The hardest thing for me to adjust to has been to accept that communalism is a necessary aspect of getting anything done in this country. Like showering for example. It is quite the process. First, the family makes multiple trips during the course of the day to fetch water. Then, my host sister heats the water and stores it inside of the house. Then, my host mother fetches the water from inside the house. I rinse my bucket out and she fills it with hot water. Next, she will instruct either one of the children or myself to fetch cold water to add to the hot water. Sometimes I am allowed to pore this for myself, but on other occasions, she insists on doing it for me. Next, she instructs whichever family member is around to open to the door to the bathing room. If I am lucky, I can carry my own water and clothing into the room, but on other occasions, I'm not fast enough. It takes the participation of up to 6 people in order for me to shower. By American standards, this is horrifically inefficient. In Rwanda, it is the only way that makes sense because Rwandans insist on doing literally everything together. An American would never sacrifice speediness in order to include the efforts of the entire family in a task. However, in Rwanda, everything is done together, no matter how slowly, and each family member is included in each accomplishment of the day, regardless of the cost of timeliness or independence. Not many Westerners can claim that they are willing to make the same accommodations simply to be inclusive.
Coming to accept the Rwandan facts of life means that each day gets easier. Small annoyances cease to frustrate me like they did in the beginning and everything is cast in a more positive light. Rwanda is even beginning to smell better. Whereas I used to only smell pit latrines and petroleum, I can now distinguish the sweet scents of wood-burning fires and native flowers. As I'm starting to see more and more of the positives of being here, I thought it might be productive to share a “Happy List” for this weeks post. The following list is comprised of some of my favorite things about Rwanda so far:
1. Sir Bad Ass- The first time we saw Sir Bad Ass, we were all headed to our first Umuganda (community work day). There we were, jam-packed 15 to an 8 passenger Peace Corps vehicle, with all of our tools in tow, and stinking of BO, while we bumped unglamorously over unpaved terrain when, out of nowhere, Sir Bad Ass entered our lives. He was riding a giant, red motorcycle with a matching red helmet...which he had decided to leave on his handlebars instead of wearing. In about seconds flat, he had passed us, but it was certainly not the last we would see of him. Ever since this momentous event, he has continued to surprise us. Often he can be spotted on the original Sir Bad Ass motorcycle. Other times, he can be seen driving a shiny new SUV with his wife, riding in a taxi, or riding on the back of a bicycle. Sir Bad Ass has been spotted with so many different accessories that he's almost like a Barbie Doll. The only major difference is that he gets to pick the accessories and that all of them are bad ass.
2. The Candy Shop- Believe it or not, we can find chocolate in the middle of rural Rwanda! Even better, this chocolate is located in a boutique run by two of the sweetest women in all of Rwanda, who we call the Candy Shop Girls. They not only serve us chocolate (for only 100 a piece!), but they also carry delicious chapati and often have delightfully fluffy bread rolls (which aren't too common in Rwanda). The Candy Shop is the best place to go after a rough lesson to sit in the back room, drink sweet milk tea, and unwind.
3. The Paint Job- Naturally, having a giant influx of Peace Corps trainees has to have an impact on the local economy of the training site. However, I never realized how large this impact might be until Fidel, the owner of the bar we frequent, gave his place a paint job. Over the course of a week, the bar went from ordinary concrete, to white, to orange, and was given an elaborate, green, yellow, and blue trim. That's the power of purchasing.
4. The Chicken Dance (and many others)- As I've mentioned before, I have managed to teach my host siblings a variety of catchy English song/dances including the Hokey Pokey, the Macarena, Head-Shoulders-Knees-and-Toes, and the Chicken Dance, which,thanks to my friend Michele, the kids that live near our training center have also learned. Every day, the flock the trainees making high pitched chirping music to the melody of the Chicken Dance until we stop and dance with them. It always brightens my day.
5. A Goat Called Maybe- I've already written an entire blog post about Maybe the goat, so I won't elaborate here, but she definitely makes the list.
6. Eggs for the Sick- As many of you know, I consider food to be the ultimate form of affection....and at the topmost tier of food-oriented affection is fried eggs. After my first bout of food poisoning, I found that, while Rwandans and I strongly disagree about what qualifies as good food almost 99% of the time, we agree when someone has recently been ill because being ill means you get fried eggs in a salty tomato sauce (and you don't even have to share!). Let's just say that this was by far my favorite meal so far at my homestay.
7. Mwitwande Kid- There are honestly way too many screaming children in my life to differentiate between many of them beyond those that I have in the classroom and those that I know at home, but some of them stand out. One of those stand out children is called the Mwitwande Kid. This poor child only seems to know one word: “mwitwande,” which means “what is your name?” And they never get tired of saying it. Literally every day, there she is on the side of the street to watch us walk to class and every day she's asking us repeatedly what our name is....regardless of our response. The current record is 14.
8. The Definition of Homophobia- It's pretty clear that the majority of clothing worn by rural Rwandans have been donated (and then resold) from America. As a result, most of them have some pretty ironic messages. I can't tell you how many shirts I've seen that read “Hooters” or “Brother of an American Soldier.” But, by far my favorite yet, was one that read “Ho-mo-pho-bi-a: Insecurity about being heterosexual.” Homosexuality is illegal in Rwanda.
9. Host Family- Since I mention them in the vast majority of my posts, I guess it goes without saying that my host family has been one of the better parts of my experience so far. The best part is is that it is always growing. My host mother has had literally 13 children, which means that new family members are always stopping by and sometimes even spending the night. Because it is traditional for Rwandan families to share the task of child-rearing and because my host mother has had so many children of her own, the number of children living at the house is constantly expanding. We went from having Paciente, to Paul and Paciente, and most recently added Samueli to the batch. My life at home has gone from a quiet, calm home with three women to a playground with children running everywhere, screaming, and trying to tickle me when I'm not watching. Life is good.
10. Stars- I don't know how many of you have seen a map of the world at night, but it basically shows a planet with a landmass almost entirely covered in electric lighting...until you reach Africa, the dark continent. Fortunately, while the lights in Africa are virtually nonexistent, the amount of stars you can see to that seem to be the exact inverse. Stars in Africa = Awesome!
11. Flowers from children- As I'm writing to you, I'm sitting here in Rwanda with multiple flowers in my hair that have become a daily gift from the kids on the walk from my home to school. It's good to feel loved.
12. Fresh cucumbers- Yay! Now that they're in season, I can make delicious chapati wraps!
13. The views on my morning run-
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