June 19

It dawned on me today that we leave Rwanda next week. On one hand, it feels like I’ve been here for a year. But at the same time, there is still so much I want to see, so much I want to learn and so many more people I want to meet.  As much as I don’t want to think about leaving, missing the conveniences of home hit me a little hard yesterday.

I take for granted how easy it is to wash my clothes, clean dishes and hop in my car and drive anywhere I need to go when I’m in America.  Last night I lost all of my patience after a stress-inducing trip to the market where it was crowed, stuffy and the saleswomen would not stop hounding me.  I finally came back to the guesthouse where a load of laundry awaited me. After I was finally done with my errands around 7:30, I was starving.  Some students helped to cook a dinner for the group which wasn’t ready until 9:30 because the burner to make the rice wasn’t working – the whole time wishing with my whole heart that there was a Bojangles (or any fast food for that matter) in Kigali.  After finally having dinner, it was time for the students who didn’t cook to clean up and do the dishes. 

As I was washing the dishes, I kept remembering all the times at home that I moaned and complained about having to put the dishes up after the dishwasher had cleaned them or having to fold and put up my clean clothes.

We had a guest speaker in class Monday who was talking about how some pregnant women in Rwanda live five kilometers from the nearest hospital.  When their water breaks, they have to walk over numerous hills to get to a doctor, and a lot of times, they don’t make it and have their babies on the side of the road.

I thought back to that speaker’s lecture and immediately felt ashamed for letting the events of the day put me in such a bad mood.  I felt worse when I thought of how I let even smaller things put me in a bad mood back in the states.  Most people in Rwanda live without the everyday things I’ve grown so accustomed to, but it goes beyond that.  Many Rwandans have lived the past twenty years without their parents, their children, and other family members.

This trip has been such a blessing to me and I wish that everyone at home could see the circumstances that others around the world live in. I sincerely hope that I will remember the things I’ve seen and read about when I return home and complain about having to go to work or study for an exam.