We arrived this morning at the Kigali International Airport in Rwanda. After passing through immigration, we located our bags and headed out of the airport to meet our ride. Leaving the claim area, I was grabbed by a man with what looked like a security badge. He claimed that he needed to inspect my bag before I left (although I was the only person who he had grabbed on the way out). As he was looking through my bag he smiled at me pulling out and inspecting my lantern, hairbrush, sports bras and other seemingly un-suspicious items in my suitcase. As he was “inspecting” he gave me a very sly smile and casually asked me in broken English if I had a boyfriend. I laughed at the randomness of his question and subtly closed my bag and headed towards the exit as he laughed. My first interaction with a Rwandan- definitely one I will remember.
Casian from the Rwanda Village Concept Project and the president of GW GlobeMed, Caleb, met us at the airport. After struggling for a few minutes to stuff four large suitcases into the tiny trunk of the sedan, Regina, Amanda and I stuffed ourselves in the back of the car with Casian and headed for the bus stop in Kigali. Staring out the window, I noticed hundreds of people walking down the road with large buckets of water and logs on their heads, their faces stern and determined. The streets of Kigali were decorated with shops and restaurants, and in the distance hundreds of houses lined the horizon, precariously stacked on steep hills. We waited for a bit in Kigali and were definitely the only Westerners. Rwandans came up to me and started speaking in Kinyarwanda and offering me phone cards and fruit for purchase. I smiled and shook my head, saying in the clearest English I could that I did not have any Rwandan francs. The streets were incredibly crowded with people passing in and out of the bus station, causally glancing our way before returning to their business. Because our bags were so big, we had to buy separate bus tickets for them, which wasn't a huge deal. With the exchange rate being 560 francs to the $, it only cost us a couple of bucks for both tickets.
I talked with Casian almost the whole way to Butare. As a pharmacy student, he was very interested in how the US school system worked. He was also really interested in American life was like since he had only been outside of Rwanda once, when he traveled to Uganda during the genocide. The Rwanda Village Concept Project, the organization we will be volunteering with starting tomorrow, was started by students like Casian- students interested in applying their studies in a purely beneficial way, giving back to the town they grew up in. They have started several initiatives in addition to the work they do in the Huye Health Clinic (where we will be spending the majority of our time), including an Orphanage and Income Generation Project.
Butare is such a great place to live! Its tiny but it has all the essentials and again, we are probably four of twenty westerners here. It was so interesting just to walk down the streets yesterday, realizing how far away from Washington I really am (in every aspect)!
We are living in a volunteer house that RVCP provided for us at no cost. The house, although basic, is very quaint. We have a little kitchen with just a sink and a small water boiler. We have to boil water every morning (as the water is not safe to drink). I took my first "bucket shower" last night which was...interesting. Definitely not a bad place to live- we're in the center of Butare but it feels like we're living in a remote paradise! I even slept the best I have in a while in the bunk bed last night.
The best part of the night was the party that RVCP held for us. Regina, Amanda, Caleb and I were a little skeptical when they told us about the party since we were still really jet lagged and exhausted. We walked outside to see about 14 Rwandan RVCP members conversing, and a few dancing to music a DJ was mixing on his computer. We kind of stood there awkwardly for a bit until members started coming over and introducing themselves. Everyone spoke English to differing degrees of fluency (all people here who pass through secondary school learn English and French). It took a little while to get used to the accents though and I felt badly having to ask people to repeat themselves. We were greeted by one of the leaders of RVCP who told that because were international volunteers, we were essentially heroes and had to drink the "heroes drink." We all winced as he proceeded to pour the most disgusting looking banana beer into our cups. Learning that it was rude to refuse drink offerings, we all drained the cups. The coordinator of RVCP, Jean Claude, grabbed me and started to teach me Rwandan style dance (similar to hula minus the hip swing). Pretty soon everyone was dancing to music from all over the world. Singing lyrics in English, Spanish, and French, it was the ultimate cross-cultural experience. My entire group thinks I'm this crazy dancer now (and I tried to convince them I'm NOT at all like this in DC, but for some reason in that moment, I had lost all inhibitions). We have a nice little video of me dancing (aka making a complete fool of myself). I had a blast and by the end of the night everyone was hugging me and saying how excited they were to have me there with them. I'm so excited to begin working with them tomorrow. They are seriously some of the nicest people I have ever met!
Until tomorrow, Muraveho!
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