Thanksgiving, Take Two

Today's best part of being an expat: we got to celebrate American Thanksgiving, because one of Logan's new roommates is from the States and was missing home. Delicious, delicious, delicious.

that while we breathe, we hope

I spent most of the night of November 4^th and the early morning of November 5^th snuggled in a deck chair wearing a party dress, eyes glued to CNN. Aside from it being the first time I’d really watched TV since I’d arrived in Africa, this was something big. We had started the “Yes We Can” celebration early, meeting at an American-run restaurant in Kigali for an all-night election party. Everyone there – Americans, Canadians, Europeans, expat Africans and Rwandans alike – were on edge; hopeful and hoping but not quite sure what the results would be. 8pm our time was a good 5 hours ahead of when the first polls were going to close, but we sat and we waited; we ate and we drank and we laughed and we endlessly discussed the issues – how much would his race matter? Would his inexperience count against him? Could the world tolerate Sarah Palin for the next four years? It was the race issue that had me concerned, to be honest. Every African I’d met was in awe that ‘one of their own’ had even made it this far… Could we even begin to hope he’d really make it?

Katie and I headed home around 1:30 in the morning, before any polls closed, due to extreme exhaustion (and a couple of beers…). A text message just after 6am woke me up; a friend from home saying “Wake up. He did it!” I have never welcomed an early morning wake-up call so happily. On about three and a half hours of sleep, I climbed out bed, got ready and headed for the bus park. Sitting on the bus bound for mu mujyi, everyone was quiet but there was a buzz in the air. Everyone knew, and everyone had hopes for what was to come. The driver flipped the radio on in time for the news. The words “Barack Obama” crackled out over the speaker amidst a stream of Kinyarwanda… and the entire bus erupted in cheers.

I’m so glad I was in Africa for this.

Katie (right), Laura (our American Lawyers Without Borders friend) and me at Heaven for the all-nighter.

Say what you need to say

Expect a stream of new blog entries; I know I'm behind. I've been writing here and there but never manage to post anything - massive internet troubles; a visit from Coady's volunteer coordinator, Natalie; the phone issue, of course, and grad school applications. I've been burying myself in plans for next year: funding applications, statements of purpose, CV revisions, and job searches. My heart is still so firmly in Africa but my head is starting to wander back home, just a little bit.

I take back my last entry - I'm still incredibly frustrated and upset about the phone situation (I spent the morning at the police station filling out paperwork while they refused to find an officer who spoke French or English... now I need to go all the way across town to drop the paperwork off with MTN in the hopes that they'll trace it) but I am not ready to come home. At all. Because Kigali is home. It's home without the people I love, which I never imagined; I always thought I associated thoughts of 'home' with people more than any place, but I'm out here on my own (well, aside from my lovely Coady interns + Logan) and I feel as much at home here as I did in Sackville or in my parents' home. Thinking of leaving this place, leaving these people... As much as I'm ready to get on with the rest of my life, I can't imagine the rest of my life not including Africa.

Ready to come home

This is a whiny blog rather than an interesting or informative one. I am officially (today, anyway) ready to come home.

Yesterday, our cleaning lady let someone else into my apartment to clean. Apparently someone else came alone, was left alone in my house, and stole my Canadian cell phone. My $300, year old but in perfect shape Canadian cell phone. The one that people from home were using to text me, because for some reason Rwandan phones cannot receive Canadian text messages. So now, an important way for me to communicate with friends at home has been completely shut off. Not to mention all the pictures and videos I had of Leah on it, and the fact that I'm dead broke and can't afford to get another, either here or in Canada. Luckily I still have my Rwandan phone, although it's getting to the end of its life, I think. But at least this way people from home can still call me.

I am depressed and upset and just feel really violated. And there's no way it was a coincidence, which makes it worse. I've said nothing the other times things have gone missing from my house, including 50$US, because I figured it really didn't matter - they were just things, it was just money, and if it was making someone else's life better, then I'd just deal. But this is much worse, because it's cut me off from people I love. The worst part is that even if I can get the actual phone back (apparently the network here is able to trace phones through serial numbers? I don't get it, and doubt it will work since my phone was still locked to a Canadian network), my SIM card has probably been tossed out by now, which leaves me with more than two months left with a lot less communication with home.

I know these things happen everywhere, and it's life - but it's really broken my trust in people I've spent a lot of time and effort trying to get to know. It goes to show what I've been thinking a lot about lately - no matter what I do here, I'm always going to be the muzungu outsider and there's always someone who's waiting to get something off me. It's depressing to realise I'm living here another two months when I feel so distrustful and upset.