the scottish are coming...

i moved to solace today. i am the first guest in their guest house, along with my translator, florence. we are the offical hostesses of a group of scottish people coming tomorrow. i get to teach them what it is like to me a muzungu in rwanda. jean also asked when i was going to bring a group of americans...any takers?

i spent 8 hours getting braids in my hair yesterday. i had the woman (who i paid 1.50/hr) use yarn. it doesn't look that bad and when i wear long sleeves at night, i look like a light-skinned rwandan and nobody screams at me. it's the dust that continually covers me that helps me look darker, not an amazing tan.

sorry there are no great updates for today. i will be trying to get more surveys and preparing for the visitors. saturday is the big christmas/new years party at solace. it's 3 hours. i have to dress like a traditional rwandan girl and serve the distinguished guests (the mayor and some members of parliment). i'll try to post a picture if i can.

noheliz nziza

I'm back from Christmas in Gisenyi. The 3.5 hour ride turned into over 7 because for some reason Jean likes to drive very slow and will just randomly stop for a minute on the rode. What would happen if people did that on the rode in America? Anyway...Here are the things I did this weekend

+ spent the weekend at a nunnery in the north east part of Rwanda, 10 minutes from the border with Congo (the safe border)
+ swam in Lake Kivu several times
+ went to Congo for all of an hour (10 country stamps in the passport now) - definitely worth the $30 for the visa
+ rode on the back of a moped to get back to the border for my ride
+ took a boat ride to a hot spring that is so hot the water boils as it goes to the lake and villagers cook their food but just sticking it in the puddles - it comes from the volcano that erupted 4 years ago.
+ had a Christmas day service with the nuns - no Christmas Eve service
+ no presents for Christmas but I gave some to my family - the only ones they got.
+ saw my family get about 100 text messages on their cell phones - the way people say merry Christmas here - I even got one.
+ got called muzungu more times than I can count but at least there were no marraige proposals
+ got cookies for breakfast - definitely making up for any missed meals this past week


Now it is back to work and my surveys and preparing for the big Christmas/New Years service at Solace on Sunday. I also get extensions put in my hair tomorrow so I don't have to wash it anymore. I take cold showers here with the water coming from a faucet about waist high which is not conducive to hair washing.

muzungu, donnez moi l'argent

i'm putting 2 posts on in one day. i don't think there is internet in gisenyi so i'm getting my internet fix to last the weekend. i just went to town for the first time. there were street children everywhere saying, "muzungu, donnez moi l'argent" which means "white person, give me money." i just tell them i don't have any. my search for creches was not fruitful. maybe next week. i spent 3 hours walking around the city with jessie and got my first sunburn.

it was great to be back in the city. it smells and there are tons of people everywhere and it takes forever to walk around and there are always people trying to sell you watches and candy but it is marvelous. i took a taxi back to the office and there were 24 people in the taxi which is the size of a large minivan. i was in the back row (safest in case of an accident) with 3 mothers and their babies. the babies kept grabbing my hands and smiling while their mothers said "ari muzungu" (she's white). it was so cute i didn't even mind the smell or being called a muzungu.

merry christmas to everyone. enjoy the snow for me. i'll think about you when i'm on the beach in gisenyi.

good food

we had a huge dinner last night. it was marvelous. company is always a good thing here. we had a british family at the house and the father didn't realize that there was a housegirl and so he kept complimenting viviane on her cooking skills. no one wanted to tell him she just watched appollinaria cook.

i leave tomorrow for gisenyi for christmas. it will be nice to relax on the beach. it really doesn't feel like christmas when it's so warm. there is a drought now so it's hotter than usual. it's still only 83 but we need rain for the farmers.

the boy who was breaking down yesterday won't go to ndera, the hospital. he says they inject him with sedatives. the solace workers say that prayer will help. as a psychologist i wish we could combine that prayer with some strong medication but it's their culture so i'll go along with it.

that's all for now. i must get back to my surveys. i still don't have a phone which is frustrating because it limits my ability to travel. i can't be on my own without a phone so i have to ask people to go with me everywhere. i'm going on a hunt for as many creches as i can find today.

i think it is a good thing, no?

a story from jean: when i was young, when the weather was good and we had rain, there was food everywhere. you could just go to a field and see beans everywhere. there were bananas on trees all over that were so ripe the birds were eating them. now, there are too many people and not enough food. people must work all day to find so they can eat and if they don't, they do not eat. i think this is a good thing, no?...

i want to ruhengeri in the north, where they have volcanos, for a camp. the orphans there spent 2 hours talking about how they hate their holidays because they cannot find food. one tried to kill herself 3 times. another boy stayed at school and shared food with the watchman. another hadn't eaten in 2 days. after the stories we went inside to eat lunch. this cosisted of rolls, somosas and soda. i didn't eat. i gave my food to the orphans that hadn't eaten in a couple of days. now they can eat today too. by the time dinner was served at 10:30 i was so hungry that i wasn't hungry anymore. my stomach was too tired to growl.

tonight we have company - the parents of a British girl who is in Rwanda for 6 months. that means lots of food at dinner and it won't be late. this is a good thing.

there is a boy at solace who is the only survivor out of 127 people thrown into a hole. he is going crazy now. he has slept at solace for 3 days instead of going home. he always looks like he is in pain and grabs his head. he goes between whimpering, screaming and crying. i don't know what to do. i would like to bring him to the mental hospital in the city but i hear they chain people up and treat them horribly. most of the surveys i have gotten back show that orphans don't blame their neighbors for what has happened to them. that would seem to show that they are adjusting well...and then i meet boys like this. i wish i had more than 3 weeks to figure this all out.

first cockroach down

i killed my first cockroach last night. i'm sure there will be many more. i don't like that part of rwanda.

before i forget, my cell number is 08791791. i don't know the country code. it will work in a couple of days once cingular sends me the code to unlock my phone.

i gave my donation to solace today. it was more than i was planning because at breakfast, jean told me about 2 families of orphans. one has so many kids living in such a small hut that some of them must sleep at a church at night because they can't all fit on the floor. another family has eaten only wheat porridge for a week. i always looked forward to school vacations but for the orphans here it means hunger and no sleep. i gave more to help them.

vedaste is doing really well at school. everyon keeps telling me how good his grades are. i get to see him in january. his little brother, gilbert, isn't doing as well but i'll set him straight.

i have my own office at solace. i passed out most of my surveys and hired a translator (florence) to help me this month. this should work well. however, i still haven't told jean that nicholas (who he fired) helped with the survey. that might be tricky.

even with the bugs and guilt over having food, i'm happy i'm here. i didn't even mind the 5 hour church service yesterday. the wooden bench i was on wasn't comfortable and there was a woman who kept touching my hair but it was good. the meetings are in an unfinished building. solace had to finish the guest house that has been their office for 5 years or they would get kicked out. that meant they had to stop work on the new offices and meeting hall. the guest house is pretty and empty and everyone has to fit into a small cement room on sundays. oh well.

i want sleep

i made it. i'm exhausted. i'll write more tomorrow.

so close and yet...

i'm in nairobi. it's $2 for 15 minutes of internet. i have another 11 hours, fifteen minutes here so $2 seemed a small price to pay for a little distraction. when i returned from my first trip to rwanda i refused to pay that much because it seemed so expensive. we'll see what i think of $2 in a month.

interesting things so far
1 - a group of people in the amsterdam airport smoking at a stand covered in no smoking signs
2 - someone drinking a beer at 7 am (maybe they were on american time?)
3 - someone from wheaton college on my flight to nairobi
4 - i got the most comprehensive pat down from an airline worker ever. they are thorough in amsterdam

i'm sure there will be more after my 12 hours in kenya. at least i'm this close. hopefully no luggage is stolen while i'm here. at least they have a 24 hour coffee shop. i think i'll be fine.

today

i leave for the airport in just over 4 hours. i still have to buy a couple of things and stop by campus and go to the doctors for one last allergy shot. i am bringing 4 types of medicine in an attempt to not be overcome by a cold yet again. i always get one a month when i'm in kigali. the red dust there gets everywhere and probably doesn't have the best germs in it. this time i won't feel like pooh for a week...i'm only there for 3.5 anyway.

by the way, the times on my blog will be the time i post them when i'm in rwanda, not america. this time change is going to be wretched.

ok, now it's off to the store. only 1/4 of one bag is my stuff. the rest is all gifts for rwandans. even that 1/4 is most my research. when i get bored at night i get to cozy up to a copy of "the handbook of bereavement research." it's about 1000 pages...now that's some good reading.

2 days

i leave the day after tomorrow for rwanda. this is how i will write to people so i won't have guilt from not replying to emails. i don't arrive in rwanda until saturday. i will stay up all night on friday to ensure i am not kidnapped in nairobi so i probably will be sleeping that rest of the day and won't write again until sunday.