Boys and Books in BURUNDI

“What’s your name? Where are you from?” After, “You’re from America? Why do you speak French?” (“I studied at French at school.”) “Oh, very good. So, are you married?” (I haven’t gotten good at lying yet so I say “No” and hope the young man is finished asking questions.) Some boldly continue, “Why aren’t you married?” or “Can I have your telephone number and address?” or “How much does it cost to come to America, I would like to come visit you.” I didn’t have any marriage proposals this week but probably could have found many interested young men – and Annie and I did have a sort of stalker for a couple days. Turns out white skin + ability to speak French is enough to make us highly desirable J

Aside from the awkward conversations and questions, I enjoyed the up-country Burundi visit to the Hope School. It was great to meet Beatrice, the one who dreamed up and founded this school, increasing one year at a time to its present capacity of Pre-K to 10^th grade, and see the marginalized Batwa children who now have a good place to study. (The Batwa represent only 1% of the population in Burundi and Rwanda, are traditionally characterized by living in the forests with no food, homes or clothes, and certainly they do live in extreme poverty and are neglected by the government so they aren’t given much support.)

Spending a week in rural Burundi with an American church’s missions trip (adults 28-70 years old) was interesting. I noticed that I have moved from a newcomer to one who understands the culture somewhat and can speak the language. With the help of 2 good Burundian translators, Annie and I also helped “interpret” for this team (language+culture) – trying to give them a good sense of the life and potential of these children and an ability to interact with them through the team’s activities. 

There’s no way anyone can really understand a culture or a group of people after 5 days, and I know there are still so many things that I don’t understand, but I think we all got something valuable out of this experience.

Meaningful moments for me:…Listening to the secondary students sing beautiful worship songs in strong, clear, harmonious voices
…Playing catch with a Frisbee with some of the older girls (who don’t usually play sports in this culture)
…Holding a 3-year-old boy and trying to speak in Kinyarwanda/Kirundi with him as we look for pictures of cars in all the kids books
…Showing a book one of the team members made about America (photos from her school, neighborhood, etc.) and answering the teacher’s questions or helping the young students sound out and learn words in French that describe the photos
…Seeing many of the primary students go from being incredibly shy around us to excited to see us and do activities or play together – and some of them learned my name too! 

The view of the Catholic seminary (where we stayed) from my bedroom window!

The stained class (and inside) of the church was nice -
not quite Europe but it didn't feel like Burundi either!

Read-alouds (especially dramatic ones) aren't normal for kids here, but they enjoyed it!

Secondary school girls before their traditional dance to bid us farewell and say thank you.

Secondary school boys do traditional drumming (some jumping/dancing involved too)

My little friend - this face was hard to capture on camera but he almost always had this huge grin!

Estella and Sarah, two of the best singers, liked to talk with me and were happy for a photo.

Now I’m back in Kigali, speaking mostly English rather than mostly French, and teaching at Mwana Nshuti. We have just under a month until our graduation ceremony for the students who ‘passed’ the year of vocational training. I’m happy for them but secretly don’t want them to go :)

Fun and not so fun

I’ve been desperately wanting to get to know the (Rwandese) people here better, and have deeper conversations about themselves, life here, etc. But with the language barrier (at least between myself and my students) and the fact that people in this culture are generally much more closed about sharing things (including even if they are expecting a baby –see below!), it’s not easy. However, this past week I’ve seen some people I know and care about here begin to open up as I have asked them some questions. In English class we talked about MLK and his “I Have a Dream” speech and then I asked them to write their own, and it was touching to hear some of their dreams for their lives and the country. And on the side after class one student told me about another vocational program she found to learn additional cooking and language skills, yet she couldn’t afford it (its only $8.50 for the year). My conversations this week showed me again how people here always seem fine on the outside, yet inside they are carrying so much weight as they struggle to provide for themselves and their children. I am glad they trust me to share some of their difficulties, but find it makes me sad inside, thinking about the things that they should be able to have – nothing extravagant, just food, education, medicine – that they can’t afford.
I ask myself: How can I help? Should I help? Why do they have to be in this situation?
(I told my student I could probably help her find the money to study next month, but realize I can’t pay for everything I think they should be able to have.)   

On a more upbeat note, here are some random fun things I’m learning/noticing here:

• Monkeys DO like bananas! I know that’s what everyone says, but I got to see it with my own eyes so now I truly believe it! The place we stayed over Christmas was a fairly wooded and uninhabited peninsula so there are monkeys that live there. One day they came close to our cabin! We brought them bananas and they would come within 30 feet of us to get them, although they were disappointed with the other items in our compost!
•  Use your hands! We mix the dough for chapattis (i.e. bread dough) with our hands and they seemed confused that I used a spoon at home to mix the flour, oil, egg, etc. 
•  If you want to transport eggs somewhere (on a road trip?), consider putting them in a pan with lots of rice! They were nice and secure and none were broken when we unpacked them.
• Avocados are good for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Luckily we have a huge avocado tree in our yard which keeps us well supplied. (Once I even tried my host mom’s breakfast combination of a PB, honey and avocado sandwich, but usually I stick to plain avocado on my bread!)
• It is possible to cut anything without a cutting board – although for me this method of cutting is seriously slow and somewhat scary! I’m trying to practice their culture, but I don’t really want to repeat the process of finely chopping a big cabbage with a knife without a handle unless I find a makeshift cutting board! (I’m told Rwandan people would be slower with a cutting board than without one, which I have a hard time believing…)
• Public information vs. private information - - When introductions are being done, people typically say their marital status and how many children they have. (So I’m supposed to say that I’m single…) Their education or job may not be shared. (This is what I’d consider first for an introduction amongst colleagues or strangers.) Personal problems and health are typically covered up. Even women who are expecting a child don’t usually/ever directly say it. (They were shocked when Ruth, the MCC service worker, was proudly sharing how many weeks to go!)
• People love having their photo taken, but they are disappointed if you don’t include their FULL body (no cutting off their shoes in the bottom of the photo)! Also, don’t expect them to smile.

Off I go to the weekly Saturday bagels and donuts event (a café started by some Americans near my house makes bagels everyday and donuts on Saturdays only, which draws a large percent of the foreigners in Kigali). It’s almost more white people than I can handle…but the donuts are incredible so all us MCC folk go every week to talk and enjoy the food. And since I'm here in Rwanda and it's the hot dry season, we are likely to have beautiful weather to sit outside on a picnic blanket as we eat. Hope you are doing well! Enjoy the snow for me!!

When you can’t share words, share actions!

When I headed back to work after the holiday break last Wednesday, I was a bit apprehensive because it had been awhile…until I got there and saw the familiar faces of my sweet students. I greeted them with the Rwandan ‘hug’ (like a pat on the back/arm followed by a handshake) used with friends especially those you haven’t seen in some time, rather than the normal handshake we exchange on a daily basis (yes you shake people’s hands every time you see them). It was also priceless to see them greeting their friends – so much love!

We had an easy week back at school, sharing stories about our vacation, cleaning inside and out, and preparing for our feast and gift exchange on Friday. Friday we played “cacahouettes” which is the Rwandan equivalent of ‘Secret Santa.’ (Pronunciation is kaka-wet) We had all drawn names ahead of time and bought a gift which we gave to our person on Friday afternoon (the only catch is you say something mysterious or amusing to describe the person, who is your “child/baby”, to see if the audience can guess who it is before giving them your gift).

I’d say trying to live appropriately in a new culture means you face a multitude of changing emotions, ups and downs, which are relatively short-lived. And you need to have a good sense of humor (and humility). The day of cacahouettes was no exception. I arrived in the morning to help and was put to work cutting cabbages, which was challenging because I’ve never tried to finely chop cabbage without a cutting board…I ended up entertaining all the students with my slow, awkward attempts! The next hour I was wandering around, feeling left out, while everyone around me was talking with their friends in Kinyarwanda. (They might have forgotten most of their English over the holiday…) Later, I found myself with a group of students in the chapel/common room where we would eat. Rather than immediately starting to clean, one student started to beat the drum and the others began singing and dancing. Quite self-consciously and without much coordination, I joined in and enjoyed our carefree and spontaneous dance party.

            Cooking and dancing are just two of the ways I have shared meaningful experiences with people here without needing to speak. I also felt surprisingly present at church on Sunday, even though I didn’t have anyone translating (so I understood virtually nothing), because I had friends’ children come sit with me. Hugging the small child in my lap while holding another girl’s hand, and later finding quiet activities to keep them occupied, was so precious for me. I think we all felt the love you should feel in a church, although it wasn’t from the sermon since I don’t think any of us understood it! 

Cutting cabbages with 2 of my students. Diane (facing the camera) was great at  helping me in the kitchen!

Enjoying the feast! We had a huge plate of rice, cabbage and peas...and the complimentary  Fanta, of course!

Marceline giving her "child" a gift! (She was actually my cacahouettes child but the photo of the 2 of us together didn't come out well.)

Some students proudly showing off their gifts (Marceline, in the middle, is wearing the shirt  I got her and showing the nail polish, happy with her gift...though clearly I didn't get the memo to get a gift envelope/bag!)

After just over 4 months here in Rwanda and spending a lot of time away from work and Kigali last month, I am appreciative of my SALT placement in many ways. Here are some of the challenges and joys that stand out to me now:

Challenges:

• Knowing when to put my desires and opinions aside - sometimes ideally I would do/approach things differently (ex. teaching styles and ‘curriculum’, and some foods I would prepare if I were living on my own)
• Accepting the (slow) progress of things at work and adapting my dreams and expectations for my teaching and other projects at work

Joys:

• Good timing (that’s completely unplanned) - bumping into friends on the street or arriving at work at a moment when someone needed help
• Words of encouragement from family and friends at home as well as a couple local friends here
• I think I have enough work and a good variety of tasks and people to work with, which is good because I like to stay busy and do many things!

Happy Holidays!

My holidays were good, but lacked electricity and internet (I was out of town), thus here is a belated blog to wish you Merry Christmas and happy New Year! Christmas found me with my host family at a rustic camp on Lake Kivu in southeastern Rwanda and New Years found me with my fellow Rwanda/Burundi SALTers, Annie and Janelle, at a 'resort' on a small lake in southern Uganda. I fully enjoyed my time relaxing with my host family and friends and the opportunity to feel closer to them as we cooked and did activities together. I especially appreciated the conversations, good food (especially in Uganda with PBJs, yogurt and museli, and pizza at a local restaurant), time to read for fun, playing games (Farkle and cards with my host mom and sister, and Dutch Blitz with the SALTers), and made the most of the sun for a brief swim in each place because other times it was cold (by my current standards – probably 50-55 at night and 60-65 when there was no sun)! Oh and I can’t forget to mention our canoeing endeavor in Uganda…3 people + 1 big wooden dugout canoe + 1 big sturdy paddle and 1 small weak paddle = 1 zigzagging, turning canoe! (How one local, paddling always on the same side of the boat, keeps the boat going straight seemingly effortlessly is beyond me!)

Overall it didn’t feel much like the holidays, since there aren’t the same traditions here, but it was great to have vacation time and see more of East Africa. In Rwanda, Christmas and New Years are days to go to church and thank God for what He has done for you during the past year. After church, families gather together and go home to prepare a “feast” (I’ve heard meat and fresh milk are the favorites that are added to the traditional starches and sauces that people prepare) and go to visit friends. It’s a pretty simple day but definitely involve the things that are most important in any culture – family, friends and food. Even though I knew people don’t usually exchange gifts on Christmas here, I felt on edge until the evening of Christmas day because I hadn’t brought any gifts for my family – just in case they had adapted my culture and gotten something. Turns out I didn’t need to worry because there was no mention of gifts the whole day. We did send text messages to our friends and coworkers we couldn’t go visit to wish them a Merry Christmas.  

When I got home from my trip to Uganda, it was so nice and felt so natural to be welcomed back home to our house in Kigali. (Guess that’s a good sign that I’m with a good host family!) It has been 2 weeks since I have been in Kigali, aside from the evening in between my two trips, and I am glad to be home now. Oh and it turns out “presents” are done around the New Year!! Not to worry, they aren’t presents for people specifically (so it’s still ok I didn’t get anything for my host family), they are more like new and improved household items (and possibly clothes) that are purchased to celebrate the new year. So we now have a nice set of silverware, a few more serving bowls and a trash can (our first!). Yay.

Here are some photos from my travels – enjoy!

Kumbya, the camp on Lake Kivu. I could see the lake, from a different angle, from my bedroom window!

Monkeys really do like bananas! (They were 100ft away from our cabin and I was SO excited to see them!!! They loved to run up and grab the bananas we tossed, using their adorable little hands to peel them and scarf them down!)

This one ran straight over my head on a branch, across our roof and
down the other side to get to another grove of trees!

The people who were staying at Kumbya...my host family and the family of another pastor from the Friends Church who live in the area. It was good to try to spend time in language-free activities with them (cooking, eating, swimming).

Dancing and singing at church on Christmas!
(Note: the orange things hanging are flowers - common church decorations for any  special days/events.)

A Christmas day family portrait at the lake!

Peaceful Lake Bunyonyi in Uganda, where Janelle, Annie and I stayed for 4 days.

We slept comfortably in our safari tent (equipped with beds!) with a view onto the lake.

Janelle taking a turn paddling our crazy canoe!

A perfect spot to rest for lunch during our canoe adventure.

Annie and Janelle at our favorite local restaurant (their guacamole and pizza were delicious!).

Apparently New Years is a national holiday in Uganda meaning none of the buses were running. We eventually discovered a cheap way to travel: sharing a taxi with 9 other people to get to the Rwanda-Uganda border, then taking a public mini-bus in Rwanda all the way to Kigali. This photo should show you how crowded our car was - 5 people in front and 4 plus a baby in back. Notice the woman AND the driver sharing a seat...and our car wasn't an automatic! We enjoyed the adventure though :)

Now, after a busy month of traveling, I am about to go back to my routine of teaching and other projects at Friends Peace House/Mwana Nshuti. I am more or less looking forward to it :) Hope you all had time to rest and enjoy the holidays! Wish I could have seen you!