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.

Adventures

It didn't take me long to find something more meaningful to do. We were exhausted, napped, and went out to eat and shop, and then Caitlin and I left to go join the group at the secondary school to teach English to the teachers. The government switched the official second language from French to English because they hate the French, and now the teachers have no way to learn it. We showed up and talked to the headmaster, and he desperately wants me to come back and teach economics, which is happening next Thursday!! I thought that was unique at first, but then talked to our other volunteers. Each one introduced themselves as chemistry, history, etc. majors and all were taken by the headmaster to their class to teach by themselves. The headmaster apparently walked in and announced "Please stop, we have Americans to teach". Pretty sad how little faith they have in their teachers, but also illustrates the constant misconceptions about America being a paradise, where money grows on trees, everyone loves each other, and finding jobs is no problem for anyone.

Teaching the teachers was really fun and challenging. Some of them actually spoke really good English, so we didn't really know where to start. We eventually settled on a discussion of geography and politics, and sports before that. They were really interested in the differences between colleges and universities, as well as the U.S. education system in general. They also wanted to know about the differences between state and federal government in the U.S., and other specific questions like that.

The hardest part was when we broke into groups and three of them peppered me with questions. The first ones were on the current political climate, and I felt kind of silly telling them about our financial problems. But they continued to ask me about why it was that way and how to fix it, so I continued giving my opinion. The line of questioning then changed to me, and how I was able to afford coming to Africa, how I was able to afford school and housing and food at the same time, really difficult stuff like that where the only answer I could give was that I was really lucky for my family to have a significant income. They were doing it because they saw the need in the community, and the pay was obviously very poor. They ended though by asking how they can improve their school, looking for access to any English books, computers, or even paper that would make their jobs so much more effective.

We got back and headed to dinner, at our favorite restaurant down the street. There's no name we can find (it just has a Primus, the local beer, sign outside), no menu and only three options. However, the goat kabobs and fried potatoes are amazing and keep us coming back. Our group had a great meal and talked for hours afterwards about politics, genocide, and religion. You all know I love serious and powerful conversations, and this trip has been full of them.

We woke up Friday morning and went to two incredible memorials. We drove through the beautiful countryside to Ntarama, where 5,000 people were slaughtered or burned alive while taking refuge in a church. Their bones are still there, as the remaining clothes and personal artifacts they had before they were killed. The scale of the tragedy is unimaginable, even with the skulls staring back at you, but the emotion I felt most there was anger, that people could do that to one another, be excited about it, and continue to spread and orchestrate more terror and murder. I don't know that many people walk away from such a site angry and can't really explain why I did, but that's what kept building up as we walked around.

Next we went to Nyamata where 10,000 people were killed in a church. This site was equally powerful but somewhat obscured by a crew filming a documentary there, basically trampling over the serentity and meaning of it while they yelled at each other and called out commands. Despite that, it was incredibly powerful to see a building very similar to my sanctuary at home where so many people's trust and lives were taken. As we walked through the many skulls there, I wondered why these people weren't given proper burials, but also thought about everyone I knew, and how that would only be a drop in the bucket of even this one massacre. I thought about my hopes and dreams and how those of the victims were cut down, right then and there for no reason. Walking out of both structures made me pause, as it was an opportunity that every single one of them never had, to come through the door and see the vibrant daily life and activity that now surrounds the memorial.

On the way back we stopped at the Nyaborongo River crossing where many bodies were thrown. The custom is to drop a message on a piece of paper into the river, so we followed suit and I wrote about the pain and resilience that I could never imagine, but that we can work together to prosper in the future. When we got back to the guesthouse, we had lunch and relaxed, and with that backdrop on my mind, I went to my golf date.

Playing golf was a wierd feeling, especially after our morning and surrounded by poverty, but I rationalized it by playing with Rwandans who were left with nothing after the genocide and still desperately needed a friend. I was a little early for our "tee time" (the clubhouse was a hut), so everyone wanted to talk to me, even though they speak really good English and see Americans all the time. Patrick was there right on time, he brought me clubs, and I thought we were sharing, but he put on his caddy outfit and said he was excited to teach me, but couldn't afford to play today. I of course wanted him to play (we picked up the other guy, the head pro who shot even par, on the second hole), so I paid another $20 for his round.

I parred the first hole (Patrick doubled) but triple bogeyed the second. I ended up parring four holes, bogeying one, and shooting a 50 on the nine we played (although sometimes the caddy would move my ball to a better lie... apparently that's normal here) The course, the only one in Rwanda, was the quality of Candler, but I took a lot of pictures to remember everything. The pro we played with was really cool, champion of the Rwanda Open, finally someone who knew American football, and was hoping to play golf in Europe soon.

I had taken a taxi there, but was really glad I walked back by myself. People glare at you until you greet them in Kinyarwandan, and then smile uncontrollably. So I greeted everyone I met, and multiple people stopped me to tell me their stories or to practice English. I met four Rwandans I knew along the way- we passed the soccer field, and the guys we played with were making their way there, excited to see me and welcomed me back! I think that will be next Monday or Tuesday we head over there again. I knew one other local student, and he wanted to know when we could play basketball next. Even here, sports are what I'm known for, which is a great way to meet so many people!!

I got back, hung out a little while with everyone else who just slept and journaled all day, and went to exchange money. On the way back, we heard some singing coming from our guesthouse and stumbled onto a Christian choir practice of the local workers. It was amazing, as they sang two songs I knew (All in All and another tune I recognized) in Kinyarwandan and some new ones, and then they invited us to listen to their first album that had just been recorded. We had no idea where this recording studio would be, but it turned out to be right next to our guesthouse in an open building with a church and English class that I borrow the socer balls from. It was really odd seeing such a nice recording studio here, but the music sounded fantastic and was well worth the adventure.

We left for dinner at a Chinese place and ran into our friends from Minnesota. We had talked about going out, but everyone else was tired and wanted to go back, so the Minnesota girls were headed to a local hotel I hadn't checked out yet. So I switched course and went with them, and we went up to the top floor and looked at Kigali from each side. The coolest part were sides of the hills, where the only being able to see the lights made it look like it was rising up to the sky. I'm definitely getting the UNC group to go there sometime, it's really cool but Westernized. We stopped at our hangout the Novotel for a local art exhibit which I actually enjoyed, and came back to our guesthouse. Other people from our group ran into Patrick that night, and approached him because he was wearing the UNC shirt I had just given him as a thank-you. He told them I played so well, and could make their national team with a little more practice, which is pretty sad. He called me that night and told me again how happy our day made him, and that he really appreciated me being his friend.

We woke up this morning to do the Umugando, the national day of service on the last Saturday of every month. No cars are allowed on the streets, and apparently there's a $20 fine if a citizen doesn't participate. We walked right outside our guesthouse to work on the road, which was overgrown with weeds. We hoed and tilled for awhile, and the fifty of us working for three hours accomplished the same thing as a brushmower in about fifteen minutes. Oh well, it was a fun community building activity and afterwards we went to their townhall meeting. One man translated the government representative's message for us, and they talked about how it was your patriotic duty to keep Kigali beautiful and serve others. Then they went into specifics about a new doctor in town, a potential bridge being constructed, how to print your name and then sign it on any official document, that chickens were no longer allowed except in a pen, and finally that each home was going to be given an address soon so the police could find them in case of emergency.

It was a really cool exercise in democracy, and the whole last three days have been incredible. We're off now to go explore another area of town, and possibly hike Mount Kigali before going clubbing again tonight!!

A Global Event

Wednesday of course we had class from 9 until 3. Interesting, but probably not worth blogging about. After that, we visited a home for widows, supported by the Belgium government to empower women to heal from the genocide, generate income, and take care of medical expenses. Everyone was really nice, and we gave their craft market some good business. We came back to meet up with two girls from Minnesota who teach English next door, and they gave us a crash course in English instruction. They're also bored, so we invited them to watch the UEFA championship with us downtown.

We heard you had to get there two hours early, so we rushed down there and were some of the first people in the stadium. The stadium was the local volleyball stadium, indoors with a really nice videoboard, and it was so fun. As they crammed about 3,000 people (about 98% male) into the stadium, I struck up a conversation with the man sitting next to me who's a software engineer for Partners in Health, one of the most renowned NGOs in the world, started by Paul Farmer. He was really nice and we exchanged information, and there's a couple of us who want to see PIH's work while we're here.

Once the game finally started, the stadium was packed and going crazy. Definitely more vocal Man U. fans but Barcelona scored within the first 10 minutes to quiet them and send us into a frenzy. Ronaldo and Rooney suck so I was pulling for Barcelona, and we joined in the cheers and celebration. Man U outplayed Barca the first 20 minutes but couldn't score, and Barca took over from there. At halftime we talked about how this is probably the biggest annual sporting event in the world, as people we knew studying abroad all over the world were all tuned in to this championship. It started raining during the second half, which killed our satellite feed. It was obviously a common occurrence because no one was really fazed, and during the interruption Barca scored! That may have been even more memorable because we could tell something was going on, and word finally made it to us from someone with a radio and we again went crazy.

This morning we woke up early for our day of volunteering. The primary school we were supposed to go to cancelled on us at the last minute, so we were lumped into the group going to the orphanage. We got there and the headmaster would not allow visitors on Thursdays, and the whole setup had been a miscommunication. Luckily, our taxi drivers stayed to see how we were doing because they overheard and directed us to a new place to volunteer. Our cab struggled up the wet, steep dirt road, stalled out multiple times, and spun the tires so much our driver asked us to get out and walk up the hill. 

We got back in the cab and went to the orphanage they suggested, which was great. We toured the orphanage and eventually made it to the primary school, where the English teacher was excited to meet us and have us teach her class of about forty 5 year olds. The students were tentative at first, but eventually got really comfortable with us. We helped them learn numbers, letters, colors, and taught them the parts of the body through the "head, shoulders, knees and toes" song I hadn't practiced in awhile. When I heard it was an English class, I tried to ask basic questions like "how are you" and "how old are you" and I was surprised when they didn't understand. Eventually we found out they were just learning basic things to memorize, but it was really fun. 

Then we had recess and that was predictably crazy. I brought a Frisbee, which they couldn't get the hang of and turned it into tug of war whenever it hit the ground. Eventually I was left with the bullies, but we also did things like lifting them up in the air, jumping jacks, and tag, and now I'm exhausted. Overall I'm not sure how much of an impact we made, but I know they had a good time and I hope to do some other service work before we leave.

School Starts

I haven't talked much about everyday stuff like eating and living yet, so I'll start with that. I feel like our guesthouse is too nice. It is very comfortable, and of course I'm not complaining about that, but it's definitely an isolated (not phsyically, but economically from the local Rwandan) island of amenities. We do have to shower with basically a hose, with hot water that's unreliable at best (and no shower curtain), plus sleep under bednets and avoiding drinking the water (dirty water also makes things like putting contacts in difficult- I got hand sanitizer in my eye for the first time today...), but overall it's very very nice.

That being said, they feed us breakfast and lunch and it's amazing. We have croissants, bread, nutella, and fruit (usually not me) every morning. Lunch is Western food, pork chops or casserole, but it's really really good. The kitchen is downstairs, so it's like we're living in better dorms than on campus UNC with better food than the dining hall!

For dinner we've had pizza or burgers a couple of times (and french fries everywhere) and when we didn't know where to go it was expensive, because we're close to the U.S. and other embassies and the small district for tourists. We've started to dig deeper and have found the local places, where for instance tonight I got goat brochettes and the best fried potato, plus two beers for less than $4!! We've also had a buffet of local food twice, and it was really interesting that it was the exact same meal. We had some intersting beans, french fries, all kinds of meat, spinach-type vegetables, and bananas that are cooked to taste like potatoes so even I eat them!

Banana beer was supposed to be the thing to try from Rwanda, but so far it's been tought to find. While it was in one bar, they sold out of it after the first of our group arrived, and most people tell us it's like moonshine, locals brewing a really strong version for themselves. I'm undeterred though, we'll definitely go back to the place we ate tonight which, rumor has it, will have it in stock.

Classes started this morning, and while reading is a pain to make time for, I'm really glad that I have a solid context to better understand Rwanda. We've been looking at everything like geography and history, especially current events, and I think the readings make it easier to engage with this place and have a better overall experience.

The rest of my day today was incredibly interesting and memorable. I walked to the closest hotel to try and find a soccer field for us to play tomorrow by talking with the cabbies. I've ended up with five Rwandans of various vocations who want to play with us tomorrow, as well as the English school across the street that will loan us a soccer or basketball! I talked to them awhile about the sports like the Champions League and asked about baseball and American football. They asked if soccer and baseball were the same thing, and so I went through the rules of baseball, comparing it to cricket, and the rules of American football, comparing it to rugby. I think they really enjoyed it!

I got back just in time to head to dinner with my fantastic group of friends here! We went to a close restaurant and finally found some great, cheap food. We hung out awhile (playing the sports/cities game was my idea and really fun), and invited a guy sitting by himself at the table over to join us. It was a great decision, as he immediately introduced himself as a member of the Rwandan national golf team! The rest of our group turned and looked at me, and of course we now have a tee time for Thursday!!!! Needless to say, I'm really excited about golfing in Rwanda.

With a handicap of 2 (that's incredibly good for those of you unfamiliar with such a great game), I figured he was upper middle class and living the good life. It took about two minutes before I realized how wrong I was, as his heartbreaking story flowed freely in very good English. He was the first Rwandan we've met to bring up the genocide in conversation, and he explained that his entire family was killed when he was 10. He lived on the streets for seven years, and told us how it was when no one cared whether he was sick or what he made of himself. He talked openly about hating Rwanda, the gacaca courts that are supposed to bring justice, and even black people everywhere (he was himself black). He said he can't love anymore, but that he wants to marry a foreigner so that he can get out of here. We didn't fully understand how he got into golf or his Muslim faith, but he said that when he's not engaged like that his mind wanders to 1994. Whenever there was a pause in the conversation, Amber and I obviosuly had no idea what to say, and he would simply continue after a few moments, obviously longing for someone to listen to him. He talked about his love for Akon (like everyone here), Manchester United (he's a card-carrying member of the fan club), the best place to watch the game for "youth like us who want to go crazy", even his hatred for Christiano Ronaldo. Like everyone here, he talked about his love for Obama but added that he disagreed with his belief in gay marriage. But it would always come back to a story of loneliness, where for example he was traveling in South Africa and someone asked where he was from. When told Rwanda, they asked why (not how) he was still alive and walked away. I kept expecting him to ask for money or help with a visa, like we hear all the time, but all he wanted was to play pool and give me golf lessons.

It was a different kind of poverty (although he was also financially poor, just supported by the state to play golf) than we witnessed in the slums, psychological rather than economic. He was clearly depressed and held a deep-seated resentment from the genocide we had read about a little but definitely not witnessed. For all the talk of reconciliation and development, he may have represented the most common view that is totally understandable and the underbelly of this country after such a life-changing and devastating experience.

Even surrounded by so many people who have nothing, I still don't say enough how lucky and thankful I am to have been given so much. This is all part of a huge, exciting, challenging adventure to me, while to so many there are no options but the daily (all day, everyday) grind of work for practically nothing. I'm so thankful to have the money to enjoy myself like this, and a loving family and friends who constantly support me. I know it's easy to find so many similar challenging circumstances in the U.S., but the question of "why me, why was I born so lucky?" is constantly on my mind, especially after conversations like this one, and an important aspect of my trip I wanted to include.

I woke up this morning to Gilbert's phone call, more than four hours before our 11:00 meeting. Ughh. I had gotten directions there on my own, so we never ended up meeting. Anyways, in class we played the role of military powers who didn't want to intervene here in Rwanda, or want to in the next one (Darfur). Class in the afternoon followed the same idea, taught by the Rwandan professor. He apologized for throwing the U.S. under the bus, but described how we totally ignored the mass murders because there was no political will, a characteristic of our society (not politicians, especially for something like this they do what the people want) that is pathetic and still rampant. We should have been apologizing to him.

We returned to the guesthouse and the fun began. I went to the school teaching english across the street and talked my way into borrowing a soccer ball and basketball, plus met some girls from Minnesota who are looking for a group like us to hang out with. The headmaster also told me yesterday she would invite her students to play, and about 12 of them came! I had brought a pump for my host family, and the school's balls were quite flat, but I had forgotten a needle. Miraculously one of the students had a needle but no pump, so we formed a great team.

The last part of my event planning was to call five Rwandans who had wanted to play. I talked to all of them, but only a taxi driver from down the street showed up to play. The area was great although poor- soccer in an overgrown and uneven field, basketball on dirt with destroyed rims, volleyball, and of course the frisbee I brought along. I jumped in to the serious "football" game for 20 to 30ish year olds, and got my tail whipped but had a great time. I ran a lot, got it occasionally, and I also believe we were winning when we had to go. It was a great experience to compete in their national pastime, and I can now add it to my list of ping pong in China and soccer in Germany!

I then took a large group to meet up with a friend from CARE. It was an adventure for sure, as one cab ran out of gas and the power went out while we ate, but I really enjoyed catching up with Linnea! She was really interesting to talk to, as she said that this country is not even close to being heeled. She said it took her two months to be able to sense the elephant always in the room that no one talks about. She also said she's found how close our consumption of things like copper can fuel poverty, but aren't going to change, just like intervening in genocides.

Hope you all are doing great!!! Keep me updated!!

Weekend!

I wasn't too sure what to do Saturday morning, but it turned out to be one of the most memorable experiences of my life. Gilbert and David are unemployed 25 year olds that hang around our guesthouse looking for work. They were excited to meet us and invited us to their house. We trekked about 10 minutes down the dirt road, and started down the side of one of the huge hills that define Rwanda. The houses toward the top were modest but comfortable. We kept going towards Gilbert's house, and as we went further the terrain got almost unpassable. It started getting really narrow, about 2 feet in some places, and then the path merged with the sewer so there was less than six inches on both sides to straddle and keep going. Gilbert said residents fall and hurt themselves constantly.

We got to Gilbert's house and he was quite proud of his 8 by 8 ft room, with a single lightbulb and grungy bed that took up the majority of the room and had never been changed. It smelled terrible and the heat was stifling. Orphans came up in the conversation and in the midst of his obvious poverty, he encouraged us to come see "the real poor area".

The worst stretch of the path was a two foot walkway with barbed wire on one side and rusted tin roof on top. Everyone came out of their houses and enjoyed exchanging the only greeting we know, over and over. We stopped one place to say hello to some kids, and I looked back to see people from every direction coming to see who we were. Some kids were shy, but they all just wanted to touch us. We all have pencils and crayons to give out, so on our next trip I can't wait to hand them out!!

A lot of places we've seen jerseys from the U.S. and European teams (Brett Favre is the most popular from my informal poll), but not here. Their clothes were so grungy, and they wore mismatched flip flops if they had anything. Hardly anyone spoke English, which is noticeably different from the developed area of Kigali, and they were by far the most welcoming.

We made it to the bottom of the hill, where the Red Cross had built a structure for clean water. The little kids come get water out of the four spickets and carry gallons of water back in both hands or their head. We helped them carry the jugs, but they just kept coming and we couldn't help everyone. We met a student who spoke English walking around in a coat and tie. He had grown up in this slum, and was coming back to do research on the psycho-social response to HIV/AIDs. He had worked with CARE, and we tried to think of a mutual contact from Atlanta but unfortunately couldn't. We exchanged information though, and I really hope to get back in touch with him.

The last part of the morning was the craziest. Gilbert is in a dance group, and he got them all together to perform for us. It started with the elders on wooden "flutes" and the younger men followed with dance moves. They went for a long time, and by this time a crowd of more than a hundred had stopped to watch. At the end, as I knew was coming, they pulled us in individually to try their dances. I did my best, took note as they laughed hysterically, promised that all Americans weren't such bad dancers, and thoroughly enjoyed it! We ended by taking pictures with the huge group, and most memorable was the kids' mad dash to see the screen after the picture had been taken!

Saturday afternoon we finally tried the public transportation system. It consists of hundreds of old passenger vans that they cram as many people as possible into. With 12 seats on our last one, we had 20 people and I was in the back corner!! As long as we don't wreck, it's an incredibly efficient and cheap way of transport! It's a good example of the lack of structure I really like. There's ditches on the side of every sidewalk for drainage that you jump over. Little kids run freely without their parents. Rules of the road are different each time and communicated by hand signals! Without the constant threat of lawsuits, it's much more of an adventure everyday and I love it!

Half of us made it downtown, where we met a group from Baylor studying microfinance, and the other half ended up at the bus terminal for international trips. We just walked around and had a great time in the city! We met up with a local who took us to a restaurant, where instead of karaoke they lip-synched and danced. It was cool and cheap, I think we're going to go back. The best part was the way back, where I rode in the front seat of the cab on the left side while we drove on the right. Some cars here have the drivers on the left, others on the right depending on where its imported from. I kept wanting to adjust the mirror and absolutely flipped about not being in control at every turn or pedestrian encounter.

Sunday morning I woke up at 6 to participate in the International Peace Marathon, although I just did the 5K fun run. I saw lots of other foreigners around, so I thought a lot of people would be doing the 5K. They made an announcement and all the kids starting running. We thought the race had started, so we took off too. Turns out, they just said to make your way to the starting line, and all the kids were really excited to get there first. Whoops! UNC students were three of the 5 white people running the race. The other two were NGO workers chaperoning their kids. It was a really funny sight as I towered over everyone, but we ran with the kids and had a great time!

We walked around the stadium for awhile, saw cultural dances and a judo group, and watched as a Kenyan won the marathon (of course), made it about 3 steps and threw up everywhere, and was carted straight into the ambulance. Overall though, it was really fun and the thing to do in the city that day. We walked around the rest of the day, and the best part was finally stumbling onto someone in a Carolina jersey. We had seen LSU, Ohio State, Wisconsin, etc. and lots of people know Michael Jordan, so I figured we'd find UNC eventually. We were all in Carolina shirts that day, so it was easy to communicate our excitement as we got our picture with him! We went to eat and then walked past him later, where his friend was equally excited to show us his Carolina blue basketball shirt. We ended the evening heading back downtown to hear stories from a guy I met on the plane to Kigali. He was traveling from NYC around the world in 6 months, and he had done everything from gorilla tracking to crossing the border into the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He made it to Goma, which has been home to some of the worst fighting (although not right now) in a war that is the deadliest conflict since World War II, and somehow back to Kigali alive. Pretty cool stamp to have on your passport though...

Today we've had class all day. We talk about systems and rule of law, which is really interesting, and then listened to a lecture in the afternoon about the specific stages and schools of thought on the genocide from a local Rwandan professor. It was a little tough to follow, but very interesting.
Right now I'm off to find the local soccer field so our group can play a game tomorrow after class!

Discovering Kigali!

Kigali has been fantastic. We got settled in, although didn't think it through all the way. Putting up bednets without the staff's help proved to be quite difficult, but a really fun exercise in engineering and teamwork. Mine failed miserably the first day (there's apparently a picture of me wrapped up in it like a cocoon...) but now I've got it figured out.

Anyways, meals at the guesthouse are fantastic and got us started to head downtown. We wanted to see the city, so we decided to walk. We ended up going through what was formerly the most dangerous slum in Kigali (its ok now, but was still an interesting experience- we stopped right in the middle to ask about the bus system), but were glad we did it. The city is amazing. The Land of a Thousand Hills lives up to its names, really big hills that at the top you can see across the whole city. We finally made it town to buy cell phones (they had never seen my American one and didn't speak English, but we got it to work, $14 for the card and 55 minutes!) We ate at a restaurant with Sportscenter on (not because of that, I swear, but it was nice!) and later hung out at Hotel Rwanda, the subject of a popular American movie and famous story of bravey. We actually learned today that the manager of the hotel was not as humanitarian as he appeared, charging people outside of his family to come in, and that Rwandans don't consider him a hero. It was still an interesting landmark, although not quite as erie to me as my visit to the apartments in Munich where the Israelis were killed during the Olympics. Hotel Rwanda was a place of hope and safety, it's the rest of the landscape that meant terror and brutality for so many.

Thursday was very intense. We listened to the owner of the guesthoues tell his story of survival during the genocide. He was found twice, and was incredibly lucky both times, through personal connections and the interahamwe's miscommunication. It was an incredible backdrop for the genocide memorial that afternoon. The memorial is supported by lots of foreign governments, which is great but incredibly frustrating.  We've talked a lot about this here, but it's just another example of where we would rather build a memorial than take the risk to stop the atrocities. The number of troops needed to stop the genocide was less than the number Western countries sent to evacuate their embassies. Unbelievable.

There were two sections of the memorial that got to me the most. The first were testimonials from people who were about my age or younger in 1994, reliving the experience of being forced to watch their parents being tortured to death. I thought of my own family, and simply cannot imagine. The other section I remember most was about children, detailing their hobbies, interests, and dreams, and finally when and how they were murdered. The memorial was a great thing to do, with exhibits dedicated to genocide awareness from other places like Germany and Cambodia, memorial gardens, and graves of 250,000 victims to give them a dignified burial.

We woke up Friday morning and had our first class, on law in general. It's going to be really interesting, I think justice relates a lot to economics and development, so I really will benefit a lot from this. The shower was rough- water pressure for hot water varies wildly. We left for downtown, talked to the driver a lot about driving and the police in Kigali. They are just standing on the side of the street and wave if you need to pull over. Naturally I told him about the opposite, police chases, in America.

We took a tour of the city later in the day and that was fantastic. Our tour guides were very friendly, but I got the impression as government employees they have their required talking points for tourists. We stopped at the memorial where 10 UN peacekeeping troops were killed, which was a little odd. There was no Kinyarwandan, the local language, there, since it was paid for by Belgium. With almost a million people killed here in 1994, it felt weird going to a memorial for 22 people total, white or not. We saw tons of UN offices, the  "red light district", the soccer stadium that holds 25,000, the very nice golf course, the pottery shop in a slum that a Canadian firm buys from for exports, and the very developed area with incredible houses. With all the slums in the vallies and development on top of the hills, they overlook people living on less than a dollar a day. However, everyone I talk to here says the development since 2ooo is unbelievable. From what I can tell, its businesses coming. I talked to a guy at the bar last night who came here from Tanzania because the economy is so much better. 

We went out for dinner, which is usually very expensive unfortunately, but I think we've just been stuck in the tourist areas so far. We had heard about prostitution, but saw it firsthand when a German guy sitting next to us came up and whispered that the women are very nice here as he led his girl back to his room. I wish I had to told him to get the hell away from me, but I had no idea what to do with lots of people around and just said I didn't agree with it.

Clubbing was a lot of fun- basically our whole group went down the street to the most popular club in Kigali. It was predominantly male (just like the States), but we had a blast and will probably be back. 

When we first arrived in Arusha I was really on edge about hygiene, like water and food and mosquitos. While I still am taking all the necessary precautions, we've definitely relaxed our standards and been fine.

We've also been meeting tons of folks along the way, locals and fellow travelers. Even here, a lot of people have Facebook and having a local phone number helps us to connect as well.  We've only met one other American group, from Baylor here for two weeks studying microfinance; I wish more Americans would come to Kigali and Africa in general, but I also like being unique and interesting to the locals.

Visit to Arusha

Hi everyone, welcome to my collection of thoughts on what I'm learning about the Rwandan genocide and the work towards reconciliation that continues.

I left May 15th from Hartsfield and arrived in Arusha, Tanzania the night of May 16th. The flight wasn't too bad, met a lot of interesting people and wasn't ever too jet-lagged. I was mentally prepared for pretty extreme poverty, which you visibly see occasionally on the streets of Arusha, but I found more in talking to people and understanding their daily grind. Many people work every single day for hardly anything, and what they make is often used to feed their families.

We went on a safari our first full day and drove past many of the markets which I found fascinating. Most people have no choice but to walk, and its along highways with hardly any sidewalks. Even if they had sidewalks, they're dangerous and unkept, but at least would give people some space from the road. As I struggled to figure out how best to take my contacts out when the water isn't safe and hand sanitizer is so dry, I realized that everyone here goes without corrective vision. It's just one more opportunity in life they are forced to live without.

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda was fascinating, emotional, confusing, slow, and disturbing. We were sitting directly behind the vice president of the Rwandan government overseeing the genocide, listening to him try and defend himself. The hardest part for me was figuring out what was going through Mr. Karemara's head as he was committing these "alleged" atrocities and continuing to deny involvement at every turn. One of the most eye-opening points in the day for me was the break, when the defendant walked over and made some light-hearted joke to his lawyer and they both laughed. Although innocent until proven guilty, I couldn't take seeing him get any enjoyment from life, even in that two minutes, after the tragedy and terror he orchestrated for millions of people.

We also were able to talk to the people who work in the ICTR; sitting on three court sessions was mindnumbingly slow- I couldn't imagine doing it all day everyday. They stayed motivated in various ways, one saying that the victims continue to cope so who is he to give up. Another cited successes in deterring other possible genocides, but I have so far not accepted this as fact.

We're in Kigali now and I love the city much more than Arusha, not to mention the guesthouse with free wireless!! The group's doing well as a whole, and we spend tomorrow at the genocide memorial which will be so difficult and something I can never be ready to see.