Site Integration

This blog entry is going to end up being a mélange of happenings from this past week with little organization, but hopefully you can understand it.

Monday the school was given a bunch of sports equipment, jump ropes, volleyballs, dodge balls, etc., from a town somewhere in England as a pseudo-outreach program in response to London’s hosting the Olympics. The kids were super excited and just enraptured with being able to use balls not made out of plastic bags wrapped around one another.

After taking some pictures I was invited to taste the wine that some students in the Science Club made. It actually wasn’t that bad. Tasted more like juice turning sour but after fermentation takes hold I’m sure it’ll be better.

If you thought being the only white person walking through a rural village in the heart of Africa was enough to get blank stares then join students for porridge at 630am and prepare for discomfort. I could hear whispers from students as soon as I stepped out of the house and made my way to the cafeteria. Laughs got louder and louder the closer I got. Some of my students flagged me down to sit with them. Laughter turned into amazement as I poured some porridge into my cup and after I had my first sip I could hear applause reverberating through the building and cheers pouring forth from students everywhere. Though I don’t particularly care for the porridge it’s at least a good way to get myself out there and feel a part of the school rather than sleeping until 8am and reading a book until it’s time to teach. The students loved it and are genuinely excited for me to experience life as they know it.

After the porridge invitation I was asked to join them on Saturday to run a 5k. Every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday they wake up at 5am to go running, and as I learned, nothing in Rwanda happens without leading to an interesting little anecdote.

Though I’ve now been in Rwanda for 5+ months I have not been able to shake the innate desire to maintain some sort of semblance to the German hobby of time keeping, partly due to the fact that things around the school do revolve around a moderately functioning schedule, give or take a few minutes. So when I was told porridge is served at 630am and it was indeed so I could only assume that the same would be for running. I set the alarm for 445am to stretch before going outside to meet up with everyone at 5am. For some reason if I don’t set an alarm I can sleep all day here but the second an alarm is set my body will instinctively wake up 45 minutes before it goes off. So, when 4am rolls around I find myself lying in bed unable to fall back asleep. No big deal, just lay around listening to music before I get out of bed. 530am comes and students are just beginning to get up. Eventually I make my way outside to find a group of students in what I can only describe as a feral conga line making animal noises between the blowing of whistles, jumping around, and singing (or shouting, not sure when one becomes the other). Probably 20ish minutes of this passes before enough people are up and about to start the run. I think the only reason for the hampered enthusiasm for my being there was that it was too cold and early for bouts of laughter and applause, though there were some who found enough energy for that.

The run itself wasn’t too adventurous, except that the first kilometer was on a dirt road, barely visible because of the lack of sunlight, being crowded in the middle of everyone, and the previous night it rained. I had plenty of awkward stumbles as I hit slippery rocks and holes in the dirt road but luckily I never fell. Given my difficulties I don’t understand how some of the students wearing flip flops managed. Rwandans are just made from tougher material. We got to the main road, paved!, and now the only obstacles are the (thinning) throng of students around me , the hills, and vehicles veering past us like we weren’t there. I managed the run while only stopping once for perhaps 1/4-1/2 mile, which given my first time running in Rwanda, battling hills, dirt roads, and the putrid smell of body odor, I can accept.

We all had some porridge afterwards and I saw a kid wearing what at first glance looked like a normal Calvin Klein shirt, but after further inspection is a Cosmo Kramer shirt. I approached him and told him that after Umuganda (because it just so happened that after running we had to participate in this monthly community service) I wanted to show him who The K-man is. Just like everything this past week, students were amazed that I was doing something they were doing. I just had the task of cleaning up around a tree. Nothing of consequence. But afterwards two students helped me start my garden!

Nothing is planted as of yet, but something this next week I’ll get around to it. I also need to construct a fence around it so that the cows don’t get into it. As a treat I showed an episode of Seinfeld (The Subway) to those who helped me and on the next market day I’m going to buy food to cook them an American meal for dinner.

After two months at site it feels like I’m finally settling into something that’s becoming familiar and starting to feel like it could be a home.