Upcoming schedule

Here's my upcoming schedule:
Saturday morning leave with the group for Amsterdam, stay two nights sightseeing with Ben, Caitlin, and Sarah from the UNC trip
Monday morning fly to Prague on SkyEurope
Leave Wednesday night on my own for Rome via Wizzair
Thursday morning wake up early, catch a bus to Siena for the Il Palio horse race, meet up with John and Autumn. No place to stay that night, first train leaves around 5 am for Florence
Sleep all day in Florence while Johns in class, leave for Rome that night
Sightsee in Rome until Sunday with John, Florence until Wednesday while John has class
Wednesday morning head to Venice by myself, fly out Thursday night for Paris on Ryainair
Leave Saturday afternoon for London, parents fly in Sunday morning
London, Bath, Scotland and the British Open with my parents
Monday the 21st take a ferry back to Amsterdam for my flight home, stay in Chapel Hill one night before making it back to Atlanta!

The Hague

Well, Europe is quite the contrast from 5 weeks in Africa, that's for sure. We threw our stuff down at the hostel when we got in and really wanted to get to Belgium, but it was a little expensive for my blood. So, instead Sarah, David, and I explored The Hague which turned out to be great. I had slept the whole way from Dar es Salaam to Amsterdam, but it was still an interesting trip. I met a girl on our flight from Kigali who was from Atlanta as well as a German couple who booked the flight when it was scheduled for 7 am, 8 hours earlier than it actually departed, and were never notified. Our plane was an hour late leaving Kigali for no reason- we call it Africa time- and then the flight attendants on KLM flight looked down on the size of my bag, and made fun of me with other passengers!! Oh well, we made it safely and were shocked at how chilly it was when we left the train station.

We left the hostel and got some cheap Turkish food off the street, and I felt like my tastebuds were rejuvenated, it was so amazing. Saturday was one of the biggest days of the year- Pink Saturday, celebrating homosexuality with concerts, displays, parades, it was an interesting experience! We left and went to Delft, a small and really European village. There was an antique sale going on at the canal and a middle school marching band competition in the city center. We explored two churches, where the graves of the inventor of the microscope and the father of international law are buried, and had the best sandwiches ever!!! We met up with the rest of the group that night in The Hague and went out for the block parties and ska concerts, but just walked around in circles and got laughed at for wanting to go to a nightclub before 2. One thing I've noticed is the height of the people. There's even lots of women taller than me, and especially some guys who tower above me.

Sunday we slept late, found a sweet place for free wireless internet and were generally really lazy until my roommate John arrived from Paris. It was great seeing him, hearing about his trip, and spending the next two days in The Hague. We rented bikes as a group and rode about 20 minutes to the beach, which was packed with people but way too cold to swim, then rode back to the hostel. John and I continued further south, got really lost in a really cool neighboring town, and came out on the north side of The Hague. We felt European since everyone here rides bikes and the infrastructure is built for the paths.

Monday we slept late again, went to the grocery store and bought some stroopwaffles, the local caramel cracker that's amazing. We just walked around the city and had a pretty slow day, found a great pizza place, and relaxed some more. The Hague is kind of slow, even though its a big city (I compare it to my experiences in Charlotte), but I feel like our groups gotten to be even better friends here when we reflect on our experiences in Africa.

Tuesday, my 22nd birthday, we woke up early to go to the International Criminal Court. We watched the trail of Thomas Lubanga in the morning, on trial for conscripting child soldiers and the first trial ever for the ICC. We knew what was going on this time, and even though the witness was protected, we were able to understand everything that was going on. After a great sandwich place for lunch and ice cream from the gas station, we went back to talk with the lead investigator, a former prosecutor for the Manhattan and U.S. district attorneys office, and then the deputy prosecutor for the ICC, who actually leads the trials and is the highest ranking female lawyer in the world. She was incredible, talking about her earlier experience in Rwanda, her convictions that international justice was and will make a difference especially in Sudan and Uganda, and the political process of her election. It was a really interesting day, with happy birthdays from everyone everwhere.

The group had Ben and Jerrys and a card for me back at the hostel, and we threw in lots of the Belgian chocolates my parents sent me for a great celebration. We drank a little at the hostel bar (free drink #1 of like 6), tried to open minikegs from the grocery store in our room (10 Carolina students just couldn't figure out this contraption, it was hilarious) and then went to the same pizza place as a whole group!! We had a great time at the restaurant, then a few people went back but most came out to the two bars we went to and had a great time. The best parts were sitting outside our hostel when we got back just talking, and then going crazy when we got back. The party was one of the most fun nights of the trip!!

Today we slept in (a fantastic birthday present from the professor) and then heard from an American working on the special court for Sierra Leone also in The Hague, and his experience and personality were really enjoyable. He had also worked in Rwanda, and it was really interesting hearing so many different perspectives and now being able to contribute my thoughts to the conversation on the post-conflict developments. We tried to watch more of the trial, but it ended up being all administrative matters and closed sessions to protect the witness.

Last days in Africa, On to continent #3!

With everyone in a celebratory mood last night after the exam was finished, we all met up at the hotel down the road for dinner and a few too many drinks for some people. I ventured into Ugandan liquor called Waragi- its really good and tastes a lot like coffee flavored ice cream. With a dash of that and a few Primuses, we were all having a blast, taking crazy pictures, gossiping, and trying karaoke that ended with the alma mater.

We got back to the guesthouse and had an adventure in our room, where the shower wouldn’t turn off. After many hilarious attempts to stop it, we got the security guard to turn off the water for the night (that’s not uncommon- we don’t have water right now, for no reason at all). After that was taken care of, I headed outside to enjoy the stars. About six of us, with others in and out, huddled together under the stars, in and out of sleep, until 2:30 when the malarial mosquitoes start to emerge.

We were up at regular time this morning to visit the memorial at Marambi. Tutsis sought shelter at this school, and lasted two weeks without food or water, until the Interahamwe attacked and killed 50,000 people, leaving only 7 survivors. The French, in their horrifying role of aiding the massacres, later set up a volleyball court right next to the deceased.

Each memorial site strikes my emotions differently, not because of the physical differences in front of me, but because there are so many excruciating perspectives on the most horrific atrocities men can commit. Today I stood in the school rooms with whole skeletons preserved with some kind of limestone and was overcome with the incredible contrast of my life to theirs. As I’ve said before, I know I’m the luckiest guy in the world- fantastic family, friends, travels, and daily experiences that make me truly happy. Everything for me has been easy, and the rationalization that it‘s because I work hard carries frustratingly little weight. People here work harder than I can imagine, and I‘m simply left with the question of “Why me?”. How did I get so lucky in the lottery of life?

It’s not fair to claim every Tutsi in Rwanda was unhappy before the genocide, but the majority were constantly persecuted, and probably performed back-breaking work each and everyday for a wage we consider pocket change, before being terrorized and tortured as their life, hopes, and dreams were exterminated. I apologize for the depressing tone of this entry, but I want to share my thoughts that trouble and motivate me, and also hope to impact those of you who cannot witness this incredible continent for yourself. Whether we like it or not, I have seen that our actions as voting citizens and consumers of the developed world impact the people here struggling to survive; when we say our goodbyes, our friends here always ask simply that we not forget them.

We got back from the site and had lunch again at the supermarket, before walking around to the local market similar to those we’ve seen in Kicikuru, Nyamirambo, and Arusha. Everything is for sale, from European soccer and NFL jerseys, to raw meat, vegetables, and spices (some in bags labeled USAID). They hardly ever see any “mizungus” there, so we predictably drew lots of attention.

Sunday afternoon I believe I was bit by a spider, and the area on my neck is so far not getting better. It doesn’t bother me except when I first wake up and when the bandaids keep coming off, and since I think we have it under control with some of Donna’s medicine that I started today, I for some reason think it’s kind of cool.

Another tangent that I’ve so far left out is that males here always wear pants, and we respect the custom and do it as well. My travel pants are nice and lightweight so we have all really gotten used to it, but when we do occasionally venture out in shorts apparently we “look like little kids”.

Some random things I’ve picked up from the trip so far: watch UEFA soccer (its entertaining and everyone else in the world does), be more informed about world events, listen to This American Life on NPR, learn to take better pictures (I had no idea how much of an art form it is- we’ll be looking at the same thing, and David’s pictures are infinitely better than mine- luckily I can use his to remember and share my trip even more vividly) and finally that I see so much in black and white, that to some questions there really is no answer. Everything is not a math problem with one correct answer.
Each of our last three nights we’ve adopted the “lay out under the stars, huddle together for warmth, and talk about anything and everything” mantra and its been great. After last nights edition we woke up this morning to leave for Kibuye on a route which others promised “we will vomit”. The drive turned out to be fine, with newly paved roads and everyone packed together in two tiny vans, it gave me a chance to record some observations in our last days in Africa:

Men often walk around holding hands as a sign of friendship
Women (and men and boys) really do balance incredible loads on their heads. They also us cloth to tie their babies to their backs for transport.
This country is incredibly dense (highest in Africa) and its especially noticeable in rural areas that are still packed. More people wear the political party’s RPF shirts.
Bicycles are used in everyway possible. Riding, but especially to wheel large loads and push.
We’ve met tons of people from CARE international, and the majority of people I talk to are well aware of their work.
The only sports we really see people playing are soccer, volleyball (with the same homemade ball), and basketball.
Everyone wears cheap flip flops- shoes are too expensive, as are eyeglasses and tobacco.
Almost daily we run into the tige work camps, people who have been convicted of genocide-related crimes and work in the fields, digging ditches along the road, etc. They usually wear pink, and members of the unit we saw walking through Butare were handcuffed.
The best way to describe the rural landscape is a hilly checkerboard. Each plot of land is marked with hedges to prevent erosion, and many grow a variety of different crops right next to each other giving various tints.
People are really excited about the 2010 World Cup coming to Africa. The big cell company, MTN, seems to be a sponsor, but people everywhere, like our host, promise that there is no way they can miss the largest spectacle ever to come to Africa. Continental pride is a lot bigger here than other places I’ve been and lived.
Greetings, especially to children, are usually waves, thumbs up, or pumping fists.
Everywhere requires a school uniform, which seems like a big waste of money.
The obsession with Obama is unbelievable. He inspires lots of people, and people here love the U.S. partially for that reason.

Economically I made lots of observations as well:
Farmers that urbanize are probably not the worst off who have a better comparative advantage. I believe education is a critical part of this.
People here save money- it may take 5 years to build a house, but they work on it with any surplus of the year, being forced to wait to
All of the cows being herded may be worth more than meat, but people don’t have enough income to buy it.
Many of the people coming to Kigali were refugees from other countries who came back after 1994. Lots of them work in the service industry because they speak English, and were obviously more well off to even be able to afford the move to Rwanda. They seem pretty different from the rest of the city.
Multinationals that have reached Rwanda: Coca-Cola, Toyota, Western Union, and oil (Kobil and Engen, $5 a gallon)
Local companies throughout the rural areas: building materials, Primus beer, MTN and Rwandatel phones (a newly privatized industry)
You can bargain for almost anything, much different from the fixed prices of the developed world.
The most common sources of energy are firewood and brush, and people have also noticed the impact of climate change here, shortening their rainy season

When we got to Lake Kivu, we ended up waiting over two hours for our food for lunch. Even though the day was half over, we made the most of my second trip to Lake Kivu with a small boat trip to Peace Island, an island with one cow, a captive monkey, and a volleyball court and hiking trail. The 19 of us played volleyball and soccer, hiked and climbed the whole island (I almost fell out of a tree, Ben really did, flat on his back, luckily he’s fine), before going swimming. The trip was really fun, and we went back to our mansion of a guesthouse to hang out, wait for another really slow dinner (same place, we don’t have much of a choice), then lying in the grass.

I also talked to my friend’s dad who is a physician about my neck. From an emailed picture and my description he guessed that I had a reaction to the venom of whatever bit me, and the only real thing to do was keep it from getting infected with antibiotics and time. I still think its cool.

We woke up Friday morning for our 24 hour trip from Kibuye, Rwanda to The Hague, The Netherlands. After a great plane ride, we’ve made it to The Hague which confirmed how much I love Europe. I also now love fast service, being able to drink tap water, and other amenities of the developed world. Hope you’re doing great!!

Butare!

I apologize that it has been so long since I last updated!! Internet has been much more difficult to come by, but I HAVE been able to follow UNC baseball on Sarah's Blackberry!!! I'm very excited about our game tonight (8 pm here). LETS GO HEELS!!!

Thursday afternoon was fantastic, as we went out shopping and for our last trip around

Kigali. Everyone laughed as I bought some souvenirs, then changed my mind and traded them for others. Our group was equally impressed as three separate times, friends from my Sunday conversation on the streets came up to wish me well and ask about our future plans. That night we ended our homestay going to a local bar and watching salsa dancing in a packed house!

We left Jean and Innocent on Friday morning, leaving our gifts they really liked, and even playing soccer in the morning before we left, before the ball feel down a hole so deep I couldn't see the bottom. Innocent started to climb down it, and with no one else home I conveyed to him not to do that until Jean returned.

The trip to Butare was uncomfortable but hilarious. We jammed as much stuff into a passenger van as it can possibly hold, and then didn't move for the next two and a half hours!! Our first impressions of Butare are comparisons to Chapel Hill!! It's a college town, built around the National University of Rwanda, but, well, the food and nightlife lets say isn't as good.

Actually, the food has been a real struggle. Service was a little frustrating in Kigali, here it is unbearable. There are two good places, a Lebanese supermarket and a hotel, and everything else we try has taken over an hour toserve something like a sandwish, and thats if we get the food at all!!! We think they wait 30 minutes before starting to cook our order, and that they treat Rwandans much better. While most people are very welcoming, we've been targetted for pickpocketing and discriminated against getting on the bus (a woman, aided by the minibus operator, jumped in front of us for the last seat on the bus during rush hour. It's probably the first time I've ever been discriminated against, and it really put things in perspective as to our country's history).

We arrived in Butare on Friday and toured the school. People were joking that it was just like junior year in high school, visiting colleges, all over again, until our second stop was the genocide memorial, commemorating the 500 students murdered here in 1994 by their classmates and led by some professors. I just can't imagine, but they have no choice but to push forward.

The school was very nice, with a quad, a forest, basketball court and soccer field just like an American school. One major difference is that students start their freshman year in medical or law school though, and attend class from 8-5 no matter what "faculty" they study. Needless to say, I feel fortunate to be in our flexible and engaging system at UNC!!

I don't remember what we did Friday night or Saturday morning, but Saturday afternoon we visited a coffee plantation. The economics of the place was fascinating. Over 200 farmers had formed a cooperative with their land and with the help of USAID built a washing station to increase the value of the exports. Even though the cooperative had earned the international standard for fair trade coffee, workers at the washing station were paid one dollar a day and farmers grossed less than $200 per year! I can't imagine what coffee isn't fair trade...

We got back and played another game of catch with the frisbee in the yard of our guesthouse. It's a game my American and Rwandan friends have both adopted! Our guesthouse itself is ridiculously nice, but there's a good story. They showed us to these very, very nice and spacious rooms with TVs and huge beds. We were thrilled, only to find out upon our return that it was double the original price. I led the negotiating party (bargaining is my favorite activity I've decided) and got it down to $6 per person per night, which is totally worth it!!

Saturday night was an adventure, as we all gathered at the hotel for drinks and conversation. Io think the same is in store tonight, as we just finished our exam today!! I ended up going out later to the only club for a girls birthday, but it was pretty weak, and we got back in around 2, only to stay up until 5 talking about anything and everything.

Sunday we slept in, waited on a terrible lunch experience, and tried out the national museum. It was really interesting, with a traditional hut, games, dances, and discussion of environmental problems that put our drive to Gisenyi in much better context. It noticeably left out any discussion of the genocide, but it focused on material before 1990.

Anyways, on the way back I got my haircut! I had an audience and watched in awe as I got the fastest and most thorough buzz cut I've ever had, for $4. It was hilarious and a little scary to watch them lubricate the clippers with bicycle grease right before it went into my hair, and may explain the rash I have on my neck now, but it was quite fun! Dinner was another experience, as we went to the local chinese place we had heard great things about. An hour and a half after we placed our order without any signs of food, the power of the whole city went out. Frustrated and hungry, we bought bread at the market for a cheap and fitting end to the true experience of eating out in a developing country.

Monday we had class about agriculture, land use, and the environment, and it was the most fascinating economic implications I've seen on this trip. I have the lecturer's contact information, and am going to try to write my honors thesis on some of the policies on land use and issuance of deeds! We spent the rest of the day studying for our exam.

The exam was straightforward, and as a large portion of our grade, I got 100% on one and 92% on the other. Sweet!! The afternoon was very promising, with an economics PhD student lecturing on trade and Rwanda, but he was terrible and didn't teach anyone anything.

The time is going by incredibly fast- we only have 3 nights left in Africa!!!!

Happenings

Friday was the tour of the Millennium Village Project. As most of you know, I've been heavily involved in the project at UNC and had so many questions of experts on the projects, hoping to talk about the strengths of weaknesses, long term plans, etc. The interventions we saw were incredibly excitingl - the tour showing it to us was absolutely awful. We left Kigali early and drove about 45 minutes, listening to facts about MVP that were dead wrong. Absolutely nothing was explained well- people in my group were justified to ask me later what MVP was!!!!!!!

The interventions I saw though were very exciting. The World Food Programme had been in the village for a long time, so the school-feeding program was not implemented by MVP. MVP had donated computers and electricity to teach basic computer skills, and every 6th to 8th grader could work on the computers for 2 hours each week. MVP also provided equipment to install an irrigation system, with villagers running the whole process and benefitting enormously the agricultural sector. We walked through the health clinic, which was packed and quite awkward, but that was the tour and my curiosity got the best of me. We later talked to farmers who had learned better techniques and found better crops to produce with the help of MVP, and finally went to a woman's cooperative making baskets. I was excited about seeing this, and while it was interesting, I was completely disheartened by the fact that all of their sales come from tours like ours because that's not sustainable or scalable.

To continue the horrible tour, we stopped at a "reconciliation village" that is home to perpetrators who have changed and survivors who have forgiven. When our group arrived, the entire community gathered in a well-practiced ritual of cultural dancing (they of course made us dance), food that was disgusting- we were able to give it away and make all of us happy- and banana beer that was good but sooo sweet I couldn't finish a glass. We heard from a perpetrator, who said he was sorry but blamed it on bad parents and bad government, saying that he changed his views because Tutsis didn't kill him when he was arrested. The survivor told her story of running through the woods for three days straight, hiding in the bowl of a toilet, and losing all of her friends and family. I kept trying to put myself in the situation, thinking about losing people around me, and I kept coming back to "but I would still have (person)", which wasn't the case for her. Amazingly she danced with the first man and now lives in peace.

Saturday we woke up early and headed to the resort town of Gisenyi. We were afraid that we would be crammed into a mini-bus, but actually the bus was very nice, stopping along the way, and showing us some of the most beautiful landscape I have ever seen. The extremely steep hills have been turned into farmland, with bushes planted between rectangular fields providing an incredible checkerboard pattern as far as you can see. Farmland would be interrupted periodically only by waterfalls or soccer fields, which I found incredible (and of course understandable) that they would give up the potential income. There was also a lot of construction, with the occasional tractor but tons of manual labor.

We got to Gisenyi and our "hostel" told us that curfew was at 10:00 and that they had our reservation, but the room wasn't available. I wasn't quite sure what good our reservation was, but we just left and went across the street. It was an experience, as instead of separating guys and girls, they insisted that girls could not share a room with other girls- there must be a guy present, total opposite of the first guesthouse that separated us. We ended up staying there for $7.50, and it was fine. We rode around the run down town for awhile, chilled on the picturesque beach and played frisbee for a long time. We ate dinner at a really nice but deserted restaurant and were so tired we were back by 9:45, before the curfew we found so outrageous.

Ben and I moved in with Jean, a 33-year-old engaged guy, on Sunday for our homestay week. 

We've discussed authoritarianism in Rwanda, freedom of the press, Darfur, democracy, microfinance and development, conflict in the DRC, Premiership soccer (I'm definitely going to follow it full-time when I get back, its really a way to connect with people around the world and so fun to watch), family (Jean's Congolese mother and Rwandan father separated because of the 1996 and subsequent wars), getting lost (he slept in the streets of Niger when he couldn't remember the name of his hotel)! Its a lot of fun and a good adventure, as the bathroom is a hole in the ground!! We come in, sit down in the same seats, and watch BBC World and MTV every night, realizing how much more informed the rest of the world is than we are. It's fantastic and we actually may meet up with him when I'm in London in July!!

Yesterday we left from class to go to the talent show the secondary school was hosting for us!! We felt really bad because they spent lots of time and money on us. We were served dinner- goat intestine and stomach (a little fatty, but not bad- especially when its served to you as the guest of honor)- drinks (lots of fanta and a flavor not in the U.S.- citron), and treated to a night of Rwandan culture mixed with us making a fool of ourselves (I beat-boxed in front of 500 kids). We were each given certificates of friendship, and I got almost 15 cards from these high school students who wanted to stay in touch and say how much they appreciated me teaching economics (elasticity and today price fluctuations in agricultural commodities) and trigonometry. I don't think they understood too much of it, but the school really appreciated it because the economics teacher couldn't be there in the morning! Todays our last day in Kigali, and tomorrow we leave for Butare!!

Routine?

Tuesday afternoon the Rwandan professor we had scheduled cancelled on us, so the new assignment was to talk with an NGO. Although CARE is huge here, I wanted something new so Megan, Ben, and I investigated the most successful microfinance institution in Rwanda. Started in 1997, the Urwego Opportunity Bank combines a commercial bank with a microfinance institution, and the shareholders of the entire organization are NGOs. They provide free education on everything from financial management to HIV/AIDs before people even apply! Their default rate is 1.5%, since the loans are done in mutliethnic groups that help people regain trust after the genocide. They allow people to graduate to larger and more sophisticated loans of their own, and are really a key player in the fast development of Kigali.

I stopped by the post office on the way back and mailed my letter, covered in stamps, to Uganda for less than a dollar. I then stopped in a bookstore and came across a bunch of sophisticated economics books, as well as a really odd comicbook depiction of the genocide, although the prices were ridiculously high. A man named Rocky worked there, and we talked for a long time about our cultures. He talked until the end of his shift, then accompanied me to the pharmacy to buy cold medicine (I got some powder stuff that I haven't tried yet, but I'm really glad he was there). Since I was waiting for my friends to come downtown, he offered to show me a new neighborhood as he exchanged his suit. We took the minibus to Nyabugogo, a really cool market where the international bus terminal is located and lots of little shops for the locals, although the area is clearly very impoverished.

Wednesday our new assignment was to explore a neighborhood and talk to people about the area. Our neighborhood was Kicukiro, which was about 30 minutes away via two minibuses. We first explored the market, which was similar to the one in Arusha- openair, vegetables of everykind, although this one also had butchers, carpenters, and tailors. It smelled terrible but was very interesting. We then explored Kicukiro Technical College, which had a nice campus for this area's standards, but an incredible soccer field of UNC quality field turf. The director of student affairs showed us around, and the most intersting area were the machines, which were still being built after being stripped for their metal during the genocide. We knew there was a memorial somewhere close for the school in "Shooting Dogs". but even after hiking up a mountain we couldn't find it, so I headed back to teach English.

We have been going to a secondary boarding school to help out in anyway we can since we arrived in Kigali, and one way is to teach the teachers English. The Rwandan education system just last year switched from everything in French to everything in English, so as you can imagine, there were and still are huge problems, i.e. teachers who know English. The given reason is that the whole East African community is moving to English, but suspicions are that the strained relationship with the French government is in fact the motivating factor. Either way, teaching English is a lot of fun and we end up talking a lot about American culture, politics, wealth, geography, etc.

Today was so interesting and rewarding. Every Thursday we work at different service placements, and I got to return to the secondary school to help teach economics. I was told it would be on elasticity, and was schocked to see how far the students had gotten. The lecture was the same one I gave to my UNC recitation, and the major problem was not the subject but the language barrier. The original teacher translated and really appreciated a new perspective to help them review for upcoming district exams. I taught 2 classes, then sat in on a math class, where they were talking about discrete math I had first seen my junior year at UNC, and this was essentially 10th or 11th grade (secondary four as they call it).

Lunch was fun, as I stopped to talk to some students, and huge crowd gathered to listen to me talk about basketball, break-dancing, the economic crisis, obama, my plans for the future, etc. It was really interesting, and like everyone here, they really wanted my email address. I returned to teach 2 more economics classes in the afternoon, with a different teacher as the first had left for an AIESEC meeting. When the school day was over, I was invited to play basketball. We tried teaching knockout but failed miserably, and instead played 3 on 3. My team won the first game and won all of the next 10 that were played against a myriad of challengers! We heard "Mizungo, Mizungo" a lot, which means white person. As we went to teach English again, the director of studies pulled me aside to offer me a soda and doughnut since I was the only UNC student who had been there all day.

We had a great conversation and I learned so much about the school. 65% of the children are receiving money from the genocide survivors' fund, school fees are $200 and yet hardly anyone can pay. For 500 students living at the school, the budget is a little over $60,000. Teachers in public and private schools only make $50 each month, which explains why they only stay while they are in school. The teachers are amazing, teaching from 8 to 5, learning English from 5 to 8, then traveling to their universities to take weekend classes and pursue their degrees! Teaching English was again fun, as they could not understand how we drank iced tea or what "toast" was. They cannot understand me easily since I don't enunciate all of my consonants, and its also tough to see that these grown men have never tried pizza, ice cream, steak, or anything besides their bland meals, not to mention only sporadic visits to their families at home.

Recently (I can't say who or where, just in case, for reasons that are obvious in a monent) I met a very intersting person who told me his life story. We were discussing democracy and its importance to development and I asked if he considered Rwanda a democracy. He laughed and cited the example of the BBC being kicked out as evidence of controlled speech, that people are always listening. He told me that whenever you criticize the government here you are accused of "genocide ideology". I asked him how he knew, and he looked at me and explained how he spent 10 years in prison before being found innocent by the traditional gacaca courts, which he claims rarely happens because they are controlled by the government. He said he wanted me to realize the true Rwanda that was impossible to see on the surface, to keep quiet while I'm here, and work on everything when I return to the U.S. He said that Rwanda is like an ambulance, treating people only temporarily, and many would get out if they could afford it. I was being lulled to sleep by the showcase that development money has made Kigali, but they encouraged me to travel outside the city and see the true poverty and hardships most Rwandans face.

Daily life is going well. I'm feeling better, have clean laundry we did in the sink and hung outside to dry, and now am off for lots of new things!

Last thing, I have seen some of your comments but am having a hard time responding! I'll get you all eventually, I just apologize for the long delay.

Saturday afternoon we walked around a really active neighborhood, Nyamirambo, and saw things like a mosque (1% of the population is Muslim), a movie theater, and bootleg DVDs with every season of 24 (I still haven't seen the season finale!!).

Saturday night we headed out, first to try our favorite cheap restaurant, but there was some kind of sketchy meeting going on. We knew some government ministers hang out there (and actively harassed people from another ethnic group), but were not even allowed in. I don't really care, the food's still good, we'll just have to go during the week. We went to another local place, moved to a sports bar called The Executive Carwash (although they only had soccer on, we were hoping for the Braves game), and then the most popular club, Cadillac. It was really fun, drinks were reasonable, it was similar to going out in the U.S.

I think we've now basically explored the whole city, and since this isn't really a tourist town there's not too much else to do. We of course have homework and sports, but I'm excited for a change in scenery- going to a resort town this weekend, our homestays on Sunday, and then next week we head south to Butare.

Sunday we headed to church to see what it was like. People had gone last week and said it was awesome, but we checked out a new one this Sunday and it was disappointing. It was just like a contemporary worship service in the U.S., I recognized a couple of tunes, but the whole service took two hours. It was in Kinya-rwandan and English, which meant the pastor gave a fiery sermon in English, and the translator would basically yell over him. It was really hard to pay attention, but we all perked up when he mentioned the American government. He was talking about powers that be, talking about the U.N, America, Rwanda, and God. At the end, I actually saw people I knew. We ran into the three person crew from UNC doing sports through an organization called Play For Hope, and even though I didn't really know them it was cool to see someone I recognized in the middle of Kigali.

We headed downtown later, and actually someone else recognized me. We were crossing the street to go to the bus stop, and a truck driver leaned out the window "Hey Thomas, I remember you". Luckily he zoomed past, because I had no idea who he was. The other funny response I've heard, walking back from golf when I greeted everyone in Kinya-rwandan, was a five-year old girl who turned to her mom and yelled in English, "How does he speak Rwandan?"

Later Sunday, we went downtown for a big lunch- most of our group was craving hamburgers, but I got an omelette and ventured into ice cream, which tasted like absolutely nothing. I hear it's better other places, so I'm not discouraged. I still need to mail a letter to Dr. Siriri in Uganda, who we brought to UNC in April, so I went to the post office but it was closed. I stopped on the street and talked to this group of about 7 guys just sitting on the corner. It was probably a really funny site to see me sitting on the curb in the middle of them, but we had a really great conversation. We talked about sports of course (they knew of Michael Jordan and American football), travel, America, life stories (they grew up in Burundi, the country that borders Rwanda to the South, and like so many people here, always considered themselves Rwandans (which I find really interesting) and returned to start a new life after 1994). We also talked about the genocide, and how they said they forgave the people who killed some of their families because they had no other choice. We talked about religion (they had all gone to church that morning), and then offered me marijuana. I of course declined and we continued talking, but the conversation ended when one of the guys jumped in the prison van that had just rolled up and I decided to leave.

We sat around in the city mall, and I played snake, the long-lost game that lots of people have on their Rwandan cell phones and has become an obsession of our group. There's two versions, and I doubled our groups previously high score on the version I remember from home.

That night our group got together to discuss our proposal for the U.N. on genocide intervention. I had been frustrated the whole time because our group's suggestion of a standing army is not politically feasible in my opinion, but we were supposed to work in an ideal framework. We had a great conversation that night about global politics and eventually the state of the poorest and most discriminated against in the U.S., which was really interesting.

I woke up with a stuffy nose Monday morning, which has been going around our group and isn't too big of a deal. I'm headed to the pharmacy this afternoon, that should be an adventure. We continued working on our proposal during class, and spent the afternoon with a guy starting an NGO called "Mind View". We couldn't get him to explain what it was, but decided it would be an adventure if we stumbled on some meditation or something. The guy was definitely legitimate, and we thought we gave him some great ideas about empowerment of children (the teachers are oppressive in the classrooms here), building trust within a group, but it was also a ridiculous adventure to understand him, asking a non-religious guy to pray for the group, and admiring his logo created in Word that he was so proud of.

Last night we went to a restaurant we had heard great things about and it was fantastic, although I can't taste everything with my cold. The view was amazing, the lasagna and American food was quite welcome, and the view was awesome. We again got into a deep conversation about the sites we had been to, our feelings about the whole situation, and then moved outside and our conversation digressed into high school pranks.

This morning was a fun debate about our proposal. Our professor Donna grilled our group on the political feasibility of our section, which everyone laughed at because they knew my opinion on the whole assignment, so I had plenty to say. I'm also feeling better this morning, just an annoyance basically now.