Well I suppose it’s about time I write my final thoughts for the trip.
At the end of our stay in Rwanda, we presented at KIE University. We told them about what we have learned from the trip. The night we left, we ate at the famous “Hotel Rwanda”. Yes, that would be the hotel the movie was films after. Gilliom brought his beautiful wife and new baby daughter to the hotel for us to meet. It was wonderful for him to share his family with us. His daughter was so cute.
Our plane didn’t leave until 4AM or sometime really late, and Jeremiah and Gilliom actually stayed with us until we were allowed to go to our gate. I knew we would miss them. The next day we arrived in Tanzania. Thanks to Leah, I actually got to bring my baskets home. I almost had to leave them in Tanzania because some customs man was abusing his power. We met our new drivers…. I missed Jeremiah and Gilliom! Then for the next two days we went on a safari. Basically, our safari was driving to and from our hotels. Our hotels were nested deep in the middle of the safari and it was a few hours of adventure to get to them. I loved being on the safari. It was an excellent transition! There is no way to describe the safari except to look at the pictures. I can’t upload my pictures to Picasa, so I guess people will just have to come to me to see them.
I was so ready to come home by that part. I loved Rwanda; I really don’t want people to think I didn’t enjoy the trip. I loved it; however, I missed my family and home. I learned so much from my trip to Rwanda. I had the opportunity to be immersed into a completely different culture, try different food, meeting new people, and observe in different schools. I was just not one of the ones who went that was ready to move to Rwanda. I, on the other hand, I would simply like to take what I have learned and apply it in my life. I would like to thank everyone who helped me get to Rwanda. It wouldn’t have been possible without everyone’s love and support. I would also like to thank a few special people who went on the trip with me (you know who you are) you guys helped me make the best memories. Miss you!
To my surprise, when I returned two of my best friends were at the airport with my family to surprise me. I also had a surprise party at my house when I returned. It was excellent to see everyone from my church and my family and friends. I also had another surprise, as if there could be any more. I guess my boyfriend must have really missed me while I was away… he surprised me by getting me a necklace from Tiffany’s!!! Thanks, Drew.
A few days after I got back, I started to feel really sick. Thursday night my parents almost took me to the emergency room because my stomach was hurting so bad. I went to the doctor and found out that I got some type of food poisoning… not fun. Luckily, the only thing I had to deal with was being weak and having stomach cramps. The doctor put me on some medicine and I eventually got over it…. Eventually.
Well those are the few updates I’ve had since I have returned. Thanks again for all of your help in getting me to and from Africa! I will never forget my experiences.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Monday, May 25, 2009
Unexpected Surprise! (Monday, May 25th)
This morning four of us went to a nursery/primary school to observe. I didn't get a lot of sleep last night, so I was honestly not too excited about going to yet another school. When we arrived we met the headmaster and the representative of the school. We sat and talked with them for around 45 minutes learning about the history of the school and how it runs. The name of the school was ESCAF, and it is a private school. This means that the parents of the students pay $60 per term for the students to attend. There are three terms in a year, so this can get rather expensive. The school tries to keep costs as low as possible because they know the value of education is priceless and they think everyone should be allowed to receive a quality education. Immediately, I knew I was going to like this school because the administrators were so welcoming. I already had guilty feelings of not wanting to attend. After speaking with the administrators (I'm sure they had way more important things to do other than talk to US college students, but they still took the time) they showed us around the school. They were so proud of the grounds and how far the school had come. Instead of sitting and observing, the headmaster took us around to probably six classes. The first class we went into was a nursery class. As soon as we walked in the students stood up and said, "Good morning visitors! You are welcome. I am fine thank you, visitors!" It was so cute. The school is working to switch to teaching strictly in English, and you could tell that the students had certain phrases memorized. The students then sang to us!! I love when they sing to us because they are basically shouting the song as loud as they can. The headmaster,then asked some of the few students a few questions to demonstrate what they are learning. One thing I immediately noticed was that the walls of the classroom were covered. They had projects that students had made and also visual aides. This was the first time there were visual aids on the wall. The visual aids were basically pictures or signs the teachers had hand made to help the students learn. They also had colored chalk in the younger students' classrooms. I was very impressed with this because it helps a variety of learners. I was also impressed with the discipline of the students. At the last private school we visited, the students ran the class and the teachers did not really have control. We visited probably 6 or 7 other classrooms each of a different level, and I just became more impressed with this school! In one of the classrooms, the children showed us a dialog they had practiced. The dialog was about AIDS/HIV! They were already teaching students about this STD. In this country where AIDS is so prevalent, it is important to educate the students.
After we visited the classroom, it was recess. The schools don't have playgrounds as we know it, but they are perfectly content making their own fun. Today we were the fun makers. As I said the students were so well behaved. Instead of jumping on us, they all came up to us and wanted to shake our hands. There are close to 700 students in the school and I think between the four of us we probably shook all of their hands. I had my hair down, and occasionally I would feel little fingers touching my hair and then I would hear little feat run away and laugh. My hair is so different than the students' hair and they loved to touch it. They also liked to poke my skin as if it wasn't real. I laughed whenever that happened. I was completely surrounded by students. I had the not so bright idea of trying to show my pictures of my family to them and explain a little bit about America. They didn't understand that I wasn't giving the pictures away, I was just trying to show them my life through pictures. They started grabbing my pictures, and I honestly felt like a celebrity in a mob at that point. I was surrounded by students and they were so excited about the pictures that they were trying to get so close to me I was being pushed backwards. The headmaster had to come save me. It was actually kind of a funny experience. After that fiasco, the P4 students put on a program for us. This consisted of singing and dancing. Programs put on by students are sort of comparable to an assembly in America. It feels weird that they go to the trouble to do all of this for us.
I cannot say enough positive comments about this school. I would have loved to spend the entire day here! I guess it's true what they say, "Save the best for last!". After the program, we spoke with the administrators for another 45mins. I found out that one day a week they have a religious program. The school also gave every student a Bible. During the singing, they sang many songs that the children at my church sing. It's completely opposite of an American school. Some can't even say the Pledge of Allegiance anymore because it has the phrase, "Under God". It's refreshing to see how religion is so important to people here. The administrators were very interested to see what we thought of the school. We were so impressed we could not say enough good things! I think they were pleased. They wanted to know what they can do to make it better, but we just said that we aren't in a position to give advice. We encouraged them to stay positive and keep the high standards that they have set. The representative for the school encouraged us to become ambassadors for Rwanda. They know that people finally know about their history (the genocide) and they think that the country is still in complete shambles. This is so far from the truth, and they really wanted us to share the progress the country is making.
I need to stop talking about this school! I just can't say enough positive things about it!
This afternoon, I got to take a nap!!! It was wonderful. At night, we went to a cafe that was very Americanized. It was like a Starbucks/Panera combined.... :) I got some coffee, and it was WONDERFUL. Most of us ordered bacon cheeseburgers because they actually had them. It was pretty good, but the meat had other things in it and it wasn't like a Cafe Burger, but it was okay.
Tonight is our last night in Rwanda. It's kind of sad because I'm just now starting to feel immersed in the culture. I spent the last night goofing off with some of the girls (shocker), packing (boring), doing my laundry in the sink/bath tub (can't wait for a washer!), and finishing various projects for ISU/this trip (.....) Overall this has been a pretty good day.
Tomorrow, we present to the university in Kigali what we have learned about the country, culture, education, etc during our trip to Rwanda. It should be pretty interesting...I hope. We also leave for Tanzania tomorrow. While we are there we will go on three different safari tours! I am sooooo excited for that! I really want to see an elephant up close (but not too close).
We will visit the orphanage for the last time tomorrow as well. In all honesty, I will miss visiting the schools more than the orphanage. I just really really liked that part of the trip. I feel that I have learned a lot about Rwandan education as well as having a new insight into American education. I will also give up the laptop that I have been using. We had a bunch of laptops donated to us to donate to various places that we have visited. I don't exactly know who will receive the computer I've been using, but I bet they will be so thrilled. My roommate brought her personal computer so I will be able to blog in Tanzania in a word document, but I won't be able to post them online until I am home. This will probably be my last blog until I am home in the US.
I hope everyone has a good week! I'll be home sometime on Saturday night.
-Courtney
P.S. They have lizards everywhere here... We even have one in our room right now and I am freaking out. I hate them!!! I'm so excited to go home to a lizard free house!!!!
After we visited the classroom, it was recess. The schools don't have playgrounds as we know it, but they are perfectly content making their own fun. Today we were the fun makers. As I said the students were so well behaved. Instead of jumping on us, they all came up to us and wanted to shake our hands. There are close to 700 students in the school and I think between the four of us we probably shook all of their hands. I had my hair down, and occasionally I would feel little fingers touching my hair and then I would hear little feat run away and laugh. My hair is so different than the students' hair and they loved to touch it. They also liked to poke my skin as if it wasn't real. I laughed whenever that happened. I was completely surrounded by students. I had the not so bright idea of trying to show my pictures of my family to them and explain a little bit about America. They didn't understand that I wasn't giving the pictures away, I was just trying to show them my life through pictures. They started grabbing my pictures, and I honestly felt like a celebrity in a mob at that point. I was surrounded by students and they were so excited about the pictures that they were trying to get so close to me I was being pushed backwards. The headmaster had to come save me. It was actually kind of a funny experience. After that fiasco, the P4 students put on a program for us. This consisted of singing and dancing. Programs put on by students are sort of comparable to an assembly in America. It feels weird that they go to the trouble to do all of this for us.
I cannot say enough positive comments about this school. I would have loved to spend the entire day here! I guess it's true what they say, "Save the best for last!". After the program, we spoke with the administrators for another 45mins. I found out that one day a week they have a religious program. The school also gave every student a Bible. During the singing, they sang many songs that the children at my church sing. It's completely opposite of an American school. Some can't even say the Pledge of Allegiance anymore because it has the phrase, "Under God". It's refreshing to see how religion is so important to people here. The administrators were very interested to see what we thought of the school. We were so impressed we could not say enough good things! I think they were pleased. They wanted to know what they can do to make it better, but we just said that we aren't in a position to give advice. We encouraged them to stay positive and keep the high standards that they have set. The representative for the school encouraged us to become ambassadors for Rwanda. They know that people finally know about their history (the genocide) and they think that the country is still in complete shambles. This is so far from the truth, and they really wanted us to share the progress the country is making.
I need to stop talking about this school! I just can't say enough positive things about it!
This afternoon, I got to take a nap!!! It was wonderful. At night, we went to a cafe that was very Americanized. It was like a Starbucks/Panera combined.... :) I got some coffee, and it was WONDERFUL. Most of us ordered bacon cheeseburgers because they actually had them. It was pretty good, but the meat had other things in it and it wasn't like a Cafe Burger, but it was okay.
Tonight is our last night in Rwanda. It's kind of sad because I'm just now starting to feel immersed in the culture. I spent the last night goofing off with some of the girls (shocker), packing (boring), doing my laundry in the sink/bath tub (can't wait for a washer!), and finishing various projects for ISU/this trip (.....) Overall this has been a pretty good day.
Tomorrow, we present to the university in Kigali what we have learned about the country, culture, education, etc during our trip to Rwanda. It should be pretty interesting...I hope. We also leave for Tanzania tomorrow. While we are there we will go on three different safari tours! I am sooooo excited for that! I really want to see an elephant up close (but not too close).
We will visit the orphanage for the last time tomorrow as well. In all honesty, I will miss visiting the schools more than the orphanage. I just really really liked that part of the trip. I feel that I have learned a lot about Rwandan education as well as having a new insight into American education. I will also give up the laptop that I have been using. We had a bunch of laptops donated to us to donate to various places that we have visited. I don't exactly know who will receive the computer I've been using, but I bet they will be so thrilled. My roommate brought her personal computer so I will be able to blog in Tanzania in a word document, but I won't be able to post them online until I am home. This will probably be my last blog until I am home in the US.
I hope everyone has a good week! I'll be home sometime on Saturday night.
-Courtney
P.S. They have lizards everywhere here... We even have one in our room right now and I am freaking out. I hate them!!! I'm so excited to go home to a lizard free house!!!!
Not like the Memorial Day Meeting! (Sunday, May 24th)
On Sunday, I woke up early to go to the local church. I knew the service was in the native language, but I wanted to experience that part of the culture. (Kelsie G. I wore your favorite purple skirt that you picked out for me :)
In Rwanda, many of the people Catholic. The cathedral we went to was beautiful! It was a present from Belgium. Church started at 7:00 AM so we were early risers. Now, I don't know how the Catholic services in America work, so I was especially was confused when I didn't even understand the language here in Rwanda. There was a lot of singing, standing, kneeling, and sitting during the worship. You could tell the visitors were confused! ha. The service was about two hours long, and since I didn't understand anything I had a lot of time to sit and reflect. Being in a completely different church like that really made me miss my home church. It was especially hard because this weekend was the Memorial Day meeting at Smart Road, and I really wanted to be there. I talked to my parents and Drew the night before so I got to hear how excited they were for the meeting. During the service, I reflected on how much I love the fellowship of our local congregations. I wish there was more, but I appreciate what we have. I have met some of my best friends through church and I am really thankful for that. It makes the friendship easy because you have the same morals and values which makes relating to each other easy on a whole different level. Being away from the Church of Christ service and fellowship for three weeks has been difficult. I'm excited I come back on a Saturday night so I can see everyone next Lord's Day...Lord willing.
After church, we went to Murambi Genocide Memorial. There was a school almost finished being built in the town right before the 1994 Genocide. During the Genocide, the local church leaders and the government told the Tutsi people to take refuge in the unfinished school. For two weeks, there were between 40,000-60,000 people there. They were told they would have water, but someone cut the waterlines. The people starved during those two weeks. Then the Hutu rebels took over the school. They surrounded the school so the Tutsi could not run. The Hutu had guns, machetes, and grenades. The people in hiding had nothing to fight with. They tried to fight with stones and whatever they could. Sadly, there efforts did not last long against the weapons. All of but 4 individuals died in the attack. The tour was strange because the guide didn't really tell us the “story” before the tour. The tour consisted of walking the grounds and the worst part was looking in the buildings. The Hutu buried the victims in mass graves. A year later, people extracted the bodies and then they started to preserve them. When we looked in the buildings we saw bodies that had decomposed for a year and then they were preserved. There were 1000's of men, women, children, and babies bodies laying in front of me. It was so sad because some still had hair on top of their heads. The sight was disturbing, but I just tried to picture these bodies as people who died for a pointless cause.
When we finished our tour, we met one of the four survivors. He then told us his story. His story made the event so much for real for us to picture. To make a long story short, this man went outside to fight with his friends and when he went back inside he found his wife and 5 children murdered. The man was then shot in the head and fell to the ground. While he was on the ground, dead bodies fell on top of him. This eventually saved his life. I don't know how he survived being shot in the head, but some how he made it to another country, received medical treatment, came back to Rwanda to testify what happened, and is now a worker at the memorial. It was an incredible story.
When we finally returned back to Kigali, we went to the Principal of Fawe Girls' School house. It was so nice of them to invite over 15 strangers to their house and to feed us. Yesterday was Josh's birthday (a boy from ISU that is on the trip) Before we ate, they turned off the lights and brought out a cake and sang to Josh for his birthday. It was so nice! We had dinner and chatted for a bit, and then we all went around and said what we appreciated about Rwanda. It was a touching night. I can't really describe in words what the night was like, but it was something I think everyone will remember.
In Rwanda, many of the people Catholic. The cathedral we went to was beautiful! It was a present from Belgium. Church started at 7:00 AM so we were early risers. Now, I don't know how the Catholic services in America work, so I was especially was confused when I didn't even understand the language here in Rwanda. There was a lot of singing, standing, kneeling, and sitting during the worship. You could tell the visitors were confused! ha. The service was about two hours long, and since I didn't understand anything I had a lot of time to sit and reflect. Being in a completely different church like that really made me miss my home church. It was especially hard because this weekend was the Memorial Day meeting at Smart Road, and I really wanted to be there. I talked to my parents and Drew the night before so I got to hear how excited they were for the meeting. During the service, I reflected on how much I love the fellowship of our local congregations. I wish there was more, but I appreciate what we have. I have met some of my best friends through church and I am really thankful for that. It makes the friendship easy because you have the same morals and values which makes relating to each other easy on a whole different level. Being away from the Church of Christ service and fellowship for three weeks has been difficult. I'm excited I come back on a Saturday night so I can see everyone next Lord's Day...Lord willing.
After church, we went to Murambi Genocide Memorial. There was a school almost finished being built in the town right before the 1994 Genocide. During the Genocide, the local church leaders and the government told the Tutsi people to take refuge in the unfinished school. For two weeks, there were between 40,000-60,000 people there. They were told they would have water, but someone cut the waterlines. The people starved during those two weeks. Then the Hutu rebels took over the school. They surrounded the school so the Tutsi could not run. The Hutu had guns, machetes, and grenades. The people in hiding had nothing to fight with. They tried to fight with stones and whatever they could. Sadly, there efforts did not last long against the weapons. All of but 4 individuals died in the attack. The tour was strange because the guide didn't really tell us the “story” before the tour. The tour consisted of walking the grounds and the worst part was looking in the buildings. The Hutu buried the victims in mass graves. A year later, people extracted the bodies and then they started to preserve them. When we looked in the buildings we saw bodies that had decomposed for a year and then they were preserved. There were 1000's of men, women, children, and babies bodies laying in front of me. It was so sad because some still had hair on top of their heads. The sight was disturbing, but I just tried to picture these bodies as people who died for a pointless cause.
When we finished our tour, we met one of the four survivors. He then told us his story. His story made the event so much for real for us to picture. To make a long story short, this man went outside to fight with his friends and when he went back inside he found his wife and 5 children murdered. The man was then shot in the head and fell to the ground. While he was on the ground, dead bodies fell on top of him. This eventually saved his life. I don't know how he survived being shot in the head, but some how he made it to another country, received medical treatment, came back to Rwanda to testify what happened, and is now a worker at the memorial. It was an incredible story.
When we finally returned back to Kigali, we went to the Principal of Fawe Girls' School house. It was so nice of them to invite over 15 strangers to their house and to feed us. Yesterday was Josh's birthday (a boy from ISU that is on the trip) Before we ate, they turned off the lights and brought out a cake and sang to Josh for his birthday. It was so nice! We had dinner and chatted for a bit, and then we all went around and said what we appreciated about Rwanda. It was a touching night. I can't really describe in words what the night was like, but it was something I think everyone will remember.
Saturday, May 23
I'm writing this on Monday so I may not have as many details.
We left midmorning on Saturday to drive to Butare. It took a little over three hours to get there. I am happy because the roads were actually decent. In Rwanda, you never know what the road are going to be like. Luckily, they were decent!
We ate a pretty good lunch at our hotel. I finally relieved some of my chocolate cravings by having a crepe filled with ice cream covered in chocolate. It wasn't the best dessert ever, but it tasted pretty good!
Afterwards, we toured the national museum and the first college or university in Rwanda. The national museum was interesting. It wasn't what I expected though. I thought I would learn a lot about the history of Rwanda. However, we learned about the history through artifacts. It was interesting, but not what I pictured.
The college was very cool! It was very very nice and beautiful. We didn't go into classrooms or anything like that, but it was nice to see the campus.
At night, we relaxed and stayed in a fancy hotel. It reminded Kelsey and I of a castle.
As I said, I don't remember vivid details because my days run together here. I don't think I had any life changing events on that day.... but maybe I just haven't realized it yet.
We left midmorning on Saturday to drive to Butare. It took a little over three hours to get there. I am happy because the roads were actually decent. In Rwanda, you never know what the road are going to be like. Luckily, they were decent!
We ate a pretty good lunch at our hotel. I finally relieved some of my chocolate cravings by having a crepe filled with ice cream covered in chocolate. It wasn't the best dessert ever, but it tasted pretty good!
Afterwards, we toured the national museum and the first college or university in Rwanda. The national museum was interesting. It wasn't what I expected though. I thought I would learn a lot about the history of Rwanda. However, we learned about the history through artifacts. It was interesting, but not what I pictured.
The college was very cool! It was very very nice and beautiful. We didn't go into classrooms or anything like that, but it was nice to see the campus.
At night, we relaxed and stayed in a fancy hotel. It reminded Kelsey and I of a castle.
As I said, I don't remember vivid details because my days run together here. I don't think I had any life changing events on that day.... but maybe I just haven't realized it yet.
Friday, May 22, 2009
Friday, May 22nd
Today was a chaotic day. We first started out at the UN. We didn't really know what we were suppose to do there, but it was interesting to tour the grounds and speak with some people that worked at the UN. After we had lunch, we met with the Minister of Education. Through working with FCCLA, I have spoke with my fair share of legislators and law makers. However, this was extremely different. I am used to going through a fairly rushed meeting with the legislator and in that time we speak with them about our issues or advocate for something. We try to make something better in our short meeting. Today's meeting was an hour long. We just informed the Minister what we were doing in Rwanda. She is a very busy lady so it was nice of her to make time to meet with us, but we didn't really talk about the issues. I would have loved to speak with the Minister about the issues in Rwandan education and education globally. I think it could have been a real learning experience if we learned about education from the government's point of view. This was not the case today. It kind of upset me that we wasted our time chatting about our "trip" to Rwanda when this could have been a very useful learning opportunity.
After the UN, we spilt into groups because different people wanted to do different things. I wanted to go to the local market. To make a long story short, we finally made it to the market with the help of our drivers and no one else! They were playing popular American music at a promotional rally down the street so that put us in good spirits. I got some very good prices on items to bring home. There is a certain item here that I LOVE buy! We all love to buy this item. It's so colorful and I have never seen anything like it anywhere else. I'm not going to share what this item is because a lot of people are getting them as gifts.... :)
At the market, the people expect you to barter or argue a price. I am terrible at bartering! I feel bad because I don't want to rip people off, but I guess the people at the market raise the prices because they know we are American. In this country. people see that you are American and automatically assume you have money to give to everyone. True we may have more money than the people begging us, but we aren't fond of the fact that people expect money from us just because we are American. It's very interesting, and we really aren't big fans of that! Anyway, thanks to some people with backbones on this trip, I have learned how to effectively barter! :) I still may not be good at it, but at least I'm not getting as ripped off as I could be. I get made fun when we barter. The other girls say I just look like I'm a sucker and will give in. They have tried to help me see the "error" in my ways. ha.
After dinner, I chose not to go eat with the group because I had a lot to do and eat just takes so long here! It takes like 3 hours to drive somewhere, order, and eat. They didn't get home until 10:30pm from dinner so I'm glad I stayed here. I washed my clothes in the bathroom sink for the second time. That is also an interesting experience. Travel tide is another great invention! We ordered room service and I had dinner with two other girls while we watched a movie and worked on assignments/packing. There was a really good movie on (actually in English) tonight and I got to watch the whole thing!! :)
Tomorrow we leave again. We are traveling to a different part of the country. We will visit two other genocide memorials and visit a large church. We will not have internet access when we travel so I will not post a blog. Luckily, we will return on Sunday night so I can catch up then.
Another observation I have made about this country is how the genocide affected every aspect of the country. It didn't only affect families and the loss of human life, but everything was put on hold as a result. Many of the targeted people where highly educated and they held high positions within the country. After the loss of a million people, there is bound to be a gap. The genocide was 15 years ago, but it is amazing the huge strides that the country has taken to recover and rebuild itself. In our almost 2 weeks here, we haven't seen one act of violence. We have seen students so eager to learn because they know it's their way out of poverty. We have seen a country that was torn apart by differences in ethnicity come together to form one people. It's incredible that this country has come so far. That was one of the topics discussed amongst ourselves today, and I thought I would share it. Food for thought you could say!
I won't post again until Sunday. Enjoy the Memorial Day weekend! Safe travels!
Oh... I must post this because it is exciting! I was chatting with two girls, watching a movie, and eating supper while I was posting my last blog so I forgot the mention this. Since we spent the whole day at the orphanage we had a lot of time to interact with the kids. As many of you know Ardie and Loa donated yarn for the kids to make scarves. Well my Mom got excited about the project, so she went out and bought more yarn so that every kid could make a scarf. In the free time that she doesn't have, she decided to measure and cut all of the yarn before I left....isn't she great! Well yesterday we made the scarves!!!! There were some students from Fawe girls school that came to help volunteer as well. Before introducing the project to the kids at the orphanage, I taught the Fawe girls how to make scarves. We made a bunch for the little ones who didn't have the patience to finish the project. The Fawe girls were a life saver! Not all of the kids at the orphanage speak English (very few of the young ones) so the girls translated for me! They saved the project from being a potential nightmare. I was so happy. A bunch of the kids made scarves! Everywhere I looked a kid had a scarf on their neck. The boys enjoyed the project just as much as the girls. At that young age, kids don't know or realize that some things are for boys and some are for girls. It really doesn't matter as long as the child has accomplished something that they did themselves and that they are happy. That's all that matters. Anyway, it was a very fun activity! I took a ton of pictures. Thank you to all who were a part of that project!
While the kids were making scarves and waiting for their bags, they were coloring with the other ISU students. They all colored pig coloring books. It was fun! I doubt they learned about pork, but they enjoyed coloring the pigs. It was a fun afternoon! Okay that is what I forgot to post....
Miss everyone!!!
After the UN, we spilt into groups because different people wanted to do different things. I wanted to go to the local market. To make a long story short, we finally made it to the market with the help of our drivers and no one else! They were playing popular American music at a promotional rally down the street so that put us in good spirits. I got some very good prices on items to bring home. There is a certain item here that I LOVE buy! We all love to buy this item. It's so colorful and I have never seen anything like it anywhere else. I'm not going to share what this item is because a lot of people are getting them as gifts.... :)
At the market, the people expect you to barter or argue a price. I am terrible at bartering! I feel bad because I don't want to rip people off, but I guess the people at the market raise the prices because they know we are American. In this country. people see that you are American and automatically assume you have money to give to everyone. True we may have more money than the people begging us, but we aren't fond of the fact that people expect money from us just because we are American. It's very interesting, and we really aren't big fans of that! Anyway, thanks to some people with backbones on this trip, I have learned how to effectively barter! :) I still may not be good at it, but at least I'm not getting as ripped off as I could be. I get made fun when we barter. The other girls say I just look like I'm a sucker and will give in. They have tried to help me see the "error" in my ways. ha.
After dinner, I chose not to go eat with the group because I had a lot to do and eat just takes so long here! It takes like 3 hours to drive somewhere, order, and eat. They didn't get home until 10:30pm from dinner so I'm glad I stayed here. I washed my clothes in the bathroom sink for the second time. That is also an interesting experience. Travel tide is another great invention! We ordered room service and I had dinner with two other girls while we watched a movie and worked on assignments/packing. There was a really good movie on (actually in English) tonight and I got to watch the whole thing!! :)
Tomorrow we leave again. We are traveling to a different part of the country. We will visit two other genocide memorials and visit a large church. We will not have internet access when we travel so I will not post a blog. Luckily, we will return on Sunday night so I can catch up then.
Another observation I have made about this country is how the genocide affected every aspect of the country. It didn't only affect families and the loss of human life, but everything was put on hold as a result. Many of the targeted people where highly educated and they held high positions within the country. After the loss of a million people, there is bound to be a gap. The genocide was 15 years ago, but it is amazing the huge strides that the country has taken to recover and rebuild itself. In our almost 2 weeks here, we haven't seen one act of violence. We have seen students so eager to learn because they know it's their way out of poverty. We have seen a country that was torn apart by differences in ethnicity come together to form one people. It's incredible that this country has come so far. That was one of the topics discussed amongst ourselves today, and I thought I would share it. Food for thought you could say!
I won't post again until Sunday. Enjoy the Memorial Day weekend! Safe travels!
Oh... I must post this because it is exciting! I was chatting with two girls, watching a movie, and eating supper while I was posting my last blog so I forgot the mention this. Since we spent the whole day at the orphanage we had a lot of time to interact with the kids. As many of you know Ardie and Loa donated yarn for the kids to make scarves. Well my Mom got excited about the project, so she went out and bought more yarn so that every kid could make a scarf. In the free time that she doesn't have, she decided to measure and cut all of the yarn before I left....isn't she great! Well yesterday we made the scarves!!!! There were some students from Fawe girls school that came to help volunteer as well. Before introducing the project to the kids at the orphanage, I taught the Fawe girls how to make scarves. We made a bunch for the little ones who didn't have the patience to finish the project. The Fawe girls were a life saver! Not all of the kids at the orphanage speak English (very few of the young ones) so the girls translated for me! They saved the project from being a potential nightmare. I was so happy. A bunch of the kids made scarves! Everywhere I looked a kid had a scarf on their neck. The boys enjoyed the project just as much as the girls. At that young age, kids don't know or realize that some things are for boys and some are for girls. It really doesn't matter as long as the child has accomplished something that they did themselves and that they are happy. That's all that matters. Anyway, it was a very fun activity! I took a ton of pictures. Thank you to all who were a part of that project!
While the kids were making scarves and waiting for their bags, they were coloring with the other ISU students. They all colored pig coloring books. It was fun! I doubt they learned about pork, but they enjoyed coloring the pigs. It was a fun afternoon! Okay that is what I forgot to post....
Miss everyone!!!
Day at the Orphanage (Thursday, May 21st)
I'm writing on Friday so I'll have to remember back to what we did yesterday. It seems like it wouldn't be that big of deal, but the days here really run together!
Yesterday, we spent the day at the orphanage. In the morning some of us spent the whole time organizing the donations to put in the bags that were made for the children. There were so many donations that it took a couple of hours. We decided that instead of giving the kids everything all at once and overwhelming that we would give them a "taste" of what was donated. The kids have to buy school supplies at the beginning of the year. So the coordinator of the orphanage is going to keep all of the extras and give them to the kids as needed. We felt this was a better option than letting them have note books and things now and using them as a coloring book
If I was going to come back to work with the orphanage again, I would probably do things a little differently. The children will defiantly love the school supplies and it will help them with their education, however being the future teacher that I am I would like to educate the children. I don't know if there are not enough people helping at the orphanage or what, but the children do not have the best hygiene skills nor do they know how to share. I think the hygiene is problem is a cultural thing here. The life expectancy here is only around 50 years old. In America, we are very hygienic to prevent future problems such as dental, skin, etc in our old age. I would love to teach the kids proper hand washing techniques, how to brush your teeth properly, and so on and so forth. I think that would benefit them just as much.
At night, a few of us went to an Italian restaurant down the street. That was very good.
Since I am writing this Friday night those are all of the details I can remember.....
Yesterday, we spent the day at the orphanage. In the morning some of us spent the whole time organizing the donations to put in the bags that were made for the children. There were so many donations that it took a couple of hours. We decided that instead of giving the kids everything all at once and overwhelming that we would give them a "taste" of what was donated. The kids have to buy school supplies at the beginning of the year. So the coordinator of the orphanage is going to keep all of the extras and give them to the kids as needed. We felt this was a better option than letting them have note books and things now and using them as a coloring book
If I was going to come back to work with the orphanage again, I would probably do things a little differently. The children will defiantly love the school supplies and it will help them with their education, however being the future teacher that I am I would like to educate the children. I don't know if there are not enough people helping at the orphanage or what, but the children do not have the best hygiene skills nor do they know how to share. I think the hygiene is problem is a cultural thing here. The life expectancy here is only around 50 years old. In America, we are very hygienic to prevent future problems such as dental, skin, etc in our old age. I would love to teach the kids proper hand washing techniques, how to brush your teeth properly, and so on and so forth. I think that would benefit them just as much.
At night, a few of us went to an Italian restaurant down the street. That was very good.
Since I am writing this Friday night those are all of the details I can remember.....
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
You Made Today! (Wednesday, May 20th)
Today was our last day at the hotel Paradise. We loved the view, but we didn't like the lizards, bugs, or the repetitive food. It was a fun place to stay, but we were all very excited to go back to our home away from home in Kigali. We have realized that if you have to be away from your family and friends, the only way it's bearable is if you are able to have communication. Our hotel in Kigali lets us use wireless internet for free...that makes it bearable!
Today was a day that I have been looking forward to for a very long time. We went to Mwiko Schools. If you received a letter from me or looked at pictures from last year, this is the school that was using pieces of slate as paper. We didn't have a lot of time at this school, but it was still very fun. We "observed" in a classroom at first. Most of the time, us observing means we interrupt class and talk to the students. It is fun, but I feel bad interrupting their education! The students in the class sang for us. Everywhere we go they ask if we want to sing for them... Well we don't really have traditional songs, and I'm not about to break out the Star Spangled Banner...so Ashley and I sang "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes". We thought that was traditional enough! haha. At least it was interactive! :) The country used to have two official languages, one of them was French. They are in the process of switching to English as the official second language. It is interesting to observe the transition the country is trying to make. They are doing an incredible job! Anyway, we spoke with the children and then all of the teacher and student had a break for lunch. During this break, the students did a traditional dance for us and they also sang.
After the singing, we gave out ISU t-shirts and some hats. We also gave out almost all of the school supplies that people gave me to donate! The children were so excited!!! We didn't have enough supplies for every child (there were over 600), but I told the principal that he should give it to the children/classes that are in need of supplies. They were so very appreciative. It's incredible to see how valued education is in this country. They do the best they can with what they have. Next week, we present what we have observed/learned during our visit to Rwanda. I am on the education team. I've been doing a lot of thinking about the educational system in the US and in Rwanda. It's astonishing! When I come up with a final conclusion, I will post that....still have a lot of reflecting to do!
Again, thank you for reading my blog. I have a little counter that says how many times it is viewed. Every time I have the chance to blog, my number has always gone up. Thank you! I'm glad I have the opportunity to share my experiences with you!
Today was a day that I have been looking forward to for a very long time. We went to Mwiko Schools. If you received a letter from me or looked at pictures from last year, this is the school that was using pieces of slate as paper. We didn't have a lot of time at this school, but it was still very fun. We "observed" in a classroom at first. Most of the time, us observing means we interrupt class and talk to the students. It is fun, but I feel bad interrupting their education! The students in the class sang for us. Everywhere we go they ask if we want to sing for them... Well we don't really have traditional songs, and I'm not about to break out the Star Spangled Banner...so Ashley and I sang "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes". We thought that was traditional enough! haha. At least it was interactive! :) The country used to have two official languages, one of them was French. They are in the process of switching to English as the official second language. It is interesting to observe the transition the country is trying to make. They are doing an incredible job! Anyway, we spoke with the children and then all of the teacher and student had a break for lunch. During this break, the students did a traditional dance for us and they also sang.
After the singing, we gave out ISU t-shirts and some hats. We also gave out almost all of the school supplies that people gave me to donate! The children were so excited!!! We didn't have enough supplies for every child (there were over 600), but I told the principal that he should give it to the children/classes that are in need of supplies. They were so very appreciative. It's incredible to see how valued education is in this country. They do the best they can with what they have. Next week, we present what we have observed/learned during our visit to Rwanda. I am on the education team. I've been doing a lot of thinking about the educational system in the US and in Rwanda. It's astonishing! When I come up with a final conclusion, I will post that....still have a lot of reflecting to do!
Again, thank you for reading my blog. I have a little counter that says how many times it is viewed. Every time I have the chance to blog, my number has always gone up. Thank you! I'm glad I have the opportunity to share my experiences with you!
Day on the Beach! (Tuesday, May 19th)
I still don’t have my voice back yet. It’s getting better but I still sound like Mickey Mouse. Today we had the option of going to the forest again or relaxing on the beach…. I chose the beach :) I’m writing my blog under a shade umbrella made out of banana leaves in a comfy lawn chair listening to my ipod. It’s pretty much amazing! I have said many times on this trip that the ipod is the greatest invention ever! It helps you relax and escape.
This morning, after sleeping in, those of us who choose to relax (3/4 of the group!) went to the hot springs near by. The hot springs are created by the volcano that is also fairly close. The volcano is actually in the Democratic Republic of Congo (there are two Congos). The hot springs are so hot that the water actually boils. If you have seen the movie Daunte’s Peak you can visualize what I am talking about.
When the group returned from the forest, some of us went into town. I was going to go to the market, but then I found out I could get my hair braided for rather cheap. Two other girls and I got our hair braided! It didn't hurt at all! Mine took the longest though. I didn't get corn rows, I just got a bunch of little braids all over my head. Does anyone remember Paige's hair when she went to Cabo freshmen or sophomore year?? That's kinda what mine looks like. The ladies who braided our hair were so sweet. They asked us if they went to America if they would have a job. We assured them that they would. It makes me think because ¾ of the people we talk to want to go to America. How lucky are we to have been born in a country with such prosperity? I've never really thought about that before, but we have so many opportunities given to us on a daily basis that people in a place like Rwanda only dream about.
After we got our hair braided we went out for another nice dinner. We needed a nice dinner because our stomachs aren't used to the food here! Pepto Bismol is our friend. While we waited for our food, we hung out by the pool and listen to some music they were playing. To our surprise it was American music! That was nice to hear.
This day was a lot of fun. We got sun burnt on our legs though. It will probably go away by tomorrow.
Missing everyone but still having a really good time and learning a lot!
This morning, after sleeping in, those of us who choose to relax (3/4 of the group!) went to the hot springs near by. The hot springs are created by the volcano that is also fairly close. The volcano is actually in the Democratic Republic of Congo (there are two Congos). The hot springs are so hot that the water actually boils. If you have seen the movie Daunte’s Peak you can visualize what I am talking about.
When the group returned from the forest, some of us went into town. I was going to go to the market, but then I found out I could get my hair braided for rather cheap. Two other girls and I got our hair braided! It didn't hurt at all! Mine took the longest though. I didn't get corn rows, I just got a bunch of little braids all over my head. Does anyone remember Paige's hair when she went to Cabo freshmen or sophomore year?? That's kinda what mine looks like. The ladies who braided our hair were so sweet. They asked us if they went to America if they would have a job. We assured them that they would. It makes me think because ¾ of the people we talk to want to go to America. How lucky are we to have been born in a country with such prosperity? I've never really thought about that before, but we have so many opportunities given to us on a daily basis that people in a place like Rwanda only dream about.
After we got our hair braided we went out for another nice dinner. We needed a nice dinner because our stomachs aren't used to the food here! Pepto Bismol is our friend. While we waited for our food, we hung out by the pool and listen to some music they were playing. To our surprise it was American music! That was nice to hear.
This day was a lot of fun. We got sun burnt on our legs though. It will probably go away by tomorrow.
Missing everyone but still having a really good time and learning a lot!
Climb, Climb Up an African Mountain (Monday, May 18th)
Remember the children's song we sing in church? I made my own version for the title!
Monday was an early morning! We had an awesome breakfast. The servers everywhere are so sweet. They bend over backwards to make us happy. They run when we ask them to get us something. We drove for about 2 hours to get to the Gishawti forest. We didn’t know this, but to get to the forest we had to climb over three “hills”. However, their hill here are actually mountains according to us Iowans! It was about an hour and half of following cow paths over and around the mountains, but we made it. We felt like the natives were laughing at us fat Americans! Although the climb was challenging, it was some of the most beautiful scenery. I loved the view! We saw some cows up close. The city folk thought the cows were large, but Norman, Elmer, and Fudd had a couple hundred pounds on them! :)
Once we finally got to the place we were going, we planted trees. The forest used to be very large. It was probably about 3 or 4 times larger back in the day. However, to make room for cattle, the people cut down the trees and used them to create bean poles here. To grow beans here, they have to have poles for the beans to climb up. It’s strange. When they were cutting down the forest, they didn’t think about the endangered apes. There are only about 12 left in the forest now. The people started to re-grow the forest, but they left a big gap between two areas. The Great Ape Trust of Iowa is trying to plant trees to eliminate the gap so the apes can have more forest. Eventually, they want to grow a corridor between Gishwati and another forest that is near by. We felt good helping the cause by planting trees! The climb back was much easier.
When we got back to the truck we saw how sun burnt we got. You can definitely tell the white people have been to Africa! I’ll be rocking some cool tan lines for Jenna’s wedding. However bad the climb was, the drive home was worse.
I’ve started to make a list in my head of things I shouldn’t take for granted when I get home. One of them is paved roads. Others include: “fast” food (not McDonalds, but not waiting an hour for your food), toilets everywhere you go, running water you can drink, hot showers, available health care, and Wal-Mart on every corner (if you run out of something…drive to a Wal-Mart 5 mins away). There are so many more things we take for granted, but as of today those are the ones I wish I had sometimes. On the other hand, you can’t have the beach ten feet away from your room at home. It’s so pretty where we are! You won't believe I'm in Africa when you see the pictures!
Monday was an early morning! We had an awesome breakfast. The servers everywhere are so sweet. They bend over backwards to make us happy. They run when we ask them to get us something. We drove for about 2 hours to get to the Gishawti forest. We didn’t know this, but to get to the forest we had to climb over three “hills”. However, their hill here are actually mountains according to us Iowans! It was about an hour and half of following cow paths over and around the mountains, but we made it. We felt like the natives were laughing at us fat Americans! Although the climb was challenging, it was some of the most beautiful scenery. I loved the view! We saw some cows up close. The city folk thought the cows were large, but Norman, Elmer, and Fudd had a couple hundred pounds on them! :)
Once we finally got to the place we were going, we planted trees. The forest used to be very large. It was probably about 3 or 4 times larger back in the day. However, to make room for cattle, the people cut down the trees and used them to create bean poles here. To grow beans here, they have to have poles for the beans to climb up. It’s strange. When they were cutting down the forest, they didn’t think about the endangered apes. There are only about 12 left in the forest now. The people started to re-grow the forest, but they left a big gap between two areas. The Great Ape Trust of Iowa is trying to plant trees to eliminate the gap so the apes can have more forest. Eventually, they want to grow a corridor between Gishwati and another forest that is near by. We felt good helping the cause by planting trees! The climb back was much easier.
When we got back to the truck we saw how sun burnt we got. You can definitely tell the white people have been to Africa! I’ll be rocking some cool tan lines for Jenna’s wedding. However bad the climb was, the drive home was worse.
I’ve started to make a list in my head of things I shouldn’t take for granted when I get home. One of them is paved roads. Others include: “fast” food (not McDonalds, but not waiting an hour for your food), toilets everywhere you go, running water you can drink, hot showers, available health care, and Wal-Mart on every corner (if you run out of something…drive to a Wal-Mart 5 mins away). There are so many more things we take for granted, but as of today those are the ones I wish I had sometimes. On the other hand, you can’t have the beach ten feet away from your room at home. It’s so pretty where we are! You won't believe I'm in Africa when you see the pictures!
Homesick Sunday (May 17th)
Today is our day of rest! I love our little cabins. Last night I think I got around 9 or 10 hours of sleep. It was nice to relax. I woke up and wrote my blogs in a word document on the beach while listening to some music. It was very peaceful. A bunch of us had breakfast together and the view is so beautiful. I love it here! I have fallen in love with African tea. I think I had three cups for breakfast because it’s so good. I don’t really like American tea, so I find it strange that I like it here so much. Breakfast was good. We had omelettes, toast, fruit cups, and cinnamon and sugar crepes.
We have some time to rest before our next thing which is at 2:30 in the afternoon. Since it’s raining outside, I can’t sit on the beach so I went back to my room. I have found that at night when I’m alone in my room or when there is nothing going on that’s when I get a little homesick. Luckily, today I found the cure! There’s a certain type of music that I listen to on my ipod that makes it all better. Thanks Dad and Mom for the ipod! Thanks Drew for that type of music
We went to the local market in the afternoon. Instead of going to the market, a bunch of us went to an internet café. We paid 20 cents for 23mins. Unfortunately the internet was rather slow, so we had to have more time. The afternoon was kind of stressful because some of us were homesick.
At night, we went to a really nice hotel called The Serena, I had the best meal in a week! It was very Americanized so perhaps that’s why we loved it so much. It was the perfect day to go to this restaurant because had the chance to unwind and have fun! The people who came on this trip are so fun. We are forming really good friendships. It's nice to have those people to lean on each other when things aren't perfect or you're homesick. Afterwards, I called home. It was good to hear familiar voices!
Still don't have a voice. I counted and I lost my voice 4 times within the past year.... I think that is strange!
We have some time to rest before our next thing which is at 2:30 in the afternoon. Since it’s raining outside, I can’t sit on the beach so I went back to my room. I have found that at night when I’m alone in my room or when there is nothing going on that’s when I get a little homesick. Luckily, today I found the cure! There’s a certain type of music that I listen to on my ipod that makes it all better. Thanks Dad and Mom for the ipod! Thanks Drew for that type of music
We went to the local market in the afternoon. Instead of going to the market, a bunch of us went to an internet café. We paid 20 cents for 23mins. Unfortunately the internet was rather slow, so we had to have more time. The afternoon was kind of stressful because some of us were homesick.
At night, we went to a really nice hotel called The Serena, I had the best meal in a week! It was very Americanized so perhaps that’s why we loved it so much. It was the perfect day to go to this restaurant because had the chance to unwind and have fun! The people who came on this trip are so fun. We are forming really good friendships. It's nice to have those people to lean on each other when things aren't perfect or you're homesick. Afterwards, I called home. It was good to hear familiar voices!
Still don't have a voice. I counted and I lost my voice 4 times within the past year.... I think that is strange!
Gorillas In The Mist (Saturday, May 16th)
I’ve never seen that movie, but today we saw live gorillas in the mist!
Kelsey and I woke up at 2am because it was raining so hard outside. I thought our little hotel was going to fall over. It didn’t but the roof did leak a little. We actually woke up at 5:15am. I was nervous all morning because today is the day we were going to go gorilla trekking. It was still rather dark out when we left the hotel. After checking in and meeting with our guides, we were off on the most bumping road I’ve ever been on. I got a video of it! There are 8 families of gorillas. Seven of us and one lady from Ireland, who had an awesome accent, were in a group. We had two guides, Oliver and Hop, one man with a machete who cut down the jungle that was in our way, and we had 4 army men to protect us if anything went wrong. We never saw the army men because they blended in the bushes so well and they surveyed the area around us to keep us safe. We walked about 20 minutes (10 was straight up hill) before we got into the actual park. I’m glad we had walking sticks! We got to the stone wall that we had to crawl over, and our guide went over some more basic details we needed to know. There are men who stay with the family of gorillas to protect them from poachers. Our guides were in contact with them to know where to go. We were told that trekking could take anywhere from 30minutes to 7 hours to even find the gorillas! Our guide was scaring us because he wouldn’t tell us how long. He said if we asked he would tell us 24hours! When we were suppose to be close to the family, the men who protected the gorillas would take our bags. About ten minutes had pasted and we met the men who took our bags. We were confused because we thought we had hours ahead of us. The guide tried to trick us by saying we still had another 2-4 hours left. After 30 seconds of walking we heard the guides start grunting to communicate with the gorillas!!!! We all got really excited because we were there so quick! The first one we saw was the big silverback (male leader of the group). Our family had the biggest silverback in the mountains! He weighed close to 500lbs, our guide said he looked like a hill. The family was in a very jungly part and we couldn’t really see that well. We were with them about 10mins and then we couldn’t see them. The guides led us to another stone wall to climb over, and this led to a large clearing outside the park. The whole family was in the clearing! We had a clear view of everyone. It was so awesome to be with them for an hour. I took around 150 pictures….I’ll have to delete some After an hour, it was time to leave. Since we were in a clearing we just walked along the edge of a field for about 10mins and we were back to our truck! The whole thing took under 2 hours. I wish we could have hiked a little bit more to get there. I wanted to go for another hour because it was so pretty, and when are you in a jungle like that? Oh well, at least it was 7 hours!
The afternoon was a lot of waiting for the other group to finish! Close to 5 hours after we were done hiking, we were on the road to a town I don’t know the name of. We are staying in a hotel called paradise, and it is! Kelsey and I have a little cabin right next to the lake. It is so pretty here!!! We were sitting around a campfire and we had singers and traditional dancers come out of no where and start dancing for us. It was so cool! That experience made us feel like we were actually in Africa. I ordered the only thing I thought was “safe” off the menu (scrambled eggs) and we had dinner. I’m really missing my Mom’s cooking! Things are good here, but at the different restaurants you never really know what you are getting. Elizabeth ordered fish, and she got a whole fish with bones and all on her plate! Interesting….. Tonight we are resting and in the morning we get to sleep in so I am really excited!
Still have no voice, but I feel okay. The girls that I’m always with have learned to translate for me. I try to speak what I want to ask, order, or whatever to them and then they relay the message.
Kelsey and I woke up at 2am because it was raining so hard outside. I thought our little hotel was going to fall over. It didn’t but the roof did leak a little. We actually woke up at 5:15am. I was nervous all morning because today is the day we were going to go gorilla trekking. It was still rather dark out when we left the hotel. After checking in and meeting with our guides, we were off on the most bumping road I’ve ever been on. I got a video of it! There are 8 families of gorillas. Seven of us and one lady from Ireland, who had an awesome accent, were in a group. We had two guides, Oliver and Hop, one man with a machete who cut down the jungle that was in our way, and we had 4 army men to protect us if anything went wrong. We never saw the army men because they blended in the bushes so well and they surveyed the area around us to keep us safe. We walked about 20 minutes (10 was straight up hill) before we got into the actual park. I’m glad we had walking sticks! We got to the stone wall that we had to crawl over, and our guide went over some more basic details we needed to know. There are men who stay with the family of gorillas to protect them from poachers. Our guides were in contact with them to know where to go. We were told that trekking could take anywhere from 30minutes to 7 hours to even find the gorillas! Our guide was scaring us because he wouldn’t tell us how long. He said if we asked he would tell us 24hours! When we were suppose to be close to the family, the men who protected the gorillas would take our bags. About ten minutes had pasted and we met the men who took our bags. We were confused because we thought we had hours ahead of us. The guide tried to trick us by saying we still had another 2-4 hours left. After 30 seconds of walking we heard the guides start grunting to communicate with the gorillas!!!! We all got really excited because we were there so quick! The first one we saw was the big silverback (male leader of the group). Our family had the biggest silverback in the mountains! He weighed close to 500lbs, our guide said he looked like a hill. The family was in a very jungly part and we couldn’t really see that well. We were with them about 10mins and then we couldn’t see them. The guides led us to another stone wall to climb over, and this led to a large clearing outside the park. The whole family was in the clearing! We had a clear view of everyone. It was so awesome to be with them for an hour. I took around 150 pictures….I’ll have to delete some After an hour, it was time to leave. Since we were in a clearing we just walked along the edge of a field for about 10mins and we were back to our truck! The whole thing took under 2 hours. I wish we could have hiked a little bit more to get there. I wanted to go for another hour because it was so pretty, and when are you in a jungle like that? Oh well, at least it was 7 hours!
The afternoon was a lot of waiting for the other group to finish! Close to 5 hours after we were done hiking, we were on the road to a town I don’t know the name of. We are staying in a hotel called paradise, and it is! Kelsey and I have a little cabin right next to the lake. It is so pretty here!!! We were sitting around a campfire and we had singers and traditional dancers come out of no where and start dancing for us. It was so cool! That experience made us feel like we were actually in Africa. I ordered the only thing I thought was “safe” off the menu (scrambled eggs) and we had dinner. I’m really missing my Mom’s cooking! Things are good here, but at the different restaurants you never really know what you are getting. Elizabeth ordered fish, and she got a whole fish with bones and all on her plate! Interesting….. Tonight we are resting and in the morning we get to sleep in so I am really excited!
Still have no voice, but I feel okay. The girls that I’m always with have learned to translate for me. I try to speak what I want to ask, order, or whatever to them and then they relay the message.
Friday, May 15th (Not my classroom!)
Hello All,
Thank you for following my blog! While we traveled around Rwanda for the past couple of days, I did not have internet. I used Kelsey's computer everyday and wrote my blog in a word document so I am going to post them all in seperate posts.
In the morning we went to Green Hill Academy. I am pretty sure this school has the most resources and the best reputation in the country. It costs a lot of money to send your children to this school. The grounds of the school were so pretty. You could tell this was a nice school. I was in a “nursery” school observing a teacher. Instead of calling the teacher Mrs. or Miss, the students call a teacher Teacher. The students were 5 and 6 years old. The class didn’t have a lot of resources, but they had pictures and stuff hanging on the wall unlike other schools we have visited. I wasn’t a big fan of this school. The teacher did not discipline the students, and they were crazy! It was challenging to be in there for four hours, because I would have taught so differently. It also bothered me that the teacher was not super prepared. She had to copy homework and do different things during class, where this should have been done before hand so the students weren’t running around the classroom. The other ISU students said all of the classes were the same as mine. We had breakfast and lunch at the school as well, and we noticed that the students weren’t grateful of anything. We were not very impressed with the school.
Side note- when we were walking to breakfast I lost my voice. The children at the orphanage had a cough going around, and some of us got that. I started to cough a little, and then in the morning I just lost my voice. Hope it comes back!
After we left, we had a two hour drive to our next town we went to. It was a beautiful drive! We had the opportunity to actually see the country side and a different view of Rwanda. We had a good time on the drive. I need to sleep sometimes, but I hate to because our driver is constantly telling us interesting information that you couldn’t possibly read in a book. We arrived at our little hotel and it was cute. I am so glad I brought sweatshirts and things to keep me warm. I wish I would have brought more. The climate here is very different. It’s exactly like spring. Sometimes I am freezing and sometimes I am sweating… very hard to dress for!
Thank you for following my blog! While we traveled around Rwanda for the past couple of days, I did not have internet. I used Kelsey's computer everyday and wrote my blog in a word document so I am going to post them all in seperate posts.
In the morning we went to Green Hill Academy. I am pretty sure this school has the most resources and the best reputation in the country. It costs a lot of money to send your children to this school. The grounds of the school were so pretty. You could tell this was a nice school. I was in a “nursery” school observing a teacher. Instead of calling the teacher Mrs. or Miss, the students call a teacher Teacher. The students were 5 and 6 years old. The class didn’t have a lot of resources, but they had pictures and stuff hanging on the wall unlike other schools we have visited. I wasn’t a big fan of this school. The teacher did not discipline the students, and they were crazy! It was challenging to be in there for four hours, because I would have taught so differently. It also bothered me that the teacher was not super prepared. She had to copy homework and do different things during class, where this should have been done before hand so the students weren’t running around the classroom. The other ISU students said all of the classes were the same as mine. We had breakfast and lunch at the school as well, and we noticed that the students weren’t grateful of anything. We were not very impressed with the school.
Side note- when we were walking to breakfast I lost my voice. The children at the orphanage had a cough going around, and some of us got that. I started to cough a little, and then in the morning I just lost my voice. Hope it comes back!
After we left, we had a two hour drive to our next town we went to. It was a beautiful drive! We had the opportunity to actually see the country side and a different view of Rwanda. We had a good time on the drive. I need to sleep sometimes, but I hate to because our driver is constantly telling us interesting information that you couldn’t possibly read in a book. We arrived at our little hotel and it was cute. I am so glad I brought sweatshirts and things to keep me warm. I wish I would have brought more. The climate here is very different. It’s exactly like spring. Sometimes I am freezing and sometimes I am sweating… very hard to dress for!
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Day #? We have no idea what day it is!
Hello,
Today we went to Saint Andre school. It poured this morning. I'm glad that I have all of my rain gear, but I do miss my polka dot rain boots! Saint Andre used to be only for boys, but recently they started allowing girls to attend. Education has become so important to everyone here. We take it for granted in America. All of the students that I have talked to have such high aspirations! They all want to go to college in America (MIT, Harvard, etc!....Iowa State :) and then they want to be doctors, work for NASA, be like Obama! Everyone here loves Obama. I highly doubt they know everything about his political views, but they love him regardless. Anyway, the English class was very interesting. Even though this is a nice school, they still do not have the resources we have available at our finger tips. The students were studying English and they practiced reading a script that the teacher made up, hand written, and made copies for the students. They weren't learning from books, they were using the resources they had to learn the best they could. So impressive. The students love us everywhere we go.
After we left the school we went to a large market! This market had everything from fresh butchered meat hanging outside and people handling it (gross!) to arts and crafts, fabric, food, dish ware, clothing, etc. We spent most of our time in the arts and crafts. We realized how high priced everything was at the women's center. For some things we paid almost triple what we would have at the market. However, we don't feel bad about it because we know the money is going towards a very good cause. It was interesting because we were told to barter with the people selling the goods in the market. Some spoke a little English and we also had our drivers to translate so that was helpful. However, we had two drivers for 15 people so at times we attempted it on our own. I wish someone had a video camera because I'm sure it was funny. We all (the girls...boys don't buy as many things! Shocker) walked out with at least an arm full of stuff. It also made us realize how much we are going to have to leave with the orphanage to be able to fit our souvenirs in our luggage!
We ate lunch and tried to start organizing our donations. That was a nightmare. We took over one entire room and had stuff everywhere even on the balcony. We took some things to the orphanage to start giving them items. Today we played with ISU Frisbees and footballs. I wasn't feeling like running around everywhere because I was a little tired so I sat down with some kids. Cortney (there are two Courtney/Cortney's) and soon we had two little girls on each of us doing our hair. Then three or four other ISU girls sat down and we had a little beauty saloon going on. There are lots of fun pictures. It gave us practice because we want to get our hair braided, but we know as white people we will look stupid....but we may do it anyway. We already stick out, why not stick out a little more?!
That was pretty much our day. It felt like we did a lot more than we actually did.
Something interesting is that I am now called Chelsea on our trip. Cortney forgot my name (no idea how) and accidentally called me Chelsea. People made fun of her so much by calling me Chelsea, that they actually started calling me Chelsea on accident. So I guess my name is Chelsea now. The weird thing is that I respond to being called Chelsea.
We are starting to miss some American food. The food we are eating here is good, but we are craving coffee, Mexican food, s'mores, and chocolate!! Sounds so good to me!
To answer questions from the comments... Daddy, I haven't had corn here so I don't know if it is as good. They don't grow it in fields like we do. They just randomly plant some stalks where ever. You will find some along the road, outside of a house, where ever there is room. I highly doubt they use John Deere to pick it. Kathryn, our driver hasn't named the baby yet. At least he keeps telling us he hasn't. We put the names of the people riding in our jeep (we totally have the fun jeep!) in a hat and drew out names. Unfortunately, he drew out Ashley. He said he would use it as a middle name. We think he has already named the baby, but is thinking that “If I tell them I'm going to name it Ashley, they will never know!” haha. We love our driver. He keeps us safe and he likes us!
Tomorrow we check out of our hotel for four days. We are driving two and half hours to Ruhengeri where we will trek gorillas, relax on Lake Kivi, work with the Great Ape Trust (yes, from Iowa) in the Gishwati forest. We will be in more rural areas. Kigali, the capitol of Rwanda, is huge! I will only take a back pack for the four days, so I will not have my laptop. I don't know if I'll be able to write blogs or not while I am gone. Thought I would give a warning if you don't hear from me! We return to Kigali Wednesday, May 20th.
Today we went to Saint Andre school. It poured this morning. I'm glad that I have all of my rain gear, but I do miss my polka dot rain boots! Saint Andre used to be only for boys, but recently they started allowing girls to attend. Education has become so important to everyone here. We take it for granted in America. All of the students that I have talked to have such high aspirations! They all want to go to college in America (MIT, Harvard, etc!....Iowa State :) and then they want to be doctors, work for NASA, be like Obama! Everyone here loves Obama. I highly doubt they know everything about his political views, but they love him regardless. Anyway, the English class was very interesting. Even though this is a nice school, they still do not have the resources we have available at our finger tips. The students were studying English and they practiced reading a script that the teacher made up, hand written, and made copies for the students. They weren't learning from books, they were using the resources they had to learn the best they could. So impressive. The students love us everywhere we go.
After we left the school we went to a large market! This market had everything from fresh butchered meat hanging outside and people handling it (gross!) to arts and crafts, fabric, food, dish ware, clothing, etc. We spent most of our time in the arts and crafts. We realized how high priced everything was at the women's center. For some things we paid almost triple what we would have at the market. However, we don't feel bad about it because we know the money is going towards a very good cause. It was interesting because we were told to barter with the people selling the goods in the market. Some spoke a little English and we also had our drivers to translate so that was helpful. However, we had two drivers for 15 people so at times we attempted it on our own. I wish someone had a video camera because I'm sure it was funny. We all (the girls...boys don't buy as many things! Shocker) walked out with at least an arm full of stuff. It also made us realize how much we are going to have to leave with the orphanage to be able to fit our souvenirs in our luggage!
We ate lunch and tried to start organizing our donations. That was a nightmare. We took over one entire room and had stuff everywhere even on the balcony. We took some things to the orphanage to start giving them items. Today we played with ISU Frisbees and footballs. I wasn't feeling like running around everywhere because I was a little tired so I sat down with some kids. Cortney (there are two Courtney/Cortney's) and soon we had two little girls on each of us doing our hair. Then three or four other ISU girls sat down and we had a little beauty saloon going on. There are lots of fun pictures. It gave us practice because we want to get our hair braided, but we know as white people we will look stupid....but we may do it anyway. We already stick out, why not stick out a little more?!
That was pretty much our day. It felt like we did a lot more than we actually did.
Something interesting is that I am now called Chelsea on our trip. Cortney forgot my name (no idea how) and accidentally called me Chelsea. People made fun of her so much by calling me Chelsea, that they actually started calling me Chelsea on accident. So I guess my name is Chelsea now. The weird thing is that I respond to being called Chelsea.
We are starting to miss some American food. The food we are eating here is good, but we are craving coffee, Mexican food, s'mores, and chocolate!! Sounds so good to me!
To answer questions from the comments... Daddy, I haven't had corn here so I don't know if it is as good. They don't grow it in fields like we do. They just randomly plant some stalks where ever. You will find some along the road, outside of a house, where ever there is room. I highly doubt they use John Deere to pick it. Kathryn, our driver hasn't named the baby yet. At least he keeps telling us he hasn't. We put the names of the people riding in our jeep (we totally have the fun jeep!) in a hat and drew out names. Unfortunately, he drew out Ashley. He said he would use it as a middle name. We think he has already named the baby, but is thinking that “If I tell them I'm going to name it Ashley, they will never know!” haha. We love our driver. He keeps us safe and he likes us!
Tomorrow we check out of our hotel for four days. We are driving two and half hours to Ruhengeri where we will trek gorillas, relax on Lake Kivi, work with the Great Ape Trust (yes, from Iowa) in the Gishwati forest. We will be in more rural areas. Kigali, the capitol of Rwanda, is huge! I will only take a back pack for the four days, so I will not have my laptop. I don't know if I'll be able to write blogs or not while I am gone. Thought I would give a warning if you don't hear from me! We return to Kigali Wednesday, May 20th.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
First day of sun!
Bite! (Hi)
Today was the first day that it didn't rain. We all forgot to put sunscreen on so we are a little pink. I having a lot of fun with the group!
Today we went to Fawe Girl's School. It is a government funded boarding school. The girls have to get a certain score on a test to be accepted. We observed their classes in the morning. My group ended up having PE during our first observation. We played volleyball outside...in a skirt. We then followed the girls to their math class. The teacher was really good. I thought he handled a class of 37 girls really well. As Americans we felt really dumb compared to these high school students! They are so advanced in their education. They high school students take organic chemistry as seniors. We take that as college sophomores or juniors!
We then went to the Rwandan Women's Network. It is a place that started after the genocide for women who husbands and children have died as a result of the genocide or their husbands are in jail for crimes committed during that time. At this center the women learn trades such as basket weaving, sewing, making cards, etc. They make items that they can sell and they keep the profit. Just recently the laws have started to change, but in the past if a women's husband died she was not entilted to the property or shared assests. So widows were left in terrible conditions. This center has housing for women who can not afford it. There are over 4,000 women that utilize the facilities! It was an amazing place. We bought so many souveniers! It was so touching to hear some of the stories of the women. We all were in tears.
We returned to Fawe in the afternoon to spend time with the girls. They spoke English better than we did. We realize how much slang we use in everyday conversation. The girls enjoyed us so much. I spoke with one of the prefects (remember from Harry Potter) and she gave me a purse. The girl Em was speaking with gave her a bracelet. We felt so bad, but they just made us take things as gift.
We finally got our driver to talk about his personal life a little bit today. We just found out TODAY that his wife was pregnant with their first child. He said it was due in a week so it would be born while we were here! We were so excited so we told him that he should name it after us (the men pick the name). Well Courtney was out from the start because it is so hard to pronouce over here. He visited his wife for lunch to see how everything was going, and then two hours later he got a phone call saying the baby was born! It was a little girl. We were soo excited, we made him leave early to go be with his wife. He took one of the girl's cameras home to take pictures of the baby so we could see!! We are very excited. :)
Well I am sitting at the resturant and my food is on its way so I'm going to sign off!
Much love sent from Africa!
-Courtney
Today was the first day that it didn't rain. We all forgot to put sunscreen on so we are a little pink. I having a lot of fun with the group!
Today we went to Fawe Girl's School. It is a government funded boarding school. The girls have to get a certain score on a test to be accepted. We observed their classes in the morning. My group ended up having PE during our first observation. We played volleyball outside...in a skirt. We then followed the girls to their math class. The teacher was really good. I thought he handled a class of 37 girls really well. As Americans we felt really dumb compared to these high school students! They are so advanced in their education. They high school students take organic chemistry as seniors. We take that as college sophomores or juniors!
We then went to the Rwandan Women's Network. It is a place that started after the genocide for women who husbands and children have died as a result of the genocide or their husbands are in jail for crimes committed during that time. At this center the women learn trades such as basket weaving, sewing, making cards, etc. They make items that they can sell and they keep the profit. Just recently the laws have started to change, but in the past if a women's husband died she was not entilted to the property or shared assests. So widows were left in terrible conditions. This center has housing for women who can not afford it. There are over 4,000 women that utilize the facilities! It was an amazing place. We bought so many souveniers! It was so touching to hear some of the stories of the women. We all were in tears.
We returned to Fawe in the afternoon to spend time with the girls. They spoke English better than we did. We realize how much slang we use in everyday conversation. The girls enjoyed us so much. I spoke with one of the prefects (remember from Harry Potter) and she gave me a purse. The girl Em was speaking with gave her a bracelet. We felt so bad, but they just made us take things as gift.
We finally got our driver to talk about his personal life a little bit today. We just found out TODAY that his wife was pregnant with their first child. He said it was due in a week so it would be born while we were here! We were so excited so we told him that he should name it after us (the men pick the name). Well Courtney was out from the start because it is so hard to pronouce over here. He visited his wife for lunch to see how everything was going, and then two hours later he got a phone call saying the baby was born! It was a little girl. We were soo excited, we made him leave early to go be with his wife. He took one of the girl's cameras home to take pictures of the baby so we could see!! We are very excited. :)
Well I am sitting at the resturant and my food is on its way so I'm going to sign off!
Much love sent from Africa!
-Courtney
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Day 2
Jambo! (Hello again)
First of all, Happy 2 year anniversary Steph and Kyle! Can't believe it's been that long already. Give the puppies some love.
Last night I had a full night of sleep in a bed for the first time in 2 nights. It was wonderful! I had a continental breakfast which was sooo good. The fresh fruit is so much better here because it's actually fresh instead of sitting on a truck for a week from California or Florida. ha. When I was walking to breakfast a man staying at the hotel asked me where I was from and when I told him I was from America he got so excited. He personally welcomed me to Africa, and I felt important :)
We went on another tour of the city. Instead of being in awe of the landscape and everything, we did a lot of people watching today. It's strange how much you learn about your own culture when observing someone else's. We always say we are in a parade because everyone stops, stares, and waves at us. The little children chase after our jeep. One even latched onto the back and our driver didn't know. Of course at the time we were going up a huge hill! Luckily, we got the driver to stop in time before the child fell off. We think it is odd because they don't have street signs and I've only seen two stop lights. Everyone kinda drives where they want and if you are getting close to hitting someone (which we feel like happens a lot) you honk your horn. It's not an angry honk like here where you would probably see someone flipping the bird with the honk, its a "just letting you know I'm beside you" honk. We in our room yesterday, and all I heard outside was honking. It's different, but our drivers said there very rarely see accidents (trust me, it's hard to believe!) Our truck is like this big hunk of steel so I really don't think anything COULD hurt it. haha. Our driver is so sweet. We shut the doors ourselves, but he comes around and slams them shut and then he says "NOW, you are safe" :) (Mom, I bet you like that!)
We also went the Genocide Memorial. I'm glad that I knew some of the background of the genocide to prepare me for this experience. It's strange to think that human beings can actually kill their neighbor, family, and friends just because of a difference in ethnicity! It's even weirder to think that it's happening AGAIN in Darfur and honestly, how many people even know about it? We were there for about 2-3 hours (my watch is still set on American time so I never know what time it is here). However, we really got it when we were sitting outside waiting for everyone to finish their tour (we all went at our own pace). We were sitting there and we just heard this woman crying. It was not like a cry I had ever heard before, she was like hyperventilating. We don't know if she saw a picture of someone she knew, she was at one of the specific places it talked about, or she just had an intense flashback. Whatever it was, it was real. It's hard to explain, but our group kinda looked at each other and we all said that it made us understand a little bit better. In all honesty, I still feel like an outsider looking in on this terrible thing. If you want to know more about it ASK ME! I have now read, seen, and heard enough that I feel like I can give enough background info to explain what happened (a little). I also bought a book that shows everything inside the memorial (you can't take pictures inside).
Today we exchanged our money and bought a few little things. Kelsie, I have everyone on the look out for a really cool African spoon!
We also returned to the orphanage. (Side note--- The man that actually started the orphanage is one of the 7 heroes of the genocide. He saved around 400 orphan es from being killed.) Anyway, we met with the man who runs the orphanage and discussed our service project. We also toured and played with the kids some more. They love the camera.
It's interesting to write this blog because I have so many stories to share, but not only would it take forever to write them, I just feel that my typed words do not do them justice.
I really enjoy the people I am with. We are starting to have some funny inside jokes. Our new saying instead of "that's a facebook quote" is "blog it!" haha.
Tomorrow we go to our first school and I think we go to the UN. Leah knows so many people and they just all happen to be really really important people. We have had 2 meals with a man from the UN that Leah went to school with in I think Canada. We went to the Great Britain's Rwandan Ambassador's office. Yesterday the Rwandan Secretary of Education came to the hotel to look for us!! How crazy is that? That is the person in charge of education for the ENTIRE country. 90 million people and she came to OUR hotel. Unfortunately, we weren't even there! She is so busy that she schedules meetings on top of meetings and we were lucky enough to get one with her this week. How crazy is that?!?
Well we have to be ready to go at 7AM tomorrow so I am going get ready for bed. I think I blew up my straightener so my hair should be interesting in pictures!! Oh well, I'll get creative.
Murobeho (Goodbye)
First of all, Happy 2 year anniversary Steph and Kyle! Can't believe it's been that long already. Give the puppies some love.
Last night I had a full night of sleep in a bed for the first time in 2 nights. It was wonderful! I had a continental breakfast which was sooo good. The fresh fruit is so much better here because it's actually fresh instead of sitting on a truck for a week from California or Florida. ha. When I was walking to breakfast a man staying at the hotel asked me where I was from and when I told him I was from America he got so excited. He personally welcomed me to Africa, and I felt important :)
We went on another tour of the city. Instead of being in awe of the landscape and everything, we did a lot of people watching today. It's strange how much you learn about your own culture when observing someone else's. We always say we are in a parade because everyone stops, stares, and waves at us. The little children chase after our jeep. One even latched onto the back and our driver didn't know. Of course at the time we were going up a huge hill! Luckily, we got the driver to stop in time before the child fell off. We think it is odd because they don't have street signs and I've only seen two stop lights. Everyone kinda drives where they want and if you are getting close to hitting someone (which we feel like happens a lot) you honk your horn. It's not an angry honk like here where you would probably see someone flipping the bird with the honk, its a "just letting you know I'm beside you" honk. We in our room yesterday, and all I heard outside was honking. It's different, but our drivers said there very rarely see accidents (trust me, it's hard to believe!) Our truck is like this big hunk of steel so I really don't think anything COULD hurt it. haha. Our driver is so sweet. We shut the doors ourselves, but he comes around and slams them shut and then he says "NOW, you are safe" :) (Mom, I bet you like that!)
We also went the Genocide Memorial. I'm glad that I knew some of the background of the genocide to prepare me for this experience. It's strange to think that human beings can actually kill their neighbor, family, and friends just because of a difference in ethnicity! It's even weirder to think that it's happening AGAIN in Darfur and honestly, how many people even know about it? We were there for about 2-3 hours (my watch is still set on American time so I never know what time it is here). However, we really got it when we were sitting outside waiting for everyone to finish their tour (we all went at our own pace). We were sitting there and we just heard this woman crying. It was not like a cry I had ever heard before, she was like hyperventilating. We don't know if she saw a picture of someone she knew, she was at one of the specific places it talked about, or she just had an intense flashback. Whatever it was, it was real. It's hard to explain, but our group kinda looked at each other and we all said that it made us understand a little bit better. In all honesty, I still feel like an outsider looking in on this terrible thing. If you want to know more about it ASK ME! I have now read, seen, and heard enough that I feel like I can give enough background info to explain what happened (a little). I also bought a book that shows everything inside the memorial (you can't take pictures inside).
Today we exchanged our money and bought a few little things. Kelsie, I have everyone on the look out for a really cool African spoon!
We also returned to the orphanage. (Side note--- The man that actually started the orphanage is one of the 7 heroes of the genocide. He saved around 400 orphan es from being killed.) Anyway, we met with the man who runs the orphanage and discussed our service project. We also toured and played with the kids some more. They love the camera.
It's interesting to write this blog because I have so many stories to share, but not only would it take forever to write them, I just feel that my typed words do not do them justice.
I really enjoy the people I am with. We are starting to have some funny inside jokes. Our new saying instead of "that's a facebook quote" is "blog it!" haha.
Tomorrow we go to our first school and I think we go to the UN. Leah knows so many people and they just all happen to be really really important people. We have had 2 meals with a man from the UN that Leah went to school with in I think Canada. We went to the Great Britain's Rwandan Ambassador's office. Yesterday the Rwandan Secretary of Education came to the hotel to look for us!! How crazy is that? That is the person in charge of education for the ENTIRE country. 90 million people and she came to OUR hotel. Unfortunately, we weren't even there! She is so busy that she schedules meetings on top of meetings and we were lucky enough to get one with her this week. How crazy is that?!?
Well we have to be ready to go at 7AM tomorrow so I am going get ready for bed. I think I blew up my straightener so my hair should be interesting in pictures!! Oh well, I'll get creative.
Murobeho (Goodbye)
Monday, May 11, 2009
We are here!
Muraho!
After two days of traveling, we finally made it to Rwanda! We left Saturday at 3 pm and arrived in Kigali, Rwanda Monday at 8 AM. To keep things brief, let's just say I had some issues with my luggage. Des Moines airport is not on top of things. Kelsey and I were standing on the runway in London jumping up and down and hugging our luggage because we finally found it. DSM forgot to give us luggage tags so they didn't know where our luggage would end up. That was very scary for a while, but Leah was awesome about helping us find the right people to beg. :) Finally we did find it and we identified it on the runway!
I slept about 4 hours on the way to London after I watched one of the in flight movies, Taken! It was good. We toured London all day on Sunday. It was beautiful. We walked to Hyde park, Buckingham Palace where we saw the changing of the guard, we walked to Big Ben, West Minister Abbey, and we saw the London Eye. The weather was perfect, and it didn't rain a drop! We took our next longest flight, about 8 hours, from London to Kenya on Kenya Airways. This was the nicest plane I have ever been on. The plane was so empty that everyone had their own row of seats. However, my arm rest didn't go up so I couldn't lay down. Needless to say, I slept maybe an hour on that flight. We landed in Kenya at 2am Kenya time. I was happy to leave that airport. Then we took two flights to Rwanda. Everyone was worried about what I would eat, but the food on the plane was AWESOME!
We landed in a very cute little airport in Rwanda at around 8AM Rwanda time (2AM US time). Everyone's luggage arrived on time, and we were so very very grateful! Our touring jeeps were waiting outside for us, and all we could do was take pictures. The country is beautiful. Dad, I've only touched my luggage once! I practiced dragging it around for nothing! :)
Our rooms were ready for us when we arrived, and to our surprise we have a tv! Kelsey is watching something on the news as we speak. The rooms are nice. It's not a suite in the Marriott, but it is very upscale for Rwanda. We have two bed, a bathroom, two mosquito nets, a little balcony (we are on the 1st floor so it's not as cool), and everything we need. The water even stays hot through my long shower! I just have to remember NOT to open my mouth. There is a little restaurant that is connected to our hotel and we all had lunch there. Getting used to "African time" is challenging. We waited an hour for our food. I had spaghetti with a meat sauce. I don't know what the meat was, but it was pretty good. They don't have too wild of food. Tonight I had pork chops, with steamed veggies, and french fries (everything is served with "chips" or fries) The pork chops weren't Iowa chops, as in they were tiny, but they tasted really good. I also split some vanilla ice cream with a friend...very good!
After we had lunch, we toured the city in our jeeps. Our drivers are our guides for the next three weeks. They help teach us the language and point out the interesting things we should see. The country is rather strange. At some points, you can really tell that it is developing. There are kids playing with no shoes and people living in huts. On the other hand, you can turn the corner and you will see a bunch of houses that would cost $300,000 in US money. It's strange in that aspect, but otherwise I really like it here. The people just stare at us, but then 90% of them wave, give us a thumbs up, or smile. Some children even chase our jeeps. (Mom Dad and Steph, do you remember the little fish that followed our submarine? I felt like I was in the submarine again!) There are so many people walking around. It is crazy how everyone is working outside, walking, or playing. It rained today, but that didn't ruin our tour.
Everyone here is so nice. We have at least three guards (I've only seen three, there could be more) at our hotel. Kelsey and I were walking back from lunch and this guard chased us down and gave us an umbrella to walk like 15 feet. At the hotel they walk around and carry umbrellas for us. It's very nice, but I feel helpless at times.
The highlight of the day was when we went to the orphanage and introduced ourselves. We could hardly get out of the jeeps before we had children hugging us and holding our hands. We were all a little shocked by this because most children we have interacted with usually take a bit of time to get used to strangers. Not these kids! Some of the older children speak English very well! The younger ones speak their native language, but it is surprising how well you can communicate even with a language barrier. There was a three year old boy named Joshua who came up and took my hand, and then he held up his arms for me to hold and and for the next hour he wouldn't let me let him down! We spun around, flew through the air, he played with my camera (oh my, the kids LOVE our cameras!), and Joshua played with my sunglasses the entire time. He loved my hair! He would just take a hold of it and play with it. It was like he couldn't understand why it was so different. We got some pretty cute pictures. I'm so excited to go back!
We got back to the hotel around 7:30 and ordered our food at 8pm, we got it at 9:15 and we got our ice cream at 9:45.... I miss how fast you can get American food!
We have free Internet, but it is rather slow and our days are very full. I'll blog as much as I can!
Miss you all!
Courtney
After two days of traveling, we finally made it to Rwanda! We left Saturday at 3 pm and arrived in Kigali, Rwanda Monday at 8 AM. To keep things brief, let's just say I had some issues with my luggage. Des Moines airport is not on top of things. Kelsey and I were standing on the runway in London jumping up and down and hugging our luggage because we finally found it. DSM forgot to give us luggage tags so they didn't know where our luggage would end up. That was very scary for a while, but Leah was awesome about helping us find the right people to beg. :) Finally we did find it and we identified it on the runway!
I slept about 4 hours on the way to London after I watched one of the in flight movies, Taken! It was good. We toured London all day on Sunday. It was beautiful. We walked to Hyde park, Buckingham Palace where we saw the changing of the guard, we walked to Big Ben, West Minister Abbey, and we saw the London Eye. The weather was perfect, and it didn't rain a drop! We took our next longest flight, about 8 hours, from London to Kenya on Kenya Airways. This was the nicest plane I have ever been on. The plane was so empty that everyone had their own row of seats. However, my arm rest didn't go up so I couldn't lay down. Needless to say, I slept maybe an hour on that flight. We landed in Kenya at 2am Kenya time. I was happy to leave that airport. Then we took two flights to Rwanda. Everyone was worried about what I would eat, but the food on the plane was AWESOME!
We landed in a very cute little airport in Rwanda at around 8AM Rwanda time (2AM US time). Everyone's luggage arrived on time, and we were so very very grateful! Our touring jeeps were waiting outside for us, and all we could do was take pictures. The country is beautiful. Dad, I've only touched my luggage once! I practiced dragging it around for nothing! :)
Our rooms were ready for us when we arrived, and to our surprise we have a tv! Kelsey is watching something on the news as we speak. The rooms are nice. It's not a suite in the Marriott, but it is very upscale for Rwanda. We have two bed, a bathroom, two mosquito nets, a little balcony (we are on the 1st floor so it's not as cool), and everything we need. The water even stays hot through my long shower! I just have to remember NOT to open my mouth. There is a little restaurant that is connected to our hotel and we all had lunch there. Getting used to "African time" is challenging. We waited an hour for our food. I had spaghetti with a meat sauce. I don't know what the meat was, but it was pretty good. They don't have too wild of food. Tonight I had pork chops, with steamed veggies, and french fries (everything is served with "chips" or fries) The pork chops weren't Iowa chops, as in they were tiny, but they tasted really good. I also split some vanilla ice cream with a friend...very good!
After we had lunch, we toured the city in our jeeps. Our drivers are our guides for the next three weeks. They help teach us the language and point out the interesting things we should see. The country is rather strange. At some points, you can really tell that it is developing. There are kids playing with no shoes and people living in huts. On the other hand, you can turn the corner and you will see a bunch of houses that would cost $300,000 in US money. It's strange in that aspect, but otherwise I really like it here. The people just stare at us, but then 90% of them wave, give us a thumbs up, or smile. Some children even chase our jeeps. (Mom Dad and Steph, do you remember the little fish that followed our submarine? I felt like I was in the submarine again!) There are so many people walking around. It is crazy how everyone is working outside, walking, or playing. It rained today, but that didn't ruin our tour.
Everyone here is so nice. We have at least three guards (I've only seen three, there could be more) at our hotel. Kelsey and I were walking back from lunch and this guard chased us down and gave us an umbrella to walk like 15 feet. At the hotel they walk around and carry umbrellas for us. It's very nice, but I feel helpless at times.
The highlight of the day was when we went to the orphanage and introduced ourselves. We could hardly get out of the jeeps before we had children hugging us and holding our hands. We were all a little shocked by this because most children we have interacted with usually take a bit of time to get used to strangers. Not these kids! Some of the older children speak English very well! The younger ones speak their native language, but it is surprising how well you can communicate even with a language barrier. There was a three year old boy named Joshua who came up and took my hand, and then he held up his arms for me to hold and and for the next hour he wouldn't let me let him down! We spun around, flew through the air, he played with my camera (oh my, the kids LOVE our cameras!), and Joshua played with my sunglasses the entire time. He loved my hair! He would just take a hold of it and play with it. It was like he couldn't understand why it was so different. We got some pretty cute pictures. I'm so excited to go back!
We got back to the hotel around 7:30 and ordered our food at 8pm, we got it at 9:15 and we got our ice cream at 9:45.... I miss how fast you can get American food!
We have free Internet, but it is rather slow and our days are very full. I'll blog as much as I can!
Miss you all!
Courtney
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Day of Departure
May 9, 2009
Today is the day we leave for Rwanda, Africa!!! :)
Here is a tentative schedule of what we will be doing each day.
May 9- Leave from DSM airport at 3:00pm.
May 10- Spend the day touring London
May 11- Arrive in Kigali the capitol of Rwanda. We will arrive in the morning, check into our hotel, and visit a genocide memorial
May 12- Tour Kigali and become familiar with our surroundings. In the evening, we will go to the orphanage for the first time.
May 13- Go to the local junior high and high school for our first school visit. We may go to the market and we will go to the orphanage again.
May 14- We will return to the schools and the orphanage
May 15- Go to a nursery school (ages 3-6yrs old)
May 16- On this day, we will climb a mountain and trek while gorillas. Have you seen gorillas in the mist? This is where I will be.
May 17- A much needed day of rest! We will be on Lake Kivu relaxing on the beach and attend a local church.
May 18- Service day- we will be working in gardens and planting trees
May 19- We will visit a park and a refugee camp from the genocide.
May 20- We will visit another school. This is the school where the students have no resources and write with chalk on pieces of slate. This will be an interesting visit.
May 21- Another school visit today. However, this is school is on the other end of the scale. We will be at Green Hills, and this school mirrors a typical American school. The President’s children attend this school….very well funded. In the afternoon, we will return to the orphanage.
May 22- This day we will visit a women’s center. Most of these women were left with nothing after the genocide and live in this center. In the afternoon, we will go to the orphanage.
May 23- Rwandan history day. We will go to a museum today and also visit the national college.
May 24- Today we will go to the largest church in the country. The church was a gift from Belgium, and 3000 people attend services every Sunday at 7:30 AM!
May 25- We will meet the Minister of Education today.
May 26- At the national college, we will present what we have learned during our visit to Rwanda. We will also fly to Tanzania at night. Our flight leaves at 4AM!!!
May 27- We start our safari experience this day! We will visit three parks in 2.5days.
May 28- Another safari day
May 29- On this day, we will visit a very traditional tribe.
May 30- Arrive is Des Moines at 6:30pm
On June 11th, I have been invited to share my experiences with my 4-H group. I am inviting anyone who would like hear about my trip and see pictures! It will be held at 7:30pm at the Carlisle Family Life Center (405 School Street, Carlisle, IA 50047)
I hope you have the opportunity to follow my blog!
Today is the day we leave for Rwanda, Africa!!! :)
Here is a tentative schedule of what we will be doing each day.
May 9- Leave from DSM airport at 3:00pm.
May 10- Spend the day touring London
May 11- Arrive in Kigali the capitol of Rwanda. We will arrive in the morning, check into our hotel, and visit a genocide memorial
May 12- Tour Kigali and become familiar with our surroundings. In the evening, we will go to the orphanage for the first time.
May 13- Go to the local junior high and high school for our first school visit. We may go to the market and we will go to the orphanage again.
May 14- We will return to the schools and the orphanage
May 15- Go to a nursery school (ages 3-6yrs old)
May 16- On this day, we will climb a mountain and trek while gorillas. Have you seen gorillas in the mist? This is where I will be.
May 17- A much needed day of rest! We will be on Lake Kivu relaxing on the beach and attend a local church.
May 18- Service day- we will be working in gardens and planting trees
May 19- We will visit a park and a refugee camp from the genocide.
May 20- We will visit another school. This is the school where the students have no resources and write with chalk on pieces of slate. This will be an interesting visit.
May 21- Another school visit today. However, this is school is on the other end of the scale. We will be at Green Hills, and this school mirrors a typical American school. The President’s children attend this school….very well funded. In the afternoon, we will return to the orphanage.
May 22- This day we will visit a women’s center. Most of these women were left with nothing after the genocide and live in this center. In the afternoon, we will go to the orphanage.
May 23- Rwandan history day. We will go to a museum today and also visit the national college.
May 24- Today we will go to the largest church in the country. The church was a gift from Belgium, and 3000 people attend services every Sunday at 7:30 AM!
May 25- We will meet the Minister of Education today.
May 26- At the national college, we will present what we have learned during our visit to Rwanda. We will also fly to Tanzania at night. Our flight leaves at 4AM!!!
May 27- We start our safari experience this day! We will visit three parks in 2.5days.
May 28- Another safari day
May 29- On this day, we will visit a very traditional tribe.
May 30- Arrive is Des Moines at 6:30pm
On June 11th, I have been invited to share my experiences with my 4-H group. I am inviting anyone who would like hear about my trip and see pictures! It will be held at 7:30pm at the Carlisle Family Life Center (405 School Street, Carlisle, IA 50047)
I hope you have the opportunity to follow my blog!
Thursday, April 30, 2009
First Entry- Second Attempt
Being technologically challenged, I accidently created two different blogs. Well I had to delete both of them and this is my third attempt!
Here is the blog I wrote on April 16th.
4-16-2009
Hello All,
As you probably know, from May 9-31, 2009, I will be traveling to Rwanda, Africa to study abroad with students from Iowa State. Currently, we are 23 days away from leaving, and I am getting really excited! It's hard to believe that after first hearing about the program in September, it is almost here.
I first heard about the program while I was in Dr. Keino's FCEDS 206 class last fall. In 2008, Dr. Leah Keino took the first group of students to Rwanda, and they presented to my class to try gain some interest for the 2009 group. I was immediately intrigued! I called my parents right away to tell them, "I AM GOING TO AFRICA!!" Well as would be expected, they laughed at me and said, "No, you aren't!" It didn't take too long to convince them that I was serious about this, and this was something that I very much wanted to do. I appreciate the support of my wonderful sister, who thought it was a fabulous idea from the get go! Thanks Steph! Luckily, my parents jumped on board eventually as well. Now, my Mom is so excited she wants to go!
This is not a typical study abroad program. I am not going to officially take classes in a college in Rwanda, but that is what makes this program truly unique. While the group of 13 is in Rwanda, we will visit five different schools, the only college in Rwanda, learn about the history of the country, gorilla trek, plant trees, and work with the orphanage in Kigali (the capitol of Rwanda). The last couple of days, we will also go on safari in Tanzania.
I am majoring in Family and Consumer Sciences (FCS) Education, and this opportunity will give me a global perspective on education. While in Rwanda we will observe in five very different schools. Some of the schools may mirror a typical American school in available resources, while others have no resources for the students to use. I have been so fortunate to have loving friends and family who have donated school supplies for me to take to these schools with no resources! I'm am pleased to say that with all of my donations thus far, I can almost fill two suitcases! THANK YOU! Unfortunately, I can only bring one suitcase for donations, so I'm going to have to borrow some storage from someone else.... Don't worry, everything will make to Rwanda!
I have also been receiving donations for the children in the orphanage. We will be visiting the orphanage every day, and each day we would like to plan an activity to do with the children as they have no formal "after school program". Last year, the ISU students brought soccer balls, Frisbees, and other fun things for kids. This year, we have been making nylon bags for the students and we are going to fill them with school supplies, toys, and nail polish (I guess they loved the ISU girls’ red and pink toes last year..boys and girls!) The Ames community has really pulled together to help sew these bags. I attempted to help sew a bag one day, but I ended up sewing a bag shut and spent the rest of the time seam ripping. Needless to say, after that experience my participation in the bag making has been through moral support. Mom and Grandma, we need to get to work on my sewing skills, or the improvement of the lack of my sewing skills!
This has probably been enough reading about me for one post, so I will spare you and stop. On my next blog, I will post our daily activities so you can know what I am up to each day...GET EXCITED!
With Love,
Courtney
P.S. A special thanks to everyone who has been a part of of supporting me either financially or through donations for the schools/orphanages! I appreciate your donations more than words can say!I did first names only just in case you are a private person...
Thank you all so much!
Here is the blog I wrote on April 16th.
4-16-2009
Hello All,
As you probably know, from May 9-31, 2009, I will be traveling to Rwanda, Africa to study abroad with students from Iowa State. Currently, we are 23 days away from leaving, and I am getting really excited! It's hard to believe that after first hearing about the program in September, it is almost here.
I first heard about the program while I was in Dr. Keino's FCEDS 206 class last fall. In 2008, Dr. Leah Keino took the first group of students to Rwanda, and they presented to my class to try gain some interest for the 2009 group. I was immediately intrigued! I called my parents right away to tell them, "I AM GOING TO AFRICA!!" Well as would be expected, they laughed at me and said, "No, you aren't!" It didn't take too long to convince them that I was serious about this, and this was something that I very much wanted to do. I appreciate the support of my wonderful sister, who thought it was a fabulous idea from the get go! Thanks Steph! Luckily, my parents jumped on board eventually as well. Now, my Mom is so excited she wants to go!
This is not a typical study abroad program. I am not going to officially take classes in a college in Rwanda, but that is what makes this program truly unique. While the group of 13 is in Rwanda, we will visit five different schools, the only college in Rwanda, learn about the history of the country, gorilla trek, plant trees, and work with the orphanage in Kigali (the capitol of Rwanda). The last couple of days, we will also go on safari in Tanzania.
I am majoring in Family and Consumer Sciences (FCS) Education, and this opportunity will give me a global perspective on education. While in Rwanda we will observe in five very different schools. Some of the schools may mirror a typical American school in available resources, while others have no resources for the students to use. I have been so fortunate to have loving friends and family who have donated school supplies for me to take to these schools with no resources! I'm am pleased to say that with all of my donations thus far, I can almost fill two suitcases! THANK YOU! Unfortunately, I can only bring one suitcase for donations, so I'm going to have to borrow some storage from someone else.... Don't worry, everything will make to Rwanda!
I have also been receiving donations for the children in the orphanage. We will be visiting the orphanage every day, and each day we would like to plan an activity to do with the children as they have no formal "after school program". Last year, the ISU students brought soccer balls, Frisbees, and other fun things for kids. This year, we have been making nylon bags for the students and we are going to fill them with school supplies, toys, and nail polish (I guess they loved the ISU girls’ red and pink toes last year..boys and girls!) The Ames community has really pulled together to help sew these bags. I attempted to help sew a bag one day, but I ended up sewing a bag shut and spent the rest of the time seam ripping. Needless to say, after that experience my participation in the bag making has been through moral support. Mom and Grandma, we need to get to work on my sewing skills, or the improvement of the lack of my sewing skills!
This has probably been enough reading about me for one post, so I will spare you and stop. On my next blog, I will post our daily activities so you can know what I am up to each day...GET EXCITED!
With Love,
Courtney
P.S. A special thanks to everyone who has been a part of of supporting me either financially or through donations for the schools/orphanages! I appreciate your donations more than words can say!I did first names only just in case you are a private person...
- Dad and Mom
- Grandpa Jim and Grandma Joyce
- Grandpa Neal and Grandma Peg
- Kyle and Steph (McCartney and Lennon...my puppy nephews)
- Paula and Claude
- Don and Margaret
- Vince
- Steve and Jan
- Kevin and Sharon
- Pat and Wayne
- Marilyn and Vernon
- Sharon and Jan
- Lisa and Marty
- Will and Kathryn
- Mary Ann
- Randy, Laura, and Drew
- Ardie and Loa
- Tara
- Aunt Marge
- Mary and Duane
- Denny and Kristy
- Great Western Bank
- Carlisle Ridge Riders- you guys are great!
Thank you all so much!
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