It has been a while…

Hey there. Sorry it has been a while since I last posted. I have been wicked busy. Here are a few highlights, with more detailed posts to come:

- I was asked to help present to a Clinical Officer (CO) class. Here, CO are the Rwandan equivalent of a Physician Assistant. They will be the ones on the front line, in the Health Centers throughout the country. I presented on 2 topics for about 2.5 hours on 2 different days. It was a lot of work and exhausting, not only preparing the lectures, but also presenting. I have a new found appreciation for teaching, and for those of you who are teachers. A special shout out to Scott Conard and Michael Wilbanks!

- I traveled to visit Laura at her orphanage in Western Uganda over 5 days. It was an awesome trip, playing with the orphans, especially the preschool aged kids, a new addition to the orphanage. Laura and the staff there continue to impress me with the level of care they provide, and how well the kids are taken care of. It is always good to go there, and take a break from cell phones, emails, etc., and just live. 

- I am working on making my house more of a home, i.e. gardening, decorating, etc. pics to come soon. 

- Work continues to be rewarding, and challenging. It has been slower than usual, with most of the wards at CHUB at about 75% capacity. I am sure it is the calm before the storm. 

- I am making friends, and I am bonding with my fellow musungus and Rwandans in Butare.

- I have been exercising 3 times a week at Gym Tonic, a hybrid cardio/calisthenic workout that lasts for 1.5 hours for ~ $ 0.75 per class. Pretty amazing stuff. 

Like I said, more to come soon, including pictures. 

Lastly, I miss the Fall: the cool nights, the colors, apple cider, really APPLES in general, and American football. The funny thing is, as much as I miss them, life still goes on, and I am learning to appreciate the wonders of my new home: warm days, coolish nights, the beautiful people, the work I am doing. 

Amahoro,

Craiger

Life in Butare

So what is life really like in Rwanda?

It is simple, yet more complex. Everyday tasks take more effort, yet seem to make more sense, more real. You have to do more to accomplish the same task in the US. For example, we have to turn on a small generator that generates added water pressures prior to showering. We treat our water by collecting tap water in 20 gallon jerry cans, add a certain amount of bleach solution to the water, and let sit for 30 min prior to drinking. We “top up”our cell phone or internet for our phones as we go, similar to pay as you go in the US. We have to converse with our moto taxi drivers and negotiate a price prior to leaving. We haggle over prices at the local market.

Our house is in Taba a Northern suburb. Our friends call it the yuppie area of town, and I can see why. Most of the houses here are really a compound, an enclosed area with grounds, smaller buildings for storage or worker’s quarters, and a main house. Each compound has thick, high walls, with crushed glass or iron spikes on the top of the walls to ward off any would be intruders. Each place has thick iron doors that open up to the street. Ours is manicured with bushes, tropical plants, and high pine trees native to Africa. The back yard has large, raised mound gardens, with plantain trees near the back fence and compost “hole.”

We eat well, mostly vegetarian. I send Evanys to the market weekly with ~ $30 for groceries and supplies. One the weekends, we buy a few more groceries for about $8. I eat out twice a week at lunch, spending about $3 each. So, best guess: $50 per week for food for 3 people.

Now this is coming from a guy who is living in a nice house, in a nice suburb, with guards and a housekeeper/cook. I have it pretty well off. What about the people that work in the market, on the motos that I take to work everyday, the nurses and orderlies that work at my hospital? What is life really like in Rwanda for them?

Kwita Izina

Rwanda is known for one type of wildlife: mountain gorillas. Jane Fossey, of Gorillas in the Mist fame, lived in Northern Rwanda. Thousands of musungus travel to Rwanda each year to trek to the mountain Gorillas in the northwest part of Rwanda. It is a cottage industry, and the locals earn 5% of the proceeds from Gorilla tracking.

It is such serious business that they hold a yearly naming ceremony for the baby gorillas called Kwita Izina. This is adopted from a ceremony that Rwandans used to hold for naming their children. Each September, at the foothills of the Volcanoes where the Gorillas call home, the Rwandan government sponsors a naming ceremony of all of the baby gorillas that were born in the past year.

HRH, my organizations, set up a trip for those interested to see a District Hospital where we work, and to see the naming ceremony. We decided to jump at the chance. The tour was on Friday. I left first via the “white bullet,” at 530 AM to meet up with the HRH group in Kigali, and then we drove an additional 2 hours to the District Hospital. Adolf joined me a few hours later while Laura met up with a friend of hers from Uganda in Kigali for the weekend.

We went to a one of the freshwater, volcanic lakes at the foothills of the Volcanoes National Park, where the gorillas live. On of our HRH coordinators, Joseph, had arranged for a boat tour. After a bumpy, off road ride, the group of MDs, nurses, and economists arrived at this secluded lake shore. There was a hydroelectric plant on the left, and not much else. We could barely make out this resort across the lake. Joseph stated we would be taking tea at the resort, that a boat was coming. We looked around, no boat in sight. In classic Rwandan fashion, he said “Yes, he is coming.” Sure enough, a small boat appeared. It was a wooden, covered pinnase (canoe) with an outboard motor. It made ground, and the 18 of us got on board. It wouldn’t move. After some engineering, it finally moved. We made the 15 min trip to the resort, and got to know each other better over tea for some, and adult beverages for others.

We then made the trek back to the other side in pitch black, the only sound we heard was the low-pitched din of the outboard motor (We chose as a group to ride back in silence, and with no cell phones on, to add to the experience.) It was one of the most eerie, but exhilarating trips I have ever made. We made it back, and ate dinner at the local Musungu Doctor’s house, who had been living and working in Rwanda for 12 years. Good food, good people, in Africa. It was awesome.

We left for the ceremony the next AM around 8. We were told that the president was speaking, so no cell phones and cameras were allowed, unless you held a press pass. Damn, I knew I should have brought my press pass…

So, after some administrative issues that had to be resolved, we entered the park. We had VIP access, we were musungus after all. We had tented seats along with other VIPs from around the world, and around the corner. Meanwhile, the rest of the Rwandans stood in a central area in the middle of the grounds in front of the stage. Tens of thousands of them (A local source told me that about 100000 people were there, but I don’t know.) It was quite impressive. Honestly, it felt weird; I felt disconnected, not a part of the real experience. And then it started raining… So that feeling dissipated.

At one point, we saw gorilla like people walking toward us. Adolf thought for a moment that they were real. And then he saw the Halloween costume like masks, and started laughing. “They are not serious, Craig” he said! He could not believe how well they moved, like real gorillas!

After that, the naming started. This past year, 24 gorillas were born, the most in a long time. In each of the past 5 years, the numbers of gorillas born in the wild has increased. 2 years ago, 16, last year, 18; proof that the conservation efforts were working. A bunch of Africans, Europeans, and Americans (aka those that had a lot of money) dressed in “royal” garb took to the stage, each naming a baby gorilla in Kinyarwanda: “precious,” “strength,” and “unity” are some of the names that stuck out.

Then the obligatory speeches by politicians, touting the efforts of the President and the conservation groups. President Kigame was the last to speak. His motorcade arrived, and he strode in, walking around to the crowd. Even though I could barely make out his face, I could see why the people of Rwanda love their president: he had charisma, empathy, and really seemed to care. Even though his speech was all in the local language, it must have been important, as the Rwandans cheered for most of it.

After the pomp and circumstance, it was time to eat. The entire VIP section stormed the food tent. There was a buffet large enough to feed 5000 people set up, and enough beer and wine at each table to satiate a few Las Vegas bachelor parties. You see, kids, buffets are a Rwandan staple, and this one did not disappoint. Lines are not really a thing in Rwanda, more like a semblance of a line may for, but really you can get in anywhere there may be a few inches. We were lucky enough to get in front of one line, and found enough seats to relax a bit, and feast.

We were some of the last to leave, and made the 2 hour long trek back to Kigali. I think the entire bus slept for a time.

Overall, it was a great trip. I am glad I was able to take Adolf to experience this cultural event. Below are some of the pictures from the Kwita Izina website (Remember how I said we were not allowed to have cell phones or cameras? totally not true. there were many cell phones and cameras in the grounds. Oh well. Next time, I gotta remember that press pass for craigerinrwanda.blogspot.com!) (That was a joke folks; though the idea has crossed my mind, much to Laura’s chagrin!)

Talk to you soon.

So recognize the guy waaayyyy in back with the sunglasses on... Yep, I am official, or something!

                                                               X