French-Rwandan Relations

Sarkozy is in town, and French flags have sprouted all over Kigali to welcome him. I doubt I'll get anyting more than a glimpse of his car as it rides by (it will undoubtedly pass my house), but it's comforting as a French citizen to see that the two countries have officially renewed diplomatic relations. Even though I didn't vote for Sarkozy, I am definately glad to bear witness to this move he's making. It'll be intereting to hear what he says to Rwandan political leaders.

I'm definately not proud of what happened here in 94, and I know the past can't be buried. I'm sure a lot of people are still understanably very angry with France, but lets hope that this is a step in the right direction.

I'm not sure when the embassy will officially open, but I definately want to go! They're going to re-open the French school and my Belgian friends are telling me there's going to be a lot of rivalry between the Belgian school and the French school. I'm discretely rooting for the French school, of coure. I'll end this post with the official slogan, "Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite"!

Uganda!

So I just got back from 4 days in Uganda, and needless to say it was an awesome experience! I'm so sore from rafting I'd kill for a massage.

Having not left the country since my France trip back in August, I felt like it was high time I break out of Rwanda for a bit and see what else Africa has to offer. Living in a small country with few vacation days has been waring on me, and since I'll be crazy busy March until July with the theater festival (including and especially weekends) I felt like I needed to get Uganda done with a quickness.

I really like Uganda and wish I could have stayed a little longer. There's a lot to see there and the culture is pretty different from Rwanda. I saw people kiss in public (NEVER see that here), bump and grind in clubs, and witnessed more outgoing behavior in general. The Ugandans I met in the 4 short days I was there were outgoing and loud, in contrast with the quiet, more reserved Rwandans I know.

We (Emma and I) left for Uganda at the butt crack of dawn (6 AM) and arrived around 4:30 to Kampala. It was a hell of a long bus ride, but was bearable due to the scenery and fully charged ipod. Emma and I were really impressed with Kampala-we had no idea how big it was! It really felt like being in the United States: Big buildings (including the Sheraton hotel) wide sidewalks, and variety galore. I'm assuming Uganda does a lot more international trade, because there were definitely way more products than I could ever find in Rwanda. Shopping was a fun experience--there was just such a huge amount of clothes, shoes, everything! I'm not used to that. I really liked the hustle and bustle of the city, the noise, the livelyness, the well lit streets. Of course, I don't want to completely diss Rwanda. Rwanda's definitely cleaner, but I had been warned about this so I wasn't suprised by all the litter in Uganda. Also, people drive like maniacs there-every time I crossed a street I feared for me life! It's seriously unreal how many times it feels like you're going to be smashed by an oncoming vehicle.
The food wasn't that different, just more variety readily available, like watermellon, chicken and fish. I'm told that it's illegal to cook food for sale outside on the street in Rwanda-- when you're hungry you usually have to settle for tiny bags of peanuts, hardboiled eggs, or the occasional popcorn. It was nice to be able to walk down almost anywhere and find barbecued chicken, sausuage, and a variety of other items for cheap.

Emma and I were supposed to go rafting the next day with Nile River Explorers, but were unfortunately uninformed that the time zone in Uganda is one hour ahead of Rwanda. We woke up at what we though was 6 AM and were ready and waiting outside for Nile River Explorers to pick us up at 7 AM to take us to the campsite in Jinja. After waiting for a good 15 minutes a few of the other people staying at the hostel nicely informed us of the time difference. At first we were worried, since we didn't have much time to spare, and it would have been extremely expensive to rent a car to take us all the way to Jinja. We therefore postponed our rafting for another day, but since we'd reserved the campsite for that night, we decided to leave for Jinja that evening.
So we walked around Kampala, did some shopping at the huge markets, and went to the tombs of the kings and the kings palace. The tombs were kinda cool (even if you don't get to see the actual tombs, they're covered by a curtain and only family members can look), mostly just to meet the decendents of Ugandan royalty and learn more about Ugandan history. I definitely wouldn't recommend the king's palace, since you can't even go inside.
After looking for and failing to find Ugandan crafts, we jumped on a bus headed to Jinja. Jinja's a nice place with a cool nightlife as well. It also reminded me of America--of a nice, suburban neighborhood. The next day was the big day we'd been waiting for for so long! We got in the raft and the guide gave us safety instructions. With us in the boat were a Dutch couple, a Yastonian couple, and a 62 year old British woman. We had met her at the hostel in Kampala the day before and had convinced her to go rafting with us. She used to be a traveling photagrapher and now she writes for guidebooks in Africa. I love meeting people like her because it lets me know that when I'm that age, I can still travel the world and do all the same things I do now. I hate when people use age as an excuse to not do things. People who don't travel don't do it either for lack of funds, fear, or medical problems. Everything else is just an excuse in my opinion. I love bouncing around from place to place, seeing new countries, discovering new cultures and trying different adrenalin-filled activities. Hopefully I'll be able to do that periodically throughout my life.
After hearing how terrifying rafting on the Nile was from several people, I was a little dissapointed. 70% of the time was spent just rowing, and the rest involved rapids (most of which were not that intense), and a few minutes of swimming. It could be due to the wheater-it was raining so they may have felt they had to keep us warm. The most fun part of rafting was falling out of the boat. The very last rapid was pretty intense and all of us flew out. I let the river water bounce me and move me wherever it pleased-it was like a water park. I would love to take a day and just swim down that part of the Nile (with kayakers there for safety of course).

Our last night in Kampala we went clubbing with some people we met. Kigali is quiet on the weekends-there are 3 clubs and they all equally suck. Kampala has so many different clubs with really good DJs. I haven't gotten clubbing out of my system, I just have no desire to dance if I'm not feeling my surroundings.
The bus ride back took about 12 hours due to two accidents on the road. Both times, we were in stand still traffic for over an hour a piece. The roads weren't that bad, but I guess accidents there are pretty common. It really is tragic. I spent that time walking around, talking to people, buying food, playing with kids, peeing on the side of the road, and reading. It felt like a lifetime.
I definately want to go back to Uganda, and spend a good week or more there to get a real feel of the country. I highly recommend it to anyone.

It's been 1 year!

First and foremost, I want to assure anyone reading this that I got an e-mail from Felix and he is alive and well. Huge relief. My condolonces to anyone who has lost someone they loved in this horrible earthquake.

Now on to more selfish things. Today marks exactly one year since 34 of us wide-eyed Americans stepped off a plane to start a 2 years+ adventure. Safe to say none of us had any idea what we were getting into. I remember how exciting it was to go to DC for staging, only a few days since Obama was sworn in. On the plane rides to Rwanda, I was so nervous. I remember opening up my plane window on an almost constant basis wondering if I could handle being a PCV.

Of course there have been ups and downs, and, like everyone i'm sure, times where I just wanted to throw in the towel. I don't blame those of us who have left, I feel like they all had legit reason. Our original group of 34 has shrunk slightly to 28, but we have another group of 35 in country now, and the new groups keep on coming.

Since it's the one year anniversary, it's inevitable that I begin to reflect. I've definitely learned a lot in the last year. I don't feel like I've changed drastically, I just feel like I have a better understanding of my limits, my capabilities, and the ways of the world. I learned that living amongst people with a completely different culture than myself is very challenging, but not impossible. We're all human beings after all. I have definitely made sincere friendships with the locals, even those who don't speak a word of English or French. (Thanks Peace Corps for the language training!). I've learned when to be agressive and when to just go with the flow. I've also realized there are many problems I'm not able to solve, and the the definiton of a "problem" is fluid.

I don't miss America necessarily, I miss the people in it who I was close to. For my friends and fam who I haven't seen in quite some time, I hope you understand that this was something I had to do. I needed to prove to myself that I could live in a developing country for 2 years, and that I could evoke some kind of positive change no matter how small. I know that what I'm doing is nothing extraordinary-- plenty of people live abroad and work towards positive change. Still, this experience has incluenced my thinking, my attitude, and will stay with me for the rest of my life. I hope that some of the Rwandans I've known feel the same.

Tragedy in Haiti

As many of you are aware, there was a magnitude 7.0 earthquake on Tuesday that greatly damadged Haiti. 60% of the buildings in Haiti were unstable for even normal conditions, so there was severe damadge especially in the capital of Port-au-Prince, causing huge numbers of casualties.

Hearing about this event is especially alarming to me because I know someone who is living in Haiti right now. He's a Rwandan police cheif in the North who's worked for UN peacekeeping missions for more than 15 years. He served in Darfur in 2004. He called me 3 weeks ago, telling me he wanted to hang out because he was leaving shortly for a UN job in Haiti, and wouldn't be back until 2012. We never did get together before he left, and now I regret it. I know that the UN building collapsed and there are many people trapped underneath the rubble. They're currently trying to free people who are trapped, but many people are missing. According to the latest New York Times, "The United Nations said it had confirmed that 36 of its workers had been killed in the earthquake, 73 had been injured, and an additional 160 were still missing. The United Nations began an effort to send teams around to the homes of its more than 1,200 local staff members to see if they were still alive and what help they needed."



I'm scowering the internet trying to find some information to see if he's ok, but I can't find his name anywhere. I'm not sure what the media regulations are about the release of names of casualties and survivors, but his first name is Felix, and I can't remember his last name. He has a wife and a daughter so if somehow you've recognized that name in any news media, please let me know.

The more I travel, the more I care about international issues. I know it sounds selfish, but, like most people, when I used to hear about natural disasters or civil war, I really wasn't all that concerned if I didn't personally know anyone involved or affected by it. I just took it as information that I could turn on and off with the click of a remote or mouse. One of the results traveling and living abroado is that I've become personally invested in more and more places. Hearing about a crisis in a country I've been to or a country where people I know live is so personal.

I think I really started realizing this after visiting Israel in December of 2007. Even though my aunt, uncle and cousins lived there a long time ago, I would just gloss over the headlines about Israel, especially anything related to border conflicts. It just all meshed together for me. Once I went there, walked in the streets, and met the people, it became more personal. I realized that in the news, I recognized the names of streets I had walked on or stores I had been to. I also realized that people I had talked to while I was there could be directly affected by the events I was reading about from my computer.

Now that I'm in Rwanda, the '94 genocide isn't just some tragedy amongst many that occurred far away. I've met many people who were not only witnesses to the genocide but whose names I recognized in interviews with PBS and in historical books. It makes such a world of difference when I've met these people and had conversations with them--they become so much more real instead of just images on the screen or subjects to read about.

As my international contacts expand, my level of concern with international issues, especially crisies, rises. I don't know if I'm echoing a common feeling felt my by fellow PCVs, but I'm much more affected now by the recent tragedy in Haiti than I would have been 1 year ago. I recognize those killed as people with personalities an active lives, not just statistics in a news story.

2010!

Now that it's 2010, I can officially say that I spent all of 2009 (minus 4 weeks) living in Rwanda. I still don't plan to go back to the U.S. til I'm done. January
29th will make it one year since I left America, but I won't be halfway done with service until April 15th. It's still crazy to think how long I've been here. In the beginning, time went by so slowly, and now it's moving a little faster, probably because I'm crazy busy at work with the job I love.

NYE was good. I went to the Happy People Party, which was mighty expensive but still worth it. It was incredibly crowded and pretty much everyone I knew in Kigali was there, and then some. Drank, danced, talked to some people, it was cool.

A new intern recently joined the NGO I work for and will also be my roommate for the 4 months she's here. It's nice having someone my own age living and working in the same space as me. I like getting her perspective on things and compare them to mine. So far, we've gone to the genocide memorial museum (yeah, it only took me 1 year to finally go) and I've taken her to a party as well as other local events so she can get aquainted with the community. It's her first time overseas but she's pretty open to meeting all kinds of people, not just the ones who are well educated and speak English.

Below: Genocide Memorial Museum in Kigali



Other than that, work has been getting back into full swing. I gave a presentation in French to the One Family theater group on Saturday. They seem like a dynamic, creative group of people, which is to be expected from anyone in the dramatic arts. Even though my job with them won't involve any role-playing for myself, it's still nice to have some kind of involvement with drama. I was heavily into it for a long time, but didn't get involved with it at all during my 4 years of college. It'll be interesting to compare the styles of Rwandan theater to the other styles I know. I'm sure it's drastically different from Beckett, Simon, Shepard, Shakespeare, or Mamet or anyother playwright I'm familiar with.

Christmas Safari

This was my first Christmas in Rwanda. It's an odd time of year, with so many people traveling abroad. I went to the swearing in ceremony for the new PCVs. It really hit me, realizing that we aren't newbies anymore. Watching the new volunteers, sitting in the exact same chairs, repeating the exact same oath we had made 8 months ago really had an effect on me. Their ceremony was a bit different from ours. They had one extra speech and a really nice Intore dance and drum performance. Most of the performers were kids, one of whom looked as young as 3--she was so cute! When the dancers invited the audience to participate I picked that little girl to dance with. The only unfortunate thing was the dismal turnout due to the time of year. So many people are on vacation, and it was on umuganda, the day when everything is closed until noon for people to do their monthly community service.



Christmas is a fun time of year for me, but I don't usually do very much to celebrate, other than get gifts for people. I did, however, make potato latkes twice. They turned out great, and my mamma would be proud. I had planned to make a menorah but that never actually materialized.

I made Christmas the theme with my class this month, giving them new vocabulary such as "sleigh" and "snowman" and teaching them "Jingle Bells". They seemed to get a kick out of it. I asked them to share what they do for Christmas so I could get a better idea of how it is celebrated in Rwanda. From what they told me, and from what I observed, it's not really a major holiday the way it is in the U.S. Businesses are open, and it's more of a family-oriented and religous holiday as opposed to a gift giving holiday. It makes me realize the amount of materialism we're subjected to in the states.

I went to Rwamagana to see some fellow PCV friends, who had taken a big branch and decorated it with funny magazine cut-outs of things like paternity tests, ugly babies and upside down people. We drank and ate candy we rarely get to taste-- candy canes, M&Ms...

I stayed there for a few days before 8 of us went on a safari to Akagera. Akagera doesn't have that great of a reputation, but we saw a fair amount of animals, probably due to the rainy season. We saw zebras, jiraffes, hippos, water buffalo, warthogs, deer, and monkeys. Our guide allowed us to get out of the car at certain points, so could get close to the jiraffes. For most of us, it was our first safari,and we were pleasantly surprised. It's a tourist attraction that's really downplayed, overshadowed by the much pricier Gorilla trek in the north. It was so nice to get out of Kigali for once and see some of the country, and being able to do that with my fellow PCVs made it that much better.

Still don't have New Year's Eve plans...

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

GLOW Camp

I realize I've been lagging a bit on the posts- it's been over a month!

The 3 major things that happened in December (after all, the month is almost over) are GLOW (Girls Leading Our World), the new volunteer's swear in, and Christmas of course!

So, I think it's safe to say that GLOW went well. Of course it didn't all go smoothly or according to plan, but that was to be expected. The overall number of girls was about 70, and the camp lasted 5 days.

I ended up bringing 3 of my girls (from the school) to camp. It was so nice to see them having a good time and learning. The camp focused on health, sexual health, and career planning. The girls had several different games. We got creative--one of the PCVS set up "bowling" with water bottles and a small ball, darts on paper, and one even got a carpenter to make the necessary bean bags and wood frames to play bean bag toss (or "cornhole"). Every day, there were different guests to speak or throw an activity our way. Among these were theater, trust activities, a career panel, and health presentations. The girls got to sign up for different field trips around Kigali, including orphanages and computer labs. One of the more contravertial activities was teaching the girls how to put on condoms. We had model penises made of wood, donated to us by PSI along with condoms. Each girl was given one and time to practice. The youngest girls at GLOW were 15, so I personally don't feel like they were too young for this. There's such a stigma that girls with condoms are promiscuous, dirty or untrustworthy. It's going to take a long time to shake that image in Rwanda (hell- it's hard to shake that image in the U.S.), but I can see that it's an issue that is becoming more public. The "No shuga daddi" billboards are now being replaced by pictures of local celebreties advocating condoms. We also gave condoms to the girls to take home with them, if they so chose.

Below, one camper shows another camper how to put on a condom.


I was at GLOW for the majority of the time (4 of the days) and I'm really glad I got to participate in it.