4 posts tagged “kigali”

         It was so great to retreat to Kigali for a few days and get a change of scenery. We slept in…for most college students in the summer that means rolling out of bed around lunchtime – for us it was about 9 am, but it felt way later since we’re used to getting up before 7 a lot of the time. We spent the day walking around the parts of Kigali that we were familiar with (don’t worry, Mom, these were the busy parts where they’re used to seeing tourists wandering) and dipping in gift shops sometimes…many times…um, yeah, that may have been our purpose for the day, actually. We ate lunch at an incredible Indian restaurant and dinner at an Italian restaurant – the same two places where we went with Olivier when we were going to/coming from the game-park. Sure, we could’ve tried a random place to get a new experience, but since so much of this trip has taken us by surprise, it was nice to feel like something was under our control (even if that “something” was just a curry dish and pizza). Sunday we did more of the same and came back to Butare late in the afternoon.

         This week we’re working at sites about an hour and a half away from Butare center, along the same spine-shattering dirt road where we went to do construction with the USA team. Yesterday we worked outside on the side of a hill where the wind was pretty fierce and kept snatching up our papers – and making avocados fall from the tree we were under. Great, I thought, if I don't die in an outhouse, it'll be from a falling avocado. Which would be more pathetic obituary? We survived though and moved to a different site for today's interviews, where there was no threat of falling vegetables.

         We’ve had some pretty interesting interviews this week, mainly surrounding the section where we ask about their HIV/AIDS awareness. One girl that Jessica interviewed said that she “always practiced abstinence,” even though she was noticeably pregnant. Hmm. Olivier wisely suggested, “Maybe she’s the Virgin Mary II?” Another girl today said that the only thing she remembered learning in her HIV/AIDS training was that HIV comes from gorillas. Nothing about using condoms or the symptoms of the disease or anything? Nope. How reassuring.

         The jeep stalled about 20 minutes away from Butare center and we chilled there with a crowd watching until a truck drove by and Alice happened to know those people so we hitched a ride with them. We piled into the truck, along with seven men and one small boy who were in the back, which could not have been safe. But it seems like pretty much anything goes here in Rwanda.

The best moment this week came right after we stepped out of the car on Monday ready to conduct the interviews. The first thing we see is an adorable little girl watching us. We smiled and waved and she smiled back…and then peed right there, through her pants (clearly no diaper). There were plenty of adults around, including her mother, and no one flinched as the girl just did her thing right there in the middle of the civic center compound. We were so confused, but I was more jealous than anything ‘cause I’d wanted to do that the entire car ride. If only I was a cute, innocent little Rwandan girl and not a muzungo with dozens of people watching us avidly, as if we were about to explode at any moment. 

Yep we actually did it - when we went to work today, we wore the cloth we bought at the market just like the Rwandan women. I was worried they'd think we were mocking them, but they thought it was great and everyone laughed watching us try to act like we knew how to put them on. I had three different women show me how to wear it even though all three different "arrangements" looked the same to me. Oddly enough, both Jessica and I thought we looked more Asian than African. Don't you see waitresses at Asian restaurants wearing long skirts that start above the belly button and go all the way to the floor? Right? Hmm, I wonder which came first...

After work we got on the "Volcano" public bus to Kigali with Olivier who is attending English classes here. Now we're at Bourbon Coffee having an oh so cultural experience: on the internet, drinking coffee, eating sandwiches and fries... Our excuse is that we're reaccomodating our stomachs to American food since we're going home sooner than we thought. Pretty convincing...? Maybe then while I'm at it, I'll get another breakfast sandwich... wait, no I can't- today I interviewed this guy who has five siblings and they only get to eat only one meal a day. Not as if my uneaten breakfast sandwich will magically transfer itself to his dinner table, but I still feel guilty now that I thought of him. Darn it!! 

        While y’all in the U.S. were shooting off fireworks, barbequing, and celebrating the red white & blue last Friday, Jessica and I were two of maybe 10 white people packed into a stadium of thousands of people watching…gosh, what to call it…theatrical military? Interpretive boot camp? Since the announcers all spoke Kinyarwandan, I really have no idea what it was, but it was pretty cool. Since Rwanda celebrates their Liberation Day from the genocide/dictatorship on July 4th, Gitarama hosted a big celebration featuring President Kagame speaking, several hours of parading and traditional dancing, and a bunch of military exercises. The military was definitely the coolest part since they had hundreds of soldiers demonstrate their abilities by mock-fighting. Every different exercise (there were dozens) was perfectly timed. My favorite was when a government vehicle drove out into the center of the stadium and then a bunch of soldiers in uniform encircled it, forcing the driver and passenger to stop. Out came a man and a woman, both well-dressed and looking very important. The soldiers started to ambush them, but the two politicians took off their shoes and took on all the soldiers at once! It was SO tight! And then when they’d floored every one of the soldiers, they put back on their shoes, straightened their blazers, dragged the bodies out of their path, and drove away. The crowd ate it up. I was cheering too, but I didn’t really get the point haha. Maybe it was just for entertainment value, but it surprised me how a country trying to show how devoted it is to recovering from a genocide implemented by a corrupt government and military would be so determined to show off its military prowess rather than its efforts to maintain peace.

        Saturday we spent the day in Kigali with Olivier, Gaston (a friend of Epiphanie’s who offered to be our driver for the weekend), and the President of the Rwanda division of the YWCA. We went all over town – visiting shops, going to popular spots like Bourbon Coffee and Novotel...The best came when we went to an Italian restaurant for lunch and I got to eat the first pizza I’ve had since May! It was HEAVENLY. A good cheese pizza is one of many things I took for granted at home. After saying goodbye to the YWCA President, we drove an hour east and spent the night in a motel so we could wake up early and go to the game park for our one-day safari!

        The safari was absolutely unbelievable. You can ask Jessica, I was flipping out the entire time. At first I thought it was silly to wake up at 4:30 am, but it definitely made a big difference because we saw so many animals SO fast! Within five minutes of heading out from the lodge, we came across a whole herd of antelope grazing. Five minutes later, a herd of impala. Fifteen minutes later, a herd of zebras chillin on the plain. You would think I would’ve gotten used to seeing groups of exotic animals one after the other, but I freaked out just as much when we saw the giraffes, hippos, snake, monkeys, cool birds, and other antelope-like herds too. We got SO close to the giraffes! I couldn’t believe how they would look at us but seem completely unperturbed that a big jeepful of awed tourists was gaping at them and snapping one picture each second (props, Dad?). I was kinda nervous about seeing hippos because apparently they kill the most animals out of any animal in Africa…and this park had the highest concentration of hippos IN Africa! But they stayed off-shore and just came up to get some air and wag their little ears.

        The craziest moment came when we were walking along the shore looking at a pair of the biggest birds I’d ever seen, when suddenly some dude walks out of the bushes carrying a huge python. We couldn’t believe it! He wasn’t a park guide or anything. He just walked into the bushes, grabbed a python trying to escape into the water, and walked out like “what’s up? Check this out. I’m the man.” Haha he didn’t ACTUALLY say that – it kinda went without saying because we were all stunned. It turned out that he was a Rwandan wildlife specialist and did his PhD about snakes, which sounded pretty legit. Probably not legit enough to let him drape it around our necks, but we did anyway :)

        Afterward we went to an amazing Indian restaurant that everyone was raving about, and rightfully so. It was very fancy – waterfall, golden statues, rugs, waiters wearing turbans… I felt mildly out of my element wearing hiking boots, zip-away pants, and a shirt with the sleeves rolled up. But I was so hungry for food other than rice, beans, and fries that I didn’t care. 

 
        I wish it didn’t take like 10 minutes to upload one picture to this blog due to the slow internet speed here, otherwise I would. I’ll to put up a couple if I muster the patience. Also, I want to thank those people who have commented on my blog but unfortunately I can’t view the comment or let it be posted unless you’re a member of “vox”. So please drop me an email if you want to comment on something and I’d really appreciate it!

~Maddie

        Visiting the Genocide Memorial on Monday was just as tough as I expected. We took a tour of the capital city Kigali on a bus with a few Italian and Australian tourists and Epiphanie’s son Olivier. The Memorial was included in the tour, so beforehand we drove by a couple important/historic places like the oldest house in Rwanda, the mayor’s house, the hotel where Hotel Rwanda was filmed (where we’re still crossing our fingers we’ll get to stay at some point!). We also stopped in the building where ten Belgian soldiers were killed before the Genocide, an event that prompted the UN and other international forces to drop their peacekeeping efforts and move out of the country. The room where it happened had hundreds of bullet holes in the walls. Talk about eerie.

 
        The site where the Memorial was built was on the side of a small hill overlooking Kigali to demonstrate what the victims saw as they fled the city in April 1994. Outside there were beautiful gardens around tombs where hundreds of thousands of people were buried. Inside it was arranged perfectly – the Memorial walked you through the timeline of the Genocide and didn’t leave anything out: the roots of the conflict (Belgians passed out identity cards; those with over 10 cows were Tutsi, the rest were Hutus, sometimes it was just based on your physical features)…the international politics surrounding the situation (apparently the French supplied $12 million worth of arms to the corrupt government)…the ways in which people were killed (one that made my stomach turn – mom don’t read this! – throwing a person in a well and then throwing rocks on top of them until the screams subsided)… how families were uprooted and separated…

 
        The worst for me was the part dedicated to the children. It was very simple compared to the hundreds of pictures, texts, videos, and artifacts around the rest of the Memorial. There were simply a couple dozen large photographs of little children with short descriptions about them that their family members filled in. The descriptions included information like “favorite food, favorite game, personality type, best friend…” and gave you this glimpse into the life of an adorable little boy or girl…and then ended with: “cause of death: hacked down by a machete in his mother’s arms.” I totally lost it.

        It’s unfathomable how millions of ordinary people like you and me can be driven to kill their neighbors. Jessica and I were trying to imagine what could drive a good, hard-working person with a family and friends to commit such atrocities…and the only way we could make sense of it was that it has to come down to fundamental facts: “I am starving, my children are starving and probably will die, but my neighbor has money and food, if I had what he has then my family will survive, and the government says he’s an evil-doer and traitor anyway. So, do I kill him and save my family or sit idle and let my sons and daughters die of starvation?” It reminds me of a quote that my dad found: "A hungry people listens not to reason, not cares for justice, nor is bent by any prayers." I really believe that's a central cause of the Rwandan Genocide.

        The tour-guide tried to cheer us up afterward. We went to an outdoor shopping area where they were selling traditional Rwandan goods like baskets, dolls, paintings, carvings, and jewelry. I behaved and didn’t buy any souvenirs for myself (applause? Thank you). Then we saw the up-and-coming section of Kigali where the wealthy Rwandan businessmen are building their sprawling white-washed mansions complete with pools, pillars, gardens, and guest houses. Of course every city has that kind of district, but it amazed me how these people could build their meccas overlooking a city landscape dominated by mud huts, dirt roads, and other signs of serious poverty.  

        We had our first round of surveys today finally! Jess and I met Epiphanie, her son, and two translators at the YWCA’s headquarters in Gitarama center where six orphans came to be interviewed. Those whom we’re interviewing in Gitarama have “graduated” from ZOE’s Giving Hope Program, meaning that they received assistance, guidance, training, and education from ZOE for three years and are now living almost entirely independently. Some of them still attend support groups organized by ZOE, but for the most part they pay for their own health insurance, education, food, etc for themselves and their siblings (which could mean five other young children). It was incredible how involved they had become in the community and how proud they were of their accomplishments. Although we were focused on their progress since they were orphaned, hints of their traumatizing histories crept into our conversations. For example, one girl’s father was killed by his younger brother during the Genocide. Another boy didn’t know his father and his mother died of “poison,” which in Rwanda essentially means HIV/AIDS. Jessica and I each interviewed three people and it took about four hours total, partially because we were adjusting the survey questions as we went. Tonight we met with Epiphanie and reworded some questions and changed the ordering around so that it will definitely go smoother and quicker these next few weeks.

        Other than that, the highlight of today definitely included persuading our driver to stop at a supermarket so we could buy Canterbury chocolate bars which were heaven in a wrapper. As a lifelong chocoholic, I have been on withdrawal since last Thursday, and it just wasn't going well so I had to give in. The food here is very good and healthy, but it’s starting to get redundant. We literally haven’t gone one meal without eating some combination of rice, beans, fries, bananas, green beans, and these weird things that look and taste like a cross between a kiwi and a tomato (kiwito?). Oh yeah, I spilled tomato sauce all over the table and myself at dinner today. Some of you know I’m a huge klutz, especially with food, but I was doing so well not spilling stuff during meals. Hopefully this won’t become a reoccurring trend like our menu already has :)

        ~Maddie