Last Night

Tonight is my last night in Rwanda. It's hard to know what to say about this.

The last few days in Kibuye have been beautiful. We were staying in a hotel on the lake, surrounded by hills and trees and flowers. It was one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. We usually had programming all morning and then free afternoons, most of which I spent sitting by the lake reading. I thought about exploring more, but the fact is, I was on vacation, and I didn't want to explore, I wanted to read a book.

We eventually made it back to Kigali this afternoon. I say eventually because our bus was an hour late, and then we got a flat tire half way through the drive, which set us back almost another hour. But we finally made it, just in time to go to the African Bagel Company for one last bagel with cream cheese. I bought another one to take with me on the plane tomorrow too, because the food on Ethiopian Airlines makes high school cafeteria food seem wonderful.

Tonight was our last meal together as a group. We went to Lalibella, an Ethiopian restaurant we went to at the beginning of the program, the night before we split up to go to our homestays. It seems fitting that we ate there before we split up for the first time, and we ate there before we split up for the last time. Needless to say, I cried a little at dinner, and I wasn't the only one.

Though the program doesn't end until tomorrow, we said our first goodbyes yesterday. My friend Alyssa had to fly out this morning so that she can start work on Monday. The next will be Julie, who's leaving at 2am. I told her that she has to come into my room and hug me before she leaves. Jes is leaving at 9 tomorrow morning, and then I'm next, leaving for the airport at 2. Most people are flying out in the evening, and I'm glad I don't have to be here all day tomorrow to watch everyone else leave.

I don't really know what else to say at this point. It's been quite an adventure. I would like to thank my readers for keeping up with my stories. I was surprised when I noticed earlier that this blog has only 41 posts and over 1000 views. Thanks for the love!

While this will certainly be my final post from Rwanda, I don't think it will be the last. I'm sure I will have some really funny/interesting/awkward stories for you of travel, reverse culture shock, and reintegrating into American life, so it is not quite goodbye yet my dear readers!

Good Day

Today was a really good day. After finishing it last week, I turned in my printed, bound, and beautiful ISP, trying not to think about the pen mark correcting the typo on my title page, turned 2010 into 2012. The rest of it's good, even if the title page isn't.

For the last two days, we've been presenting our research. I went today, second to last, which was unfortunate because I had about nine presentations before me to sit and be nervous. It really wouldn't have been a very big deal if our director hadn't invited all our lecturers and a few other government officials to the presentations. That was scary. Each of our presentations was followed by a time for questions and comments, and a few of those guys were really critical of people's research, though usually their degree of criticism was proportional to how critical the research was of the government. My presentation, on the other hand, was all about how Gacaca is an incredibly unique system and that those who say it doesn't provide a fair trial first need to step back and understand that it's entirely different from the typical Western court system, so, naturally, they loved it. I got some really glowing comments, including from the man I interviewed at the National Service of Gacaca Courts. I'm thinking about doing something similar for my senior thesis.

So that was a really great way to end all of my work for the semester! I am done! No more work! After the end of the presentations I watched a movie with my friend, took a nap, and I've been reading The Help ever since. My friend Jes let me have it after she finished it, and it is a great book. And, later tonight, we're going to watch Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban! It has been a really good day. Even though I've had plenty of free time over the last semester, it's different when I don't have any work I could/should be doing.

I should have known it was going to be a great day when I actually had a warm shower this morning. It's been a while.

Tomorrow we are leaving to go to Kibuye for the rest of the week. It's about 2-3 hours from here, on Lake Kivu I think. We're just going to be staying in a hotel, having ample amounts of free time and doing some end-of-program stuff. We'll head back to Kigali on Saturday, and then Sunday I get on a plane to go home! I am so excited! The first thing I'm going to do when I get home is take a hot shower, then do my laundry in a washing machine. I'm hoping some of my stretched-out shirts will regain their shape. Cross your fingers.

I'm scheduled to land in D.C. around 8:30 Monday morning, and then I have a four hour layover before my flight to Atlanta. While I am probably going to be really overwhelmed by the airport busy-ness, I am very much looking forward to that layover. I'm going to get some real coffee, and hopefully a decent breakfast after the gross airplane food, and then I'm going to hunker down and use the free wifi to catch up on my favorite tv shows without having to let each episode load for two hours. I've been trying to watch the same episode of Castle since Saturday. And then it gets even better when Julie picks me up from the airport- with a pink-sprinkled donut! I'm pumped. And then Mom is cooked a really great dinner, and Tuesday Julie and I have a whole fun spa day planned so I can groom myself to American standards again, then Mom is taking Wednesday off work so we can celebrate Mother's Day. So many things to be excited about! I'm going to be in Norcross for about two weeks before heading up to Wilson to work for the summer. I'm glad I go to a school where getting a summer job is so easy, and I'm looking forward to getting to spend my summer with my friends in such a beautiful place.

So, as you can see, I have a lot to look forward to in the next few weeks. Our time in Kibuye is going to be nice and relaxing, but I'm more excited about what comes after it.

Victory!

I just finished my ISP!! 28 pages on how different perspectives on justice and a fair trial fuel the debate on the fairness of the Gacaca courts! I am free! At least until I present it on Tuesday. You know what this means? You'll actually get a decent blog post tomorrow! And by tomorrow I mean later today, because it's after midnight here, and I've been working almost nonstop since 10am. Yikes!
Goodnight friends!

So, Megan, what have you been up to these days?

That's such a good question. My life has not been especially eventful for the past week or so. The most dramatic event we've had here in the house since the late-night hospital trip was last Monday, when we finally got sick of our disgusting, clogged kitchen sink and figured out how to disassemble the pipes beneath our sink so we could empty all the food out of it. Yes, that's an important life skill, but it was also gross. Other than that my days have been mostly quiet, spent in the house doing secondary source research for my paper. I spent most of last week reading multiple Rwandan laws and international human rights treaties, and occasionally going out to lunch and doing laundry. About a month or so ago someone in our group made an amazing discovery: a bagel shop in Kigali! It's owned by a woman from Boston, and they have not only bagels, cream cheese (!), and a variety of toppings for the bagels, but also doughnuts and sometimes even cookies! The first time I went they were just taking a batch of chocolate chip cookies out of the oven. The African Bagel Company is definitely one of my favorite places to eat here, and all of use have to exercise a good bit of self-control to keep from going there every other day.

When we're not eating fantastic bagels, we usually just go up to the market and buy food to cook for dinner. Veggie stir-fry happens a lot, as does pasta or eggs on chapati (or bagels). I'm realizing here that I really like to cook, and I'm looking forward to going home and having more ingredients at my disposal, as well as more utensils, an oven, and a stove that isn't on the floor. Last night my friend and I sauteed green beans, bell peppers, broccoli, and eggplant in a tomato sauce, but no, we don't cook fantastic fresh food every night. Tonight I was feeling lazy, so dinner consisted of some passion fruit, yogurt, and peanuts from the store up the street. That store also happens to sell Pringles, to which everyone in the house is now addicted. Funny thing is, I haven't eaten Pringles since I was in elementary school, but here I just get so excited about Western food that I would eat a can a day if I let myself. Plus it's just impossible to stop eating Pringles, and one can is not that big.

We turn in our research papers next Friday, and I'm trying not to stress about it even though I know I'm in an ok place. My only major obstacle at this point is that I haven't been able to contact anyone from one of the NGOs I need to speak with; the number on their website isn't correct, no one answers my emails, and addresses aren't really a thing in Rwanda so I have no idea how to find their office. I just sent an email to their international headquarters in Belgium hoping they can give me a working phone number. Other than that, I had my first interview today, which went really well, and I'm working on setting up another interview with my friend's host mom. I'm hoping to finish writing everything except the results section of my paper this week, so that all I have to do next week is that final section and maybe some interviews. As usual, when I have work to do I have a hard time taking time out to relax, but my goal for tonight is to chill out and read a book. SIT's small library contained multiple books from my Amazon wishlist, one of which I am going to go force myself to read now rather than doing anything productive, because relaxing while I'm working on a big paper is ok!

Have a good day folks!

So, Megan, what have you been up to these days?

That's such a good question. My life has not been especially eventful for the past week or so. The most dramatic event we've had here in the house since the late-night hospital trip was last Monday, when we finally got sick of our disgusting, clogged kitchen sink and figured out how to disassemble the pipes beneath our sink so we could empty all the food out of it. Yes, that's an important life skill, but it was also gross. Other than that my days have been mostly quiet, spent in the house doing secondary source research for my paper. I spent most of last week reading multiple Rwandan laws and international human rights treaties, and occasionally going out to lunch and doing laundry. About a month or so ago someone in our group made an amazing discovery: a bagel shop in Kigali! It's owned by a woman from Boston, and they have not only bagels, cream cheese (!), and a variety of toppings for the bagels, but also doughnuts and sometimes even cookies! The first time I went they were just taking a batch of chocolate chip cookies out of the oven. The African Bagel Company is definitely one of my favorite places to eat here, and all of use have to exercise a good bit of self-control to keep from going there every other day.

When we're not eating fantastic bagels, we usually just go up to the market and buy food to cook for dinner. Veggie stir-fry happens a lot, as does pasta or eggs on chapati (or bagels). I'm realizing here that I really like to cook, and I'm looking forward to going home and having more ingredients at my disposal, as well as more utensils, an oven, and a stove that isn't on the floor. Last night my friend and I sauteed green beans, bell peppers, broccoli, and eggplant in a tomato sauce, but no, we don't cook fantastic fresh food every night. Tonight I was feeling lazy, so dinner consisted of some passion fruit, yogurt, and peanuts from the store up the street. That store also happens to sell Pringles, to which everyone in the house is now addicted. Funny thing is, I haven't eaten Pringles since I was in elementary school, but here I just get so excited about Western food that I would eat a can a day if I let myself. Plus it's just impossible to stop eating Pringles, and one can is not that big.

We turn in our research papers next Friday, and I'm trying not to stress about it even though I know I'm in an ok place. My only major obstacle at this point is that I haven't been able to contact anyone from one of the NGOs I need to speak with; the number on their website isn't correct, no one answers my emails, and addresses aren't really a thing in Rwanda so I have no idea how to find their office. I just sent an email to their international headquarters in Belgium hoping they can give me a working phone number. Other than that, I had my first interview today, which went really well, and I'm working on setting up another interview with my friend's host mom. I'm hoping to finish writing everything except the results section of my paper this week, so that all I have to do next week is that final section and maybe some interviews. As usual, when I have work to do I have a hard time taking time out to relax, but my goal for tonight is to chill out and read a book. SIT's small library contained multiple books from my Amazon wishlist, one of which I am going to go force myself to read now rather than doing anything productive, because relaxing while I'm working on a big paper is ok!

Have a good day folks!

Adventures in House #122

We've had some good ones and some bad ones. For the sake of having a good ending, I'll start with the bad one.

On Saturday, Brianna and Alyssa got really, really sick. We've seen a fair amount of vomiting in this group, so at first no one, including them, thought it was anything more than the usual contentious food. Eight hours later, things were looking different. It was 2 in the morning, and they were both throwing up water. They hadn't been able to keep any fluids down for hours, and whenever Brianna drank water she was running to the bathroom ten minutes later. I share a room with her, which is why I was awake at 2am suggesting pepto and cipro (a strong antibiotic), neither of which she was able to keep down. They were growing more and more dehydrated, with no sign of improvement, which is when Brianna decided that they needed to go to the hospital. Whenever anyone in our group goes to the hospital we're supposed to call someone from SIT to meet us there to assist with translation etc.. We've done that before, no big deal, but never at 2 in the morning. I took one for the team can called Apollo. I thought he sounded oddly awake considering the late hour, and I learned later that he had in fact not been asleep but had just gotten back from the bar. I'm glad I decided to call him then, because I would've felt bad about waking anyone up that late. Apollo's car was in the shop, so we still had to deal with the issue of how to get them to the hospital. I had the number for a cab driver, but, predictably, he didn't answer. There's very little nightlife in Kigali, so there are very few cabs operating so late at night. During the day they're just driving around town, so Michael and I got dressed, grabbed our umbrellas, and went out into the rain to see if we could find one. No luck. After about 20 minutes of walking I called Apollo back and asked if it would be possible for him to come pick them up. I have no idea how he found a cab that late, but soon enough I was standing outside our gate to wave him down. We got the girls into the cab and Apollo went with them to the hospital. They came back late the next morning after being given four IV bags each and multiple packets of oral rehydration solution, with order to drink two bottles of it everyday. Alyssa is mostly fine now, but Brianna is definitely still working on the rehydration part. Despite drinking multiple bottles of water and rehydration solution, she just came into the living room and proudly announced that she just peed for the first time in days. My worst fear was that they had a virus that would rapidly spread through the house, but apparently it was an intestinal infection, but we have no idea how they got it. It's odd, because they hadn't had anything to eat or drink that someone else in the house hadn't consumed. Anyway, they are going to be fine, and, needless to say, Sunday was a very lazy day.

Here's a considerably more amusing story. Last week, I was sitting in the dining room working on my research when I heard Alyssa shout,"Our kitchen is flooding! Our kitchen is flooding!"
It was raining cats and dogs, really big cats and dogs. We had to yell a little to be heard in the house. I ran into the kitchen, and there was water flooding in from under the back door. Luckily for us, a squeegee is a staple feature of every Rwandan house, and I knew where ours was. I grabbed it from the porch and proceeded to push all the water back out the door, and we shoved a towel under the door for good measure. We also discovered a few roof leaks that day, one of which is over my bed. Not anymore though, my bed is now at an awkward angle and we can't open the door as far we used to.

So, there are our adventures. More to come soon!

Goodbye Homestay, Hello ISP

I moved out of my homestay last Saturday. We all knew it had been coming, and frankly, I was looking forward to it. My last week there overlapped with our last week of classes, meaning it also overlapped with two final essays and my final research proposal, all due the Friday before I moved out. Work I can handle easily, but it's hard to do that in a not-quite family setting, where I have to be home for dinner. All of my siblings were home on school holidays, and while they were very respectful of the fact that I had to work I felt bad for not hanging out with them more my last week there. I think the hardest part was that Eddy was bored because he was home all day everyday, and he recently discovered computer games, so he was continuously asking if I was done working yet or when I was going to take a break so he could use my computer. All in all, I was ready to move out and live with a bunch of American college students who could relate to the amount of work I had to do, but leaving was still harder than I thought. First of all, it seems that no one told my oldest sister, Julie, the 23 year old, who is, honestly, my favorite, that I was leaving, so when I asked her Friday night if she would be around when I left the next morning she was surprised and very, very sad. I agreed to go to church with my family Saturday morning, because we still had to get the keys to the house from our landlord and I had no idea how long that would take. Turns out we had the keys by 10am and I was stuck sitting through one of the 4 annual communion services, which wouldn't have been so bad if it didn't make an already 4 hour long church service an hour longer, when I was already anxious to get going. By the time we got home I was ready to run for it, and the only thing that convinced me to stay for lunch was the logical understanding that there was no food in the new house. That turned out to be a very good decision, for reasons other than the free food. Two of my siblings' cousins had joined us for lunch: Sharon, who was about 15, and Shakira, who looked to be around 8. Turns out they are really funny people, and their jokes definitely lightened my mood. After lunch I wanted to take some pictures with my family before I left, and they turned what I had intended to be just a few snapshots into a fully fledged photo shoot, complete with laughter and silly poses. It was a great way to end my homestay, even though it's not quite over. My family woke me up this morning calling to ask if I would go to church with them. I managed to get out of that, but I'm probably going to go visit tomorrow afternoon. My host mom also said that she wants us to meet in town at some point so we can have family portraits taken that they can put up in their house!

As wonderful and sweet as my host family is, I am much happier in the new house. It makes life so much simpler to be able to live with people my own age who live the same lifestyle I do and from whom I do not have to try to hide all of my weird American habits. There are 14 of us living in this house, so things are a little crazy. There are 6 bedrooms in the house, only three of which have two beds in them. In two of the other rooms we have king size beds, each of which has three people sleeping in it, and one has a double, which has two. I consider myself lucky to have my own bed. We are very much living the poor college student lifestyle here. That and we're only here for a month, so we're trying to avoid buying a lot of things we won't have very much time to use. Our kitchen consists of a sink, a shelf with a few dishes on it, the gas stove and the tank that fuels it. Picture a two-burner stove, only it sits on the floor instead of on top of the oven. There is no table our counter in there, so we sit on the floor while we cook. Fortunately, we do have a dining room with a nice table for the food preparation. Yes, I said food preparation. We are cooking actual meals in this house. We live about ten minutes from the large market that I wrote about a while ago, so we make trips there almost daily to buy fresh fruit and vegetables for dinner. My favorite meal so far has been the veggie stir fry. It's great having control over what I eat. I will never eat another green banana again. Aside from our sparse cooking facilities, we have two living rooms and four bathrooms, unfortunately still without hot water. This house may be awesome, but it's not that awesome. Living with my friends does not change the fact that cold showers still suck. 

In case you were wondering, ISP stands for Independent Study Project, which is what I'm doing with myself nowadays when I'm not cooking on the kitchen floor. We all have one month to research and produce a 20-40 page paper on the topic of our choice. I have chosen Rwanda's Gacaca courts (for a brief explanation of the Gacaca courts, read my post on post-genocide justice). There has been a lot of debate about whether or not they provide a fair trial, and I am researching how different perspectives on justice and ideas of what constitutes a fair trial have fueled this debate. I've spent most of the past week looking at secondary sources online, and I also plan on conducting interviews with people in the government and people at organizations that have criticized Gacaca to discover how they define justice and fairness. A few weeks ago a man from the National Service of Gacaca Courts came and gave us a lecture on Gacaca, and I'm attempting to get in touch with him to get some leads on who to interview, but so far he's been really hard to find. People here do not answer emails as promptly as in America, and he doesn't seem to answer his phone either, so we'll see what happens there. 

Anyway, this has been quite a long post, and I would like to begin cleaning the house now. As you can imagine, things get pretty gross with 14 college students living in one place. I promise another post soon on some house adventures!