T-Shirt Contest, Sleepover, World Cup Qualifier Game....Super Fun Weekend!!!

Monday, March 30, 2009

This weekend was so much fun! I felt like I really got to know Kigali well…and we had a lot of good group bonding time. On Friday, after classes, most of the group and I went to market in search for who could find the funniest t-shirt. All of us muzungus were running around market, sorting through piles and piles of t-shirts (they have the most random t-shirts here), and finally deciding on the one that we thought would be the grand winner. Clint, Dwight and Brenda’s son, was the judge. I found a light blue shirt…it had a huge smile on the front with braces and underneath the mouth it read, “Brace Yourself.’’ I thought it was funny…unfortunately, it was not the winner but makes for good memories. Everyone bought shirts with funny sayings about an old, 60 year old woman and monkeys…etc. It was fun to see what all people could come up with. Anyway, the contest took place after dinner. Everyone put on their shirts and displayed them for Clint. Mindi won the contest…a jar of nutella was her prize! After the contest, we had fun playing group games. Have you ever heard of Fishbowl? It is so much fun…it involves 3 rounds of describing words, charades, and using 1 word phrases…2 teams, whoever gets the most points wins. We played 2 rounds before we called it quits. It’s hilarious to see people’s facial expressions…and acting, we have some really good actors. Good times! All the girls wanted to have a girl’s night, so we kicked the boys out of the house, ate tons of nutella (Mindi was nice to share), talked, and watched a chick flick, “The Wedding Date.” It was late and we were all tired from our day of shopping, playing games, and having fun…so we all got situated in the living room. There were a lot of us trying to fit in the small living room...we slept on the floor and couches. It wasn’t the most comfortable sleeping position, but, surprisingly, I was able to catch a descent amount of zzzzzzz’s.

Saturday was Pancake Day! Every Saturday, the girls join the guys at the Jackson’s house to eat pancakes…we woke up to the smell of fresh coffee and warm pancakes. It reminded me of the many sleepovers we had at my house and at friends…good memories. I played Jack Johnson “Banana Pancake” song….thought it was fitting. In the morning, most of us hung out at the house…it was Rwanda’s monthly holiday, Umuoganda. On this day, all transportation, stores, and jobs do not work in the morning. All persons are required to help clean or do some type of service in the community. Everything is closed until 12. The streets were so peaceful…traffic was much less. It was nice to have a relaxing morning.

For lunch, Roanna, Suzy, and I walked to market to find some fresh fruit. Roanna was able to buy some mangos and oranges…me and Suzy were craving apples but had no luck. We rode a mutatu to a grocery store close to where we live and found some lunch….but no apples. We walked back to the house, ate lunch, and hurried off to the World Cup Qualifiers game between Rwanda and Algeria. The streets were already packed about 2 hours beforehand…so we decided we should probably go. We met up with some other people in our group, went through security (ha, that was interesting…felt very violated. No worries, it was a woman security guard), and went to find our seats. We had descent seats that had a good view of the field. Soon after getting situated, it started to down pour. HUGE raindrops and small pieces of hail started to fall from the very dark sky. Luckily, Wes brought an umbrella. It was hilarious….everyone in the stadium dodged down the stairs to hide beneath the stadium roof. But we brave souls, decided to wait it out. Wes, Roanna, Jenny, a random Rwandan couple, and I were crammed under Wes’ umbrella. We were all getting soaked and, after a good 10 minutes of heavy down pour, decided to make the run. We scrambled to the stadium stairs, the part without the roof, and were smashed against the wall. My side got completely drenched…the umbrella was dripping water on me. We were all laughing, shivering, and getting up, close, and personal…let’s just say it was a bonding experience, ha!

After the rain let up, everyone was pushing and shoving through the crowd to find seats. We ran through a section, I hopped over a rail with a skirt on…I call that talent, and found seats in a section closer than we were before! Good deal…we were seated in the middle of the field and had an awesome view. I was sitting shoulder to shoulder between a stranger and Wes…it was quite crowded! For the remaining 1 ½ hours we sat in our seats and talked until the teams came out and we all cheered for them. Rwandan fans are definite supporters…dancing, shouting, clapping, blowing horns, painted faces, dressing up, etc…it was one big party. The game was so much fun. It turns out that neither teams scored, it was a tie. I was surprised that they didn’t go into overtime…thought they would, but they didn’t! The whole time I had to squint because, although our seats had a great view of the field, it also had a great view of the sun…I squinted the whole game. My eyes started to water from all of my squinting…but, I still had fun. When the game was over, crowds and crowds of people gushed out of the stadium…we walked home, which isn’t far from the stadium, and dodged cars, taxis, and people that were flooding from the gates. We got home and had pizza night! In the evening, we played a Disney game called “Scene It” and then a bunch of us girls went star gazing outside. Africa’s skies are beautiful…the stars are so bright. We were able to enjoy the breathtaking view until T.J., one of our guard dogs, sprinted towards us and hoped over 4 girls, landed on Suzy, and ran away. I saw the dog coming and thankfully had enough time to stand up…for those of you who don’t know, I am very afraid of dogs. We put the dogs in the back so they would stop bothering us…the dog took the blanket I was using with him…

Sunday morning, I visited an Anglican church with Danielle, Joy, Roanna, Suzy, Sandy, and Jenny. It was a mixture of English and Kinyrwandan. I enjoyed having a more English service…it is difficult to sit through 3 or 4 hour services of foreign languages…it was nice to understand what was going on. I liked the church and will probably go back again. After church, we walked into town and had lunch and coffee at Bourbon, which is a Rwandan coffee shop that is so good! Actually, they are opening the first Bourbon Coffee Shop in D.C. soon. We sat and talked for awhile and then read for a bit. It was very relaxing. A few of us visited the Craft Coop. across the street. I found some nice crafts including a pair of traditional Rwandan earrings…they are kind of hard to describe but they are basically threaded circles of all sorts of colors. Women wear them everywhere. I was happy with my purchases and we were all done shopping…so we headed for home. I took a quick nap which felt nice…I have been really tired lately, and got some reading done. In the evening, we spent some time singing songs together-so many good guitar players and singers in this group-and loading pics. I finally got the white water rafting photos…I had to laugh to myself as I flipped through the different pics…I hope to load them onto Facebook soon so that all can see what we went through, ha!

Today, I had classes in the morning to afternoon. After school, Suzy, Roanna, and I went to PHARP, which is an organization that leads a sewing class for victims of genocide. They are great seamstresses…many of the girls on my team have already had dresses and skirts made! We visited the class to teach them English for the next 2 weeks. We will meet 3 times a week for 1 hour. Today, we kind of played it by ear. We had no idea how much English they knew so…we basically, did an introduction of greetings, clothing, colors, etc…we thought these topics may be helpful considering that they work with fabric daily. Our lesson went well…it was fun to hear the women recite the words we presented. Some girls seem to be very good at learning languages while others get very nervous speaking. It was a good experience and I look forward to see them again. We meet on Wednesday. Anyway, I think that is a fairly good update as to what we did in the past week. I’ll try to update more frequently in these last couple of weeks! Crazy how fast time flies by….but, until then, ta ta for now!

God Brings a Healing Heart...

Sunday, March 29, 2009

We had our first week of classes this past week. I am taking two courses, a Social Context and Development class and a Peace Building course. I really enjoy my teachers. My Peace Building teacher is Rwandan and my Social Context professor is from the U.S. He has been in Rwanda numerous years as the country director. I am enjoying these classes and am learning so much about Rwanda’s history and development.

We had two field trips this past week to visit genocide memorials. On Monday, we visited a site that had 15 large burials plots….there were 75,000 victims at this memorial. Inside, we were able to see numerous pictures, informative side notes, and watched some videos of victims describing their experience. The first floor focused on Rwanda’s genocide, the 2nd on genocides that have occurred in other parts of the world, and 3rd floor was dedicated to all the children who were killed in genocide. I was only able to see the 1st floor and part of the 2nd because we ran out of time. There was so much to look at and read about…I learned a lot and am continuing to learn so much about Rwanda’s history.

On Thursday, we visited the church memorial. During the 1994 massacre, people fled to churches with the hope of escaping death. Unfortunately, those who fled to churches became genocide victims as well. In this church, 10,000 people died…only 2 children were found alive, they were buried beneath the many dead bodies. When I walked in the church, I saw the bullet holes in the doors and roof…old benches were piled high with clothing of the victims. Down below were skulls and jewelry of victims. We walked outside where large burial plots were built. Beneath the ground were more skulls, bones, and caskets filled with remains.

After visiting the memorials, I tried to place myself in the situation of the Tutsis and Hutus…I can not imagine. I interact with victims of the genocide every day and I sit and I walk on streets that were once filled with bloodshed. Rwanda has a sad history filled with much pain, but I am constantly amazed at the way in which God has brought peace to these people…I am living in a country that has been healed and is constantly healing. I recognize the damage of sin and see the need for forgiveness. I am inspired and hope to use this experience to change my life in the way that I act and show love to others. I pray and hope that God grants me peace in my heart to be a servant unto others, listen to His call for my life, and to live with forgiveness in my heart.

Living in the Land of a Thousand Hills...

Monday, March 16, 2009

On Saturday, we left bright and early for Rwanda. We literally spent the whole day sitting on the bus. As we traveled farther south, I noticed a significant change in scenery. I saw more hills and lush, green grass and farms. It was gorgeous! I knew we were coming close to the Rwandan border. When we finally arrived at the Uganda/Rwanda line, I got out of the car and thought I needed to exchange my Ugandan shillings for Rwandan Franks right away. Unfortunately, I did not understand the exchange rate of shillings per frank and dollar per frank. Numerous men kept shoving their calculators in my face to show me their exchange rate…some were higher than others. Right before I decided to exchange, one of the men was chased away by a police officer. This frazzled me and added to the chaotic scene. Anyway, I ended up exchanging money with this one man and thought it was okay. To my dismay, after crossing the Rwandan border, I told Julia, our leader, how much I exchanged and received…she figured out I got ripped off. I lost $75! I was frustrated at myself for not waiting until someone I who knew the exchange rates/process could help me. But, after looking at the situation in another light, I guess I helped that man feed his family. Another girl in our group had 100,000 shillings stolen from her. Apparently, this incident hasn’t happened before. Anyway, after a few more hours of driving, we arrived in Kigali, Rwanda’s capital and headed home.

Due to little space at the guest house, the girls are separated from the boys. We, the girls, are staying at a retreat center that is run by nuns…it is a 15 minute walk from the guy’s house. The girls are split up in groups of two. Our rooms are in a row, similar to motel style, and share a common end bathroom and shower. We have classes at this compound. The guys are living at the guest house…this is where we spend most of our time and eat all of our dinners. Our professor and his family lives at this house…it reminds me of home. Plus, we have a patio that overlooks a beautiful view of the city.

Since being here, we have relaxed and got situated in our rooms. Today, we had our first Peace building Class as well as orientation. We met some Rwandans, our field assistants or “hired friends,” and they showed us downtown and the transportation system. It is very developed here…they have supermarkets, coffee shops that look like Starbucks, and super clean roads. It almost looks like a city in the U.S…but in Africa with really green hills everywhere. Although Kigali is very developed, 60% of the country still remains in poverty. In the rural areas there is still much poverty in need.

A Long, Short Summary of My Practicum Experience in Ethiopia

Sunday, March 15, 2009

For the past 3 ½ weeks I was in Ethiopia for our practicum part of the program. Roanna, Eli, Tessa, Suzy, and I traveled to the northeast part of Ethiopia. Roanna, Tessa, and Eli were placed in Sasiga whereas Suzy and I lived 25 kilometers away in the district of Belo, village of Sogue. It was seriously out in the middle of nowhere…at the beginning Suzy and I didn’t know what to do with ourselves, but we adjusted and absolutely LOVED our experience. We were living in a VERY hot, dusty, desert where hyenas, donkeys, and antelope roamed the land. We saw one antelope, TONS of donkeys that made an unexplainable “He-Haw” (it was so funny…we always laughed), and two dead hyenas on the road. We lived with the Gumuz people.

Suzy and I lived in the FH compound with the other FH staff. Each person had their own room…kind of like an outside dormitory with a shower and bathroom at the end. We had a really good cook named Tenanye. For breakfast we’d drink tea and eat pasta or rice with bread. Sometimes she served Fer Fer, a traditional dish that is a mixture of injera pieces, meat, and a spicy sauce…I was not a fan. Then, for lunch and dinner we ate injera, sheep meat (which I did not like or eat much of…ate some unknown parts), vegetables, and shiro which is like a lentil sauce. Every day after lunch we had a coffee ceremony which was sooo good. Ethiopian coffee is served in small coffee cups, is very strong, and has a lot of sugar. Definitely the best coffee I have tasted…it is so sweet and fresh. Fresh coffee is green, then it is roasted, grinded into fine grounds, and dissolves in hot water until the right consistency. Everyone had coffee ceremonies either in the morning or afternoon.

We formed close relationships with many of the staff and learned so much from them! They are awesome people who have a desire to serve God in all that they do. Every morning, we woke up early for staff prayer and devotions. During this time, I learned the importance of prayer and how powerful it is. They have left their families who live hours away to serve this rural, remote community in poverty…I could not imagine how hard that would be.

During our time, we worked mainly with CDP (Child Development Project). This involved leading a girl’s group, talked with classrooms in the school, and did home visits with some of the sponsor children. We also had the chance to visit some of the agriculture and water sites. I learned so much about the community…and was especially drawn to the inequality issue. In this community, women are seen as inferior, men superior. Early marriage is a major issue. At the age of 12 and 13 young girls are dropping out of school to marry. Boys typically marry around the age of 18. We saw many young mothers who looked around the age of 14 and already had children. We talked about the importance of education and waiting for marriage in our girl’s group.

Inequality is also seen in the gender roles. At young ages, girls carry heavy jugs of water from the river to their hut numerous times during the day. They also may be expected to carry heavy piles of sticks on their backs, cook, clean, take care of their siblings, etc. While the men herd the cattle which mainly involved sitting around and talking with their friends. When walking through the village, we often saw men getting drunk and playing cards. At some of the home visits we met with two sponsor girls. The girls did not talk much, as they are taught not to communicate or express themselves, and did not smile…you could see in their eyes that they had no joy or hope in their life. Very sad….

In Sogue live the Gumuz and Highlander people. There has been much tension between the two people groups over the past couple years. It has been a conflict of racial tension and a struggle for resources. Last May, a massacre erupted between the Gumuz and Highlanders…in four days, 200 boys and men were killed while the girls and women were raped or physically abused. The government stepped in and settled the dispute. Although both groups live peaceably now, unspoken tension remains. However, Sogue is very safe and we enjoyed our stay.

The night before we left Sogue, we had a camp fire…which means butchering a sheep and cooking the meat for dinner. Suzy and I made an American meal for them to share a little bit of our culture with the staff…it was difficult to find ingredients and cook over coals, so we decided to grill bread for sandwiches and made a salad. At the camp fire, they presented us with traditional dresses and shawls. They were beautiful! Zeldanesh, a staff member, showed us how to put them on…we were told we had to put them on before we could continue with our farewell ceremony. Suzy and I bought the staff a clock. Who knows if they’ll use it, but they appreciated our gift. We talked about what we learned and what a blessing it was to stay with them. That night, we shared in devotions, worship, dancing, and eating lots of good food. It was so much fun and I felt so special. I miss them!

For the last week, Awake, our supervisor, showed us around several places. We traveled for TWO days in jet packed car…we sat 4 people in the backseat, so squished. We also stopped every few hours for macchiatos, fruit, corn, etc...let’s just say we never went hungry with Awake and all became addicted to coffee. We were all tired and were so thankful when we finally arrived in Zuway, the other FH program in Ethiopia. We stayed for about 3 days and learned about how FH works in the urban poverty setting. We did some home visits, played games with the school children, went to market, as well as visited two lakes! The group stayed at a hotel in the town. It was fairly nice except for the poor water system. On our half of the hotel, the water never worked…only one time were we able to shower in our room. Because the water didn’t work, Suzy and I could not flush our toilet for days…the smell was terrible!!! Boy, were we ready to get out of that room, ha! Me and Suz just got a bad room…our outlets didn’t work and the water didn’t work, but it made for some good memories and had fun laughing at the situation.

The last three days were spent traveling and exploring Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. This is a fairly developed city. At least it looks more developed. The streets are so clean, they drive on the right side of the road, and the streets are not complete chaos which was very nice. However, I noticed at nights many people covered themselves with a blanket and slept on the sidewalk. I never saw so many people sleeping on the street. I also noticed the numerous people that were crippled. Some people walked with shoes on their hands because they had crippled legs. I think it might be polio? but not sure. I did not recognize this in Uganda. Ethiopia speaks Amharic and seems to have a lot of Arabic influence. They have light skin, look similar to Indian ethnicity, and are known as Africa’s most beautiful people.

We visited the FH headquarters and were able to see some of the markets. On Wednesday night, Awake took our group out to a cultural restaurant for our last hoorah! It was so cool. We ate traditional food-injera and other special dishes, had a coffee ceremony, listened to music and watched the many cultural dances which were so cool! The dancers wore different Ethiopian dresses for each dance…each dance represented a different part of Ethiopia. Two of the dancers came up to me and starting dancing with me. Shaking their shoulders is the cultural Ethiopian dance…I tried my best to follow what they did but I don’t think I did the Ethiopian dance justice. I laughed the whole time…Eli got it on tape. Anyway, it was a fun night and great way to top of the end of our practicum experience. Oh yea, and I got my hair braided…it lasted for 4 days. I wore a bandana on my head and the staff knew me as, “Kristy, the Ethiopian Lady.” I know this post is very long, but it is difficult to sum up my practicum experience in a few words. So…I hope you enjoyed seeing a little glimpse of my AWESOME experience in the land of GREAT coffee, mangos, and injera ;)