ELEPHANT INCOMING!

Trip to Akagera involved this little guy:

Joyeux Noël! ¡Feliz Navidad! Noheri Nziza! Sherehe ya Krismasi!

That means merry Christmas in French/Spanish/Kinyarwanda/Swahili, all languages that I attempt to speak...This may be my last post of 2010 (SO WEIRD saying that, time is juuust flying) because on Saturday I am heading sans-laptop to the mythical island of Zanzibar, which, by the way, I didn’t know was a real place until I came to East-Africa ha! I just thought it was a made-up name from that Tenacious D song…

Anyways, people are asking what Christmas is like in Rwanda. To tell you the truth, I have nooo idea. I keep asking Rwandese so that I can give you back home an answer, but all I have been able to gather is that
a) they go to church a lot if they are Christian
b) they hang out with their family
c) they know what Santa is, but he’s a white dude that doesn’t come to Africa
d) there are no Christmas trees or stockings or presents or turkey and only lights on a few of the round-abouts in town.

So. It's quite a bit different than Christmas at home, where I still believe in Santa (hehe) and people ask me 'what I want' every year, and there are HUGE turkey dinners and I decorate my house for hours on end before the annual Christmas Sweater Party (have fun at it this year you hooligans, hope Shayla's fam is ready for it!!). It's this time of year when the girls of 29 Highland watch the Holiday Yule Log on TV for the last time before heading home after exams:

Merry Christmas Reeb, Jose, Ewin, Kimbo and Alex: ours was definitely NOT this sophisticated
with Blu-Ray haha but this is as close as we'll get...

It's also a time when I would read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas on Christmas Eve, then try to wake my family up on Christmas Day at 6 AM in order to watch the Grinch (cartoon version, obviously), open stockings and presents and then eat eggs benedict before heading out to the Miller's. YUMMM.

Obviously it was pretty strange for me yesterday when I was heading home from a Safari in Akagera National Park (which was unbelievable, pictures and video of an elephant chasing our Land Cruiser soon to come...giraffes, impalas and hippos, oh my!) and I was listening to my favourite tunes about chestnuts roasting, sleigh bells, and White Christmases from Bing, NSync, Sarah McLachlan, Sinatra and Mr. King Cole. No matter how many times I watch Love Actually, or the Holiday, it doesn't feel like Christmas at all. I think it's the combination of lack of snow, the lack of access to a piano so I can play hours of Christmas tunes, lack of a warm fireplace to cuddle up to with a mug of hot choc and cookies, and the fact that my roommate is as into Christmas as Scrooge was. Except unlike Scrooge, Caroline will not have a change of heart and become Christmasy. She is lucky that she embodies what Christmas technically is all about, being kind-hearted and how she appreciates the company of family and friends during the season, or else I'd have to move out HAHA. Even though I don't have any of these things, I'm not feeling homesick, because virtually nothing here reminds me of Christmas at home. It seems like this year, it might be just like any other day.

Anyways, this doesn't mean that it will be any more inferior of a Christmas than one at home, it will just be very, very different. December in Rwanda is changing my perspective about what aspects of Christmas are most important to me. Presents are not one of those things anymore, unless it is presents in the form of food...tee hee.

So what do I want for Christmas? Even when my parents offered to send me stuff from home, I just asked for typical food from home, turkey and all the fixings. Clearly this didn't happen haha. But some cards and a couple of gifts did manage their way here with C's mom (THANKS FAMILY, LOVE YOU!). But really, all I want is for people to send me pictures or descriptions in words of all of the glorious food and baking during the holiday season. And even if you can't do that, all I want is for everyone to be safe and enjoy the time with your loved ones. And to enjoy a couple of rum and eggnogs on my behalf. And shred some powder up at WH2O while you're at it, please.

So although I will be missing home and the Christmas spirit, I am starting to dread my departure date of February 25^th. Molly (from Sask) just left today and Reeb is leaving next Monday. I am getting a little preview as to what it will be like when I have to leave, and it's not looking pretty. It's a strange feeling, just up and leaving these relationships you've formed with people, especially since you don't know if you'll ever see them again.

C, S and I will be heading out on a 30+ hour bus ride to Dar es Salaam on Saturday, and will soon after be enjoying the white-sandy beaches, seafood and drinks in Zanzibar (where it currently 'feels like' 37 degrees with the humidity). Not bad for a Christmas holiday, I must say.

Well, 2010 was full of unexpected things and people, and I am so excited to see what 2011 brings (hopefully not the end of the world on Dec 31^st..).  So wherever Christmas takes you, I hope that you all enjoy it and think about what it is really all about for you! And that you have a Happy New Year :)

And in the good words of my main man Santa Claus:
"Happy Christmas to all and to all a good night!"

Much Love,
L

PS Here's one of my favourites: //www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuTWA6SBupY

Happy World AIDS Day!

Here is a piece I wrote for my local newspapers, ENJOY!

November was a month that had me traveling around the beautiful country of Rwanda, hiking up volcanoes in Volcanoes National Park and tracking a family of silverback mountain gorillas. These touristy activities are the opportunity of a lifetime that often only the most fortunate people have the chance to do. Anyone visiting Rwanda from the Western world no doubt can look forward to these experiences, and I guarantee that some people reading this have even had the pleasure of doing them or maybe know someone who has. While I share in the awe-inspired feelings after seeing a lake carved out by a once-active volcano as well as a family of sixteen endangered primates, I would like to acknowledge a facet of Rwanda that I have witnessed that tourists who have visited East Africa, or Rwanda in particular, may not have had the privilege of seeing. In light of Wednesday, December 1^st being the twenty-second annual World AIDS Day, I would like to speak about HIV/AIDS, a subject very dear to my heart.

Common misconceptions of the virus in Canada:

“HIV/AIDS is only a problem in Africa, so I don’t need to worry about it here.”

“People with HIV look sick and I am scared to touch them because I might get it.”

“Only homosexual men get HIV.”

My own HIV/AIDS education came about when I was sixteen. One of my high school teachers at LVR was very progressive with her approach to educating us about the social impacts of the virus, bringing in locals in association with ANKORS who were HIV positive to talk about the virus with these impressionable students, most of whom would never have had any sort of contact with a person with HIV. When studying biology at St. Francis Xavier University, I learned in depth about the science behind the virus, however the most important lessons came through my involvement with a student society, Xtending Hope. This society’s aim was to raise awareness on campus of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Sub-Saharan Africa, and through this I witnessed both the passion to be informed and the apathy towards the virus of Canadian post-secondary students. I quickly realized that although students were empathetic towards the situation in Africa, they did not make the connection between the virus in Africa and the virus in North America. It was as if there was no realization that viruses do not discriminate between certain groups of people, they can infect in any geographical setting and people are all susceptible to them. This was apparent during our ‘Know Your Status’ campaign held at StFX where it was a struggle to implement anonymous HIV testing on our school’s grounds partly because of its Catholic roots. After we were finally given the go ahead to make testing available, only seven students were tested, one of which was myself. Although this was a huge step for our society, and that meant that there were seven opportunities for HIV/AIDS education and prevention of potentially spreading the disease, the turnout was a bit disheartening given the thorough advertising we did.

Looking back on my secondary education in Nelson, I cannot recall learning about the virus in the most important context: the prevention of transmission. I remember in Career and Personal Planning class in Trafalgar learning about safe sex, condom use, and STIs but not about HIV in particular. It was as if since 0.3% of the population has the virus, it was not really worth educating about. I beg to differ.

Now that I am in East Africa, the area of the world that has been hit hardest by HIV, consequently I was expecting the level of knowledge to be much greater than that of Canada. Needless to say, I was mind-boggled to hear the following questions:

“Well white people can’t get AIDS, can they?”

“People have access to an HIV vaccine in the Western world, don’t they?”

 “I heard if I have sex with a virgin, I will not get the virus?”

One can see the parallels between the misconceptions about HIV/AIDS in Canada and those here in Rwanda. These are not questions from street people who have never been educated. They come from casual conversation with some of my university-educated Rwandese friends. Unfortunate really, that in a place where HIV is ten times more prevalent than in Canada, the simplest knowledge of prevention and transmission is absent. Being in Rwanda has brought me closer to the virus, but only slightly. I now have a few friends who are HIV positive, something that I don’t have in Canada. The campaigns here advertising condom use and safer sex practices are inspiring, as are the number of NGOs whose sole purpose is to educate youth and the general population in order to combat the virus. But then again, you still have people asking questions such as the ones I spoke of above. This lack of knowledge is by no means a problem only in Rwanda, but all over the world. 

How can people be so ignorant and misinformed about HIV/AIDS? Easy. Just think about how ‘taboo’ the subject of sex is, and even more so the subject of risky sexual behaviours which lead to the spread of STIs and HIV. This creates stigma surrounding the virus, which is so influential that people do not want to talk about it, thus preventing education about HIV and subsequent attempts to fight the pandemic. I have heard first hand accounts of people attending churches in Africa where preachers, aside from condemning condom use, say that HIV/AIDS can be cured by praying to God. In the Western world as we heard last week, only now, after almost thirty years since the formal discovery of the virus, is the Pope endorsing the use of condoms to prevent the spread of HIV. No wonder HIV is still widely misunderstood.

I have only delved into the sex-related aspects of the virus, which is leaving out a whole other side of infection involving intravenous drug-users, mother to child transmission, and more. The combination of my attendance at this past summer’s International AIDS Conference in Vienna, Austria, on behalf of AIDS Free World (an American advocacy organization co-founded by Canada’s own Stephen Lewis) and my recent research into the education of youth about HIV/AIDS/safer sex practices leads me to wonder how many people back home really know their HIV status, or have even considered being tested. The UNAIDS report released on November 23^rd, saying that the spread of the global HIV epidemic is at a standstill, is somewhat deceptive. There are still issues surrounding funding and access to treatment, indicating that there is still a long way to go. The simplest way to combat the disease is to start at home. So I ask you all to question your own HIV/AIDS and safer sex practices education, and that of your children. On December 1^st, World AIDS Day, I challenge you to ask yourself, do YOU know your status?

Al Jazeera's look into the genocide

This video and text has a lot of similar information as the Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre that I went to last month. Check it out for yourself.

HIT OR SHIT - Rwanda Edition

Taking a page out of the Xaverian Weekly’s book (or paper, if you will – this is my alma mater university’s student newspaper) I will simplify this week’s blog post into a list as I am busy working on another writing piece already..

 

Lost camera – SHIT! Thank God I took the gorilla pictures and videos off of there beforehand! At the bottom are a few of the last pictures from my camera. RIP Nikon CoolPix, wherever you are..

Bringing a purse to a bar with no cover charge – SHIT! People just come to that bar to ambush unsuspecting people such as myself. idiot Good thing I don’t have much money and so TWO attempts and a successful one later, they only stole 10 bucks.

Rwandese friends who stand up for you after said stealing attempts and get the culprits kicked out – HIT! Rwandese don’t want you to think their country is ridden with thieves so they will put a stop to this whenever they can.

Whitewater opening – SHIT! Just because I am jealous and wish I was there…

Paperwork for Visa – SHIT! Who would’ve thought you needed 23498 notarized documents just to declare that you are ‘working’ in Rwanda, then to find out that to obtain the visa you have to pay the maximum price which is for people who are actually getting a salary in Rwanda. All of this even though you are working for FREE in Rwanda?

No running water for 11 days – SHIT! You’d think $300/month of rent would come with this somewhat necessary utility. Bucket showers for life.

Chapatti omelet combo – HIT! Almost like KFC’s ‘Double Downer’ in that this was pretty much a chapatti sandwich with onion omelets as the ‘bread’

Languages – HIT! While it’s fun being able to speak English very fast in order to trick your non-English speaking friends, it’s even better doing it by speaking in pig Latin. 

Nyama Choma – HIT! Traditional Ugandan dish that is just a huge slab of viande de chevre (goat meat) in the form of either the entire goats’ limb or ribs. 

Hashing –HIT! Not sure how else I would get to run through the Rwandese countryside.

Nature calling in the middle of Hashing as a result of eating Nyama Choma – SHIT! Obviously. Try finding somewhere private in the bush in the most densely populated country in the world, even if you are ‘out in the country’. 

Eating with your hands – HIT! This is the norm when you’re eating meat dishes in Rwanda.

Whistling – SHIT! Women who whistle here are seen as uneducated, so NO ONE does it. Except me. I can’t help it when Nicki Minaj gets in my head and just won't get out.

Eating while walking – SHIT! Also unacceptable in Rwanda. Must be sitting.

Canadian girls movie night – HIT! Hadn’t seen that much junk food in ages. Mr Potato (wanna-be pringles) treated us very, very well.

Two hour protestant church service all in Kinyarwanda – HIT (questionable)! Even though the words I could pick out consisted of Hallelujah, harico (which means however), and imana (God),the experience was pretty cool for the first half hour of singing and dancing… which was followed by a full hour of preaching. Needless to say I told my friend that was most likely the first and last time I’d go with him to church…

Nakumatt – HIT! The Walmart of East Africa, open 24 hours a day.

The price of Quality Street caramels at Nakumatt – SHIT! 13,800 FRw = almost $30..

The weather – HIT! Consistently above 20 degrees, I am currently working on my freckle tan outside of my house.

Lack of snow in Africa – SHIT! 

Christmas spirit in Rwanda – SHIT! See previous line. I think there is a direct link between the two for me. However, Rwanda is trying. There are Christmas lights in the trees around the traffic circles, and Nakumatt is selling decorations for ungodly prices like $30 for a string of garland.. think we’ll have to skip the Christmas tree this year.

Christmas music – HIT! I couldn’t wait until December 1^st. This radio website was calling my name.

Thinking about the food from home during Christmas and torturing myself by looking at marthastewart.com’s list of appetizers and Christmas baking – SHIT!

Invigilating exams – SHIT! We aren’t allowed read or do anything while we do this like our profs could at home.

Marking exams – SHIT! Clearly.

5 DAYS UNTIL X RING! – HIT!

Not having my X Ring on the first anniversary of this glorious event – SHIT!

Thinking about the candy-cane martinis and food consumption at Wighland last year during this glorious event – SHIT! Mmmmm finger food and candy canes mixed with alcohol…so unattainable.

Rwandese fabrics and tailors who will make whatever you want for less than $30 – HIT!

Playing football with men who think women in general don’t know how to play, especially white women – HIT! They were surprised I could even run let alone kick the ball with my right AND left foot… 

And now for some pictures:

Congolese Fish YUMMM

The epitome of African tourists

Muzungu Mafia.

Border to the DRC whaaaatt!!

Slacklining in Gisenyi

Moto burn v. 2.0

The closest I'll ever get to the DRC

Some beauties at the pier during sunset in Gisenyi. One of my favourite pictures

LA MUSICA!

So I just posted a bunch of videos from YouTube, haven't really watched any of them but if they are typical East-African quality, they are hilarious and full of fancy cars and bling. Not to mention possibly theee sickest dancers.

Anyways this is the music that we often hear at the club in Kigali, coming from the hiphop/R&B music hotbeds of Uganda, Kenya, Jamaica and Nigeria, mixed in with lots of North American music (that should read American music, except the abundance of Justin Biebs prevents me from fully excluding Canada ha!).

I think this is my attempt at distracting myself with other music so that I don't cave and start listening to the Christmas tunes too early.... I have my Christmas radio site  open and waiting but I. must. not. give. in. Vince Guaraldi Trio, why do you do this to me every November?!

So for all you party people, enjoy! And picture a craaaaazzzy dance circle going on around you while you listen.

Longombas - Queen (Official video)

Cali Swag District - Teach Me How To Dougie

Gyptian - Nah Let Go [OFFICIAL HD]

GYPTIAN FT. NICKI MINAJ- HOLD YUH (HOLD YOU REMIX) **HOLD YUH RIDDIM**

gnl zamba kikakane

P-Square Feat. J Martins - E No Easy

Eddy Kenzo - Stamina Remix Uganda music

D'Banj - Fall In Love

'Making Sport'... Physical activity: trying (and failing) to keep me slim since ‘88.

SO, here are a couple of quotes from some people in the workplace as of late (yes, we talk about many things that could be considered inappropriate to talk about amongst work colleagues in Canada):

‘Lauren,’ imagine a huge grin on the late-20 something man’s face, ‘you have become so big! What have you been eating?’ – Kenyan man in medical imaging

After explaining to him that this isn’t necessarily a good thing to say to someone from a Western culture, he said, grin getting even wider ‘Well, this is Africa. It is a very good thing here.’
Thank you, I guess?

‘Teacher,’ another seemingly inappropriate subject to be discussing with my students, but hey, TIA, ‘Your arms, can I have some of the fat off of them to put on mine?’ – fourth year BLS student

Thanks dude.

R tried to make me feel better by saying ‘pretty sure they think muscle and fat are the same thing here’. That’s what best friends are for I guess, keeping you delusional about your weight HA.

Could these conversations be due to my lack of physical activity as I was having to get to work by 6:30 AM in the mornings for the past two weeks to invigilate exams and then wouldn’t have enough time after work to go for a run before it got dark out? In light of these frank conversations, I’ll talk about the physical activity that I actually HAVE done, because although it hasn’t been much, it has been a memorable couple of weekends for ‘making sport’ in Rwanda.

The weather here is still hovering around 20 degrees, and although hearing about snow falling in Nelson and Vancouver gives me little pangs of jealousy, the heat is glorious and keeping my freckle disease in full bloom.

LAST WEEKEND in Musanze/Ruhengeri:
Silverback gorillas!!! Unbelievable experience. For a mere price of 500 USD, you can go sit with one of the gorilla families for an hour, and the money is contributing to their conservation and upkeep of the Volcanoes National Park in the North of Rwanda. We hiked into the rainforest for about 1.5 hours and then were greeted by 16 of these enormous creatures.

This 'little guy' was so cold!!!

A look at the family, notice all their backs are turned to us haha

Gorilla 2 m away from Robyn and I, such a flirt.

We were supposed to be at least 7 meters away at all times, but R and I had the chance to be about 2 meters from one of them.

 

They were SO human-like, and even better because they had not only opposable thumbs, but also opposable big toes! Think of the possibilities if we had those! All I can think of are the eating possibilities (obviously) because then you could hold a fork with your hand AND your foot at the same time. Yummmmm.

Hard to explain the gravity of hanging out with these creatures we evolved from who are now endangered so I’ll just shut up and post some pictures/videos.

The next day, R and I, with a neighbour of R’s from Newfoundland (small world I tell you), did a hike up the smallest volcano of the chain, Bisoke.

3700 m, not bad!

It was a steep climb up 1000 meters, with the oxygen thinning in the air. This was no easy hike, there were times we had were grappling up on hands and feet, not unlike the gait of the silverback gorillas. Four hours later, we made it to the top where there was a lake in the crater that the once-active volcano had carved out. This hike reminded me a little of the one I did in Peru last summer with Kaitlyn, Sarah and Evan, the one across from Macchu Pichu (Puticusi I think it was called?) Except it didn’t have those sweet ladders!

SO TIRED/ lack of O2

View from the top

The descent was even more bad ass. If we had thought that it was muddy on the way up, imagine what it was like when we were blessed with good ol’ African rains on the way down. Result: full-out bails with our feet swept out from under us. The three of us lost count after falling ten times a piece, and the porters and guide were laughing SO hard at the crazy Canadians not giving a shit if we got even more muddy and wet than we already were. Maybe wearing my mesh-topped New Balance 1064’s wasn’t such a good idea… but waterproof was only a relative term during this hike as even the most ‘intense’ hikers from France with their gators and full fledged hiking boots were soaked.

Them French people offloaded all of their stuff on this dude, who scaled the mountain unphased by the extra weight!!

Three hours of sliding down the volcano later, we were back at the guest house, ready to eat our faces off.

THIS WEEKEND in Kigali:
My friend Mark who is here with the US Peace Corps invited me to go with this running group that meets in Kigali each Saturday. Didn’t realize it was a Hashing Group (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hash_House_Harriers) which, put simply, is a bunch of people who run around like mad women/men on a trail which you have no idea where it will lead you, and the only thing you follow are bits of shredded paper placed on the ‘trail’ every so often. Oh ya, and they try to trick you at ‘checkpoints’ and have three different trails snaking away from the checkpoint, and you have to figure out which one is the main trail that will bring you back to the start. There is a good chance you’ll get lost and then you’re screwed, but it’s kind of comforting that people yell ‘ON ON’ whenever they see another shredded paper trail. It was a great way to see the beautiful countryside just outside the city, and it isn’t often I feel like I’m legitimately running for my life so that I can keep up with the guy in front of me so I don’t get lost in the middle of nowhere. The locals looked at us like we were a crazy bunch of muzungus/a couple of Rwandese running around their farmland, which is exactly what was going on.

Seven and a half kilometers and one hour later, I made it back, where as a ‘hashing-virgin’, they have a beer for you to chug while they sing some crazy chant. In hindsight, maybe it wasn’t such a good idea staying up the night before until 5 AM (can’t resist the African dance circles, it’s like having a bunch of Michael Jacksons, Ushers and Beyonces in one room) and the beer chugging gave me flashbacks to the previous night’s 4 AM beer drinking competition. But hey, nothing cures a hangover like some cross-country running! I was the first woman finished, only after four lanky hashing-expert men. Not that it was a competition (even though it always is with me…) but I say take THAT adipose tissue.

Anne MacDonald, I’ll have you know I played piano this weekend! Played is a term that should be referred to loosely here, however. Even though this took place at a party after a few drinks and the piano had about 40 working keys, Fur Elise was a hit. As this was my go-to song, I think I need to get back to tickling the ivories when I get home so I have a more extensive repertoire next time I’m playing piano in the middle of a party in East Africa.

Deportation status: Still waiting on the Nelson RCMP to process the criminal record check. I tried to get around this and go get my Visa anyways but I couldn’t fool them.. They also informed me that since my university diploma is in Latin (I think it’s because StFX used to be a catholic school/kind of still is), they can’t accept it because it needs to be in a language they can understand, so in English, French, Kinyarwanda or Swahili. The latter two are unlikely to happen, but how does one go about getting another university diploma printed out in English? Wasn’t $50,000 enough to spend on the first one? Come ON! Thankfully there was an English translation on the back of it, and after yet another notarization, we could use that.

Since I can’t play with the football team on a regular basis, I’m going to go get my fix today and shoot on one of my friends. It’s good to have a friend that is a keeper because we all know that no one likes that position except crazy people. Krysha, remember all those times shooting around this summer and last, and having to take turns in net, trying to save the ball with our feet… none of that here. Sweet!

Word up to trying not to give in to the cultural context that says it’s a good thing to be a big woman. My love for food, though, will never falter.

Much love, good to hear from everyone at home every so often!
L

PS Happy 6^th anniversary this week Chad and Les :) and Happy Birthday little Sach-man.
PPS Rwanda's first MRI!!!!Check it

Deportation Qualms..

Well, was going to leave this blog post for next week (when I actually will have something interesting to say as I am going to Musanze to see the Silverback Gorillas and hike up a couple of volcanoes!), but I seem to have created a bit of a kerfuffle on Facebook by my "deportation impending" status.

So. This is how she goes.

October 21st.
Email from the Canadian High Commission:

INFORMATION

  VISA FOR RWANDA  – VISA POUR LE RWANDA

This is to inform you that as of 1 November 2010, a visa is required by the Rwandan authorities for all Canadian citizens to enter Rwanda. Please contact the Rwanda High Commission in Canada * or get the form online at http://www.migration.gov.rw/ . Once the form is completed, the Directorate General of Immigration and Emigration will send you an email approving your request. Upon your arrival in Rwanda, you will present this approval and pay on-site the visa fee (≈60 USD). The visa will be issued at that time.

Easy enough, right? WRONG.

This seemingly easy procedure to obtain a visa, combined with my tendency to procrastinate (and apparently C, S, and R's as well, because we are all here as Canadians and failed to take this email seriously ha) resulted in it now being November 12th and Lauren (along with C, R and S) is sans visa, otherwise known as an illegal immigrant. Woo!

What is the deal? Why did this change all of a sudden? I remember the hassles people going through during our three-week orientation in Antigonish trying to sort things out for certain countries where Canadians required a visa before entry. Rwanda wasn't on that list then, so why the hasty regulation change? What happened with the relationship between these two glorious countries that now would leave me stuck in Uganda, unable to return to Rwanda, if I was to go there next week as I had planned? Stephen Harper.. what are you up to, you ol' dog you? This story on the Globe and Mail could be somewhat related, as there is no Canadian Embassy in Rwanda, and the closest one is in Nairobi, Kenya. Check out this link for yourself.

November 10th.
Eric Galbraith running around Nelson BC trying to obtain his daughter's criminal record check, only armed with photocopies of her ID and trying to explain that she is in Rwanda and can't be here to pick it up herself but it is an urgent matter (Sorry Nelson RCMP staff..). Eric also having to get his daughter's diploma notarized so that Rwanda knows that her degree is legit. Love you Daddy. What would I do without you? Be sent back to Canada apparently.

November 12th.
Police record check will take about a week to process in Canada. KHI comes through in the clutch and prepares all the documents needed to take to immigration. Who would've thought that the administrative duties on the Canadian end would be the limiting reagent in this situation?

So, if everything goes well at immigration in a week's time, we will have official working visas. If anything is delayed past November 30th, we are in trouble.

Bottom line is we will have to pay a fee for not having our shit together by November 1st, and that we will become legal again given that our criminal record checks get here on time.
So no need to worry, although I don't think that people were really worried as the general consensus to this issue seemed to be: "Well, that's kind of good news, because if you get deported, then you can have your annual Christmas sweater party after all!!" Thanks guys, but I think you're going to have to party without me this time.


Next week I will hopefully have pictures of me cuddling in the rain forest at 3600m with the King of the Silverback Gorilla Community... 

Happy belated Remembrance Day, and have a great weekend!
Much love,
L

"Did one of the Boyz II Men memers die? If not, they've gotta come out with another track ASAP." ~C.Lutes

Random tree at Reeb's office in Rwamagana, love how different the flora is here

Put me in coach.. Too bad I don’t know how to say that in French or Kinyarwanda. So I just waited and ended up getting 20 minutes of playing time. Pretty sweet, God that chick on left wing was fast. Those Africans and their fast-twitch muscle fibres, I tell ya. Probably can’t play with them again because of work and traveling but it was sweet (and tiring) while it lasted!

The mosque in my hood.

‘The Internets’

One of my brother Chad’s favourite sayings, the plural form of internet, has made it across the pond. It is always a topic of struggle, with the word ‘struggle’ being totally relative to many other sources of struggle in this continent, of course.

BUT, having said that, when was the last time any of you went without internet for 8 days? Okay, I’ll have to admit C and I have been cheating a little bit, and may or may not have sat at a restaurant that had wireless for 4 hours (read: 7 hours) straight just so we could download the newest episode of Gossip Girl, but who’s counting the hours anyways (hopefully not the staff at Shokola)?

You realize just how useful being connected is when it goes out at your workplace for over a week because of 'network problems'. Rumour has it that the bills haven’t been paid (FAIL!). TIA. Usually, I can keep abreast of all the latest news back at home via websites from the Nelson Star/Nelson Daily/Nelson Post (filling me in that the new Glory Chair is going to DOUBLE the area of Whitewater, WHAT!), The Vancouver Sun (informing me that Justin Timberlake just flew in for a little stopover to see his girlfriend Jessica Biel in Nelson, making my dreams since the age of 9 come true and then simultaneously crushing my dreams upon the realization that I am 14,000 km away from this. Don’t worry JT, I’ll find you some day.), and The Globe and Mail (tantalizing me with the most amazing recipes that are waiting to be cooked upon arrival in Canada as the ingredients in Kigali are either nowhere to be found or are 2342 times the price. That and we don’t have counter space in our kitchen so it becomes difficult cooking up a storm when you have to chop vegetables on top of your mini fridge and coffee table). But for now, this is leaving young interns such as myself and C, who can’t afford to pay for a modem because that would mean less Primus on the weekends, internet-less. Day 9 sans-internet has just commenced and thankfully I am going away to Butare to do final clinical evaluation of the fourth year BLS students, where there is a guesthouse with internet and (hopefully) a hot shower waiting for me.

Speaking of Jessica Biel, my sister Sydney was asked to be a double in The Tall Man and while doing this, invited Jessica to come watch her hilarious comedy show, Skidney and Sleazle (check it:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Skidney-and-Sleazel/134174223300394), at Oxygen last weekend. No big deal.

But enough about home!

Halloween

Reminiscing of all the effort we put into our costumes back home for the past 4 years at university, my personal favourite being cereal box characters last year (only to be shown up by the Manor Boys), C, R, S and I decided to take the easy route and ask some dudes on the street if we could have the shirt off their back. Literally. People stand all around the city wearing fluorescent yellow MTN (a cell phone service provider) pinnies selling airtime, because all cell phones and internet are pay-as-you-go type of thing where you just buy minutes. This is probably due to the lack of street addresses here to send bills and the fact that almost no one has a credit card (lucky ha!). Even when you put electricity into your home you can do it via text message (they call it SMS messaging here) from your cell phone!

So, the guy was pretty weirded out when we asked nangahe? (how much?) and pointed to his shirt. But, since this is Africa, he offered up a price of 2,500 Rwf for the pinnie that he probably gets for free from MTN. Fine by us, this was a $5 halloween costume! And not a huge deal because they wear a yellow MTN shirt underneath their pinnies. BUT. We needed 5 of them. The first guy proceeded to run up the street and grab four more pinnies from four more guys who wanted to make a fast buck. Two of them even sold us their hats haha. Anyways we were laughed at several times at the party full of westerners (who else, they don’t celebrate this strange holiday in Africa and most of Europe) when we said ‘Sistah! Sistah! Airtime?’ in typical MTN fashion. I almost tricked someone into actually buying airtime from the used cards we picked up off the ground… A couple of Rwandese friends came to the festivities and thought everyone was absolutely nuts. Why wouldn’t a bunch of white people dressed as zombies, cats or as a shower gather in one place on October 30^th for a party? By the time 5 AM rolled around, two (in some people’s case, three) bars later our MTN careers were over. And the sun was up. Thankfully I don’t have a picture of what we looked like then..

Other than continual power outages at work (KHI may not have paid those bills either?) and the concurrent four-day water shortage at our house in Nyakabanda (bucket-showers4life, until you run out of reserve water… then it’s no-showers-or-washing-hands/feet-and-no-flushing-toilet-4life), life is grand. Just gearing up for a weekend in Gisenyi (Northern Province, on the other end of Lake Kivu, the lake I was on when I worked in Kibuye) for an interview with a young woman, Molly, from CTV Saskatoon who is pitching a story to my, C, and S’s local newspapers about CIDA internships. She is here volunteering at RwandaTV, Rwanda’s only news channel. Why do we need to travel to do this interview when Molly lives in Kigali too? Well, considering the weather here is still 20+ degrees, we are going to fit in a little basking in the sun and swimming during said interview… When in Rwanda..

OH AND HOW COULD I FORGET: Was honoured to be asked by my lovely friend since we were babies – not you Corbin – Erin Speirs, to be in her wedding party next summer! Clearly there is some sort of love bug rolling around my friends, and I couldn’t be happier because a) marriage and love are happy things and b) weddings = party time.

I’ll post some pictures when I have more than just pictures of football games and food, which are two of my favourite pastimes but aren’t the most interesting of photography subjects. Speaking of football, my friend was telling me about the time he played against team Canada at the U20 tournament held last year in Lebanon… he’s 24… Rwanda is taking a page out of Nigeria and Congo’s FIBA ‘Under 19 Team’ book.

For now I’ll continue to listen to Boyz II Men Greatest Hits (thank youuuu utorrent) and be more productive than I ever have been because I don’t have Facebook beckoning me on my Firefox tabs… I don’t think office work is really in the cards for my life plan, clearly.

Happy one-month-til-X-Ring y’all (in my case, 11 months since X-ring.. I am soo old.)

Amahoro,
L

A stroll through Nyamirambo

While walking to Le Stade Regional de Kigali for football practice last week, of course always trying to kill two birds with one stone, I was having my weekly chat with my mother on the phone.

“Ooh you’re walking somewhere Lauren? Describe to me exactly what you’re seeing right now!”

No one had asked me to do this yet, so I found myself tripping over so many adjectives in a failed attempt to depict what was right in front of me. Had she asked me to do this a month or so ago, I feel that it would have been easier to accurately describe my surroundings. Now that I’ve been here for two months, the things that I used to notice because they were markedly different from Canada, I have now become habituated to. BUT, just for you mom, I’ll try to explain better than that terrible response I gave you.

Robyn walking along a road with Nyamirambo in the foreground

The mud is an ochre-red like you would see on PEI. Consequently, every light coloured article of my clothing now resembles the famed ‘PEI Dirt Shirt’ and my feet are perpetually dirty. There is only one main paved road, which was just paved a few months ago, and the rest of the roads snaking away from it are dirt. There are no street signs or addresses, hence when you ask someone where they live, they just point in some general direction and say ‘over there’. There is a large ditch on one side of the paved road because when it rains, it pours. Vancouver rains ain’t got nothin’ on this! Usually once per day during the rainy season, rivers flow in these ditches and no one goes outside, except the inexperienced westerners like me who at first don’t realize the extent of the rain. No wonder all Rwandans run inside like they’re going to melt whenever thunder starts booming.

 “Are you the only white person around?”

Well, let’s just say that I’m not used to being the centre of attention like this. I’ve seen a total of three other white people in this area of town, one of which is my roommate from Canada. People are staring, not only because I’m a white female, but also because I am dressed for ‘making sport’, the Rwandese phrase for exercise. I get several thumbs up from passers-by, or they mutter ‘courage’ as it isn’t very common for women to play sports here. When I walk by groups of children, they say ‘Good MORN-ing!’ even though it’s 5 PM. Understandable, as this is akin to when I get confused with Kinyarwanda and say mwaramutse (good evening) at 7 AM. I acknowledge their effort with a smile. People are everywhere, sitting outside of their shops or walking very, very slowly as Rwandans do. Ladies and men headed towards the isoko (market) have shallow, wide baskets full of tomatoes or avocadoes balanced on a piece of material folded up to protect the crown of their heads. Even when people have nothing in their hands they walk with boxes, bags, textbooks, even furniture on their heads. Definitely a talent I will strive to attain before I go home.

Some locals heading home from the market

Some women are wearing traditional Rwandese fabrics as wrap-dresses, others are dressed as I do for work, in business-casual clothes. You can’t walk 20 meters without seeing someone wearing a Paul Kagame or an RPF (Rwandan Patriotic Front) t-shirt. Many people are wearing clothing that they no doubt picked up at the market, where second hand clothes from around the world are sold. Shirts with rap star Eminem are a dime a dozen, as are shirts from popular vacation spots in the United States, and just yesterday I saw a teenager wearing a UBC shirt!

 “I hear horns!” 

Matatus are constantly honking and yelling mumuji!, asking me whether I want to catch a ride to town, even if I’m clearly walking the opposite way. Cars range from Daihatsu pick up trucks to Rav4s to Mercedes SUVs. Much like in Nelson, the Toyota Previa population is unusually high per capita.. what is with that?

A Barcelona matatu sporting pictures of Messi

 When football games are over, people flood out of the stadium wearing the colours of their favourite Primus National Football League team, honking vuvuzelas. There are sounds of weird bird-calls which I learned when I was teaching that no, that isn’t a ringtone you hear, teacher. Stray chickens run amongst the palm tree-bushes. The call to prayer rings out at around 7 PM from the local mosque.

“What about the houses?”

Most houses have brick or concrete fences around them with iron gates and barbed wire or broken bottles strewn across the top for security means. Some examples of shop signs: ‘New Clothing Second Hand Store’, ‘Faty Shop’, ‘Splendid Mini-Market’, ‘G-Unit Saloon’ (saloon = salon, a place where I still need to go to see how they deal with hair that is much less coarse than they are used to, and red at that),‘New Happy Restaurant’, ‘Dry Creaner’ (R’s and L’s are apparently interchangeable here, I am often called Rauren, and sometimes even Mauren.)

Friends outside of our favourite chapatti spot in Nyamirambo

I peer into the little holes-in-the-wall stores that are selling sambusas (samosas), chapattis and boiled eggs, all for 100 RWF (20 cents) each. The stores often house a small TV broadcasting the latest English Premier League game for the regulars enjoying an afternoon beer.

Despite all of the apparent hullabaloo going on around me, I feel very safe. Everyone minds their own business, and aside from the brief, intense stares I receive, people return to their daily duties. I would like to think that after being around for two months people in this neighbourhood are getting used to the white person that walks along this road quite often, but I'm not sure that it’ll ever get old.

 It’s going to be a whole other ballgame when I return to Canada with fresh eyes and have to re-experience everyday life there.

Happy Halloween everyone!! It isn't celebrated in Rwanda (and it is kind of embarrassing trying to explain to people here the concept of what happens on October 31st back home..) so I hope you all carve a pumpkin and eat some pumpkin pie for me. Dad, save me some pumpkin seeds for when I get back haha! 

Missing the crisp autumn air,

L

Not all sunshine and lollipops..

So, haven’t done a legitimate blog post in a while (laptop battery post doesn’t count)..

Not to be a pessimist, but people who know me well know that I like to vent so that I can get on with life and make way for the good that is hopefully soon to come.
So on that note, let me talk about some sources of frustration of late:

Work – Going from the highs of teaching to the lows of, well, nothing. KHI is full of really great people but I just got moved to my own office and don’t get to interact with them that often. Combined this with how I was bombarded with (at times too much) human contact the past two weeks while teaching, it made for a drastic change. I am currently working on planning the HIV/AIDS community outreach program which is going to be a huge undertaking. While I am so excited to actually put the project into action, I am discouraged at the difficulties of trying to communicate with the prospective schools (many only speak French and Kinyarwanda) and sort out all of the travel details for sixty people to get to these thirty-six rural schools in a six day period. Thank God for my co-worker, Penda, who is at this point working towards his BSc, is employed by KHI and is helping me with this project, among other things. He's like superman.
‘African time’ is really showing it’s true colours at this point as the funding was promised to be available to us at the beginning of September. That doesn’t stop us from planning. One small problem, though. Everyone who knows me knows that although I usually get the job done, I love to procrastinate until I have so much pressure on me that there’s nothing else I can do. I never want to do a half-ass job so there is even more pressure I put on myself. This explains why it feels like nothing is going on because even when I do try to chip away at planning, I hit a wall and then think ‘oh I can do it later’. Come on Lauren! Thought I moved past them procrastinatin’ days after suffering through them for my whole university career..

Orphanage – We went to one a couple of weeks ago because our friend Egide volunteers there and he wanted to introduce us. The amazing thing about this is that the man who runs this orphanage is in his mid-twenties and was himself orphaned at the age of nine by none other than my next point. The frustrating part is that he and the three other men who run the place have no salary at all, and have to work elsewhere on top of running this orphanage to make money just to live. Any leftover money they have goes towards the orphanage.

Just a couple of children at the orphanage, more pictures to come!

 There were 45 beautiful children there who, thankfully, are all in school (unless they are under 5) and a lot of children who grew up here have graduated thus far and moved on to jobs or university. I asked where the priorities lie as far as financial donations and the director explained that food and school fees are the two biggest problems. Being a still-poor, still-starving ex-student, I wondered the whole time how one could help with this orphanage in a sustainable way. I know that one-time financial donations are not the answer but it was very evident in seeing this place that every bit helps. I think we are going to look into going there once every couple of weeks to just hang out with the kids and maybe help them with school work and play some soccer.
Although most of the children are too young to, a few them are orphaned as a direct result of…

Genocide – I suggest you read ‘An Imperfect Offering’ by Dr. James Orbinski (thanks for the thoughtful gift Ali :) , I’m loving it). His accounts of when he was here in 1988 really seem to capture the essence of Rwanda pre-genocide, and in many ways the way I see Rwanda today. However in Part II of his book he comes to work for Medecins Sans Frontiers in Rwanda in 1994, and the two Rwandas are about as similar as night and day. I get angry reading his description of the inhumane ways the Interhamwe messed with so many people, and especially children. The militia must have had a genuine mentality of hate for others in order to carry out these torturings and mass killings and still be able to live with themselves. No matter how much I read about the subject I still feel so far removed from this situation because I can’t comprehend that such things actually happened here. It is weird thinking that although I am walking among many victims of genocide, I am also walking among people who were part of the Interhamwe and committed these atrocities. The relatively good thing is that it doesn’t matter anymore who is who.

17 year old soccer players – and their unrelenting stamina when I play with them, but mostly because they don’t have to work until 5 PM every day and therefore can attend practice from 2-5 PM, whereas I cannot… my Rwandan soccer career isn’t looking as promising as it did before because of this. The league doesn’t start until December so hopefully I can figure something out by then.

Lack of jokes/understanding movie references – I guess ‘Old School’ and ‘Anchor Man’ don’t translate into Kinyarwanda very well. Unfortunately neither does anything from Arrested Development.

Rwandan sports fans – biggest bandwagon hoppers ever! They booed their own team after they lost a FIFA game and can’t make up their mind who to cheer for at the FIBA tourney because Rwanda didn’t have a very good showing. The fans based their cheering on some crazy Egyptian dude with a flag on his head as a turban chanting in Arabic..

Amahoro Stadium, Rwanda v Benin

OKAY now for some good things (a la Martha Stewart):

Traditional Rwandese dancing – Went to a wedding this past weekend of Robyn’s co-worker’s. Yes, in Rwanda they let random people they have never even met show up to their weddings and it’s totally normal. The only letdown was that they didn’t party and dance like we had hoped (Charlotte, pressure is ON for your wedding. I know you won’t disappoint).

See! No smiling even on wedding day (CODY POIRIER)! Beautiful wedding party.

 Realizing that a BSc in Biology is not enough –This stems from hearing R and C’s (who are both Registered Nurses) accounts of their clinical placements at the hospitals in Butare, Kigali and Rwamagana and understanding that I will never be qualified to be exposed to anything like this until I further my education. This is a good thing because I LOVE SCHOOL! Cheers to resuming my poor, starving student status as soon as I can!

African sports – It was nice finding out that my attraction to the ‘under-18’ basketball players from Nigeria and the Congo was actually okay since it turns out these under agers were really my age. Props for being able to play four of seven games in the FIBA African Basketball U18 Kagame Cup with over-age players and not getting caught until the quarter finals, ha!

Headline from the FIBA Website :

Age fraud : Godfrey Moses (Nigeria, n 14) and Makouana Itoua (Congo, n 4) suspended

Ballin score clock

Le Petit Stade (right beside Amahoro)

Planning trips away from the city – no explanation needed here.

Until next time...
Love L

Language Barriers. Better than any comic strip you'll ever see.

Here's a little Monday reading for all y'all.

Background info: Previous intern Anthony arranged for a laptop battery to be sent to Rwanda from Canada with my friend Robyn.

Email from Anthony to 'Peter':

Hi Jean Pierre,

The lap top battery is with Lauren, the new intern from Canada in the BLS Department. Ask Penda to help you meet her. Hope you are well!

Mwaramuke,

Anthony

Subsequent email from 'Peter' to A:

hahahahaahah, mwaramuke!!! u just say MURAMUKE instead. Thanks for the consideration, It's now easy to get the battery from Lauren. It is fortunate to hear that she is "her" to mean a woman. Is she a girl still. Let me hope that I can have with her a deal which is beyond battery. have a say on that? hahahaha I wish u were so near that we can share some  PRIMUS.

 

But, tell me: have u started work there? or are u in process to continue studies? I hope things are going alright to u.

 

My regards to friends and family

He has since asked me to share said Primus. Hopefully he noticed that yes, I am still a girl/woman, not a boy or man, and that a deal beyond battery is probably not in the cards.. haha

I'll write a (hopefully) more intellectually stimulating post soon, although this is one of my favourite topics.

Missing the crisp autumn air of the Maritimes! Yet also loving the 20-plus degrees...
Much love,
L

PICTURE TIME!

Morning scene in Kibuye (the island is in the middle of the sky!)

Fishing boats where the dudes catch sambezes (tiny fish!) every day

Sambezes, onion and avocado. SO delicious.

Room in Kibuye, the mosquito nets are like the canopy I always wanted from the WishBook but never recieved....
Oh Santa.

Typical dish that I ate in Kibuye.. Avocado, carrot-cabbage deliciousness, potatoes,beef..NOMS

Look at the professionalism of this medical imaging master, Didakus. No wonder they told us we had a bun in the oven.

Look at how happy these students are to be seen with me... Rwandans don't like to smile in pictures?

First Impressions Piece

This is a piece I submitted to the Nelson Star and the Nelson Daily online about my first impressions in Rwanda (I had to do it as one of the Coady and CIDA's media requirements..). Hope you enjoy it :)

Friends and Family. Sushi. Salmon. Multigrain bread. Running water. Fresh air. My university. As I look back at one of my journal entries from the beginning of September, these are some of the items under a heading ‘Things I miss most about Canada’. After having been in Rwanda for a month, almost 14,000 kilometers from home, my first impressions are endless and yet I find it quite difficult to paint the picture of what life here is really like. As a foreigner, I will never know what a typical day in the life of a Rwandese is like, but I am trying to integrate myself so that, at least, I can learn.
            My placement at the Kigali Health Institute involved, for the first couple of weeks, a 7:30AM – 5PM work day which is short in comparison to the permanent employees who arrive at 7 and don’t leave until around 7 PM. I was trying to organize an HIV education initiative and make lesson plans for the first course I would be teaching, analytical chemistry. Although these were very busy times, I found the most prominent lessons in Rwandan culture came outside of the workplace.

Conversations with people tend to revolve around asking what it is like in Canada, and the differences between there and here with respect to food, religion, politics, money and marriage. Some people speak about the genocide in passing, as it has affected the entire population, but others are willing to speak about it in more detail. One of my co-workers, a beautiful woman standing at a mere 5’0”, is 24 years old and was left an orphan with two older sisters after her parents and brother were killed in ‘94. Her sisters sacrificed their own education to work in order to pay for her post-secondary education, a fact that she feels guilty about. She told me about her friend who was left an orphan with no siblings because of the genocide, and explains how she feels blessed that she had her sisters with her. The fact that she can step aside and feel as if her experience was not as bad as another person’s truly astounds me. Any ‘problems’ that I have seem vastly overshadowed when I hear stories like this one and, boy, does it make me appreciate my family. 

Contrary to popular belief, I am one of thousands of westerners in this city. Westerners like to fill the local ex-patriot restaurants and clubs, which tend to run at prices comparable to Canadian prices, and therefore have become a treat I only indulge in once in a while. I like to stick to the places where locals go. Kigali is like a typical western, big city, in that there are people everywhere, but on the other hand is not so akin to a western city, for example the unconventional modes of transportation. I take a moto-taxi to work, which costs about $1 CDN for a ten minute (exhilarating, I might add) ride, and a matatu home from work, which is about 30 cents. The difference between the two is that the moto is a dirt bike made for two (sometimes three), and the matatu is a bus crammed with thirty people and has the music blaring like a party on wheels. Similar motives exist between the two: pass whenever possible in order to get to the destination quicker. As you can see, there are not many rules on the road. For example, I’ve seen less traffic lights in a city of about one million people than we have in Nelson.

I stumbled upon a women’s soccer team at a stadium near my house, and they are apparently the best premier team in the country, with the players making up most of the national team. I have to say that it has been quite the experience learning to communicate on the field in French and Kinyarwanda. The team has quickly welcomed this foreigner, although I am very aware of the conversations that happen in Kinyarwanda at my expense, hence the laughing and staring at me. This is quite far removed from the old days of Nelson Youth Soccer.
            At present, the political situation feels extremely safe from the eyes of a Canadian, demonstrated by the overwhelming crowd of support I stood in at the inauguration of Paul Kagame on September 6th. One can see, however, through the likes of news stories about the recent findings of Burundian casualties washing up in rivers, that there is turmoil all around this country and undoubtedly within it. However, like any political situation in the world I can only speculate as to what is really going on.

Through all of these experiences, I feel like I am getting a unique view of Rwanda, but it is just the tip of the iceberg. Six months is barely enough to get my feet wet. Now that I look back on that list of mostly material things that I miss about Canada, I realize that there are many privileges that most young Canadians have that go unnoticed, such as running water, an extremely high standard of education and health care services, and endless opportunity. Nelsonites in particular have it very good in this sense, combined with our unparalleled surroundings and way of life. I can now say that I am compiling a list of what I will miss most about Rwanda when it comes time to go home in February. Having said that, I could really use a breakfast sandwich from Oso right about now…

Pictures soon to come... for reals this time, I actually have a good internet connection for once.