I love eating Rwandan food, in many ways it is similar to food in Latin America except they don’t force feed you and let you choose your own portion sizes. There is a lot of beans and rice, fresh fruit juices, cooked or steamed green bananas, and at times questionable sources of meat. Regardless my family has stuck me on the rice and beans diet, for the last two weeks this is all we have eaten. I was unsure if it is because it is the easiest to cook, or the fact that from the beginning I have always called rice and beans some of my favorite foods. Regardless, I was curious how this rice and beans were treating my figure. Most Rwandan families do not have scales; instead you rely on the nice men on the corners who charge twenty cents for you to step on their scale. This sounds pretty terrible to most people I imagine, who wants to weigh him or herself on the street in front of anyone. Well I figured why not, the morning crowd had died down slightly and the street seemed relatively empty. I had just paid the man, and stepped on the scale shoes and all when a group of six Rwandan teenage boys came running over. They surrounded me on the scale, eagerly awaiting the scale to spit out my weight. The chatted quickly in Kinyarwanda, about what I can only imagine. As soon as my weight popped up on the screen I hurriedly left, realizing that next time I might try to pick a more deserted street to get weighed on.
 |
| Fabric store |
It has been a month and a half since I left, and I have learned so much. I have mastered the bucket system to hand wash my clothes, and although I don’t get excited to rise at 5:30 to scrub the red dirt stains out of my pants, I do enjoy watching the sun rise on the ridge.
 |
| Rachel, Maggie and I on the Bus |
I finally figured out the finesse to get the lock on the main gate open. Our family owns one set of keys for the main door, which is always supposed to remain locked. This means to leave it locked you must first pass through the door, lock it from the other side and then gently toss the keys over the gate. A concept that took me a week or two to get used too, but I now know that when you lose your keys in Rwanda it is best to search the dirt on the inside of the gate.
 |
| Rwandan Flag |
I have become excellent at my networking. From reading my Kinyarwanda syllabus on the bus or knowing the best series of questions to get people to talk to you. Although a lot of people live in Rwanda it is a pretty small community, it is easy to meet those mover and shakers, and they are more then willing to talk to you.
 |
| Maggie and I Learning to Make Baskets |
I know never to trust a drink that is not opened directly in front of me. Rwandans are constantly worried someone is going to poison them, so your drink has to ALWAYS come unopened and be opened in front of you with your own supervision.
 |
| Learning to make a Basket |
Every day Kigali is changing. I have learned that every day a new traffic jam is likely or a new set of construction workers blocking my chosen path. On a daily basis development is happening faster then I can explain. Roads are suddenly paved, the entire downtown was given streetlights within two days, trees are planted, and roundabouts are suddenly created at intersections. The rate of development is incredible.
 |
| Our Group with our Host Siblings |
I have learned that when a Rwandan exclaims “I am dying” they usually mean they have lots of homework or are going to have to walk a long distance, and it is never life-threatening
 |
| Millennium Village |
I wanted to explain what my typically day here in Rwanda looks like. I usually get up around 5:30 or 6am. A lot of this depends on my sister and if I have to wash my clothes. I have discovered that if I need to do any sort of washing, I best do it when no one is watching. This way when I am not spending thirty minutes to comprehensively clean every garment I do not get advice from my family members. After taking my bucket bath I usually take tea and a small piece of bread. Then begins the long haul to the road. Upon reaching the road the chance of getting a bus is limited, I am usually trying to catch a bus during rush hour, so I usually catch a ride with someone who is passing by and headed in the right direction. I get rides with people who work for Supreme Court judges, important NGOs, and those from big churches who do there best to convert me in our twenty-minute journey together.
Upon reaching school we spend the day studying Kinyarwanda, listening to lectures, or doing quick field trips to different commissions and art galleries. Each day includes hands on work, and requires a lot of flexibility over the course of our day. In our afternoons we head to cyber cafes, take tea together, explore new parts of the city or get homework done. There is a plethora to things to do on the weekends. One of which is attending lengthy elaborate weddings in Kinyarwanda, in which people dance, drum and make impressively long-winded speeches. Many of us choose to spend one night of the week exploring Kigali nightlife, and seeing the negative results of development being displayed in the form of young Rwandan prostitutes. Another favorite pastime is exploring new markets, trying new restaurants or taking advantage of how easy it is to meet people, and have interesting conversations
Last week we attended the Millennium Village Project. These are the brainchild of Jeffery Sachs and are distributed throughout Africa. There is one that has just been completed in Rwanda, and is no longer receiving funding through the project. We spend the day in the Eastern Providence learning to farm like traditional Rwandans, tasting hot chili peppers that were a mistake to eat. We met women who taught us how to weave baskets, had a picnic with some large critters and drank banana beer with some locals (not something I would recommend, it gave me serious stomach trouble). The highlight of the trip was seeing a three year old, dressed only in lederhosen get drunk of banana beer. Although I do not seriously think that under aged drinking is appropriate, especially at the young age of three it was hard not to laugh. To see the little man, belly out, unable to walk properly and still going strong on the banana beer. It is a clear cultural difference, because all of my host siblings mentioned that they did the same as children. Sources of water were sometimes limited so their parents would give them banana beer or other low-alcoholic beverages.
 |
| Drinking Banana Beer |
The next three weeks will be finishing up our studies, traveling to Uganda for two weeks and moving out of our host family. Then we begin our month of self-directed research, where we conduct interviews and live together in a house. I am sad that time is passing so quickly here in Rwanda, the experience so far has been amazing!
