My Gang

Future Trophy Wife

Everyday as I walk down the street, I see fabulous t-shirts on people! Some seem to be cast off’s from companies that maybe didn’t sell out, but others are clearly from some American teenagers closet (“Go through your clothes and pick out what you don’t wear! There are kids in Africa with no clothes). I don’t know how they get here, but here is a sampling of the awesome t-shirts I have seen. Sadly, I couldn't take pictures of the shirts because: A. Its rude  B. People often want money for photos of them. Also, all the ages I put are estimated.

My name is TROUBLE

and I earned it

( On a 5 year old girl)

F.B.I.

(on a 7 year old boy)

Blondes have

MORE FUN !

(On a grown-up Rwandese woman)

Watch Out For Fishing Fever

(Illustrated with pictures of fly fishing gear)

Jerks

<3 (Heart)

Me

(On a 12 year old girl)

FUTURE

TROPHY

WIFE

(On a 18 year old BOY)

“I feel like a spoiled princess”

This “weekend” I traveled to see several friends and their different sites. The common thread between all of our housing is that there is no commonality. Everyone has completely different situations regarding, proximity to town, toilets, water, nuns etc etc. Regardless, everyone seems to be handling their respective situations with grace and goodwill. But, after seeing the different sites, I feel like such a spoiled princess! I cannot believe I complained about the 8th biggest town 2 hours from Kigali! I also did not realize how unused to Muzungu other towns are. In my town, I get stares and shouts but in others-full on crowds gather to gawk and stare. Now that I know how many people do not have running water or proper toilets, I am praying praying praying my  next house does. I may be spoiled, but I am used to it now!

Friday: Murder She Wrote

 

Jo at her vintage typewriter

Friday, John and I met in Kigali to go to see Jo in Shirongi. Shirongi is only 30-45 minutes from Kigali and we took a minbus. Because we had no idea where to get off, we simply said Shirongi as much as possible in hopes that someone would take pity on us when we reached the correct stop. Calling Shirongi a town is generous. There is about one block with a few random stores and one alimentation that sells stale donuts.

Jo lives on the property of school run by nuns. Jo lives in a  charming little house with a yard that houses 2 completely useless guard dogs. The dogs will only bark at each other, and treat all humans as lovely friends. She does not have running water, but she does have Sister Act to feed her and generally look after her.  Access to other food is one of her main problems, she must go in to Kigali to buy anything besides bananas.

After a delicious dinner of stale doughnuts, milky tea and hard boiled eggs-complements of La Bonne Address  alimentation, we settled in for a full disc of Flight of the Concords. It was business time.

Saturday: Rapunzel

Meghan on top of her mountain

Saturday morning, the three J’s set off to Muzanze to see Kim, Jenn, Emma and Meghan. Everyone except Meghan lives walking distance to the city of Muzanze. Meghan lives a 30 min moto ride up a mountain. We tried ad tried to get a bus, but none of the buses would stop for us. So, as a last resort, we climbed in the back of a blue pick up truck and arranged to be dropped in Muzanze. The ride was amazing! Green hills as far as the eye can see, as well as two waterfalls. We arrived safely and met up with the “Muzanze Girls” for some shopping at the market.

John, Jo and I all stayed with Meghan. Getting up to her house is considerable job. The moto ride alone costs 1500RWF (my bus from Nyanza to Kigali is 1400). Then, you actually have to travel straight up a mountain. The views are breathtaking and the ride is actually pretty fun. But, while Meghan has a beautiful view and a recently re-done school, once she is on the mountain, there is no access to food at all. She has to buy everything and then take it up on a moto. She has no running water and pit latrines but she does have a friendly peace crops volunteer named Katie next door. Did I mention she can see volcanoes from her front door?

Traveling to Muzanze

 

Jo and Jane being super mature at a buffet

Sunday: Harold and Kumar Go To Matimba

Susan in Matimba, Rwanda with views of Tanzi and Uganda

Sunday morning, after much discussion, I spilt from John and Jo and decided to head further north to Matimba to see Susan.  Problem is that you have to take a 2 hour bus ride back to Kigali and then another 3 hour bus ride back up to Matimba. I was feeling pretty calm about the trip length when our bus tire blew. So, everyone got out of the bus and watched from the side of the road as the driver changed the tire. After 30 minutes we were on our way again. By the time I reached Matimba it was past 6 o’clock. Harold and Kumar, I mean  Hewsan and Mitesh, were already there and the four of us settled down for dinner. We ordered at one place, but they didn’t have anymore food. They were also shocked to see women drinking in public and brought us our check without asking (trust me, this has never happened in Rwanda before).  we picked up some bananas and chapati and found another bar. Shortly, we were joined by a lovely, well spoken young man who wanted to speak English with us.  He told us that he wanted to be a doctor, and then Mitesh and Hewsan spent half and hour telling him how hard it was and how old he would be when it was done.  But, apparently the boy held no ill will towards them for their downer career advice but turned to me and said “I don’t like your smile.”  This of course made me want to smile. Often, I laugh, smile and giggle from nervousness or when placed in uncomfortable situations. So I bit my lip and stared and him. “It is plastic” he said. He went for a bit longer before I started nudging everyone and getting up to say goodbye. Me and my plastic smile made it back to Susan’s with my friends. After a brief and very mature marker fight, we went to sleep.

Monday, Tuesday: KatrInga Inn

Princess Suite at KatrInga Inn

I was supposed to head home on Monday but was seduced by the hospitality of the KatrInga Inn. Katrina and Inga are roommates who live 15 minutes outside of Kigali. They have a sizable house and take their role as hostess very seriously, even going as far as to purchase an extra mosquito net drape over the couches/guest beds. We met up with Zach and Evan and went to Chez KatrInga.  After a quick detour to Quiz Night at Sol e Luna restaurant, we went back to their house and drank cheap wine and listened to my Angry Rap mix.

Tuesday morning, Susan woke up in terrific pain so we took a short trip to King Fasiel hospital. It turned out that she was dehydrated and after a quick fix and some tests, we were on our way. We took it easy Tuesday night and watched “Bringing Up Baby”

King Fasiel Hospital has priorities

Dinner with our gracious hosts

Wednesday: Home Sweet Home

Wednesday was for shopping and then the bus home. I was greeted by huge hugs from my gang and a little acapella singing of Fire Burning on the Dance Floor.

“I want to help you”

This morning I woke up and decided to visit the King’s palaces in Nyanza. The Kings palaces are the main/only tourist attraction in my town. The guidebook said it was 2km from the town so I set off on my walk. The trouble with finding things in Nyanza (and most towns in Rwanda) is that there are no street names and the signposts for attractions are quite vague.  But, because one musee/palace is on a huge hill, as long as I kept that in my sights I felt reasonably okay that I was on the right path.  After 10-15 minutes of walking I started checking in with people along the road in KinderFrenGlish that I was in fact on my way. All of the sudden, a man comes up behind me and says“I want to help you”

Maybe its because I am from New York or maybe its some deep internal damage, but I am pretty sure that everyone who: a.walks behind me, b.speaks to me and c. offers to lead me somewhere is plotting my murder and subsequent chopping up of my carcass into little pieces. I tried to tell him that I was fine, but he insisted and we walked along the road together chatting in English. Derek is a University student of veterinary medicine and speaks Kinderwanda, French, English, Swahili and a little Ugandan. I made the Rwanda faux pas of asking about his parents and he told me his father had died in the genocide. He moved on from that topic and onto American music seamlessly and soon we arrived at the King’s Palace. Then he shook my hand and walked off to my repeated shouts of “Murakoze Cyane! Thank you! Asante Sana! Murakoze!”

Traditional palace

Now for the history lesson. There are 3 palaces in Nyanza. The first is a traditional one. Kings lived here until 1931 when the Belgians deposed King Musinga for refusing to convert to Christianity. They installed his son Rudahigwa as King and built him a new modern abode. In 1957 the King decided he wanted a new, bigger and more modern home and began building a new palace on a hilltop nearby.  The King died before it was finished in 1959 and never lived in it. For 1000 RWF ($2) you get a guided tour around the first 2 palaces and then sent off along the road to the third.

Door to King’s Bedroom

Ceiling of traditional palace 

Palace constructed by Belgians in 1931

I was walking along the road on my way to the last palace, that is now an art museum, when a bus with 2 men pulled up beside me and asked me where I was going. They said they would take me to the museum. I got in thinking they probably weren't going to kill me but that they might try to charge me an exorbitant amount for the short journey. But, when I got out, they wouldn’t let me pay at all! So, the lesson I learned today was that it seems possible not everyone is actually trying to kill, rob or maim me. Apparently, in Rwanda sometimes people do just actually want to help you. This doesn’t mean I am going to start wandering down any dark alleys with strange men (ahem…Michelle) but still a nice lesson to keep in mind.

Palace finished in 1959

View from Balcony

Surprise!

The vast majority of the group lasted a full 36 hours in our sites before hightailing it back to Kigali. Funny and true, but it was actually for a good reason. Eric, a program manger for WorldTeach who is based in Boston but has been here for 2 months helping Kelly Jo with orientation, left Wednesday morning. The Kigali dwellers (Loren, Mitesh, Inga and Katrina) came up with the idea of a surprise goodbye dinner. So 14 of out 18 people headed back to Kigali (in all fairness, the ones who came are the closest and/or have the most desperate site situations). Our cover was blown  when Eric walked into the coffee shop where some of the early arrivees had gathered. But, we still managed a little surprise when he showed up to dinner with almost the whole group! The group mostly slept in our sleeping bags on Loren and Mitesh’s  very comfortable concrete floor.

I am back in Nyzana now but making plans to leave again for the weekend. On my return to Nyanza I had the best welcome home ever! One of the children spotted me at the top of my road, he came and grabbed my hand led me down the path. (side note- whenever the leave the house, two of them take my hands and lead me up to the road. Then, once they have reached their threshold of  how far they can travel, they shake my hands and give me hugs and wave me off) Once we turned onto my little road/path someone spotted us and yelled something akin to “Muzungu is home” and the gang assembled and started helping me carry my bags.  I got lots of hugs and what seemed like genuine enthusiasm for my (and my ipod) return. At my porch children’s request, I downloaded some Soulja Boy- so hopefully soon I will have access to fast enough internet to upload a video of them dancing.

Nyanza Sunset (view from my back porch)

Sideshow freak

I arrived in my town for real on Sunday and of course school has been pushed back 2 weeks to the beginning of February.  So, I have 2 weeks to walk around town and get to know people. Being a muzungu (white person) in a small Rwandan town is not unlike being a circus freak. Mostly, its not unpleasant to be a walking sideshow, once you get used to being stared at. 75% of the people are happy to see such funny little cute freak and are even happier when said freak speaks in their language (even just a few words). 25% seem wary and suspicious of freaks, especially if they have figured out that sideshow freaks are inherently rich. This 25% feels no shame in laughing at you to your face. A small minority often asks for money right off the bat. In their defense, if someone told me all men were Bill Gates, I would probably beg, borrow or steal every time I saw a man as well.  Worth a shot.

Nyanza is gorgeous, lush green hills and red dirt roads as far as you can see. The house I am staying in for the next 2 weeks is really nice and quite big. There are about 6 rooms that could be used as bedrooms, so I have turned one room with a bed into my boudoir and dragged an armchair into another for my den. No indoor kitchen, only a hotplate on the floor.  There is a porch out front where the children from the neighborhood gather. They are very sweet kids who speak no English. Today while Sue (my peace corps roommate who will be staying in my house once the furniture and I leave) was out, I played my iPod for the kids and they drew pictures on my index cards. The crowd ranges at any given time from 6-12 kids ages 4-13. One of the older girls often carries her baby sister on her back, and whenever the baby wakes up and sees me, she screams! I mean screams. And doesn’t stop until taken away. Despite the fact that the baby thinks I am a monster, I will really miss them when I move. My headmaster has promised to find me a new house in the next 2 weeks. If this is 2 Rwandan weeks, I could be here for quite awhile.. Kelly Jo, the amazing field director, has promised to come up and find me a permanent home in Nyanza in 2 actual weeks. Stay tuned.

In my leisure (and because Sue doesn’t want a house girl) I did my first serious load of laundry in Rwanda. While I am proud of myself, I am also excited to get someone else to do it for me.

Orientation is over!

Goodbye Dinner at Soleil Luna

Zach and John

Meghan, Me and Susan

Kelly Jo and Katrina

Katrina, Mitesh and John

Dinners out often take a long time, so we often resort to games.

Dinner fun

 

I mean, dinners take a really long time

Last Day in Kigali

 

Last chance for Bourbon (Rwanda Starbucks) ! A to go cup-in Africa!

Roomies and neighbors

Jo’s jeans were truly gnarly and smelled up our entire room

The crappiest nice hotel I have ever been to

When we first walked in to our hotel in Nyzana it was glorious. TV’s and balconies. We said we would come here whenever things got bad at our placements. This is no longer the case. These are all the bad, crazy, and twilight zone happenings that made me swear to never frequent this hotel again.

1. Our first night, it took a full 2 hours for food to come. We ordered around 6 and Susan jokingly said 7:43 but ha! Food came AT 8:15. Jane “I am so close to tears, you don't know” then food came. veg pizza with peas and cassava and the biggest bastardization of a croque monsier ever created (a hamburger on wonder bread). (Sunday)

2. Food poisoning for Jane after said meal despite abstaining from meat. (Monday)

3. Monsoon in rooms. On Monday, it rained. Subsequently, there was massive flooding in Meghan and Susan & Jo and Jane rooms which would have been easily fixed by a rubber stopper under the balcony doors or drains on balcony. (Monday)

4. The ruckus. People in hotel bar sang football songs and rioted from 12-3:30 AM.  Eventually, the manager of the hotel shut off the power to discourage the rioters. This did not work, so Jo and I listened to David Sedaris read “Holidays on Ice” until our bodies just gave out into sleep. (Monday night to Tuesday morning) 

5. Spaghetti Bolognese– Apparently, the only palatable thing on the menu was Spaghetti Bolognese (spag bog to the brits)but they doled it out randomly. Sometimes, people would order it only to be told 1/2 hour later they didn't have it. But, at the same time, people in different parts of the hotel were getting it.  This finally got the better of Jo, who cried out after waiting 45 minutes in the hotel restaurant for her food, only to be told they didn’t have it: “He was effectively holding us hostage” (Tuesday)

5.  Sketchy balcony situation/Naked neighbors. Susan was out on her balcony one night we looked over and saw that her neighbors were also enjoying their balcony-naked. Soon after, the man knocked on her door and “offered to buy her a bottle” (Tuesday night)

7. mini ruckus-I went down alone in my pajamas and threatened to call the police. This prompted a “hotel safety and security” talk the next day, (Tuesday night Wednesday Morning)

8. Chicken death. They were killing chickens in the open in the back of our hotel  (right in front of our balconies) Enough said. (Wednesday)

9. il plurait dans ma chambre-encore. Jo and I were given a different room to sleep in as it was raining on our bed, in the bathroom and in 5 other places in the room. (Wednesday Night)

10. Goat death. They were killing and gutting goats in the open in the back of our hotel. Enough said. (Thursday)

A lesson in why not to laugh while eating oranges

A person who I like and respect

These are some of my adult students responses to our question “Please write a few sentences on a person you like or respect and why”

Pascal - “A person who I love and respect is first my mother but I love and respect everybody.

My mama because she gave me life, she keeped (kept) me since I born and during my life. She gave me all I wanted if she had it and learned me to be on this world simple, loving another, and help anybody who needed me.

Hermogene- I LOVE MY WIFE

This is because she is one who chose me among all other  boys. She take care of both me and my son. Together we make ourselves happy and we plan and work for the future. So, I love her so much.

Charles– In my life, I love and respect so much my ground mother because she keeped (kept) me since I was eight years old after my mother dieing (died).

Jane- I love my father because he prays for me every day.

I love my teacher Jane because we have the same noun (name).

 

Jonathan – I love God because he gave us his son who is died for me.

 

Jean - I like my mother so much because she made me what I am now. She gave me the school fees and she adviced (advised) me in order to have the good manners. She did many things to develop my mind and grow up physically. So I think to God for what God do for me through my mum.

May God help my Mum and Rwanda.

 

A good old gentleman with lots of cows.

I missed yesterday's teaching practice becuase I was sick. But I am feeling a bit better so I made it to class today. WorldTeach advertised free English lessons in the community so that we would have a pool of people to practice our teaching on. Becuase we are in my town and the ad's were geared towards adults, we got about 40 teachers, many of whom teach at my school. We spilt the group of teachers into 2 groups. Susan and Loren took half and Kim and I took the others. (The other groups got kids who showed up and lower level speakers).
A few people walked in saying they wanted to meet Jane who was absent yesterday which was a great feeling for me right off the bat. Then when I introduced myself and I said I would be living in Nyanza and teaching at Ecole des Sciences- they clapped and said "You are very welcome" It was a great welcome and defintely made me smile. It also overshadowed the man who came up and asked me if I was single. (Mzungu wives are very sought after but more on that later). I was very impressed with people's english skills and their desire to learn more. We asked people to talk about some of their goals for the next 5 years (future tense and public speaking practice) and the answers were amazing! Almost everyone said they wanted to improve their English so they could communicate with forgeiners and travel. Getting better jobs and communicating in the global economy was also a big theme. My favorite was a name named Pascal. He is probably in his 60's or 70's and he stood up and told the class "My goals for the next 5 years is to speak more english and to be a good old gentleman who has a lot of cows and is happy"

“I chewed and chewed and then I gave up and choked on it”

When living abroad, the W curve of culture shock and adjustment is often discussed. The crux of this theory is that people experience highs and lows and then settle into their new surroundings. Then, when one goes home, the readjustment process produces the same highs and lows. What is less talked about it the fact that you may experience cultural highs and lows many times in the same day, or even hour.  Yesterday, this is what happened to me.

Early Sunday morning, my entire group got a bus to Nyanza, where I will be living for the year.  The school I will be teaching at had offered to let us do our teaching practicum there with adults and teachers in the community. I was so excited to get off the bus. The people were friendly, there was one main road, and the Brandt guide had been pretty correct when describing a the town’s “Wild West” feel.  Kelly Jo (our amazing field director) had wrangled a a great price in the nicest hotel in town. Then they ran out of normal double rooms and were forced to give me and Jo (my roommate) a huge room with a TV (4 channels!!) and a balcony. The entire group was totally jazzed.

Jo/ Michelle Obama on our balcony

Then we set off for the orphanage near my new house. Kelly Jo and I decided to stop in to my house and say hello to the peace corps volunteer living there. I found out last week that my school had agreed to let a 68 year-old peace corps volunteer live in the house with me.  She isn’t teaching at my school, but a nearby one and apparently the headmasters had decided this was the best plan. So we knock on the door to meet  my new roomie Sue. We had been there 2 minutes when it became apparent that she had no idea I was going to be living there too. So Kelly Jo and I had to break the news to her. She was very nice about it but clearly shocked.  It does represent pretty serious communication break down, and I was put in the position of feeling bad about something clearly not my fault. But, I got into my good attitude bubble and walked to my school with Kelly Jo to meet my new headmaster. Jean was incredibly sweet (and an hour late) and said I was his new daughter. His English is quite good and I tried to speak in French but he didn’t seem interested. I got a nice feeling from my school and set off for the orphanage. Jean walked us there, stopping to greet everyone we passed (headmasters have high status) The orphanage is beautiful, set over a lot of land and green hills. It is run by an Italian priest who spent the afternoon playing volleyball with the kids. I told the priest I would be back next week to play with the babies! (My school year got pushed to Feb so now we have 2 weeks in between end of orientation and the start of the school year). My friends from WorldTeach were high on my town and the orphanage and everyone told me how much they wanted to come back all the time and visit. I had a hot shower at the hotel and headed down to dinner.

My School

Anna and Ernestine

We decided to eat at the hotel as there is a TV and the African Nations Cup was starting at 7:30. We sat down around 6 and ordered around 6:15. The food came at 8:11 by which time we were all delirious with hunger. It was a brutal 2 hours.  I had ordered a croque madame pas de jambon and they brought…. a hamburger shoved in between 2 pieces of untoasted wonder bread spread with 1000 Island dressing with a few fries on the side which presented a serious problem as I do not eat meat in Africa unless served it by a Headmaster or King.  I thought about bursting into tears but decided against it, ate the bread and any french fries I could get my hands on. Everyone else was having a similar experience with their food and the gloom over the table was palpable. Jo ordered goat brochette (kebab) which she could barely get down. In fact, I looked over at one point and it seemed she had given up on getting it down. After she was breathing again, the immortal quote “I chewed and chewed and then gave up and choked on it” was born.

Susan and Jo gazing at bread scraps we unearthed in our room during the epic wait.

Susan, Jo, Meghan and I decided that instead of going to bed feeling low, we would play a round of yuker and then pass out. We laughed about dinner and the rest of the day. I went to bed feeling slightly overwhelmed by the reality of my situation but hopeful and positive. And then I woke up with food poisoning.

PostScript: I won’t have as much internet access in Nyanza (I think) until I am at my school fulltime which has wifi. My plan is to write my entries on my computer and then post them all when I get internet.

PostPostScript: Il plurait dans ma chambre. The rain flooded the balcony and subsequently our room today.