From Memorial to Amahoro Island

Seems like forever since I’ve sat down and typed up a blog entry. Sorry for the lack of entries lately! Lots to cover here! Hopefully the pictures I am including in this entry will make you want to read the entire entry! Ha!

Memorial for Pastors
My house is right next to the Presbyterian Church (I hear singing at all odd hours of the night and morning) and in front of my house is a memorial site the church is in the process of building for Pastors killed during the 1994 war. About 4 weeks ago, my village had a commemorative event of the memorial site and it was quite the experience. I was planning on going to Kigali that weekend (I always seem to find myself traveling to Kigali instead of the Gitarama, which is the next major town over) to visit a friend’s house and family, but I scrapped those plans once I found out about the event a few days prior to it. I figured it would look poorly on me to travel away from site while my community was having an event that Friday and Saturday. I figured a good amount of people would come, but I was surprised to see how big the turnout was! I think it was over 500 people that were outside my house and the people must have come from the entire Cell, not only the village. The events started that weekend on Friday at 6pm, which was perfect timing for me since I finish working at the hospital on Fridays at 6pm (My current teaching schedule is Mon/Tu/Thur from 4pm-5pm and Wed/Fri from 4:30pm-6pm) . I was tired when it was time to begin the ceremony, but what could I do. Outside my house in front of my gate, there was a large tent, a bunch of benches and a fire pit. I made sure that it wasn’t close enough to burn my house or gate! Before the ceremony began, the Pastor (my resource family here) asked if it was ok for the church to use my living room and empty bedrooms as counseling rooms since during ceremonies, people experience ‘crisis’ attacks (His words, not mine). He said that since my house is near the event, it makes more sense for the people to go there for comfort instead of the local school. The school isn’t even that far (less than a minute walking really), but of course I am not going to deny him and tell him that the people can be counseled elsewhere during their ‘crisis’. He said that it will probably be a few people anyway, so I said no problem. So people start showing up at 6pm, but it doesn’t really start till 9pm and I see lots of students from the local secondary schools (I have two relatively near me) and people from the community. In addition, important people from the District arrive as well, such as the Mayor, the District Police Commander, Military Reps, Pastors from other sites, etc…The moment I saw the Mayor there, I knew it was going to be quite the ceremony. Before it begins, I make my way to introduce myself to the District Police Commander since I haven’t met him yet and my organization tells us to meet all the important people of our community for various reasons. His English is really good and I am able to explain to him who I am and what I am doing here in a mix of English and Kinyarwanda. I tell him I teach English to the staff and of course he says he wants to come learn from me, so I tell him sure, no problem (As of this day, he has never been to class, but really, he is the District Police Commander, so I would hope he is busy keeping this place safe anyway). We sit there and wait for the event to start and he starts asking me questions about America and then it turns into how much I know about Rwanda’s History and the 1994 War (You can obviously tell that I am avoiding using the “G” word because even here, I never say it since they tell us that we never know who we are talking to about it and what role they or their family played during that time). He tells me his story and frankly, I am quite surprised because people here don’t talk about it to random strangers and I just met the guy that night. He says some things that make me feel uncomfortable, but all I can do is sit there and listen as he talks about the crimes committed by Rwandans and the lack of help from the international community. The talk lasted a good 30 mins and he tears up at various times and as much as I wanted to ask questions, I knew it was better to just listen. As the ceremony is about to begin, he tells me that the country is headed in the right direction now and thanks me for being here to help out and then he goes sits in the VIP space of the event. The entire ceremony is in Kinyarwanda and there are songs performed by students and speeches given by various people. They light up the fire pit and the VIP go around it and say a few words about friends/families they lost during the war. About 30 people were around the burning log and all of them started out by saying “Twibuke…” which translates to “We remember…” Around 11pm, the Mayor and other VIP leave, so I figure we are coming to the end of the ceremony. I should mention that in front of the tent and facing the large crowd is a big white sheet tied to two logs. They turn on a projector and begin showing a film about the 1994 War called “100 Days”. It was filmed in Kibuye and the scenes in the movie are rather violent. We saw this film (well, I and other people walked out after 20 mins since we couldn’t see any more films regarding the war and it was the 3rd film in 2 days) during Pre-Service Training. I asked my friend if we were going to be watching the entire film and he said, “No, just a little bit”. I knew enough about this film to know it was a bad idea to show this to a crowd and not expect to trigger ‘crises’ from a lot of people. Well, we ended up watching the ENTIRE movie and it didn’t finish till about 12:30am. From 11pm to then, A LOT of people were crying, wailing, screaming and being carried away. It was pretty intense and I was dumbstruck about how anybody thought it would be a good idea to show a film about the 1994 War to people who lived through it or been affected by it and not expect to trigger these emotions. After the movie finished, all I wanted to do was go home and try to sleep after all this. Of course, since many people needed counseling, my living room and other bedrooms were full of people either sleeping after being sedated or people crying. It was intense to say the least. As I was waiting outside my house for the Hospital Staff to transfer the patients to the hospital, a Church elder came to me and told me that this is part of their culture and this is what happens during ceremonies. I wanted to tell him that OF COURSE this will happen if you show a graphic movie depicting events that more likely than not happened to their family members and friends, but I didn’t say a word. My house was finally empty around 2AM, but I wasn’t able to go to sleep till 4AM since I couldn’t sleep after all that. A few days later while working in the Mental Health Department, a lot of our new patients were people who were traumatized from watching the film. I think I need to admit that there are some things here that I don’t get and I probably won’t while I am here since I am a foreigner and didn’t experience what people here did.
The next day was the 2nd day of events planned for the memorial and it started at 9am. I didn’t wake up till 10am, so I made it outside around 10:30am and I found an even larger crowd than the night before. Another tent was set up and there was even more VIP, which included 2 Americans or Europeans somehow connected to the Church I think (they left before it was time for refreshments so I couldn’t talk to them). That ceremony started in the church at 9am and made its way out to the tents around 12pm. They asked to use my living room again as counseling and I of course said yeah. The event consisted mainly of speeches and prayers and it ended at 2pm with refreshments afterwards. Nobody needed counseling that morning so my living room was empty. What they didn’t tell me was that they were planning on using my lawn as the space for serving drinks, so once the ceremony was over, my yard was full of people and garbage thrown about everywhere. Not cool. Around 3pm, people came over to clean and I helped them out for a bit. After all that, I needed a break from my community and hopped on the next express bus to Kigali to see a friend and relax for a bit. It was quite an experience to say the least. Below are some pics from that morning.



From the President of Rwanda
Below is a link to an article the President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, wrote about my group and the Peace Corps being here. Check it out if you haven’t read it already. Pretty amazing.

http://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.media.press.view&news_id=1462

Simfite Imbwa/I do not have a dog
While I love dogs, I decided that I couldn’t keep Niko while I am here. I found him a better home and I gave him to one of my closest Rwandan friends here since he was looking to get one anyway. Niko is still in my village so I can go visit him whenever I want, but I realized that having him at my home will be tough for me to travel around the country and explore more of Africa while he stayed at home alone. Pic below (thanks to my umukuru/brother) sums it up.


Independence Day Camp Out at Amahoro Island
This past weekend was 4th of July and not only is it a holiday back in America, but it is also a holiday here. July 1st was Rwanda’s Independence Day and July 4th is Liberation Day. It marks the end of the 1994 War after 100 days. The two holidays just happen to be on the same week. So a few of my fellow PCVs and I decided to spend the holiday at Kibuye on Amahoro Island. It is a touristy town and many people go there. One of my friends lives in Kibuye and handled the camping reservations. I just had to show up! I was planning on spending two days in the Western Province since I haven’t been there yet, but my friend’s work schedule didn’t allow her to take time off on Friday and I ended up working on Friday all day anyway. So my fellow American friend here in my village and I left Saturday morning to take a bus to Gitarama and then to Kibuye. Since Saturday was a Holiday, the buses weren’t running on ‘schedule’ (not that there really is a schedule here like NYC MTA Buses). Instead of taking a bus from the village to the main road, we hopped on motorbikes and headed to the main road to catch a bus from there. Usually, you can see 5 busses pass within 10 mins, but this time, about 2 buses would pass! As we were waiting, my friend in Gitarama called to inform me that no buses were leaving to Kibuye from there until the afternoon. My friend and I decided to just head to Gitarama because we were both tired of going to Kigali and were looking forward to seeing a new place and Lake Kivu! We eventually got to Gitarama within 30 mins and met up with my friend. We waited a good 20 mins before a bus magically appeared heading to Kibuye! Sometimes, people just tell us things to agree with the statement we said. Case in point “There are no buses going to Kibuye until the afternoon!?” “Yego!” Regardless, we eventually got to Kibuye after about 1 hour and 45 mins. The road to Kibuye is pretty awful and I felt like throwing up a few times. I was even feeling sick throughout the rest of the day because of it I think. The roads curve every 10 seconds and it was pretty nauseating. Anyhoo, I am just glad it was pavement and not a dirt road because the bumps would have made it worse. We get to Kibuye and I see more PCVs and we head out to Amahoro Island. We were a group of 11 people and travelled by boat to the Island, which took about 30 minutes. It was just amazing to see a body of water! Once we got to the island is when we first began dealing with various nuisances. The boat operator wanted us to give him more money (a main theme here for Abazungu) than agreed upon earlier. We (and by we, I mean Rwandan friends that came along with us) talked with the guy and he finally agreed that we would only pay him 11,000RwF instead of 15,000RwF. I was pretty sure he wasn’t going to pick us up the next morning, but we managed to get back on the mainland the following day. The place itself was amazing though and it had a volleyball net, a swing, a hammock and a monkey! The poor guy was attached to a tree with a wire though. PETA would not have been too pleased to say the least. The only bad part about the place was the service and the food. Too expensive and it took way too long (about 2 hours for a freakin omelet!) to be ready. They even botched the orders and tried giving us goat instead of cow (which was more expensive) and then they gave us gross parts of the animal and not actual meat. We were planning on shopping for snacks at stores before we left to go to the island, but everything was closed. Aside from the crappy food/service, we relaxed by the lake, listened to music and enjoyed each other’s company. We were all ok until it started to get darker and the tents for our camping wasn’t set up and then the owner only wanted to give us 4 beds for 11 people to share along with a light cover. It was nice and hot during the day, but it got cold at night! I wore a beanie and sweater trying to stay warm. However, once all of us were at the camp site, the owner finally gave in and gave us more covers and extra mattresses. They had told us that the price included individual sleeping material and a bonfire (a lie!). Aside from that, we slept pretty comfortably huddled next to each other and definitely a one-time experience for me while I am here. I woke up early enough the next morning to see the sunrise (cliché, but deal with it) and it was really amazing being there and being here in Rwanda for that matter. I definitely enjoyed the weekend though and glad I experienced all that with friends so we can laugh about it later.




Running of the Children…err
I just heard a familiar sound while typing up this blog and I remembered back to a few weeks ago while I was leaving site early morning to go to a PC meeting in Kigali. Since I live in a rural village, the children LOVE seeing me walking around the village and go absolutely insane when they see my ‘muzungu skin. Whenever I walk to and from home, I can always hear the patter of children running towards me from behind until they get close enough and then go back to a walking pace. I usually look back and tell them hello and give them a handshake or a high-five. While I was heading to the bus stop to go to Kigali at 6:15am, I heard the familiar pitter patter of something behind me slowly increasing in pace. My first reaction was “It is way too early for this.” I just continued walking and wanted to get on my bus as quick as possible because I am not a morning person (especially this early). I kept hearing the sound getting closer and I thought it was odd that it wasn’t stopping like usual and then I heard adult voices saying something I didn’t understand. I thought for sure it wasn’t adults running behind me because they never do that but I figured I should turn around and just say Mwaramutse! / Good Morning! like I usually do to the adults of the village every morning. I finally turn around and instead of seeing someone running behind me, I see a freakin’ cow with massive horns coming up behind me! I realized then that the adults were trying to warn me, but of course, I had no clue. Luckily, I moved out of the way and avoided being trampled by the cow and stabbed by its horns. The cows here have massive horns like I have never seen before. It was definitely not children and now I look back whenever I hear something running towards me from behind.

Thanks again everyone for the comments, support, packages (Mom, Monica & Jean!), cards (Darbooze!), etc...I know more are on their way and I appreciate it! (Mom again, Brohams, Nicasia, ???) Next time, I will be going into more work related experiences since things seem to becoming more together here.

Also, I didn’t have power again from the generator hooked up to the local school for the last 2 weeks about, but tonight, it was finally fixed!! Of course once I open my front door to thank my friend Pascal, half the door swings further than it should have and it comes off the wall. Now it needs to be soldered in order to be fixed. This is my life here.