June 29

June 29, 2013

Last night we had a party with the staff at the guesthouse to celebrate our time in Rwanda and to say goodbye.  Everyone wore traditional Rwandan clothing and 4 hours were blocked off for this event.  The entire staff worked so hard to put this together for us and it was very hard coming to the realization that our time here is almost over.

There were traditional Rwandan dancers and musicians and it was soooo entertaining to watch. The kids performing looked like they were a little younger than us, probably in high school.  It was cool seeing such a big group of kids who were interested in their traditional culture and performed it for us so well.

The party was very touching and I’m glad we stayed at a guesthouse where everyone works so hard to make us feel at home.  We’ve all became very close with the staff and I think we’re all found a second family at the guesthouse. I’m really going to miss staying up and talking to Jackson and listening to Benoit sing.

After dinner a few of us went to an art gallery party which was pretty cool. They had a room of artwork done by children and it was amazing how talented some of them were. We didn’t stay long and after that, Elizabeth and I tried to go to a bar near the guesthouse but it was really awkward and we didn’t stay for long at all. When we got back, Caitie, Lydia, Jackson and I went to the Mille Collines to hang out on our last night. It was fun to just relax with everybody before packing and getting ready to leave.

Today Chelsea, Sarah and I went to a restaurant called “Afrika Bite” which was one of the only moderate-priced restaurants that served Rwandan food. It was so good and I wish we had all found it earlier. The best part was the chipati, which my host family served me and I fell in love with.

We’ve had a great last couple of days between traveling to DRC and celebrating with the guesthouse staff. I couldn’t have asked for a better group of people to spend five weeks in Rwanda with and am so excited to return to this beautiful country sometime in the future.

June 28

June 28, 2013

Yesterday I took a trip to Gisenye with Lydia, Liz and Rachel.  Gisenye is a port town on Lake Kivu bordering the Democratic Republic of Congo.  Gisenye is also beside the city of Goma in the DRC.  Goma is the city where refugee camps were set up after the genocide. These camps were mostly holding Hutu refugees and very few Tutsi victims.

On Thursday morning we took a 3-hour bus ride to Gisenye, which was pretty cramped.  Once we got to Gisenye we took a cab to our hotel which ended up being another branch of Bethany (the guesthouse we stay at in Kigali).

We decided to go straight to the border and scope out our chances of getting to cross – which were slim to none.  We went to the small border first and talked to the guard.  He was pretty nice and let us take a few pictures although we couldn’t actually cross the border into Goma.

Since we didn’t have much luck, we decided to go to the larger border crossing.  There were throngs of people moving across the border and I had no idea that many people went back and forth every day.  There were a lot of people who were physically disabled crossing the border and we guessed it was to get treatment but we’re still not really sure.

The guard this time told us we had to have a visa from the Congo embassy and wasn’t happy about us taking pictures.  We went further back to take some pictures of Goma and the volcanoes and one government official got super frustrated with us for “taking pictures of his people”. 

It started to rain so we took refuge under a building.  We met a Rwandan man who was around our age.  He told us that he was going to school in Goma and had to cross the border every day.  Rwanda changed its national language from French to English in 2008 (I think) and in order to continue his studies in French he had to travel to another country.  This was very interesting because I never thought about students having to deal with that as a result of the new national language.

Overall we had a successful trip to Gisenye even though we weren’t allowed to cross the border and we pissed off a few government officials and guards.  Just looking across the border at the Congo was a strange experience and felt very eerie, especially with the volcanoes.  I would definitely recommend anyone visiting Rwanda to explore this city.

June 23

Yesterday was Chelsea and Meg’s birthday so we decided to get dinner and go out dancing after.  We went to Republica Lounge, which is very Western and very pricy.  About halfway through dinner I look up and notice that one of the men sitting at the long table beside us looks oddly similar to Isaiah Washington (Dr. Burke from Grey’s Anatomy).  The longer I look at him and notice his (loud and obnoxious) mannerisms, the more I start to really think that it’s him.  After we found out it was indeed him, he started rambling about DNA and Africa and something about the Genome Sciences Lab at UNC.  But, Preston Burke is one of my favorite characters on Grey’s Anatomy and it was awesome meeting him.  Turns out he was in Kigali for a gorilla naming ceremony?

After dinner we went to Papyrus and ended up getting back to the guesthouse around 4:30 this morning.  I slept a few hours and got up to go to church since today is our last Sunday in Rwanda L.

I went to the Presbyterian Church that’s part of our guesthouse.  It was so much different than my church at home but I really enjoyed the service.  The congregation was a lot smaller than the one I went to last Sunday.  The pastor was a woman, which is not something you would ever see in my Southern Baptist church at home.  The service consisted of a lot of singing and worship and out of the 2 hour service the sermon only lasted about 20-25 minutes. 

I really liked that the service was focused more on singing and praying and actually worshipping than the preacher preaching at you, which is what most protestant churches in the states are like.  There was a visiting group from a church in Kenya who performed a song/somewhat of a dance for us at the beginning of the service which was really cool.  Some of the hymns were the same at the ones at my church at home the beat was more fast-paced, which was interesting. 

It’s actually staring to hit me that this is my last week in Rwanda.  I feel like I’ve been here for so long but at the same time I feel like there’s so much that I haven’t seen and experienced yet.  I’ve loved the time I’ve spent here and I am about 90% sure that I’ll be re-visiting this beautiful country again in the future.

June 22

We spent two nights in Kibuye this weekend and explored a little bit of Lake Kivu.  The lake is beautiful and it was a very relaxing weekend for the most part.  The hotel wasn’t nearly as nice as the guesthouse in Kigali and I was very excited to return to Bethany this morning.

We got to Kibuye Thursday afternoon and Friday morning we took boats to Amahoro Island and spent a couple of hours relaxing by the water.  It was such a beautiful island and I felt like we were in the Caribbean.  The lake is so big and is surrounded by hills (as is the rest of Rwanda) and the views were amazing.  So naturally my camera battery died right when we landed on the island.

During our time here I’ve experienced a fair amount of alienation, especially as you get to the more rural areas of Rwanda.  On our way back from Kibuye, we made a bathroom stop in a very rural region with a lot of people, and I think this experience takes the cake for the most alienated I’ve felt in Rwanda.

As the bus pulled over a group gathered around to see what the white people were doing stopping in their town.  We were definitely a spectacle and around 100, if not more, people began to stare inside our bus.  It literally felt like we were animals in a zoo.  Elizabeth and I had our window open and an older man tried to open it from the outside. 

After students got off the bus to go to the bathroom, the bus door stayed open and women and children stood outside looking at us and talking about us to each other.  Some asked for money and others laughed when one of us tried to say “good morning” to “hello” in Kinyarwanda. 

This is probably the most uncomfortable I’ve felt throughout the entire trip because there were so many people just peering through the windows looking at us.  In most other places we’ve been, people would look at us while they walked by the bus but a congregation of people isn’t that common. 

June 22

We spent two nights in Kibuye this weekend and explored a little bit of Lake Kivu.  The lake is beautiful and it was a very relaxing weekend for the most part.  The hotel wasn’t nearly as nice as the guesthouse in Kigali and I was very excited to return to Bethany this morning.

We got to Kibuye Thursday afternoon and Friday morning we took boats to Amahoro Island and spent a couple of hours relaxing by the water.  It was such a beautiful island and I felt like we were in the Caribbean.  The lake is so big and is surrounded by hills (as is the rest of Rwanda) and the views were amazing.  So naturally my camera battery died right when we landed on the island.

During our time here I’ve experienced a fair amount of alienation, especially as you get to the more rural areas of Rwanda.  On our way back from Kibuye, we made a bathroom stop in a very rural region with a lot of people, and I think this experience takes the cake for the most alienated I’ve felt in Rwanda.

As the bus pulled over a group gathered around to see what the white people were doing stopping in their town.  We were definitely a spectacle and around 100, if not more, people began to stare inside our bus.  It literally felt like we were animals in a zoo.  Elizabeth and I had our window open and an older man tried to open it from the outside. 

After students got off the bus to go to the bathroom, the bus door stayed open and women and children stood outside looking at us and talking about us to each other.  Some asked for money and others laughed when one of us tried to say “good morning” to “hello” in Kinyarwanda. 

This is probably the most uncomfortable I’ve felt throughout the entire trip because there were so many people just peering through the windows looking at us.  In most other places we’ve been, people would look at us while they walked by the bus but a congregation of people isn’t that common.