Heading Home

So, this may or may not come as a surprise to you, but I'm heading home. I was really trying to make things work in Byumba, but I was pretty miserable so it didn't seem to make sense to continue just to prove something to myself or someone else. I really appreciated the couple of weeks that I spent there, and learned a lot about refugees and the organizations that serve them.
The constant presence of a language barrier really made it difficult to get to know almost everyone in Byumba. When at home I was usually by myself and when at work I was with other people most of the day, but I could never understand what they were saying. The language barrier also had definite implications for the amount I was going to be able to contribute to the kinyarwanda speaking community health workers whose education was my focus. Things were very difficult at work and difficult outside of work, so I didn't really feel as if I had an outlet.
It was a difficult situation and it may have gotten less difficult the more time I stayed there, but that wasn't the sense I got from the way things were going. I'm disappointed on a lot of levels, but I think that returning home is the best personal decision for me right now. I'm trying to assure myself that this experience was a valuable one, and if nothing else, I've learned a lot about myself. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone again when I get home. Hopefully you'll be able to recognize me with all the bug bites I've accumulated.

My Grownup Christmas List

I didn't go to the camp today but instead worked at ARC's office in Byumba so I could do a little research on the internet on some of the projects I'll be working on. It was a fairly lonesome day after a fairly lonesome weekend and I was feeling a little down in the dumps on my walk home. My mood shifted, however, when I was going through the "center" of town and walking by this group of moto-taxi guys who always heckle me a little and one of them was blaring Amy Grant's My Grownup Christmas List on his radio. If you could have only seen this group of macho men sitting on their motorcycles and bopping to My Grownup Christmas List. I laughed the rest of the way home.


My Grownup Christmas List

Land of 1000 Hills and 1 Mzungu

So I've been in Rwanda for 10 days and I have to admit, I'm quite homesick. Everyone is very nice here and welcoming to me, but being the only non-African in my camp is very difficult. The language barrier is the main problem. Rwanda and the eastern Congo share a language called Kinyarwanda. Most of the refugees only speak this language. The majority of staff also speak French in addition to Kinyarwanda. Most of those that speak English pretty well spent some time in Uganda either before or during the genocide. There are about 6 or 7 people who work in the camp who speak English. I'm getting used to not understanding group conversations, but not being able to talk with most people other than to say, "Hi, How are you?" is getting tough. I spend my days at Gihembe surrounded by so many people but unable to speak with most which I'm finding a bit lonely. It also has big implications for my ability to contribute to the camp. I'm learning a little Kinyarwanda, but think that French is my best bet since many French words are similar to English and Spanish. Also, since I'm only going to be in Rwanda for three months, French is more diverse of a language than Kinyarwanda. My first French lesson is tomorrow with the husband of Chantal- the lady who does the cooking and cleaning in our house. He teaches English and French at a local school and when I spoke with him, his English seemed not too bad so I have hope.
It's Friday at 7pm and I'm looking at a weekend of solitude besides my French lesson tomorrow. As I mentioned before, my housemate, Maclean, drives to Uganda every weekend for a class that she's taking so she leaves on Friday afternoon and doesn't come back until Sunday evening. Although my Rwandan coworkers are friendly, we're not quite on the level of "what are we doing this weekend?" yet. The other expat ARC staff live in Kigali or at one of the other camps which are hours from here so it looks like this Mzungu will be on a silent retreat in Byumba for weekend. I know that I'm having a pity party, but I'm not used to being alone for days on end- I'm a very social person. I'm hoping that this aspect of Rwandan life gets a little easier for me. 

Plastic

I'm tired and don't have anything too meaningful to contribute, but it's my blog after all and I think I'd be doing my few followers an injustice if I didn't mention that plastic bags are illegal in Rwanda. I found this out because I was going to see Maclean's friend's new baby with her and we had a gift and I offered a beautiful plastic bag to put it in and she informed me that we would be stopped and arrested. When Rwanda says no plastic bags, they mean no plastic bags. It's not like the state of Massachusetts saying no texting while driving and me texting at red lights and totally getting away with it. I'm sure one of the 10 policemen carrying shot guns we met on our 15 minute walk would have stopped us. I would hope he would take pity on the poor mzungu, but in Rwanda, rules are rules. 
Given the context that this country has come out of, I understand the need for rules, but sometimes they are kind of silly. Like for instance, the Ministry of Health gave Gihembe a kajillion mosquito nets and apparently all refugees in the country are supposed to be using them. The refugees are using them to keep bugs away from their cooking areas instead of over their beds. Which would be a problem except for the fact that Byumba is too cold for mosquitos with malaria to live. So, honestly, I don't understand what the point is in forcing these refugees to use their mosquito nets correctly. Not that anyone asked me, but come on- there are enough other things to try to get them to do that actually matter to work on something that doesn't matter.
Anyway, in closing, some of the rules are pretty neat. Like on some Saturdays, everyone in the country has to participate in acts of community service like cleaning a park or something. I think that's pretty cool.
Well, I guess I better go find somewhere to hide my ziplock bags. More to come soon. And the baby was really cute by the way. She is almost two weeks old and has no name yet so I suggested Nora totally joking around and the mom was like, yes, that is a beautiful name and I think was seriously considering it. I think I talked her out of it though.

Just call me Mzungu

Today was my first day at the Gihembe refugee camp. If I had a Rwandan franc for every time I someone called me a Mzungu today I would be rich. Okay, no, I wouldn't be rich because there are about 600 francs in 1 dollar so I'd just be up a buck or two. I'm told Mzungu means "white person" in Kinyarwanda. I googled it and it apparently it literally means "confused" but that's the word they use for all white people whether or not they're confused. I probably qualified as a confused white person today so they were pretty accurate I guess. Literally though, groups of refugee children surrounded me staring and saying, "Mzungu, mzungu," and "good morning" (even at 4 in the afternoon haha). They smile when they say it though and seem to get some kind of kick out of me so I guess it's alright. We were careening down the muddy hill  in the pouring rain leaving the camp at the end of the day in the transport van and I could see kids faces light up when they saw me and their little lips mouthing "mzzzuunguu" in slow motion out the window. Most of the time I'm okay with the attention because I realize that they don't see white people that much. Sometimes though, it's difficult not to let it get to you. I've never had people stare at my constantly before. I realize I look different from you, kids, no need to stare, point and state it. Anyways, I'm sure I'll get used to it or they'll get used to me- whatever comes first.

There's much more to say about Gihembe than people staring at a white girl though, so I'll move on. I mentioned before that there are about 20,000 Congolese refugees living at the camp. I was able to sit in on the staff meeting for the coordinators and medical personal from all different sectors from HIV/AIDs to water allocation to Gender based violence, etc this morning so that gave me a good idea of who people are and what they do. Most of the staff are Rwandan with a couple of Ugandans. I spent the afternoon with the nutritionist who showed me around and told me all about the different programs and their target groups. There are supplementary feeding programs for pregnant and lactating mothers, qualifying children under 5, people with iron deficiency anemia and people with HIV/AIDs. They have the kids actually come and eat at the nutrition center because of the concern that the supplementary food would be shared with others or sold. They have regular weighings and track the kids growth and abdominal girth. The kids are no longer in the nutrition program when their waist stops growing from what I'm told. I'm going to spend the week getting to know the various health programs and then work with the staff to figure out where I can best concentrate my energy. More to come on that.

I'll just make one more brief comment on the water supply at my Rwandan residence. I think God is trying to give me a teeny tiny glimpse of what it's like to be a refugee. We are supposed to have running water from 6am to 2pm. From my experience over the last three days, this is not really happening. I don't think I realized what a princess I've been up until now. Not having running water makes everything complicated. You have to flush the toilet with a bucket of water, use a different bucket to bathe, fill and refill all those buckets with water from a heavy jerrycan. I continue to attempt to turn on the faucets for some reason- it's so defeating. This is a tough life, but I'm surviving so far.

A lot has happened in the last couple of days. Thursday I spent a day at the main ARC office in Kigali. Since I didn't really have any work to do, Sarah, the senior program coordinator, asked me to review a survey that ARC had done with the Congolese refugees in their three camps in Rwanda. They surveyed a little over 1000 randomly selected refugees and asked them about their intent to return to the Congo using yes/no and multiple select questions. The numbers were already calculated, they just asked me to interpret the data. Given that I've never really worked with refugees before, it was interesting for me because I was able to get a better understanding of the situation of the people I'll be working with.
I won't get into too many details, but only about 1/3 of the refugees surveyed said that they would want to go back to where they came from in the Congo. Almost half of them were unsure of what they wanted to do and the others either wanted to go somewhere else or stay in Rwanda. Most of them had been displaced for over 10 years. From what they responded, the reason they hadn't yet returned to the Congo, didn't want to go back, or weren't sure about going back is that they were uncertain if it was safe for them and their families to return- about half of them feared physical violence, and 1/5- mostly women- feared sexual violence. They also had concerns about access to basic resources such as food, water, and land.
On Friday there was an "expat" meeting for ARC staff including the country director, program coordinator, the directors of the three camps, the logistics director, the gender based violence (GBV) coordinator and myself. Listening to the meeting, I was able to appreciate all it takes to run three camps for 50,000 refugees. They have to take care of everything from providing water to food to latrines to health services to some refugee causing trouble in a couple of the camps to vehicles for transport of people and supplies, the list goes on and on. I also presented the results from the intent to return survey during the meeting. I was a little nervous, but I think it was good for me to be able to jump right in.
After the meeting, I left for Byumba (the site I'll be living and working) with Maclean. Maclean is camp director of Gihembe, the camp I'll mostly be working in. Her family is from southern Uganda so although she's only been here for nine months herself, she knows the local language and is right at home in Rwanda. We stopped at a supermarket in Kigali on the way to Byumba. I'm going to be living with Maclean and she has a cook that goes and buys groceries and does the cooking and cleaning but she's off on weekends so we bought a couple of things to get through the weekend. I bought Coke zero (obviously), pasta, tomato paste, apples, pesto, milk, and cereal. They didn't have tomato sauce other than ketchup which actually was labeled tomato sauce. I haven't tried to cook anything yet. I guess there's always cereal.
So now I'm in Byumba. Maclean is taking a class on the weekends that is three hours away so she left this morning and won't be back until Sunday night. I was initially a bit nervous about spending my first weekend in Byumba alone, but I'm feeling better about it now. Besides, I'm not really alone- I have Francois the house guard and Maclean told me her friend is going to come by later to see me later. Poor Francois probably thinks I'm the craziest white girl ever. I've been running around the yard trying to catch a good look at the little lizards that are scampering around. He speaks French and Kinyarwanda so I'm not even able to explain myself, although I've tried. I haven't ventured outside of the house gates yet. Hopefully I'll do that with Maclean's friend later.

This is the view from our house in Byumba. That's Francois' 

leg on the far left.

Kigali

After a long plane ride and several airplane meals, I arrived in Kigali this afternoon at 2pm Rwandan time, 8am EST. It was a 26 hour trip in total, but looking at a map I realized that flying through Ethiopia was definitely not the most direct route. ARC's logistics coordinator, a nice guy named Apollo from Uganda, picked me up from the airport. He could not believe that this is my first time in Africa and told me that I'd be learning a lot. 

Kigali appears to be a very nice city. It is very green with a lot of colorful flowers, plants and trees everywhere. Looking out in every direction you can hills. The main roads are paved. Driving from the airport to my hotel, there seemed to be a fair amount of automobile traffic but also a lot people on foot- women with bags and packages, men walking in pairs and small groups and kids in uniforms.

We dropped my luggage off at the hotel and immediately went to ARC's central headquarters in Kigali, which was only about a 10 minute drive. I there met the country director, the senior program coordinator and the finance director. They gave me a quick briefing about how ARC functions in Rwanda. Two surprises were that they gave me a cell phone to use while I'm here as well as portable modem that I'll be able to access the internet with. I have to say, I'm very thankful for the modem as I wasn't expecting internet to be that available to me.

I ate pizza and drank Rwandan beer for dinner and hope to be asleep by 830 because I am beat and am meeting again at the main office tomorrow at 8am. I'll be in Kigali until Friday afternoon when I go to my site in Byumba which is about 1 hour's drive north of here. So far so good, but I think Apollo is right- I'll be learning a lot!

This is the view from right outside my hotel.

Here I come!

I left for Rwanda this morning. I'm in DC waiting for my flight to Ethiopia and if all goes as planned I'll be in Rwanda tomorrow!

Here are a couple of articles that explain Rwanda's history and present if you're curious. I've also listed an article about Dr. Durant.


Rwanda: How the Genocide Happened- BBC News Africa


16 Years After the Genocide, Rwanda Continues Forward- NYTimes.com

Dr. Thomas S. Durant

You're going where?

That's definitely a question that I've gotten a few times recently. I was fortunate enough to be selected for a fellowship that was awarded through MGH to work internationally. Thomas Durant was a Mass General physician who dedicated his career to serving refugee populations and victims of complex humanitarian disasters. Dr. Durant passed away in 2001 and in his memory and legacy, the fellowship has now sent more than 10 doctors, nurses and other health care professionals to the field. Through mentorship and guidance from experienced MGH staff, I've selected to work with the American Refugee Committee in their camps which serve 50,000 Congolese refugees in Rwanda.

The reason there are refugees from the Congo in Rwanda is kind of a tricky story. You probably know of Rwanda's 1994 genocide in which an estimated 800,000 people were murdered in a period of 100 days. For reasons that go back in Rwanda's recent history dating back to colonization, many members of one ethnic group, the Hutus, attempted to ethnically cleanse Rwanda of men, women and children from the other ethnic group, the Tutsis. Moderate Hutus were also targeted. After the genocide, many Hutus fled to the eastern portion of the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo. Most of these refugees have since been repatriated to Rwanda where Hutus and Tutsis again live alongside one another. Some Hutu extremists, however, remained and are part of a Hutu militia that fights a Tutsi rebel group in the eastern Congo. This situation has made it unsafe for Congolese Tutsis to remain in their country and they have sought refuge in Rwanda. So those are the refugees that make up the camps that I'll be working in.


The ARC has asked me to help with education of community health workers and capacity building. Although I have worked internationally on short term trips a few times before, this will be my first time in Africa and my first time doing this kind of work. I expect to learn a lot!