Un jour a Kigali...

Funny how one day can go back and forth from good to bad to great.

I had a hell of a time rolling out of bed this morning... the idea of leaving the (relative) comfort of my blankets was just unpleasant. But I finally talked myself into it and attempted to make coffee in my new coffee press (we visited a store called T-2000 last night... we affectionately dubbed it Kigali's Wal-Mart, as it had everything). While getting dressed, I heard an unfamiliar noise- the toilet flushing! We briefly had enough water this morning to flush, one and a half times. We also got home from Claire's house to find a refridgerator (!!!), a garbage can, and various kitchen utensils. My new bed is apparently supposed to arrive today... I may actually be able to stretch out with smacking my hands/head/feet against the bedframe. Our electrocuting hot plate is still in disrepair and some of our lightbulbs are still missing... but it's a start, and one we're all pleased to see.

So I was optimistic heading to the bus park, although I shouldn't have been... I've had bad bus luck as of late and have revoked my "superstar" status. On Tuesday, I waited an hour and a half for a bus to Kicukiro- only one came and there was no chance of getting on. A Belgian-Rwandese here visiting and his Rwandese uncle tried in vain to help me find a bus home but in the end, I took a taxi. I was so frustrated- 3000 francs out the window when I could have paid 170. The next morning, I waited over an hour. Three buses from Kicukiro to downtown came and went and again- no chance. I was almost pushed over in the rush of people trying to get on, as was the mother and baby I'd been waiting with. Finally, a German woman had picked up two Rwandese women I'd been waiting with, and they had her stop to pick me up as well, which was so nice. This morning, I waited, and one came and went... Kept waiting. A nun came over and said she and another nun were going to take a taxi downtown and would split the 3000 franc fare with me... I gave in. Today was the first day I arrived at work before 830.

I got to talk to my mum and Leah today! Definitely a highpoint, especially her little voice saying "I love you... BYE! BYE!" I had a shopping list prepared to go searching for over my lunch break(and I even knew where to go!) as I'm making supper tonight (or attempting to). So I leave my office... and here is the bad.

There is constantly construction going on all over Kigali; the city is really developing at a rapid rate. Part of these efforts includes the digging of ditches, presumably for water pipes. All week, dozens of Rwandan men have been digging with pickaxes and shovels in the hot sun, and now the ditches are dug and the pipes are laid. The problem is that the ditches are still open, and a ditch about a foot wide lies between my office's parking area and the street... I tried my best to get over but sure enough, I slipped and fell and my legs are scraped to pieces. And of course, to the amusement of alot of Rwandese around... it would be the silly muzungu who fell! Cue the rest of my unpleasant lunch, where my favoured market was closed and none of the others had the ingredients I needed... Frustrations galore today!

But back to good- I returned to the office, prepared to wallow in my boredom, frustration and pain... but in came Dr Laurien with actual, honest-to-God WORK to do! I have a call for proposals to read and summarise for him, and then apparently he and I will be working on the actual proposal. I am so excited! And tomorrow evening, I've been invited to "cocktail" in honor of a guest we have from Nairobi. I'm finally feeling a bit like I'm a part of things here...

Notes on Buses and Begging

I am officially a bus-taking superstar. This morning, I managed to get a prized place on a government-run bus from Kicukiro to downtown... Prized because the seats are only 100 Rwandan Francs rather than 170. At the current exchange rate, 100RwF is about 19 cents Canadian. Previously, I'd only taken the slightly more expensive buses (the 32 cent ones) and was a bit confused about the different price. Luckily, the two men sharing my seat with me (that's the one thing about government buses I liked less; they'll put three to a two-seater and four to a three-seater... a bit snug) both spoke great English and explained. The two also came in handy when the bus stopped in a totally different part of downtown than the other buses do... One of the men was walking to work next to the normal bus park (from which I know how to find my way home) and showed me the way... Thank goodness for kind strangers, of which Rwanda has an abundance.

The interesting thing about the bus was the absolute rush to get on- because it is comparatively so much cheaper, everyone wants to get on the government buses. It was quite interesting, actually, watching everyone fight and clamour to get a seat before it was full. A bit dangerous too, especially in thin ballet flats... my toes hurt a little bit from being stepped on so many times. As well, there appeared to be some sort of incident with pickpocketing- a woman appeared to accuse a younger man of stealing something (I assume this was what happened, although of course the conversation was completely in Kinyarwanda) and two other older men searched him (as well as the other young man the former pointed out). Very different from home.

Anyway, I'm not sure the saved 70RwF was worth it, as I then had to walk a good 15 minutes or so. On my walk however, I was joined by a young guy from London who just arrived in Kigali yesterday. He's here for four weeks doing research on the gacaca system of justice used in Rwanda to cope with accusations of participating in the genocide. Today was a good morning for making friends, Rwandan and otherwise.

One thing I think I will not ever get used to in Kigali is the begging. The first few days, I saw only very few people asking for money on the street, and all were adults with a physical disability (amputations, for the most part). But last night, the four of us walked from near my office to Claire's house in Kiyovu, through what in the daytime is a fairly nice part of town. At night, it's still quite nice and quite safe (as is all of Kigali that I've seen) but there were quite a few women sitting on the sidewalk with infants and toddlers. I don't believe in supporting a begging culture as I do think there are better and more sustainble ways of offering support... but it has never been so hard to say no. Just the realisation of how lucky I am, and how lucky my child is... It's hard to cope with when the comparison between mine and theirs is so apparent in my mind. I knew coming here that I would be confronted with overwhelming poverty and I was aware that it was going to be difficult to cope with, but I had tried quite hard to prepare myself as well as I could. Most people are well aware that I'm sappy and tend to cry at everything remotely sweet, sad or romantic, but it's rare for things in 'real life' to hit me hard enough to bring on tears. I know I am going to love the work I'm doing here with ARBEF, but I've been thinking quite a bit about where else I can get involved during my time here. I'm on the lookout now for an organisation working with children, I think.

The unilingual Kinyarwanda-speaking woman just brought me tea (I still wish they would just show me how so she wouldn't have to) so I'm going to get to work. I'm not sure where my exec director is just now, but on Friday I compiled some resources on refugee reproductive health so off I go to read like a mad woman.

ETA: My boss just came to my office with a stack of reading material. The majority is on IPPF (some in French), which is good as I like IPPF and we're an affiliate, so it's always interesting to know what one is aligned with. Also in the pile? African Woman magazine. I love Dr. Laurien.

Imana yirirwa ahandi igataha i Rwanda

The saying goes, "God spends the day elsewhere, but sleeps in Rwanda." It means essentially that above all, God favours Rwanda... and if you could see it, I think you'd agree. Everyone keeps telling me that Kigali is nothing- that the rest of the country surpasses the capital by far. And maybe that's true... in fact, I'm sure it is. But Kigali is beautiful. My office is tiny and empty, but the door opens onto a balcony along the back of the building, and no matter which direction I turn, all I see is hills. They call Rwanda "land of a thousand hills" for a reason. It's just breathtaking. And despite the population explosion and how densely packed in everyone is, there's still so much green everywhere. And orange- the soil is strangely orange, leaving my shoes covered in a pale, dusty film at the end of the day.

I love it here, to be honest. Four days in and I do feel as if I'm home. For all I miss everyone at home (and some more than others, which is hard), I'm beginning to feel as if Kigali is my second home. I went out for lunch on my own today and navigated the streets like a pro. I know it comes naturally to some people who've travelled often but I've never lived anywhere but Moncton, Sackville or Antigonish- big cities with nearly 900,000 people are not my normal stomping ground. I know my way all around downtown; I can locate my home on a map and explain to taxi drivers where I need to go (and bargain them down from their original amounts!), and I can get by on my English, my French and my shortlist of Kinyarwanda, which I'm absolutely determined to add to. I just love it here. I love the dusty sidewalks and the streets packed full of motos and taxis and mini-buses going everywhichway and the children who grin and yell "muzungu!" at me and the persistent boys selling MTN airtime cards and the women with babies strapped to their backs who smile when I try to remember the right greeting ('mwaramutse' for morning and 'mwirewe' for afternoon) and the crowds of men sitting all over the place and the insane number of odd little shops packed into three-storey buildings with rows and rows of signs. I think I might just be in love with Rwanda...

Rwanda, Rwanda

The past few days have been a whirlwind. Our plane left Halifax at 11:35pm on Sunday night. Uneventful flight- pretty much on time, slightly belligerent drunk man next to us (thank goodness for free alcohol on international flights, hmm?), overall pretty okay other than the lack of sleep. Katie switched seats with me so I had the window to look out when we were flying into London. Got to Heathrow… and then took forever to get out! The original plan was that Claire and I would meet Amanda and Brittany (who are both in Botswana) at Piccadilly Circus… We hadn’t counted on the amount of time it would take us to change, store our extra bags, and get onto the Tube. We took the underground to Piccadilly Circus half-asleep, and by the time we got off, we were desperate for coffee. We picked the first street we thought we’d find a Starbucks on, and coffee in hand, we set off on our London adventure. We’d decided against a real tour and chose to walk around and look at things ourselves. We were mostly examining old buildings and interesting shop windows (I found a hat store- I found it difficult to believe that hats were still common enough for a shop all their own, but later that day I discovered that I was wrong). Found some statues, including a shockingly tall one that, upon closer inspection, turned out to be the Duke of York. In front of him was a park, to the left an interesting-looking building and the Eye of London peeking over it, and to the right, a gigantic gold statue in front of a building. Since we were thinking of going on the Eye, we went left to take some pictures and have a look around. We realized the park was St James Park, and decided to walk through to Buckingham Palace… Turns out, that big gold statue? Yeah… In front of the Palace. Claire and I are sharp. We had a look around the outside of the Palace and noticed an extraordinary number of older women in the most elaborate hats I’ve ever seen (therefore, a need for a hat shop). Very strange. We walked back through the park and through the first building we looked at, which was some kind of government building. From there, we saw Westminster Abbey and Big Ben, and then crossed the street to the Eye of London. The lines were horrific so instead, we ate waffles, watched the living statues and… rode a merry-go-round! It was very Mary Poppins and one of the best things we did in London, by far. We then went back across the Thames to have a final wandering, where we walked into the National Gallery’s square and then on to Piccadilly Circus, at which point we went back to Heathrow and had some delicious Indian food for supper. What a great day!

The flight to Nairobi was not as good as the first one. I was exhausted but could only sleep in short bouts, so I was quite worn out. Kenya Airways has flight tracker mini-tvs on all the seats… which was frustrating, because I just wanted it to go faster. It was neat to see us start to fly over Africa, though. We arrived in Nairobi around 6:30 am and then had to board our (delayed) flight to Kigali/Bujumbura soon after, so no chance to explore Nairobi’s wonders. We arrived in Kigali around 9 am… however, all of my luggage (and Katie’s, and one of Crystal’s) did not. What a frustrating experience that was! Luckily it got sorted out the next day when we went directly to the airport.

We got to our house and, well… The positives- it’s big, and reasonably clean. Three bedrooms, although I ended up with the smallest (and the smallest bed, which is not so comfy for someone who moves in her sleep!) and two bathrooms. Two bathrooms sounds great, hmm? But we’ve no running water. So it’s all bucket showers, pouring water down the toilet to flush it and hoping like hell that we’re keeping our hands as clean as possible. The apartment has a small living room with couches and chairs, and a tiny kitchen with a (non-working) sink and a hotplate. Needless to say, the next six months are going to be interesting. Claire has a separate house… I plan on potentially abusing our friendship by showering and baking at her house, ha. It’s not so bad though. I haven’t seen a single mosquito in the house, which is particularly nice as I haven’t yet found a mosquito net.

Work is also interesting. I started yesterday, but as with most new jobs, I haven’t really done anything yet. Dr Laurien, the executive director of ARBEF, gave me some reading material on reproductive health and on Rwanda and its history yesterday, as well as a small packet about my project. Looks like the project working with returnees is definitely a go-ahead- I’m so pleased about that! The project supervisor isn’t here at the moment though, so I’m not sure quite what I’ll be doing or when I’ll start. I’m sure work will start to pick up soon. The people I’ve met so far have been really nice, although language is definitely a barrier. Everyone speaks Kinyarwanda, Rwanda’s traditional and common language; the majority speak French as well, and only two (Dr Laurien and his secretary, Florence) speak English. Yesterday, I had a three-way conversation with Florence and a French-speaker named Mbanda: she and I spoke to each other in English; he and I spoke to each other in French, and they spoke to each other in Kinyarwanda! It was quite funny.

I’ve gone out the past two nights, and it’s been nice to get a bit of a feel for Kigali. Wednesday, David (a coworker of Crystal’s) and his cousin, Moses, took us out to dinner at a restaurant called La Nouvelle Planete. It was the first Rwandan meal I’d enjoyed, and it was delicious- grilled tilapia, roasted banana, fries, and a large, cold Primus. I even tried some pili pili, Rwanda’s chili sauce… which burns! After that, they took us out to the Sky Hotel, to see what I can only describe as dance karaoke. Unbelievable- and hilarious! Each dancer would perform two numbers, and some of them were phenomenal. “So You Think You Can Dance” should have try-outs in Rwanda. There was quite a range of music from hip hop and R&B to African (including Lucky Dube!) to reggae. Mostly though, it was just a funny and very memorable Rwanda experience. Last night, the four of us girls went together to Republika, which is essentially an expat hangout. I saw more whites last night than I’ve seen in the four days I’ve been in Rwanda… definitely Muzungu central! Good food though, and nice to be out with everyone having fun.

Before I sign-off, a note on the wonders of travelling around Kigali. There are motos, which are regulated motorcycle taxis… Haven’t done that yet. There are also private taxis just like at home, but the difference is that there are no meters and you bargain for your price! It’s actually kind of fun. Taxi drivers try to overcharge foreigners, sometimes quite badly, but we’ve managed to get pretty reasonable fares so far. And finally, there are public buses… Which I rode for the first time to get to work this morning. What an adventure that was! Firstly, I live in an area called Kagarama, which is in Kicukiro district about 20 minutes drive from downtown Kigali. I had to walk from our compound to the taxi stops about 10 minutes away. And then I had to wait, and hope. I asked one woman in French how to catch a bus downtown, and she told me what to look out for and where to stand. Sure enough, about 20 minutes (!!!) later, a bus driver pulled in and shouted “Centreville!” out his window. On I got… The only white person I’d seen on any of the buses. Some of the other passengers looked at me like I was mad, and I confirmed when I arrived (only slightly late and not much worse for wear) at the office that it is somewhat unusually for muzungus to take the buses. I don’t see why- it was cheap (170 Rwandan francs, which is like less than 50 cents Canadian), quick and they are picky about the number of people on board now, so it was quite comfortable and safe. I actually sort of liked the whole process!

ETA: I wrote this this morning when I had no internet. A wonderful man came and fixed it and made my day. A second wonderful man made my day (again) an hour ago when I went to Bourbon Coffee (Rwanda's Starbucks) and made me the most delicious cappuccino ever. Rwanda's okay.

Goodbye, Coady

So here it is, my last day in Antigonish. I am moving to Rwanda in two days. I'm sitting here with my room mostly packed up, drinking a cold beer and just generally wasting some time not thinking about the fact that I'm moving to another continent.

My dad called me last night, which was the highlight of my night. We had our big send-off last night as well, out at Crystal Cliffs, which is a beach property owned by STFX. It was alot of fun, and the food wasn't even that bad for once. A few speeches, all of us interns sang a song, and we got our Coady pins. The best part definitely came after- dancing to African music with tons of the Coady participants.

So last night was nice, but it was also the start of the goodbyes... which I didn't realise I wasn't ready for. This whole experience so far has been about learning to walk away and say goodbye. There were a lot of hugs and kind words from a lot of the participants, and it was nice to know that they enjoyed getting to know us as much as we enjoyed meeting them. Today started the goodbyes with my fellow interns, which I definitely am not ready to do. We had our final class this morning tying up loose ends. We ended by writing ourselves letters, and notes to each other for encouragement; they'll be sent out to us around the halfway point in case we need a little extra reassurance. Then we did a really neat exercise with candles, where we'd light the candle of the person next to us and say what they'd brought the group. There were definitely a few tears at that point. I've said goodbye to two of the interns and there are still so many left... Today might be a bit rough, but I'm looking forward to a nice, relaxing weekend in Halifax... Two whole days without a schedule to follow! It'll be nice to have a bit of a break before leaping headfirst into this African adventure.

Hurry boy, it's waiting there for you...

I am moving to Africa in 3 days. I've possibly gone crazy.

Luckily, I am completely without stress. I'm at the point now where I've decided that there's nothing I can do to change anything right now- so, here goes! I am not scared; I'm not stressed out; I'm not worried. To be honest, I'm not even really excited yet. It's still not real, and I think a sneaking suspicion that it won't feel real until the plane lands in Kigali. But seriously... I'm moving to AFRICA. It'll be interesting to see what the hell I've gotten myself into.

Classes are winding down (for us, anyway). Tomorrow is the last day and it's jam-packed. Class all morning, group photos at noon followed by an interview with the local paper (reminder: do not say "awesome," even under my breath, during said interview). More classes until 4, and then we're all climbing onto busses to head out to Crystal Cliffs for our send-off. Another meal away from meal hall, which is exciting.

Speaking of food, we had a fantastic potluck at Kim's (one of our coordinators). It was fantastic. Almost everything was vegetarian (hooray for me) and I baked a vegan cake, which was delicious. I have not felt so satisfied in the month I've been here. It revived my increasing desire for Rwandan food. Can't wait for food with a TASTE! After the potluck, a group of us (including Natalie, our new coordinator) went for a bonfire on the beach. It was such a great time, and it's really been these things that have gotten me through the past month. Another group of us went off to a beautiful private beach this evening... The water was incredibly warm and clear. It's funny how much I love being around these people who I didn't even know a month ago.

I'm up packing up my room... much harder than I thought and much more annoying, too. I forgot how much I hate packing! Oh well. Packing brings me one step closer to Rwanda!

A Little (Photographic) Taste of Coady

I'm blessing you with a few of the pictures I've been taking madly over the past few weeks... While the classes leave a bit to be desired, the experience has been so amazing. One of the past interns had told me before coming that over the four weeks of orientation, the other interns would start to feel like family. At the time, I thought she was exaggerating- I don't tend to get very close to people very easily, so I really didn't consider the very real possibility of forming strong friendships with people I would only be around for a short while. I've surprised myself though, and three weeks into this, I find it so hard to believe I didn't know anyone a month ago, and that I won't be seeing the vast majority of these people until February (with the exception of the members of Team Rwanda, with whom I will likely be living with in Kigali). The diploma participants are also fantastic- I am constantly in awe of how much people put into their work, and the vast majority of my learning during orientation has been through them rather than through the classes we take. Above is a picture of Mike, one of the interns, with a group of the Coady students- I'll admit to not knowing names for everyone so instead, nationalities- Malawi, Zimbabwe, Liberia, Ethiopia, Ghana (I think) and Zambia in the back. We've got participants from all over- an American, some from South America and the Caribbean, many from all over Africa, and quite a few from India (all nuns and priests), Nepal and Bangladesh. It's just incredible.

The picture to the left is a blurred shot of some of the beautiful Tanzanian women dancing at the Welcome Social last week. It was just phenomenal- first the group of Tanzanian women started dancing and within moments, the vast majority of the African students were on their feet. Definitely one of the most memorable moments around here, and I'm hoping for a few more of these in the next week.

Speaking of a week- I'm flying out next Sunday! I'm past the point of stress and well into mellow... Just waiting to go. The past three weeks have been rough but things are now under control- I've gotten accustomed to residence life (although not the food...) and details of my placement are falling into place, although I won't know where I'm living until I get off the plane. Kim, one of our coordinators, is fond of telling us to "trust the process." So trusting I am... Here's hoping!

Hot hot heat.

It's currently 30 degrees celcius here... At least five degrees HOTTER than in Kigali at the moment. I can't stand two more weeks of this heat and humidity!

I've been remarkably lazy at keeping up with this. I do seem to have a fair bit of free time in the evenings, but it's usually spent reading or trying to nap or talking to people. I have to admit- by the end of 830am-5pm days, I don't feel much like writing about what I've done all day. It's not exhilirating, by any means. It's interesting to be surrounded by so many people from all over the world who have experience doing all kinds of development work, but the course content makes it difficult, at times, to stay focused.

I've had a few really bad days, where I just wanted to come home and forget about it. But I think I'm past that now and I just can't WAIT to get going. In two weeks, at this time, I'll be at the airport waiting to board... Exciting! We still don't know where we'll be living, or much else... but I'm sure it'll all just sort itself out.

We spent yesterday at Laird's brother's farm out in Tatamagouche, which was a great break from being around here all day. We drove up at got there just before noon, at which point one of the kids who lives on the farm (there are a few couples living and working together) gave us a great tour before we headed off to have pancakes for breakfast/lunch. After eating, we went off to a beautiful beach, where we stayed for a few hours enjoying the sun. When we went back to the farm, we picked vegetables out of the garden for supper- which was much more satisfying than I'd imagined. Still, it's definitely not the life for me- I had no cell phone signal for over 9 hours, which predictably made me a little antsy. Strangely enough, I realised as we were leaving that I had met Laird's brother's girlfriend before at a conference at MTA- yet another one of the "it's a small world" connections that have come up among the 16 of us in the program.

Today was a nice lazy day. I spent two hours sitting outside reading under a tree, which was exactly what I needed. If only it would get a little cooler...

We make the road by walking

No time for a real post, but so I don't forget...

A Coady participant from Liberia told us today that there's a saying from home: "When someone is talking nonsense, listen, drop the "non" and keep the "sense."