Mimi goes to Rwanda

Uganda

Anonymous asked: Hi mimi! I'm Christina, Jamie's friend... remember we met one time at her 4th of July party in her backyard? Your blog is fascinating! I am definitely learning more about Rwanda. Thanks for keeping it up! -Christina

Hey Christina, thanks! thank you for reading. how are you? 

Flying plate anyone?

I played Frisbee with the kids today. It was pretty fun, and nope they did not ask me if it was a plate we were playing with. It only took them 5 minutes to get the hang of it and not throw the Frisbee upside down. We did get a feel people up on the street gawking. But my neighbor’s two years old, Keza, loved it. She couldn’t do it correctly but it was fun to humor her. 

I say it was a successful day of introducing a new sport in the village. For that I awarded myself with a nice chapati( Ugandan/Rwandan flat bread) and Omelet. Very appropriate I must say.

Give me money

“give me money.” I still hear this once in a while in the village even though I have been here for a year and have not given a kid a penny. I get so frustrated sometime I want to scream out “STOP IT YOU LAZY FOOLS, FLUSH IT DOWN THE TOILET WHY DON”T YA!” to people who donate to charity at home and putting clothes into those yellow boxes. The money usually get eaten up some where a long the way or not spent correctly and the clothing you put into those yellow container at home end up at the market where they are sold for profit. I myself bought some of those clothes so I know. It’s better to take it to OUT of The Closet or Goodwill or St.Joseph.

I am not saying that donating and giving money is a bad thing. I just think donating on a whim and not really looking into the organization you are donating to is the same as flushing money down the toilet. I am not wise or anything just because I have been living in Africa for a year, but seeing how things work here sometimes make me mad to see NGOs and Non-profit people come to the village throwing money around and then leave thinking they have done something great.

What they did were just making African more dependent on charity money and thinking all foreigners are rich and we are all here just to throw money around. People give me the look if you’re not here to give me money what the hell are you here for you crazy MUZUNGU. It makes my job a lot harder, I have been trying to convince people since I got here that I don’t have money. No I cannot take their child home. No i cannot fly them to America for a visit. No I don’t have a houseboy at home. No not all American are white, yes there are black people in the US. No USA is not both continents, it is only a country in North America. No I will not get married and have ten kids because I can’t afford even one and so on. It’s not just because it makes my job harder that it makes me mad. I am just mad because I know people work their butts off at home to save money and sometime when they donate they think it’s for a good cause and it ends up creating dependency in Africa.

The reason I post this? Well because people at home are going crazy over Invisible Children and Joseph Kony. It’s a good thing more people know about it but I hope people don’t go crazy donating money.

Baking bread in the village.

Living in a village in Rwanda makes baking a bit difficult when you love to bake. I’d tried it once or twice last year, but I didn’t fully bake the bread. I fried them on my non-stick pan. Today however I decided to actually bake something. I’ve made pizza bread dough because I have really nice arugulas growing in my garden. The arugula is in the foreground. Then that’s a chili bush to the left and in the back the small sprouts are lettuce? and next to them is my lemongrass :)

I’ve always liked pizza bread/ garlic bread with marinara sauce and I thought they would go well with arugula salad. So making the pizza bread I used:

2 cups of warm water

A package of yeast

6 cups of flour ( I mixed 1 cup of maize and 5 cups of regular, well because I didn’t have 6 cups of flour)

3 tablespoons of vegetable oil (I used olive)

1 ½ teaspoon of salt.

Instructions: mix yeast in warm water. Add oil and salt. Stir. Then stir in 2 cups of flour for 3 minutes. Then add the rest of the flower until you can form a ball. Knead until the dough is elastic. Leave dough in a greased pan to rise(ten minutes). Then roll out to make pizza bread or whatever you want. For the oven, I made a Dutch oven??? I used an Isafuria(pot) and a old tin can. A small isafuria lid as my cookie sheet and my water filter lid for the lid (I’d tried a ceramic plate, and it broke in the process)

Cooking instructions: So first light the charcoal. Put the isafuria on top. Put the tin can in the middle. Then put in the lid for the cookie sheet. Close the lid. After 5 minutes, yes I preheated the oven :), put the dough in and cover the lid.

Put charcoal on top of the lid.

Small pizza bread around 6 -8inches took 10 minutes to bake.

Tadaa and you get bread. This is what I ate for lunch

For today I mixed some chopped garlic in the dough so they can be garlic bread. I made a rosemary loaf too, and this is the picture isn’t it beautiful? 

Also if you’re bored make some interesting shape for your bread.

When I was baking, my neighbor’s houseboy stood and watched and so did the girl who is staying with my neighbor for the month. They were wondering why the heck I put charcoal on the lid. Later on they came and I told them I was making “imigati”. Their faces lit up with smile and I gave them some to try. She took it in the house to show it to Mama Keza, my neighbor/landlord’s wife. She then came back and gave me a thumb up. I don’t know whether it’s a genuine thumb up or not because most people here like the sweet bread. Oh well I took it as a compliment and continued baking. I will do it again another time for sure. Happy baking! It’s possible even in the village.

Public transport in Rwanda

If you don’t have a car and plan to ride like a regular person here be ready to use your elbows and knees to get on the bus. Yes, elbows and knees and whatever you can use. I saw a man hit a woman on her head so that he can get on the bus. I’m not kidding. Even though I’ve been living here for a year and some months, I’m still not use to all this shoving and pushing. Someone told me once to be more aggressive.

If you survive the push and shove and got yourself on the bus, the next thing you need to be ready for is being stuffed like sardines in a small run-down Mutatu bus that will break down at any moment or stuffed 6 to a row on an “express” bus or the Onatracom bus that has every single space on the bus stuffed with chickens, beans, people standing and people sitting on top of each other. If you’re lucky you are squeezed between two people on the side instead of two on the side and one with his/her butt right in your face or if you’re not squeezed between two people who smell like they carry a death cat with them.

If you are still ok with being squeezed tight between smelly people and all the other stuff well then get ready to be on the bus for the longest and hottest bus ride of your life. Pray that someone will not barf on you or have a crying baby next to you. You will stick your head out of the window like your pet and feel really good doing it. You’ll encounter some silly things too of course like a girl will take one of your hand and hold it like she owns it and if you take it back she’ll reach over and grab it and put it on her lap like a pet or you will be pet on head because of your hair. if you are lucky someone will just pet the hair on your head or stroke the hair on your arm instead of pulling it.

Well if you are ok with all this, you are ready to travel Rwanda. Getting from Kigali Airport to downtown is easy. You can get a taxi cab for 5000 rwf. There’s also a bus that runs from the airport to downtown for 250-300 RWF. From downtown to the main bus station, Nyabugogo, where you basically can buy bus ticket to all the main city and small town in Rwanda, you pay 150-200RWF. There is a smaller bus station near the airport, Remera, is another location you can buy bus tickets if you wish to travel mainly to east or Rwanda.

Most bus driver are pretty honest with their rate. The most they would over charge you is 50 franc, just look to see what the other passengers are paying you’ll be fine. The rate now to travel from Kigali to the southern most city-Rusizi/Kamembe is 5300. Butare 2500. Going from Kigali to the most end of Eastern Province Matimba/Gatitumba Border is 3500, to Nyagatare is 3000, and to kayonza is around 1500. Going north to Musanze/Ruhengeri is 1800. I Haven’t gone to all the places in Rwanda, some places I’ve gone like Gisenyi,Kibuye I have forgotten the price. Anyhoo safe traveling! I donn’t know who would read this but I want to post it anyway.

Tea without sugar?

I bought a box of tea and brought it to school today so that the school cook can make us tea. My colleagues asked me ‘But Mimi, where is the sugar?” Then I asked “you can’t take tea without sugar?” They replied “We always take tea with sugar.” Oh and they do. People in Rwanda and even Uganda love sugar. A lot of time tea here taste like hot water and sugar with milk. I am not even exaggerating at all. It’s hard to find tea that is actually strong and without tons of sugar in it. The only time you can find what you want is well when restaurant give you your own tea bag and hot water, sugar, and milk so that you can add the amount you want. Otherwise tea you find here is super sweet! Even with green tea my neighbor insist on putting 5 teaspoonful of sugar in each cup he drinks. HE was shock when I told him I want my tea without sugar. He kept on saying ‘Ah but Mahoro, you take sugar. Why don’t you take sugar?” The reason why I decided to bring tea to school was because we get hot milk around ten in the morning to drink but a lot of time the milk runs out before everyone have their share. I figured if I brought tea they can make tea in hot water and add with hot milk so there will be more so everyone will get something to drink. Well I was wrong of course. Some teachers still didn’t get some today. It’s annoying but the same thing happen with lunch. Some people take too much and other end up without lunch even though all paid for lunch monthly.

Rwanda is good at herding cows

…but does not have many or know how to make good dairy products. It baffles me every time. Well I know for a fact for my side of Rwanda it is true. It is cow country and all I have is drinking yogurt. I’ve tried making butter but the neighbor just laughed and his houseboy stood and stared at me shaking milk in a peanut butter jar. I get the same reaction when it comes to trying other things especially teaching at school. From what I’ve heard I am not the only one feeling like this.

It’s the beginning year 2012 there been many changes here. Kigali already has street lights at most intersections, but I can’t say the light signals make a lot of sense. Roads are fixed and paved around the country and many other things. However one thing remained the same the absence of students the first two weeks of school. Most did not show up until the end of week three even with the government encouraging students to show up at school the first week by making bus carriers only take students on the weekend before school starts. Students who showed up first week of school usually ended up sweeping the classroom, moving desks to classrooms, and running errands. Most teachers were not there. So it’s understandable. Why show up early and have to do chores at school especially you already have many at home? The teachers are not there anyway. This is a huge problem for Rwanda and it does not include other problems such as: schools helping students cheat on their national exams, school having teachers who do not have the technical skills or experiences to teach (some of these bio, math, and physic teachers have only a diploma equivalent to a high school diploma in the States so most teachers here are foreigners), and students not having access to reading books or materials to study even if the school has those materials. It’s not that most schools don’t have any kind of school materials for students; the problem is even if they have them they materials up in a room and let them collect dust. It sad but I feel like it is the same situation with the cows in this country. They produce tons of milk, but the only product so far come out of it is drinking yogurt and a really bad quality Gouda cheese. It’s difficult to find butter here; the ones you find are from Uganda unless you count ghee as butter. I just don’t get it. I mean it was colonized by Belgium and there’s not one good chocolate or cheese!

The same goes for the quality of education here in Rwanda. You can find only weird tasting Gouda and drinking yogurt but if you want something a bit better you get them from Uganda, Kenya, and elsewhere. Sometimes it’s frustrating to teach because these students are trained to memorize notes and then regurgitate whatever they’ve remembered without even understand 10 percent of what they are saying or writing. You ask them about photosynthesis, they will write out each and everything they’ve memorized about it even if the question only ask about one part of it. On the national exam, if they are asked to describe the beauty of Rwanda, if they include any details even if it just says “we have mountains” they get points for it even though they did not provide any description on how and why the mountains in Rwanda are beautiful. Rwanda tries so hard to give points and pass their students, most ended up just going through the system and not learning much. My only hope is one or two of my students will not end up like most of their peers. It’s sad to say it, but it’s true I can’t hope for more than two or three students to change their ways. One teacher told me when I arrived at my school that “Our school has many cows” shortly before he left. I thought he meant it literally. I am trying my best to get some to stray away from the herd. It is difficult but it’s not impossible.

It’s my second year in P.C. Rwanda and I want to make the best of it. I was hopeful when the term started this year and was relieved to find my school still in operation. We are still a 9 years basic education school; it failed to become a vocational school. After feeling all settled and happy of course the district decided to spring a surprise on us. On the third day of school, I was sitting in the staffroom with other teachers waiting for students to come when one of my colleagues came in and said “HM is being transfer.” All the other teachers screamed with excitement, one said “we will make a party. G. is going!” Almost all of the staff never liked the Headmaster so they welcomed the news. I sat there wondering if it was good or bad. It turned out all the administrators were removed one got promoted, one got demoted, and two got transfer. Apparently it is normal for the district to remove and transfer teachers, Headmaster, and whomever they want without any prior notice. They just call you in and tell you in a “meeting” and that’s that.

After three weeks, I say it was a good change. The new Headmaster is more strict but more productive. He got to work right away the second he came to Gacundezi. Meetings start at the time he said it would and do not run from noon until 6 pm. He is also more open to ideas and is more active in promoting English speaking and extra-curricular activities. So I am optimistic this school year will be a lot better than the last.

Happy New Year!

I will be celebrating 2012 with the Sisters at the convent this New Year. It will be awesome I know it. Happy new year everyone everywhere.

Here’s a link to some drawings I did in 2011 mu Rwanda.

For my 2nd Christmas in Rwanda, I decided to visit a friend up in Musanze instead of staying at my site. Even though I really wanted to see how people celebrate Christmas here I know I’ve made a good decision of leaving because several families asked me to spend Christmas with them and I couldn’t decide which one I was going to because if I’d gone to one the other families would’ve felt snubbed and the option of going to all was not an option because the possibility of leaving early does not exist here when it comes to special celebration so I decide to just not go to any. 

I say my Christmas was a nice relaxing one.

We read by the lake 

and Remy, Allister’s dog, chased after goats, sheep, and some Rwandan kids. Allister and I made curry for Christmas Eve and then for Christmas morning I made a huge skillet of country potatoes and we had it with scramble eggs and french toast. We couldn’t finish it so it was also for Christmas lunch. Other than the fleas that were eating me alive from Allister’s UN blanket, which he assured me that it had been washed, I say it was a great Christmas spent fleas and all.

Banana trees

I haven’t been able to have quiet time to paint for a long time. Lunch time is usually quiet in the village so it was a great opportunity for me to practice my rusty painting skill again…

I dare say it’s not too shabby after months of not holding a paint brush for the fear of finding a swarm of kids surrounding me while I paint. One did come today, Kevin, when I was painting but he got bored an left. I don’t know why after finishing, The House of Mirth, I had a desire to paint something. I;m glad I did.

To be left alone with my brushes was a treat.