It all started with The Real World...

Life in Rwanda can be exhausting-travel is never as simple as point A to point B, food preparation is a process – there is no fast-food, take out, microwavable meals, or even pre-packaged food, laundry alone takes hours. People always want to know what I am doing because I am white and different, everything that is just part of a daily routine for me is fascinating to Rwandans. I am entertainment, I am reality TV for the people of Rwanda in the most basic and purest form.

Often, I am the first white person, ‘muzungu’, Rwandans are ever seeing, if not the very first, one of the first, especially in the more remote villages. Kigali is filled with abamuzungu (plural white people) but it is rare they leave the capital.

I believe it is human nature to be interested, when I see something I have never seen before I am curious, while I don’t mean to stare I am sure that I unintentionally gaze. Many volunteers have stories of children laying on the group peering under their gates for hours-only spotting the curious youth because of the whites of their eyes and their constant laughter. When I go into a classroom I will often glance out the window and see children propping each other up and peering in the window. When I go to the market and bargain for tomatoes or potatoes I turn around and have a crowd viewing me, fully encompassing and enclosing me. When I walk home a mob of people will join me, I can hear the scurrying pitter-patter of feet behind me trying to catch up. Rwandans are curious to look at my electricity meter, garbage pile, and alleyway leading to my home. Aren’t we all just as curious to know about Snooki and Jwow?

There is very little entertainment here, people don’t go to the movies and concerts, there are no shows or impromptu jam sessions in parks, something as simple as a TV in a home is almost an unheard of concept. Therefore when they see me they are fascinated. They stare and watch me. I'm sure if I were to make a video document of my life and then try and air it in America I would not get the same response, but here, my every move is acknowledged by the people of Rwanda, they are awestruck and captivated by my actions. My every moment here is an unscripted situation, usually dramatic or humorous, providing entertainment and fascination.

If everything I build here breaks, if all the lessons I teach are forgotten, at least I know that I made someone smile, I sparked someone’s curiosity, I gave them a story they will one day tell their grandchildren.