3 posts from June 2008

     Friday was a much more encouraging day than our wild traveling adventures on Thursday. We didn’t realize that the guesthouse we’re staying in is associated with a kind of non-profit organization called the Urukundo Home for Children, headed by a woman named Arlene Brown (it’s not really an “organization” though because it’s entirely run through this one woman and the staff she hired). Arlene – known as Mama Arlene to the children she has given a home to – started building the UHFC two years ago in order to provide a home to children whose parents had died or abandoned them. She raised enough money in the United States to build a home for 19 girls, a separate home for 15 boys, a guesthouse, a house for herself, a chicken farm, an outdoor worship facility, a memorial building, space for the children to play basketball, soccer (“football” as it’s called here), tennis, and volleyball, and the guesthouse where we’re staying. She’s also in the process of building a new girl’s home closer to where her home and the boys’ home is, along with another guest house. Her property, which seems like a little self-run village, is built on the side of a hill and she hopes to purchase the land on top of the mountain provided that plans to build a hotel there fall through.

     So, after breakfast Mama Arlene brought us to her property and gave us a very thorough tour. I couldn’t believe how immense her staff was – everywhere we turned, there was someone clearing the ground, building, taking care of the animals, cooking, tending the children… It was incredible. She said that including the children, there were about 60 people there. Amazing to think that this one woman gave homes to dozens of kids and jobs to dozen of men and women. She’s also set an example to the community, and she says she’s noticed that their neighbors have started touching up their homes and becoming better organized since they’ve seen what she’s accomplished. She hopes to expand her resources so that she can have 50 kids total. Additionally, she has hired an English-as-a-second-language teacher who comes to her house 6 days a week and gives free English classes to anyone from Gitarama who comes, provided there is space. It’s so cool! It’s really inspiring because Mama Arlene is retired and it just goes to show how you can make big accomplishments at any stage in your life. Her first attempt to build an orphanage in Kigali failed drastically when the overseer she hired in Rwanda to help her with the construction turned the whole project heyit into a money-making venue for himself. So she really had to start from scratch all over again…and she’s already accomplished so much in just two years!

     Today our friend Alice took us to Epiphanie’s home so we could meet with her and discuss the survey we’ll be using when we get started working on Tuesday. We went on foot so we could see what Gitarama is like up close. This region has tons of hills stretching as far away as we can see, mostly covered with shrubs and clusters of huts scattered on the mountaintops. The most expensive homes are made of brick and have high walls and steel gates around them – the rest are made of mud with roofs of tin or straw. There were many people out around town because Rwanda requires that one Saturday a month, anyone without work to do that day has to assist the community. This could mean repairing roads, cleaning the gutters alongside the roads, building walls…whatever public work needs to be done.

     It was a little uncomfortable being the only white people we saw, but everyone smiled and waved and loved when we took pictures of or with them. Oh wait, EXCEPT for this one moment… Ok so I took this really cute picture of Jessica with these three little boys who looked so excited to be in a picture with her, and of course I was jealous and wanted one too. So a couple minutes later I see these three little girls who were probably about 7 or 8 years old and were smiling like we were Santa Clauses. So of course I want a picture with them…but then one of the little girls went and got her baby brother to be in the picture with us and he was NOT happy! Right before the camera flashed, he started wailing and sobbing. I felt like such a horrible person even though the girls were still smiling and acted like it was no big deal. Ahhhh! Great, so much for making friends with the local kids!

     At Epiphanie’s house we went over the 23-page survey for over four hours so we were familiar with it. We wanted to make sure we were all on the same page in terms of what we’re looking for and if all the questions make sense. The Duke Global Health Institute really did an outstanding job constructing the questions and collectively the answers will definitely give us a very accurate picture of what kind of progress has been made.

     Afterward we went over our schedule for the next few weeks and then all chipped in to prepare a humongous lunch. Epiphanie’s family was so kind and they really spoiled us :)

     Tomorrow we’re going to go to a nearby Presbyterian Church in the morning and perhaps visit with Mama Arlene in the afternoon. We got to eat lunch with the UHFC boys on Friday but we haven’t yet met the girls, so it would be great if we could do that. On Monday we’re going to Kigali to have a tour of the city and visit the Genocide Memorial, which will definitely be eye-opening. It’s one thing to read about what happened here and hear stories – another to walk and talk with people whose family and friends were murdered without reason and they’re still living each day with a bright outlook and hope for the future.   

~Maddie

     The last 24 hours has been absolutely crazy. Now we’re settling down but until last night there was a hilarious series of mishaps, beginning at 3:15 am…

     Usually international flights require you to get to the airport two hours before departure, so I woke up at 3:15 and got to the airport before 4:30 for my 6:30 flight from Strasbourg to Brussels. I was so proud that I was on time (for once), until Agnes and I walked into the terminal and found that there was absolutely no one there. No staff, no travelers, no one. That’s when we remembered that flights within Europe only require you to show up an hour ahead of time – and the Strasbourg airport doesn’t open until 5 am. Sweet.

     So I set up camp on a couple of chairs in a closed café and waited for check-in to open. It did and I was first in line of course…and I discovered that they only allow one bag of 30 kg, not two. My extra bag cost an additional 90 euros (sorry to break it to you like this, mom :) haha). I struggled in French to barter with them and magically got it down to 80 euros, by which point I was getting glares from the people in line behind me who were clearly thinking, “obnoxious American tourists...” So I stopped. After security I was waiting to board the plane when I hear some gibberish over the loud speaker ending in “MADELINE PONGOR.” What??? I walked to the desk terrified that maybe something horrible happened – my connecting flight to Kigali was cancelled? My paperwork wasn’t right? They wanted the 10 euros I bartered back? The woman spoke German and very broken English, so I had no clue what was happening as she took me to a back room where my big duffel bag was sitting on a table. Another woman with gloves on asked if she could open it (what, am I gonna say no?) and then started going through my things. She found nothing suspicious I guess and zipped it up and I left. However now I can’t find my water-purifier we got especially for this trip that looks like a light-saber and supposedly zaps bacteria when put in waterbottles. I hope it turns up and that they didn’t decide to keep it 'cause I was really excited about it haha...not to mention I'm sure my parents are cringing right now.

     Jessica and I met each other at the Brussels airport after she’d flown from North Carolina through D.C. It was so awesome to see her and catch up – and it reminded me how much I miss Duke :) Our flight to Kigali was smooth and actually really comfortable since it wasn’t full. I found three seats in a row and managed to nap a little. It was so interesting to see the different kinds of people on the flight. There were a handful of American and European tourists wearing safari-esque gear, many well-dressed Rwandans, and a couple wearing traditional clothes with intricate patterns and bright colors. One man gave us some inside tips about life in Rwanda, saying that there is a very small middle class and the poverty is especially apparent in parts of Gitarama. We were surprised to hear that many items are more expensive there than in Europe – which we’d later find out is very true.

     Leaving the plane (7 pm) was such an incredible feeling because we could tell right away how distinct the air was. It smelled like firewood, clay, and something else so fresh and natural…with a little bit of airplane fuel haha. We double-checked we had everything with us, but of course I forgot that I left the pants I changed out of in an overhead compartment. And it took like an hour to get them back, by which point I was wondering if it was worth it. We got all our bags and met Epiphanie who was waiting for us with an adorable sign reading “JESSICA AND MADDIE” :) It was so nice to see a friendly, smiling face after such a long day of traveling. The two men with her (Epiphanie's friends) helped us load our bags into the jeep and we got on our way… However, we found out that the hotel we were supposed to stay in in Kigali (the same where Hotel Rwanda was filmed) was completely booked by an organization that came to the city for a conference. So instead we’d go straight to the guest house in Gitarama and go back to Kigali another day. We were actually excited to go to that hotel, but figured that it would be better just to get to the guesthouse which will be our home base while we're here.

     Gitarama is about an hour out of town, and the first half hour was going great – we were chatting with Epiphanie and our new acquaintances, windows down, so happy to FINALLY be there…when suddenly we hear a series of popping noises coming from the jeep’s hood, followed by smoke...followed by Epiphanie saying “this is not good.” Uh oh... turns out the car broke down, right in the middle of the trip, right as we were climbing a hill with no buildings or lights or anything around – just jungle all around us. It was…AWESOME!!! I was laughing inwardly the whole time. This WOULD happen. And of course as soon as they figured out the problem and fixed it an hour later, the car they called to pick us up arrived.

     We drove the last half hour without any problem, met a few of the guest house staff when we arrived, shoved a delicious meal they’d prepared for us down our throats, said goodnight to Epiphanie, and then started to settle in to our rooms. We just thought we’d just unpack what we needed for the night, but it turned into a big unpacking production that lasted a few hours. We were finally ready to go to bed, but the craziness wasn’t quite over. Just as I was zipping up the bag with all my toiletries inside, nail polish falls out of some hidden pocket, shatters on the floor and sends smelly pink liquid all over the wall and the floor. We hastily grabbed some toilet paper and tried to soak it up, then wash it up, but it had already started to eat away at the paint. Nail polish remover just made it worse. So we gave up and decided just to stop moving so nothing else good or bad could possibly happen to us. I’ve never slept so soundly in my life.

      I'll write about today in a little while - just gotta take a break since this post took longer to write than I expected. I promise today was much less complicated and what we've seen has already made yesterday well worth the craziness.