Well, I thought Id be super ambitious on the flight from Kigali to Amsterdam and type out my final thoughts on this summer - but instead I slept :) I'm currently standing in line at the Amsterdam airport typing with one hand so this will be brief, but I wanted to update everyone that I'm about halfway through the 26-hour journey home.
At the end of the flight from Kigali to Amsterdam, they flashed all connecting flight departure information on the screen. I saw that my flight to Detroit had an "n" for "new time" next to it. Most unusually, that new time was actually 10 minutes earlier! Can't say that's ever happened to me before.
Anyway, I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend and can't wait to see you!
Love,
Meredith
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Friday, August 19, 2011
Second to Last Day in Kigali: Lots of goodbyes and a new name
Goodbye to EGPAF
Today was very nostalgic as it was my last day at EGPAF. Though there are 45 people our office, I generally only work with one other person since I am a consultant and am technically employed by the D.C. office. However, since I drink an enormous amount of coffee (especially in Rwanda because it's so tasty), I have gotten to know many others in the office through the break room. Generally my coffee trips consist of greetings in French and then lead to a short Kinyarwanda lesson. On Tuesday, I was happy to report to them that the lessons had paid-off! At my guest house's breakfast that morning, I'd walked-in and said Mwaramutse (good morning) to Angelique. Another guest had been buttering his toast when I walked-in and looked up briefly then did a noticeable double take when he saw me. When I looked back at him, he laughed and said, "um, did that come from YOU?" I guess he wasn't expecting to see a little mzungu, which makes me think my accent may've gotten better! In the office they say I have a good accent as well, but not as good as Sushant. Sushant speaks at least 5 languages that I know of, so I don't feel too bad about that.
Anyway, on top of my break room socializing, I also found my place in the office as the resident Excel nerd. I spent some time teaching Excel to one of the staff members (in French I'm proud to report) and then taught an Excel class for the entire office this week. I think Wachovia would be happy to know that I actually learned something in their training classes :) Since that class, people have been frequenting my desk asking how to make life easier with Excel. Yes - of course most of you know I'm already a nerd, so teaching people the wonders of Excel is particularly exciting for me. Since that class, I have been given a Kinyarwanda name in the office: Mwiza, which literally means pretty or cute. I'll note however that Mwiza was not the first suggestion; the original idea for my Kinyarwanda name was from Sushant and was Umagoofi (spelled phonetically because I can't find the correct spelling anywhere). It literally means "little girl." The word is funny to English speakers for a nickname because it sounds a lot like "Goofy," as in the dog at Disney World. I like Mwiza better!
So, after meeting so many wonderful people, it was difficult to leave today. The EGPAF Rwanda office is particularly warm and friendly. For example, we celebrate every birthday, childbirth, wedding anniversary, etc of everyone in the office. Whenever anyone goes on holiday, they bring back candy for the entire office and we celebrate again. So I definitely feel like I've made a lot of new friends. As I was saying goodbye to everyone, the first question was always, "when will you be back?" Not "if," but "when." I'll elaborate on this more in my final post, but Rwanda is definitely a place I could come back too!
Goodbye to ROP and Jean de Dieu
When I'd said goodbye to everyone in the office, I left and immediately went to the local equivalent of a Dollar General to buy as many school supplies as I could fit into my backpack. After going to ROP several times, I had an idea of what types of school supplies they needed. As a side note, the supply they need the most is actually textbooks. As I may've mentioned, Jean de Dieu had to borrow a textbook from a friend because there were only a few for his class to share. And, when I say "textbook," I mean a photocopied book bound with plastic spirals. I suppose there is an original somewhere that's been photocopied repeatedly. I have yet to see a real, hardcover textbook the entire time I've been here. You may remember, that's why it was important that I copy the book for him a few weeks ago so that he'd have his own personal one to study with.
When I arrived at ROP today, I took a group of younger boys into the activity center. They are only allowed to go into that room, the room with all of the toys and books, when someone is present to supervise. I was pretty excited to go in there today because when I bought the school supplies, I had also bought a few toys and flashcard games. It was fun seeing them all enjoy new toys today.
While I was watching the younger ones, I also helped Jean de Dieu with his studies. I had given him a rather long list of problems to do for when I came back, and he had meticulously completed each one. As usual, we went through each problem and then talked about how to study going forward. As I've said before, Jean de Dieu is very smart. He's really amazing at doing math in his head, in particular. I felt like the student when he'd divide a number into decimals off the top of his head when I had to write it all out to check his work. I really hope he does well on his exams!
As the sun started to go down, I had to start saying goodbye and pack-up the activity center. The orphanage is pretty far from my house and in a more rural location, so I like to get on the road before dark. As usual, Jean de Dieu walked me to the bus stop. This time in particular he was very insistent on walking me, and I felt like he had something that he wanted to talk about. As we set off for the bus stop (about a 15 minute walk), my suspicions were confirmed as he started to tell me about the scars on his arms. His entire left arm, up to his elbow, is scared with what looks like a burn. As with last time, he caveated the conversation by telling me that it is not common - and I think what he means is "acceptable - to talk about the genocide. Then he proceeded to tell me the horrific story of how he got those burns. I actually think it's a little too disturbing to write here, but suffice it to say that it's not something you could imagine anyone with half a heart doing to a 2 or 3 year old. He then told me about his headaches and stomach aches and how when he hears a lot of noise he feels sick because it makes him think of when people were trying to kill him.
As soon as he finished describing that situation, he asked me if I felt like anyone in Rwanda "had love." From his story, I can see why he might question this, but of course we talked about the goodness of people and that not all people are bad. He then asked me again why it is that I come to help. It's interesting to me that this concept is so puzzling to him, but I was happy to again have the opportunity to explain that kindness begets kindness.
At that point, Jean de Dieu told me that he felt that he had a purpose in life. He said that his purpose would be to go to university, get a job, and then take care of orphans. He explained that since he is an orphan, he feels that he can help orphans in the future and relate to their troubles. It wasn't a blanket statement that someone can make in the heat of the moment. Despite the language barrier, I understood clearly that he was very passionate about this and had thought long and hard about it.
So from then on, the rest of our discussion was about having hope and following your dreams. He always couched every statement with, "but in Rwanda it's very difficult because...." Perhaps I was being too idyllic, but I told him that in America we have a saying, "there's always a way." He liked this very much, and I hope that he will believe in himself and follow his noble dreams.
As we approached the bus stop for me to catch a moto, he said that he was very grateful for my help and that he'd miss me. I was overwhelmed with the situation and trying not to get too emotional and cry when all of a sudden a group of about 8 girls rushed towards us. They were laughing and smiling and staring at me, which lightened the mood a bit since I just stood there with a blank look wondering what was going on. Finally, one girl came up to me and said, "we would like to greet you." So, I shook hands with all of them and they smiled and then said goodbye. I think they actually wanted to practice English. When they left, Jean de Dieu said, "sometimes children here like to look at and talk to mzungus when they see them." He then said, "but I am sure that in the U.S. when you see black people you like to stop and look at them too." I laughed thinking about how off that assumption was and then explained as best as I could why that wasn't the case.
Last night in Kigali
Tonight is my last night in Kigali and I'm going to an Indian restaurant with my friends from Hope Shines! I'll be sad to leave them too, but we still have 2 more meals (dinner tonight and breakfast tomorrow). I'll write a final post tomorrow before my flight at 8:10pm Kigali time. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone at home soon! Love and miss you all!
Always,
Meredith
Today was very nostalgic as it was my last day at EGPAF. Though there are 45 people our office, I generally only work with one other person since I am a consultant and am technically employed by the D.C. office. However, since I drink an enormous amount of coffee (especially in Rwanda because it's so tasty), I have gotten to know many others in the office through the break room. Generally my coffee trips consist of greetings in French and then lead to a short Kinyarwanda lesson. On Tuesday, I was happy to report to them that the lessons had paid-off! At my guest house's breakfast that morning, I'd walked-in and said Mwaramutse (good morning) to Angelique. Another guest had been buttering his toast when I walked-in and looked up briefly then did a noticeable double take when he saw me. When I looked back at him, he laughed and said, "um, did that come from YOU?" I guess he wasn't expecting to see a little mzungu, which makes me think my accent may've gotten better! In the office they say I have a good accent as well, but not as good as Sushant. Sushant speaks at least 5 languages that I know of, so I don't feel too bad about that.
Anyway, on top of my break room socializing, I also found my place in the office as the resident Excel nerd. I spent some time teaching Excel to one of the staff members (in French I'm proud to report) and then taught an Excel class for the entire office this week. I think Wachovia would be happy to know that I actually learned something in their training classes :) Since that class, people have been frequenting my desk asking how to make life easier with Excel. Yes - of course most of you know I'm already a nerd, so teaching people the wonders of Excel is particularly exciting for me. Since that class, I have been given a Kinyarwanda name in the office: Mwiza, which literally means pretty or cute. I'll note however that Mwiza was not the first suggestion; the original idea for my Kinyarwanda name was from Sushant and was Umagoofi (spelled phonetically because I can't find the correct spelling anywhere). It literally means "little girl." The word is funny to English speakers for a nickname because it sounds a lot like "Goofy," as in the dog at Disney World. I like Mwiza better!
So, after meeting so many wonderful people, it was difficult to leave today. The EGPAF Rwanda office is particularly warm and friendly. For example, we celebrate every birthday, childbirth, wedding anniversary, etc of everyone in the office. Whenever anyone goes on holiday, they bring back candy for the entire office and we celebrate again. So I definitely feel like I've made a lot of new friends. As I was saying goodbye to everyone, the first question was always, "when will you be back?" Not "if," but "when." I'll elaborate on this more in my final post, but Rwanda is definitely a place I could come back too!
Goodbye to ROP and Jean de Dieu
When I'd said goodbye to everyone in the office, I left and immediately went to the local equivalent of a Dollar General to buy as many school supplies as I could fit into my backpack. After going to ROP several times, I had an idea of what types of school supplies they needed. As a side note, the supply they need the most is actually textbooks. As I may've mentioned, Jean de Dieu had to borrow a textbook from a friend because there were only a few for his class to share. And, when I say "textbook," I mean a photocopied book bound with plastic spirals. I suppose there is an original somewhere that's been photocopied repeatedly. I have yet to see a real, hardcover textbook the entire time I've been here. You may remember, that's why it was important that I copy the book for him a few weeks ago so that he'd have his own personal one to study with.
When I arrived at ROP today, I took a group of younger boys into the activity center. They are only allowed to go into that room, the room with all of the toys and books, when someone is present to supervise. I was pretty excited to go in there today because when I bought the school supplies, I had also bought a few toys and flashcard games. It was fun seeing them all enjoy new toys today.
While I was watching the younger ones, I also helped Jean de Dieu with his studies. I had given him a rather long list of problems to do for when I came back, and he had meticulously completed each one. As usual, we went through each problem and then talked about how to study going forward. As I've said before, Jean de Dieu is very smart. He's really amazing at doing math in his head, in particular. I felt like the student when he'd divide a number into decimals off the top of his head when I had to write it all out to check his work. I really hope he does well on his exams!
As the sun started to go down, I had to start saying goodbye and pack-up the activity center. The orphanage is pretty far from my house and in a more rural location, so I like to get on the road before dark. As usual, Jean de Dieu walked me to the bus stop. This time in particular he was very insistent on walking me, and I felt like he had something that he wanted to talk about. As we set off for the bus stop (about a 15 minute walk), my suspicions were confirmed as he started to tell me about the scars on his arms. His entire left arm, up to his elbow, is scared with what looks like a burn. As with last time, he caveated the conversation by telling me that it is not common - and I think what he means is "acceptable - to talk about the genocide. Then he proceeded to tell me the horrific story of how he got those burns. I actually think it's a little too disturbing to write here, but suffice it to say that it's not something you could imagine anyone with half a heart doing to a 2 or 3 year old. He then told me about his headaches and stomach aches and how when he hears a lot of noise he feels sick because it makes him think of when people were trying to kill him.
As soon as he finished describing that situation, he asked me if I felt like anyone in Rwanda "had love." From his story, I can see why he might question this, but of course we talked about the goodness of people and that not all people are bad. He then asked me again why it is that I come to help. It's interesting to me that this concept is so puzzling to him, but I was happy to again have the opportunity to explain that kindness begets kindness.
At that point, Jean de Dieu told me that he felt that he had a purpose in life. He said that his purpose would be to go to university, get a job, and then take care of orphans. He explained that since he is an orphan, he feels that he can help orphans in the future and relate to their troubles. It wasn't a blanket statement that someone can make in the heat of the moment. Despite the language barrier, I understood clearly that he was very passionate about this and had thought long and hard about it.
So from then on, the rest of our discussion was about having hope and following your dreams. He always couched every statement with, "but in Rwanda it's very difficult because...." Perhaps I was being too idyllic, but I told him that in America we have a saying, "there's always a way." He liked this very much, and I hope that he will believe in himself and follow his noble dreams.
As we approached the bus stop for me to catch a moto, he said that he was very grateful for my help and that he'd miss me. I was overwhelmed with the situation and trying not to get too emotional and cry when all of a sudden a group of about 8 girls rushed towards us. They were laughing and smiling and staring at me, which lightened the mood a bit since I just stood there with a blank look wondering what was going on. Finally, one girl came up to me and said, "we would like to greet you." So, I shook hands with all of them and they smiled and then said goodbye. I think they actually wanted to practice English. When they left, Jean de Dieu said, "sometimes children here like to look at and talk to mzungus when they see them." He then said, "but I am sure that in the U.S. when you see black people you like to stop and look at them too." I laughed thinking about how off that assumption was and then explained as best as I could why that wasn't the case.
Last night in Kigali
Tonight is my last night in Kigali and I'm going to an Indian restaurant with my friends from Hope Shines! I'll be sad to leave them too, but we still have 2 more meals (dinner tonight and breakfast tomorrow). I'll write a final post tomorrow before my flight at 8:10pm Kigali time. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone at home soon! Love and miss you all!
Always,
Meredith
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Hopes Shines Camp #2
Love grows where hope shines
I've talked a good bit about the new friends I've met here who are volunteering with an organization called Hope Shines. On Sunday night they mentioned that they were going to be short one girl counselor on Monday, and since Monday was a holiday for my office, I offered to volunteer. The last time I volunteered with them was tons of fun, so I was really looking forward to getting to go again!
The picture to the left shows all of the volunteers for this camp as well as our translators. Hope Shines hires university students who are on a scholarship called Generation Rwanda to be translators during the camps. Students who get this scholarship are orphans themselves and are working very hard to get their degrees in subjects such as engineering and finance. I've heard great things about Generation Rwanda; in fact, my co-worker Sushant and his wife teach a public speaking course for them.
Anyway, Monday was the first day of Hope Shines' second camp. The week in-between the first and second camps had consisted of Hope Shines volunteers giving physicals to all of the children because health check-ups are not given on a regular basis here. Rather, most healthcare is reactive instead of proactive - at least as it pertains to the orphanages I've heard about.
When the Hope Shines group comes to these orphanages, they truly try to provide everything they can - physicals, shoes (Croc's donated over 200 shoes!), meals, some clothes, and of course everything required for the camp including sports equipment and crafts. I may have mentioned that the U.S. Marines who guard the embassy here volunteer at the camp as well. Since we had so much equipment to bring, they offered to drive over their larger-than-life Suburban to load everything up. I took a picture because we all thought it was funny that there is no doubt which embassy this vehicle came from! You can see that the Suburban wouldn't have even been able to park in the parking lot of our guest house :)
When we arrived on Monday morning, it was clear that the kids at these orphanages look forward to this camp every year, and Hope Shines definitely makes an impression. When we arrived, the first thing they did was make us sit down so they could do a welcome performance. They talked about how much Hope Shines has helped them grow and be confident in themselves and then the girls performed the dance that they'd learned at last year's camp (and still remembered!)
Team 4: Peace and Love
This camp had a broader age range than the other one, and there were children from one and a half years old up to twenty years old. Since male/female mentoring is an important part of the camp, the boys and girls separated into different activities: the boys started with sports and the girls started with dance. Thank goodness all of those years of teaching dance at Encore camp back to me :) Within the group of girls, four teams were made that included a good cross-section of younger and older children. I was put in charge of team 4, who named themselves "Peace and Love."
The day flew by as we had a lineup of fun activities. We went around a circle making up dances to each other's names, talked about what the girls liked about Rwanda and then about their own hobbies, created a make-believe country for our team, decorated a flag for that country, learned a group dance, and then decorated masks and put on a short play for the boys. I'd like to point-out that when asked what they loved about Rwanda, several girls said they loved "that we are at Peace." As for hobbies, almost everyone in my group loves to dance and some of the girls enjoy soccer and basketball too.
It was so fun to be around all of that energy!! Hope Shines really is a great organization and I encourage you to check-out their website: www.hopeshines.net.
Have a great week!
Always,
Meredith
 |
| Hope Shines volunteers and translators |
I've talked a good bit about the new friends I've met here who are volunteering with an organization called Hope Shines. On Sunday night they mentioned that they were going to be short one girl counselor on Monday, and since Monday was a holiday for my office, I offered to volunteer. The last time I volunteered with them was tons of fun, so I was really looking forward to getting to go again!
The picture to the left shows all of the volunteers for this camp as well as our translators. Hope Shines hires university students who are on a scholarship called Generation Rwanda to be translators during the camps. Students who get this scholarship are orphans themselves and are working very hard to get their degrees in subjects such as engineering and finance. I've heard great things about Generation Rwanda; in fact, my co-worker Sushant and his wife teach a public speaking course for them.
Anyway, Monday was the first day of Hope Shines' second camp. The week in-between the first and second camps had consisted of Hope Shines volunteers giving physicals to all of the children because health check-ups are not given on a regular basis here. Rather, most healthcare is reactive instead of proactive - at least as it pertains to the orphanages I've heard about.
 |
| True American vehicle: won't even fit in the driveway! |
When we arrived on Monday morning, it was clear that the kids at these orphanages look forward to this camp every year, and Hope Shines definitely makes an impression. When we arrived, the first thing they did was make us sit down so they could do a welcome performance. They talked about how much Hope Shines has helped them grow and be confident in themselves and then the girls performed the dance that they'd learned at last year's camp (and still remembered!)
 |
| The Peace and Love team |
Team 4: Peace and Love
This camp had a broader age range than the other one, and there were children from one and a half years old up to twenty years old. Since male/female mentoring is an important part of the camp, the boys and girls separated into different activities: the boys started with sports and the girls started with dance. Thank goodness all of those years of teaching dance at Encore camp back to me :) Within the group of girls, four teams were made that included a good cross-section of younger and older children. I was put in charge of team 4, who named themselves "Peace and Love."
 |
| Everyone with their masks! |
The day flew by as we had a lineup of fun activities. We went around a circle making up dances to each other's names, talked about what the girls liked about Rwanda and then about their own hobbies, created a make-believe country for our team, decorated a flag for that country, learned a group dance, and then decorated masks and put on a short play for the boys. I'd like to point-out that when asked what they loved about Rwanda, several girls said they loved "that we are at Peace." As for hobbies, almost everyone in my group loves to dance and some of the girls enjoy soccer and basketball too.
It was so fun to be around all of that energy!! Hope Shines really is a great organization and I encourage you to check-out their website: www.hopeshines.net.
 |
| Tessia and me with our masks |
Have a great week!
Always,
Meredith
Monday, August 15, 2011
Holly in Kigali, Ariel Camp, and AK-47's and mudslides make me a fast mountain climber
Holly comes to town!
On Monday evening, Holly arrived in Kigali! Luckily I know my way around pretty well now, so we had a full lineup of things to do so that she could get to know Rwanda. On Monday night, we headed over to Hotel des Milles Collines before going to trivia night at an Italian restaurant. On the way there, our taxi laughed because every ex-pat in Kigali comes to Sol e Luna on Monday nights for this trivia night. As he pulled up, he shook his head and said, "so many cars, so many mzungus." :) My co-worker met us there and we joined a group of girls from Canada who were all working in Kigali for a few months.
The next day, after work, Holly and I met to go to the Rwanda Expo, which is a huge trade fair. We'd heard that the Expo had a lot of crafty items that could be good souvenirs. Most of the traditional crafts in Rwanda - baskets, paintings, etc - seem to be made by co-operatives of women, many of whom are survivors of the genocide. These co-operatives had a large section of the fair to display their items.
The Expo itself was completely packed with music blasting and booths stretching throughout a huge fairground. We later read in the newspaper that they'd had record attendance with several thousand people. I've added a few pictures of a large tea company's booth where we stopped to learn more about Rwandan tea and of course sample a bit.
EGPAF Ariel Camp for HIV positive children in Rwanda
Early Wednesday morning, I put on a bright yellow EGPAF shirt and hat and left with two co-workers to visit and help out at EGPAF's annual Ariel Camp in a town about 2 hours from Kigali. The camp's are named "Ariel" in honor of Elizabeth Glaser's daughter who passed away at a young age due to HIV. Ariel's diagnosis prompted Elizabeth to found EGPAF because she wanted to enhance care and treatment for HIV positive children. In the 80's, there was very limited information and knowledge of pediatric HIV / AIDS.
The camp hosted 40 children from all over Rwanda who were recommended by their counselors at EGPAF-supported public health clinics, and most of them were orphans and lived in poverty. HIV is a terrible virus for anyone, but for a child, in particular, it's traumatic. They are required to take medication every day, which is hard to hide from friends and family who may not know their status. In Rwanda, like most places, there is a heavy stigma attached to HIV, and many people are not convinced that it's o.k. to touch or share food with an HIV+ person. So, most children try to hide it and consequently don't always receive the support that they need emotionally. Ariel Camps provide counseling and group discussion sessions that encourage children to talk to one another about the virus and how they are coping. They also give guidance on general nutrition, the importance of taking medication properly, and general confidence and motivation to succeed and live a prosperous life. The theme of the camp this year was "Smiling for Life," and it was held at a church camp on top of a smaller mountain - an idyllic location!
The two co-workers who I rode up with are the other two ex-pats in our office: Sushant, the co-worker I mention frequently, and Jill. We taught the kids American songs and then had relay races - three-legged as well as wheel barrow races. That night, we helped them draw self-portraits of themselves, which we hung on display for the closing ceremony the next day. It was so fun and moving to be with these children. Despite the hardship that they've faced in life, they are so upbeat, positive and kind. For example, during the closing ceremony on Thursday (I stayed overnight at the camp), the kids all got bookbags with a watch, bedsheets, and chocolate. A little girl who I'd been hanging out with during the camp turned to me as soon as she got her chocolate and offered me a piece before she'd even had some herself. I was touched and also amazed by how giving she was. This particular child was an orphan and was being raised by her mother's cousin who had unfortunately just passed away due to HIV. This had happened while the child was at camp. So, this child, Diane had lost her guardian, was extremely impoverished, battled HIV every day, and the first thing she did when someone gave her a gift was offer it to someone else. Inspiring to say the least...
So, after two days of getting to know all of the children, it was difficult to leave but such a special experience to have had! I enjoyed getting to talk to them and help make them feel special and know how special they are, even if just for a few days. As I described above, they made me feel pretty special too as they inspired me with their strength, courage and warm hearts.
AK-47's and mudslides on Mt.Bisoke
I got back from camp on Thursday night, and Holly and I decided to go climb Mt.Bisoke over the weekend. Mt.Bisoke is a volcano on the border of Rwanda and the Congo (DRC). It's a day hike, so we planned to take a bus to the nearby town of Gisenyi, which is on Lake Kivu, right after our hike. Lake Kivu is another landmark owned jointly by both Rwanda and the Congo. In fact, as I write this, I'm staring at Goma, a city in the Congo.
Mt.Bisoke is located in Volcanoes National Park, which is definitely the largest tourist attraction in Rwanda. It's home to three volcanoes and of course the famous mountain gorillas. It's such a large tourist attraction, that I wasn't even able to get gorilla permits in Rwanda because it's sold out for several months (hence why we went to Uganda to track gorillas instead). But we had no trouble obtaining a permit to hike Mt.Bisoke. On permits, the park uses a chunk of the proceeds for environmental conservation, and the price includes your guide and multiple armed guards. The armed guards are officially there to protect against gorillas and buffalo. They're dressed in full fatigues with huge AK-47's, so I think they are capable of intimidating anything or anyone who may try to interrupt our hike along the border.
The night before the hike, we took a bus to Musanze, which is a semi-small city right outside of the park. The bus was pretty full and Holly and I ended-up sitting separately. I sat next to a lady whose toddler stared at me without blinking for about 45 minutes before she finally reached out and touched my arm, obviously very curious about this mzungu sitting next to her. I asked in Kinyarwanda what her name was and her mother coached her into responding. Then I said in Kinyarwanda, "My name is Meredith." At this point I normally just get a nod because as I've mentioned before, Meredith is pretty much unpronounceable everywhere. But this time was different. When I said my name, the child's mother looked at her and said in Kinyarwanda, "Her name is Mzungu." Haha, whatever.
After that bus ride, the next 24 hours would prove to be a comedy of errors. Our guest house in Musanze was...interesting. It was the kind of place where you don't really want to touch the floor without shoes on. I guess they've gotten that feedback before because they provided two sets of shower shoes in the bathroom. I don't know which one would've been more uncomfortable, putting on the shower shoes or taking a shower without them. We decided that we'd avoid that question altogether and just not shower before the hike. So, we set off into town for a little exploring. Musanze is not a big town, but there's a lot going on. We didn't really know where to go, so we decided to sneakily follow a group of tourists that we saw walking in front of us to see where they were going. Unfortunately they were only going to a bank, as we found out, so we opted instead to have a drink at a nearby cafe where Celine Dion was blasting on the stereo (people love her here).
After getting breakfast at 6:00am the next morning, we went to the park and met our guide and the two German girls who would be hiking with us. The park has a group of dancers who perform traditional dances for everyone before they set out on their hikes. I've seen these dances several times, including when the children at the Ariel Camp did them, but this was by far the biggest performance I've seen, and it was a fun way to start the day!
Unfortunately, even though it's the dry season, it was pouring raining and had been all morning. Being optimistic, we kept hoping that it would slow-up, but as I'll soon describe, it didn't stop raining all day. Let me note that this is extremely bad luck considering that this is the first day of my entire trip that I've seen rain for more than a few sprinkles in Rwanda.
The hike itself was pretty intense physically. It was also beautiful! The hike was basically through a dense rainforest on the side of a volcano. We had one guide, one porter, and four armed guards. A funny note on the porter: when you start your hike, most guides will ask you if you'd like to hire a porter. For a few dollars, they will carry your pack and/or help you up or down the mountain. All four of us girls felt like we didn't need one, so when asked, we declined. This one porter, however, smartly knew that we probably just didn't know what we were talking about and decided to come along anyway. For reasons I'll describe below, he ended-up being hired, and we were very grateful that he was there to help us get down the mountain!
About halfway through the hike, I started to wonder if I could actually do this. Holly actually decided not to continue because she'd hiked muddy mountains before and was worried about how treacherous it would be to come back down. However, being the stubborn person that I am, I decided to take my chances. The rain had made a stream out of our trail and the mud was so thick that we were constantly slipping and sliding our way up the mountain. To top it off, you can't grab onto the foliage because in most areas there's a large amount of "stinging nettles." I don't know the technical term for these plants, but the point was made clearly the first time I fell into a patch of it. So in summary, when sliding down a mountain, you had a choice of falling in the mud or grabbing a huge clump of stinging plants :)
The inspiration for the title of this blog was a particular time that I slid. I planted my trekking pole (thank you Holly for bringing these!), put my right foot up on a "rock" and then when I thought the coast was clear, I tried to pull my left foot up to meet it. That "rock" turned out to be a huge clump of clay that was ok with one foot, but not two, and therefore I went sliding back down the mountain a foot or two. When I looked up, I was staring straight into the barrel of one of the guards' AK-47's. He was looking at me to make sure I was alright (I think), but he clearly forgot that a huge gun was hanging from his shoulders.
Our guide was not tolerant of wimps either. He told us it should take 7 hours total to hike the mountain, and of course we did it in 5 hours. When we finally reached the top, it was all worth it though. At the top of Mt.Bisoke is a crater lake, which I'm assuming is where the lava used to erupt from. The lake is beautiful, and I think it's cool that the mountain, and crater lake of course, are in both Rwanda and the Congo.
In this picture, Congo is behind me. Note the massive amount of mud below my knee. This got markedly worse on the way down!
Oasis at The Serena in Gisenyi
When I got back to the base, after practically skiing down the mud-covered mountain, I was tired, caked in mud, and hungry because I'd accidentally swapped our snack bag for our lunches (i.e. we hiked for a little over 5 hours up to over 12,000 feet with only graham crackers). Our guide knew that we were trying to get to Gisenyi that night (to the lake), so instead of stopping at the base of the camp so we could change and wash the mud off of our hands, he went straight back to town. Personally I would've loved to scrape some of the mud off of me, but c'est la vie. We soon discovered that all of the buses were sold-out from Musanze to Gisenyi. It's a holiday weekend here, The Day of Assumption, and Gisenyi is a popular vacation spot for Rwandans. So, our driver pulled-up to a matatu (local mini-bus) and asked if they were going to Gisenyi.
A matatu isn't the ideal way to travel an hour down the road. They stop every 5-10 minutes, no one speaks English or French, and it's pretty difficult to figure out where they're going or what's going on at any particular point in time. But, without much choice, we squeezed into the front seat with all of our mud-covered bags. Due to the number of stops, the drive took a little longer than usual, but neither of us cared as long as we actually got there. At each stop, people would run up to our window and just stare at us repeating the word "mzungu" over and over. Children, in particular, seemed to think we looked really weird and out-of-place because they'd just point and smile inquisitively.
When we finally arrived to Gisenyi, we saw an oasis on the beach - The Serena Hotel. Serena is a chain of hotels in Africa that resembles American hotels with all of the same amenities and such. It's the only American-style hotel in Gisenyi as far as we could tell. Ordinarily we wouldn't take this option, but considering the events of the past 24 hours, it just made sense to want guaranteed hot water and electricity for a night.
However, I did feel bad trekking into this hotel with mud literally all over. When we arrived, I asked Holly if she'd check us in because I was afraid they wouldn't let me walk-in the way I was :) When we finally got to our room though, my shower was incredible. I felt like the dog from Annie when they were scrubbing all of the mud off of him to come into Daddy Warbucks' house. My favorite quote from Holly was, "that was the best shower of my life!"
The rest of our time in Gisenyi was wonderful. Holly and I spent the evening trying to solve the problems of the world since we'd both been volunteering a good bit this summer. We also thoroughly enjoyed the simple luxuries of fast(er) internet, ice cream, and TV (none of which I've had for almost 2 months)! As you can see in these pictures, Gisenyi is a really pretty place with a long beach and kind of a tropical feel. It was very relaxing and nice after such an interesting hiking day!
My last week in Kigali...
For my last week in Kigali, I will be volunteering with the Hope Shines camp, tutoring one last time at ROP and of course finishing my projects with EGPAF. It will be nostalgic leaving so many wonderful friends! But I very much look forward to seeing you all soon! Love and miss you! Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Meredith
On Monday evening, Holly arrived in Kigali! Luckily I know my way around pretty well now, so we had a full lineup of things to do so that she could get to know Rwanda. On Monday night, we headed over to Hotel des Milles Collines before going to trivia night at an Italian restaurant. On the way there, our taxi laughed because every ex-pat in Kigali comes to Sol e Luna on Monday nights for this trivia night. As he pulled up, he shook his head and said, "so many cars, so many mzungus." :) My co-worker met us there and we joined a group of girls from Canada who were all working in Kigali for a few months.
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| Rwanda Expo - trade fair |
The Expo itself was completely packed with music blasting and booths stretching throughout a huge fairground. We later read in the newspaper that they'd had record attendance with several thousand people. I've added a few pictures of a large tea company's booth where we stopped to learn more about Rwandan tea and of course sample a bit.
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| Rwanda tea company demonstration |
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| Holly and me sampling the tea at the Expo |
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| Women weaving baskets - I bought a few from them |
EGPAF Ariel Camp for HIV positive children in Rwanda
Early Wednesday morning, I put on a bright yellow EGPAF shirt and hat and left with two co-workers to visit and help out at EGPAF's annual Ariel Camp in a town about 2 hours from Kigali. The camp's are named "Ariel" in honor of Elizabeth Glaser's daughter who passed away at a young age due to HIV. Ariel's diagnosis prompted Elizabeth to found EGPAF because she wanted to enhance care and treatment for HIV positive children. In the 80's, there was very limited information and knowledge of pediatric HIV / AIDS.
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| Me, Sushant and some of the kids |
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| Diane and me after we decorated the wall |
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| Giving gifts at the closing ceremony |
So, after two days of getting to know all of the children, it was difficult to leave but such a special experience to have had! I enjoyed getting to talk to them and help make them feel special and know how special they are, even if just for a few days. As I described above, they made me feel pretty special too as they inspired me with their strength, courage and warm hearts.
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| Traditional dances during closing ceremony |
AK-47's and mudslides on Mt.Bisoke
I got back from camp on Thursday night, and Holly and I decided to go climb Mt.Bisoke over the weekend. Mt.Bisoke is a volcano on the border of Rwanda and the Congo (DRC). It's a day hike, so we planned to take a bus to the nearby town of Gisenyi, which is on Lake Kivu, right after our hike. Lake Kivu is another landmark owned jointly by both Rwanda and the Congo. In fact, as I write this, I'm staring at Goma, a city in the Congo.
Mt.Bisoke is located in Volcanoes National Park, which is definitely the largest tourist attraction in Rwanda. It's home to three volcanoes and of course the famous mountain gorillas. It's such a large tourist attraction, that I wasn't even able to get gorilla permits in Rwanda because it's sold out for several months (hence why we went to Uganda to track gorillas instead). But we had no trouble obtaining a permit to hike Mt.Bisoke. On permits, the park uses a chunk of the proceeds for environmental conservation, and the price includes your guide and multiple armed guards. The armed guards are officially there to protect against gorillas and buffalo. They're dressed in full fatigues with huge AK-47's, so I think they are capable of intimidating anything or anyone who may try to interrupt our hike along the border.
The night before the hike, we took a bus to Musanze, which is a semi-small city right outside of the park. The bus was pretty full and Holly and I ended-up sitting separately. I sat next to a lady whose toddler stared at me without blinking for about 45 minutes before she finally reached out and touched my arm, obviously very curious about this mzungu sitting next to her. I asked in Kinyarwanda what her name was and her mother coached her into responding. Then I said in Kinyarwanda, "My name is Meredith." At this point I normally just get a nod because as I've mentioned before, Meredith is pretty much unpronounceable everywhere. But this time was different. When I said my name, the child's mother looked at her and said in Kinyarwanda, "Her name is Mzungu." Haha, whatever.
After that bus ride, the next 24 hours would prove to be a comedy of errors. Our guest house in Musanze was...interesting. It was the kind of place where you don't really want to touch the floor without shoes on. I guess they've gotten that feedback before because they provided two sets of shower shoes in the bathroom. I don't know which one would've been more uncomfortable, putting on the shower shoes or taking a shower without them. We decided that we'd avoid that question altogether and just not shower before the hike. So, we set off into town for a little exploring. Musanze is not a big town, but there's a lot going on. We didn't really know where to go, so we decided to sneakily follow a group of tourists that we saw walking in front of us to see where they were going. Unfortunately they were only going to a bank, as we found out, so we opted instead to have a drink at a nearby cafe where Celine Dion was blasting on the stereo (people love her here).
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| Traditional Rwandan dances before the hike |
Unfortunately, even though it's the dry season, it was pouring raining and had been all morning. Being optimistic, we kept hoping that it would slow-up, but as I'll soon describe, it didn't stop raining all day. Let me note that this is extremely bad luck considering that this is the first day of my entire trip that I've seen rain for more than a few sprinkles in Rwanda.
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| Holly watching the dancers |
About halfway through the hike, I started to wonder if I could actually do this. Holly actually decided not to continue because she'd hiked muddy mountains before and was worried about how treacherous it would be to come back down. However, being the stubborn person that I am, I decided to take my chances. The rain had made a stream out of our trail and the mud was so thick that we were constantly slipping and sliding our way up the mountain. To top it off, you can't grab onto the foliage because in most areas there's a large amount of "stinging nettles." I don't know the technical term for these plants, but the point was made clearly the first time I fell into a patch of it. So in summary, when sliding down a mountain, you had a choice of falling in the mud or grabbing a huge clump of stinging plants :)
The inspiration for the title of this blog was a particular time that I slid. I planted my trekking pole (thank you Holly for bringing these!), put my right foot up on a "rock" and then when I thought the coast was clear, I tried to pull my left foot up to meet it. That "rock" turned out to be a huge clump of clay that was ok with one foot, but not two, and therefore I went sliding back down the mountain a foot or two. When I looked up, I was staring straight into the barrel of one of the guards' AK-47's. He was looking at me to make sure I was alright (I think), but he clearly forgot that a huge gun was hanging from his shoulders.
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| Me and the trail guide at the top of the volcano |
In this picture, Congo is behind me. Note the massive amount of mud below my knee. This got markedly worse on the way down!
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| At the crater lake on top of Mt.Bisoke |
Oasis at The Serena in Gisenyi
When I got back to the base, after practically skiing down the mud-covered mountain, I was tired, caked in mud, and hungry because I'd accidentally swapped our snack bag for our lunches (i.e. we hiked for a little over 5 hours up to over 12,000 feet with only graham crackers). Our guide knew that we were trying to get to Gisenyi that night (to the lake), so instead of stopping at the base of the camp so we could change and wash the mud off of our hands, he went straight back to town. Personally I would've loved to scrape some of the mud off of me, but c'est la vie. We soon discovered that all of the buses were sold-out from Musanze to Gisenyi. It's a holiday weekend here, The Day of Assumption, and Gisenyi is a popular vacation spot for Rwandans. So, our driver pulled-up to a matatu (local mini-bus) and asked if they were going to Gisenyi.
A matatu isn't the ideal way to travel an hour down the road. They stop every 5-10 minutes, no one speaks English or French, and it's pretty difficult to figure out where they're going or what's going on at any particular point in time. But, without much choice, we squeezed into the front seat with all of our mud-covered bags. Due to the number of stops, the drive took a little longer than usual, but neither of us cared as long as we actually got there. At each stop, people would run up to our window and just stare at us repeating the word "mzungu" over and over. Children, in particular, seemed to think we looked really weird and out-of-place because they'd just point and smile inquisitively.
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| The beach at Gisenyi on Lake Kivu |
However, I did feel bad trekking into this hotel with mud literally all over. When we arrived, I asked Holly if she'd check us in because I was afraid they wouldn't let me walk-in the way I was :) When we finally got to our room though, my shower was incredible. I felt like the dog from Annie when they were scrubbing all of the mud off of him to come into Daddy Warbucks' house. My favorite quote from Holly was, "that was the best shower of my life!"
The rest of our time in Gisenyi was wonderful. Holly and I spent the evening trying to solve the problems of the world since we'd both been volunteering a good bit this summer. We also thoroughly enjoyed the simple luxuries of fast(er) internet, ice cream, and TV (none of which I've had for almost 2 months)! As you can see in these pictures, Gisenyi is a really pretty place with a long beach and kind of a tropical feel. It was very relaxing and nice after such an interesting hiking day!
My last week in Kigali...
For my last week in Kigali, I will be volunteering with the Hope Shines camp, tutoring one last time at ROP and of course finishing my projects with EGPAF. It will be nostalgic leaving so many wonderful friends! But I very much look forward to seeing you all soon! Love and miss you! Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Meredith
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Rwanda Orphans Project: Explaining America to children and "The Gold Regulation"
Trusting in God on the bus system in Kigali...
Today I spent another wonderful afternoon tutoring and playing with the kids at Rwanda Orphans Project. As usual, Jean de Dieu, the boy I've been tutoring, met me at the intersection leading to the orphanage. He laughed when I told him that I take motos there because I am afraid of the buses. He asked what it was that scared me so much, and I explained that I am afraid I will get on the wrong bus and end up far away. He then pointed to one of the buses and showed me how its primary stop was written on the top of the windshield. There's nothing official about these buses and they are all decorated differently. I heard that there was once a Justin Bieber bus on the road for awhile. Anyway, when that bus left, another one pulled-up and it had "I trust only in God" on the windshield written in the same place that Jean de Dieu had pointed to as the location of the bus's stop. I looked at Jean de Dieu as we both noticed this and asked how I was supposed to know where that bus was going. I told him that I certainly trust in God, but I do not trust my Kinyarwanda language skills enough to get me to the right place. He laughed.
A day at ROP
Today the other director was there, an American who came to Rwanda to teach English for 6 months and has now been here for a year and a half running Rwanda Orphans Project. When he first arrived as a volunteer a year and a half ago, he'd discovered that the caretaker at the time was embezzling (i.e. taking donated funds for himself and selling donated items like clothing etc. in the market). So Sean reported this to the board of directors in San Diego to which they responded, "ok, now you're in charge of running the orphanage." He had been a computer analyst for several years in the U.S. and had no experience running a non-profit, but was clearly motivated and driven and has done wonderful things for the boys. He said that funding is an issue because of the historical corruption. Currently, they only have enough money for 6 to 9 more months. He said that he's optimistic that they can cobble funds together - his co-director is in London right now meeting with foundation - but it's hard work. I get the feeling that he dedicates nearly 100% of his time to the boys. If he's not at the orphanage playing soccer or teaching, then he's in town buying supplies and trying to get grant money and support. Very impressive.
Since he had to leave around 5:00pm today, I agreed to take a group of the boys into their activity center. As I mentioned in an earlier post, this room contains books, toys and games - most of which these boys had never seen before. They only let groups of 12 boys in at a time so that there isn't too much chaos. This room contains nearly all of the toys for all 100 children that the directors worked very hard to obtain, so they are very protective of them. I played dominos, catch, and legos with some of the younger boys. The older boys (12+) enjoy the instruments (and are quite good), puzzles and costumes. Yes, you may think middle and high school is a little old for costumes, but remember that most of these boys grew up in the streets and all of this is new and fun. The activity center is definitely the highlight of the orphanage and it was fun to see how excited all of the boys were to go in. They were lined-up and waiting as soon as I got there with the key, and it was extremely difficult when it started to get late and I told them I had to go home so we'd need to leave.
While watching over the activity center, I helped Jean de Dieu with more economics. I had given him a few homework problems to do, which he brought me to check. He is truly very smart - he could reiterate everything what we talked about last week, almost in exact words, and had clearly been studying. His exams are in a few weeks, so I'm glad that he's preparing so much for them.
Chatting about America with Jean de Dieu
Jean de Dieu walked me back up to the road to catch a moto and asked me if there are any orphans in Virginia. I told him that there are, and he was so surprised to hear this. He then asked me if I had both a mother and a father, and I said yes, knowing that this would also surprise him. He then did something that I never expected - he told me his story of what happened to his family and him in 1994. He said that he's only told one other person in his life. He then told me that his mother had sent him to live with his cousins and aunts, but that they too had been killed, so only he survived. He then explained that he'd been made to work on farms and forced to herd cattle and such, so he escaped and ran away to Kigali (i.e. he was raised by a bad person until he was old enough to run away). I didn't ask, but he must've been quite young when he ran away - no older than 9 or 10 - so he must've lived on the streets for several years. I am glad that he felt comfortable with me, and I wish I'd known exactly the right thing to say. I told him that I thought he must be very brave and strong and that I was very sorry for his family. Very few people talk about what happened, and the director at ROP had told me on my first visit that Jean de Dieu had PTSD from what he'd seen but would not talk to anyone about it.
As we finished that conversation and Jean de Dieu changed the subject, I noticed that a group of people had started walking very close behind us. I know that Americans are unusually big on personal space, myself included, so I didn't do anything. But after awhile I felt strange about how close they were and the fact that they were pointing and talking about something that I couldn't understand. I actually felt a little paranoid, so I moved to the other side of the street. I think Jean de Dieu realized that I'd become uncomfortable and explained to me that the girls were noticing how different I looked. He said that they don't see many people with white skin there. At that, Jean de Dieu asked me what Americans call people with white skin.
At moments like this, I never feel very prepared. I could tell him slang words and try to explain the meanings and connotations, or I could simply explain how I think most people wish things were. So, I told him that we do not like to talk about the color of skin. I told him that in America we like to recognize people for who they are on the inside instead of what they look like. He then asked why people in South America have different colored skin than people in the U.S. I felt proud to tell him that America has no one "type of skin" because we are a mix of all different types of people from all over the world. I explained that my ancestors are from Ireland and England, but that I have friends whose ancestors are from China and Japan and Africa.
At that, he told me that he doesn't think that America has problems with different ethnic not getting along. I told him that was not always true, sadly, and that every country has problems, but that we are always trying to help everyone to get along and be at peace. He said that he understood that, but that in America we do not have wars where one group kills another. I agreed with him and replied that no, we do not do that. In these conversations I like to make sure people know that I appreciate the good aspects of my country because I don't want to run the risk of people thinking I take these things for granted: that would be offensive, I'm certain. However, I also like to be realistic with people and explain that there are problems everywhere and that America isn't devoid of issues. I get the impression that a lot of people here believe that everything in America is perfect and wonderful and that everyone is rich and gets along.
On that note, I hope you all don't think I'm being a downer by bringing up sometimes sad situations. But in an effort to be "fair and balanced," I am trying to give an accurate picture of my experience here. Of course there are so many wonderful things about Rwanda, which you've read about. But I believe it's also important to understand the less happy side, the side that needs help. So, I'm trying to be real with all of you as I write this blog.
The gold regulation
When we got to the intersection where I could catch a moto, I thanked him for walking me. He asked me why I always thank him when I am the one coming out there to help and getting nothing in return. All I could think to say was that it's good to live by the golden rule. He didn't know this phrase, so I tried my best to explain it. R's and L's are very difficult for Rwandans to pronounce, so I tried and failed with both "rule" and "law." However, when I got to "regulation" in my list of synonyms, he understood. (Side Note: If you haven't picked-up on this, Rwanda is a very rules and regulations-based society). I then tried to explain that the term meant that it's important to treat people nicely, the way that you want to be treated. He liked this rule: "the gold regulation." Next time I meet with him, I'll explain that one a little more.
I hope everyone has a wonderful week! Love and miss you!
Always,
Meredith
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| The Justin Bieber bus in Kigali |
A day at ROP
Today the other director was there, an American who came to Rwanda to teach English for 6 months and has now been here for a year and a half running Rwanda Orphans Project. When he first arrived as a volunteer a year and a half ago, he'd discovered that the caretaker at the time was embezzling (i.e. taking donated funds for himself and selling donated items like clothing etc. in the market). So Sean reported this to the board of directors in San Diego to which they responded, "ok, now you're in charge of running the orphanage." He had been a computer analyst for several years in the U.S. and had no experience running a non-profit, but was clearly motivated and driven and has done wonderful things for the boys. He said that funding is an issue because of the historical corruption. Currently, they only have enough money for 6 to 9 more months. He said that he's optimistic that they can cobble funds together - his co-director is in London right now meeting with foundation - but it's hard work. I get the feeling that he dedicates nearly 100% of his time to the boys. If he's not at the orphanage playing soccer or teaching, then he's in town buying supplies and trying to get grant money and support. Very impressive.
Since he had to leave around 5:00pm today, I agreed to take a group of the boys into their activity center. As I mentioned in an earlier post, this room contains books, toys and games - most of which these boys had never seen before. They only let groups of 12 boys in at a time so that there isn't too much chaos. This room contains nearly all of the toys for all 100 children that the directors worked very hard to obtain, so they are very protective of them. I played dominos, catch, and legos with some of the younger boys. The older boys (12+) enjoy the instruments (and are quite good), puzzles and costumes. Yes, you may think middle and high school is a little old for costumes, but remember that most of these boys grew up in the streets and all of this is new and fun. The activity center is definitely the highlight of the orphanage and it was fun to see how excited all of the boys were to go in. They were lined-up and waiting as soon as I got there with the key, and it was extremely difficult when it started to get late and I told them I had to go home so we'd need to leave.
While watching over the activity center, I helped Jean de Dieu with more economics. I had given him a few homework problems to do, which he brought me to check. He is truly very smart - he could reiterate everything what we talked about last week, almost in exact words, and had clearly been studying. His exams are in a few weeks, so I'm glad that he's preparing so much for them.
Chatting about America with Jean de Dieu
Jean de Dieu walked me back up to the road to catch a moto and asked me if there are any orphans in Virginia. I told him that there are, and he was so surprised to hear this. He then asked me if I had both a mother and a father, and I said yes, knowing that this would also surprise him. He then did something that I never expected - he told me his story of what happened to his family and him in 1994. He said that he's only told one other person in his life. He then told me that his mother had sent him to live with his cousins and aunts, but that they too had been killed, so only he survived. He then explained that he'd been made to work on farms and forced to herd cattle and such, so he escaped and ran away to Kigali (i.e. he was raised by a bad person until he was old enough to run away). I didn't ask, but he must've been quite young when he ran away - no older than 9 or 10 - so he must've lived on the streets for several years. I am glad that he felt comfortable with me, and I wish I'd known exactly the right thing to say. I told him that I thought he must be very brave and strong and that I was very sorry for his family. Very few people talk about what happened, and the director at ROP had told me on my first visit that Jean de Dieu had PTSD from what he'd seen but would not talk to anyone about it.
As we finished that conversation and Jean de Dieu changed the subject, I noticed that a group of people had started walking very close behind us. I know that Americans are unusually big on personal space, myself included, so I didn't do anything. But after awhile I felt strange about how close they were and the fact that they were pointing and talking about something that I couldn't understand. I actually felt a little paranoid, so I moved to the other side of the street. I think Jean de Dieu realized that I'd become uncomfortable and explained to me that the girls were noticing how different I looked. He said that they don't see many people with white skin there. At that, Jean de Dieu asked me what Americans call people with white skin.
At moments like this, I never feel very prepared. I could tell him slang words and try to explain the meanings and connotations, or I could simply explain how I think most people wish things were. So, I told him that we do not like to talk about the color of skin. I told him that in America we like to recognize people for who they are on the inside instead of what they look like. He then asked why people in South America have different colored skin than people in the U.S. I felt proud to tell him that America has no one "type of skin" because we are a mix of all different types of people from all over the world. I explained that my ancestors are from Ireland and England, but that I have friends whose ancestors are from China and Japan and Africa.
At that, he told me that he doesn't think that America has problems with different ethnic not getting along. I told him that was not always true, sadly, and that every country has problems, but that we are always trying to help everyone to get along and be at peace. He said that he understood that, but that in America we do not have wars where one group kills another. I agreed with him and replied that no, we do not do that. In these conversations I like to make sure people know that I appreciate the good aspects of my country because I don't want to run the risk of people thinking I take these things for granted: that would be offensive, I'm certain. However, I also like to be realistic with people and explain that there are problems everywhere and that America isn't devoid of issues. I get the impression that a lot of people here believe that everything in America is perfect and wonderful and that everyone is rich and gets along.
On that note, I hope you all don't think I'm being a downer by bringing up sometimes sad situations. But in an effort to be "fair and balanced," I am trying to give an accurate picture of my experience here. Of course there are so many wonderful things about Rwanda, which you've read about. But I believe it's also important to understand the less happy side, the side that needs help. So, I'm trying to be real with all of you as I write this blog.
The gold regulation
When we got to the intersection where I could catch a moto, I thanked him for walking me. He asked me why I always thank him when I am the one coming out there to help and getting nothing in return. All I could think to say was that it's good to live by the golden rule. He didn't know this phrase, so I tried my best to explain it. R's and L's are very difficult for Rwandans to pronounce, so I tried and failed with both "rule" and "law." However, when I got to "regulation" in my list of synonyms, he understood. (Side Note: If you haven't picked-up on this, Rwanda is a very rules and regulations-based society). I then tried to explain that the term meant that it's important to treat people nicely, the way that you want to be treated. He liked this rule: "the gold regulation." Next time I meet with him, I'll explain that one a little more.
I hope everyone has a wonderful week! Love and miss you!
Always,
Meredith
The last 24 hours: Hope Shines camp, going back to America for a few hours, and trying to save a Zebra from poachers
First off, I'd like to continue to prove-out what I said in an earlier post: Virginians truly are everywhere. I'm currently sitting at breakfast typing this blog and just a few moments ago I met another person staying at the guest house, a professor here for research. Of course, she is from Virginia and went to Midlothian High School (about 15 minutes from where I grew-up for those who don't know). Similarly, last week I went to dinner with a few co-workers and their friends. When I walked-in, they had been joking about how one of their friends was connected to everyone. So naturally, he asked where I was from to see if I was connected. Come to find out, he went to Midlothian High School and is also a UVA grad! Then, at a party the other night (story below), I met one of the 4 marines responsible for guarding the embassy, and where was he from? Tidewater. And then of course there are the volunteers from Hope Shines who are from Virginia. I think it's funny what a small world it is :)
Hopes Shines camp - mentoring orphaned children in Kigali
On Friday I went to the Hope Shines camp, run by the volunteers from Virginia that I met at the guest house. The camps are one week long and focus on providing mentoring, creative learning, and confidence building opportunities for orphaned and vulnerable children. The founder, April, is really interesting. She was a buyer for Macy's several years ago and came to Rwanda for the first time to meet the weavers of the the Rwandan Peace Baskets that you might now see advertised at Costco and other retail stores - the weavers are survivors of the 1994 genocide. On her trip, April visited an orphanage and saw that only two adults were responsible for raising over 100 children. She knew that with only two adults, it was difficult for each child to receive special mentoring and/or recognition; so she developed these week-long camps in which children play sports, do crafts, dance, learn, and are individually recognized and encouraged for their strengths. She developed the curriculum such that each activity has a learning component whether that be gratitude, friendship, math or English.
After a few hours of work on Friday, I got on a moto and went to help-out at the camp, which is on the outskirts of Kigali. There are three weeks of camp, each taking place in a different location and with different groups of children. Due to a loss of funding, the first camp's orphans no longer have a center where they can live. Most of the children live in foster situations or with grandparents or friends. Since it's summer vacation here, Hope Shines was able to rent a school to use for the week.
The camp is best described as fast-paced fun! As soon as I walked-in, they handed me a volunteer t-shirt and directed me to help the girls make thank you notes with construction paper, crayons, markers and stickers. April, the founder, setup a program where children in the U.S. send crayons and such to the camp and then the children at the camp send them hand-written thank you notes. I sat down with a group of girls who were about 10-15 years old and started looking at their cards. I complimented one girl, Hyguette, on her drawing skills and said that she must be an artist. She smiled and then busily made five more, equally beautiful, cards. When she was finished with each one, she brought it to me and at the end of the day she compiled all of her cards and asked me to look at them all again. I was touched that my compliments mattered so much to her, so I took the time to look through and read each one carefully and let her point out the details she was most proud of. I can definitely see how April was immediately touched and felt compelled to do something to provide more positive learning and motivation outlets for these children who just don't get enough attention on a regular basis. They always need volunteers for the Hope Shines camps, so I definitely recommend it to anyone looking to make an impact and volunteer over the summer! You can volunteer for one, two or three weeks (www.hopeshines.net).
Back to U.S. soil for a few hours
On Friday night, after a really fun day at camp, we went to a party at the U.S. embassy. As a benefit of being deployed, the marines who guard the embassy get movies earlier than they are available on video; so we watched the comedy, "Take Me Home Tonight." It's another movie making fun of the 80's. This was quite a production. They had setup an inflatable movie screen and had a projector and bleachers out on a lawn. They also had grilled brochettes and a full bar available (for purchase of course - don't worry taxpayers weren't paying for this party :) There were probably about 30-40 people and it truly felt like being home for a little while. I wish I could've taken pictures, but you're not allowed to bring any electronics past the security gate. Afterwards, the marines gave us a ride home in their giant suburban, which I'm pretty sure is the largest vehicle in Rwanda. They are friends with April and had been volunteering at the Hope Shines camp with everyone. They were SO good with the kids and gave some of the boys special U.S. Marine's awards!
Akagera National Park
At 5:00am on Saturday morning, we all loaded into two Land Cruisers and drove to Akagera National Park, which is the only game park in Rwanda. A lot of game parks in Africa, like the one I visited in Tanzania, are pretty fancy and organized with fencing, official vehicles and lots of rules. That is not the case with Akagera. We drove our own car straight into the game park. Our driver pointed to a post off to one side and explained that eventually they were going to fence in the park; but of course that means it's not fenced right now. Lack of fencing means it's hard to preserve certain types of animals (i.e. the ones the lions eat), but it's also fun because it's truly a natural habitat.
After about a 10 minute drive, we came to a large field in the shadow of some of the mountains. In that field, roaming around together were about 100 zebras and an immeasurable number of water buck, water buffalo, antelopes, and topi (large deer-like animals). It felt like standing in the middle of the Lion King. We got out of the car, which is already unheard of in most safaris, and took a lot of pictures. Then, to our surprise, when we were all safely back in the car, our guide pulled off the road and started driving straight through the field! I guess the animals knew they outnumbered us because they didn't run. The zebras kind of looked at us like we were crazy.
Halfway through the field, our friends in the other car spotted giraffes in the distance and took-off to see them. However, at the same time, our car saw a zebra that was dragging a large bushel of trees and branches behind it. It looked like it was struggling so we got closer to see what was wrong. Our driver pointed to the barbed wire around it's neck and said that it was a poacher's trap - probably meant for an antelope. It was clearly choking the zebra and we saw it stop and lie down to rest a couple of times, as pictured. When we were close enough, the zebra stopped to rest again and Dan, one of our friends, grabbed the driver's wire cutters and hopped out of the jeep to try and cut it loose. He was able to cut the wire off successfully, but the zebra had probably been dragging it around and for several days and wasn't in good shape. As we were leaving, we saw several other zebras approaching the one we'd cut loose. In fact, one of the zebras hadn't left the other the entire time we were there, so we are assuming they are family. Luckily they aren't aggressive so none seemed bothered when we approached to try and help. Our guide said that we'd have to tell the rangers so they could be on the look-out for poachers' traps. I hope fencing will help keep poachers out too.
When we continued on our journey, we found the group of giraffes that everyone else had raced after. There were three of them standing very close to us, almost like they were posing for the camera. Incredible! We then drove around for awhile looking for elephants. Though we never found the elephants (it was probably too hot for them to be out), we did see a large group of hippos (my favorite). They had a baby with them who was very cute!
This week preview
On Sunday I'm going to run errands and go out to tutor at the orphanage again. Holly arrives on Monday afternoon and we have a fun week planned! She's going to go out to the orphanage to help-out while I'm at work, and then I think we're going to hike a volcano this weekend. On Wednesday and Thursday of this week, I'm going to an Ariel Camp, which are the psycho-social support camps that EGPAF runs for HIV+ children. There will be 40 children at the camp, and they asked me to take photos and help write an article for the website. Everyone in the office is very excited for this week - they said the camps are so moving!
I hope everyone has a wonderful week! I love and miss you!
Always,
Meredith
Hopes Shines camp - mentoring orphaned children in Kigali
On Friday I went to the Hope Shines camp, run by the volunteers from Virginia that I met at the guest house. The camps are one week long and focus on providing mentoring, creative learning, and confidence building opportunities for orphaned and vulnerable children. The founder, April, is really interesting. She was a buyer for Macy's several years ago and came to Rwanda for the first time to meet the weavers of the the Rwandan Peace Baskets that you might now see advertised at Costco and other retail stores - the weavers are survivors of the 1994 genocide. On her trip, April visited an orphanage and saw that only two adults were responsible for raising over 100 children. She knew that with only two adults, it was difficult for each child to receive special mentoring and/or recognition; so she developed these week-long camps in which children play sports, do crafts, dance, learn, and are individually recognized and encouraged for their strengths. She developed the curriculum such that each activity has a learning component whether that be gratitude, friendship, math or English.
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| Cake and Fanta to celebrate the end of the camp |
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| Dance competition! |
The camp is best described as fast-paced fun! As soon as I walked-in, they handed me a volunteer t-shirt and directed me to help the girls make thank you notes with construction paper, crayons, markers and stickers. April, the founder, setup a program where children in the U.S. send crayons and such to the camp and then the children at the camp send them hand-written thank you notes. I sat down with a group of girls who were about 10-15 years old and started looking at their cards. I complimented one girl, Hyguette, on her drawing skills and said that she must be an artist. She smiled and then busily made five more, equally beautiful, cards. When she was finished with each one, she brought it to me and at the end of the day she compiled all of her cards and asked me to look at them all again. I was touched that my compliments mattered so much to her, so I took the time to look through and read each one carefully and let her point out the details she was most proud of. I can definitely see how April was immediately touched and felt compelled to do something to provide more positive learning and motivation outlets for these children who just don't get enough attention on a regular basis. They always need volunteers for the Hope Shines camps, so I definitely recommend it to anyone looking to make an impact and volunteer over the summer! You can volunteer for one, two or three weeks (www.hopeshines.net).
Back to U.S. soil for a few hours
On Friday night, after a really fun day at camp, we went to a party at the U.S. embassy. As a benefit of being deployed, the marines who guard the embassy get movies earlier than they are available on video; so we watched the comedy, "Take Me Home Tonight." It's another movie making fun of the 80's. This was quite a production. They had setup an inflatable movie screen and had a projector and bleachers out on a lawn. They also had grilled brochettes and a full bar available (for purchase of course - don't worry taxpayers weren't paying for this party :) There were probably about 30-40 people and it truly felt like being home for a little while. I wish I could've taken pictures, but you're not allowed to bring any electronics past the security gate. Afterwards, the marines gave us a ride home in their giant suburban, which I'm pretty sure is the largest vehicle in Rwanda. They are friends with April and had been volunteering at the Hope Shines camp with everyone. They were SO good with the kids and gave some of the boys special U.S. Marine's awards!
Akagera National Park
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| Going to Akagera |
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| In the Lion King |
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| Zebras having a little lunch |
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| Cutting the zebra lose to save him from the poacher's trap |
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| Giraffes posing for us |
This week preview
On Sunday I'm going to run errands and go out to tutor at the orphanage again. Holly arrives on Monday afternoon and we have a fun week planned! She's going to go out to the orphanage to help-out while I'm at work, and then I think we're going to hike a volcano this weekend. On Wednesday and Thursday of this week, I'm going to an Ariel Camp, which are the psycho-social support camps that EGPAF runs for HIV+ children. There will be 40 children at the camp, and they asked me to take photos and help write an article for the website. Everyone in the office is very excited for this week - they said the camps are so moving!
I hope everyone has a wonderful week! I love and miss you!
Always,
Meredith
Thursday, August 4, 2011
This week in Kigali
New hangouts and even more new friends
This week I discovered a great place to setup my laptop and do work. I'm lucky that my co-worker is very flexible and welcomes the change of scenery every now and then. He told me about a cool little ex-pat haven called Shokola, which I never would've noticed even though it's only two blocks from my house. It's basically a large tent with couches and tables - very cozy. The conversations I overhear there are great. Last time the table next to me was planning to film a documentary of Rwandan families for an NGO, and the girls behind me were American and British university-aged volunteers.
On Monday the people sitting next to me, two guys with a lot of backpacking gear, asked what I was doing in Kigali. They both live in Holland and are space engineers who are visiting friends in Rwanda. They'd just gotten back from Akagera National Park (where I'm going this weekend). Since they didn't know much about Kigali and seemed really nice, I invited them to trivia that night, which takes place every Monday at a local pizza restaurant. I'd also told the American volunteers with Hope Shines about it (the people staying at my guest house), so we ended up with quite a large trivia team and came in fourth overall! The trivia was actually kind of brain-teasing: for example, what is the only mobile national landmark in the U.S.? Answer: trolley cards in San Fran. Who knew?
Last night I had dinner with the German girl I met last week who works for a catholic aid organization. She has been living in Africa for 6 years and told me a story about when she had to hide in her house for several days. This was another country - not Rwanda - by the way. Stories like that add to my amazement by the people who are lifetime ex-pat aid workers. She said she never wants to return to Germany and actually really loves living in the Congo.
Jean de Dieu
At Rwanda Orphans Project I've been tutoring a high school boy named Jean de Dieu, which literally means "John of God." He's the same boy I mentioned in my last post. Since I was having trouble remembering economics, the subject he needs help in, I dove into the internet and tried to pull-up some formulas and such for us to go over today. I think he is probably getting the impression that I am not good at economics :) But we got through a lot of his exam today.
He walked me back to the place where I could get motos and asked about 100 questions about America. He asked me how America was able to have an industrial revolution. He wanted to know how my city compared to Kigali. He wanted to know how Virginia compared to Kigali. We had one conversation where he said that all Americans have good standards of living. I was starting to tell him that in fact many Americans live below the poverty level before he qualified his statement. By good standards of living he meant food, water, healthcare, etc. Then he told me, "For example, I know a family who only has food for every other day. So they jump a day then they get to eat the next. Then they jump another day." At the very least, every American has clean drinking water and homeless shelters, etc. So I decided not to explain to him what it means to be poor in America. I've heard a couple of people try to do that here and it gets dismissed pretty quickly.
Jean de Dieu continues to impress me with how studious and eager to learn he is! He told me the entire history of colonization in Africa and then how the U.S. was founded. He always has a million questions, which is fun. It's interesting though, you might assume that he's working so hard because he wants to go to college or has a career goal. Today he told me that he doesn't think he can go to university because his grades won't be high enough for a scholarship. He was first in his class last semester he told me proudly. But, even that, he said, isn't enough. He works hard at school purely because he seeks to do well in school; not because he sees it leading to a future. I find that interesting, a little hard to digest, and something that I want to research. Surely a boy who's top of his class and super motivated can get a scholarship, right?
I thought you might find some pictures of a local school interesting. Notice that they advertise how important English is because it only just became the 2nd official language in 2008. You can imagine that this was probably a difficult transition for teachers who were used to teaching in French!
Weekend plans
Tomorrow I'm going to work a half day (everyone has half days on Fridays in Kigali) and then volunteer with the Hope Shines Camp! I'm excited for that! Then Saturday I'm going with their volunteers to Akagera, as I mentioned. Akagera has a lot of animals, so I should come back with some fun pictures from that. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend! As always, I love and miss you all!
Always,
Meredith
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| My new favorite place to do my work! Shokola Cafe (I think they're on Facebook) |
On Monday the people sitting next to me, two guys with a lot of backpacking gear, asked what I was doing in Kigali. They both live in Holland and are space engineers who are visiting friends in Rwanda. They'd just gotten back from Akagera National Park (where I'm going this weekend). Since they didn't know much about Kigali and seemed really nice, I invited them to trivia that night, which takes place every Monday at a local pizza restaurant. I'd also told the American volunteers with Hope Shines about it (the people staying at my guest house), so we ended up with quite a large trivia team and came in fourth overall! The trivia was actually kind of brain-teasing: for example, what is the only mobile national landmark in the U.S.? Answer: trolley cards in San Fran. Who knew?
Last night I had dinner with the German girl I met last week who works for a catholic aid organization. She has been living in Africa for 6 years and told me a story about when she had to hide in her house for several days. This was another country - not Rwanda - by the way. Stories like that add to my amazement by the people who are lifetime ex-pat aid workers. She said she never wants to return to Germany and actually really loves living in the Congo.
Jean de Dieu
At Rwanda Orphans Project I've been tutoring a high school boy named Jean de Dieu, which literally means "John of God." He's the same boy I mentioned in my last post. Since I was having trouble remembering economics, the subject he needs help in, I dove into the internet and tried to pull-up some formulas and such for us to go over today. I think he is probably getting the impression that I am not good at economics :) But we got through a lot of his exam today.
He walked me back to the place where I could get motos and asked about 100 questions about America. He asked me how America was able to have an industrial revolution. He wanted to know how my city compared to Kigali. He wanted to know how Virginia compared to Kigali. We had one conversation where he said that all Americans have good standards of living. I was starting to tell him that in fact many Americans live below the poverty level before he qualified his statement. By good standards of living he meant food, water, healthcare, etc. Then he told me, "For example, I know a family who only has food for every other day. So they jump a day then they get to eat the next. Then they jump another day." At the very least, every American has clean drinking water and homeless shelters, etc. So I decided not to explain to him what it means to be poor in America. I've heard a couple of people try to do that here and it gets dismissed pretty quickly.
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| B/c of no textbooks, I scoured the internet to put this little cheat sheet of formulas together |
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| A school in Kigali |
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| Signs promoting English all over the school |
Tomorrow I'm going to work a half day (everyone has half days on Fridays in Kigali) and then volunteer with the Hope Shines Camp! I'm excited for that! Then Saturday I'm going with their volunteers to Akagera, as I mentioned. Akagera has a lot of animals, so I should come back with some fun pictures from that. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend! As always, I love and miss you all!
Always,
Meredith
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