So cool!

Check it out: I'm LIVING with this guy! 

au revoir

Sidenote: I'm sitting on my balcony, listening to Kinyarwandan singing in the church right next door.  Beautiful. 

Yesterday, on a whim, I decided to share a cab with Thomas to a secondary school where a handful of UNC students were already at to teach English.  It was so nice to get out of the city and see a bit of rural Rwanda.  Thirty minutes of bumpy roads, a few almost collisions, two wrong turns and beautiful scenery, we were dropped off at the school and greeted by the director of academics.  While I've gotten used to all the stares, it still makes me laugh to hear whispers from students of "mzungu!" and realize how much I stick out. 

So to better understand my evening at the secondary school, a (very) brief history lesson is needed. Before the genocide of 1994, there was a huge amount of French influence in Rwanda. When Hutu Power increased and the genocide against Tutsi was inacted, the French supported the Hutus in order to continue the influence in the area. So, when the genocide ended and Kagame came into power, the French were not very popular if you can imagine.  Kagame's administration has therefore taken numerous acts to remove Rwanda's "Frenchness," which includes switching the language from French to English.  All schools are supposed to be teaching all classes in English by next year, but the teachers are not fluent in English.  So, for three hours last night a group of 5 UNCers taught about 15 (all male) teachers ways to improve their English.

What was so heartbreaking were these men's worry and frustration to teach in a language neither they nor their students were comfortable with.  Think about it: you're a high school chemistry teacher whose always taught in French, but now all of a sudden you are supposed to change to English. Converstationally, all these teachers are perfectly fine in English, but when it comes to technical terms, like proton, neutron, particle, or nebulus, they are lost. 

The best part was when we broke up into small groups. Luke and I chatted with about 5 teachers, mainly about us--our education backgrounds, what we want to do in the future, why we chose to come to Rwanda, what we thought about Rwanda before coming, and what we think about Rwanda now, etc.  We also talked about different languages and how useful it is to know many languages. It's always embarrassing when I tell Rwandans that I only speak English...here we are in a developing country with so many challenges and lack of resources, but they are still able to be bi or even trilingual.  We talked about languages offered UNC (they LOVED that we even taught Kinyarwandan) but that most students rarely take enough classes to actually become fluent.  

We also talked about how languages not only give you the ability to communicate with more people, but that different languages simply express different feelings, emotions, things, etc better and eaiser than other languages. One teacher pointed out that in English, we only have one way to communitcate we are leaving...goodbye...but in Kinyarwandan, they have so many ways to say goodbye. Instead of simply saying bye, in Kinyarwandan you are able to express so much more: that your heart is breaking because you are separating from someone/thing you love and you will miss them for every second until you return.  

I'm already anticipating something like this in a few weeks. 

Little Things

So I've been thinking about all the little things that make each day special, and thought I'd make a list. Lets just say its a work in progress and will need to be updated more than once!

1. being stared at by children (and adults) shouting mzungu! (a slang, somewhat rude term for white person) but I mean, hey, we stick out and we know it.
2. seeing Patrick, our "helper" at the guest house, and his smiling face every morning
3. eating a breakfast of passion fruit, pineapple, figs, amazing African bananas (I swear they taste better) bread with jam, this yummy cheese with little holes all in it, and multiple cups of coffee
4. learning Kinyarwandan from our servers at bars
5. David making fun of my complete failure to learn the language.
6. listening to Thomas talk to our cab drivers, and everyone else for that matter
7. riding in the love bus
8. going out to Rwandan clubs and dancing to really old American hip hop
9. going for a run with David and Kate while being followed and "raced" by children (oh and did I mention I had to wear pants? yay conservativism)
10. hiding from the cops with four people in the back seat of a taxi, and running out of gas
11. eating dinner with the power out (apparently they dont have a generator, but they DO have some pretty romantic candles).
12. spending thousands of Rwandan francs for everything (1000 francs equals about $2)
13. finding a local bar that sells platters of goat kabobs, Primus, and the BEST POTATOES I have ever had in my life. seriously. I talk about them all the time. I want to eat them for the rest of my life.
14. hiking the tallest mountain in Kigali in ballet flats (number one rule in a develping country: be flexible and go with the flow!)
15. not being on Facebook 24/7
16. not being able to text at all
17. reading about places I've actually been to
18. singing hip hop songs with 13 year old boys
19. bartering with street vendors
20. taking the minibus. it's a cultural experience for sure
21. learning to love hand sanitizer

22. getting locked out of the guest house in the middle of the night

23. listening to children singing outside my window

24. figuring out the max number of days I can go without doing laundry

Being Rwandan

It's interesting the kinds of Rwandans I have met and what it means to "be Rwandan." In 1959, before the famous 100 days genocide in 1994, Tutsi were being exterminated and many fled the country. Only after 1994 did many Tutsi return to Rwanda Today I met a woman that fit this example exactly. A group of us were walking in the commercial district downtown (no tourists here!) and stopped at a small store selling cloth. We began talking to the woman selling and we asked how she learned to speak English so well. She told us that she left Rwanda in '59 and went to Nairobi to escape the violence3 and returned in '94. She described life now in Rwanda as "coming back to the motherland" and finally felt at home.

In comparison, a Tutsi woman at the Genocide Memorial Center feels no connection to Tutsi who left Rwanda and are now returning; she considers that these people not Tutsi because they could never understand what it was like for Tutsi that stayed in Rwanda and survived the genocide like herself. She told me about how several members of her family were murdered, she was adamant that no reconciliation was possible and that it angered her when people who did not experience what she experienced told her why she should forgive. She sees Tutsi who returned after 1994 as a totally separate group of people and chooses not to associate with them.

This afternoon I was sitting in a coffee shop downtown attempting to read but ended up chatting with a Rwandan brother and sister and the woman's German boyfriend. Both siblings grew up in Germany when their mother left in 1959. The young man was studying at the University in Kigali now and this was actually the woman's first time ever coming to Rwanda. Both siblings described themselves as Rwandans when they introduced themselves and took pride in describing the country and it's people, but I wondered how much people who have lived all their lives in Rwanda would truly see them as "real" Rwandans. How much of a culture and society can you belong to when much of your connection is family connection?

Although I have not met any Rwandans who have told me they are Hutu, 86% of the population before the genocide were Hutu and the likelihood I have interacted with people who were involved in the killings, or knew family members or friends who were, is very high. (Side note: President Kagame has made several public statements saying that Rwanda will not use the terms Hutu and Tutsi. While Kagame is Tutsi, he only refers to himself as Rwandan. But just because people may not use the term, most everyone knows which group people belong to). This aspect must change the way people interact with each other as well.

As always, the picture of reconciliation and reconstruction is not as simple and easy as one would hope. While there have been huge improvements (Kigali is incredibly clean and safe for one) Rwanda still struggles with incredible poverty in the slums and the somewhat impossible task of reconciliation. In Gourevitch's book, he interviews a Tutsi who says, "People come to Rwanda and talk of reconciliation. It's offensive. Imagine talking to Jews of reconciliation in 1946. Maybe in a long time, but it's a private matter."

Kigali!

We've been in Rwanda for a few days and I'm already in love. The second we stepped off the plane, we were surrounded by rolling green hills in a city larger than I had envisioned. We are living at Solace Ministries guest house, a Christian organization a little bit on the outskirts of the city. Kigali is incredibly clean with incredibly friendly people. The first day a few of us decided to walk into the city. Not knowing really how far or how long it would take, we ended up walking for two hours, getting slightly lost, talking in English and broken French to locals eager to help us out. It was so fun to walk and move around after so many hours traveling! Every time we would get to the top of a hill (this truly is the land of a thousand hills!) the entire city would be visible to look down upon. Downtown we had dinner and went grocery shopping...good thing I learned the conversion rates because a box of cereal was about 16 US dollars!

That night we went to the Hotel des Millie Collines, the hotel that Hotel Rwanda is based on, hoping to drink a traditional banana beer but they didn't serve it. We've come to learn that banana beer is kinda the equivalent to American PJ or moonshine...its alcohol content is not regulated and is generally drunk by the lower class. We finally found a place that served it last night, and needless to say the hype was overrated. Think apple cider thats not sweet. Pretty gross to tell the truth!

It was incredibly eerie to sit and drink where so many people were housed during the genocide. While there is controversy over the "goodness" of the hotel owner's actions (Kagame does NOT regard him as a national hero) it was still incredibly humbling to be surrounding by so much history. I have a feeling that this will be a common occurence around Rwanda in the coming weeks.

Please rise for the honorable judges...aka Court Time!

Our few days spent in Arusha were a compilation of breakfast at our hotel with our amazing hotel staff, conversations with our constant street companions (street salesmen who were relentless in their offers of Tanzanian trinkets), days spent at the ICTR, and evenings out unwinding with the group. The ICTR was created by the United Nations Security Council in order to prosecute those responsible for the Rwandan genocide, and we were able to observe actual trials and talk to several members in the court system.

In the court room, it was unnerving and somewhat unreal sitting three feet away, divided only by an observing glass, from an incredibly high ranking official in the Rwandan government who has been accused of orchestrating the genocide. It was almost like seeing a celebrity; you read about him, know his importance, but it’s still hard to believe he’s an actual person. During the times we observed court session, this man was giving his testimony and trying to discredit the prosecutor’s witnesses who testified earlier that this man, the accused, organized and encouraged the brutal killings to Tutsis and moderate Hutus. In an OJ Simpson-style of cool collectedness he testified, often playing with a pen or paperclip while he spoke, leaning forward with his foot hooked around the leg of the chair. When the court broke for a 20 minute recess, the accused turned around and looked directly at me. I made eye contact. With an accused genocidaire. As he turned to leave, he was smiling and laughing with the guard, turned back to look at us and gave us the upward head nod—that casual “what’s up” sign that made it like we had been watching him perform a dramatic monologue in a school play. Or maybe that’s how he saw his testimony, dramatic entertainment.

I’ve struggled with my opinion of the ICTR the past few days. Originally, I fully accepted their far-reaching power in the justice world: with the implementation of courts such as these, future political regimes will know that their crimes will not be passed over and go unpunished. But I still have a hard time with this international attention and resources going to the genocide after the genocide has already taken place. UN states, including the United States, ignored the genocide completely. No troops were brought in, little media coverage was shown, and the Rwandan government was allowed to continue a massacre of its people. In the “We wish to inform you…” book I have been reading, Gourevitch quotes Rwandan’s Presidential Commission on Accountability for the Genocide, Charles Murigande. He states, “The [ICTR] was created essentially to appease the conscience of the international community, which has failed to live up to its conventions on genocide. It wants to look as if it is doing something, which is often worse than doing nothing at all.” It’s hard to criticize the tribunal in the fact that these men (and the one woman accused) should be brought to justice, but it is hard to ignore the role, or lack of a role, the UN played in allowing the genocide to occur.

At Long Last

The morning of my departure was a blur of repacking, cleaning, and wondering what crucial items I was forgetting. It still felt unreal I would finally be leaving for the summer. Three flights, three different continents, a few meals, three movies and two Ambien later, our plane touched the Tanzanian runway and a jolt of excited disbelief ran through my body. Walking off the plane I took my first big breath of African air--it was 8:00 pm and was surprisingly cool and breezy. Passing customs, which simply meant smiling at the guard and walking out the door, we met our driver who drove us to Arusha, about a 30 minute drive from the airport. What I have loved the past few days are the stars every night since I've been here. The intense darkness of the night allows the stars to shine with indiescrible brightness. Sticking my head out the window of the truck, I knew this was going to be an awefully big adventure.

..Wait...so WHERE am I going?

So I thought I'd do a quick crash course on where my adventures will be taking place! When first hearing about Rwanda, the only thing I really knew was related to "that hotel movie." Rwanda is landlocked, a bit larger than Vermont and a bit less populous than Chicago, a place so dwarfed by neighboring Congo, Uganda, and Tanzania that for the sake of legibility its name has to be printed on most maps outside the lines of its frontiers. The genocide and the politics that surround it are far more complicated than stating the Hutu majority randomly decided one day that Rwanda would be better off if the Tutsi minority were gone, but that is how it has often been simplified.

Rwanda's population is approximately 10.1 million, with Kinyarwanda, French, and English official languages. The population is overwhelmingly Christian; a 2006 study found that 56% were Catholic, 37% Protestant, and about 4% Muslim. It is largely agricultural, but has economically suffered since the genocide. There has been great effort in rebuilding, reconciliation, and has shown signs of rapid development. Rwanda is generally described as grasslands and rolling hills.

I will be taking classes generally three days a week, volunteering at a NGO once a week, and group field trips on Fridays. Here's the link for more info on my studies.

Ok. I think I've procrastinated enough. I must finish packing and reading Bone Woman and We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families. Both of which I would recommend to anyone interested in Rwanda! (not exactly the classic summer reading by the beach, but it's what I would pick!)

See and Feel

"You see some things I can teach you, some you learn from books, but there are things that, well, you just have to see and feel."

This quote is from the book, A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini (author of the Kite Runner) which I've been frantically trying to finish before I leave because I'm afraid it will be too bulky to carry with me. It was spoken from a father to his daughter, atop a massive Buddha statue overlooking their city of Kabul, Afghanistan during the Soviet occupation.

In all the excitement, the recent onslaught of emails about packing lists and last minute reminders, reading this book reminded me about how important this experince is. I chose to apply to this trip because I knew that I probably would not have the opportunity to go to Rwanda on my own in the forseeable future. Its a kinda overwhelming thought! That all these experiences I need to soak up quick for fear of never having another journey like this one.

While this trip is going to be amazing for so many reasons, I remind myself the reason for my journey--to learn about Rwanda and its recent genocide. This won't be a summer at the beach! My biggest concern is that I won't absorb all that's around me, that I will let once in a lifetime experiences and moments pass me by. I hope that I don't "lose my humanity" (for lack of a better phrase)--that I don't become desensitized by all the violence and unspeakable horror. I don't want to discount numbers. When thinking about the genocide, its hard to really imagine just how many people the statistics are talking about.

An unrelated subject but similar idea, Chris Jordan uses art to illustrate various statistics of social justice and environmental issues. (skip the first part about paper cups, it gets better)

Plus, I'm really want to try banana beer.