So, an update for Tuesday. This will mostly be what my mother did today since I learned the hard way that fish in a land-locked African country is not a good thing to eat and spent all day in bed. No worries, I'm feeling better now and my mom did just fine without me. In the morning she preached to a group of widows who are the leaders of the various widow organizations at Solace. They loved her. I even had one woman come to my room to show me the notes she wrote during my mom's talk.

After that, there was a trip out to Bugesera. This is an area known for its mosquitos and draughts, where a lot of Tutsis were forced to move years ago. This means it's also a place where a lot of killings took place during the Genocide, including at a Catholic Church, Nyamata, where 10,000 people were killed in 2 days. Anyway, my mom got to see the church, which is now a memorial site, as well as the Solace satellite center that is being built in the area.

Tomorrow my mother speaks to Solace widows and orphans again and in the afternoon we're visiting some child-headed households in the city. Leocadie, my contact in my village, Gasabo, is also stopping by so we can set up some dates for my interviews. There's also a festival in Gasabo on Sunday that I hope to bring Ian too since he arrives on Saturday. Hopefully lots of my orphans will be there.

Finally, I get to see my boys, Vedaste and Gilbert, on Friday along with another boy, Habimana, who is supported by a member of my dad's church. I send them to a private, Anglican boarding school about an hour from the city and we get to drive out and visit with them while my mom is here. Seeing Vedaste is always my favorite part of being in Rwanda so I can't wait to give him his presents and see how much English he is learning.

It's time for a Saturday update. I just met a pastor for Bukavu, Congo who works with orphans and widows, mostly from AIDS. It looks like Ian and I will be able to visit him, if I can get permission from Jean to go to Congo. This part was a little dangerous a few years ago but it's much safer now. I really want to go to Congo and Burundi when I'm hear since the conflicts there are related to Rwanda.

Also, I finally took my mother into the center of town. We took a mini bus in so she could experience a crowded bus. We walked for a while before we found the gift shop run by Caritas, a Catholic organization. My mother got 10 creches and we're getting more before she goes. We had to take a private taxi home, $5 instead of $.20 for the minibus, but I think my mother appreciated the extra room.

I also hired my 2 translators for the summer. One will interview orphans who are survivors of the genocide and the other will interview orphans who are not genocide survivors. Each translator is interviewing people from their own group so the orphans feel safer and more free to speak. It can be hard to talk in Rwanda if you do not know who is listening. I have even been very cautious about who I talk to and what I say because you do not know who is around.

Tonight Jean and Viviane, my Rwandan parents, come back from a month in Switzerland. They were visiting people who are donors for Solace. The whole family is coming into town to greet them so I get to see my sisters who live in the south and north. Once Jean is here I can start doing my research. I know I've only been here 5 days but I'm ready to start working.

Another post, and I promise not to complain about food anymore. My mother and I went to Gasabo yesterday, where I will do my research. Most of the orphans and widows who would have been at the meeting we had were either at school or a meeting that had been called by the government. We had to be quiet in our meeting because government officials were walking around to make sure everyone was at their meeting. We didn't want the people at our meeting to get in trouble. We gave out candy, toothpaste, toothbrushes, medical packets and bracelets. They seemed to like them. I also got to explain my research to Leocadie, the Gasabo orphan who will help me find the participants I need.

I my translators for my research. I will use Harriet, a Solace orphan who speaks great English but is in school part of the time. I will also use Michel who got his bachelor's in Psychology this last year from the national university. He's translating my interview questions and informed consent today. I think it might be a problem to use a non-Solace translator but he's too good and has too much psychology training to not use him. He's also the one translating for my mother when she teaches at the Baptist university at night. His dad is a pastor there and he makes a lot of his money translating for visitors. He still doesn't make a lot though and so I'm going to try to use him as much as possible to get him money.

Today we went to a meeting with widows. We passed out all of the shawls made by the Methodist women but there weren't enough for all the widows so more need to be made. My mother preached to them and then they sang and told us a couple of stories from the genocide. When the second women was telling her story (she survived Ntarama, a church where over 10,000 were killed) another widow had a seizure. She has epilepsy and the trauma from hearing the stories brought it on. Instead of taking her to the clinic, they prayed over her. Instead of getting her medicine, they say they can just pray for Satan to leave her alone. I admire their faith but sometimes I wish they would use more counseling and medicine in addition to their prayers.

Finally, I found out today that I'm supposed to be charged $25/day in rent for the guest house. That works out to almost $2000 for the summer. This is a little more than I was expecting, especially considering I have always stayed here for free before. Please pray as I work with the staff to figure out a way to make my stay here affordable because I definitely can't pay that much for my time, especially when I don't even want half of the emenities that make this place so expensive.

So, my mom and I made it to Rwanda. Ethiopia was interesting. The hotel was "tolerable" as my mother put it and there were gunshots outside at 4:30 but there have been gunshots outside of my apartment in Worcester so that wasn't too bad.

We're staying at the guest house at Solace. It is so nice it's almost like being in the twilight zone. We have hot water and three enormous meals a day. It's actually a little sad that they have such a good chef for the guest house because we aren't eating Rwandan food (dinner was a salad, toast with mushroom cream sauce and a cream puff for dessert) and all I want is sweet potatoes and beans. They also serve so much food that nobody can finish it and it seems wasteful to give the foreigners so much when there are hungry people sitting outside of Solace every day. I think I'm going to ask that they serve me traditional food because I can get cream puffs in America but I can't find ubugari anywhere else.

So, that's the update for today. We get to go to Gasabo tomorrow and I'm sure I'll have a lot to say about that. I can make contacts for my research and see the land that we might buy for Vedaste's house. I don't get to see my boys, Vedaste and Gilbert, tomorrow because they are at boarding school but I'm going to bring my mom to their school soon to meet them and I do get to see all of the other orphans that I worked with on my other visits. Everyone keeps telling me how big Vedaste is and I have to see it for myself.

next trip

I leave for Rwanda on Saturday with my mother. I will be using this blog (again) to keep people updated on my time there so make sure to look back next week.