I've been meaning to write this entry since I had seven weeks left, so oops.
I also feel kind of bad for not updating this blog as often as I would like, but I have very limited wifi and very limited patience to deal with wifi, so I suppose that also accounts for it. Nonetheless, I decided that today, at the start of my final month in Rwanda, I should post about how life has been lately.
In short, life has been grand! After the Uganda trip, the group schedule was pretty laid back. The main thing was the Kinyarwanda oral and written exams, both of which I aced, somewhat unfairly because I already had Kinyarwanda last semester. For the oral exam, I walked in to the room where the academic director and Kinyarwanda teacher were, and they kinda just looked at me and said, "Oh we know you know pretty good Kinyarwanda. Show us what you got." I did the usual intro, a simple Q&A, and then at the end sang the first verse of the national anthem from memory. They told me that a lot of Rwandans don't even know that much, which made me lol. On another academic note, I just turned in 8 pages' worth of comprehensive essays, one about the manipulation of ethnic identities in Rwanda's history and one about certain challenges and limitations inherent in NGO work.
Right now, we're in the period of Independent Study Project, or ISP. It's a period of four weeks where we live in a house with a few other people from the total group and work on our own independent research, or an internship. I'm doing kind of both, since I'm interning at a very interesting organization called Rwanda Bridges to Justice. It's a branch of an international NGO called International Bridges to Justice, based in Switzerland, which recruits volunteer lawyers to represent people in prisons and work on rights awareness and prevention of torture. I've done three days of internship there so far and am finding it super interesting. I only have two colleagues, which makes for a chill atmosphere. One is a lady from France named Estelle (so happy I get to speak in French regularly) and the other is a young lawyer from Uganda named Ronald who was also partly educated in Rwanda (he's really funny and we actually take the bus home together after work). You can read more about them here; I've met JB the country manager once, since he's never in the office because he's too busy running his own law firm. (Not entirely sure what happened to the fourth person on the page.) This week I helped do research for a grant application that's going to the European Union and interviewed one of their volunteer lawyers who stopped by the office, in French and English. Here's a picture of my corner of the office!
Last weekend, I moved out of my host family. I'm currently living in a house close to the US Embassy in the Kacyiru sector of Kigali with three of my program mates. (In reality though, it's more like two, because the third one isn't that close to us and somehow sleeps in other places more often than she does at ours, which we're fine with.) It's such a relief to live independently and not have to deal with screaming children who want to play with my stuff and just barge into my room, and to just be in charge of my own schedule. There isn't a steep dirt hill to deal with anymore, thank goodness. I also fully unpacked my suitcase for the first time since reaching Rwanda, because my host family didn't have a closet for me to put my stuff, which meant most of it stayed in my suitcase. What's more, my room has this sweet view. I love waking up to the sounds of motorcycles and cars driving by my window, and when it rains, it's especially relaxing.
Speaking of views, I continue to be in awe of how photogenic this city is while you're doing the most mundane things. While I think Kigali isn't the kind of city I'd want to live in for the long term, it is definitely a very picturesque city. There's a café I like going to called Inzora (full moon), and it's got views I don't know where else in the world I could find. What a great place to do some work!
Any trip to me wouldn't be the same without the people. I love my (two) housemates and don't think I'm going to get sick of them during the month that I live with them (which is great because usually, if I spend a lot of time with particular people, I tend to get tired of their company, to no fault of theirs at all). I'm with them right now as I type this entry in a place called Magda Café, where we've been for almost seven hours now. Here are some pictures.
Another of my housemates and day ones (we were roommates at the orientation camp) is Danielle, the blond girl in this picture. She also keeps a blog and has been way more consistent than me about it, and is also one of those early birds naturally wakes up in the wee hours of the morning. I still remember how during the first orientation camp we both happened to be awake before 6 am just laying in our room, and she asked me if I wanted to watch the sunrise with her. I eagerly agreed, and it turned out that all the buildings around us were strategically placed to block out the sunset, but we had a great conversation anyway. She's kind of an oddball (we just don't understand how somebody can be so obsessed with peanuts and bananas and eat such copious amounts of them) but we love her for it. The other girl in the picture, Sheridan, could be considered an honorary housemate. She's one of the people I've been close to since the beginning, and actually spent most of her life (around 10 years) in Taiwan, so it's been great to be able to relate to somebody on matters about living in Asia! She's goofy, quirky, and a cheerful person to be around and I enjoy spending time with her a lot.
As for Rwandan friends, I have made plenty, and yesterday I had the opportunity to see some that I hadn't seen in around two months.
These dashing gentlemen are Xavier, Sam, and Arthur. They're all part of an organization called Seven United, which is made up of youth working for the cause of education for the poor children of the country. It was founded in 2008 by a group of seven friends, one of which was my friend Justus from Harvard. He's the one who connected me to his closest friends here, and I honestly don't know what my life here would be without knowing them. Even if I don't see them, their checking up on me on WhatsApp has made me feel very welcome here despite everything. Yesterday, there was an event at a disabled children's home, so I was able to see these three again. It was absolutely lovely. I'm really proud to know such passionate and driven young people! There are more friends I would love to talk about but haven't seen lately, so I will probably find the time later to discuss more.
That's it for my brief update about life lately and life as it will probably continue going over the next month. I don't really feel like I want time to slow down, but at the same time, I do think that I've adjusted nicely, have lots going for me now, and have a satisfying routine. It feels good to have four weeks remaining: no more, and no less. I'm sure they're going to be the best four weeks of my time here yet.
I also feel kind of bad for not updating this blog as often as I would like, but I have very limited wifi and very limited patience to deal with wifi, so I suppose that also accounts for it. Nonetheless, I decided that today, at the start of my final month in Rwanda, I should post about how life has been lately.
In short, life has been grand! After the Uganda trip, the group schedule was pretty laid back. The main thing was the Kinyarwanda oral and written exams, both of which I aced, somewhat unfairly because I already had Kinyarwanda last semester. For the oral exam, I walked in to the room where the academic director and Kinyarwanda teacher were, and they kinda just looked at me and said, "Oh we know you know pretty good Kinyarwanda. Show us what you got." I did the usual intro, a simple Q&A, and then at the end sang the first verse of the national anthem from memory. They told me that a lot of Rwandans don't even know that much, which made me lol. On another academic note, I just turned in 8 pages' worth of comprehensive essays, one about the manipulation of ethnic identities in Rwanda's history and one about certain challenges and limitations inherent in NGO work.
Right now, we're in the period of Independent Study Project, or ISP. It's a period of four weeks where we live in a house with a few other people from the total group and work on our own independent research, or an internship. I'm doing kind of both, since I'm interning at a very interesting organization called Rwanda Bridges to Justice. It's a branch of an international NGO called International Bridges to Justice, based in Switzerland, which recruits volunteer lawyers to represent people in prisons and work on rights awareness and prevention of torture. I've done three days of internship there so far and am finding it super interesting. I only have two colleagues, which makes for a chill atmosphere. One is a lady from France named Estelle (so happy I get to speak in French regularly) and the other is a young lawyer from Uganda named Ronald who was also partly educated in Rwanda (he's really funny and we actually take the bus home together after work). You can read more about them here; I've met JB the country manager once, since he's never in the office because he's too busy running his own law firm. (Not entirely sure what happened to the fourth person on the page.) This week I helped do research for a grant application that's going to the European Union and interviewed one of their volunteer lawyers who stopped by the office, in French and English. Here's a picture of my corner of the office!
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| Super nice having a table to spread out my stuff on. |
Speaking of views, I continue to be in awe of how photogenic this city is while you're doing the most mundane things. While I think Kigali isn't the kind of city I'd want to live in for the long term, it is definitely a very picturesque city. There's a café I like going to called Inzora (full moon), and it's got views I don't know where else in the world I could find. What a great place to do some work!
Any trip to me wouldn't be the same without the people. I love my (two) housemates and don't think I'm going to get sick of them during the month that I live with them (which is great because usually, if I spend a lot of time with particular people, I tend to get tired of their company, to no fault of theirs at all). I'm with them right now as I type this entry in a place called Magda Café, where we've been for almost seven hours now. Here are some pictures.
Our program has 21 girls and 3 boys, which is funny and has made for an interesting group dynamic. Because I don't think I could put up with being constantly surrounded by girls, and because of other things that make people get along, I got particularly close to one of the boys, whose name is James. He studies linguistics, which is what I almost studied but chickened out of, and was also a former high school exchange student (sadly not with Rotary but oh well). One of our friends asked us if we ever just sit and talk about languages, and he said "Yes, and we also gossip in German," which sums us up pretty well. His love of languages and maps is on par with if not beyond mine, which I'm awed by, but it means we can talk forever about lots of things, so I'm glad to have him as a housemate!
As for Rwandan friends, I have made plenty, and yesterday I had the opportunity to see some that I hadn't seen in around two months.
These dashing gentlemen are Xavier, Sam, and Arthur. They're all part of an organization called Seven United, which is made up of youth working for the cause of education for the poor children of the country. It was founded in 2008 by a group of seven friends, one of which was my friend Justus from Harvard. He's the one who connected me to his closest friends here, and I honestly don't know what my life here would be without knowing them. Even if I don't see them, their checking up on me on WhatsApp has made me feel very welcome here despite everything. Yesterday, there was an event at a disabled children's home, so I was able to see these three again. It was absolutely lovely. I'm really proud to know such passionate and driven young people! There are more friends I would love to talk about but haven't seen lately, so I will probably find the time later to discuss more.
That's it for my brief update about life lately and life as it will probably continue going over the next month. I don't really feel like I want time to slow down, but at the same time, I do think that I've adjusted nicely, have lots going for me now, and have a satisfying routine. It feels good to have four weeks remaining: no more, and no less. I'm sure they're going to be the best four weeks of my time here yet.
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