Adventures, Adventures and… Adventures

This last month and a half has been one of vacations. In late December, I decided at the last minute to go to Zanzibar (an Indian ocean island off the coast of Tanzania) with a group of friends for Christmas.
Zanzibar
We (PC friends and I) took a bus from Kigali (capital of Rwanda) to Dar es Salaam (capital of Tanzania) at 6:00 a.m. on Dec. 19th. But we weren’t to arrive until about 3:30 p.m. the next day. At around 10 p.m. “sleepy time”, the road became a bumpy dirt road making it very difficult to sleep. The landscape was beautiful and very African looking. After arriving in Dar, we took a boat that evening to Zanzibar (2 hrs). We arrived in the Stone Town, a beautiful city that I’ll describe later.
The electricity was out on the entire island due to the explosion of a transformer (or something). I found a cheap hotel with a generator and unloaded. I met with two friends that night for dinner. We walked aimlessly along the ancient winding streets only to come across a park on the sea lined with dozens of tables lit by lanterns and manned by men in chefs hats. Big eyed and curious we walked up to the first table. “Welcome, please take a look”, the short charismatic chef said in his charming African accent, “as you can see we have the freshest shark that is cooked by our amazing chef, and octopus, crab...” he continued to list the types of seafood that lay on the table for a couple minutes (there must have been 20+ varieties to choose from). We ate like kings and sipped on delicious fresh squeezed sugar cane juice.
The next day we stumbled upon the ruins of an ancient palace. Went to a beautiful beach and walked out to sea only to get our feet scratched. We came back bleeding a little but still satisfied. We also got to see a Taarab band (traditional Zanzibar music that basically sounds middle eastern except the lyrics are in Swahili). We wandered around the streets of stone town admiring the elaborate doors that had been carved out of wood with large elephant stopper spikes sticking out. The streets were tiny and dark. The electricity was supposed to come back before christmas but it never happened but we had a great time still. Our group did a secret santa gift exchange for christmas which we spent at a friends house in Zanzibar and on the most beautiful white beach I’ve ever seen. I guess we had a white christmas after all! This time we walked in the water again past the seaweed farms trying to get to the tide which was hundreds of feet out. We didn’t make it before a friend was stabbed by a sea urchin and then stung by a jelly fish almost simultaneously… so we went back satisfied just to eat mangos on the beach.
I left the group to return to Rwanda a little early to begin my next journey. The bus ride back was pretty rough though. Conclusion… Zanzibar is incredible. It is literally a mix of Africa, the Middle East and India all in one. By far, it was the most unique place I have ever seen.

Cultural Notes

1. The only day that people have weddings is on Saturdays. It’s a common sight to see caravans for weddings, but only on Saturdays.
2. Due to the fact that 90+% of Rwandese are farmers, one of their first questions to me about America is “do you have cows at your house?”, “what do you grow?”, “are there many farmers in America?” and “do you grow this [pointing] in America?”
3. Many women tend to wear headgear of two types: a.) a tight head scarf around the head can signify that she is muslim whereas b.) a larger more decorative headdress signifies that the woman is married.
4. Women tend to wear traditional African dresses whereas men almost always wear modern style clothing.

Camp GLOW!

Four months ago at the Peace Corps in-service training (IST), the idea of doing a Camp GLOW came up. Camp GLOW was created by Romanian Peace Corps volunteers in 1995. GLOW (girls leading our world) has been on my mind since. I have learned that the education and empowerment of girls may be one of the most effective ways (not the only way) toward peace and security in world. I spent around half a week in Kigali helping prepare for the camp. The camp started December 3rd and went to the 7th. Many PCV's put a LOT of time and effort into this camp which was attended by almost 80 girls and 10 Rwandan Facilitators. The girls were chosen for having a proficiency in English and leadership skills.
For the first annual Camp GLOW in Rwanda we had several guest speakers including people from the US Embassy, Rwandan Parliament and more. It was held at the International Red Cross in Kigali. Walking up to the building you see a beautiful "Welcome to Camp GLOW" sign made by some crafty PCV's. As you enter you would see almost 80 girls clad in white Camp GLOW t-shirts, created by other creative PCV's, sitting in one of their 10 groups of 7-8 girls and lead by one PCV and a Rwandan facilitator. Each group was named after one of the incredible women whose large pictures were hung on the wall along with a famous quote by her and a short biography. (Wangari Maathai, Rosa Parks, Rigoberta Menchú Tum, Harriet Tubman, Miriam Makeba, Anne Frank, Immaculée Ilibagiza, Mother Teresa, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and Hafsat Abiola) In my group, Mother Teresa, were 8 future leaders of Rwanda.
I learned a lot over the course of the camp. I learned that leading a group is not something that I'm natural at and far from my comfort zone, but that didn't prevent me from trying. I truly tried my best. It was perhaps one of the most difficult things I've done but I learned so much from it and by the end I felt like I was catching on. I learned from my PCV colleagues, the girls, the speakers, and our wonderful Rwandan facilitators.
The camp was a success! Especially thanks to handful of SUPER hardworking PCV's. I left the camp feeling great. I feel we made a difference... however miniscule. If I make no footprint on the world in my life... I would still be content. I have tried me best with love in my heart. And that's all that matters.
Camp GLOW was wonderful and I wish I could tell you every single thing about it but for now... back to Rwamagana.

Thanksgiving in Rwanda!

Rwanda doesn't recognize Thanksgiving obviously but that's no reason not to celebrate it ourselves!
It was a beautiful Thursday morning, around oh... 900, at the Peace Corps office in Kigali. The forecasts called for deliciousness and after weeks of planning and anticipation, the cooking of a grand Thanksgiving dinner was underway. With 15 kilos of potatoes, a freshly slaughtered turkey that was at one time lost on a bus somewhere in Rwanda, sweet potatoes and plenteous amounts of other ingredients... the Peace Corps volunteers joined forces. Tom, armed only with pineapple and series of secret ingredients made "cranberry sauce" without the help of cranberries. We were concerned but our faith in him never wavered. What eventually ensued was around 25 people taking copious amounts of food to the face. Turkey! Salad! Stuffing! Mashed Potatoes! Gravy! Hummus! Pita! Sweet Potatoes with marshmallows! Green Beans! Cake! Pie! Wine! Beer! All this without a single domestic dispute... and on time! Perhaps one of the best Thanksgivings ever. Words can't describe how full we were... well maybe. But the Romans still would have been jealous. I guess what I am saying is... Life is good.

How can one not speak about war, poverty, and inequality when people who suffer from these afflictions don't have a voice to speak?
~Isabel Allende (Chilean author, 1942- )

Gisenyi, Rwanda

This last weekend I went to Gisenyi, which is about a 4 hr. bus ride, with my friends Emmett and Malcolm. Gisenyi is located on the northern end of Lake Kivu, which is divided between the DRC and Rwanda. The area was incredibly beautiful and mountainous. On the way we passed Musanze, which is located at the foot of the Virunga (Volcano) National Park. Through a thick fog we were able to catch a nice glimpse of these volcanoes but I can’t possibly convey the feelings it invokes or even simply give you the chills that went up my spine. I’m no Hemingway. On the other hand, the terrain is quite unforgiving. People live on the side of mountains that seem physically impossible to live on let alone farm on! People must have the physical acuity of a mountain goat. The slightest mistake would send you plummeting down in a way that only Homer from “The Simpsons” could comprehend. It looked like a completely different country than the one that I have intimately known for the past 9 months.
The first thing we saw in Gisenyi was an acrobatics group practicing on the beach of Kivu. If you haven’t seen African acrobatics before, you are missing out. Second was the frontier of the infamous and mysterious DRC but I dared not set foot there. Not until after my Peace Corps service that is. Third was a hot spring. It wasn’t developed for bathing but could potentially make a good tourist destination if people chose to make it one. We walked around a small peninsula and returned to town for lunch. For lunch I had fried sambaza! Mmmm… Mmmm…. Sambaza is a tiny fish about 2 1/2 inches long and is fried (whole) in a light batter and served with a delicious sauce. Birajyoshye! (Delicious!) We had some beers and returned to our cheap yet pleasant hotel room exhausted and satisfied. The next day we made our long journey back to our sites with a newfound deference for the northern province.
I know I said that I wouldn’t do this but I can’t in good conscience leave out the amount of human suffering I witnessed in Gisenyi. I was surprised to find that this more touristy town showed more signs of poverty than Rwamagana which has practically no tourist attraction at all. Beggars were all but few. From my short time there, children seemed to show more signs of malnourishment than other areas that I have seen in Rwanda.

Congo Wars

If anyone wants to learn more about this region in the world, I just finished a book by Thomas Turner called The Congo Wars: Conflict, Myth and Reality. It is dense with information on the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) which is deeply entangled with Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda. It's pure information but very accurate and thorough. Although unknown to most people, the war in the DRC is the second deadliest war in history with about 5.4 million casualties, nearly half of them under the age of 5 since 1998 when the war began. Only the holocaust was deadlier. Why they don't teach you this in school is beyond me. I know you think my posts are depressing. I don't mean them to be. But I feel that I have a duty to tell you the good and the ugly. Perhaps I will try to show more good in the next post.