Mwaramutse!
Apologies for taking so long to write, with more sorries to those who have been nagging me about it. I always have the best of intentions after work, thinking that I'll write something when I get home, but then I'm always so tired and distracted, and I tell myself that I'll do it later...which I obviously never have until now.
When I met Sonia, the Assistant to the Country Director of Access Project, she mentioned that everyone in Rwanda, no matter how rich or poor, lives in a place with a gorgeous view. She's right. Rwanda is absolutely beautiful! The country is known as the place of a thousand hills, and so the landscape is breathtaking just about everywhere. I'm planning on doing some more traveling on the weekends so I can see more of the country. There's supposedly a magnificent lake in the west, mountains with crater lakes and gorillas to visit in the Northwest, and monkeys to track in the Southwest. So hopefully, I'll be able to find the time to travel!
I'm actually living in Rwamagana right now, a small town about 1 hour east of Kigali, the capital of Rwanda. I'm living in a hostel, have my own bathroom (woot woot!) and a magical source of cold water that hasn't failed me yet. I'm still getting used to the ice cold showers in the morning, despite the fact that I've been taking them for over 2 weeks now. I'm also getting used to the unique looking critters I find on the walls of my room every now an dthen. My walls don't actually connect to my ceiling (I can't figure out how the ceiling actually stays up) which means that there's a nice big gap all along the perimeter of my room that exposes me to the tin room above, and all the insects that crawl in between. I'm thinking about starting a photo journal of all the interesting ones I've met. So far, they include 1 bright red caterpillar, 1 black furry caterpillar that crawled up thorugh my shower drain right before I started my shower one morning, a HUGE 3 legged spider that I couldn't bring myself to kill because he looked like he'd been through a lot of trauma, a 3 inch long dead cricket, about 5 small burly spiders, and a little red millipede. I think the only reason I think the insects are interesting is because I sleep with a mosquito net tucked around me every night...
The rent is expensive at my place, since it caters to muzungus like me, which everyone here seems to think have tons of money, which I don't. However, some awesome Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) friends of mine are trying to get me a room in their complex, where I'll end up paying 30$ a month. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
Work is... going? I'm still getting situated with all my responsibilities but I'm trying to hit the ground running. I was given a CD that supposedly had all important documents in it from my organization... however, when I opened it, it was empty! Haha. I had to get all the documents to read from my PCV co-worker!
I've forgotten how slow life was in Ghana, when I did research there 3 summers ago, and now that I'm in Rwanda, it has all come rushing back to me. There may be a time when I'll need to find a new project so that I can set my own pace, but I still have a lot of learning to do about my current work so I'm ok for now.
To end this email, I thought I'd list some interesting things that I've noticed about Rwandans since I've arrived. If you have any insight or plausible explanations that could explain anything, please let me know, since I'm quite bewildered.
1. People here, I swear, can see in the dark. For example, when walking to a PCV's apartment for her birthday party one evening, I had to go home first to grab my flashlight. I seriously couldn't see a thing. And then, while walking with my flashlight, I saw bunches of people standing on the road talking normally, as if they could actually see each other. And it was incredibly dark, as in no moon or stars, and if a person was standing in front of you and not making a sound, you wouldn't be able to see them. I don't even know how you would even go about meeting someone in the dark! Would you be like..." Hey! Meet me at dark corner #2 on road A." I'm guessing that meeting in the dark is just something of a necessity, because people don't have flashlights here and since we're almost on the equator, its dark about 12 hours a day. But, I'm also hoping that their night vision is something they get from their food... and by the time August rolls around, I'll be able to see in the dark!
2. There are no road signs anywhere. Not even in Kigali, the city. People just know where to go. When I got sick last week, I had to ask my driver to bring me to a private doctor's office in Kigali. And the directions online on how to get there was "100 meters behind L'Alimentation BCK supermarket, Route en Terre, near the Belgian School near Traerz Polic." I'm like...huh? It was a good thing that my driver knew exactly where the office was.
3. For some odd reason, chicken is way more expensive here than goat, lamb, or beef. The other day, I went to a restaurant to get some dinner, and they had the option of a goad bruchette for 500 Rwandan francs (Rfr) or a chicken dish for 6000 Rfr! I still can't get over the price difference. Chickens take the least investment to grow (time and food, since they just eat what's on the ground)... but they cost the most! For a cow to mature, it takes at least several years, and cows need more food, and more time to take care of them, etc. You would think that growing a chicken would take a fraction of the time and resources as it takes to raise that much meat from one cow...but then again, what would I know?
On a related note, I did meet a woman selling bananas who was trying to sell me and my friend 2 bananas for 150 Rfr each banana, or a bunch of 8 bananas for 400Rfr. If she was trying to trick us, she definitely gave herself away with the price she stated for the bunch. Or perhaps her math skills are a bit off. I have no idea. We ended up taking 4 bananas, and paying 50 Rfr each, which apparently is an ok price.
4. It seems to me that people here don't drink water. I've never seen anyone drink water out in public. And, I talked to Karen, a fellow intern who is doing a home stay, and she said that her family drinks about a cup of water a day each person, and they're fine. It's crazy. She has to sneak a boiler in her room to boil water herself so she can stay hydrated. I don' t know how Rwandans do it!
Anyway, this post is long enough, so I'll leave you with some pictures. :)
Karen looking cute in a packed bus. We were on our way to Kibungo to visit some friends. At the time of the picture, I was unfortunately in the death seat (the front seat with a clear view of the road ahead). I call it the death seat because I had about 5 panic attacks when we were swerving in and out of oncoming traffic...
Turtle bread from Gakenke. If only they made it in my town! I believe it may be the softest, cutest, most delicious bread made in Rwanda. Most of the bread in Rwanda doesn't taste like anything other than hard staleness...and that's not even a taste. But this! This bread is di-vine! I always bite the head off first, so that the turtle won't have to see his own demise...
I know that this picture of two water boilers looks lame, but for me, the day I bought my water boiler was the day that I started feeling like I had control over my life in Rwanda. Before I bought the boiler, I was always dependent on buying bottled water in the stores, which was a pain when I was out in the field since they don't have bottled water in a lot of places. And because there was always a limited supply, I found myself unconsciously rationing what I drank so I was always a bit dehydrated. At about a mile above sea level, being dehydrated is horrible! So yes, I love my water boiler with all my heart!
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