I spent two more days at the secondary school this week, which has quickly become probably my favorite pasttime in Kigali. This week I taught the difference between active and passive voice in English, which the kids were really on top of, so I tried (pretty unsuccessfully) to make a jeopardy-esque game for them, and realized how difficult it must have been for all my middle school and high school teachers to keep things fresh. But yeah, fun to be back and hoping we keep a partnership going with the school when we get back home.
This week, along with the two classes, we had some time to explore the city some more - particularly Tuesday, because class was cancelled. That day, to make something of the afternoon, and try to map out areas of Kigali where we hadn't visited, the group divided up different parts of the city, and I went in a group of three to Kicukiro, another sector of the city. We had the mission of just finding a few points of interest, one of which was a college of technology which had just re-opened in 2008. The Dean of Students showed us many of the features of the campus, one of them being a FIFA quality soccer pitch with field turf, but no stands. For the most part it was a typical campus, with the occasional signs of damage from the 1994 genocide, like metal parts stripped from the some of the machines used in manufacturing. It wasn't until after we left (looking out the window, seeing one of the purple government signs up the road from the entrance we used) that we discovered that the school was one memorial site as well. I thought it was a serious testament to the resilience of this place that we couldn't tell. Granted, the political tensions aren't palpable that you can see, and a lot of the serious poverty here is far from the well-paved, heavily-trafficked areas. There are still problems that need solving, but the people - many of whom remember 1994 - live right in the midst of where everything happened. They have to. Sometimes, as a student/observer/tourist/outsider I forget.
Friday, we went to visit Rwanda's 'Millennium Village' called Mayange - a place which, with the help of international aid and the United Nations, has enacted all sorts of development strategies derived from the UN's millenium development goals (MDGs). Our visit to Mayange was organized through a tour company in Kigali, and this slowly became more evident to me as the nature of each of our 'stops' became stranger and stranger. Some of them were okay - farmers showing us proudly what their crops are yielding, with our tour guide reminding us of the ways that international aid workers and donors have assisted in training the farmers. Others made me uncomfortable, and some made me very, very uncomfortable. I didn't like the idea of 'touring' a primary school when classes were in session, and I couldn't even stomach the idea of doing the same with a community health clinic. I, and a few of others had step outside and wait until we left, while many from the rest of the group - to be polite to the tour company mostly, endured some of the more invasive parts of the tour until being relieved to move on to the next site. It would have worked much better if we were a smaller group, but nonetheless, the way the tour company handled showing Westerners all of the improvements from implementation of MDGs made my stomach turn. The day ended with a "community meeting" where members of the community essentially stopped their daily lives to (for lack of a better word) entertain the group with testimonies about effects of the genocide on the community, Intore dancing* and food. The way it felt like 'entertainment' organized by the tour company again made me tremendously uncomfortable, but opened up questions for me about the strange symbiosis between exposure, tourism from the West, international aid, and the Rwandan economy. The tourism industry is a central part of the economy insofar as it influences aid from the West. It's a structural part of globalization and international economics. Nonetheless, the day made me severely uncomfortable (especially to be an American), and downright sick at the idea of "tourism" in a place like Mayange.
The way this was orchestrated was the responsibility of the tour group, and has nothing to do with the abroad program as a whole (which has been great), nor Millenium Village Project. I'm planning to read up more on MVP - because a lot of the program enacts strategies that have tremendously improved the quality of life of many people in the community of Mayange: microloans, a larger staff and better facilities at the health clinics, internet access in the schools, and so on. I'm not very well versed in differing models of developing rural areas of 'developing' countries, but this trip at least put lots of questions in my head about the subject, mainly regarding what works, and more importantly about how much international aid workers and planners allow community members agency and a sufficient role in directing how they want to improve their communities.
Saturday was very different, and lots of fun. Doug, Kate, Sarah and I left the guesthouse in the morning with the plan to get on a random minibus (Volkswagen vans which drive all over Kigali and the rest of the country) and just see where it ended up. Our method was asking a minibus operator which buses went to Eastern province (one-fourth of the country). This was too vague, so we corrected our request by asking how we could get close to Akagera National Park. One two hour cramped busride later, we ended up in Kabarondo, a small village about 30 minutes by motorcycle taxi to Akagera. We ate lunch (goat brochettes and "chips" of course) and then were approached by an Irish man teaching in Rwandan schools out there (also helping with the English change) who told us we should head to Lake Muhazi, which was about 20 minutes by another minibus. We took his advice, enjoyed a relaxing day on the shores of the lake, as well as a boat ride on some of the most peaceful water I've ever seen. I realized as we left that the water seemed so blue not because the water itself had that color at all, but because it was so peaceful that the blue sky was more vividly reflected in it. Though it was cramped, the ride there and back made up what was probably the most beautiful drive I've ever taken. The whole day - ending up somewhere at random, the drive, the lake - was just right.
If you've seen The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and/or know how ridicuous we are, it explains the above picture.
Now today I'm preparing for a week of homestay, which is mainly why I've written such a long blog post. It's likely that my next update will be from Butare (university town in the South) or perhaps The Hague, Netherlands! It's going by pretty quickly.
*Intore dancing is a traditional form of dance that's specifically Rwandan, made popular by the Twa people, a small ethnic minority which was traditionally composed of artisans. Though the rest of the tour was pretty orchestrated and uncomfortable (and borderline offensive), it was nice to get a chance to see Intore performed. A few others from the group got a chance to see this from friends that they've met in the area, but I hadn't yet.
