Etc.

So, here’s a collection of random other things in Rwanda:

Our Pakistani family: they’re wonderful. We love them. Ben and Katy met them at Juicy one time, and ever since, we’ve been going over to their house, going out to dinner, going bowling with them, etc. They’re not just one family. They’re a bunch of Pakistanis that happened to find each other in Kigali. Kind of reminds me of my Caribbean family in Little Rock :) Ghazali is our main friend in the family, and he has three kids that are absolutely adorable and so bright. He’s basically adopted us as his white kids, we like to think. They’re great :)

My American sister: My sister came back from America about a week ago. Going to the airport to get her was the most surreal experience. The last time I was there, I was a clueless, fresh off the plane muzungu. The next time I’d be there, I’d be leaving Rwanda. My sister’s name is Fiona, and she goes to a boarding school in Kentucky. Apparently I’m the first student that’s stayed with her family that she’s met. She’s pretty cool. It’s nice to have another American around, in a sense. I don’t have to modify how I speak with her like I do with other Rwandans, even my family whose English is great. I’ve only gotten to see her twice now, but I’m glad I got to meet her. Now I’ve met all of my siblings! All eleven :P

Uganda again: So, we moved out of our lovely house last week and headed to Uganda with the rest of our group. We were going to go to Kibuye in Rwanda, but we couldn’t get our visas, so we just headed back to Uganda and spent a few days in Kabale on Lake Bunyonyi. Apparently the lake is 600 meters deep, which is 2000 feet. Personally, I have trouble believing this, but whatever. We spent the first day just doing our evaluations and talking about the program, and then the next day we went and did the most ethical thing possible—went on a pygmy tour. We’re terrible people, right? We actually felt pretty bad about it afterward. It was on the menu at this hotel we were staying at, which is ridiculous in the first place, but we just thought, why the heck not? I think our teacher actually wanted to more than we did. Anyway, we took a boat over across the lake to the village (it wasn’t actually theirs, they just met us there), met a few people, they had us walk up a road, danced for us, and then asked for their money. It was just a random bunch of people in random clothes and no fanfare like other dances we’d seen. They spoke Kinyarwanda since they were Twa (a Rwandan “ethnicity”/group), so at least we could speak to them, which is probably more than most could do. They also only got a 10% cut of what we paid to go on the tour, which is terrible. We hung out a little bit afterward, drank sorghum beer (there were some DRUNK pygmies), played with a baby who nommed on my and Katy’s finger, then headed back to the hotel. Pretty much the most awkward thing I’ve ever done. And yes, for the most part they were really short.

Debraiding my hair: So while we were in Uganda, I started taking my braids out. Honestly, they were just getting in the way, and I missed my real hair a lot. I still have a few left in now, but I can get it up in a real pony tail, which is what matters.

So now we’re back at Moucecore, the same hotel in which we began this whole trip. This whole semester. It’s kind of weird how things are coming full circle. Ben and I went back to the Kimironko market like we did in the beginning (and of course I got more fabric. I’m coming back to America with so many dresses and skirts, yall). And now we’ve got just a few days left. I have my flight itinerary pulled up on my computer (why am I flying a Canadian plane to Dallas?). I know what I want to do this weekend (hey mom, let’s go to the farmers’ market please. It’ll help with the culture shock. Also, I need some chips and salsa and guacamole. And queso. Love you!). And I’m starting work/babysitting/nannying/chauffeuring on Monday. See you soon, America.

Nyungwe

Our visit to Nyungwe is hands down my favorite trip we’ve taken in Rwanda. And it was incredibly impromptu. We were basically like, “hey, wanna go to Nyungwe? Tonight? Oh, that’s not possible? Tomorrow then.” And next thing we knew, we were in Nyungwe. I should explain, Nyungwe is one of the national parks here. It’s known for its gorgeous scenery and canopy walk. We got there Thursday night after a 5 hour bus ride during which none of the dang Rwandans would open the windows on the bus despite how boiling hot it was. They were even wearing sweaters and thick, puffy winter jackets!!! These people would die in a mere Texas winter. They did, however, finally open the windows once we got to the forest, which of course was the most freezing part of the drive. Nyungwe is so cold during the rainy season. I will never understand these people and their internal thermostats (side note, it took me a really long time to remember what a thermostat was and the word for it. America is going to be weird). After the bus ride and lunch at our hotel, we decided to check out the town/village nearby. The town only probably had 30 houses, 1 bar, no real alimentations, and a bus stop. So of course, we went to the one bar, blamed our 1 Primus capacity on the elevation, and then went to go check out this other super ritzy hotel at the top of the hill in the village. There was no one staying there that night, so we had the people there show us around (including these incredible little villas. They had fireplaces, carpet/rugs, a real bathroom, decorations, luxurious looking beds…it probably wouldn’t have been so incredible had we been in America, but we weren’t, so of course we acted like a bunch of 5 year olds in a candy shop). Then they took us up to the restaurant and balcony. The view was incredible even at night, so we promised to come back for dinner and the sunset the next night!

The next morning, we got ready and headed out for our first hike—the waterfall :) We met our guide at the lodge, which was right next to our guest house, conveniently enough, and started off on our 4 hour hike. We passed through tea plantations first before we actually got into the forest, which was pretty cool. The rolling, bright green hills were absolutely gorgeous. Also, tea leaves don’t taste all that great. The forest itself was absolutely gorgeous as well. I think we called everything gorgeous an unnecessary yet completely inadequate number of times on this trip. We really were in a mountainous tropical rainforest. Also, the park survived the last ice age 10,000 years ago, so there are several ancient species there like this tree fern that our guide pointed out to us. The park is also supposed to have a ridiculously high number of orchids as well. Essentially, we were expecting to see a T-Rex come around the corner any minute. The hike to the waterfall took about 2 hours and involved going down several switch backs and a final very steep part of the path—all very fun on the way back up :) We could hear the river throughout the whole hike and, in the end, followed it up to the waterfall. Again, absolutely gorgeous. It’s not the highest in the region, but it’s the highest in the park and maybe in Rwanda? I’m not sure. Everything was more or less soaked around the waterfall including us. Thank god for rain jackets. We got several good pictures in, stood in the spray of the waterfall, and just stood there marveling at the immense power of the water crashing down—it was pretty impressive. Our guide also found a freshwater crab hanging out with us on the boulder we were on! I had no idea those existed. Then, we began the two hour hike back to the top. Not terribly fun. Oh! I forgot to mention, we had a German friend with us on the hike. His name was Andres, he’s a medical student or doctor or something, and he was on his vacation in East Africa. We made it back to the hotel exhausted, ate lunch, and relaxed for a bit. Oh, and enjoyed the lukewarm shower. Absolutely no sarcasm there. It was wonderful.

That night, we went back up to the ritzy hotel for dinner. The view was just as incredible as we thought, and the sunset was pretty :) We could see Lake Kivu, the volcanoes, and the DRC from where we were. It was definitely the splurge of our trip, but it made for a great evening.

The next day, we went on the canopy walk. That day was quite the adventure. The people at the lodge told us we could catch a bus to the middle of the park where the hike started at 9, so we thought.  It was a special Umuganda (compulsory community service for everyone who is 18+) because of all the landslides recently, so it was a little hard to find a bus, but we managed to find one after a while. Little did we know that it would be the slowest. bus. in. the. world. They were also blasting traditional Rwandan music (Celine Dion and Enrique Iglesias), which was nice I suppose. We finally got to the park a little past nine and limped our sore bodies up to the desk to ask if the hike had left yet. The guy handed us a schedule and kindly showed us that it started at 10. Awesome. So we sat around til then, met our guide, then set out on our hour long hike—much better than the day before. Again, we went down a bunch of switchbacks, and again, they were awful on the way back up. But we got to go on a canopy walk!! So worth it. We got down to the first canopy bridge, and the view was absolutely beautiful. The guide told us it was best if we don’t look down, so naturally that’s the first thing we did. Apparently we looked like we’d done this thousands of times. The drop on the first bridge wasn’t too bad. Maybe 30 meters, which is how long that bridge was as well. The second bridge was the most impressive—60 meters long and a 60 meter drop, I think. It was awesome :) And the view was so impressive. It’s the rainy season, so it was pretty foggy, but you could see clouds climbing up and over the hills/mountains across the valley, and…really, I can’t describe it. I have pictures, but those probably won’t do it justice. You’ll just have to come and see :) The third bridge was like the first, more or less, and then we headed back up to where we started the hike.

We saw a bunch of birds while we were there. The birds here are gorgeous. Apparently Rwanda is really big for bird watching, and with good reason. We also saw monkeys! I think they were called mountain monkeys. They were somewhat small with black bodies and white faces. We saw one on each of our hikes and several along the road.

So, once the hike was over, we had to get back to our hotel to catch the bus back to Kigali. The only problem was that we were 20 kilometers away and in the middle of an African rainforest. Not the best place to catch a bus. So naturally, we hitchhiked :) We got passed up by the first truck because the guys told us they had a spear in the middle seat, and the second truck was full of pigs that smelled terrible. The third truck finally picked us up. They were a couple of guys from Tanzania who didn’t speak a word of English, and we could say nothing more in Swahili than asante sana and all the names from The Lion King. Also, the truck was going 12 kph. We probably could have walked faster. But at least in the truck, we could all awkwardly try to fall asleep on each other. After we got back to the hotel, we quickly packed up and headed into town to catch the bus. They told us the next one was leaving at two, no big deal, right? Only that meant it was leaving from the city at 2 and wouldn’t be there til 3:30, as we found out an hour and a half later. We were just ready to get home at this point because we were hosting a party that night. Long story short (too late), we got home, drank, and were exhausted. It was a great trip :)

3 days

Things I’m looking forward to in America:

Seeing my friends and family :)

Customer service

Affordable cheese

Not being singled out for being a minority

A diversity of food

Cold food

A diversity of clothes

Washers and dryers

Being able to drive

Making money!!!

Having wifi in my house

3G and being able to use my iphone

Reliable cell phone networks

Hot showers!!! Though that’ll take a while to get used to

Carpeted floors, I think

Air conditioning, I think. I hear it’s hot in Texas…

Two plugs in one outlet

People (for the most part) understanding people being LGBT

Wearing shorts

Emissions standards

Liberal religion/my churches

Finding all of the African restaurants and hanging out in downtown Richardson

Things I’m not looking forward to in America

The long plane ride to get there

So many freaking white people

Gas prices

A lack of sketchy bars and cheap bottled beers

Non-colorful money…and pennies

My bed

Houses with insulation

Having to actually travel long-ish distances to get to a store

The looks I’ll get when I respond “I’m fine, thank you. How are you?” When someone asks me how I am

Things I’m going to miss about Rwanda:

Cheap public transportation

Motos

Sketchy bars

Beers for just over a dollar

Cheap shisha

Primus

The regular ego boost I get from men who, erm, appreciate the fact that I’m a muzungu woman

PKVs (the adorableeeee children here)

Walking everywhere

The hills and gorgeous scenery

The music

The super clean streets

My bed here!!!

Alimentations

My babies!!!

Being able to buy fruit and popcorn on the street for really cheap

The spectacular view from our house

Pausing just to listen to the Adhan

All the colorful fabric and African clothes

RTV shows about Japan

How easy it is to go to another country

Nyamirambo

Rwandan music videos

Things I’m not going to miss about Rwanda

Getting stared at all the freaking time

African English

People following me around in stores

Rwandan men always asking for my number and asking me to come visit them at their house

Breathing the exhaust from all the cars

Getting hissed at

Rwandans ALWAYS shutting the windows on hot, smelly buses

Akagera

A few weeks ago, Ben, Katy, Alissa, Tigranna, Talia, and I went to Akagera National Park for safari number two! Tigranna and Talia are from the other SIT group. We woke up at around 3:30 in the morning, well at least I did. We had originally planned on staying up all night and partying, but I’m lame and decided to go to sleep while everyone else went out to a Kamichi concert (a Rwandan pop star who just so happens to be Ben’s brother. I’ll name drop for him). We woke up, packed a few snacks, and met our driver and our car near the top of our road. After picking up the other members of our group, we set out on the 2 hour drive east to Akagera. I probably slept most of the way there because I really don’t remember it, but we were pretty excited when we got there! We took pictures at the gate then headed in to see the giraffes and zebras (our main goal since we’d seen most of the other big animals already). Long story short—the scenery was beautiful, but our guide sucked. We saw a bunch of hills and cloud filled valleys…oh, and we saw a few animals too. There were (after a few hours) a fair amount of zebras and water bucks, I think they were, but we only got to see one giraffe from fairly far away. We were told before that there are just tons of zebras and giraffes, so either everyone in Rwanda lied to us, we had terrible luck, or our guide could just really care less that we really wanted to see those things. I’m pretty sure it was the latter. She basically did nothing the entire trip, which we later heard could be changed with bribes, but we had no idea at the time. Oh well. Overall, the whole trip really didn’t compare to Queen Elizabeth, our first safari, but at least we can say we’ve been to Akagera. So after five hours or so of attempting to find animals, we dropped our guide off and headed back to Kigali. At least we got to see a pretty sunset on the way home :)

Something that I found very interesting, though, was how little many of the Rwandans I talked to knew about the parks and animals in their own country. There are no more free roaming lions, zebras, etc. outside of parks in Africa (there goes that stereotype), and pretty much the only animals most Rwandans see are cows, goats, and chickens—domesticated farm animals. When I told a friend of mine that we were going to Akagera, he asked me if I was going to see the gorillas. I had to tell him that no, this isn’t the park with the gorillas. A week later, I told him we were going to Nyungwe (next post), and again he asked if I was going to see the gorillas. Again, I had to tell him that no, the gorillas don’t live in Nyungwe. They live in Virunga. Or Volcanoes. Either way, all foreigners here and I’d guess most of the well off Rwandans in Kigali know that the gorillas are all in the park up in the northwest of the country. But that’s exactly who tourism and the national parks in Rwanda are geared towards—the wealthy elite. I hate being called rich here, but relatively speaking, it’s true. It’s not like I have money to just throw everywhere, but I can afford to go to these parks as a special occasion. Going to see the gorillas costs $700. Akagera cost us each maybe $70 each. Nyungue hikes were each $50 and $60 for the ones we went on. Tourism, seeing your country’s prides and joys, is just not geared toward the vast majority of Rwandans, and as a result, people end up ignorant about what exists in their own country. Another story—I was at work the other day, and Ordille (or however you spell her name), the French lady, brought a movie for the kids for me to show on my computer. It was a little kids’ cartoon movie set in an African village, and at one point, a giraffe came on screen. The workers turned toward Teresa (the Spanish lady) and asked her if it was an “ihene,” a goat. No, she said. “Inka (cow)?” they asked. Nope again. She had to go get her dictionary and look up the word for giraffe in Kinyarwanda (“twiga,” as it were), but by then, most had lost interest. Another stereotype busted. Not only do Rwandans not live next door to giraffes, they have no idea what they even are. At least these women didn’t. 

Hair

So, I realize I haven't posted in forever. Here come another slew of outdated posts :)

So, let me tell you about one of the most physically painful experiences I’ve ever had.

So, for the past few months, Katy and I have been admiring Rwandan women’s hair, and after months of considering getting our hair braided, we made the foolish decision to do so. Ok, so it wasn’t entirely foolish. I do like how it looks, but god was it painful to get done! We walked through Nyamirambo looking for a salon (or saloon, as they’re called here), and we didn’t have to walk all that far because right at the top of our road, there are several. One that we walked past beckoned us over, and even though they didn’t speak much (if any) English, we still were able to communicate that we wanted twisty braids with sparkles in them :) So after we worked out a price and bought the extensions for our hair (4 packets for me and 3 for Katy, mind you), we sat down on some cushions, and the ladies got to work. We started off with two ladies each working on our hair—Mama Zainabu started working on my little wispy baby hairs on the back of my neck, and another lady started working on the baby hairs around my temples. Moral of the first five minutes—baby hairs are not meant to be braided. Just imagine someone yanking on 5-10 of them at a time for maybe a minute each and then moving to the next set. So that was painful. Then they moved to the hair around my temples and the hair on the back of my head, which, as we discovered, were more painful than the baby hairs. Really, there wasn’t a spot on my head that wasn’t more than fairly painful. We ended up sitting there hunched over for nine hours total with one break-ish that lasted maybe 5 minutes. Probably not even. They had Katy and me facing each other for a while so we could talk, but after a few hours they turned us, so I basically spent the rest of my time burying my head and gritting my teeth into my knees. I got to sit in a chair for a little while, and that was probably the best part of my day. It was also right about then that Ben got off work to bring us the heavenly snacks of chapatti, pringles, cookies, and banana beer. God, did we need the banana beer. Why we didn’t drink heavily before doing this is completely beyond me. Alcohol is clearly the best pain reliever in a situation such as this. It’s a great boredom reliever as well. We had brought our computers thinking we could put a dent in our papers…how foolish of us. We’d also brought books like any good muzungus…also not an option. Basically, the only thing you can really do is sit there and deal with the pain. Sounds fun, right? That’s why we definitely agreed that this was a once in a lifetime opportunity. ONCE in a lifetime. Never again. There were also plenty of “now I know what it feels like to be scalped by the Indians” jokes, and a fair amount of appreciation for the fact that the ladies doing our hair could not understand what we were saying or the words we were using. At times, I really felt like they were just making this extra painful just to spite us or get revenge at muzungus. I was pretty convinced of that. Anyway, after this was all over, they trimmed the flyaways from our braids and then doused our heads with boiling water to set our braids. They used artificial hair, so maybe it melted the plastic into place? I’m really not sure. All I know was that I was so thankful to be done!!! So now my hair goes at least halfway down my back, covers my chest, and is heavier than it’s ever been. It also contains 450 braids, which, in my opinion, is completely unnecessary. But it’s pretty and makes me feel like the rastas who hang out at Juicy (a café/hookah bar). And it has little sparkles in the front, so I guess it’s alright. I’ve had two braids fall our so far, and on both occasions, I’ve cherished the fact that I’ve still found my real hair in its place. It’s so soft, and it still exists :) I feel like I finally understand the Rwandan obsession with muzungu hair. Also, I’m really not sure how to wash it. Rwandans/Black people in general just don’t really need to, from what I understand. They just put oil in it. My scalp obviously makes enough oil on its own, and so it’s gotten rather itchy. I’m sure I’ll figure it out eventually :)

Lunch dates

So, this past week has essentially been a week of lunch dates. I’m finally giving in and making friends with some of the most persistent men who have been after me. Crazy, right? Only they’re not. They’re just Rwandans. Welcome to culture shock. So the first dude was a guy I met at bourbon months ago. Even after I ignored him more or less for at least a month, he still persisted. So I let him take me to a place in town that had these really good veggie burgers (Shake n Sip, for the curious). It wasn’t too bad, actually. I didn’t have to do much of the talking—he pretty much took care of that. Have I mentioned how many times I work Marvin into a conversation with Rwandan men, including this one? Because I do. A lot. They all know him variously as my boyfriend, my fiancé, or my husband. And yet the lunch dates still ensue. The one the next day wasn’t much of a lunch date. I basically sat at Simba and drank coffee while this waiter whom I was supposed to meet there came to talk to me every once in a while. Kind of awkward, but whatever. The third one was yesterday with a guy who works at an alimentation near my work. He greets me about 4 times a day, always asks me the same questions, gives me free cookies and drinks, and thinks Marvin is a good boy. Yet he still wants me to drop Marvin in favor of him. Not happening, as I told him :)  Rwandan men just reallyyyyyyy don’t get it. Anyway, so we went to this one buffet nearby, which was actually really good. This time I basically had to do all the talking though. Not my forte. But, I’ve actually had one lunch date that I’ve actually looked forward to this week! And I’m currently writing this post from their living room. Teresa, the Spanish lady I work with, invited me to her house today (Friday) for lunch, which is awesome! I’ll let you know what we had as soon as we’re done eating :) (delicious pasta, beets and raisins, salad, and roasted veggies!)

Before we came to her house though, we went to go visit her housemate at work. I should preface this by clarifying that they’re both…I’m not sure what you call them. Members of a Catholic secular institute? They’re a part of the Obreras de la Cruz, workers of the cross. I think they take similar vows to those of nuns, but they don’t wear any distinctive clothes and they live on their own. Teresa has been here for 5 years working at the orphanage the whole time, and the other lady (whose name I forget) has been here for 8 working at a medical center in Nyamirambo (our neighborhood). The center really is right in and amongst the people. It’s surrounded by shops, houses, vendors, etc. Apparently the people around here value this place so much that during the genocide, they protected this place and would not allow the interhamwe or soldiers to destroy it as happened with most other institutions. Teresa’s housemate works in the nutrition center working with malnourished children. They make sure the kids get a well-balanced and protein rich meal every day or every week or however often they need to come in. We also got to see the dispensary, pharmacy, lab, the TB center, and the HIV/AIDS center. The TB center was especially interesting because they deal with resistant TB. When we were touring the nutrition center, we saw the rations of food (these little dried fish/minnows, which are apparently really high in protein, sorghum, and…something else) for the TB patients. Apparently they have to follow a diet high in protein, though I’m not really sure why.

Other than that, our house has still been absolutely amazing, and it’s made me really not want to leave! I think a lot of the down times I had earlier this semester were caused by (or at least not helped by) living with my homestay family. Don’t get me wrong, I love them, but living with 5 siblings who scream, cry, and invade my room—especially when I’m sleeping (sometimes all at the same time) was pretty rough. Not to mention the fact that I felt like I had no control over my life. Yeah, it was easier when someone else cleaned the floors, cooked the food, and did my laundry, but I wouldn’t trade that for the independence I have now. I’m basically only accountable to myself and my friends, and since we’re all basically on the same page, it alleviates a lot of the stress. Another awesome part of our house is that we have a pet now. Her name is Ubuki “bootch” Panther Beals—any one of those names for short. Oh, and she’s a little black cat. Apparently the muzungu who lived here before us had her as a pet and then just left her. We’ve also decided that she’s Muslim. She also really likes to eat our food. Especially while it’s sitting on the counter as we’re preparing it. When literally throwing her off the counter doesn’t help, we’ve taken to just luring her outside with a piece of food and locking her out. She then proceeds to sound as pitiful as possible so we’ll let her back in. But speaking of food! We’ve been able to make the most wonderful food since we’ve been here—pizza chapatti calzone things, garlic bread, carrots and green beans (a Rwandan dish), pasta, pancakes, rolex for breakfast every morning, cheesy fries, and guacamole!!! With chapatti chips. I’ve missed that stuff. I’ve also attempted tofu brochette (kebabs), but I haven’t tried them yet because right after I finished making them, I realized I was stuffed. I’ll get to those at some point, but I’m not sure how they’ll be reheated. Another reason I love our house—location! We have the most beautiful view, we hear about 10 calls to prayer, we basically have a bar at the end of our driveway, and less than a minute down the road, there are 3 well stocked alimentations. We basically never need to leave our neighborhood :) Oh, and I love my bed. So. So. Much.

On Thursday, Katy and I went to the market in Nyamirambo, which is amazing! It’s got just about everything, though it’s not quite as big or as organized as the market Ben and I went to the first week. But the best part about this one was the fabric! They had so many gorgeous pieces, it was hard to choose! I thought I was going to use the fabric I got in “Uganda” ( ;) ) for my long, traditional dress, but I found some blue, yellow, orange, and white fabric there that I liked even more, so I think I’ll use that instead. I plan on getting that, a sun dress or two, a skirt or two, and a laptop cover made. And then I plan on using whatever scraps are left over to make awesome things like bracelets and headbands. I’m basically just not going to bring back half of my clothes that I brought here :P I’ve worn them all out anyway. Katy, Tameshia, and I are all going out to get them made sometime soon once we all have our fabrics and know exactly what we want. I can’t wait!!! They’ll be gorgeous. In the meantime, our living room will be covered in beautiful fabric :) Oh, and the three of us also need to get our hair braided sometime soon :)