One day left

We are leaving tomorrow and it seems like we are both relatively prepared. Beck got most of the the research data she needed. I got a lot but I found that the more information I gathered the more questions I had about what I really wanted to focuse my MA paper on. I think I have a general idea and am feeling better about it over all. I turned in three reports to the Director of Solace last week. They were the finished products of what I have been working on all summer. Jean seemed very pleased and is even exploring possiblities for me to come back to Rwanda as a consultant to Solace and other organizations. At the very least I got a lot of very valuable experience from this summer and was able to produce some things that will hopefully help the organization improve some of their programs.

Becky and I met with the Director of Food for the Hungry this morning. He and his wife have over 20 years of experience living and working in Rwanda/Burundi. He was also a professor for many years at Greenville College near St. Louis. He has really helped both of us think through some areas of our research and is interested in keeping in touch with us for the future. In the meeting today was a community psychologist from Greenville doing research here during his sabatical. That was a good contact for Becky too. Seems like there are several people wanting us to come back and there are a few avenues we could take if we decide to do that. It is always nice to have options.

This will probably be the last blog entry for the summer (unless Becky wants to add something). So goodbye and see some of you soon. Thanks for tracking with us during our time here.

4 days

So, it's 4 days before we head to Ethiopia and I haven't written in a while. My research is basically done. I'm trying to find the orphans that I originally interviewed to have them fill out an additional form that my translator was supposed to give them. It's an important part of my dissertation and she just forgot to give it to a lot of people so now I have only a couple of days to find them.

I'm also scrambling to get ahold of Leocadie, the leader of the orphans in my village in Nyagasambu. She's been sick and hasn't been able to come in so it looks like I won't be able to get a picture of the new girl who is going to be sponsored and sent to Gahini in January. Solace promised to get one for me after I left though so hopefully that happens soon. I was worried when Leocadie wasn't coming in because she was due here on Tuesday and it's Friday now. I also know she's been getting threatened because she knows me. Her neighbors see that white people visit and assume she has money and come to her home in the night to try to get it. Her husband is a soldier who is deployed so she's all alone when this happens. It turns out she's just sick and she's seeing a doctor so she should be better by Monday to come see me one last time.

Also, now that I'm close to leaving, I'm doing my official interviews for my research. I interviewed the secretary general for the Ministry of Education today and the director general for the National Curriculum Development Center. I am also going to meet the director of education and the director of documentation for the Gisozi Genocide Memorial so I can find out what is being taught. I think I'll have enough for my dissertation.

Ian and I are just wrapping things up here the next couple of days. There is a dinner for us on Sunday before we leave. I've been sort of ignored most of the summer and now they are realizing we're almost done. They want us to come back next summer and the director of Solace wants Ian to get a consultancy job in Rwanda while I lecture at the national university. We'll see what happens.

That's it for now. It something interesting happens before we're in Ethiopia we'll write again.