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.
No comments:
Post a Comment