Twa.
According to the CIA world fact book they account for about 1% of the Rwandan population. Other sources I have read say about 4%. With a population of just under 11.4 million that's 114,000-456,000 people. That's like saying one out of every three people in Maine were Twa.
So, what is a Twa? They are, perhaps politically incorrectly referred to in the vernacular, Pygmies! While this may come off as rude, childish, etc., I think it's really interesting, and for a couple of different reasons. One, it's going to be one of the more awkward experiences of my life, and as many of you know, I have had many an awkward moment in my life. In my childish head and misguided thoughts of how colonies started (Rwanda was first colonized by Germans...) it's going to go down like this: Me, a tall white foreigner coming into a village of Twa (who stand up to an average height of 4 ft!) speaking a different language. They are going to think of me as some beastly tall, white god beckoning them in a holy language, praising me and offering me their services. None of this is founded on any sound logic or reason, but I have had a fun-employed summer and my mind, after graduating, has taken sabbatical until further notice. A second, and more logical, though less interesting to tell, reason is that it's going to be really cool to see a hunter/gatherer tribe of people who are believed to potentially be a different species of human, like cro-magnons to neanderthals.
Poop stories.
I'm mostly just curious to see what sort of maladies Rwanda has in store for me.
Mountain gorillas.
Rwanda has the largest mountain gorilla population in Africa. Safari!
Kinyarwanda.
I like to think I have a knack for languages. I took Russian for a semester and, with some challenges, I did extremely well. I also learned a great deal of Spanish, some French, and how to swear like a sailor in Arabic. Kinyarwanda however, is going to make Russian look like a little prissy girl in pink tights and pigtails frolicking through a field of posies and tulips. I bet Arabic could put up a fight, but Spanish and French, well, they're too busy crying in the corner to notice. The back of the English-Kinyarwanda-French dictionary I bought says, "Kinyarwanda is the native language in Rwanda. It is a complex tonal language that is not easily mastered." Sweet. Not only do I have to learn a difficult to master language during my stint in Rwanda, but I need to develop an intermediate level of proficiency in three months to become a volunteer. But hey, everyone has done it, so really, how hard can it be...
Kinyarwanda is a tonal language with 16 nouns classes (English has none). The best example I can think of is grouping nouns together based off of gender (not necessarily biologically speaking). Nouns in Kinyarwanda are, according to good ol' Wiki, grouped into things like: humans, trees/shrubs/and things that extend (WTF?!), things in quantities/body parts/liquids (why are body parts and liquids grouped together?), generic large or abnormal things, mixture (the example of a mixture on Wiki is "home"...uh, what the hell am I living in for the next two years?) and it goes on. Needless to say, I am going to be steeped in awkward moments of saying the wrong tone for something, on top of adding the wrong noun class, creating scenarios of me probably saying to a village elder, "Good penis! How cat will you do today, squirrel?" I plan on keeping a small notebook and pen with me at all times, not only to document my hilarity but theirs too. Apparently l's and r's are hard to say, so things like "clap" come out like "crap." Oh boy.
With tomorrow being September reality is inescapable. I am leaving SOON. I am going to be scrambling to get all my things squared away and say goodbye to loved ones.I have an address that people can send things to during training in Rwanda, it's buried somewhere, I will post it soon.
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