gasabo

Here is an update on our last trip to Gasabo.

We went on Wednesday to collect data for my (Becky) research. There were about 15 orphans who I had interviewed 5 years ago and about 40 new orphans. It took us 1.5 hours to get to Gasabo (a 25 mile trip) because of how slow the taxis work. We had to take one from Kacyiru to Remera (waiting 20 minutes for it to arrive) and then another one from Remera to Kabuga. We would have had to take a 3rd taxi from Kabuga to Gasabo but we were running so late that we took motorbike taxis instead. I highly recommend motorbikes for travel in the village.

We spent most of the day watching orphans fill out surveys although Ian did get to play volleyball with one orphan. I also got to see Dorcas, an orphan who had me be a bridesmaid in her wedding 5 years ago. She has 2 kids now and she brought them all the way to the meeting so I could see them and she could do my survey.

On the way back we had a fun experience in the taxi that Ian will talk about.

Ian: So we got in a "taxi" which is actually a van stuffed with about 19 people. As muzungu (white people) we gather quite a crowd in a little village. A troubadour of sorts came by to serenade us (see picture). He wasn't really posing for this picture...he really looks like that and was completely playing the role of the crazy street musician. Everyone around us was laughing at his little display for us which involved some intense head rolling, pelvic thrusts and sticking his tongue through the hole left by his missing front teeth. He got a good laugh and 100 francs out of us. We got a picture and a good story.