Lifestyle

So I just got back from spending a few days in rural Rwanda, visiting my host father's mother and brother. I went with my host parents to one of the districts in the eastern part of the country, where it was clearly the countryside! As a white person, I attracted a lot of stares from people. Whenever our car stopped children would crowd us for a glimpse of the mzungu! It was easy to make friends, you could say. (And I enjoyed playing catch with some local kids near where we stayed, because I brought a ball and figured it would be more fun to play than to have them standing outside our house trying to see what we were up to inside!) Anyway, the landscape was beautiful, life was simpler and quieter, and poverty was much more evident. It made me think about my way of life back at home and even in Kigali. Hence this post will be about the lifestyle here in Rwanda in the village and the city (since this is from my observations, it may not be highly accurate).

“Village”

1.    FOOD: Subsistence agriculture (corn, beans and ‘cooking bananas’) – nearest market is several/many kilometers away. Diet is limited, although many things can grow there (just most people only have the foods listed above growing by their house).

2.    HOUSES:  Mud-brick, tin roof 2 room houses for most families – these houses have mud floors, little furniture and often there is a toilet (hole in the ground) and cooking place out back somewhere. Many people had a few goats and some had a cow at their home. Some houses had flowers out in front which were quite beautiful.

3.    CHILDREN: Creative toys for kids – use what you have (not sure what the girls doll was made of in the photo below, some sort of plastic bag and bits of cloth, I think). I was fascinated to see young boys (age 8 or 9?) creatively “riding” a bicycle – the only bicycles are very sturdy adult-sized bikes so these boys sat on the bar in the middle, if they could, balancing awkwardly. But for them, having a bike is probably pretty special.

4.    SOCIAL LIFE: I’m not positive but the two main social things I can think of would be going to church and visiting friends…probably most of their time is spent doing the work needed to live, looking for ways to earn money or find food, or walking long distances if they need to go places

POSSESSIONS: Overall, not much. Most of the children we passed on the road had dirty, slightly tattered clothes (though for visits and church they probably have a ‘nice’ set of clothes). The home we stayed in had simple wooden beds, benches and a wobbly wooden table. Most of the homes didn’t have electricity. Bikes were the primary mode of transporting goods (aside from walking and carrying them, of course), so they are a valued possession. I didn’t see any other cars and there were only a handful of motos near the market ‘in town’.

“City”

Here in Kigali there are many more things available, although there are still many people living with very little money. Jobs are apparently incredibly hard to find, it is possible that only around 20%* of adults (men?) have (permanent?) jobs. (*I find this hard to believe but this is the number I remember my host father saying one day – it is his estimate, of course, and I don’t know quite what he meant by having a job.) That being said, there is much more variety in the way people live here. I will try to describe the lifestyle of the middle or upper-middle class, according to what I have seen of my colleagues at work and my host family.

1.    FOOD: Staples of the Rwandan diet include potatoes, beans, rice. The common drink for all meals is tea (high milk content!). Many families have tea but no food for breakfast, but luckily my host family has bread with a variety of toppings (honey, PB, avocado, jam if I buy it), some fruit and often an omelet or hard-boiled egg. Lunches and dinner include the staples above (2-3 of them!) with a tomato or vegetable sauce of some sort. My family has had nutrition/agriculture training so we have salad several times a week and bananas, mandarin oranges and pineapple most days. This is out of the means of many people, not to mention the fact that in the past fruit was considered food for children only and raw green vegetables are/were considered goat food (and the word for lettuce in Kinyarwanda is the same as the word for grass!).

2.    HOUSES: Moderate houses are cement with a tin-roof and fancier ones are brick. Almost all have cement floors. The nice houses (mine included) have a bathroom with a toilet inside, others have a hole outside. An indoor kitchen is rare (we have a partial one), thus cooking is done outside for almost everyone. Many people have food growing, although there isn’t always a lot of space for it. Some animals but fewer than in the countryside. The majority of homes are surrounded by a brick wall that is 6 feet tall (for privacy and security).

3.    CHILDREN: Children like to play outside with (homemade) soccer balls, old (small) tires or metal rims that they can push with a stick, stones, etc. I’ve heard watching movies is also something they like to do.

4.    SOCIAL LIFE: I think going to church or church events and visiting people are still the top 2 social things people do. Churches are more than just Sunday morning – there is choir practice for each of the 3+ choirs throughout the week and early morning prayer, etc…lots of social time, especially for the women! In downtown Kigali there are a lot of cafes and restaurants for people with money to go somewhere to meet friends. At home, people watch a lot of TV (Rwanda has 1 national, free channel, though it does a decent job of broadcasting a range of things).

5.    POSSESSIONS: The vast majority of homes have electricity, a television and a DVD player. Very few people have a refrigerator and no one has an oven, washing machine, dishwasher, microwave, etc. Charcoal stoves/cookers are used for cooking for the most part. Most people have the standard furniture but not a computer. Everyone (at least adults) has a cell phone, and they can be used to buy electricity, send money to family out in the village, increase your internet account/balance, and most come with a built-in flashlight. Appearance is very important; when a woman goes shopping (out in public anywhere) she will put on something similar to ‘church clothes’ and people here take care to “dress smart” as they like to say in English!

After seeing life in the village I don’t feel like I’m living simply anymore, but life is different here than in the US. I appreciate life and the lessons I am learning here, although I admit I will be happy to have a washing machine when I come back home!!!

Blessings this holiday season. Don’t forget to give the gift of love and time to people – that’s one thing I’m learning matters a lot! 

Waiting

I can’t believe it’s already the advent season. I guess time flies when you’re having fun and you don’t realize it when the weather stays pleasantly, consistently warm all year round! At home this time of Advent is for preparing for Christmas and waiting for the celebration of the birth of Jesus. Here in Rwanda, there aren’t any traditions for Advent, and I don’t think many people even know about Advent. But that isn’t too surprising given the general lack of preparing that is common here. Anyways, in this Advent season I am struggling a little in the waiting and preparing for Christmas day but I notice other things that involve waiting:

·         Waiting for my host family to come back because I don’t have a key to the house yet! (luckily I was inside the gate so I could rest in a chair where it was very peaceful and quiet)

·         Waiting for colleagues from work to arrive so we can go to visit someone’s home (we’re doing several visits to staff members’ homes – those who recently had a baby or a family member pass away)

·         Waiting for the day when I can actually speak with people who only speak Kinyarwanda (but seeing signs that basic conversations will definitely be possible in the near? future!)

·         Waiting to understand some cultural cues and understand why certain things happen the way they do

·         Waiting to receive my clothes that are being made by the sewing teacher at Mwana Nshuti (using the Rwandan fabric that I bought!)

·         Waiting to know what my future plans will be (though I’m generally trying not to think beyond this SALT year)

·         Waiting for Cecile to invite me over to make pancakes!!

Clearly some of the waiting isn’t bad. And while it isn’t the typical Christmas season that I enjoy at home, I suppose I am somewhat celebrating it in Rwandan style…by visiting people! I won't be around (in Kigali) during most of the holidays, since I’ll be traveling with my host family to SW Rwanda and to Uganda with the Rwanda/Burundi SALTers, so it’s good I have been able to do some visiting recently. (It seems giving gifts isn’t a part of celebrating Christmas but I’m assuming visiting is!!) Anyway, I had been wanting to visit my coworkers but it hadn’t happened…until this week when we (as a staff) decided to do some group visits, especially to members who had just had a baby or had a family member pass away. So I got to visit Eugene and Sizeli (the coordinator of FPH), spend time with all my coworkers, astound people with my broken/slow Kinyarwanda that I nonetheless try to use as much as possible, and feel like even if I don’t quite fit in or understand what is going on all the time at least I feel welcome and a part of the staff at Friends Peace House. My introverted self was stretched a bit with the after work visits Thursday and Friday, plus the usual hanging out with Ruth, Krystan, Misha and Annie most of the day on Saturday, and then visiting Joyce (language tutor) and her family today, Sunday. It was slightly tiring but quite rewarding, each visit in it's own way. 

When Thacienne (a woman who works at FPH) told me last week about the upcoming visits, she told me in Kinyarwanda and I realized – after first asking her to repeat and speak slowly – that I understood what she said! When she realized that I actually got it, she said “Wow! You’re not a ‘mzungu’ anymore!” I was so excited, but my response was, “Look at my skin…I think I’m still a mzungu!” She said, “Well, that’s just your skin. Inside you’re Rwandese!” Eugene, who was nearby, concurred and said that I am definitely acclimating to the culture, language and life here. I was SO happy, I can’t even say…I am so grateful for the people I am surrounded by here who are helping me easily adapt to living here. I have wanted to “be Rwandan” and know that isn’t entirely possible, but this story (and others recently) have showed me how we really are one humanity and can share life together. I am glad I can see more examples in my daily life of ways I am enjoying and finding meaning in life and interactions with people here than being frustrated with the difficulties and awkwardness (though that does happen).

Quick work update: After a week on my own with the English teacher gone and not having much work in the office, this past week has been a pleasant change. I have office tasks of helping Julienne catalogue the huge donation of books for the library and creating a survey with the help of Jonas to evaluate the Mwana Nshuti program for MCC (apparently surveys are an incredibly ‘Western’ way of doing evaluations so I’m trying to keep it simple and understandable). As far as teaching goes, I have been slightly frustrated with the amount of absences, although having a small class (4-8 students in general, out of 13-15 on the roster that should come) certainly has benefits. But we have been doing a much needed review and I just put up the letters of the alphabet to create a word wall (for new vocab) so that should help the students progress. It’s been great introducing them to new games and using some (usually simple) teaching materials everyday…some changes to the normal blackboard, rote teaching style.

Hope you are well!