Catch-up Surveys outside Kigali

Time keeps flying by! And already another week’s passed! This week has been split between Musanze and Kigali, which luckily is only a 2 hour drive in between. I went out to visit two communities this week with Dennis, and then Friday he went off to one alone. We have been testing out our surveys more and more, and this week was full of cute kiddies being a little distracting during the interview process. Many of the kids in the rural villages have never seen white people, or if they do, it is on extremely rare occasions. 

Monday, Dennis and I worked more on updating our survey and putting together some specific health project specific questions before our Tuesday visits to the HIV/AIDS associations in Shingiro. Tuesday, the drive wasn’t too ridiculous, but we took a bus with Isugi and Aime before taking motos out to the community. There are technically two associations we have given grants to in Shingiro: one adult association and one youth association.  The youth association students were nowhere to be seen until we were literally getting back on motos to leave the community. As for the other association, it was definitely a weighted sample with only two men present and the rest mothers. This may be predominantly because the women are widows or separated from their husbands, but in the end it was still an estrogen heavy sample. There was a little boy hanging around for most of the interviews in a puffy winter coat (mind you- even in Shingiro up north the middle of morning is still warm), and he was absolutely fascinated with me and my skin. It is interesting to see how different kids react to seeing us muzngus- some react in a shy way, some ask for money instantly and others just want to see if you are real or the color comes off with rubbing (like dirt would). This little one was definitely the curious latter type. He came over and at first was just looking at me, but finally I reached out my hand to hold his (sooo little!) and then he pretty much had permission to try to touching me!  First, he was just very curious about my fingers (and of course picked up instantly on the nail that’s a little off from the way I write, but then he started with my hair. Being dirty blonde is definitely even rarer than blue eyes here (there are native Africans with blue eyes), but this little one was definitely taking everything in. It was very interesting to see the little wheels spinning in his head- hopefully he won’t be the kind to beg for money too soon, that’s always the heart-breaker.

Sorgum drying by the side of the road

The villages always bring out chairs for us as we do our interviews, and yet there are rarely enough of them for the interviewees, but at least this time, there were some for them too. We also got to sit in the shade- something that feels rare (and must be based on my color change) - definitely some shades darker than when I walked off the plane back in June! The community was definitely sweet, though upon first arriving at the village we ended up at a different spot (and surrounded by a non-Spark bunch of people meeting) near the district offices. It took a little while to figure out who was meeting with us (particularly because people didn’t know Spark, only Sasha), because this is one of our older communities before the marketing was included in introducing grants so to speak. The communities we work with today are much more knowledgeable that we are an official NGO, but the earlier communities don’t necessarily have that background, and haven’t had extensive follow-up from current facilitators.

Overall, the visit was a definite success where almost 30 surveys were completed by our fabulous facilitators. Then, it was back for another delicious African buffet meal at Green Garden (a Spark employee favorite) for lunch. The afternoon flew by as usual catching up on email, and then as I went to make dinner before our friends came over we had a surge. Not only am I glad there was a surge protector in the kitchen, I am glad I hadn’t just walked away from the finicky stove I was hoping to cook pasta on. I went to readjust the stove in the surge protector, and as I went over to do so, it exploded in my face! Luckily, I hadn’t bent over too much yet, but still I felt the shock on my chin! The poor adapter was fried, I was shocked (literally and figuratively), but we got lucky- no fire actually started. That meant it was samosas and fried chapatti from the corner store for dinner (O so healthy I know).  Igisoro took center stage as soon as we got back to our house. Dennis has taken a liking to the game ever since we saw a big group of Rwandans playing the Mancala like game by the bus station/ taxi park. Dennis and I made a fruit salad and had Aime and Isugi over to our intern house as well as our friend Marika (another expat working at the deaf school) for Igisoro playing and some chit-chat! The games have thus far lasted between a short 20 minutes and over two hours! Nothing like counting beans to kill a few hours!

Wednesday was going to be another travel day- back to Kigali, but Dennis and I started out the morning going for tea and buying a new surge protector. I am pretty sure we got over charged, but at the same time, the last one did its job (I think…). While I bought the protector, Dennis found his latest obsession- a UNHCR tarp at the market. While I feel it is a pretty tactless souvenir, I am pretty sure that he will buy one before he leaves to – quote- turn into a tent or a backpack or maybe a suit. It makes me sick to think that is what the tarp will be used for, but at the same time, I just have to hope that a refugee got a good amount of food for selling it. Having seen them in use for entirely practical reasons, it is just heart breaking to think they leave the camp and are put to such frivolous use by expats. They aren’t a toy, and really belong in the hands of the most needy and vulnerable of people. Without shelter, there are too many people that need even the worst tarps for protection from rain and there I was hearing about it being made into a suit.  There are days the two of us have extremely different versions of reality. The trip back to Kigali was mostly in daylight, and views were stellar as usual. We met the other interns at home before heading straight back out for dinner at an Ethiopian place near our house in Kimihurura. The food was delicious there last time, and this time I went for sharing a veggie platter with some of the other interns. It was delicious as well, though definitely less hardy than the meat dish I had the time before. I was glad I had brought my mosquito net, because boy did Hotel Exotica get packed with people! I definitely needed it over my mattress on the floor.

The next morning Dennis and I slept in a bit, but he ventured out to make survey copies while I did some email updating. Then, half a cup of tea in, I was off to the bus/taxi park to meet Aime to go out to Bukamero. Bukamero is one of our oldest projects, and one of the other interns’ families helped to fund their micro grant. It was quite a drive out of Kigali, and then a short bicycle ride out to the community. There were definitely no motos on hand when we got out of the bus on the road side. We weren’t even certain that we were in the right place, because of all the hustle and bustle surrounding us getting off of the bus.  Aime seemed confident though, so we followed suit and headed off. After we got off the bikes, we were standing in front of a blue and white building with a ton of student age kids milling around. It wasn’t what I’d expected, but it turned out the community was ‘running late’. There were a few ladies under a mango tree, so we joined them in the shade. While I did a little greeting and introduced myself in Kinyarwanda, the ladies chuckled, but that was all I could do. Then, rather than just sit their awkwardly, I decided dancing awkwardly was the better option! This seemed totally reasonable, because there was a little girl who couldn’t seem to stand still and was just boppin’ around, so I learned the word for dance and started joining her. The moms of course thought that this was even funnier than my Kinyarwanda. It brought a lot of smiles to people’s faces, and I was glad since the next few hours were going to be relatively dull by comparison as we interviewed one lady at a time on our plantain shaded bench. During the surveys, I found that the building we had stood by was an orphanage, and in fact two guys came out that were from the states! Always a surprise to run into a few other aid workers! We stayed pretty late, to the point that I was a little concerned we might be there past sundown if I didn’t hurry the boys along.

Bizarre sunset as we headed back from our visit

Luckily there was a bus (Natasha told me they actually stopped running at 7), and I think we caught the 6:30 that got us back to Kigali just in time for dinner with the rest of the crew at Hotel X (phew!). It was a very American feeling meal with pasta, tomato sauce and zucchini. Aime stayed for dinner too, but luckily people were ready to call it a night after that ‘cause I certainly was! Hours of bus travel were good, but exhausting to stay awake through. Dennis did some serious snoozing (as he usually does on the bus), but even he was ready to get some sleep after such a long day. Plus, the next morning the plan was to head out to another project of ours in Ruhango…

Spark's fabulous summer intern staff

The funny thing about plans here is that they are subject to change every 30 seconds. One minute the plan will be to travel 4 hours to a community, then next nothing, then another 10 minutes and everyone is planning to go to another community. Friday really was a prime example of the changes in scheduling, because in addition to only one of us interns going to Ruhango, rather than two, the group of 5 that was planning to head up to Musanze on Friday ended up staying the night in Kigali. I had invited a friend of ours to stay from with us while she was in Kigali for a wedding, but then with so many people staying at Hotel X we went from perhaps 5 people staying there to having 9! 5 girls in one room, two guys in another, one girl on a couch and another on the table….it was quite the sleeping fiasco, but at the same time, everyone slept alright and Saturday brought a slight clearing of the crowds. Rather than travelling to Ruhango, I ended up running to the post office, and Shokola Lite with Marika (my visiting friend). Busy and productive, the day revolved around going to/from the city and vetting the many applications for our Ugandan facilitators.

Friday not only brought changing plans- so typical of life here- in Rwanda, but it also brought delicious food (quite the staple)! Sasha had made reservations for a restaurant called 10 to 2. This place is known for its fish and potatoes. At first, I was skeptical that it could be so amazing, because as we walked in, the menu was non-existent, and while the view was nice there was not much selection in terms of drinks or entrees. Apparently Sasha had pre-ordered fish (which you must do to get it) and the tilapia came out BIG fish was an understatement (I shared with two other people) and we all left incredibly full! The fish were covered in onions and spices, and had been stuffed with veggies. Had never tried fish forehead, but little did I know it is one of the tastiest bits of this delicious dinner. The potatoes where also something to rave about, a bit spicier than I would normally eat, but it was certainly worthwhile!

Overall Kigali was keeping us on our toes, and we met some very interesting characters! From moto drivers to hotel receptionists, it was really reassuring to be able to get lost and have people help you to find your way. The out dated Brandt guide’s led me astray a time or two, but then again, it’s had some fabulous tips as well, so I can’t really complain! Why would they keep a post office in the outskirts of town anyways, right?