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!