It’s good to know all the preparations (or lack there of) for my trip to Rwanda paid off. I packed well! Anybody would be impressed with my packing. It’s a fact. I got all my stuff into three bags. Mind you, all bags were half empty in order to fit all the stuff I know I’ll buy in Rwanda, BUT STILL. It is impressive considering I’m the world’s WORST packer. Here are some contents everyone will enjoy:
Twine
Duct Tape
Flashlight
Flasher Rescue Light
Bungee Cords
First Aid Kit
Bug Spray
Zip Ties
Swiss Army Knife
Lighter
A Stuffed Animal Turtle
Nail Polish
Nail Polish Remover
Now, that is just a tiny peak into what I packed, but looking at that list one would probably assume I anticipated being kidnapped and thrown into the jungle to survive the elements alone and doing all this with perfectly painted and manicured nails. Funny picture, right? HA! Well, you never know. I mean I am in Africa. There are gorillas, cockroaches, HUGE ants… It truly is a jungle out there.
To put this into even better perspective, I sleep under a mosquito net draped over my entire bed. Also, my roommate and I discovered we have a gecko living in our room. A real African lizard. What. The. Hell. But, it’s kinda cute. So, we decided to name it in hopes that if we became friendly with it, it wouldn’t attack us in our sleep. It’s name you ask? Kiento. Quite African if you ask me (it’s pronounced Quinto if you were unsure). He has, however, disappeared and we’re hoping he doesn’t turn up in say….one of our bags or worse… one of our beds. Can you say FREAK OUT?! Poor Kiento would have to die if he chose that life path…
Anyway, back to the summary of my trip thus far. The flight took FOREVER. Dear Lord is Africa far away. I flew from KC to Chicago, which wasn’t bad. In fact, I met a really awesome girl sitting next to me on that flight and we kept each other company during our layover in Chi-Town. She was on her way to Rome for an Opera Program lasting the rest of the summer. Super jealous. It sounded amazing. Then we parted ways and I flew on the Brussels, Belgium. That was a 7.5 hour flight during which I had a window seat close to the back of the plane. It was a decent flight, but long and boring. Couldn’t sleep a wink so I watched Company Men, which happened to be the onboard film. After that, I bought the ridiculously priced internet to send “I’m still alive!” emails (it cost me six euros for 30 minutes!!!) Then I got lucky and met up with one of the girls on my delegation named Angie. It was really nice to FINALLY meet someone from the program. Sadly we didn’t get to sit by each other, so my delayed flight from Brussels to Kigali was another boring flight tucked into a window seat towards the back of the plane alone. This time though, it was an EIGHT hour flight. By this time, I am almost delusional from lack of sleep. No joke. I did sleep a little bit on that flight though. After watching The Dilemma of course. I flew American and Brussels Airlines, which were ok, but neither had personal TVs, only the ones that show the whole plane the same onboard entertainment. It made me miss United and my flight to London.
Well that was a tangent… back to the good stuff. So I landed in Kigali at around 7:30 pm their time. That’s 12:30 pm KC time in case anyone was wondering. This translates to me basically being awake for 30 hours straight and travelling for 24 of them. As you can imagine, I was beyond exhausted. While we waited to go through customs, Angie and I met up with Alexandra who was another girl on our delegation and who happens to now be my roommate. YAY new friends! Well, we figured out pretty quickly the Kigali International Airport does not have AC, and it was packed with people so it was a tad muggy and uncomfortable. Customs didn’t take long, but our bags did. Alexandra and I got lucky, because all of our luggage made it to Kigali. Angie, on the other hand, was less fortunate and her main bag got lost in translation somewhere in Belgium so it doesn’t get here until Tuesday. No bueno. So that fiasco took about an hourish, and by the time we met up with Jesse, our program coordinator who picked us up from the airport, it was 9 pm. Then we had to make it through a checkpoint to get out of the airport parking lot. I learned pretty fast that there are a lot of military men armed with guns guarding nearly every place in Rwanda. Especially the airport. It was rather intimidating and unnerving, but it already seems normal after just day one.
Let me just tell ya’ll this now, Kigali is BEAUTIFUL and plain stunning at night. The rolling hills are full of blinking white lights and the moon was gorgeous. It almost looked like a harvest moon but it wasn’t even near full. The color was a burnt orange, and it burned bright and big. I loved it. On our way to our hotel, we stopped at a 24hr mall to get Angie some essentials and some bottled water. We finally pulled into St Pauls at a little after 10 pm last night. It was an incredibly LONG and EXHAUSTING journey, but SO worth it.
St Pauls is going to be an interesting little home during my stay though. I found out we do have internet where we live, but only in the parking lot. We do have a sink in our bedrooms, but we can’t use the water in them. We do have a closet and shelving space, but they over stuck shut and slanted. We do have electricity, but no air conditioning. We do have shower and bathroom facilities, but ones without the stalls having toilet paper (we are supplied it in our rooms so we have to bring it to the john every time we have to go) and the showers are without hot water. They are also sick and beyond disgusting. Men and women share the facilities, and they are cringe worthy. I would rather do my business in a hole and to bathe with a bucket compared to this. Maybe I just will… HAHA!
I’m rooming with Alexandra though and that’s legit. Our rooms also come with mosquito nets so I really don’t have much to complain about, right? Riiiiiight. I learned this little piece of info a bit late, but our beds come with two blankets and a sheet. Well, that’s not too bad. BUT I didn’t learn until this afternoon that the top blanket it used to cover the bed so lizard poop doesn’t get on the other blanket and sheets... Guess who used the top blanket as her primary source of warmth last night? Oh yeah, that would be yours truly. I feel like that little piece of information should really have been presented first thing and not a day late. I’m still completely grossed out by this news. SICK.
Considering all this, I slept well. I was so exhausted it wouldn’t have been possible not to I don’t think. My pillow was even lumpy, and yet, I still slobbered on it. Win. I awoke bright eyed and bushy tailed at 7:30 am, and braved the showers. Oh. My. God. It was an experience to say the least. Freezing cold water? Check. Clogged drain causing the shower to flood? Check. Heavy duty flip flops? Check. And what does this all equal? My squealing the entire ten minutes it took me to shower as I leaned over backwards into the water trying to make only minimal contact with it and my skin. A sight to be had? Oh I’m sure. It did, however, conclude in me being clean so it was also a success. Yay?
Next was my first Rwandan breakfast. It came with banana shaped breadstick bread (too hard for my liking), really strong tea (perfect with brown sugar and evaporated milk), pineapple (which I did not have, because I do not care for it), and an over easy egg the size of a plate that everyone shared by slicing it into pizza slices. It was quite filling, and the company was great because I finally was able to meet all the delegates and start getting to know them. Woo bonding!
Then we had a group meeting jammed with icebreakers, background information on the delegation and GYC as an organization, and signing forms. Everyone is from all different parts of the US and range from 18-24 in age. I think we have a really great group mixed with the right kind of diversity glued together by a common interest and passion for human rights and Africa. It is really cool to say the least. I love it already.
The activity that followed was a bus tour of Kigali. I love the city. It sprawls along hills and valleys with gorgeous landscapes and volcanic mountains in the distance. The weather was also perfect. We drove all over the city for about an hour without stopping. It was cool to see the way Rwandans live, at least in the city. The houses vary greatly. A few look like houses in the US, but 99% are mud and wood houses sealed in concrete with flat roofs. They somehow make them look beautiful though. Women walk around with bananas and entire baskets on their heads, and the children are beyond adorable. I’ve had to refrain from snatching nearly all of them. They are all incredibly friendly too, running and waving after our bus. My other coordinator, Gina, described the feeling the children give you perfectly, and I quote, “I think my uterus just exploded!” BAHAHAHAHAHA! What she meant by this was that it made her really have the need for kids and to have them, like immediately. I laughed incredibly hard about that, and still giggle just replaying the moment in my mind.
After the majority of our bus tour we visited the memorial for the Belgian soldiers. It is a beautiful memorial with ten stone square towers commemorating the ten Belgian soldiers lost in the onslaught of the genocide. Each column had notches alone the front for each year the soldier was in age. The buildings were all kept the same on the outside showing all the marks from the bullets and artillery that ripped the small country apart just 17 years ago. There were also exhibits on the genocide and other genocides from around the world in the buildings. After viewing the memorial we had a moment of silence in memory of the tragedy.
Next stop was a women’s cooperative. It was made up of about ten women who sewed bags and such together for a living, because they were unemployed and want to make something of themselves. They were incredible and very friendly. They gave me lots of hugs and didn’t speak a lick of English. Crazy how smiles, waves, and hugs are so universal. It makes my heart warm. They also had a ton of little girls running around, which were the cutest things ever. One had on a princess dress with a tutu and matching shoes. Another held my hand. I fell in love. This is he incident that caused Gina to have the uterus outburst. So funny. I did my civic duty and bought goods from them. It was to support hard working women trying to care for their own children, so really I HAD to buy something in order to still be considered even a half decent person. I love the purse I got. SO me. And it’s legitimate African. YAY! It also matched the bandana I had on today (turquoise). I also got a little African doll, and some presents for people back home, because I’m just that nice. I was sad to leave the women’s coop. They were wonderful.
Our bus then drove up this beautiful mountain equipped with Eden like views of the sprawling city below. I, of course, was on the wrong side of the bus to get very good pictures of these views. Oh alas… I didn’t think we were going to make it up the mountain in that bus, but we did. Success! Our following stop was our coordinator Jesse’s father’s house, where we discussed the day’s events and had a real Rwandan lunch. The house was pretty, and surrounded by a big brick-like fence covered in ivy. It also had several beautiful flowers in the yard and was landscaped almost perfectly. I fell in love with it. Lunch consisted of Orange Fanta in bottles with long straws, (Fanta Fanta! Dontcha Wanta? Fanta Fanta!) ground kasava plant paste dip, white corn maize, mutton with an amazing sauce, fries with mayo, fruit, and peas with plantains. It was quite delightful actually. Everyone was incredibly full by the time lunch was over. Then came move discussion covering articles and how to greet our Rwandan delegates when they arrive. Finally, another mini bus came to take us back to St Pauls. It was tinier than the first bus so we all had to CRAM like sardines into it, and we almost died several times. Kigali traffic is intense and sporadic for sure.
When we got home I was able to skype my parents for a bit and wish my wonderful Father a Happy Fathers Day! My poor mommy cried when she saw my face. She misses me. I’m greatly loved, that’s for sure. It was nice to catch up. Then the majority of the group climbed the hill we live on to the money exchange and 24hr mall to get more Rwandan Francs and to get food. I did not get food, which happened to be a mistake. I am now ravenous with hunger. Oh well. It was a crazy intense climb. I never want to climb that hill again. I was out of breath well after we had made it to the top. Pathetic I know, but DEAR LORD! Huge steep mountain.
At about 7:30 pm we made it back and had another meeting to finalize our welcome for the Rwandan delegates. We are saying hello to them in a ton of different languages and accents from our cultures and studies. I am representing the south with a strong Texan drawl. “Hey ya’ll, my name’s Rachel and I go to school in Texas!” Now say that in the most stereotypically Texan way possible. It’s hilarious (and similar to Steve Brile’s outburst of “You’re just a hick from Missouriiiiiii!”-ass. HAHA!). It will be good and simple.
it sounds so amazing rachel! i'm glad you're loving it already!
ReplyDeleteWhat a terrific first day! We love you and miss you already!
ReplyDeleteLove- Mom, Dad, and Zach
PS. We hear lizard dung is good for the skin!