What do you do when you don’t have water in America?

That was the question that my friend asked me when I was trying unsuccessfully to fetch water. When I told my friend that I had never experienced a time in my life in America when I didn’t have water in my house, he laughed at me and thought I was lying. After explaining to him that most Americans have water in their houses, he understood me but then continued to ask what we did when there are water shortages. Before I could respond a light bulb went off in my friends head and he told me that all Americans have cars so they fetch water with their cars. I tried to further explain to him that fetching water was not an activity that existed in America. The concept that fetching water is not a daily activity in America is such a foreign idea to my villagers it was hard for him to grasp, and I think it was hard for him to walk away believing that fetching water doesn’t exist in some places.

Fetching water is a daily activity and a part of everyone’s lives in Rwanda. For most women, girls and young boys in Rwandan fetching water is a daily chore. Children start at a young age fetching water; sometimes I see little boys and girls that are carrying a jerry can of water that is larger then themselves on their heads. I feel very inadequate when old women and young children can carry more water than me. Culturally it is expected for someone with a job or some sort of income to pay a child or someone with no money to fetch water on a daily basis. Normally I do not fetch my own water; I have water in the compound that I live in that works sometimes. I also have a girl that lives and works at my neighbors that I pay to help me start the fire to cook, wash my clothes and fetches water for me. But sometimes I attempt the task, and find that it is not the quickest or easiest household chore.

Weddings in Rwanda

Food, dance, and a celebration with friends and family are all included in a Rwandan wedding. The components of a wedding in Rwanda and a wedding in America seem very similar but the actual events are carried out very differently. Rwandan weddings do have a set time given on an invitation but as with most things in Rwandan a time schedule is not followed and the amount of time Americans would spend on certain activity greatly varies from Rwandans sense of time. The religious ceremony of a wedding alone takes around 3or 4 hours and then is followed by slow transportation (often times by foot) to a reception and then a long and drawn out reception follows. I have attended several different weddings and was also in the wedding party for one wedding. In Rwanda a wedding consist of three different celebrations on three different days, the dowry ceremony, the civil wedding and the religious ceremony. The dowry ceremony consists of the family of the groom coming to the family of the bride and offering a cow to ask the bride for her hand in marriage. There is a man who dances and sings “pastoral poems” offering a cow as a sign of love. The cow is given to the bride’s family. There are often traditional Rwandan dancers that perform at the ceremonies. The families each present themselves and exchange words; when an agreement is made gifts are exchanged along with food and drinks. The civil marriage is held next; both the bride and the groom meet at the sector office with family and friends. The executive secretary of the sector office presides over the marriage and both the bride and the groom sign and use a thumbprint to seal the marriage, this is then followed by food and drink. The final celebration is a religious ceremony followed by a reception, this is the largest ceremony. The religious ceremony is held in a church and the reception is normally held in the home of someone from the wedding. Food and drinks are served including meat and bottled beverages which are expensive and used for special occasions. At the beginning Fanta or bottled beer (when the religion permits alcohol) is given this is then followed by sorghum, or banana beer set out in large gourds with straws passed around. Sometimes there is one huge gourd in the center with several straws that people go up and drink together. Drinking and dancing continues into the night and many guests spend the night at the bride or grooms house if they have travelled far.

Kwita Izina- Gorilla Naming Ceremony (June 2011)

When a child is born in Rwanda there is a ceremony called Kwita Izina it is a naming ceremony. In June there is an annual Kwita Izina ceremony held in Northern Rwanda in Kinigi at Volcanos National Park it is a Gorilla naming ceremony. All the Gorillas that were born during the year are given names during the ceremony. There are guest speakers, traditional dancing, music food and drinks. An individual can choose to sponsor a Gorilla and then gets the honor of choosing the name of the Gorilla. During this years event many notable guest were seen and individuals from all over the world attended. It is an enjoyable celebration as well as an important event to raise money and awareness about the mountain gorillas.

On the side....

I have managed to keep myself busy with some small projects on the side from my main task of teaching at the Secondary School. I have started the process for an after school English Club for students who are interested in practicing their language skills outside of class in a less formal setting. I am teaching Nurses twice a week at the local hospital trying to form the beginning of an Adult Education Program. I also spend some of my free time at the Nursery School that was just started. The children and teachers from the various Primary schools also always invite me to visit and the children love to play with my hair and touch my skin. They sing songs for me and recite in unison “Good morning teacher I am fine thank you, how are you? I am fine thank you.” The children are really cute and instantly put me in a good mood. It’s hard to feel bad when you have 25 kids smiling at you begging to hold your hand. Although I am getting busy, the lack of electricity in my village still makes a 7:30 bedtime unavoidable.

My Birthday

When I mentioned to one of my teachers that my birthday was coming up he informed me that his was the same day. I told him that in America we celebrate birthdays by eating birthday cake. I told him that I would try to make him a birthday cake, without having an oven it would be somewhat difficult but I ended up putting a smaller pot with a cake batter inside a larger one and putting it over the fire creating a make shift oven and it turned out fairly decent.  We decided to have a joint celebration at my house. I got my hair braided by a local girls in my community then,  I invited a few teachers, some neighbors and some friends of mine from the community. My friend helped me cook a rice and meat mixture and we ate, drank and listened to music. I was surprised by the amount of people that came and was overjoyed by the kindness they showed me. My neighbors along with some of my friends bought me presents; clothes, food, and a woven basket. I was surprised by their generosity and kindness to buy me something when they have next to nothing. Everyone ended up dancing toward the end of the afternoon and fun was had by all. I think the most important thing that touched me about the day was the realization of the friends I have made in this small community and how many people have opened up and invited me into their lives and families.

Lake Kivu at sunset

In-Service Training

After the first trimester of school, we had IST (in-service training). Our training was held in Kibuye a town located in the west of Rwanda, on Lake Kivu. Kibuye was a charming small town overlooking the lake. During training we reflected on our first trimester teaching along with the first couple of months at site. We talked about problems and successes, dealing with isolation, cultural differences, stress, etc. We got to share lesson plans, discuss coping strategies and help congratulate each other on completing our first trimester of teaching and living on our own in our villages.  Some members from the Rwandan Ministry of Education came and we got to ask them questions about some of the problems that we observed at our schools.  The Ministry of Education also outlined some expectations they have for us.   We also had different seminars on teaching, peer support and an introduction into secondary projects. The last day of our training we got to take a boat to Amahoro Island (Peace Island) and spend some time relaxing in the sun next to the water. 

Genocide Memorial

Genocide Memorial

Re-burials during the genocide memorial

Genocide Memorial

April 7^th- April 13^th was a week of mourning in Commemoration of the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda. This year’s theme was “Remember the Genocide Committed against the Tutsi: Support the Truth and Restore our Dignity.” The mourning will last for 100 days to mirror the hundred days of mass killings that happened in 1994. During the genocide memorial week, everyone in my village attended memorials everyday. We meet in the afternoon for several hours to hold discussions, about the history of Rwanda and also the recovery process and how Rwandan is moving forward. In the evening we all met and had a bonfire and heard testimonials from survivors, listened to songs, prayed and remember the lives lost in the genocide. The first day of the memorial on April 7^th  we walked around the village and stopped at various locations that atrocities happened we ended the memorial at a river which was used to dispose of bodies of those killed in the genocide. The last day of the memorial genocide survivors whose family members were lost in Mamba Village ( the village I live in) were invited to come back to there hometown and pay respect to there lost family members. There was a church service at the memorial in Mamba, genocide survivors gave testimonials and a re-burials were conducted of bodies found in mass grave sites. During the genocide in 1994 the international community stood back and watched but did nothing to help prevent or stop the mass executions. The United Nations has now designated April 7^th as an international day of reflection on the Genocide in Rwanda. To remember the victims of the genocide reflect on the crime of genocide and other related crimes against humanity and resolve to “Never Again” allow genocide to occur.

(  For those who do not know the history of the 1994 genocide I suggest the following books The Graves Are Not Yet Full by: Berkley Machete Season by Jean Hatzfeld.  My Father, Maker of the Trees( How I survived the Rwandan Genocide) by: Eric Iruzumugable or movies  “Sometimes in April,” 2005 HBO, “Frontline: Ghosts of Rwanda,” 2004 Frontline,  “100 Days,” 2001 Broadcast Feature Facilities Ltd. )

Women's Day

March 8^th was International Women’s Day.  It was celebrated in my community by the school children putting on a parade, singing songs, and different neighborhoods dancing for the community. It talked about the importance of education for women and the role of development for women. Skits were put on showing the importance of gender equality. It encouraged families to enroll both girls and boys in school, because in the past it was common for girls to stay at home to cook, fetch water and care for younger siblings (which their are a lot off). At the close of the speeches and dancing the celebration was ended with the community playing a soccer game and volleyball game. The school teachers competed against the hospital employees.  (The school, the market and the hospital are the three main establishments in my village.)

Celebrity Status

My students along with many of the people in my village treat me as a celebrity.  Many of them have not seen a white person before and so I am constantly being followed around and stared at. “Muzungu” is the Kinyarwanda word for white person and almost always when I leave my house someone sees me and screams “muzungu” which is followed by the little pitter patter of small feet and I soon have a small parade of children following me. The majority of the children just stare at me in amazement but some are afraid. Parents always want to show their children the “muzungu” that lives in their village so many children are brought to look at me, and although most seem to enjoy looking at me  their have been a few that have burst into tears at the site of this strange white person.  Because of my new infamous status I am constantly having visitors or being invited to peoples homes. The invitation normally consists of a glass of milk or tea and a few minutes of my broken Kinyarwanda followed by staring and sitting in silence.  When I run in the mornings I slowly gain more and more children and by the time I finish and arrive at my home I normally have to turn around and wave bye to about 25 children that I collected along the way.  

The first trimester of teaching

I have just finished teaching my first trimester of “school”, although it technically started January 10th it seems as if things started off at a slower pace then expected.  Around six weeks into the first term was the time that things began to get serious.  On my first day at 7:00 am the time that school starts, I showed up to find the school grounds empty, a few minuets later a few students trickle in and the headmaster came. By 7:30 a few more teachers had arrived and some more students but it did not look like any class was going to take place. I found out that the first three days are for the second sitting of exams, all the students who failed their final exams get to take them a second time. Also the students who are just entering into Senior One (the equivalent of High School) must pass a national exam taken at the end of Primary Six. Although January 10th was the official first day of school as announced by the Ministry of Education, that same Ministry of Education had not given the results to the Senior One students so no students who would be entering Senior One could attend school yet. The first week I taught a few classes of students from mixed grades/classes and we also worked on the class schedule. By the end of the second week the students in Senior Two had a class schedule and where organized into different classes.  It wasn’t until about the 5th week of school that I got to meet my Senior One students. Once the Senior One students arrived at school the school decided to finish building their classrooms so it took about another two weeks before I was able to teach them any lessons. Once things seemed to be following a schedule and both students and teachers were showing up on a regular basis, the surprise days off began. School would be canceled for many different reasons, the students put on a play, their was a soccer game, a holiday, or the grass was getting too long so they pulled the students out of class and gave them machetes to cut the grass and called it agriculture. The school had no set calendar of days off or days when class was canceled for a school activity, at least to me it always came as a surprise. 
 Although teaching is very challenging and the students do not speak English at the level that they should, they try and seem happy to be at school. The children’s attitude toward school seems to reflect that going to school is more of a privilege than something that they have to do, such as the attitude of many students in the United States.  The children would love for the opportunity to learn more and many students stay after school and study and also organize clubs to study. I teach two Senior One classes, and two Senior Two classes so I have a total of a little over 150 students, they are all required to wear uniforms to school and also both boys and girls must have shaved heads, so I have been attempting to learn names but it is very difficult, it is even hard for me to tell the difference between a boy and a girl because everyone has the same white blouse, khaki pants/skirts and no one has hair.  The school has very limited resources; because the village that I live in does not have power the school doesn’t have power either there are no photo copiers or computers. The students all have notebooks and pens and as a teacher I have chalk and the chalk board. There are a few textbooks in the teacher’s office that I can use but the students do not have their own text book, therefore they treat their notebooks as text books they write everything down that is written on the board and study their notebooks as if it was a text books. Any assignments, tests, quizzes, texts that I want the students to do must be written on the caulk board. The school is composed of rooms, desks, chalk and a chalk board.