Amazing Kids!

So while we have been here in Rwanda we have had the opportunity to meet some amazing individuals. People who are inspirational, dedicated, hardworking and caring. We have also met some great kids at the Youth Clubs throughout Rwanda but one group stands out in particular. A group who we have had the pleasure and privilege of meeting with numerous times. In our second visit to the club, a couple of weeks ago, the kids informed us of an idea that they came up with entirely on their own to create a Never Again Magazine. The goal of the magazine would be to spread their message of equality, help them to fight against genocide ideology, and spread awareness to human rights. Their goal in creating the magazine is to have their message reach a larger audience, as opposed to just the students in their school and the people in their local communities. They want the magazine to be distributed throughout all of Rwanda. But they don't want to stop there. They hope the magazine can be distributed throughout the world and they want people from all over to contribute to it. They feel as though if people can learn about these issues, it can help prevent future atrocities, specifically genocide, from occurring (as well as other violations of human rights). The students spoke about the recent violence in Kenya surrounding the elections and viewed it as genocidal since specific tribes were the target of the violence.

The next time we visited, the kids showed us a magazine that they created called The Guide, a newsletter in which they cover all sorts of issues from health, politics, sports, gossip etc. The magazine was so well written and laid out, we were very impressed by their work. Since we want to help these kids we asked them if we could borrow the magazine, make some copies and bring it back to them, so we could have something to show people back home. They said it was their only copy of the magazine and couldn't lend it to us that day but we could come back another day and borrow it. When we asked why it was their only copy they said it was because it cost them nearly $30 to create the 27 page color magazine, which was just printed on regular paper. Because they do not have printing supplies at their school they had to create the magazine and go to an outside printer to have it printed, which is very expensive here in Rwanda. We asked them if they could just e-mail us a copy. They were not able to do this either because they had to borrow an administrator's flash drive to save the magazine and they deleted it soon after. So all their hard work was limited to creating one copy of the magazine. Another magazine/newspaper that their school puts out (which is also completely created by the students) addresses a lot of social issues and was also well written and well illustrated. This magazine is done completely by hand and posted on a board at the school so students can stop by and read it.

The only thing that is standing in these kids way from making these magazines great and widely distrusted is lack of resources. They have four computers for 950 students and no ability to save their work. They had to borrow a camera to take the photos that were included in the magazine, had numerous ideas for cartoons but were unable to include them because they do not have a scanner. Because they do not have printers, they could not print the magazine at their school but had to go outside to have it printed.

The idea for a never again magazine is a great one and we wanted to help them in any way we could in order to help them put their ideas into action.

Through donations and a little of our own money we were able to buy the kids a computer and a printer/scanner combo. We brought them to the kids and helped them set everything up, they were SO grateful.
The best part about these kids, they never once asked us to give them things. We were able to talk with them and we were the ones who said we would love to help you and we will try our best. They were so happy to hear this but were unsure if it was just more empty promises. Once they saw we were committed to them, and kept visiting, they still were not asking for anything, just for our support and encouragement.

While we have helped them a little by providing them the tools they need to create the magazine but we do not want to stop here. When we get back to the states, on WEDNESDAY which is extremely sad, because we do not want to leave, we plan to try and figure out a way to get them more support. We also are going to try and set up partnerships with the students here in Rwanda and kids in America so they can work together, share ideas, collaborate on projects and support one another.

So while we will definitely be talking with all of you when we are back in the states, we figured we would take some time to warn you of our plans so you can prepare yourselves to help us. Some of the things we will be needing are:

• donations of technology - old cameras, computers, laptops, flash drives, recording equipment, printers, ink, etc.
  
• donations of money - in order to purchase items in Rwanda as well as to pay for shipping costs from the US to Rwanda
• donations of time - any one who is willing to help us with anything is much appreciated and we will definitely need all the help we can get
• ideas - ideas of any kind (as long as they are constructive) is always helpful and we appreciate any advice

We are hoping to establish a 501(c)3 org in the states as to better be able to receive donations and funds and have a more legitimate means of funneling things to Rwanda and other places as well as having legitimacy to operate in the US.

Ok so that is my rant for now.

See you all soon.

Great Opinion Article in a Rwandan Newspaper

This is a great opinion article written by a Rwandan which encapsulates the feeling of this country.
Very inspirational and well written...

http://www.newtimes.co.rw/index.php?issue=13633&article=8971

It's been awhile...

We've been so busy cramming everything in to our last 2 weeks that we haven't written in awhile! Plus, we didn't think anyone was really reading but we've gotten complaints that people are bored at work without new blog posts (coughcoughjoesims).

We went the other night to visit with a youth club that we'd visited with before, and left feeling inspired. I didn't really want to go at first- I've been feeling unsure about the effectiveness about our book, and with only a few weeks left, I didn't know if we'd have time to change everything we're doing if that's what it seemed like the kids wanted. These kids were incredible though. We ended up having really good discussions/debates with them (they have better English than most people we've encountered in the country, and they're only 18 years old!), on everything from religion to homosexuality to HIV. It's interesting to hear youths' perspectives, especially when they come from such different circumstances than we do. Mike is inspired to attempt to start a penpal program between them and kids in the US, and also hoping to help them raise money for their projects. They unselfishly want things like a PA system to help them with their presentations and educating others, and a computer to create a newsletter for all the youth clubs around the country (their school has 10 computers for 900 children). We ended the night with them telling Mike he had a funny face and could he do something goofy to make them laugh. He didn't think that was very nice. I thought it was hilarious. :)

Today we went with Selemon to the market so that we could take some pictures; he had to translate to everyone not to be scared of the Muzungus and to ask them all if they wanted their picture. Some people were sooo eager and begging to have their picture taken (although when the camera was on them they would look away and not smile.. not sure if they were trying to do a fake candid shot or what), and other people insistantly said no and covered their faces and even looked angry. It sucks, because we really wanted to get some candid shots of the whole market because it's so unlike anything we have back home, but completely understandable. We don't want to seem like their lifestyles are a spectacle and to be intrusive.

This weekend we'll be going to see a village of orphans with Julius, one of the Never Again employees. It should be interesting, and finally gives us a chance to give out all the clothing and toy donations we got before we came. Pictures to follow :)

Other than that, life is the same! Counting down the days till I can take a long, hot shower, straighten my hair and put on some make-up... Our first weeks back will be crazy busy though- visiting my parents for a week, going to New Jersey to ride ATVs, Mike's roommate's wedding, not to mention applying (and hopefully interviewing) for jobs! There's always room to see more people though, so definitely get in touch with us to make plans.

Miss you all!
xoxo

Selemon

Here is a picture of Selemon at our office. Thank you again everyone :)

Creepy Crawlies/T.I.A.

We just got in to work, and Solomon was mopping the floors. Then I heard him say "scorpion," and I look down and sure enough, there's a scorpion. But it was the tiniest thing I've ever seen- maybe half an inch to an inch in length. I don't understand how the scorpions and snakes in Kigali are sooo small, but the spiders are soooo big!

Makes me wonder if there's a mama scorpion hiding out somewhere...

Things we miss... and things we will miss

We're down to our last few weeks in Rwanda, and i think we are both actually starting to feel a little homesick... ironic for me, who doesn't even really know where "home" is, but whatever. So we've started making lists of things to do when we're back home. For anyone who's in the NY area and is feeling hungry, we have a comprehensive list of meals to cook since this sitting-on-the-ground-while-cooking-on-one-small-burner-with-pans-that-everything-sticks-to thing has gotten really old. Plus a lot of the food that I want to cook, Mike doesn't like, so I'll really need dining buddies.

Next, we have a multiple-page list of restaurants that we want to eat at immediately upon our return. There are more than 60 places to eat on this list. Can you tell that we really miss food?

There are some things we'll really miss from here, though. For starters, people are sooo friendly everywhere you go. Not sure where a specific restaurant is? Ask someone and they will personally walk you to it. We've also just made friends with the woman we usually buy for at the local outdoor produce market- she helps us with our Kinyarwanda, although we're not sure of half of what she says, we just repeat after her. Yesterday when we were there, we asked if she had lemons, to which she replied no but then yelled out what we're assuming was the equivalent of "Does anyone here have any lemons for the muzungus to buy?!"

The children here seem to be cuter than any kids I've ever seen anywhere, and I'll really miss seeing them around. Since parents here aren't as overprotective as parents in the States, you see groups of kids walking all over town together, talking to strangers, etc., and I'm really going to miss seeing so many kids all the time- you just don't see groups of little kids playing like that on the streets of New York. There's one little girl in particular who we used to see everyday when we left our house; we're convinced she had a radar for us, because she'd be nowhere to be found when suddenly we'd hear "Byeee!! Muzungu byeee!!" which seemed to be the only phrase she knew, and when we'd turn around to wave she'd let out the cutest giggle I've ever heard in my life. Sadly, we haven't seen her since we've returned from Tanzania, so I hope she's ok. There's another boy, Fabrice, who lives nearby as well. When he sees us he freezes in the middle of whatever he's doing, then runs over to hug us, only stopping as he collides into our legs- if he was any bigger, he'd knock me over. He then follows us to our gate and watches as we go inside. It doesn't matter how many times he sees us in a day, we always get a hug from him.

This was kind of a waste of a post, I just needed a distraction from working on our human rights book. :) xoxo

Genocide really did happen here...

Even though we came here to experience life in a post-conflict, post-genocide society, it's really easy to forget about what happened. Before we came, we had visions of bodies lying in pieces along the road and in the gutters; what we see are some of the cleanest streets in the world. We imagined animosity and tension among neighbors, whose families killed and were killed by each other; we see people holding hands, laughing, rarely looking angry. I've been reading the memoirs of L.Gen. Romeo Dallaire, the UN Force Commander for the mission for Rwanda during the genocide, but it all seems surreal because Rwanda is so different, so much more peaceful now than it was then. But the past few days have really brought to life Rwanda's history...

Two nights ago we decided to watch the PBS Frontline special, "Ghosts of Rwanda." If you're interested in learning more about the genocide here, it was an amazing documentary. But warning: it was extremely graphic. There is actual footage of people machete-ing each other, just hacking away. You see corpses piled on the streets, including those of babies. You see churches full of bodies, so much so that you can't even see the floor. It's all evidence recorded by journalists, which was constantly being sent back to the United Nations and the United States, both of whom chose to ignore or not believe the severity of what was occurring. Here was the lowest possible form of human behavior, and these politicians who are supposed to protect the lives and human rights of all people ofthe world are choosing to turn away. It's absoutely disgusting how we, as Americans and westerners, prioritize some lives over others. Apparently 800,000-1,000,000 innocent Rwandans (a large part of them completely innocent and defenseless children) was not worth sending as few as 5,000 well-armed soldiers. That was all it would have taken to stop the massacre. I was nauseous the whole time watching the movie, and for the rest of the night. Needless to say, neither Mike nor I got a good night's sleep.

The weirdest part of watching the film was being able to point to different scenes and say, "That's right up the road from here," or, "We pass that every day to work." Kigali was the center of all of the planning and the majority of the killing, which includes our small neighborhood of predominantly low-income civilians. We can't help but wonder what crimes occurred in our neighborhood, on our street, and even in our home. If walls could talk...

We decided to go to the Kigali Genocide Memorial the next morning before work, which we shamefully hadn't done in our first two months of being here. It ominously rained all morning, too (it's not even rainy season). Anyway, the museum took us a few hours to get through, but it is an unbelievable place. There's footage of survivors talking, most of them around our age. There's lots of history, explaining what led to the genocide, going as far back as the first German colonisers in the 1800's. I still blame all of Africa's problems entirely on colonization. Then you get to the graphic pictures of the slaughters, which provoked a few tears but I was surprisingly able to hold it togetherthe whole time. You see the perpetrators, who are now being tried at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. There's a section displaying the skulls of many victims, many of which have holes in them, some of which are completely in half. There's an entire section devoted to some children who were killed, describing their personalities, likes and dislikes, and then explaining their gruesome deaths. Outside of the museum, there are amazing gardens surrounding mass graves. I'm not sure how many bodies are buried there, but there are easily hundreds of thousands. We came upon a family laying flowers on one of the graves and crying, and politely turned away so as not to intrude on their private moment, but wow. These people problem have family members who are buried right there.

As depressing as those days were, I think we needed that experience to humble us. It really brought us back to why we are here, doing the work that we are doing. And it really makes you admire the people here, who are able to present themselves so strongly.

Fred

To provide some back story for those of you who don't know, one of Mike's least favorite things in the world is spiders. He hates all insects, but especially spiders, and I'm always the one in charge of getting rid of any bugs that he sees. They typically don't bother me at all; as a matter of fact, I used to love them when I was little.

Awhile ago, I was cooking something on the element, which was on the floor in the kitchen. I let it boil for awhile, turned off the light to the room, and left. Later, I came back, flipped on the switch, and noticed something on the wall right next to me move so I jumped back. It looked like a starfish on the wall, and was about the size of my hand so I walked out and told Mike not to go in the kitchen. Of course, he never listens to me, and wanted to see what it was so ran in, freaked out, took a picture and ran out. We zoomed in on the picture and realized it was a huuuge hairy spider, that looked exactly like a tarantula. Mike ran to the bedroom and curled up in the fetail position on the bed, while I attempted to get rid of the spider. I grabbed our big squeegee mop that we clean the floors with, and tried to squish it but missed and the spider went running. He disappeared and we never saw it again. Mireille said she'd seen the spider before, and joked that she calls him Fred and there's nothing to worry about, he's her friend.

Fast forward 2 months. The other day we were both complaining about how eaten up we're getting from bugs, and either there's bugs in our bed or the bed net isn't effective. I joked to him that I bet there are spiders in our room, which Mike got mad about. Hours later, when we were getting eaten alive by mosquitoes, Mike went to our room to get the bug spray. He walked out quickly, his face pale white, and said "Oooook...." I freaked out, thinking there was a severed head in there or something, judging by his reaction. I asked what was wrong, and he said, "Fred's back... and he's RIGHT ABOVE THE BED!" Sure enough, looking even larger than last time, there was the spider. We didn't know what to do to get rid of him, so Mike took a bunch of pictures as we tried to figure it out.

I didn't want to just try to squish him, because if I got him we'd have a huge spider carcass to dispose of. I also didn't want to just scare him away, because I knew I wouldn't sleep, knowing he could come back. Usually at home when there's a bug to get rid of, I capture it in a cup, slide a piece of paper to cover it, and calmly walk it outside, but this thing even freaked the hell out of me and I knew I wouldnt be able to stay calm with this big tarantula right in my hands. Hmmm... Lightbulb. We took the squeegee mop, secured a huge tupperware to it with duct tape, and then put a layer of tape, sticky-side-up, on it. The rationale was that it was a big enough surface area so that it would be easy to hit him, and the tape would capture him, whether he was alive or dead. (Don't worry, we got this all on video) Long story short, I missed, Fred went running, and I let out a scream. Jeanette, the housekeeper for our landlord and the sweetest girl ever, came to see what was wrong. We showed her and she jumped on the bed and started swatting at it with her BARE HANDS. She then found some tissue and somehow was able to squish the thing and get rid of it, and just walked nonchalantly out of the house. Because of the language barrier, we couldn't begin to thank her enough and she's probably thinking how crazy we are for freaking out so much.

The kicker is that when we went back and looked at the pictures, we realized this one was missing a leg... and when we looked at pictures of the original Fred, we realized that this one had all 8 legs. Soooo we have a tarantula infestation in our house. I haven't gotten a good night's sleep since I've been here, and this will not help.

Hike up Mt. Kilimanjaro

So the following is what I wrote just after we hiked the mountain, and it's the longest blog post everrrrr.

Well, we did it. We actually made it to the top of the world'slargest freestanding mountain and the tallest point on the African continent. But it wasn't easy, and we are definitely paying for it now.

The day we flew into Tanzania was relaxing. We flew in with a couple from Colorado, Kimi & Mike, who were using the same tour company as us (Good Earth Tours- check them out). We had different itineraries, but after a really quick visitto the Good Earth office, we were able to combine our groups so that we could climb together. This was helpful for a few reasons:
1) They were really cool, outdoors-y type people who would be good company and good motivation on the hike because they were super fit.
2) The route Mike and I were going to take was apparentlythe most beautiful (albeit slightly more difficult) route on the mountain, so Kimi & Mike wanted to switch, whereas their schedule was better than ours (they started hiking the next day, while we had an "acclimation" day first).
3) It saved us money, because hikers are expected to tip their team of guides and porters, which can get quite pricey, so we figured that sharing one guide, assistant guide, cook, etc. would be easier.
So it was set- we had new friends to share the journey with!

Day 1 of our trek: Rain. Granted, we were walking for about 7 hours through a rainforest, but we were still not expecting it. We pull out our $30 Eddie Bauer rain suits from Target, and off we go (not realizing that only did they keep all the rain out, but they kept all our body heat in, leaving the clothes beneath as damp asthey would have gotten from the rain). We hike for the next 7 hours at a "pole pole" pace ("very slowly" in our Swahili, which would become our motto for the next 6 days), stopping for an amazing boxed lunch and some water breaks. We got a little winded, while Kimi & Mike never broke a sweat, but we still felt pretty good. We knew we weren't in amazing shape, but we both figured that since it was such a touristy adventure, it couldn't be too bad.

Day 2: Just more walking. Mostly uphill. Camp the night before had an amazing view of Kilimanjaro, and it made us feel like we were getting close. It didn't quite register that we had 4 days of hiking to go. We still stayed with Kimi & Mike, pole pole. Meanwhile, we are being passed by porters carrying about 40 lbs. each ON THEIR HEADS. It's the most amazing thing i've ever seen. All over Africa, people balance everything effortlessly on their heads while we just marvel at their grace and strength; but it takes it to a whole new level when they climb a MOUNTAIN that way. It's enough to shut you up when you start to complain about being tired.

Day 3: Monumental for all (American) parties involved. To acclimate everyone to the altitude, our trail brought us up to 4,600 meters before going down a little ways to sleep (high altitude can give you Acute Mountain Sickness, but we started taking pills for it when we both started getting headaches). That was definitely higher than we'd ever been in our lives, and higher even than Kimi & Mike had ever been in their extensive travel. It was marked by a point called "Lava Tower", which is exactly what it sounds like- a giant piece of hardened lava from one of Kilimanjaro's eruptions.

On the descent back down, our lack of fitness really started to show. Kimi & Mike went ahead with the assistant guide while we lagged behind with our head guide, James (James Bond, to be exact... no joke, that's his name), because I have a lot of difficulties going downhill. We finally made it to our camp for the night, which had some of the most gorgeous views I've ever seen in my life (there was even a cave!). The night was freezing though!

Day 4: We woke up to frost, and then another rude awakening- looking across a valley, we saw some porters on the steepest trail we'd ever seen (they actually pointed out the trail the night before, but we didn't realize it's magnitude until we saw the tiny outline of a person on it). It was actually quite fun though- we climbed rocks, using hand-over-hand techniques, and if we slipped, we'd stumble down a rock face and probably die. It's enough to keep your adrenalinepumping. After that, I was pretty pumped and walked in a brisk pace, but as Mike made clear many times, things involving stamina are not his thing, so hemoved a little more slowly (although I'm convinced it's because he was trying to be a tough guy and carry a bag that was way too heavy).

We finally made it to the camp-site for the night, and Kili seemed so close you could touch it. After a full night's sleep, we'd surely be restedenough to make it; except we didn't get a full night's sleep! On the last night of ascent, they wake you up at midnight to hike, via the moonlight and headlamps, so that you reach the peak near sunrise. Kimi & Mike, of course, made the trip in 5 1/2 hours, but it took Mike & I 8 hours to make it to the peak. Before we got there, only about 2 hours into the hike, Mike was ready to turn around, saying it wasn't worth the pain, exhaustion and cold. About 6 hours in, when the sky started to get lighter and I looked up and saw the peak still towering over, I was ready to give up too. But we didn't. When we got to the snow-capped part, I twisted an ankle and slowed down, but David (an extra helper they brought in case either Mike or I didn't make it, so that the other could continue) patted me on the back and said "You're ok, Muzungu," which made me feel like a wimp and motivated me to keep going. And it was worth it. The view was phenomenal, and there was a glacier that spanned the whole summit! (Mike still says he can take a cruise to Alaska to see glaciers).

But as the saying goes, what goes up must come down, so down we went- very very pole pole. My knees and feet were killing me, and I felt like I was moving as fast as was humanly possible, but what should have taken us 3 hours took 5. James even told us that out of the 700 times he'd been to the top, we were the slowest group he's ever had (although I'm convinced something gotlost in translation, because I doubt that's true). When we made it back to our campsite, we didn't even get to relish in our victory or even relax for long. We had an hour to eatlunch and relax before going even further downhill to the next site.

This descent was perhaps the most painful so far. I was in tears from back pain (as I've told my mom, Africa is not made for people who have had back surgery, such as myself), which was only made worse by the pressure I was putting on the trekking poles, yet I needed to use the poles because my knees felt like all the cartilage was worn off and they could barely bend anymore.

Six hours later (in case you haven't counted, that's 19 hours of hiking in one day) we made it to our final camp-site of the trek. I sat down and pulled my boots off and noticed the beginnings of blisters, conveniently located above the nail of each of my big toes. As a preemptory measure, I duct-taped both big toes, thinking it would keep them from getting irritated. With what little strength and muscle control that I had left, I curled into my sleeping bag and passed out.

Day 6 (Day 5 blurred with Day 4, that's why it didn't have its own paragraph): More of the same painful descent. And of course it rained the whole time so all of our stuff that had never gotten fully dry from the first day got wet again. I hobbled super slowly the whole way, focusing only on my steps while everyone else chatted. ThenI saw the most beautiful thing I've ever seen: our rainbow bus, and all our porters.

To finally wrap up the story, when we got back to our hotel and I took my shoes off I got nauseous at the sight- I had bulging red blisters beneath my toenails, and the nails themselves were elevated about an inch from the swelling. Mike says it looks like my feet have elephantitis, and he's exactly right. it's the most painful thing my feet have ever been through (and they've been through a lot!) and the manager of the hotel says I walk like I shat my pants.

Other memorable things from the trip:
-The food was amazing, considering the circumstances and resources. We had fried chicken every lunch and more food than we could ever finish. Dinner was always a tasty soup, followed by meat, pasta or rice, and veggies, with fresh fruit for dessert. Breakfast was eggs, fruit and porridge. Every afternoon when we made it to our camp, we had popcorn, roasted peanuts, tea, coffee and hot chocolate.

-Only 50% of the people who attempt the hike make it to the top, so even though we were sooo slowl, at least we made it. We saw quite a few people who didn't make it up, probably mostly dueto Acute Mountain Sickness. Mike and I had started taking Diamox because we didn't want that to be the only reason we didn't make it.

-We met a girl from UConn at the top of the peak, who recognized us from the hat I was wearing. What a small world!

-Mike proposed to me at the top and I said no. Ask for the story if you don't already know it :-P Just wanted to reassure our families and friends that NO, we are NOT engaged!

-I realized on this trip that I can never afford my favorite stone, Tanzanite. On our first day in Tanzania, we stopped at a very Muzungu-filled craft village that says they are the best Tanzanite dealer in the country. A woman helped meto pick out some stones that I fell in love with, then pulled out the calculator and says, "Ok, these are $600/carat, so this one will be $1900. My jaw dropped. A salesman saw in my eyes what I was thinking and pulled out a box of damaged and imperfect stones that sold for much cheaper, but bluntly told me that with my budget, I was better of investing in a really nice semi-precious stone, and promptly turned his attention to the man next to me who was waving his American Express Black card and purchasing a $156,000 stone.

We're alive!

So I'll write way more about our trip when we get back to Rwanda (on Friday), but I just wanted to let everyone know that we (barely) survived. The hike was the most intense, strenuous thing I've ever done in my life, and just wait until I post pictures of my feet after the hike (not for the weak of stomach). But we did something that we'll most likely never be able to do again, and that most of the world will never do once in their lifetime, so it was soooo worth it to me! (Mike disagrees, but I'm the one who got injured so my opinion matters more).

Miss and love you all! xoxo

Tanzania Itinerary

Many of you have asked what we are doing on our Safari in Tanzania so here is our Itinerary below for both our Trek up Kilimanjaro and our safari.

Quick note about Kilimanjaro - it is 19,340ft at its peak (which we are going to reach) 5,895 meters. It is possibly the tallest free standing mountain rise in the world (if measured from the base and below the sea level island thing I don't know but thats what it says). Needless to say 19,000 feet is the highest either of us have ever climbed and should be freaking ridiculous. For comparison purposes the Appalachian Mountains highest peak is Mount Mitchell in North Carolina at 6,684 feet. Day 1 of our trek we climb over 9,000 feet. Day 2 over 12,000. Mt. Everest stands at 29,029 feet...a mere 9,689 foot difference to the peak of Kilimanjaro. So day 1 we climb the difference between the two mountains.

The Serengeti spans 30,000km across Tanzania and Kenya. Approximately 70 larger mammal and some 500 avifauna (don't know what an avifauna is but Steph thinks its birds) species are found there. The Serengeti hosts the largest and longest overland migration in the world. This migration is the number 1 ten natural travel wonders of the world. (all the info above came from wiki). Also on the list is the Ngorongoro crater, which we are also seeing.

We will also be visiting Olduvai Gorge, known as the cradle of mankind due to the first findings of earliest hominid remains by the Leakeys.

So, we will be incommunicado for 2 weeks. Our cellphones should work in Tanzania (not sure about on the mountain trek, supposedly they have put cell service on the top of Kilimanjaro but who knows).

Any who, enjoy reading what we are gonna be doing and commence the living vicariously through us...


July 11th, 2008: Arrival Kilimanjaro International Airport (JRO)
Met upon your arrival in JRO; and transfer to Hotel in Arusha.
Accommodation: Ilboru Safari Lodge

July 12: Arusha National Park
Today, we drive to Arusha National Park with picnic lunch, the park is famous for its birdlife, we will have a game drive, and hiking in the park enabling us to get used to Tanzania climate and get over jet lag before the climb.
Estimated driving distance: 40 minutes drive one way
Activities: Game drives & Hiking
Accommodation & Meals: Ilboru Safari Lodge, B,L

July 13: Hit the mountain to Machame gate, after registration process start the hike to Machame Camp, 9,900ft, (5~6hrs) Camping, B,L,D.

July 14: Shira, 12,600ft, (5~6hrs) Camping, B,L,D.

July 15: Baranco, 12,850ft (5~7hrs) Camping, B,L,D

July 16: Barafu, 14,910ft (6~7hrs) Camping, B,L,D.

July 17: Summit, 19,340ft (6~7hrs), then descend to Mweka 10,010ft (5~7hrs), Camping, B,L,D.

July 18: Mweka gate (3~4hrs), transfer to Arusha (1hr), Ilboru Safari Lodge, B,L

July 19: Arusha / Tarangire
After breakfast, we drive to Tarangire National Park; the park is spectacular in dry season of July through October; game drives.
Estimated driving distance: 2.5hrs drive
Activities: Game drives
Accommodation & Meals: Tarangire Safari Tented Lodge, B,L,D

July 20: Tarangire / Serengeti
Today we leave Tarangire for Serengeti. Afternoon game drive in Serengeti, in search of large predators and gentle herbivores in which they feed.
Estimated driving distance: 4~5hrs drive
Activities: Game drives
Accommodation & Meals: Seronera Wildlife Lodge B,L,D

July 21: Serengeti National Park
More game drives in Serengeti; this time in northern Serengeti, where we might have a better chance seeing the migration this time of the year.
Estimated driving distance: 2.5hrs
Activities: Game drives
Accommodation & Meals: Lobo Wildlife Lodge B,L,D

July 22: Serengeti / Ngorongoro
Morning game drives in Serengeti and then later we drive to overnight in Ngorongoro with a visit of Masai Village, and optional visit of Olduvai Gorge.
Estimated driving distance: 5.5hrs drive
Activities: Game drives & Visit of Masai Village
Accommodation & Meals: Ngorongoro Wildlife Lodge, B,L,D.

July 23: Ngorongoro / Arusha
Game drive in the crater exploring the short-grass plains of the crater floor. This extinct volcano embraces 100sq miles alive with lion, leopard, rhino, elephant, buffalo, and many more games. Later in the day, we drive back to Arusha.
Estimated driving distance: 3hrs drive
Activities: Game drives
Accommodation & Meals: Ilboru Safari Lodge, B,L

July 24: ??? Exploring Tanzania maybe?

July 25: flight back to Kigali

4th of July

My first 4th of July overseas may have been the most patriotic I've ever felt. I've been cynical about our government since I began learning about politics in high school when my brother gave me a crash course on US-Middle East relations at the time of the invasion of Iraq (Joe, you probably don't even remember but we were driving to Danbury in Miguel listening to Rage Against the Machine... that eventually led to my studying political science in college, which led to an interest in human rights, which brought me to Rwanda. Are you regretting teaching your little sister now?).

George W. Bush has been our only president in all those years,so it's not surprising that "celebrating our indepence" has been a laughable venture to me, considering that I see aspects of our country as anything but independent: we're dependent on foreign oil, women's rights are at the hands of predominately white male Supreme Court justices, and our economy relies on the greed and/or generosity of bureaucrats and billionaires. I've always accepted that these thoughts are a Catch-22: by virtue of being able to voice my opinion, things aren't as bad as they are elsewhere, so I should appreciate my country and all its downfalls. However, just because I can say that something is wrong, it doesn't minimize the problem.

So why the sudden patriotism? For one thing, at the American embassy's 4th of July party there were Dr. Peppers for sale (if I'm not my father's daughter...), and the selfish American in me is sick of only drinking Coke and Orange Fanta. The best part, though, was seeing so many kind-hearted Americans who are living in this tiny African country, devoting their time to restoring education, health, and hope to people with whom they may have nothing else in common except humanity. We met one family in which the daughters are trilingual at the ripe ages of 5 and 7, the mother received an MPH from Johns Hopkins, and the father is a Harvard law grad; they have the potential to do anything, but they spend their life almost nomadically, traveling to the most remote countries to network with small unheard-of non-profits in order to advance those groups' efforts and ideals. Amazing. Inspiring.

As a (shocking) side note, I was so swept up in being American that I officially tried my first-ever hamburger. And it wasn't even so bad! Maybe even good... Africa is changing me!

Helping Solomon

Many of you have gotten an email from me, but in case you have not, I'll paste it here, if you are interested in helping out our friend, Solomon, whose home was destroyed in a storm 2 weeks ago:

Rwanda is doing this "beautification" project where they are basically tearing down the homes that don't fit their standards, i.e. the homes of poor people. When you drive through the countryside, which we've done a few times so far, you see homes with a spray-painted red "X" on the front (it's eerily reminiscent of the flooded homes in NOLA) that will be destroyed. In order for him to rebuild his home to the standards that would guarantee that it won't be knocked down, it will cost him 500,000RwF, or $900. His goal is to add to it a store in the front that he and his mother can work at- his mother, who is over 50, is working on a farm somewhere doing very intense manual labor, and also has 3 other children under the age of 11 that she cares for. The total cost to make this project the best it can be is 750,000RwF, or $1,300. Profits of the store would also go towards buying he and his family a new cow which, as I've previously mentioned, is a sign of wealth and power in Rwanda.

The easiest and most cost effective way that Mike and I could figure out to get the donations to Solomon is through PayPal. We set up an account, and transfers from other PayPal accounts are free, so while it may be a little more time-consuming it will not cost any fees if you set up an account as well and transfer money that way. Sign up on paypal.com and then search for my email address: steph.samaha@gmail.com What this involves is signing up and adding a bank account or credit card, and it is completely secure- we won't see any of your bank information, and you won't see any of ours. We will then send the money via Western Union and pick it up here, which we can then give to Solomon.


If you are unable or unwilling to set up an account, email me the amount that you would like to donate, and I can send an email to you from PayPal requesting that amount. However, I have a limit of 12 or so for each month, so please do this sparingly.

Again, please only do this if you are financially able, I don't want to guilt anyone into anything! If you know someone else who may be interested in helping, please share this information as well. We really appreciate your help, as does Solomon.

Faces of Akagera!

Here are a few pictures of our trip to Akagera National Park on the eastern most border of Rwanda (near Tanzania). We went here during our first weekend in Rwanda. We camped in the middle of the park, kind of scary.



That is how far away the elephant was...


Then he got closer...You can see why they call him Mutware, he is HUGE!


Then he was REAL close. If Olivier, our driver, did not step on the gas, Mutware would have definitely hit our car!!!


BALD EAGLE!

So perty...


UGLY!


Weird Eye.





Up close dragon fly


Steph thinks he looks like the old footage of Bigfoot.






Do you see the bird on the Zebra's back?

Ripped off in Gisenyi

We spent the weekend in Gisenyi, which is the western-most part of the country near the border of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. We went there to visit 4 NAR Youth Clubs to get a feel for what they do, what they need, and to gauge their interest in our Human Rights Curriculum, and it was definitely the inspiration we needed to continue our work. Children here (as in most developing countries I'm sure) are so much more excited to learn than children in the US, and were really eager to get a book to learn about human rights that they could share with their community. The coolest thing that they do is a province-wide soccer tournament and I'm soo excited to go see some of the games in August. They incorporate the prevention of genocide ideology in these soccer games, to make them educational and more cooperative; anything that combines soccer and learning is good in my book.

We thought being Muzungus made us a spectacle in our neighborhood, but it was nothing compared to these rural areas. At the first school, we encountered a little child (not sure if it was a girl or a boy.. we think it was a girl... nevertheless, one of the cutest children ever) who followed us to all our meetings and said she wanted us to take her home with us because she liked how we looked. We then visited with 2 other clubs at one school that is situated adjacent to a UN Refugee camp (from the Democratic Republic of Congo) and we had quite the experience there... I'll let Mike elaborate on that one. When we left we had a crowd of 100 children (no exaggeration) who followed us out and laughed as we tried to speak Kinyarwanda with them. Apparently they don't hear foreign accents too often.

Which brings me to the next difficulty. When we were visiting with these children we wanted to have discussions with them about what they thought of human rights, etc etc. They were at the age where they know both French and a little bit of English, so I would ask them questions in both languages, only to be met with blank stares. The facilitator would then repeat, verbatim, what I had said, and would receive many eager responses. Apparently they had trouble understanding my accent, which made me feel pretty useless. I'm finally able to speak French fairly well, but no one can understand it in my American accent!

When we left the clubs, we took a bus to the center of Gisenyi to find our hotel. Upon getting off, we were engulfed in a group of motorcycle-taxi drivers (common transport around the country) asking us where we were going. Despite our map in the tourist guide, we had nooo clue how to get there and enlisted the help of 2 of the moto drivers after negotiating the price. Our hotel was a Presbyterian-run hostel, so they first drove us to the Presbyterian church, then to the hostel. We got off, checked in, and asked the reception desk for a good restaurant, and he said there was one just off the main road behind the hostel, about 200 meters away. After walking less than 100 meters, to our right, we saw the bus station where we had gotten our motos... Apparently it was RIGHT THERE, and they ripped us off by driving us in a complete circle. We were quite humbled by our first stupid-tourist situation. Now we know better. It had to happen once so that we don't get too comfortable, I guess!

Gorilla Pics!!!

So everyone keeps asking for pics of the gorillas. Well i would have put them up a while ago and i would have put more up but THE INTERNET HERE IS SOOO SLOW!!! So anyway here are a few and you will have to wait till we get home to see the rest.

Mutware- again

Remember our friend Mutware, the elephant who tried to kill us?

On our way back from the gorillas the other day, we told our guide about our trip to Akegera and mentioned being charged by Mutware. He told us that before 1994, he was a peaceful elephant, never aggressive. During the genocide, however, when chaos was rampant throughout the country, people would shoot at each other (and sometimes the animals) in the park, and the animals witnessed a lot of violence. Many of the animals fled- it's why there are no longer any lions or other predators in Akagera. Mutware was scared by the shooting and felt threatened, and now he associates people with violence and trying to kill him. It's so sad to think how people's actions affect the environment around them, and how even animals can be scarred for life... I guess elephants really don't forget.

Wedding!

On Saturday we got to attend the introduction wedding ceremony for Dr. Joseph (NAR board member who set up our internships). Quite an experience.

This was the part of the wedding where the bride and groom each pick a representative (sometimes the father) to negotiate the dowry price and decide if the groom is worthy enough to marry the bride. It's all symbolic- the bride and the groom already know they are going to be married, and it is a sort of entertainment for those in the audience who can understand what's going on. We couldn't understand a word. The entire thing was in Kinyarwanda, and about half of the audience was American, so at least we were not the only ones out of the loop. There was no food, although periodically (2-3 times in 6 hours) they brought Cokes and Fantas out to people. Near the end of the ceremony, the bride makes her appearance (I'd be pissed if I had to sit in a house while everyone else is enjoying my wedding and talking about me!) and "meets" the groom under a sort of straw hut. The cows are given (she was worth 2 cows!) after some scary men yell songs really loudly, possibly blessing the cows? Or more arguing? I'm not really sure. Then there was celebration- traditional Intore dancers and drums and singing. Amazing. Pretty much worth the wait.

Following the wedding we all went back to Dr. Joseph's house, where we were told there would be food. Sarah and I enjoyed a glass of wine each, only to learn there was no food coming. Boxed wine doesn't sit well on a stomach full only of Coke. The nice part, though, was that Joseph's "negotiator" gave all of us Americans a play-by-play recap of the entire process we had just witnessed, which is quite interesting in its entirety. Definitely not for me, as I don't believe in the whole "dowry" and "giving the bride away" thing, but good to learn about another culture. However, I think it's the last Rwandan wedding we'll be attending for awhile.

"Peace"-full weekend

So on Friday our office was absolutely INFESTED with cockroaches... needless to say, we left early. Standing on top of chairs and swatting them with paper bags is not how we wanted to spend our day. Before we left, though, our co-worker Julius noticed us being all uneasy and made an interesting comment. He said, "You know, during the genocide, they called my people 'cockroaches' when they killed us, so now we say these bugs are just our brothers and sisters. You shouldn't be scared of my family!" It made us chuckle but looking back was very upsetting to think about his family being targeted and killed, and knowing that he was one of those that they called "cockroach."

We went home, then from there decided to go downtown. As we were walking to the minibus, I heard lots of honking, which is tyipcal of cab drivers asking if we need a ride, but then Mike turned around and walked towards the car. I looked up and saw Olivier, our driver to Akagera park our first weekend here, and a really cool guy. He said he was headed downtown and would give us a ride, and even drove us to the bus station and explained to us where to go to buy a bus ticket for Monday, when we were going to see the gorillas. So helpful, and we definitely want to hang out with him soon- he's a great guy.

After grabbing lunch at the "Muzungu Mall" as we call it, we started to head back to Nyamirambo to meet Julius, who was arranging for me and another intern, Sarah (also from New York/Connecticut!) to get traditional African dresses for Dr. Joseph's wedding the following day. However, we were running late and all of the minibuses that drove by were jam-packed, so we were freaking out because we were at least half an hour's walk from where we needed to be. All of a sudden, a car with two older men pulled over and said they were going to Nyamirambo and asked us if we needed a ride. In most countries, it would probably be stupid to get in; however, our tourist book even mentioned that people frequently offer rides to strangers, occassionally asking for a cab fare and sometimes completely for free. These men were talking to us and saying how Americans are always such great people ("politics aside," was his caveat, which made me laugh) and just making small talk. He also joked that I must be poor because my jeans had a large hole in them so he wasn't asking us for money, but that "la jeunesse te fait riche!" (youth makes you rich!) so I should enjoy that. With that, he dropped us off exactly where we needed to go and waved us off. So friendly, and we couldn't believe our luck!

Fast forward to Monday morning, when we go to the bus station that Olivier pointed out, but quickly were overwhelmed by a crowd of men. From behind us we hear "Mike! Mike!" so we look and see a man, Marcel, whom we had met earlier that week. He was on our street at that time and started talking to us in very good English, asking us about America and our work in Rwanda, showing us his card saying that he is a "Rwanda Culture and Language Tutor", and just generally having friendly conversation. He somehow was able to find us in downtown Kigali and pick us out of the crowd (not that it was hard.. we were the only Muzungus around) and asked us where we needed to go. We told him and he led us to the front desk, translated everything for us and got us our tickets. He then explained how he was a born-again Christian, did everything for Jesus, not to make money, and asked if there was anything else he could do to help us out. We took his card and said we'd be in touch, and meanwhile were flat out shocked by our repeated luck. The people here really are the friendliest than I've ever encountered anywhere in the world!

Mike's already blogged about our gorilla experience so I don't have much more to add to that, only that the ride up was amazing, with gorgeous views and Bob Marley playing the whole way up. The way back wasn't as fun when they decided to add one extra person to our row (there was only room for 4, but there were 5 adults and one child- not fun!) and while the roads weaving through the thousand hills provided beautiful scenery, it wasn't so good for my already-queasy stomach...

More to come soon :)
xoxo

GORILLAS!!!

So many of you know that we went to see the gorillas yesterday. Well you may not know that we went yesterday but you knew we were going. Well we did and it was AMAZING!!!

We had to get up really early 5:00am and meet for an orientation and meet our group and figure out which group of gorillas we were seeing. We were told we were going to see the Amahoro group which means Peace group. We thought that was extremely fitting considering we are here in Rwanda working for a peace building organization, during the hour and a half bus ride to Ruhengeri (the town near the gorillas) the bus driver was blasting Bob Marley and well Steph is a big hippie who loves Peace and peace signs and white doves and all that stuff.

So we met our guide, met the other people in our group, got our orientation and got in our trucks to drive to the mountain. About an hour drive on some of the most BUMPY!!! roads ever we finally got to the base of the mountain. We were told it would take us about an hour and a half hike up the mountain to get to where the gorillas were. Now that we got our walking sticks our armed guards (2 men from the army armed with AK-47s for our protection, if an animal attacks us they shoot in the air to scare it off), our guide and a porter, we set off for the gorillas.

The hike was quite fun and GORGEOUS! So green and amazing on the mountain. We were literally walking through the forest on the side of this mountain. In some spots the porter in the front had to hack us a new path with a machete or we just walked through brush.

Before we started walking, Olivier, our guide, warned us about thorns and "stinging nettles". He said that the stinging nettle is not poisonous but will burn if you touch it. He said we could try and test it out but he didn't suggest it. Well with ripstop pants, and a long sleeve jacket or in steph's case bunches of layers and a long sleeve shirt, we thought we would be OK. HA we were VERY wrong. There were some parts that we walked through that the stinging was unavoidable. It went straight through our clothes and all you would hear is ooo oww, ouch, it burns from everyone in the group.

Well through all the burning, slipping and falling etc. we finally made it to the point where we had to ditch all our stuff and just take our cameras with us to go see the gorillas. During the orientation they told us we had to maintain a 7 meter distance from all the gorillas. Immediately we were all thinking damn that sucks, you can get closer to gorillas in the Bronx Zoo. The first gorilla we saw was about 7-10 meters away. And we could barely see him just a little bit of his back and head. It was so cool to see one finally but I kept thinking, I wonder if this is how far they will be from us the whole time, cuz that would suck.

Well we kept walking and a few minutes later, we saw a big gorilla about 10 feet away and looking right at us. She kept bending over and looked like she was eating something. All of a sudden she repositions and we see that she is holding a 2 week old baby gorilla in her arms. She was cleaning him and breastfeeding. She looked like a human mother cradling her baby. It was SOOOO Cute. The little baby was all fuzzy and his eyes were all squinty since he was so new he couldn't really open them fully yet. After a while of us staring at her and the baby she got bored and threw the baby on her back and walked away.

Then we saw two young gorillas about a few years old each playing. They looked like boys ruff housing back home. They were kicking and pushing each other, nibbling, giving noogies, one of them looked like he was being tickled because he was kind of laughing. Then they just started to roll around, doing somersaults down through the brush.

The guide told us to look somewhere else and there was the big silver back. 30 years old and HUGE. He is the dominant male of the group and we could definitely see why. Earlier the guide explained to us that with gorillas, only the dominant male gets to mate with the females. All the other males of the group, even if they are silver backs old and big, they can not mate until the dominant male dies or becomes too old. If they get impatient they can leave and start their own group. Sometimes if the dominant male is away, the females will cheat on him with the other males of the group. But they know they can't get caught.

So we are watching this big silver back and he is just sitting there chomping away at some celery like plant. All we could see at first was his big head. After a few minutes he stood up to get some more food and needless to say he was large. After a while, he got up and started to walk over towards us. We all got a little scared and were wondering what was going to happen. He slowly walked by us and walked into a different part of the bush. That was definitely a scary moment for everyone, we all wanted to move away from the gorilla but didn't want to startle it either. The guide started to grunt, just communicating to him that we were not a threat...or so he thinks that is what he is saying, who knows.

We walked to find some more and we came across a juvenile, about the size of a 3-4 year old human. SO CUTE. He was just eating a little bamboo/celery and watching us, probably wondering what we are. He got up and started to walk towards us a little and the guide started to grunt. Whenever he did that the kid gorilla would just look at him with bewildering eyes and then go about his business. While the baby isn't necessarily threatening, the guide didn't want him to come any closer to us because sometimes the mother or the big silver back will take it as we are trying to steal or hurt the baby and they will get VERY protective and VERY aggressive. Luckily that didn't happen because if it did, we probably wouldn't have made it out of there.

There are more stories of really cute gorillas but that will have to wait till we can talk in person and we can show you pics.

But for now here are some pictures to get you by...These are rough pictures that just came from our cameras. When I get home and have the ability to play with the pictures, touch them up a little in photoshop, I'll be sure to send out the good copies as well.

Daily Routine

I guess I need to post since I haven’t in a while and Steph is taking all the glory. My mom suggested that I post something that details what we do on a day to day basis kind of like our daily schedule. Well it changes everyday obviously, but I’ll give you a sample.

7AM wake up alarm, if we are going to “shower” (in quotes because we really aren’t showering),
7AM and a few seconds – fish around for phone on the bookshelf near our bed, usually knocking it on the ground in the process, ::grumpy angry tired noise::, pick up phone and reset alarm for later time – 7:15ish if we really want to shower
(if we are not showering in the morning we usually set the alarm for 7:30 and snooze it till about 8ish)
7:15ish – get up to boil water to have a decently warm bathing experience (I didn’t do this for the first 4 times I bathed and was bathing with freezing cold water, not fun)
7:25ish – water is boiled, or at least hot, pour that water in with the rest of the water bucket and begin bathing
7:40ish – after a not so warm bathing experience (because it never really is “warm”) and not really feeling clean dry off and go get changed
7:45 – got changed now begin the search for essential items for the day (wallet, keys, phone, watch, pen, gum, laptop, laptop charger, power converter etc.)
7:47-7:50something – debate laying back in bed, don’t cuz I’ll probably regret it
7:50-8:10 – bum around, find things to eat, pack some snacks for the day, make sure we have a water, tie up our bags, get shoes on, Steph puts sun screen on etc. etc.
8:10 – walk out the door, lock the door, greet Jeanette in Kinyarwanda (trying to have new things to say to her instead of the same old stuff) – Usually a Mwaramotse (good morning), Muraho (hello), Amakuru (how are you?) etc. We are working on saying have a good day or see you later or something like that
8:15 – after our walk out of our little private road thing in our neighborhood, we cross a few streets hear a few “MUZUNGU, MUZUNGU” from the kids and adults (we wave at the kids, usually ignore the adults unless they talk to us then we’ll ask them how they are doing or just say hi) and we wait for our minibus
8:15ish – squeeze into a seat on the minibus, sometimes not so crowded sometimes feeling claustrophobic, comment on the American rap music that is blasting, and how the people probably have no clue what they are saying but listen to it anyway
8:20ish – say “Sigara” (we think it means to get off or something, its what you say to the guy who collects money on the minibus when you want them to stop, or you just knock loudly on the roof of the van). Get off the minibus pay the money collector guy, make sure he gives us the right change and walk to the fruit stand at the corner.
- look at the fruit the lady has, ask for a pineapple or bananas or both pay and leave
8:30 – walk to the office, checking out the people along the way, the women carrying crazy loads of fruit or what ever on their heads, girls, boys, men, women carrying jerry cans of water in hand or on head, women selling fruit, veggies etc. men selling shoes, belts w/e (all the while being stared at and talked about) - walk up to the gate for Never Again and walk in.
(we are not always at NAR at 8:30 usually more like 8:50-9:00 but we got here early today and so that’s the time schedule I’m using) – when we get in we walk around and look to see if there are any cockroaches or other bugs before we walk into our office and put our stuff down.
8:45 – Solomon (the “houseboy” – their term not mine, who works at NAR and cooks and cleans) comes in to say hi and we ask him if he can cut up our pineapple for us. We practice our Kinyarwanda with him. – he brings the pineapple back a little while later and we ENJOY IT!!!
9:00 – 9:30ish – get caught up on the news, e-mails, read who posted on the blog etc.
10:00 – Solomon comes in with a list of the things he wants to pick up at the market and prices, and tells us how much we owe him (he buys the stuff he cooks for lunch) usually about 200-250 Rwandan Francs each, about 50 cents cheapest lunch EVER!
Work work work, usually we are writing stuff for our Human Rights Curriculum/Guide/Manual/we don’t know what we are calling it – this entails writing new material, researching ideas, reading through books, Steph and I arguing, Steph correcting my grammar, arguing some more etc.
12:00 – Get hungry wonder when lunch is
12:30 – sometimes eat, if its not ready yet we are a lil more hungry
1:00 – Steph and I make the “TACO!!!” face from boy meets world back and forth to each other and complain about being so hungry, eventually we eat – usually it isn’t much past 1pm that we get to eat lunch sometimes it is, we have snacks like rolls and sometimes cookies or granola bars during the day to hold us over
2:00ish – lunch is over after a long drawn out discussion with Julius, Fredereicke and Wilma (I want to leave right after I’m done eating but Steph tells me I’m rude)
2-5ish – work on our stuff skype with people if we can e-mail some more people think about dinner, what we are gonna do at night, contemplate if we need to buy food or not and Leave NAR.
5:30-6 – get home, depends on if we walk or minibus it home and much later if we go to the city first. Jeanette lets us in the gate, we greet her in Kinyarwanda – unlock our door and go inside - Take off our bags, open the windows grab a snack etc.
6:30-7 – cook a gourmet meal on a one element stove
7:30 – done with dinner, clean up and boil water for tea – begin reading, or typing stuff on the computer, or playing cards, or talking, or think about a movie to watch
7:45 – 10:00 – entertain ourselves as mentioned above sometimes a little bit of everything
10:00 – teeth are brushed, pajamas are on, bed net is up, lights are off and we try to go to sleep.
10:05 – Steph is asleep
11-11:30 – Mike is still up trying to fall asleep but can’t (I fall asleep eventually but we wake up a lot throughout the night, we are still yet to have a “good nights sleep” here)

Then we start it all over again.

Heartbreak

Let me start by introducing to you Solomon. He's the boy (probably about our age) who cleans the office and the home of Albert, a prominent NAR board member, and cooks us lunch every single day. He cooks meals that, from the looks of them, I would probably not eat back at home because of my pickiness, but they always taste amazing. He's a sweetheart who is always smiling and is trying to learn English and uses phrases like "one people" and "much moneys." He took us to the market to show us where to buy "special powder," the spice he always cooks with that we still don't have a real name for, and helped me to negotiate the price and design of the dress that I had made. He comes from a rural area near the border of Uganda, his father is dead and he supports his mother and sister off of the $1 a day that he makes here (from what we could gather). Since we met him we've tried to think of ways that we could possibly help him out and say thank you for how helpful he's been. We want to see him succeed.

Before we left work yesterday, he came into our office and told us that he would be gone for the rest of the week, because there was an accident at his home and his cow was dead and he has to go take care of some problems. Mike and I got soo upset. Cows are a sign of wealth here, and this was probably the only one that he owned and now it's gone. We talked to Julius, a NAR employee, to ask him for more details, and what it sounds like is that there was a terrible storm that knocked a tree into Solomon's home, ruining the house and killing the cow. In addition, there has been a push by the Rwandan government to "beautify" the countryside- i.e. tear down the not-as-pretty houses of the poor people. Solomon's is one of those homes.

The whole situation just breaks my heart and I want to help and I don't even know how :(

Orphans, hooligans, and baskets...

This weekend was the first weekend we had to visit around Kigali, and we didn't even know where to begin!

Saturday morning I went with Mireille to visit the orphanage that she's been going to for the past year and a half. There's a little girl there she's trying to adopt and she wants us to go visit for the 2 months that she's gone back to Canada so that Yacenta doesn't think she's forgotten about her, and wants Yacenta to be comfortable with us before she's gone. I wasn't really sure what to expect- I've never been to an orphanage, or even around orphans, in my life. It was overwhelming. We stayed with the 2-3 year olds (Yacenta's age group), of which there were about 40 children, all of whom would just run to you and lift their arms to be picked up and would just cry to be touched and held and loved. I couldn't bring myself to pick up a single child, because I didn't want to hurt any of their feelings or pick favorites and I knew if I picked one up, they'd all expect it, so I tried to just play with as many as possible. I got really choked up a couple of times when I looked around and tried to figure out how so many children are out there without someone to love them, and I just wanted to take them all home (don't worry, Mom, there's too many obstacles involved in adopting a child from here for me to take one home- you have to be at least 35 if you're single, or married for at least 5 years... but didn't Dad say he wanted another kid?!). Then the saddest thing I've ever seen in my life happened.

Mireille took Yacenta to the bathroom and while she was gone, I noticed a stampede of children running towards a group of benches and screaming, followed by some of the girls who work there (who can't be older than 15) and a woman I hadn't seen before who had some sort of developmental disability and was missing part of her hands. They got to the benches and the woman sat at one end and the children stood screaming at the other, and I saw the girls bringing the children, one by one, to the woman, but I couldn't figure out what was going on; all I knew was that these children seemed to be scared to death of this woman and that the girls working there were getting a kick out of what seemed to be a sick and twisted game for them. Finally Mireille came back and I told her what I noticed but that I didn't know what was going on and she talked to the girls and realized that they were using the children and this woman just for their own amusement, because they thought it was funny to make this woman into a monster to them. Mireille went over to the woman, with Yacenta on her back to show the little girl that there was nothing to be ashamed of, and the woman just grabbed Mireille's hand and started stroking her own face with it. Obviously she hadn't received any affection in a long time, if ever, and just wanted to be touched. She most likely just wanted to play with the children and had no clue why they were so scared of her.

It turns out, just next to the orphanage is a community of genocide survivors and developmentally-challenged children and adults. We brought the woman back down there, and hung out for awhile. I actually felt much more comfortable here than in the orphanage, because there were no expectations or energy-consuming activities. Everyone just wanted to sit and talk with you. I think I'll be back there to hang out quite frequently, and it's making me wonder again if I should go into special education like I always used to want to (which I'm sure would make Mike's dad proud as well!).

Phew.

Mike and I had originally planned to go to the Genocide Memorial that afternoon, but after my emotionally-trying morning, we decided to save that for another time and to start shopping for crafts and gifts. We went to 2 different and LARGE markets and now have a feel for how much everything that we want costs. If you want a peace basket, coffee, or a mask (or anything else) place your order with us soon :)

We heard about a Rwanda vs. Morocco soccer match that we could've gone to but we didn't really have time to get ready and didn't realize that it was part of the World Cup qualifying games (not sure what round it's up to but it was a much bigger game than we realized!). Well, everywhere we went we heard people listening to the game, and although the commentating was all in Kinyarwanda, we could tell that Rwanda was doing pretty well. We left our house to pick up dinner right when the game was let out (the final score was 3-0, Rwanda) and trust me when I say, I felt like Mardi Gras came to Kigali. EVERYONE in the country must have been on the street, and of course we were trying to go opposite of the traffic, so it took us about an hour to do a half hour walk. Cars in the street are honking, people are clapping and cheering (but still stopping to stare at the Muzungus walking by) and all that was missing was hearing "Throw me something, mister!" (although, for all we know, they could have been saying that- we can't understand a word of anything!). Then the bus with the players drove by and I thought we were going to be trampled! It was such a fun thing to be in the middle of, and I'm soooo upset we didn't go to the game, but now we know not to miss the next one!

Chris DiCanio, this one's for you...

So yesterday we left to go downtown to grab some food and the internet. Mike followed me to the door but then stopped a good distance behind me and said, very loudly in his Mike Brand voice, "WHAT the hell is THAT?!" So I'm expecting like a tiny little spider or something (he hates bugs of all sorts and tends to exaggerate their size.. sorry Mike, but it's true!) and I look and see a worm-y thing freaking out on the ground, trying to crawl but not able to go anywhere because the floor was so slippery. First thing that pops into my mind is that it's one of those weird tapeworm things that crawls into your orifices and goes through the whole body. But Mike realizes that a worm would probably be able to grip to the floor, so he leans closer then jumps up and says "I saw a tongue! It's a snake! It's a $#@^&% snake!" which prompts me to jump and yell and freak out. The thing was literally about 4 inches long and as thick as a piece of twine, and I didn't think it was possible for a snake to be that small so I leaned down to look and sure enough, out pops its tiny tiny little tongue as it's trying to move. I jump and scream again. (MawMaw, if you're reading this, I'm sure you're having flashbacks to when I was visiting you in Ohio and saw the little snake on the nature walk and started SCREAMING. Let me assure you, the only reason I was so scared this time was because I didn't know if this tiny little snake hatched from a big mommy snake somewhere else in the house and I'd discover it at a later date. I still get the chills thinking about it).

So anyway, we're in the house trying to figure out what to do with this baby snake. Mike first takes a stack of papers and starts to try to push it out the door, but it SPAZZED out and moved around faster than I thought possible for an animal. Next idea: I went outside to grab the squeegee-mop thing we use to clean the floor in our house, but in the process I'm making some grossed-out-noises and Jeanette (the girl who cooks and cleans for the people who own our home) comes out to see what's wrong. She doesn't speak any English so I just point and she grabs the squeegee thing, runs into the house, and shoos it outside. But she's not done there. She starts whacking and thwacking away with the squeegee, stopping occassionally to look and to see that it was still moving. She takes off her shoe and hits and hits and hits... stops, looks... hits hits hits... At this point, I'm laughing, Mike's laughing, and Immaculee (the woman who owns our house) is laughing, while Jeanette seems to be letting go of 17 years of pent-up anger. It's finally dead, so she pushes it down the drain, followed by a bucket of water just to make sure it's really gone.

Needless to say, I still get the creeps thinking about it and watch every step that I take. The size of the snake doesn't do justice to the few memories I have of snakes in our yard in Texas, but nonetheless, no one wants snakes in their house. So Chris D., when are you coming to visit?! :)

"She says you have the better skin"

The scope of living in a White-dominated world just hit home... not for the first time in my life, but it still reverberates nonetheless.

We've just returned from the market, where I was having a dress made by a local seamstress (the dress is beautiful and the crafstmanship is enviable by a wannabe seamstress such as myself). This market is located down the street from NAR, just outside of Kigali, and very infrequently traveled to by Muzungus, and we are called this moreso here than anywhere else that we typically visit (Mike, you can disagree if you'd like, but I think it's true). As we are leaving, a group of women calls to us and says many things that we can't understand (except "Muzungu"), so Henz, our friend and a regular at NAR who we brought along with us to translate, asks me if I understand her. When I say no, he says, "She says you have the better skin."

I immediately feel ashamed, embarassed, and saddened, but am left speechless because I don't know how to respond to that in English, much less in Kinyarwanda.

How sad it is that a poor, rural African woman who has probably had little direct interaction with Muzungus in her life, expresses some jealousy over a white girl walking by. What is global society teaching her or showing to her to cause her to make such a statement? And sadly, in the world we live in, is such a loaded statement so inaccurate?

Because I am a white girl from the USA, doors have been opened to me in a way that this woman may never fully understand. Yes, I tend to get caught up in self-pity when thinking about my return home: how I'll be returning to little savings, as most of my money was spent on this trip, and how I may not immediately have a job, a place to stay, etc. But how selfish of me! If need be, I could crash at my parents' place (right, Mom and Dad...?), or wait tables at Sailfish until I find something more secure. This woman at the market is most likely surviving on $1 a day, entirely dependent on how many people come to herto buy tomatoes on any given day.

It's a worldly injustice that I've profited off of, and has led me to obtain a degree from a great University, while most females on this beautiful continent do not even have the opportunity to attend or finish primary school. It's a worldly injustice that one cannot even begin to comprehend unless immersed in a country where he or she is in the privileged vast minority, and even then, it is almost incomprehensible. Yet it is a worldly injustice that is difficult to change, because of the social structures and ideologiesthat are present everywhere. Yes, we have our first African American presidential nominee which is awesome and says a lot about some people, but when you learn some of the views other people have about him, it's still quite discouraging.

So what's a (white) girl to do?

Another anecdote...

So yesterday when we left NAR, we walked to the main road to catch a minibus taxi home, when we both heard loud chanting. I looked up and first saw a group of men standing around and got a little nervous because I wasn't sure if they were about to riot. Then I noticed a huge dump truck coming down the road, with one guy in tan standing above the cabin of the truck, and other men sitting on the edge of the bed of the truck, all of whom were dressed in pink... Pink = prisoners... (They say that they use the color to make the men stand out in case they escape, but I think it's just to de-masculinize them). Apparently the man standing up top was carrying a huge AK-47, which I didn't notice and I'm quite glad that I didn't, because guns aren't exactly my thing.

The whole scene was just surreal... these men could have easily jumped off the truck if they really wanted to, although the guy with the gun probably would have open-fired, and then chaos could have ensued... It's just so different from the US, where prisoners are locked away and kept from the rest of society (for the most part).

Scary Children

The scariest thing happened the other day when Mike and I were walking back home from downtown. As we've made clear many times, people tend to congregate around us everywhere we go; however, this time our crowd of spectators included a little boy of no more than 5, who was holding a machete. I'm not even kidding. And before we reached where he was standing, he was waving it around. It took everything in me not to scream and I grabbed Mike's arm and almost literally ran by him without my usual greeting of "Muraho!"

Not only is it terrifying to imagine what a 5-year old could do with a machete; what's even scarier is knowing the history of these weapons in this country. It tended to be the weapon of choice in the genocide of 1994, so once you got over this child using it as a toy, you can't help but wonder how it was used 14 years ago... Was it used to kill innocents? If so, did they tell the boy of its history?

The history of the country is muted all around us, so you can't help but speculate, as Mike has talked about. I've just discovered that "Camp Kigali," where the Belgian UN soldiers were slaughtered, is a 5 minute walk from our house... it's crazy. This weekend we're planning to visit this, as well as other memorials, and I'm sure we'll have a lot to say about that. We'll be sure to keep you posted!

Amahoro,
Steph xoxo

PS- We've gotten some complaints that it seems as if nothing that interesting has happened to us yet (because apparently being charged by an elephant is a walk in the park), so I'll try to post more of these little anecdotes here and there...

Hmm…I wonder

So this is something we have tried to avoid but is unavoidable once your imagination starts to wander. As most of you know 14 years ago there was a genocide in Rwanda which after 100 days ended in the deaths of nearly one million Tutsis and moderate Hutus (the two different major “ethnicities” in Rwanda, I’ll try to post a link to a brief history). The genocide was not carried out in gas chambers or concentration camps, people were not starved or poisoned, no this genocide was a very brutal un-technological one in which the majority of the killings were carried out at the hands of ordinary citizens wielding machetes or other “tools”. Friends who grew up together for years, played soccer together, went to the same schools, were neighbors etc. were divided on April 6, 1994 into Victim and Killer. One of the most powerful images I have ever heard that puts a very distinct image in your head is the sight of mothers with babies on their backs wielding a machete killing another mother.

Before we came to Rwanda in everything we read and all the people I talked to everyone said you could not tell by just walking the streets of Rwanda that 14 years ago there had been this horrific genocide. And it’s true. We heard that it is extremely safe here and Kigali is one of the safest cities in all of Africa. Which as far as we can tell (knock on wood) is also true. We have felt very safe during our stay here. But there is something we just can’t shake from our heads. Something that no matter how much we try not to think about it is always there deep within our thoughts. Probably every day we wake up and walk the streets of Biryogo, Nyamirambo, Kigali, drive through other cities or where ever we are, we are amongst killers.

It’s a strange feeling. In America it is rare if you are ever amongst someone who has killed. Maybe a cop, or a soldier you know has killed before, but it is very rare for you to be amongst someone who has killed in cold blood. At least I am assuming that the people reading this don’t know many killers. But here in Rwanda, it is inevitable. They say everywhere you go you are almost always amongst a victim and a killer.

It sometimes happens when I meet someone, not usually right away like at the handshake I am sizing them up trying to figure out if they have blood on their hands. But if I am around someone long enough, not all the time but sometimes, it pops into my head. Like I am sitting here with this person interacting with them, laughing etc. and it is possible that they have killed, raped, beaten etc. Or if you see a group of people crowded somewhere, sometimes an image pops into your head of the crazed citizens grouping together and heading off to slaughter some innocent people.

The house we are living in, the neighborhood where we live or work, the house we work at, all could have been stages for death. Some of you may be asking wouldn’t these people be in jail? Well when such a large percent of your population is guilty in some way, it is impossible to arrest each and every individual and jail them. The system of justice for the genocide has most of the “serious offenders” in jail. However, many have either served their jail time, their community service sentence or were never indicted.

Something that Steph and I have been discussing a lot recently and something that has always racked my brain about genocide and mass atrocities (something that I wish I could study and research more and figure out) like this is how people can turn it on and off. Turn on and off what? Either way Humanity & Evil. They turn off Humanity and turn on Evil to commit these horrific acts but after the conflict is over they turn off the Evil and turn back on Humanity.

It’s is definitely a crazy thing to think about and can mess with your mind. Many of the ordinary citizens who were involved in the genocide have said that they believed that they were under the “orders” of the government and that the Tutsi were portrayed as inhuman, and once you can dehumanize someone it is easier to kill. I’ve heard things such as, once you think of the person as an insect or some other creature, some animal it is not hard to kill. But it doesn’t make sense how one day you think of someone as human the next they are not and you can kill them and then another day bam they are human again and you can’t kill them any more. Obviously that is a very oversimplified assessment of the situation but is applicable nonetheless.

I’m not really sure where I am going with all of this, just wanted to share my feelings with everyone. It is something that I have thought about for years and have always wondered as I studied Rwanda, and other places where situations like this have occur and continue to occur. Humanity &Evil are strange things that I don’t think anyone can explain especially in their most extreme forms. But it is definitely the most interesting and disturbing when they are turned on and off so abruptly. We see it today in Darfur, and recently in Kenya, we see it in places like Burma and in the countless cases of torture, Americans are not immune to this phenomenon.

It is especially interesting and disturbing at the same time when you turn this reflection and study inward. When you look within yourself and to your friends and family and wonder what you and they are capable of. It is easy for people to say, o I could never do something like that, that would never happen here etc. etc. But you really don’t have to look far to see it, maybe not to the same degree but a slight departing from humanity nonetheless, whether it be at a high school on Long Island, or a frat or sorority house anywhere in the country, or within the military or a gang etc. It is present.

Anyway it is late and I am losing logical thought so I will stop here.

to be continued…