Saturday, April 24, 2010
My first umuganda blister
What is an umuganda blister? Well the blister is still a blister – the same thing as in the states, umuganda is not something we have back home. Umuganda is the last Saturday of every month where all Rwanda’s gather in order to help the community. This was the second time I participated, both times PC volunteers walked about an hour to a field which needed to be ‘cultivated’, this involves a hoe and looks and feels extremely dangerous, I have yet to see someone get hurt, knock on wood. It is amazing to see how many people come out and help others-and how close they stand to each other when working with sharp tools. It is mandatory to attend but it is still amazing to see everyone come together. After the entire field was hoed we planted cassava, each cassava branch was cut and we looked at where the ‘eye’ was and then angled it in the ground according to the directions I was given. I do not plan on coming home an expert in farming, I would like to have a garden while I am here and when I get but that is the extent of that. The crops grown in the field we hoed will be given to the poor that cannot afford food. When I went on my site visit I saw 21 mud homes that were built using help from Umuganda for people that did not have a home and cannot afford one. Official blister from hoeing, and official cassava planted! I am far from being a Rwandan but slowly I am learning their ways.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Genocide Memorial Week
Sorry guys, I don’t think that I have words to go with this one. Genocide memorial week is a week, obviously, when Rwandans get a chance to grieve about what they have been through since this is not allowed to be done throughout the year. While this is a weeklong memorial the grieving period continues until July 4th, ironically our independence day. The PST’s went on a march on opening day that consisted of about 1,000 people, the march lead to a graveyard and then a ceremony at the local stadium. The pain that the people here have and what they have seen and the family they have lost is unimaginable. I do not have words to begin to envision what they have been through. Being in the presence of individuals who went into convulsions as speeches were made and songs were played was heartbreaking. We were told that one song that played was specifically about the people who were killed in the Nyanza area. Watching individuals being carried away in hysterics is a feeling I will never forget. Throughout the week stores, shops, internet café, the market and everything else in the town closes in the afternoon so people can mourn and spend time with their families. Volunteers were asked to remain in our houses from 3pm-6pm each day as a sign of respect and because it is illegal to walk though the town at this time, as one volunteer found out as she walked back home at exactly 3pm from her host family and was stopped by the police and questioned. On the last day of memorial week we attended another march and went to the local lake. This year during memorial week the people who were killed in the genocide and never identified and the people who were thrown into lakes were honored. Again we listened to speeches and my heart sank once again when people went into hysterics and had to be removed from the crowd. Overall an overwhelming experience; to know the people that are my teachers and who cook for me and who help me understand culture have been through so much pain and that a country can be so strong afterwards, no words to describe.
Friday, April 16, 2010
Site Visit
What didn’t happen to me when I went to site:
I did not have to give a speech in Kinyarwanda to 500 people in the pitch black with just a flashlight shinning on me, I did not have my cell phone stolen in the market, I did not get swarmed by 1500 children at a school and then have rocks thrown at me for my attention, and I did not get lost. That is only beginning of some of the stories that were shared by other volunteers when we all returned.
During site visit I stayed with an amazing family, Mama Alice runs a store in Byumba and her husband is a pharmacist, they have 3 children, 5 ½, 3 ½, 1 ½, and one more on the way. They were amazingly welcoming and extremely excited to have me stay in their home. I had my own bedroom with electricity and running water in my own bathroom! In Rwanda it is common to have an umucozi. Umucozi’s are houseboys or girls, they cook and clean for you. Every night they polished my shoes, and by polished I mean wiped the mud off my $12 ballet flats I brought with me from Target. Pretty normal so far, the different part, the praying. Rwanda is very very religious and there was a lot of praying and questioning me of my religion. We prayed before we ate, before we ever drank anything, and we read the bible every night before bed. Sometimes there was singing involved with bible reading. Overall they were an absolutely amazing family, I may be living in a house right next door to them, which would be nice.
As far as what I will be doing. I am working with the local Pentecostal Church of Rwanda that is under a US funded program, which I mentioned in an earlier blog post. I have two counterparts; Moses and Sophia, there are similar to bosses in a way. Moses is the Head of Development for my district and Sophie works with OVC (orphans and venerable children). Which brings me to my next story. I go with Moses one day to visit a rural community in the north that I will be working with. We stop to meet anyone and everyone along the way, heads of communities, different schools, we talk to a few people walking on the street, children, adults, different organizations, finally after many stops we get to one school that the church is involved with. There are about 30 children, all between the ages of 8 and 15, super excited to see me. They dance for me and are overwhelmed to see a Muzungu! So my counterpart, Moses, and I ask them some questions. What do you want to be when you grow up, same as in America, a police man, a mayor, the president, in the army, a pastor, a teacher etc. Then we ask them what they think the biggest problems they have are, and these kids are the poorest of the poor, they tell me they need more sponsors from America so they can go to school (yes, that $19 a month to sponsor a child on the commercials, that makes it to Africa and makes all the difference in a child’s life), they need shoes, they need money to cut their hair, the list goes on and on. Then after some more small talk my counterpart tells me and the kids that it is time for us to go. NO NO NO, they want me to tell them a story, well I don’t remember any children’s stories, I need to make sure I am more prepared next time, and I didn’t know any Obama stories, they asked for those as well so I told them more about myself and that I have a sister. They then asked if she can come and stay with them, you hear that Mia, they offered you a place to stay, it may be a mud hut with nothing in it and no water source in the town and no food and no land to farm on, but they want you! So I tell them she may visit and if she does ill bring her but no promises. So now we explain it is time for me to go again. NO NO NO, they want me to sing them a song. Well, I’m not prepared for this either, so I sing them the ABC’s. For someone that is thinking of teaching as a career path I better get better at this. So they stare at me in awe as a I sing to them and then they smile and jump up and down and as this is going on this one little boy who was quiet the entire time pushes his way through the crowd up to the front, and he looks at me with his big innocent child eyes and tells me, in Kiyarwanda which I don’t understand as he speaks because of my limited vocab, and tells me that it is great that I came and that they got to sing and dance, but he still is hungry, he still doesn’t have any money, I didn’t solve any of his problems, and his family is still going to go to bed without dinner, again! WOW! Yeah, he is right, so I have my work cut out for me.
Overall site visit was great- nothing too major to report on. Ill be in the district capital of Gicumbi which is nice because I have easy access to a bus to Kigali, which is a little over an hour away, the market is open everyday, and the store my host mother owns that I mentioned earlier, has a fridge with yogurt and cold juice, and, drum roll, a freezer with ice cream, ill have to try it to believe it. There are schools that I can hopefully work with in some way, easy access to a bank, and possibly a post office. And I might be mistaken but I think another volunteer is within 30 minutes of me. I saw three potential houses but not sure how that is going to pan out. The chances of me having a yard are looking bleak but I am trying to stay positive about it, I'm just hoping for my own home so I have a little privacy and I'm not on a compound.
Entry on genocide memorial week to come soon-the reason that I have not been on the internet/responded to any emails.
I did not have to give a speech in Kinyarwanda to 500 people in the pitch black with just a flashlight shinning on me, I did not have my cell phone stolen in the market, I did not get swarmed by 1500 children at a school and then have rocks thrown at me for my attention, and I did not get lost. That is only beginning of some of the stories that were shared by other volunteers when we all returned.
During site visit I stayed with an amazing family, Mama Alice runs a store in Byumba and her husband is a pharmacist, they have 3 children, 5 ½, 3 ½, 1 ½, and one more on the way. They were amazingly welcoming and extremely excited to have me stay in their home. I had my own bedroom with electricity and running water in my own bathroom! In Rwanda it is common to have an umucozi. Umucozi’s are houseboys or girls, they cook and clean for you. Every night they polished my shoes, and by polished I mean wiped the mud off my $12 ballet flats I brought with me from Target. Pretty normal so far, the different part, the praying. Rwanda is very very religious and there was a lot of praying and questioning me of my religion. We prayed before we ate, before we ever drank anything, and we read the bible every night before bed. Sometimes there was singing involved with bible reading. Overall they were an absolutely amazing family, I may be living in a house right next door to them, which would be nice.
As far as what I will be doing. I am working with the local Pentecostal Church of Rwanda that is under a US funded program, which I mentioned in an earlier blog post. I have two counterparts; Moses and Sophia, there are similar to bosses in a way. Moses is the Head of Development for my district and Sophie works with OVC (orphans and venerable children). Which brings me to my next story. I go with Moses one day to visit a rural community in the north that I will be working with. We stop to meet anyone and everyone along the way, heads of communities, different schools, we talk to a few people walking on the street, children, adults, different organizations, finally after many stops we get to one school that the church is involved with. There are about 30 children, all between the ages of 8 and 15, super excited to see me. They dance for me and are overwhelmed to see a Muzungu! So my counterpart, Moses, and I ask them some questions. What do you want to be when you grow up, same as in America, a police man, a mayor, the president, in the army, a pastor, a teacher etc. Then we ask them what they think the biggest problems they have are, and these kids are the poorest of the poor, they tell me they need more sponsors from America so they can go to school (yes, that $19 a month to sponsor a child on the commercials, that makes it to Africa and makes all the difference in a child’s life), they need shoes, they need money to cut their hair, the list goes on and on. Then after some more small talk my counterpart tells me and the kids that it is time for us to go. NO NO NO, they want me to tell them a story, well I don’t remember any children’s stories, I need to make sure I am more prepared next time, and I didn’t know any Obama stories, they asked for those as well so I told them more about myself and that I have a sister. They then asked if she can come and stay with them, you hear that Mia, they offered you a place to stay, it may be a mud hut with nothing in it and no water source in the town and no food and no land to farm on, but they want you! So I tell them she may visit and if she does ill bring her but no promises. So now we explain it is time for me to go again. NO NO NO, they want me to sing them a song. Well, I’m not prepared for this either, so I sing them the ABC’s. For someone that is thinking of teaching as a career path I better get better at this. So they stare at me in awe as a I sing to them and then they smile and jump up and down and as this is going on this one little boy who was quiet the entire time pushes his way through the crowd up to the front, and he looks at me with his big innocent child eyes and tells me, in Kiyarwanda which I don’t understand as he speaks because of my limited vocab, and tells me that it is great that I came and that they got to sing and dance, but he still is hungry, he still doesn’t have any money, I didn’t solve any of his problems, and his family is still going to go to bed without dinner, again! WOW! Yeah, he is right, so I have my work cut out for me.
Overall site visit was great- nothing too major to report on. Ill be in the district capital of Gicumbi which is nice because I have easy access to a bus to Kigali, which is a little over an hour away, the market is open everyday, and the store my host mother owns that I mentioned earlier, has a fridge with yogurt and cold juice, and, drum roll, a freezer with ice cream, ill have to try it to believe it. There are schools that I can hopefully work with in some way, easy access to a bank, and possibly a post office. And I might be mistaken but I think another volunteer is within 30 minutes of me. I saw three potential houses but not sure how that is going to pan out. The chances of me having a yard are looking bleak but I am trying to stay positive about it, I'm just hoping for my own home so I have a little privacy and I'm not on a compound.
Entry on genocide memorial week to come soon-the reason that I have not been on the internet/responded to any emails.
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