News from Rwanda: Week 1 & 2

Week one, over. Week two, over. I have a lot to write. There may not be a consistent thread or theme in this post, so please bear with me.

Week One: Transition
The first week was indeed about transition to a new country, a new place to sleep, new foods, new languages. New everything. I will admit that it was, especially in hindsight, stressful and nothing reveals that more than how every bump in the night seemed to alert us to some imagined danger lurking in the darkness.

Week one also held some adventures and discoveries. We visited the genocide memorial which was a very good experience, in the way that reflection upon tragedies of the past help you understand the present and change the future. While the past 15 years have no doubt helped to heal some of the wounds felt by all, the scars are present and the deep pain of genocide is an undercurrent which can be felt in many. I do not want to dwell on that right now though – it is just an observation which must be made and noted for now.  I will have a post later on some observations and things that I (Liz) experienced in our first week here which really got me thinking and asking questions internally.

We also went to the US Embassy where they were playing Slumdog Millionaire. We took along some of our new Rwandan friends from Ryan's office and they enjoyed the film quite a lot. We had seen it before with friends back in the fall which made for an interesting connection in our minds.

Let’s see, in week one we also went to the Kimironko (Chimmy-Roho) market to buy produce and cleaning products. Kimironko is an outdoor market where individual stalls hold fresh produce, dry goods, there are also used clothes and shoes, a hardware section, and one of my favorites – fabric! It is hard to describe the market. I hope to take some video the next time we are there, or at least before we leave.   (Below - photo of seamstresses working on custom orders at the market.  They make clothing primarily.)

Produce is much cheaper than at the established and ex-pat catered store in town called Nakumatt. For less than $10 I purchased enough produce us to last nearly a week. Not bad. There is some bartering required as I am automatically given the “Mzungu” price. (Mzungu means “white person” and while I don’t like it, it is not a derogatory phrase. It’s more of a statement.)

Week Two: Settling In

To kick off week number two, we went on Sunday the 14th to Akagera National Park which sits on the Rwandan and Tanzanian borders. We didn’t see some of the animals I had hoped for (Some day I would like to see an elephant!) but we got much closer to the game than we did back in 2005 at Hluhluwe in South Africa.

As the week progressed we went to a surprise party for one of Ryan’s colleagues. We also watched a lot of DVDs (2 Harry Potter Movies, Cars, and also Bee Movie) during the weeknights. And on Saturday we invited everyone over to our place because, as the people we rent from described it, our house is “awesome solid.” Which I am pretty sure is an expression meaning that this house has a lot to draw people over for the purpose of hanging out. 

We have a small pool table, ping-pong, a basketball hoop, an electric piano, and lots of space. There is also a fabulous flat screen TV mounted on the wall but it is mysteriously missing the DVD player and the Wii. (Read: removed from view & locked away prior to our arrival) Moving into a home occupied by a family of 6 certainly has its advantages, even if we can’t use the TV or video games.

It is now Sunday night and we have spent the afternoon at Bourbon Coffee (heavenly!) and playing pool back at the house. Next up? We are going to make a rhubarb mango crumble using the butter from Nakumatt which cost $4.00 for two sticks. Ouch.

That is one thing that people tried to warn us about but was difficult to believe before arriving. Some items are very expensive. Like Ragu for instance, is $10 per jar. Want a bar of Dove soap? That will be $4.00 for one bar please. And should you need to purchase some Nivea lotion you should be prepared for highway robbery…it will cost you $14.00. I was bemoaning the price of oats as well ($4.00 for roughly 2. 5 cups) when a friend in Hawaii told me that milk was $10 per gallon. I’ll stop whining I guess and enjoy the things which are luxurious – like paying less than $1.00 for a pineapple.

More thoughts and reflections are to come - just wanted to give you all a general update on our social activities and well being.

Tell that baby to be QUIET! (News from Rwanda)

We have arrived safely in Kigali and without any major incident. Our first day in Rwanda was quite nice and now that we're on our second night here, I can safely say that we're going to have a great summer.

We left D.C. together on Saturday night (6/6) at 10 PM which was no small feat. Keep in mind that when we booked our tickets back in March, we were forced to travel separately for a portion of the trip. (The joy of using airmiles to fly anywhere.) That might not seem like a big deal to most people but for someone (me, Liz) who finds air travel somewhat anxiety-provoking, it was a challenge. Earlier on the 6th, I spent more than 2 hours on the phone with different airlines to see if there had been cancellations which would allow us to be on the same flight.

The two legs of the trip where we had previously been separated were on Air France. With the devastating and still mysterious crash that Air France had over the Atlantic less than a week before, some seats had opened up.

This airline crash of course, seemed to color our own trans-Atlantic flight. People were clearly edgy. Or maybe they were just irritable and French. It is hard to say. I don't mean to stereotype, but at the same time... there was a certain entitlement espoused by several of the French passengers which would make it east to stereotype. If I were trying to.

Ryan and I were seated together watching everyone else board the flight, when suddenly a commotion sprang up just 6 or 7 rows in front of us. A French man had gotten to his seat only to find out that someone had put a bag in the compartment directly above his assigned seat. (Gasp!)

It was entirely unacceptable to him that he could not store his bags directly overhead, even though the flight attendant showed him an empty space in the overhead bin just one row behind him. But no. He started a mini-rampage that could be heard by everyone in our section of the 777 and certainly the sections on either side of us. The offending bag was removed by its owner and the Frenchman settled into his seat looking disgruntled.

(My thought at the time? Wow, that guy is cranky and ridiculous)

Just as the Frenchman was seated, another commotion arose one row in front of us and to our right. A family of 6 were traveling together and needed the compassion of other passengers. Four of them had two of the three seats on the right side of the plane, and one seat in the middle section of the plane. The challenge? There happened to be an older couple who had the aisle seats which essentially split the family. See below:

What the family proposed was to have the older woman give up her aisle seat and sit next to her husband so that the family could have 3 seats in a row. Yes, they were a family of 6 traveling together spread throughout the plane. 4 of them, the mom and dad were trying to sit together in 3 seats with a 7-year old and a 2-year old on their lap.

The family was pretty staunch in their request and kept begging the old woman to move.

When you think about it, the most positive outcome for ANYONE in this situation is to make the switch. If the couple kept the aisle seats they would have been disrupted most of the night by the family getting up, kids crying, or whatever families do on planes.

But, NO. The older woman, who I will now refer to as the "Crabby Old Woman" or COW for short, was infuriated. "We have been in our seats for a very long time! Why are you just now coming to sit down?" she barked? (She was either unaware that many people were still boarding the flight or simply flailing about a very poor excuse for not wanting to move.)

The haggling went on and on. Finally, the older man, now referred to as the "Crabby Old Man" or COM, said in the most exasperated voice to the mother and father "Well if we DON'T move for you we're going to wind up feeling like hell!"

What he failed to realize, was that his wife, the COW, was going to make everyone around her feel like hell even if they did make the move. It was inevitable. Finally, the COW moved, but not after telling the flight attendants who merely watched the exchange, "Ce n’est pas juste!" and sat down. (Translation: "This is not right/just/fair!")

The COW continued to grumble in her seat, looking for ways that she could assert herself. As the family got settled (and espoused many times their gratitude and thanks to the COW) they family stowed their bag in the overhead bin, where the COW's things remained. The COW shouted "They are crushing my hat! Look at that bag! (then jumping up and hitting the family's bag) That bag is too big for this! Too big!"

The attendants settled that matter but the adventure was not over. Why? Because the very cute 2-year old boy started to cry. And the COW became enraged.

As the safety video played, she screamed (yes, she literally yelled) at the mother. "We switched our seats for you and now your baby is crying. TELL HIM TO STOP CRYING!!!"

At this point, I couldn't help but step in. It is my nature. So, I tried to raise my voice gently enough to be heard by the COW and the COM. "Ma'am, please keep your voice down!" I said. And then myself and another passenger quickly pushed our call buttons to get the attendants on the scene.

There is nothing to raise your heart rate before a flight like having passengers scream at someone right before taxiing. I have never had it happen before but it was enough to make me want to run screaming from the plane. Erratic and volatile behavior does not bode well on a transatlantic flight.

Eventually the COM and COW got moved to seats elsewhere, which worked out quite well for the family. Their 2 other family members took the empty seats. The baby? He slept the entire flight and never made a sound again.

If that weren't enough to make the flight interesting or noteworthy. There was the other crabby Frenchman sitting behind the woman next to me. As soon as she reclined her chair, he began to hit it with his fist. My French lessons didn't prepare me well enough to understand him, but he clearly hated the idea of having an airline seat in his way. Even though that is the norm on any flight. The woman next to me had been living in Paris for the last 3 years. She barked back at him and then turned to me saying "The French. They argue over EVERYthing!"

Think the chaos is over? Nope. About 75% of the way through the flight, the crew all seemed very interested in the lavatory right behind us. Why? Some idiot decided to smoke in there. Can you believe it? Who smokes on an airplane these days? And, by the way, in case you are wondering...if that cigarette had somehow caused a fire on our plane, and the cabin got heated up, you, as a passenger, have roughly 90 seconds to get yourself out of there before you die. And you wonder why I don't like flying?

That particular flight was quite turbulent and I think everyone, including crew, were quite stressed out. It is easy enough to see why. Not only had their very own airline lost a plane in very heavy turbulence 6 days prior, but THIS plane was full of crazy people. Or maybe most of them were just French. (Sorry - I could not resist that stab.)

After landing in Paris, napping for 2 hours, then flying to Amsterdam and wasting another 4 hours, we boarded our flight to Nairobi. We landed in Nairobi and waited for 90 minutes to depart for Kigali. But wait? What is this? We must stop in Burundi first? You'd think that by this time another flight would put me over the edge. But, I even though I was really ready to be done with all of the airline travel it seemed like one more tiny punch in the gut that I could handle. Maybe I'd already been pushed over the edge and thus no longer had the energy to fuss. After all, we'd been traveling for more than 48 hours and hadn't been outdoors or had fresh air since D.C.

Once in Kigali, we were met by two IJM folks who took us to our house to unpack. They said they would return in a few hours to take us to the market and then have dinner. It was hard to stay awake during those hours, as you might imagine. But I did my best to try and get the unpacking started. Everything went well until I came to the bag we'd borrowed from our friends the McWhorters.

They had offered us the key to the suitcase when we left, but figuring that you're not supposed to lock suitcases anymore, we decided to leave it behind. What we hadn't considered was that the lock was an approved TSA lock which they CAN unlock when they decide to search your bag.

Lo and behold, TSA checked only one of our bags. And it was the bag we did not have a key for. And what did TSA kindly do for us after searching the suitcase? They locked it up. Thoughtful, no?

Other than these small adventures, everything has been smooth sailing. Here is a photo of us with Lucy at dinner on our first night in Kigali. That is our kitchen! Maybe when I get back I can upload the video showing the "How to catch a cockroach" tutorial our other IJM friend, Liz, gave us earlier that evening in the very same room.

Wish you were here!

This past week...

This past week was a lot of fun...it was part of my "Birthday Season" and thus involved hanging out with people I really cherish. And a lot of dessert.

In addition, a friend of mine was being honored at a baby shower so that meant a little creativity was in order. I took the challenge seriously.

Shortly before my birthday, Ryan and I went to Golden Gate Park and had tea at the Chinese Tea Garden.
On Saturday the 11th we celebrated my birthday with friends and I made a French pear tart for dessert. It was the 2nd time I'd ever made a tart (I'd created a "practice" earlier in the week so I wouldn't serve a failure) and it was quite good. I'm excited to try some of the fresh fruit tarts next.
Then mid-week I started working on the gift I'd make for the baby shower on the 18th. Wow. Talk about working under a deadline. I enhanced some cute baby shirts with the same fabrics I made baby shoes out of. That's right. I sewed baby "shoes" as part of the gift. Believe it or not, it was easier than making a baby quilt. And less time consuming. I finished the baby shoes around 2 AM the day of the shower. The shower took place 10 hours later.
The onesie and matching shoes. The real difficulty in all of this (and something I have yet to figure out is:
1) What size of foot will this shoe actually fit? The onesie is a 3-month size but what about the shoes? I need to figure that out before I make another pair so I can ensure that the onesie and shoe fit at the same time.
2) I need to figure out how to make a nicer interior for the shoe. You can see some of the seams at present and I think it would look more finished if I had some kind of insert.
The other onesie and accompanying shoes:
After the baby shower, my parents came over to celebrate my birthday. They brought a delicious carrot cake and gifts. You can see the table cloth they got me as a gift on the table. It is antique/retro and hand stitched. I love it!

Just because

This in many ways, seems like a strange video to post. But maybe it doesn't seem all that strange in other ways. This video is a compilation of footage taken from a trip taken by musician Sara Groves on a recent trip to Rwanda.

While there are many things about this video I don't care for there are a lot of things I like about this song and the lyrics. I think the lyrics are what get me the most. They remind me of all the volunteer work I've ever done, and of all the times I've spent with people when they are in pain, their hearts are broken, and there is little I can do to help.

It also helps me prepare myself for our own journey to Rwanda this summer where Ryan will be putting his intellectual abilities to work by helping people through pro bono legal services.

The lyrics are listed after the video.



I saw what I saw and I can't forget it

I heard what I heard and I can't go back

I know what I know and I can't deny it


Something on the road, cut me to the soul


Your pain has changed me

your dream inspires

your face a memory

your hope a fire

your courage asks me what I'm afraid of

(what I am made of)

and what I know of love


we've done what we've done and we can't erase it

we are what we are and it's more than enough

we have what we have but it's no substitution


Something on the road, touched my very soul


I say what I say with no hesitation

I have what I have and I'm giving it up

I do what I do with deep conviction


Something on the road, changed my world