In the past five or so days I’ve been in Rwanda, so much has already happened. I’m still kind of dazed, as I always am when I just arrive in a new place at the beginning of a new journey. As usual, I know that so much can and will happen over the next more than three months that I have here, but I’m at the point where there’s no way I can even imagine any of it. It’s a weird place to be in, because everything happening around me is so potent to me, though it’s all ordinary and everyday for the Rwandans I share it with. I’ve always had problems with being patient, and I want to already be at that point where I’m comfortable here and have fallen into a routine. I’m not sure how long it will take, but I do know that I will get there. I know when I do, when the semester is in full swing, where I am now will all feel like a surreal dream. I just have to take it day by day, because before I know it, I’ll want nothing more but for time to slow down and for the days to be longer.
I speak in these abstract thoughts because that’s how it always is whenever I travel anywhere. I don’t actually feel that in my heart quite yet, since I’m still at the disorienting new arrival stage. I suppose I’m also extremely confused because I’m trying to reconcile the fact that being here resembles my childhood in the Philippines so much, yet I’m also coming to terms with the fact that I’ve been extremely spoiled by the urban first world. Who am I? Is it possible to be the girl who grew up in a developing country, the girl willing to travel anywhere and make herself at home, and the college student in Boston who’s obsessed with Europe and can only see herself living there in the future? How low maintenance am I, really? I was a bit apprehensive when they told us that some host families don’t have 24/7 running water and electricity then ended up getting one, though I’m not as culture shocked or bothered by it as I thought I would be. The sudden power outage we had my first night here? Just another “brown out,” as we called them back home in the Philippines. Having to take water from elsewhere because it doesn’t run all the time from the shower and faucet, and then bathing in a bucket? Basically how I grew up washing myself. I really can’t get used to cockroaches, though, despite them being a common occurrence in the almost 12 years I spent in the Philippines. Nobody else is bothered by them and my host family has already laughed at me for being so squeamish (which helps me justify to myself that they really aren’t that bad). I think I’m going to add it to my bucket list to be a ruthless cockroach killer.
But I think I’ve already started talking about the everyday things that I hope to get used to soon before even saying more about how it has been since I arrived here. I arrived in Kigali from Amsterdam the evening of Monday, February 6th, and along with the other people in my program who arrived, we were picked up by staff members of our study abroad program to take us to a small guest house for our four-day orientation. I won’t go too deeply into detail; it was a lot of sitting down listening to the SIT (School for International Training, the organization with which I am studying abroad) staff talk about program logistics, Rwanda, Kigali, the homestay experience, the layout of the program, etc. Now I’ll just divide the rest of this entry to talk more about specific things, as I have done in previous entries.
My study-abroad program and people:
Here in Rwanda I’m doing a program through SIT, an American study abroad organization that puts together semester and summer-long programs in different countries for college students to go deeply into a particular issue which is relevant within the social sciences and particular to each country. The topic we’re studying here is post-genocide restoration and peacebuilding. The program entails living with a host family, trying to learn the language, taking seminars with local academics, meeting people and learning about their experiences, and also site visits around Kigali, Rwanda, and even Uganda. Basically, all the things that made me want to study anthropology combined into a cool experience for a semester. I’m not so much a classroom type person anyway, so this was the perfect thing for me to do this semester.
We’re 24 in my group, and everyone goes to college in America. We do have an international student, a girl from Panama, which is really cool, as well as a girl who has spent most of her life living in Taiwan due to her parents’ work (she goes to Pomona and has even met a friend of mine who goes there). Naturally, I’ve been able to relate to both of them on things more than going to college in the states. Everyone is quite cool, though, and I haven’t really heard any of the typical American complaints abroad. I suppose it takes a particular person to want to spend an entire semester in Rwanda coming from the USA! I look forward to spending more time with them and going through this experience together (the four of us from the Boston area have already talked about a reunion in the city next fall), though I’m also looking forward to making more Rwandan friends.
Food
The food has been great. They eat rice here, and since meat is expensive, I don’t eat that much of it, which is fine. They cook potatoes amazingly–as fries, and then also sliced thinly, etc., and there was also this dish that had both avocados and onions in it that I really liked. I don’t know what any of it is called, and sometimes I don’t even know what I’m eating, but I really enjoy it. We had a doctor give us an orientation on health issues here, and when he talked about food, he said there were two kinds of people, lions and elephants. Lions want to try everything, and elephants only want to stick to what they know. I’ve been well established as a lion.
Market Adventure
On our third full day here, we had an assignment. We were divided into 6 groups of 4, and each group had to complete a task that had to do with taking a bus into the city. My group was assigned the task of going to Kimironko Market and inquiring about fruit. I found this very amusing because when I was taking Kinyarwanda last semester, my class and I had to perform a skit for the African Language Program’s Theater Night, and our skit involved three women at the market. Needless to say, I had an amazing time practicing the lines I learned for my skit in real life, and having Rwandans to say them to. They were entertained and would actually speak back, and I felt that familiar high I always feel whenever I have even the tiniest interactions in a language I’m learning. The market was just like any I had been to in any other developing country (reminded me a lot of a place called La Cancha in Cochabamba), though the things being sold like the fabrics and the souvenirs were typically Rwandan, and as usual I felt bad refusing people who just wanted to make a living and sell their goods. I did, however, get a souvenir for my family already, one that will fit in with the transportation collection that we have! I won’t say what exactly it is, but I will say that it’s a beautiful reminder of the day I first went out into Kigali on a bus, and it will look quite nice next to our wooden jeepney at home.
Kinyarwanda
Speaking of using stuff from last semester in real life, I’m having so much fun trying to speak it whenever I can and use whatever I know how to say! Kinyarwanda is the first African language I’ve ever taken on, and it’s so different. But there’s no better way to learn a language than to use it with native speakers, where it will feel more natural to try to speak. I don’t know it quite well enough to talk extensively about it, though I’ll certainly have more to say with more time here.
Host family and Rwandans
We didn’t know about our host families or even know who they were until the day we met them, which was kind of nerve-wracking but exciting at the same time. It was kind of funny because the day we were to be picked up by our host families from the guest house, I was telling some of my program friends about how I had a similar experience at the end of my orientation in my first few days in France (almost five years ago, wtf?). It was so touching to see everyone meet their host families for the first time, though when it came to my turn, it was my Rotary counselor who picked me up, and not even my host family. I didn’t possibly think that it would happen again, but guess what? I ended up being the last to be picked up, and it wasn’t even my host family who came to pick me up, but a driver affiliated with them, who drove me to their house. It’s in a kind of in a less-developed residential area, so not too close to the city and things to do, but I’ll figure out how to get around! I have my own room with a king-size bed (it’s massive, I could lay horizontal on it). My host dad works at an international NGO called Global Communities, and my host mom is a businesswoman. They have three daughters: Sandrine (teenager), Blessing (5), and Joanna (2). I have already performed songs with my ukulele on multiple occasions, and contrary to what I was expecting, the little girls won’t stop asking me to take it out and sing to them in French. Like, I’ve had to refuse to sing! When has that ever happened? Every time they see me, they ask for the “guitar.” It’s quite fun having such young host siblings; they’re so entertaining, and they also love playing with my hair, but it’s also quite exhausting. I feel for the older host sister; she said she gets angry at them a lot. I can’t imagine being a mother! Also, the family speaks a lot of French, so it’s the main language I use with them while I learn Kinyarwanda. It’s wonderful to be able to be slightly reminded of my exchange, but in a strange way. Which actually transitions nicely to the final section for this blog entry…
The idea of comparing countries
I do this a lot, and I wonder about it. Of course, I accept Rwanda for what it is; its people, its language, its history, its culture, and everything, but I can’t help but be reminded of a lot of things that I’ve experienced in the other countries I’ve set foot in. There’s France for the language. And for the way I live right now, I can’t help but think of the Philippines. When I was riding the bus, I thought of that time in Bolivia I rode one of their minibuses and how much more chaotic and crowded it was over in South America for some reason. We also discussed during orientation trying to experience Rwanda with a blank slate, no misconceptions, no comparisons, but I think having these little reminders of places in my memory will help me feel at home here in due time. And then in the future, on some travels I’ll certainly be on, I’ll be thinking of these things that I’m living in Rwanda. It’s my 24th country and in my 6th continent; so much is different, but so much is also the same. I take a lot of comfort in this fact. There’s a phrase in Kinyarwanda that we were taught earlier this week, and our academic director told us, “If you have to learn one thing about Rwandan society now and from your time in Rwanda, let it be this: icyo dupfana kiruta icyo dupfa." What we have in common is much more important than what is different between us.
I finally got the opportunity to go out into the main part of town today. It's kind of far and hard to get to from where I live, which is a bit disappointing to me, but I have the rest of my life to choose where I want to live anyway! I figure I can lounge about my king size bed and get comfy being a homebody, since I have the kind of mind which will always occupy itself no matter what. I'm glad I had my host sister accompany me today to BOURBON COFFEE though so I could get some wifi to post onto my blog (since there isn't wifi at home, and I just have 3G on my phone, which is probably good and I already notice I've been spending a lot less time on Facebook). It's all a big adjustment, but as I have already gone through before, you grow so much from being placed in and adapting to an environment you wouldn't have chosen to live in yourself. I'm glad to have this opportunity in college again and can't wait to see where it takes me. In the meantime, I'll be sure to make the most of every moment this upcoming semester, by living, but of course also by writing to calm my mind and to keep a record of this incredible experience.
I speak in these abstract thoughts because that’s how it always is whenever I travel anywhere. I don’t actually feel that in my heart quite yet, since I’m still at the disorienting new arrival stage. I suppose I’m also extremely confused because I’m trying to reconcile the fact that being here resembles my childhood in the Philippines so much, yet I’m also coming to terms with the fact that I’ve been extremely spoiled by the urban first world. Who am I? Is it possible to be the girl who grew up in a developing country, the girl willing to travel anywhere and make herself at home, and the college student in Boston who’s obsessed with Europe and can only see herself living there in the future? How low maintenance am I, really? I was a bit apprehensive when they told us that some host families don’t have 24/7 running water and electricity then ended up getting one, though I’m not as culture shocked or bothered by it as I thought I would be. The sudden power outage we had my first night here? Just another “brown out,” as we called them back home in the Philippines. Having to take water from elsewhere because it doesn’t run all the time from the shower and faucet, and then bathing in a bucket? Basically how I grew up washing myself. I really can’t get used to cockroaches, though, despite them being a common occurrence in the almost 12 years I spent in the Philippines. Nobody else is bothered by them and my host family has already laughed at me for being so squeamish (which helps me justify to myself that they really aren’t that bad). I think I’m going to add it to my bucket list to be a ruthless cockroach killer.
But I think I’ve already started talking about the everyday things that I hope to get used to soon before even saying more about how it has been since I arrived here. I arrived in Kigali from Amsterdam the evening of Monday, February 6th, and along with the other people in my program who arrived, we were picked up by staff members of our study abroad program to take us to a small guest house for our four-day orientation. I won’t go too deeply into detail; it was a lot of sitting down listening to the SIT (School for International Training, the organization with which I am studying abroad) staff talk about program logistics, Rwanda, Kigali, the homestay experience, the layout of the program, etc. Now I’ll just divide the rest of this entry to talk more about specific things, as I have done in previous entries.
My study-abroad program and people:
Here in Rwanda I’m doing a program through SIT, an American study abroad organization that puts together semester and summer-long programs in different countries for college students to go deeply into a particular issue which is relevant within the social sciences and particular to each country. The topic we’re studying here is post-genocide restoration and peacebuilding. The program entails living with a host family, trying to learn the language, taking seminars with local academics, meeting people and learning about their experiences, and also site visits around Kigali, Rwanda, and even Uganda. Basically, all the things that made me want to study anthropology combined into a cool experience for a semester. I’m not so much a classroom type person anyway, so this was the perfect thing for me to do this semester.
We’re 24 in my group, and everyone goes to college in America. We do have an international student, a girl from Panama, which is really cool, as well as a girl who has spent most of her life living in Taiwan due to her parents’ work (she goes to Pomona and has even met a friend of mine who goes there). Naturally, I’ve been able to relate to both of them on things more than going to college in the states. Everyone is quite cool, though, and I haven’t really heard any of the typical American complaints abroad. I suppose it takes a particular person to want to spend an entire semester in Rwanda coming from the USA! I look forward to spending more time with them and going through this experience together (the four of us from the Boston area have already talked about a reunion in the city next fall), though I’m also looking forward to making more Rwandan friends.
Food
The food has been great. They eat rice here, and since meat is expensive, I don’t eat that much of it, which is fine. They cook potatoes amazingly–as fries, and then also sliced thinly, etc., and there was also this dish that had both avocados and onions in it that I really liked. I don’t know what any of it is called, and sometimes I don’t even know what I’m eating, but I really enjoy it. We had a doctor give us an orientation on health issues here, and when he talked about food, he said there were two kinds of people, lions and elephants. Lions want to try everything, and elephants only want to stick to what they know. I’ve been well established as a lion.
Market Adventure
On our third full day here, we had an assignment. We were divided into 6 groups of 4, and each group had to complete a task that had to do with taking a bus into the city. My group was assigned the task of going to Kimironko Market and inquiring about fruit. I found this very amusing because when I was taking Kinyarwanda last semester, my class and I had to perform a skit for the African Language Program’s Theater Night, and our skit involved three women at the market. Needless to say, I had an amazing time practicing the lines I learned for my skit in real life, and having Rwandans to say them to. They were entertained and would actually speak back, and I felt that familiar high I always feel whenever I have even the tiniest interactions in a language I’m learning. The market was just like any I had been to in any other developing country (reminded me a lot of a place called La Cancha in Cochabamba), though the things being sold like the fabrics and the souvenirs were typically Rwandan, and as usual I felt bad refusing people who just wanted to make a living and sell their goods. I did, however, get a souvenir for my family already, one that will fit in with the transportation collection that we have! I won’t say what exactly it is, but I will say that it’s a beautiful reminder of the day I first went out into Kigali on a bus, and it will look quite nice next to our wooden jeepney at home.
Kinyarwanda
Speaking of using stuff from last semester in real life, I’m having so much fun trying to speak it whenever I can and use whatever I know how to say! Kinyarwanda is the first African language I’ve ever taken on, and it’s so different. But there’s no better way to learn a language than to use it with native speakers, where it will feel more natural to try to speak. I don’t know it quite well enough to talk extensively about it, though I’ll certainly have more to say with more time here.
Host family and Rwandans
We didn’t know about our host families or even know who they were until the day we met them, which was kind of nerve-wracking but exciting at the same time. It was kind of funny because the day we were to be picked up by our host families from the guest house, I was telling some of my program friends about how I had a similar experience at the end of my orientation in my first few days in France (almost five years ago, wtf?). It was so touching to see everyone meet their host families for the first time, though when it came to my turn, it was my Rotary counselor who picked me up, and not even my host family. I didn’t possibly think that it would happen again, but guess what? I ended up being the last to be picked up, and it wasn’t even my host family who came to pick me up, but a driver affiliated with them, who drove me to their house. It’s in a kind of in a less-developed residential area, so not too close to the city and things to do, but I’ll figure out how to get around! I have my own room with a king-size bed (it’s massive, I could lay horizontal on it). My host dad works at an international NGO called Global Communities, and my host mom is a businesswoman. They have three daughters: Sandrine (teenager), Blessing (5), and Joanna (2). I have already performed songs with my ukulele on multiple occasions, and contrary to what I was expecting, the little girls won’t stop asking me to take it out and sing to them in French. Like, I’ve had to refuse to sing! When has that ever happened? Every time they see me, they ask for the “guitar.” It’s quite fun having such young host siblings; they’re so entertaining, and they also love playing with my hair, but it’s also quite exhausting. I feel for the older host sister; she said she gets angry at them a lot. I can’t imagine being a mother! Also, the family speaks a lot of French, so it’s the main language I use with them while I learn Kinyarwanda. It’s wonderful to be able to be slightly reminded of my exchange, but in a strange way. Which actually transitions nicely to the final section for this blog entry…
The idea of comparing countries
I do this a lot, and I wonder about it. Of course, I accept Rwanda for what it is; its people, its language, its history, its culture, and everything, but I can’t help but be reminded of a lot of things that I’ve experienced in the other countries I’ve set foot in. There’s France for the language. And for the way I live right now, I can’t help but think of the Philippines. When I was riding the bus, I thought of that time in Bolivia I rode one of their minibuses and how much more chaotic and crowded it was over in South America for some reason. We also discussed during orientation trying to experience Rwanda with a blank slate, no misconceptions, no comparisons, but I think having these little reminders of places in my memory will help me feel at home here in due time. And then in the future, on some travels I’ll certainly be on, I’ll be thinking of these things that I’m living in Rwanda. It’s my 24th country and in my 6th continent; so much is different, but so much is also the same. I take a lot of comfort in this fact. There’s a phrase in Kinyarwanda that we were taught earlier this week, and our academic director told us, “If you have to learn one thing about Rwandan society now and from your time in Rwanda, let it be this: icyo dupfana kiruta icyo dupfa." What we have in common is much more important than what is different between us.
I finally got the opportunity to go out into the main part of town today. It's kind of far and hard to get to from where I live, which is a bit disappointing to me, but I have the rest of my life to choose where I want to live anyway! I figure I can lounge about my king size bed and get comfy being a homebody, since I have the kind of mind which will always occupy itself no matter what. I'm glad I had my host sister accompany me today to BOURBON COFFEE though so I could get some wifi to post onto my blog (since there isn't wifi at home, and I just have 3G on my phone, which is probably good and I already notice I've been spending a lot less time on Facebook). It's all a big adjustment, but as I have already gone through before, you grow so much from being placed in and adapting to an environment you wouldn't have chosen to live in yourself. I'm glad to have this opportunity in college again and can't wait to see where it takes me. In the meantime, I'll be sure to make the most of every moment this upcoming semester, by living, but of course also by writing to calm my mind and to keep a record of this incredible experience.
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