I got that blogging feeling...

Actually I still kind of don't but have just spent an hour or so reading friends' blogs and I seemed to enjoy that. So on the off chance that others enjoy reading this blog, I better finish what I started, as they say. I'll note that most of the other blogs were on WordPress and very easy to comment on. Maybe I really should have gone that way too. Oh well. On with the comment clumsy Google show...


I have been mulling over a post about my short trip to Gisenyi before I left Rwanda. It's a small rural city in the west of Rwanda. It boarders the pretty spectacular Lake Kivu and in that sense was more or less a "retreat" for me. My primary goal for visiting was to pick up the necklaces that I was asked by a former volunteer to bring back to NZ. They are made by a collective of women with HIV/Aids and we had an order for 150 of them. More on that later.


Right from the get go, I felt bad about the trip as I had to leave quite early in the morning (it's about a 3 hour bus ride from Kigali) and I was fairly confident of making the trip by myself but Amani insisted he take me to the bus stop which meant he had to rush to get things ready for the other volunteers' breakfast. In the end I was very grateful for his assistance as there were numerous bus operations and I probably would have wasted too much time trying to find the correct one. After buying a ticket I had to wait about half an hour for the bus to leave which meant hanging around in the massive bus depot/station. Unfortunately it's also a place were many many beggars try their luck. But not just any beggars either, poor people who are living with just unbelievable disabilities and deformities. People who clearly have no hope of working or living any sort of normal life and no-doubt deserving of support. They all take turns walking/waddling around sticking their hands (or whatever money collecting limb they have) in your face. Even once on the bus they knock on the windows and hope for you to stick money out the window. I had no idea what to do. Sometime earlier before I even arrived in Rwanda I had sort of made a decision to not give [too much] money to beggars full-stop as I wanted to try and invest my time and resources to my volunteer work. In the city there really weren't that many beggars anyway, maybe even comparable to Wellington. So I refused the requests from these people at the bus station. Sitting there for half an hour really was too long and I began to serious question my position and why I wouldn't give up some of my money - after all it's not like I'd miss it. My thoughts and arguments with myself kept going round and round in circles. I tried to drown out my guilty feelings by sticking on my headphones to listen to my iPod, stupidly rubbing it in their faces how well off I was which didn't help my unease. Don't get me wrong, I never felt threatened by these people as they all took rejections graciously.  I just felt wrecked with guilt and selfishness. The thing is that I wouldn't have been able to give to everyone that was begging and on what grounds do you choose who to support over someone else? I don't know if I was really being fair or not. I did spot a few others (locals) give loose change to a few of them so I guess they get by.


The three hour bus ride through some pretty awesome scenery made me feel a bit better and when I arrived in Gisenyi I was welcomed warmly by my hosts their. I thought we'd go straight to the collective but I was forced to have some lunch first as they were worried that it was so long since I last ate. It was a 15 minute bus ride then a half an hour walk to get to the medical centre the collective met at. The walk was through a very rural community and EVERY little (and some not so little) kid yelled out "Muzungu! Muzungu!" as they saw me coming, some rushing to give me hug or high-five. I felt like a rock star! It was a beautiful area too but I'm fairly crap at remembering to take photos at times like that so you'll just have to imagine it.


Once we arrived it was a fairly awkward hour or so of sitting around watching them finish of the last few necklaces. None of them speak English so I was only picking up on little bits here and there as the translator who accompanied me shared what was being said. After a while the translator was becoming quite impatient and she was trying to hurrying them up to get the order finished. Once things were counted out I produced the envelope that had the money for the necklaces, some US$1,250. They were amazed that I had the money there and then and that I also had a bit more as an extra donation but the translator didn't really understand donation until I said gift. Once she communicated that the 12 or so women who were there instantly broke out in to song and dance! It was incredible to see their joy and gratefulness. Memories of my morning disappointing people melted away by their warmth. Celebrations lasted about an hour and a half more prolonged by me not thinking to take photos initially then also not realising that my camera could take video too (I only just bought it on the way to the airport flying out of NZ!). Oh also it rained for a little while which kept us indoors. It was great. When I finally got to leave with the boxes of goodies and begin the walk back through the neighbourhood the women followed in more song and dance until I had to simply say thanks but that's enough! I felt like Princess Diana. Further reinforced by the motorcycle ride home (the bus was too full and we couldn't be bothered waiting any longer) which the driver took corners awfully fast. I was keeping my eyes pealed for a Mercedes, just in case.


The next day I went for a walk to the lake and around to the border of the Congo. In fact the road I stepped foot on right near the border technically wasn't Rwandan soil apparently. Not sure I can really tick another country off with that though. Gisenyi was awesome and definitely the place to come for a holiday trip. The gorilla treks etc are mostly based there too. I didn't have time to visit the government orphanage nearby as I had hoped, despite constant badgering to "stay just one or two more nights"! But I simply couldn't and so it was back on the bus to Kigali, goods in tow. A storm was brewing and the heavens opened up about a block away from guest house on my walk from the bus stop so I arrived back to Amani telling me I "look wet". Always one for the obvious.


Ok well that's that one off my chest. Although I've been back in NZ for a week I'm sure I'll rustle up some more posts from my time in Rwanda and also, more importantly, my plans to support and continue the connections I made with Gisimba. So keep watching. I might even figure out how to put a pic or two up too. But not right now.

I'm leaving on a jet plane

Well actually I've left Rwanda already and stopping at Dubai for a couple of nights. All good and lots of things buzzing through my mind but I think I'll leave the writing until I get back home in a couple of days.


Sorry but it just seems like so much effort at the moment. Holidaying is much more fun and easier.

Killing me softly with this smog

As my time here nears an end I've been asked what will be the first thing I do when I get home. I think I will take one big breath of fresh air. Despite the general cleanliness and the claims that Kigali is a very nice city, especially for Africa. There is an indescribable taste in the air that is a mixture of exhaust fumes, miscellaneous trash piles, smoke from occasional fires, and general muggy sensations that make it hard to really appreciate the beauty of the place. Today on the bus I felt that hard as we followed another bus spitting out black smoke right into our window. But you get used to it.


Well it's been a strange week so far. The kids have gone back to school and there is absolute chaos while their timetables are sorted and confirmed so we haven't really been able to do much except sit back and watch. They run two sets of classes in schools - one morning and one afternoon. Until it settles down as to who goes to school when, we can't really figure out what our role now is. But it's been ok. We've met a few more kids, a few that don't go to school for one reason or another, and it's been fun.


Tomorrow I'm off to Giseney for a night. There is a group of ladies who make necklaces who I am hoping to meet as I brought over calenders for them to make beads from. Also there is another orphanage, a government one that has somewhere in the order of 600 or so kids. It's also really close to Lake Kivu which I'm told is stunning and seems a fitting way to see out my trip.


Ah I should maybe write more but I'm slack, tired, and useless. I guess I might have a big long post in the weekend before I fly out and try and capture the final thoughts and feelings. Maybe.


Oh and people have emailed me saying that commenting is hit and miss affair on this blog. I really like Google by and large and it hurts me to think that it could be letting me down with mucking up posts on Blogger. Maybe I should have gone Wordpress. My bad. Actually, Google's bad.


Until next time...

Money Money Money Money

Now that I've done the whole "I'm still alive" post. I thought I'd try and finally get around to posting about something that's been bugging me a while. As some of you may know I've been trying to learn a thing or two about economics the last couple of years, mostly via podcasts (NPR Planet Money, which I thoroughly recommend). I've been trying to get my head around a few of the economic activities over here.

Case in point is I saw a guy buying a pair of jeans from another guy on the street. But it was in the middle of a poor residential area with practically no other shops around. Now these kind of people are everywhere but mostly in town. They walk around with various assortment of things from clothing to Swiss army knives to flash drives to magazines. But this guys carrying pants around in this particular neighbourhood baffles me somewhat. If that guy is to make any money at all surely three things have to line up in his favour... A passer by:

a) needs some pants (possible but most people would probably head to clothes shops)

b) has spare disposable money (unlikely in the neighbourhood which is very poor)

c) has spare time to make the transaction (unlikely as everyone is focused on their own activities)

The more frustrating part of this type of operation is that the few merchants I've seen like this outside of the city centre, never seem to be in the same place twice so it's not like people could learn to look for them. Surely they could peddle their wears more effectively than walking random streets.

Another thing is the expectation to haggle when you buy stuff. What an absolute crappy way of doing things. You ought to expect to talk the price down of just about anything (excluding food/drink from restaurants and stuff at supermarkets with proper checkouts). But items at art markets, services of drivers in taxis or motos are all up for bargaining over. I can't stand it! Especially as most things are super cheap for Westerners anyway I feel pathetic trying to save a dollar here or there just because it's expected that I do. I was telling this new volunteer about this at the art market and how to me the less important thing is that I get a bargain but that I actually help a few different people out by buying the things they took time to make.

Actually that raises a bit of a third issue I don't like. And that is how so many shops in various areas (such as the art market or local shopping part of town) are almost identical - how do you avoid spending money at the same place everyone else does and therefore not spreading the love around? For example I was looking for speakers to buy the orphanage and found a few models that were in every single shop I looked at and the lowest I could talk most owners down to for a particular type was 30,000 rwf. So if that's the lowest but same price in more than one place (and they are all super friendly of course) how do you decided where to make the purchase from? It kind of feels like you let someone down arbitrarily. I'm talking small local shops with mismatched goods generally. I do vaguely remember a Planet Money episode that I'll have to dig up about a whole bunch of gold traders who were located in the same building and how they preferred it as retailers. As a consumer though, it drives me batty! Am I just too socially minded to be an effective consumer?

Oh and lastly the buses. But I don't even know where to begin to describe what happens let alone what my questions about them are. I'll just say that their business(s) structure is fairly complex I think. But apparently it works and I must say I'm going to miss them when I get back home.

Discuss.

"Damn it Howard, 20 years ago you cared about the science"

Well it's been a while and I must admit it's not for lack of opportunity. In fact the opportunity to jump online has improved astronomically as a fellow volunteer left their laptop here with 3g modum thing while they go off traveling for a week. Aside from very poor reliability and the fact it seems to hate me, it's been super handy to check things more regularly without traipsing into town. Unfortunately I just haven't been bothered writing. My bad.

So, briefly here a few quick updates:-

New Year's Eve was pretty much rained out here (just like NZ as I understand). And although we had great plans to go partying we would have got soaked getting anywhere. It cleared up quite late in the piece and many did go out and party noises could be heard everywhere but we were already settled in watching Short Circuit (hence the title) and a Jean Claude van Damme movie as that was all we could find. A pity I missed the chance to party at the stadium, but it was fun enough staying in and trying to stay up! Since then weather has been fine as with barely a drop of rain.

The new guy arrived very late on New Year's Day and he's pretty cool. He's studying anthropology and he's trying to do a bit of research while here which is interesting. And despite having me as a guide, he seems to be finding his way around ok. He makes feel old though as at 20, he's never even heard of Short Circuit before Amani put it on again for us last night.

I have been teaching the older class some science topics like planets, heart and lungs, eyes and ears, and sound. They really love it and are just as fascinated and full of questions as my students at home. It's kind of made me think of school a bit and how much work I need to do before it all starts again. Anxiety levels rise from time to time but I'm still just so excited about being here that I guess I'll worry about that later!

Today I played a game of soccer with a bunch of the older guys, most of whom I haven't really met before. It was full on and exhausting. I especially ran out of steam when I realised one of the younger kids must have taken my drink bottle! Haha. After that I played some music from my iPod and showed off a bit of skanking moves and kiwi vocals. Then I was invited to a concert/party thing to celebrate going back to school (term starts next week, they've been off since October!).

In fact I've just come back from the concert, tinnitus still in my ears. It was fun but not what I expected. Turns out it was also some sort of Rwanda rap/RnB idol. I lasted about 3 hours before the fact I didn't really understand a thing that was sung or said kind of wore me down. That and the production was run not quite professional. I had the thought that it could be described as a bit of an immature production. They had good enough gear but they were so excited to show it off that they over did it: The lighting guy used the strobes sooooo much; The DJ scratched absolutely everything, whether it needed it or not; And various MCs and performers yelling into mics - they already make your voice louder people! All-in-all though I'm glad I went and I got to treat a couple of the older guys to a night out too which they wouldn't have been able to afford by themselves.