large tent that could fit all three of us. I could only describe this tent as "luxury camping." The tent had a wooden base and bathroom attached to the back. We had beds, not sleeping bags, which were turned-down at night! I've never seen that in a campground before. :)

We were fortunate to meet the owner, Fidelis, who grew-up in the small town of Nkuringo (population 2,000) and told us the interesting story of Wagtail. The site that Wagtail camp was built on had been deforested years ago for a banana farm. Fidelis loved nature and when we purchased the land, he decided to recreate the natural habitat that had once resided upon it. He planted as many "bird loving" trees as possible so that birds, in particular, would find the land to be desirable and nest there. Then, a few years ago, after spending years as a tour guide, he decided to start a lodge on his land for tourists. To preserve the natural beauty of what he'd worked so hard to create, he built small bungalows and tents spaced-out on the land so that each guest would still feel like he/she was staying in the forest.

Nkuringo Village and the Pygmy Village
The environment and nature preservation were not Fidelis's only concerns. On top of his desire to preserve the natural beauty of the land, Fidelis was also concerned with helping the people of the village, many of whom were living in quite severe poverty. On our first day we had a few hours of free daylight and went on a walk through the village with two guides who are also residents and teachers in the village.

Little girl in Nkuringo

They took us through the entire center of town and then across the mountain to the indigenous Pygmy village. We walked for about 4 or 5 hours in total. To be very honest, though everyone was smiling and talking with us, it was hard to overcome the emotional reaction to the severe poverty around us. Most people were living in very small mud-brick homes with no running water, electricity or sanitation. The teachers told us that an average classroom had 60-80 students per teacher. And due to the village's isolation and poverty, malnutrition was a noticeable problem, particularly among the children. Despite all of this, it's important to note that people seemed happy, and Fidelis confirmed this. Children were laughing and playing and smiling all along our walk. I think it's hard for us to understand sometimes, but it's moving and inspirational on many levels to see people who are so grateful and joyous in life despite having so little.

After walking through the town, as shown in the picture below, our guides asked an armed guard to take us across the mountain to the Pygmy village. The guard was required solely because we were traveling on a foot trail along the rainforest. The Pygmy people, called Batwa in this region, were the original inhabitants of the Bwindi rainforest. Pygmy people are known for being noticeably shorter: less than 4'11. They live a very traditional life in banana-leave huts with agriculture being their primary form of subsistence.

Guard that took us to the Pygmy village

After our walk, we were happy to learn that Fidelis and Wagtail camp support the village by giving them income sources (buying local produce, teaching the villagers how to grow profitable crops that the lodge would need) and also supporting orphans and vulnerable children through the Nkuringo Cultural Center. Through this cultural center, it's possible for people to sponsor children and pay their school fees. Most people seem to agree that education is the most likely way for people to overcome poverty here. Upon learning that we were business students, we were given all of the contacts for the cultural center as well as Wagtail in order to stay in touch if we find volunteers in the future. Our first step is to put Wagtail on TripAdvisor's website to make sure more people know about it! Many of the lodges that we've heard of are run by Westerner's so it's nice to support the local community, especially when this particular lodge has such a noble philanthropic mission.

Tracking the mountain gorillas in Bwindi
As I mentioned before, Bwindi National Forest (technically named "Impenetrable Forest") is home to several hundred mountain gorillas (a little less than half of the total ~700 mountain gorillas left in the world). For reference, the movie Gorillas in the Mist is based on the life of Dian Fossey who worked to save this species, which ultimately led to her death in Rwanda.

Our guides through the rainforest 

Since the mountain gorillas are endangered, only 32 people per day are allowed to track for them (8 trackers per family of habituated gorillas). So, we were very lucky to be able to do this! The word "habituated" means that these gorillas are used to seeing people and will not run or charge when humans approach. This habituation process takes about 2 years and the guides in Bwindi actually know how to talk to the gorillas but making the low growling and/or coo'ing sounds that echo the gorilla sounds and put them at ease! We wondered how the guides knew they weren't telling the gorillas to "come and get it!" but I guess that will remain a mystery:)

Ready for our trek!

After gearing-up, we were told that the hike could last between 2 and 10 hours. We were actually tracking the gorilla families in their natural habitats, so it was difficult to know where they were at a given time. The guides knew how to track and find them, but sometimes it took longer than others. On a number of fronts, this hike was unlike any I've ever done before. The guides, who were armed in case of elephants, etc, were literally slicing through the jungle with machetes to make our trail up the mountain.

A mountain gorilla!

The moment that we found the family of 23 gorillas was incredible, to say the least. After several hours of hiking, our guide told us that we'd found the family. We couldn't actually see them at first, but we could hear wild noises where they were talking to each other and see the trees shaking where they were moving below. As we got closer, the guides started talking to the gorillas, which allowed us to approach a few of them. At one point, one of the guides grabbed Elizabeth and me and moved us to the side of the trail. When we turned around, there was a large male (called a Silverback) walking right behind us! As we saw him, the lady next to me turned around quickly so not to look at him. When she did that, I realized that I was staring straight into his face, which is a huge no-no (looking them in the eye is deemed to be aggressive and a challenge of power). Oops. So, I immediately looked down and watched as he made his way past us.





In total, we saw 17 out of the 23 gorillas in the family. It was stunning, and I'm excited to share all of my pictures when I get back!

Life back in Kigali
We got back to Kigali on Tuesday, and last night Colleen and I went with my co-workers to a Rwandan film festival where we saw the movie Africa United. I feel like most movies about Africa are sad and/or graphic, so this movie was refreshingly upbeat and heart-warming. Mom - It'll make you tear-up :) In summary, it's about several Rwandan boys who are trying to get to the World Cup in South Africa. I'm not sure if it's available in the U.S., but I recommend watching if you can find it.

With about three full weeks of work left, I feel good about all of my projects and am excited for the final product. Kigali is a small city, so I'm starting to know my way around. You may also think it's funny that I am now used to hearing people say "Hi Mzungu!" Which literally means, "Hi White Girl!" It's not meant to be derogatory - it's friendly. :) So anyway, work and everything else in Kigali is going well!

I'll check back in soon. Love and miss you all!

Always,
Meredith

New Inshuti, old inshuti and can you overdose on peanut butter and jelly?

Mwaramutse "good morning"!

I can't believe how fast time has flown! I have less than a month left here in Kigali. This week at work was good, and I made progress on my projects. Since I normally only have about an hour and a half after work before the sun goes down (the sun sets at about 6:00pm here), my evening activities have been fairly limited. On Monday night I had dinner with my co-worker's wife - pizza. On Tuesday I checked-out Nakumatt (African Wal-Mart). Wednesday I went for a longish run (the Land of a Thousand Hills is still slowing me down). And yesterday I went on an adventure to a local orphanage to try and volunteer.

As I mentioned, I've been trying to find a way to volunteer with one of the many orphanages here when I'm not at work. It's been harder than I thought to try and find an opportunity. Several people mentioned a local orphanage called Mother Teresa, which is run by the Missionaries of Calcutta (i.e. the congregation started by Mother Teresa). I couldn't find a phone number for them, so I decided to just show-up. My favorite way to travel now is by moto (mo-ped) taxi. It costs about $0.50 to $1.00 to get most places. When I finally found the orphanage, I knocked on the gate (every building here has a gate) and was greeted in Kinyarwanda by the security guard (every building also has a security guard - even homes). I didn't see any children at all and the guard didn't speak English or French. Thus, unfortunately I wasn't able to communicate and/or figure out what was going on. I must've come at a time when they were out. So, I walked home and decided to call around today in hopes of better luck next time. I emailed a couple of people today who run similar organizations, so hopefully I can arrange something soon.

Referencing my title, "inshuti" means friend. Aside from the people in my office and my new friends at the guest house who are teaching me Kinyarwanda, I still haven't really met anyone here. So, I joined a Yahoo group called, "Kigali Life," that is apparently very concentrated with ex-pats and Americans. I made plans to try to meet-up with some of them in the near future, so, it looks like I might be making a few new friends, or "inshuti," here.

The gorillas we hope to see in Uganda this weekend

Gorillas in Uganda!
And of course, as I mentioned before, Elizabeth and Colleen are coming in tonight and tomorrow! I'm very excited for our gorilla tracking. We'll leave Sunday for Uganda then wake-up early Monday morning to throw on hiking boots and try to track down 6'4 gorillas in the mountains. Rwanda actually has the largest population of mountain gorillas; however, since they are on the brink of extinction (<1,000 left in the world), the government is very protective and only allows 64 people per day to see them. So, Rwanda is sold out of gorilla permits through October, and we were actually lucky to get a permit for Uganda. Here's a Google image of the types of gorillas we'll be tracking.

And finally, I'd just like to say that I will never eat PBJ again after I get home from this trip. I honestly can't think of a non-perishable food that I can eat regularly,so until you all send me suggestions, I will be eating at least one PBJ per day :)

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend! I'll have more pictures and updates soon!

Love,
Meredith

Tanzania Part II: Beautiful beaches and an interesting boat ride

Hi everyone! Hope all is well! In Part I of the Tanzania story, I talked about the safari portion of our trip. In this portion, I'll talk about the beach part and then give a quick update on this week back in Rwanda.

After three wonderful days in Saadani, Melody and I got back on our tiny little plane and took off for Zanzibar beaches. We went to a part of Zanzibar called Nungwi, which is on the northern portion of the island and along the Indian Ocean. It's known for clear water and white sand beaches.

The pool reflecting the sky on Nungwi
Beach in Zanzibar

The first few days we just enjoyed the beach - this was definitely the summer vacation part of my summer! Our hotel, named simply "Z," had a nice pool that looked like it spilled over into the ocean (photo to the right). Nungwi is a very relaxing, beautiful place (kind of looks like paradise!) and, as we found out, it's also a very popular vacation destination for Europeans. Pretty much everyone we met and/or heard speaking was either British, Irish, French or Norwegian. The hotels are generally smaller, called "boutique" hotels, and conveniently, most of the restaurants are on the beach. So, we pretty much stayed in the same area most of the time. While we were there, we tried to pick-up a few phrases in the official language, Swahili. Asante Sana (thank you very much) and Karibu Sana (you're welcome), both pronounced exactly as they are written. From what we read, some Swahili is closely related to Arabic due to the Arab influence on the island for many centuries. 

Maasai traditional dress - photo from
Google images

On our last evening in Zanzibar, Melody and I went to "Swahili Night," which featured Swahili food and dancing. The food was great and not too different from what I've been eating in Rwanda:  samosas (fried pastry stuffed with meat - everywhere in Zanzibar), several types of salads, lots of fruit, grilled skewers of meat and seafood, and of course potatoes. The dancing at Swahili night seemed to be geared towards showing traditional Maasai dances. You can wikipedia for more information on Maasai people, but they have a distinctive dress and culture and are primarily located in Kenya and Tanzania. We were told that they are still fairly nomadic and their villages are centered around agriculture and farming. In Zanzibar we actually saw a fair amount of people wearing traditional Maasai clothing. I copied a picture from Google images here to give you an idea.







Before I leave the story of Zanzibar, I can't leave out the story that Melody and I titled, "Hussein and his boat from h*ll."


The story of Hussein's boat
Since the water is beautifully clear and there are several coral reefs, everyone told us that snorkeling was a necessity in Zanzibar. We aren't ones to miss out, so one evening we signed-up with a few guys on the beach that called their boats, "Captain Hussein." They said to meet at 9:00am the next day, and that we wouldn't return until 3:00pm. Anyone else may have wondered, "Hmm - I wonder why we are scheduled be out snorkeling for 6 hours...seems like a long time to be face down looking at fish." After all, we'd seen people snorkeling not far from the beach right in from of our hotel, so we figured the boat wouldn't take us far out. But Melody and I didn't question it. They told us they'd give us a discount if we joined a bigger group of Irish people and we were in!

The next morning we boarded a handmade wooden sailboat with about 15 other people. It was really cool looking - all of the wood had scraps of bark on them and the mast looked like a long, single tree branch, so it literally seemed like it was carved by hand. Not everyone could fit well on the benches that lined the interior of the boat, so some people climbed up on top of a canopy that covered half the boat. And then it began; the moment when every person on that boat realized they didn't have sea legs. The water in this picture looks nice and calm, which is what we were all expecting when we set out. But no - the clouds rolled-in and for an hour and a half, every single passenger was completely silent as our little boat rocked side-to-side heading out into the Indian Ocean over huge waves (i.e. we couldn't see land on any sides!)  I wish I'd gotten a picture of our little boat down in between huge rollers, but at that point I was concentrating on not moving. As we all turned green, I'm pretty sure everyone was thinking the same thing: "I really hope those people up top don't get sick first." As we later found out, we were headed to a very small island about an hour and half from Zanzibar. Despite the somewhat painful journey to get there, the snorkeling was amazing. The water was so clear that I was actually able to get a few photos of fish from inside the boat!!

Snorkeling!

 

Melody checking out the fish

Water is so clear you can see these
striped fish from above the water!

Pretending to be in an even smaller boat on the island
after lunch

After snorkeling, everyone climbed back on-board, still a little shaky for the ride over and we braced ourselves for the long stomach exercise back. Luckily for us, instead of heading back we just sailed about 10 minutes over to a place on the island for lunch. When we'd first boarded the boat, I'd seen one of the crew members carrying a very large fish by the tail. He'd slung it somewhere under the steering wheel and I hadn't thought about it again until an eerily similar looking fish appeared at lunch (cooked of course). While we were snorkeling, they had cooked an entire lunch on cast iron pans and a fire on the beach! It was pretty neat. Of course, after lunch we eventually headed back to Nungwi, but the tide had changed and the rocking wasn't nearly as bad (or maybe everyone's motion sickness pills had time to kick in....) :) So we can't complain, the scenery was incredible!

Back to Rwanda
I arrived back in Kigali on Sunday evening, and this week has mostly been about work at the Foundation and getting my projects going in full force. My first project is to develop training materials to teach financial planning and budgeting. I'm creating exercises, guides, and a skills assessment test.

It's been fun getting to know more people in the office, and I think I'm up to about 10 words in Kinyarwanda now. The people at the guest house where I'm staying have taken a strong interest in teaching me Kinyarwanda. At breakfast, Angelique repeats everything I say in Kinyarwanda and then makes me recite it back to her, and Raymond at the reception desk writes down my daily Kinyarwanda words for the day. Adding a bit more complication to it, normally they translate from French to Kinyarwanda, which is definitely good practice and makes my head spin a little!

Yesterday I decided that I was getting a little tired of peanut butter and crackers (which is all I've had in my room), so I decided to go to Nakumatt, which is like an African version of Wal-Mart. Nakumatt has everything from washing machines to food and is definitely the largest shopping market I've seen here. It's about a 20 minute walk from my house. Since I don't have a refrigerator, I'm still a little limited on what I can buy, but I at least stepped it up and got some Jelly and bread so I can make PBJ. :)

Looking forward
This weekend Elizabeth and Colleen, friends from Kellogg, are coming to Kigali! We're going to Uganda to track mountain gorillas (yes - the ones that are over six feet tall!) More about that later...

I'm also meeting with a local Episcopal minister who I've been talking to about potentially volunteering at one of their schools here in Kigali. Otherwise, I'm hoping to help-out at a orphanage called Mother Theresa. As I mentioned before, there are a lot of orphans in Rwanda in particular due to war and HIV, so lots of ways to help. I just need to find opportunities that are not during working hours.


Hope everyone is having a great week and summer! Love and miss you!

Always,
Meredith

P.S. Aunt Mary and Aunt Clara, this picture is for you...it's Coke Zero made in Egypt - all of the cans here have pull tabs instead of push....I embarrassed myself learning that on the plane last week. I was seriously trying to push the tab in until the guy next to me reached over and pulled it back :)

Tanzania Part I: Stow-away on a flight to safari

I'm going to parcel my Tanzania trip posts out into two separate parts since there is so much to tell. The first one describes the first 3 days of Melody and my trip to Tazania, which was primarily safari. Part II will talk about the next four days, which we spent in a beach town.

My first time as a stow-away on a flight

Meeting Melody in Zanzibar

My flight out of Kigali was seamless and everyone was friendly as usual. I was supposed to  fly from Kigali to Kilimanjaro, have an hour and a half layover, then fly from Kili to Dar Es Salaam to meet Melody. When we landed at Kilimanjaro Airport, the announcement called for all passengers who are staying aboard for Dar Es Salaam to remain on-board. I thought it'd be strange if we sat on the tarmac for over an hour, but I decided not to question it and just stayed on the plane. I was going to Dar, after all. About 25 minutes later, the plane door closed, everyone buckled their seat belts, and I realized that I was a stow-away. I guess I was supposed to get off at Kili and board another flight, but thanks to open seating, the difference must be a little less noticeable (unless of course there was a typo on my boarding pass after all). Nevertheless, I was happy for this once I got to Dar because the Visa line was insane and I surely would've missed my flight with Melody to Zanzibar if I hadn't gotten there early like I did.

Zanzibar Airport departures and arrivals for
the day on a dry erase board

Since we arrived so late in the evening, Melody and I stayed one night in Stone Town, which is the historic capital of Zanzibar (Zanzibar used to be a separate nation from Tanzania) and planned to catch an early flight to Saadani, where we were going to safari. The next morning, we got to the Zanzibar airport and went to the gate for "Precision Air," which is a pretty ironic name for this airline as I'll describe later. The departure and arrival time information board was hand written on a dry erase board and everyone just kept telling us to "wait." While we waited, we met a British couple who were also going to Saadani. There's only one place to stay there, so we knew we were on the same plane. About 10 minutes before that plane was supposed to take-off, we were finally led out to the tarmac to start boarding. We see a large jet with "Precision Air" on the side and all four of us start moving that way. But wait, that's not our plane. One of the attendants starts eagerly waving over to another plane...one so small that I hadn't even noticed it. :) So, we squeezed into a six-seater (including the pilots), but thankfully everyone's anxiety is reduced when we look down and see the beautiful views we're flying over.

Zanzibar from the plane

On the six-seater to Saadani

Our plane landing / taking off from a field

However, the best part comes when we are descending to land. All four of us are looking out the window wondering the same thing "where's the airport?" Sure enough, we land right in the middle of a field! It's actually pretty neat.










The lodge at Saadani and how Costas fell in love with a tree

The lodge at Saadani

The lodge in Saadani National Park was above and beyond anything I could've expected.  The owner, Costas, has a passion for nature and said that he "fell in love with a tree" and decided to move to Saadani and build an eco-lodge when his home country, Burundi, was suffering a tragic civil war. Every detail of the lodge captures Costas' passion for nature. The shampoo is made of seaweed and of course there are no plastic bottles to be found, the towel racks are made of drift wood, and the whole place is powered by a few solar panels. There are about 15 small bungalows that make up Costas' lodge, all on the beach. I thought it was one of the most unique places I've ever stayed.

Saadani Village market

As you saw in the last post, Saadani National Park also contains a small village that has been there since the 1300's. Approximately 1,200 people live in Saadani Village and Costas has worked hard to make them the beneficiary of the tourism he's created in the park. Saadani people grow many of the fresh fruits and vegetables used at the lodge, and Costas's newly-formed NGO donated an entire school building. We enjoyed checking-out the village and it was fun to hang out at the school, passing out candy. Since the village is primarily agriculture-centered, children only go to school for six years (up to approximately the age of 11 or 12).The market in this picture is where a lot of the agriculture is traded and/or bought/sold.

Safari
The main attraction in Saadani are the animals, which can be seen by "game drives" (where a guide drives you out into the bush) and one "river safari" (a boat down the river). It's incredible to see some of these animals in the wild: giraffes, hippos (my favorite), wilde beasts, wart hogs (every single one of us shouted "Pumba!"), crocodiles, and the highlight of our game drive...lions! We all heard that it was extremely rare to see lions, but on that same field where our plane had landed landed the day before, we saw about five of them hanging out. Unfortunately it was too dark at that point to get a photo. They didn't really run away from us as we approached, but then I guess they weren't so worried - they're lions.

Baboons and monkeys everywhere

Melody driving the jeep

Pretending that I'm driving the jeep :) Posed...yes.

A huge crocodile!! You're not allowed to swim in the
river because it was full of these guys

Ok, more to come about Tanzania later! Have a wonderful week everyone! I love and miss you all!

Love,
Meredith

A quick teaser from Tanzania

Hi everyone! First off, a quick administrative note on this blog. I learned that you all are not notified of a new post unless you submit your email address in the blank at the right called "Follow by Email." So feel free to do that :)

I don't have great internet connection right now, so this will be quick, but I wanted to get a few photos out there. Melody and I met-up in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and immediately went to Saadani National Park for a few days of seeing the animals on safari. There are a few stories about how we actually got there, but I'll leave that for when I have more time. Let's suffice it to say that our plane landed in a field (not an airport); which was the same location where we saw lions hanging out the next day.

We're now on the coast of Zanzibar, the island off the coast of Tanzania, in a town called Nungwi. Here are a few pictures from the safari as well as one photo from Saadani Village. Melody and I bought a bag of candy and went to the Saadani Village (population 1200) school today to hang out with the kids and pass out candy. (Yes - all of you from Chester will notice that I took this for the Village News's travel section).

I'll put more photos up with more detailed explanations soon. Have a wonderful week!

Saadani National Park

Giraffes!

Hippos and storks

On the river safari - I LOVE the sunsets here

Melody with a large crocodile on the shore right behind her!

Playing with the school children in Saadani Village

Off to Tanzania for East African beaches and safari!

Good morning! After that fairly serious post last night, I felt like it would be a good idea to lighten the mood and tell you about Melody and my vacation plans for the next several days (Melody and I went to UVA together). In all honesty, I'm also killing time waiting for a taxi and have had way too much Rwandan coffee this morning. A side note on Rwandan coffee:   I believe that Starbucks originally sourced its coffee from Rwanda. It's particularly good because of excellent growing conditions being along the equator with volcanic soil.

Anyway, so yes, I'm already taking a vacation. I actually came to Kigali a bit earlier than my contract in order to be able to squeeze this trip in before Melody starts business school. I got a text last night that Melody had left Greece and is flying through Ethiopia. I leave in a few hours to fly through Kilimanjaro, where I am praying that the Visa process is simple. Interestingly the price for a Visa is double only for Americans. I'm told this is because we charge Tanzanians a large sum to come to the U.S. 

This evening, Melody and I will meet-up in Dar Es Salaam, which is the capital of Tanzania, and take a tiny plane over to Zanzibar. I actually like those small planes because they normally let me ride co-pilot. So anyway,  it'll be a day full of traveling, which amazes me considering Rwanda and Tanzania border each other.

Flying through Kiligmanjaro is a little wistful. I wish I could stay in Kili on the way back and climb to the summit. I'm jealous of all of you Kellogg people who are doing that this summer :) After my first run yesterday in the "Land of a Thousand Hills," I think I could possibly get into pretty good shape here. I set out on a 45 minute run yesterday to try and see the city and ended up walking after about 10 minutes. These are serious hills, one after the other. 

A few interesting things I've learned about Rwanda so far:

- Asking (in French) how to say things in Kinyarwanda earns you major bonus points and new friends.

- Electricity is pre-paid. You buy credits and then punch in a code, so there's no billing. So, I suppose theoretically you could give someone electricity for Christmas. 

- 90% of the population has health insurance; which is a higher percentage than the U.S. by the way.

That's all for now. I'll check back in with pictures from Zanzibar soon!

Love,
Meredith

On a more serious note

Hi everyone! I hope that you've had a nice weekend so far!

Day Two was another good day of learning about Rwanda! However, my events from yesterday require a post with a bit of a serious note, yet one that's important to understanding Rwandan history and culture. I've had a lot of questions about what happened in 1994, so I'll try and answer them as best as possible in this post.

On Friday's, most offices in Kigali close at 1:00pm. I was told this is so that people can go home "for sport," or to exercise. We celebrated one of our co-worker's birthdays (they surprised him with cake, lots of singing and speeches), and then I joined in on the tradition and headed home. One of my co-worker's visiting friends from South Africa wanted to go see the Genocide Memorial, so I joined him. We both heard that, although this is an extremely painful thing to see, it's important to understanding Rwandan culture. We rode "motos" or mo-peds there; which is the best way to travel around Kigali. That also happened to be my first time ever on a motorcycle of any type. Don't worry Mom and Dad - they drove slowly and safely, and everyone is required to wear a helmet. :)

The Memorial takes about 2 - 4 hours to go through and its laid-out similar to holocaust museums. I was grateful that my new friend was there because he knew a lot more of the history than I did and could answer many of the questions that I had. I wasn't sure how much information to put into the description of the genocide memorial, because it truly is devastating, but since it was built in order to educate people towards hopefully not committing the same crimes again, I think it's necessary to give a brief overview of what happened.

I will do my best to describe this the way I've been told. When the Belgians colonized Rwanda, they divided the country racially into two primary groups, Huto - >80% of the population, and Tutsi - 15% of the population. Originally, one was declared a Tutsi if he owned more than 10 heads of cattle and a Hutu if less than 10. The Tutsi were thus the economically more advantaged group and the Belgians treated them as such, which not surprisingly led to resentment. After decades of political stand-offs, fighting and violence, the devastating government-sponsored genocide that we've all heard about occurred in 1994. For a period of three months, nearly 1 million Rwandan citizens carrying an ID card labeled "Tutsi" were systematically murdered. Thus, 10%-20% of the country's population was killed. One of the hardest parts for me is the fact that several of these massacres took place within churches and hospitals that were supposed to provide refuge. It's very sad, but one wondrous thing is that the people turned to faith and community in part to deal with some of its after-effects even despite some of the betrayal that occurred.

Alas, the current president of Rwanda was instrumental in stopping the genocide and has also helped to ease tensions and advance the country since then. No one talks of "Tutsi's" and "Hutu's" anymore - all are "Rwandans". In fact, no one speaks of the genocide. The international community in large part continues to apologize for not intervening. Bill Clinton, who was President of the U.S. at the time, was quoted saying "This didn't happen under my administration, it happened under me."

The events of 1994 are especially difficult to comprehend when I'm working with people who grew-up here. It's nearly impossible that those aged 20 and older were not impacted by the events of 1994. I've heard that it's not especially polite to ask too much about someone's family unless they offer the information because you never know where they were in 1994. Seeing the kindness and warmness with which I've been welcomed here, I cannot imagine that this happened 17 years ago.

It makes it all the more inspiring that Rwanda is now one of the safest countries in Africa. The country has advanced in so many ways and is on track to achieve great development milestones. They've reduced the prevalence of HIV to 7% from a high of 22% right after the 1994 events. This is less than half that of many other African countries and especially important since the HIV virus was spread wildly during the 1994 events. As another indicator, Rwanda's economic growth rate (GDP) has been consistently positive (i.e. continually growing), even through the latest recession. It's been an impressive turnaround to say the least.

A group of friends at Hotel des Milles Collines

So, after paying our respects at the mass graves, we headed back via moto to my co-worker and his wife's house to regroup. My friend said that the moto-driver was driving at "Mzungu speed" (i.e. slow for the foreigners - "Mzungu" is a Swahili word for foreigner that I can explain more later). Anyway, the rest of the night was a little lighter. We had drinks at the Hotel des Milles Collines, which literally means the hotel of a thousand hills. This is also the hotel where more than 1,000 people were saved during the genocide due in part to an extremely brave hotel manager as portrayed in the movie, Hotel Rwanda. The picture to the left is all of us at a poolside table there (I'm in the very back). We then met up with some of my co-worker's other visiting friends and went to a restaurant/bar called Executive Car Wash. This place is actually a car wash where you can go order food and drinks while you wait. I think that original intention has morphed a little because last night it looked more like a restaurant with a car wash than the inverse. Lip-syncing is popular here, and there were three people on stage dancing and lip-syncing to American pop songs. We ate masala fries (french fries with Indian spices on them) and more potatoes with mayo and piri piri (hot sauce).

Iris Restaurant - Next to where I'm staying

Tomorrow morning I leave to meet Melody in Tanzania. We're going to spend most of our time in Zanzibar, the island off the coast, with a couple days on the mainland to go on safari. We heard that its migration time, so we hope to see a lot of animals - Zebra, Buffalo, Elephants, etc. I will get a ton of pictures I'm sure.

So, tonight I spent packing with a quick break for dinner at the Iris restaurant, the restaurant attached to the guest house where I'm staying (pictured). Chantal is the hostess there and is very kind in helping me practice French. I was proud of myself for ordering goat brochettes (kebabs) and piri piri sauce :)

I will update from Tanzania shortly - have a wonderful weekend! (Or "weekenazizi" in Kinyarwanda - spelled phonetically because I can't find a source for how to spell things online). Love and miss you all!

Love,
Meredith

Three languages and my new home at the Iris

Update: I added a picture of the people from the office I'm working with. We took it yesterday when the board member was in town. It takes about 10 minutes to upload a photo, so they will come slowly like this.

Good evening (at least for me),

I hope all is well at home- I certainly miss everyone! I'm pleased to report that after my first day, I have nothing but GREAT things to say about Rwanda. The 24-hour flight was long, but smooth. In fact, I was amazed by how the social dynamic in the airports changed dramatically throughout the course of my travel. In New York's JFK airport, nobody dared to utter a word to the person standing or sitting next to him / her (including the 6.5 hour flight to Amsterdam)...pretty standard. Then something changed as soon as I got to the waiting area for the flight to Kigali. All of a sudden, it was like everyone was on the same team. Groups of missionaries showed up wearing the same t-shirts, people were exchanging reasons for why they were going to Africa, and I found myself feeling acquainted with half the plane before I even boarded. This was relevant foreshadowing for the friendliness of Kigali as a city.

Though I arrived in Kigali at 7:00pm, the sun goes down around 6:00pm here, so I was grateful that my co-worker and his wife were waiting for me when I arrived at the airport. They are amazing hosts and offered to let me stay with them for the first night. They have actually been advertising Rwanda as a tourist destination to their friends and have had a house full of visitors for most of their nine months here. After dropping my bags, we all went to dinner at a restaurant called Sundowner Bar, Grill and Pizzeria (yes...can't avoid pizza). There we had Savanna cider, barbecued goat (yep, I said goat), potatoes with mayo and hot sauce (piri piri) and umutoke, which are basically plantains.

So after a good night's sleep to try and get over the jet lag (6 hour time difference from the East Coast), I had my first day of work and figured out what projects I'll be working on over these next few weeks. It turned out to be a pretty eventful day because one of EGPAF's board members, who runs a large global consulting firm, was in Africa on business and decided to stop-in for a site visit. So, as they introduced the organization to him, I too received an overview presentation. I also got the privilege of visiting a health center (clinic) and district hospital where we spoke with doctors to better understand how pregnant mothers are treated from conception to childbirth to follow-up.One of the doctors is pictured below in a counseling (consultation) room.


The doctors were so passionate about their work - it was inspiring - and the health centers were much nicer than the ones I saw in Zambia last year. Interestingly, 90% of Rwanda's population has health insurance! Afterward, some of the office staff and I had drinks and dinner (Indian food) with the board member and his family. So, it was a very busy first day!

During the visits to health centers, I learned that I will be practicing French quite a lot and also learning some Kinyarwanda! The three main languages here are: Kinyarwanda, French, and English. However, Rwanda recently changed its 2nd official language from French to English. Rwanda is one of the only countries in Africa with only one traditional language, which of course is Kinyarwanda, and everyone is very proud of it and happy to teach. French is used by those who have been here for several generations because Rwanda was once part of a Belgian colony. For reference, Rwanda became independent from colonization in 1962, at which point it split from Burundi and became a single nation about the size of the state of Maryland. Rwanda's move towards English has, as I understand it, been driven by the return of refugees who lived in primarily English-speaking countries during the genocide as well as a desire to reposition Rwanda as a member of the East African Community, which is an organization primarily comprised of English-speaking countries.

Anyway, right now I'm settled into my new home for the next few weeks, the Iris Guest House. Here's a picture of my room for reference. I have a bureau, bathroom, desk, and bed with a mosquito net. I don't notice any bugs in here right now (although maybe that's because I'm not wearing glasses - just kidding); but everyone here sleeps in one.




A few notes on Rwanda so that you can get a mental picture:
Weather - 80 degrees and sunny during the day - no humidity; 50ish at night (i.e. no need for air conditioning). It feels like Virginia in the fall.
View - Rwanda's nickname is the "Land of One Thousand Hills." My office and guest house are on top of a hill called Kiyovu. It's a beautiful view. I took a few pictures this morning on my walk to work, but they don't do it justice. One is to the left.
Homes / Buildings - Despite the low crime rate, most homes and offices are surrounded by high walls and employee security guards. You can kind of see this in the picture from my co-worker's porch.
Clothes - Same as the U.S. Same attire for work, etc. I've only seen a few people in more traditional dress.


Ok, I think that's enough for tonight! I'm still a baby here considering I can barely communicate with everyone yet, so more to come.

Have a lovely weekend!

Love,
Meredith