The End of My Rwanderings

I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting on my time in Rwanda over the past few days as my departure creeps closer and closer. I’ve found myself taking notice of the little things I’m going to miss the most about this bizarre little corner of the world and I was reminded of a passage in We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families: Stories From Rwanda by Philip Gourevitch. When I read it four months ago the things he described were just abstract images in my mind – I didn’t feel any real connection to the words I was reading. Now, as I go back over the text, it’s all I can do to try to hold back an all consuming wave of nostalgia. Rwanda has become a second home for me and it is going to be impossibly hard to leave. SO, in order to prevent myself from drowning in that wave of nostalgia, I’ve been forcing myself to take notice of the little things I’m NOT going to miss so much about life in Rwanda. I’m including Gourevitch’s text below and then a little summary of the highlights of my Rwanderings over the past four months.

“When I got depressed in Rwanda, which was often, I liked to go driving. On the road, the country resolved itself in rugged glory, and you could imagine, as the scenes rushed past and the car filled with smells of earth and eucalyptus and charcoal, that the people and their landscape – the people in their landscape – were as they had always been, undisturbed. In the fields people tilled, in the markets they marketed, in schoolyards the girls in bright blue dresses and boys in khaki shorts and safari shirts played and squabbled like children anywhere. Across sweeping valleys, and through high mountain passes, the roadside presented the familiar African parade: brightly clad women with babies bound to their backs and enormous loads on their heads; strapping young men in jeans and Chicago Bulls T-shirts ambling along empty-handed – save, perhaps, for a small radio; elderly gents in suits weaving down red-dirt lanes on ancient bicycles; a girl chasing a chicken, a boy struggling to balance the bloody head of a goat on his shoulder; tiny tots in ragged smocks whacking cows out of your way with long sticks.
Life.
You knew, by the statistics, that most of the people you saw were Hutu, but you had no idea who was who; whether that girl who stared blankly at your oncoming car and at the last minute winked and broke into a wide grin, was a massacre survivor, or whether she was a killer, or both, or what. If you stopped to buy a cold drink and a brochette of grilled goat, or to ask directions, a small crowd gathered to stare and offer commentary, reminding you of your exoticism. If you drove around in the northwest, and pulled over to admire the volcanoes, peasants came out of their fields to express approval that you had no greater purpose, in that moment, than to regard their place with pleasure. If you traveled southwest through the Nyungwe rain forest preserve and got out to watch the colobus monkeys, people in passing minibuses waved and cheered.” P.178-9

I’m going to miss the sound of the bats cackling in the trees along the streets of Kiyovu… I won’t miss the occasional bat excrement that has found its way onto my feet now and then.

I’m going to miss the amazing smiles and waves of the children along the road… I won’t miss the kids yelling “Agachupa, agachupa… Muzungu, give me my money!”

I’m going to miss being called Ruchas (L’s and R’s are interchangeable here and K’s are pronounced as CH)… I won’t miss being called Muzungu as though it were my name.

I’m going to miss the smell (and taste) of freshly cut passion fruit… I won’t miss the smell of burning garbage that sometimes seeps into the house at night.

I’m going to miss the incredible bonds I’ve made with Joseph, Candida, Seraphine and Josee (I am so privileged to have had such amazing people looking after me for the past four months)… I’m not going to miss the incredibly stressful working relationship between me and Eugene.

I’m going to miss being surrounded by amazing artwork, handicrafts and fabrics on a daily basis (though I am bringing plenty home with me)… I won’t miss having to bargain down from the “special Muzungu price” of double what things should cost.

I’m going to miss the guys on the street that try to sell me two mismatched shoes that are different sizes or the “latest” edition of the Economist from 2005… I won’t miss having to say “Oya, sinshaka” about 10 times on my way to work.

I’m going to miss the lush greenery, the rolling hills and strikingly beautiful countryside … I won’t miss the nauseating bus rides on windy bumpy roads with incomprehensible music blaring in my ears.

I’m going to miss seeing the creatively decorated Matatus driving around town (T-Pain is definitely my favorite)… I’m not going to miss being cramped into a seat that is meant for 3 people but miraculously has the capacity for 7.

I’m going to miss the feeling of cruising downhill on a moto... I’m not going to miss walking in the street and suddenly feeling a gush of air past my face as a moto comes within millimeters of hitting me when the entire road is empty (I’m convinced they must get extra points for sideswiping a Muzungu).

I’m going to miss my morning yoga practice with Gail (not to mention how much I’ll miss Gail)… I’m not going to miss being shown up by Joseph on a daily basis!

I’M GOING TO MISS RWANDA.

The last 7 days...

4/20/2009
I fully shaved my head in the AM since I didn’t think the Mohawk would go over so well at the clinic… Mike left for Bujumbura pretty early but I’ve made arrangements to meet up with him in London next week so that should be fun. We’ve been fighting over a jumper that I found in the Red Chili in Kampala and I managed to keep hold of it so I’ll have to hide it deep in my suitcase before I get to London! Anyway, I went up to the clinic with Jessica to introduce her to everyone and then spent the rest of the day trying to figure out everything I need to get done in my last week in Rwanda :(

4/21/2009
I arranged to meet Innocent at Ivuka Art Studio this afternoon and bought two of his paintings. One is called “Happiness of Love” and the other is Untitled – they’re both amazing and I can’t wait to frame them and put them up in my new apartment (guess I have to find the new apartment first). From there I headed to the American Embassy to get pages added to my passport. It’s like a fortress on a hill in Kacyiru and they make you go through a security checkpoint twice which is kind of bizarre – what’s going to change from one metal detector to another? Getting the pages added was actually quite easy since I was the only person in the consular office (despite them having 6 windows and about 50 chairs set up… I can’t imagine they ever get that busy). Gail teaches yoga every Tuesday night at the embassy and since I was already there, I hung around until 6 and then got to go through security two more times! It was quite fun and despite the fact that I haven’t practiced in over two weeks, I was actually able to bind more postures than ever before! Pretty soon after we got home, a psychologist and her two students (Sandra, Amy & Erica) arrived but thankfully Sandra has been here before so my role as tour guide wasn’t necessary.

4/22/2009
Gail and I spent the morning together eating waffles at La Sierra (not as amazing the second time around considering the maple syrup was sadly watered down) and did some final crafts shopping – I bought 3 Imigongo paintings which are geometrical designs carved into wood and then painted with dried cow dung… here’s hoping I can get them through customs at Nairobi, London & New York!!! When we got back to the house, Lucy Q had arrived – she’s a lawyer in California that volunteers her time to deal with legal issues that WE-ACTx patients are having (mostly domestic and gender based violence cases). She moved into the bottom bunk in Gail’s room so Gail decided it would be more fun to move into Anita and my bedroom and share a bed with me instead – so we’ll be having a slumber party for the next few nights until I leave.

4/23/2009
I woke up this morning and was promptly presented with a gift from Joseph – an AMAZING t-shirt that he painted himself with a big picture of Africa on the front and a huge scene of the mountain gorillas on the back with a massive Rwandan flag. It also says "Lukas – Nomber 1" with two hearts on the front… I think it might be the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me and it is definitely going to be my most prized possession from Africa. I said my goodbyes at the clinic (purposefully avoiding contact with Eugene) and then we went out for salsa lessons at Pasadena (Amy & Philip who we met on the plane to Tanzania are the instructors). It was quite fun until my partner abandoned me (I promise I wasn’t THAT bad) and then I left to meet up with the Einstein crew that has been working in Kisoro and came to Rwanda to visit the gorillas this weekend. Pam, Brianne, Terry, Jen, Vic & Kevan were having dinner at Ice & Spice and I took them for drinks afterward to Republika. It was fun yet bizarre to see some familiar faces in Kigali!

4/24/2009
I had my last yoga practice with Gail, Joseph and Delphine this morning which I’m quite sad about. I also had to say goodbye to Josee and Seraphine (she came by so I could give her some clothes for her son and to say goodbye)… And so it begins – the long and painful process of leaving this place behind… Sara and Roy joined us for dinner at Republika – yet another goodbye and despite fully intending to have a big dance night out at Cadillac, we wound up coming home and going to bed early… lame-o!

4/25/2009
And so the packing begins! It’s my last Umuganda today and so there wasn’t much else to do with the morning… I think it’s going to be OK since I’m giving all of my clothes and shoes to Joseph (minus what I need for Nairobi and London). I have bought a LOT of stuff here though so it remains to be seen if my suitcase will actually close! A guy working for PIH is making a documentary about life in Rwanda (he and his friend are training 3 families in Rwinkwavu how to use digital cameras and they will be documenting their lives for the next three months). They want to try to market the film to American students wanting to do work abroad so they’re also interviewing 20-something westerners living in Rwanda which is where I fit in. Should be interesting to see where it goes but I figured it would be a good wrap-up of my time here to sit down and talk about my experiences. Afterward, we went to Heaven for a performance of “The Monument” by this Isoko theater troupe. It’s a play that has been performed in 6 translations (this one was in Kinyarwanda) and it tells the story of a young soldier in an unnamed country that has been convicted of war crimes committed during a genocide. Just as he is about to be executed, a woman offers him freedom… at a price. It was quite well done and despite some a-hole snoring next to me the whole time I really enjoyed it. From there we went to dinner with Katie and Carly at INDIAN KHAZANA!!!! They re-opened on my last night in Kigali and so I can now say I’ve dined at all three of their restaurants in East Africa… soooooo delicious! Yet again our plans to go to Car Wash and Cadillac were foiled by exhaustion so I guess I’ll have to save them for my next trip to Rwanda… Two more goodbyes tonight and more than I care to count tomorrow morning.

4/26/2009
My last morning in Kigali and it’s all feeling totally surreal. My clothes are still scattered around the room and I leave for the airport in less than 2 hours – I can’t bring myself to actually put them in the suitcase. I gave most of them to Joseph and we had a little fashion show with him before a tearful (yet giggly as always) goodbye as he left for church a few minutes ago. His facebook message to me last night says it all:

“my frind a like you know my love a love you have good naight so i am dont never for get you and i am lost frinds loving this house.”

I think my heart is literally breaking this morning…

Grunting Gorillas, Gorgeous Gisenyi, and Ghostly Goma

4/16/2009
Today I played tour guide for Jessica for hopefully the last time… the forex, getting phone, gorilla permit and bus tickets pretty much took up the morning. Jessica was kind enough to bring some hair dye with her and so was even kinder to help me use it. The “cinnaberry” color looked much more cinna on the box and much more berry on me… I totally have bright red hair. Oh well, it’s all coming off in a few days. Candida got in on the fun as well but sadly the color didn’t really take since her hair is already quite a dark black. Anyway, we caught the 2pm bus to Ruhengeri and made our way up to the Kinigi Guest House where we’re staying the night before going gorilla trekking tomorrow (Mike came along for the trip but isn’t going to be doing the trek sadly). After a beautiful sunset and some reading by the fire, we called it a night early in preparation for the hike tomorrow.

4/17/2009
We were up by 6am and headed out to the Volcanoes National Park where we were lucky enough to get assigned to the Susa Group of gorillas. It’s the largest habituated group of Mountain Gorillas that– in total the group has over 40 members – and it was the group originally studied by Dian Fossey. Gail, Anita, Jessica and I were teamed up with a South African couple and after a fight with our driver over the price of our car rental for the day (he wanted more money since we were going to see Susa which is the most rigorous hike and furthest away), we headed out to the trail head at the base of Mount Karisoke. We started our hike by 9:15am and despite knowing the severity of the hike ahead of us, I was still exhausted after the 3 hours of off-trail, uphill hiking it took us to locate the group. The exhaustion and pain from the stingy nettles melted away as soon as we saw the first gorilla. Our guide, Felix, was really kind and let us spend over an hour with them (the visits are usually strictly limited to 60minutes to avoid stressing the gorillas) and we even got to experience a display of dominance by one of the silverbacks… he came within about 2 inches of Jessica and I, stared us down and then grabbed some bamboo and went back to munch on it. It was a phenomenal experience that’s hard to put into words but I will say it was well worth the $500 and I would go again in a heartbeat. All in all it was 7 hours from the car park back to the car so it was a grueling yet exhilarating day. We picked up Mike at the guest house and then caught the bus to Gisenyi and checked into the Paradise Malihide Hotel just after dark. Katie’s boyfriend Mucho’s family owns the hotel so we were quickly shown to our rooms and dinner was waiting for us after we all had a much needed shower.

4/18/2009
After an amazing breakfast (second only to the Serena buffet at Ngorongoro), we spent the morning reading on the “beach” and did a little swimming in Lake Kivu. Gail, Mike and I decided to walk to Goma for the afternoon. Unfortunately we weren’t able to get permits to climb Mt. Nyragongo (the active volcano with a semi-permanent lava lake) but we still wanted to see some of the Democratic Republic of the Congo so we opted for a day trip. Gail’s French definitely helped us navigate the border crossing and there was surprisingly little hassle (aside from our visa money going directly into the immigration officer’s pocket but hey, it is the DRC)! We took motos around town and started to see the stark contrast between Gisenyi and Goma within about 10 feet of the border. Gail managed to change some money without even getting off the back of her moto, and then we headed to Le Chalet for lunch which was a bizarre experience since it felt like we had been magically transported back to Gisenyi – it was a gorgeous restaurant on the lake where we had some delicious pizza and white wine... who would have guessed you could have a posh lakeside lunch in Goma of all places! We left Le Chalet feeling a bit ridiculous and so we went in search of a real taste of Goma. We wound up at the old cathedral that had been completely swallowed by lava in the eruption of 2002. Basically everything in the area is built out of volcanic rock and the streets are just flattened lava flows. The border closes at 6pm sharp so we headed back with enough time to be sure we’d make it back to Rwanda and joined Anita and Jessica for dinner back at Paradise Malihide in Gisenyi. We got to see a traditional Intore dance and then over dinner we met the US State Department’s representative in Goma and his fiance who is actually a pediatric emergency medicine physician at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C. volunteering her time at Heal Africa Hospital in Goma. Rolley, a friend of Gail’s in Kigali, joined us for drinks after dinner and after a fairly amusing misunderstanding involving a request for napkins and the delivery of a martini instead, we headed to bed.

4/19/2009
It was a rainy morning so Anita, Mike and I snagged a ride back to Kigali with Rolley (Jessica and Gail went back early for the children’s program). Mike, Jessica, Anita and I had dinner at Papyrus and once we got back to the house, I shaved my hair into a Mohawk (see below for pictures).

Cinaberry Mohawk - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2144780&id=2600785&l=c4466462d9
Rwanderings Part 4 - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2146552&id=2600785&l=ac859e949d

Safaris, and Beaches and Rivers, OH MY!

OK, it’s been a ridiculously long time since I’ve posted anything – sorry about that! I’ve been traveling all around East Africa (I’ve now officially been to every country in the East Africa Lonely Planet) so you’ll have to forgive me for my tardiness in updating the blog! It’s going to be yet another long one so I hope you’re in a comfy seat!

4/3/2009
So our flight on Rwandair to Kilimanjaro was originally scheduled for 6:00am. When we actually paid for the tickets, we were told the time had changed to 4:00pm. Two days later, Anita got a call saying the flight had been changed yet again to 2:00pm. Needless to say we were a bit skeptical about our time of departure when we went to check in at noon and of course, at 1:30pm an announcement was made that the flight had been delayed until 3:30pm… what a mess! Anyway, we got on our way by about 3:45pm and met a group of travelers (Amy, Philip & Cindy) that were heading to Arusha as well so we jumped in on their pre-arranged transportation and saved ourselves about $30. During the hour long drive, it became apparent that Tanzanians love speed bumps and car washes… who knew?!? As it turned out, Amy Philip & Cindy didn’t have a hotel booked so we directed them to the lovely (insert sarcasm here) Meru Inn where we had arranged accommodations and wound up with two rooms next to each other. We all went out for dinner at a Japanese restaurant Katie had recommended and had a lovely Hibachi meal. Our chef was really into practicing his English so with each dish he served, he made sure to tell us which sauce to use… the teriyaki chicken with Mustard SAUUUUCE was quite delicious.

4/4/2009
Our safari was supposed to be underway by 7am but instead Charmy showed up around 8… after profuse apologies we started our trip from Arusha to Lake Manyara. We passed several Maasai shepherds along the way and had an amazing view of the Rift Valley escarpment for most of the drive. We enjoyed some red bananas in Mto Wa Mbu (River of Mosquitos) which is (according to Charmy) the only place in Tanzania where members of all 120 tribes reside together. We got to Lake Manyara by mid-morning and immediately began our search for the elusive tree climbing lions (which unfortunately was unsuccessful). Charmy kept checking in on the ham radio to see if anyone else had spotted them… there was a lot of “Roger, Roger” going back and forth over the radio. He also told us all about the Impala mating habits and how the males are polygamous. Every once in a while he would also point out a “looser impala” that was a bachelor exiled from his group. We saw some monkeys with bright blue scrotums (not sure what the evolutionary advantage of that is) and then had our picnic lunch interrupted by the sound of what Charmy thought were lions nearby but actually turned out to be a herd of elephants. We headed out of the park mid-afternoon and made our way up to the Ngorongoro Crater rim, took some amazing pictures and then checked in at the Ngorongoro Serena Safari Lodge (normally $420 per night but because it was off-season, we got a night there for less than camping would have cost)! This is by far the nicest place I’ve ever staid in my life and Anita and I kept thinking someone had made a mistake and was going to kick us out at any moment. Instead, we got to enjoy an acrobatics show, a delicious buffet dinner (I ate so much that I was actually in pain after) and some yummy drinks before heading to bed in our suite overlooking the crater.

4/5/2009
After a delicious breakfast buffet at the Serena, we headed down into the crater at about 8am. We decided our guide’s name was good luck – Lucky Charm(y) – since we got to see all of the “big five” including lions mating on the side of the road for about an hour and a half… they go at it for about 20 seconds at a time, 5-6 times per hour and seemed to be enjoying the voyeurism of the whole thing. Anyone considering ever doing a safari should ABSOLUTELY include Ngorongoro on their itinerary – it was amazing. On our way back to Arusha, we had a run in with a spitting cobra in the road – Charmy tried to run it over since he said they kill a lot of people but missed and basically just pissed it off. We made it back to Arusha before dark and got to see the UN War Crimes Tribunal for Rwanda before checking back into the lovely Meru Inn and grabbing a quick Indian dinner before bed.

4/6/2009
We caught the Dar Express at 6am which was a miserably hot 8 hour bus to Dar es Salaam. The entertainment for the trip was a Kiswahili dubbed movie called “The Public Life of Jesus” – a “documentary???” from the gospel of Luke. At least they chose my version of the story… We got to Dar by around 3pm and jumped in a cab to take us to the ferry terminal so we could catch the last ferry of the day (4pm) to Zanzibar. Of course the ticket agent refused to sell me a ticket but thankfully Anita’s slightly darker skin helped her charm the other ticket agent into selling us two “standing only” tickets (we wound up getting seats in the air-conditioned compartment regardless). Unfortunately the ferry took almost 3 hours instead of the advertised hour and a half so we arrived in Stone Town after dark without anywhere to stay… After about 2 hours walking around trying to find an affordable place to stay (sadly the Serena wouldn’t bargain with us), we wound up at the Coco de Mer. A quick cold shower (it was disgustingly hot and humid) and a change of clothes and then we were out to a Swahili style dinner at Monsoon which was delicious… Zanzibar definitely lives up to its reputation as the spice capital of the world.

4/7/2009
We jumped onto a spice tour for the day where we met a couple of British women (Una & Philippa) as well as a family that was staying at the Coco de Mer with us. We all decided to meet up for dinner in the evening (after sundowners at the Africa House Hotel) at Two Tables which is literally two tables set up in a family’s living room. Again the dinner was amazing and the experience of eating in the family’s home was really fun. Afterward we got some sugarcane juice at the night market and then went for a drink at the Serena with Una and Philippa.

4/8/2009
We had a late breakfast, did some brief internetting, changed some more money and bought a little gift for Gail before picking up a shared taxi at 1pm to head up north to the beach. We had intended to go to Nungwi but after talking to some Mormon missionaries (I’m assuming based on the fact that they were teaching in a bible school in Tanzania for 2 years), we were convinced that Kendwa Rocks is the place to be so we got out with them and bargained with the bitchy receptionist to bring down the price of a double room (with A/C thank goodness since it was SO hot and humid). We promptly both took showers which flooded the room since the drain wasn’t working… this got us upgraded to a suite since all the other rooms were occupied! We managed to fit in a little beach time before dinner and then took a nice walk along the beach under a full moon toward some music we heard in the distance. It turned out to be an all inclusive resort that promptly kicked us out when they saw us walk in from the beach after dark.

4/9/2009
We got up in time to enjoy the delicious free breakfast and joined a group of 20-somethings that turned out to be really fun. We spent the rest of the day with Mike, Luke, Teresa, Ulrikka and took a trip up to Nungwi just to check to be sure we weren’t missing out on anything… we definitely made the right choice since the beaches there were no where near as clean and it’s way more developed and touristy. We got some street food (brochette and samosa) which was clearly a mistake judging from the sounds my stomach is making now. We made it back in time to take some pictures of the gorgeous sunset and then spent the night playing drinking games.

4/10/2009
Well some combination of sun poisoning and the street food from yesterday has led to a terrible headache, diarrhea and crazy cramping… after avoiding breakfast, Anita and I got a cab to the Zanzibar airport with Mike who happened to be taking the same flight as us to Entebbe, Uganda. It had a layover in Dar es Salaam (literally the shortest flight I’ve ever been on – about 8 minutes) and then we headed on to Uganda. Mike had arranged for his friend Jean to pick him up from the airport and she was kind enough to give us a ride as well. We hadn’t made any accommodation arrangements so we went to the Red Chili Hostel in hopes of getting beds for the night but unfortunately they were totally booked for the night. We made reservations for the next night and then went across the street to El Gazelle which was the biggest shit hole I’ve ever seen in my life but we were pretty much out of options. They had three rooms with nothing but a bed in each and the “shower” consisted of a toilet with a bucket next to it. Dinner consisted of extra sandwiches and pound cake we snagged from the flight attendant on our plane and we went to bed pretty early.

4/11/2009
We survived the night and headed to Jinja in the morning with Mike’s friend Jean and her husband Chris. He is friends with the manager of Adrift which is the original rafting company that first charted the rapids on the source of the Nile. Unfortunately the rafting trip was fully booked for the day but we did get to go out on a speed boat and flip a couple of rafts while doing spins and tricks. It rained for a good part of the afternoon so we went and got lunch (whole Tilapia) at a nearby hotel and then returned to Adrift after the rain to go BUNGEE JUMPING!!! Probably wasn’t the best idea ever since my stomach was still quite unhappy but I went for it anyway and it was amazing. It was 44meter jump into the Nile River – a video is available upon request. We headed back to Kampala in time to check into our triple room at Red Chili and then meet up with two other friends of Mike’s (Danny and Martin) at Khana Khazana… I’ve now been to two of the three Khazanas in East Africa – fingers crossed that the one in Kigali will open before I leave and I can complete the trifecta. We were starving not only for good Indian food but good night life and Danny promised to show us all that Kampala has to offer (and remind us of all we’ve been missing out on in Kigali). We started the night out with drinks at Matteos, moved on to dancing at Iguana where YET AGAIN I was hounded by a couple of prostitutes… From there we went to Club Silk and then headed back to the hostel around 4:20am.

4/12/2009
We slept in until noon and then had a light lunch at Red Chili before heading over to Danny & Martin’s house for Easter dinner. The food was phenomenal and it was great to spend the afternoon/evening with a group of super friendly Ugandans.

4/13/2009
We arranged to go rafting today so Chris met us at the Red Chili and we took the 8am bus to Jinja. We were given the choice of “wild or mild” and of course went with wild. Our boat was Chris, Mike, Anita, Me, Patrick, Claire, Patrick & Angee as well as our guide Clarksey. We flipped our raft 5 times on 9 rapids and in the process I think I managed to drink about half of the Nile River… hello schisto!!! It was an awesome experience and I won’t try to do it justice by writing about it – you’ll just have to check out the pictures. We took the bus back to Kampala, grabbed a tiny dinner at Zone 7 (my stomach still wasn’t so happy and I’m sure the river water didn’t help) and then we went back to Danny’s house to relax until our bus back to Kigali.

4/14/2009
We caught the 1am Gaso Bus to Kigali and in a stark contrast to our last 8 hour bus ride, we were freezing cold the entire way. We spent about 2 hours getting through customs and made it back to Kigali by about 10am. It was great to see Gail again and she and I went for lunch at La Sierra and finally picked up the package from my dad at the post office (thank you very much despite the tardy arrival).

4/15/2009
Well Mike has decided to change his plane ticket back to London and join us in Rwanda for a few days. He arrived this morning at 10am (on the same Gaso bus we took yesterday) and I took him on the typical first day tour of Davindrah’s forex, and the UTC. We went out for trivia night at Torero Café with Katie and Carly and we actually won so we got a free round of drinks! Jessica, an MPH student interning for WE-ACTx, arrived at around 11pm tonight and so we headed back to the house early to welcome her.

Here's some pictures:
Tanzania - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2146251&id=2600785&l=d9a61bc80d
Zanzibar - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2146471&id=2600785&l=612f160014
Uganda - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2146549&id=2600785&l=e1c7703501

Motorcycle Diaries

3/23/09
After getting up at 5am, I caught a 6:30am bus on Impala Tours and survived the 6 hour ride to Cyangugu along winding pot-hole filled roads. I was met by my translator for the week, Abraham, and he and I took a 3 hour matatu to Kibogora which was quite interesting considering the fact that my bag was squeezed in with us... Xaverine, the founder of the Imbabazi Association, met us in “town” and then she came up with me to the Methodist mission (where I was staying) and we had a meeting for a few hours at my house to plan our activities for the week.

3/24/09
We arranged to have three motorcycles (with drivers) for the week and so Xaverine and Abraham came with a third moto to pick me up at 8am at the mission. We made a quick stop at Kibogora Health Center then took the 30 minute moto ride on the most ridiculously broken roads and mountain paths in order to visit to the Imbabazi Health Post. It was hard enough for me to make it – I can’t even imagine being a pregnant woman in labor and having to navigate that trip! Upon arriving I had a meeting with 60 Community Health Workers (CHW) to find out how many pregnant women are in each of their villages and to discuss our plans for bringing maternity services to Imbabazi with them. While I was meeting with the CHWs, one of the nurses brought over two recently orphaned children whose mothers had died in childbirth – this really drove home why this project is so important! After the meeting, I used the JHPIEGO site assessment tools and interviewed the nurses to get a sense of what materials and facilities Imbabazi already has and then headed back down to Kibogora perched precariously on the back of my moto...

3/25/09
This morning we had a 9am meeting with Dr. Damien, director of Kibogora Hospital. After that we were supposed to go with the Kibogora Titulaire to a few health posts under his jurisdiction to try to identify the other two sites that will be involved in the research study. Unfortunately, he had gotten into a moto accident and so we met with the Nyamasheke Titulaire instead and went to Shara Health Post. I managed to get a list of umudugudus (villages) in that catchment area and spent the afternoon estimating populations and number of pregnancies. I also started my cartography efforts this afternoon in order to give Lisa a sense of where everything is in relationship to Kibogora.

3/26/09
Today the Kibogora Titulaire was feeling better so he accompanied us on a trip to Kigoya and Kigarama Health Posts – both about 30 minutes from Kibogora via moto. My visit this week happened to coincide a national campaign dubbed “mother and child health week” and so I was able to see the vaccination and parasite treatment efforts first hand which was cool. I finished up my mapping in the evening and typed up a progress report from all the site visits to send back to Lisa, Marc and Kathy (using the wireless connection that requires sitting outside in one very specific spot).

3/27/09
I started my trip back to Kigali at 10am. After 2 hours in an overly stuffed (I think that’s redundant) matatu to the main road, I rode another 5 hours to Kigali. Gail and Anita were leaving at 5pm to go to Gisenyi and the idea of getting on another bus for another 3 hour ride made me feel sick so I opted out. Sadly that meant spending another night at home alone but I was exhausted and appreciated the quiet.

3/28/09
Umuganda today so just a lazy Saturday morning. I spent the day writing up trip report and perfecting my efforts at cartography. Susan (the importer for the goods made by the Ineza and Solidarity women’s cooperatives) arrived in afternoon. She and I had a nice dinner together and then called it an early night.

3/29/09
I showed Susan around town today and then went to visit Solidarity (a basket weaving cooperative) with her. Anita and Gail came back from Gisenyi in the evening and we had a nice reunion dinner.

3/30/09
I got back into my yoga practice this morning and then ran errands galore. Anita, Gail and I bought our gorilla permits today (going April 17th – YAY!!!) and finally paid for our plane tickets to Tanzania.

3/31/09
My relaxing morning yoga practice was unfortunately counteracted this morning when on my walk into town I was slapped in the face by some random man walking by me in the opposite direction. He ran off down the hill with me yelling after him WTF but I brushed it off. I guess it was just one of those days – I spent several hours in the Kenya Airways office trying to change my ticket home so I can have a few days instead of just an 8 hour layover in Nairobi and London. Then I got to wait in line for over an hour at the post office to find out if a package had come for me… not a fun afternoon!

4/1/09
Yoga again this morning, then I visited dancing pots with Gail to pick up some traditional Twa pottery for my sister. From there we went out to the Ineza sewing cooperative and then we headed over to Katie & Savannah’s for a lovely home cooked meal with Katie’s parents and some other friends. Quite a nice evening.

4/2/09
Today Gail and I took a trip out east to visit Partners In Health (PIH) in Rwinkwavu. A classmate of mine at Einstein – Alishya Mayfield – has been working with them in Rwanda for 2 years now so she took us around on a tour and told us a bit about what she’s been doing. While we were there a twelve year old boy and his mother came up to her – it was the first time she had seen him walk after she found him last year crawling on the floor of a rural clinic due to a congenital malformation of his wrists and ankles. She arranged for an orthopedic surgeon to see him and he’s now walking with the help of crutches… quite inspiring work! Now I’m procrastinating packing (our flight to Tanzania leaves tomorrow at 2pm) so I had better get cracking! I’ll be out of touch until April 14th but I promise there will be loads of pictures and updates about my time in Tanzania and Uganda when I get back.

Pictures from the last couple of weeks here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2138678&id=2600785&l=f5f56cb157