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.