IT Work

Every once in a while, I play the part of an IT professional at a health clinic run by the Benebikira Sisters.  I really never imagined myself doing this type of work until I got here and I find that I really enjoy technology work.  I know that it is fairly thankless and invisible work to update the antivirus and upgrade to Office 2010.  But I it is important to keeping everything running smoothly and most Rwandans do not have the skills to do it.  When I am working on computers, I also try to answer any questions the user may have and also teach some good computer practices (especially in regard to avoiding viruses and not filling your computers to the brim with movies and music to slow it down).

Actually a lot of computer work here involves simply waiting.  Many computers are slow from too many movies, as mentioned above.  In fact, on one computer, there wasn’t enough room on the drive to upgrade to Office 2010 and he had to delete some of his films.  

But also, the computers are rarely updated because they rarely have internet access.  In this screen shot, you can see the computer has NEVER been checked for updates. And it was several years old.

And, in addition to that, the internet itself is very slow.   Here you can see the internet was on for 1 hour 3 min and had sent 3.99 MB and received 20.27 MB. To put that in layman’s terms…like a snail.

And slow internet affects other things. I was updating the antivirus on a computer and what “might take a few minutes” turned into 1.5 hours. But it got done and that is the important part!

Viruses are a huge problem here.  I am often using my flash drive between computers and now I barely put anything on it and never anything important because it gets a virus from other computers a few times a month, so I need to completely erase it so I can keep using it. 

However, this slowness is the best and the worst part of working on computers. I get to spend a lot of personal time with Rwandan professionals learning about their viewpoints and experiences.  Just today I learned about the scoutingmovement in Rwanda, the impact of a volunteer English teacher and the main health problems facing this community.  It is always interesting! 

Tailor Made Clothes

Typical fabric booth

But I’ll get off my soap box from the last post and share more about the tailoring process.  The fun thing about fabrics is new ones come every week, so there is always a pretty good selection.  

Once I have my kanga, I bring it to Grace, my tailor, and use a picture and a translator to explain what I want.  My fashion tastes are very different than the average Rwandan’s so she tends to be a little confused by my requests and takes what I like to call ‘creative liberties’ to make it more fashionable in her eyes (Fun fact, this is the reason I am too scared to have yet gotten my hair trimmed here).  It’s always a surprise when I go back to pick it up!  Here are some of my new clothes along with the pictures of my original concept.

I got kanga for my desk to warm up my room!

My pictures are all from modcloth.com.  For this dress, I wanted it to be the same as the left dress with not too much flair in the skirt, only with a V neck and cap sleeves like in the right picture. 

Here is the final product.  She definitely added her own spin to it.

This style of having what I like to call ‘tshirt sleeves’ is very popular in Rwanda, along with the wide collar and sleeve trim.  I might adjust this when I go home again to bring it back to my original vision.  

Another dress:

I love the neckline of my example dress and my roommate had just gotten one with a similar, flowy skirt. 

I love how it turned out! 

It's my favorite so far!

City vs Country Life

I have been spending more time in the capital, Kigali, the last few weeks, which has been very refreshing and definitely a change of pace.  I have a second school vacation at the end of July and instead of spending a lot of money to go abroad, I am just going to rent a room in Kigali for the time I am there.  It is only about an hour away but I’m always surprised by the completely different life people lead here! 

Living standards and income

To vastly oversimplify, if you have or want money you should be in Kigali.  According to the 2012 statistical yearbook published by the government, the poverty rate in Rwanda in 2011 was 44.9%, but in Kigali City it is only 16.8%. The province with next lowest rate of poverty jumps to 42.6% in the Eastern Province.

Picture of Gacuriro, courtesy of livinginkigali.com

courtesy of http://kateturner45.files.wordpress.com/

My breakfast the last time I spent the night in Kigali
Avocado ginger smoothie and chocolate-almond croissant

That room I am renting over school vacation is located in a very affluent.  And it almost feels a little fake, like I’m not in Rwanda but rather in American suburbia.  People do not even need mosquito nets there!  Part of the rent includes a servant who does laundry and some cooking (please don’t judge me).  Last time I was there, I walked to get a breakfast smoothie (!) and passed a 24/7 pizza place, a couple with their tennis gear, an apartment complex with a pool, and a yoga studio.  The houses all have the same layout and are behind gates with cars in the driveway.  I honestly do not know if I would want to live there permanently because it is very secluded from the life of the average Rwandan.  But I’m really looking forward to it as a short term vacation.

Noise

One of the most surprising parts of Maranyundo that I always forget until I go to Kigali is how quiet it is.  In the city, there are cars, people walking right by the window, opening and closing gates. 

Maranyundo has it’s own noise from the frogs at night, but that is all and I find it soothing.  Just the other day, I walked out and saw this huge bird perching next to the garden. You can’t find that in Kigali!

Shopping

In Nyamata we can basically only do heavy shopping on Wednesday and Sunday when there is market.

.In Kigali, things are open every day except Sunday mornings for church. Also, people are always complaining about how things are more expensive in Nyamata and I’ve found that to be true. For example, it costs about a $1 more to buy peanut butter in Nyamata than Kigali.  But I’m pretty sure it is because there is only one store that sells in in town and we seem to be the only ones to come buy it so he increased the price from when we arrived.  Otherwise, there are many products that are just not possible to find and you must go to a city to purchase, including seasonal produce.

Social

I will be honest that I’m usually much more social than I have been in Rwanda and it wasn’t something I really missed from the US.  However, just a few weeks ago, I started improving a lot on that front and have been socializing with both expats and Rwandans. In Nyamata, people really don’t seem to go out very much, at least my roommates don’t and the teachers don’t seem interested.  The average evening for me consists of making dinner, reading and going to bed.

But in Kigali….wow, it is so different.  The bars are packed.  And where I’ve lived, establishments have always closed by 2 am.  But not here! Some clubs are still busy until the early morning.

In addition to the typical drinking scene, in Kigali there are more restaurants, gyms, organizations and other entertainment venues.  It even has a bowling alley!

Food

Restaurants are a fairly new concept in Rwanda.  It is still considered pretty shameful to eat in public, so almost all restaurants are behind some kind of wall to ensure privacy from the streets.  Most Rwandan restaurants do not have a menu, which is okay because they all serve the same things: goat brochette, French fries, potatoes, or omelette.  This is the only dining option in Nyamata.

But Kigali has much more of an international scene with a lot of variety.  When I went to the American Embassy for the fourth of July, they had options from different restaurants and the fare included bakery desserts (including donuts and cheesecake!), Tex Mex (including margaritas), and Asian (including expensive sushi). 

There is also more variety in the supermarkets, including basic international ingredients, cold options and different types of produce.

Fashion in Rwanda

Do you ever wonder where your clothes go after you donate them to Goodwill?  A good portion of it goes to developing countries like Rwanda!  The clothes are sold at extremely discounted prices.  Toms shoes may go for $5. I once found some Birkenstocks for $10.  Free tshirts, such as from Relay for Life, also are commonly purchased. I’m always on the look out for Virginia Tech shirts, although the wearer usually doesn’t even know what VT is. But who actually gets that money? The thrift store is getting free merchandise and selling it to very poor people to be sold again to even poorer people.

But my discomfort with this concept goes past that.  In addition to second hand clothing, Rwanda’s fashion scene is made of custom tailored pieces.  You can go to market and pick out your favorite patterned fabric at a cost of about $3/yard. You haggle as much as you dare with the seller (I always feel somewhat guilty arguing over 75 cents with a woman who has no electricity in her home so I tend to get ripped off a lot).   Then you bring it to your favorite tailor (who may also be the fabric seller) and have a dress/skirt/shirt/pants made to your specifications for another $5. 

Do you see a problem here?  The high quality, local clothes may cost about $10 with most of that money going straight to the locals, but you can get a ‘cool’ foreign branded piece for $5 with most of the profit going to…who knows?  These donations are not so good for the Rwandan economy! It is interesting to note that the more stylish among us may prefer second hand clothing to any other option. 

Once I arrived I realized I should have packed another sweater or sweatshirt because the evenings can get pretty cool here.  I went to a market in Kigali with a pretty good selection and I had wonderful visions of finding a high quality and fashionable garment with these features

-full length zipper

-no hood

-warm, but not hot

-fits me well

-professional enough to wear to work

I was envisioning something like these from Express.  But you really can’t be too picky when shopping here, I quickly realized. 

By the end I was pretty happy I found something that is relatively high quality without any weird spots or fading and was the right amount of warmth. Oddly, I was offered a lot of parks.  My final purchase fit two aspects (warm and full length zipper). The above are not my photos, I simply found it online here.  I ended up getting a Victoria Secret Pink Phi Beta hooded zip up jacket. I know nothing about this sorority and will likely not take it back to the US for that reason.  But for $6, I can’t really go wrong!

Update on Fundraising!

I am so excited! My fundraising initiative for the Nyamata Church is going very well.  My parents' chuch hasn't even had their collection yet. This is such an important cause to me.  Read more about it here.

If you wish to donate, please click here to get to my Gofundme page

Typical Day in the Life of an MGS Student

Here is a theoretical schedule for average MGS student.  There is a lot of structure to the days here and most days follow this schedule.  A notable exception is Wednesdays when classes are over at lunch time and after lunch, students have time for formal debate teams, extra class time for teachers or exams.  Just as a comparison to the average American high school student, I have put a similar schedule for my brothers who are in eleventh grade this year.  Their schedule is not quite as formal and structured as MGS, but it gives a good comparison.  I think one of the biggest differences is the amount of independence the girls show. They do not have a parents to keep them in line and disciplined, so they rely on each other.  They wake themselves up, they clean their own dishes, they do their own laundry, etc

My brothers’ life		MGS student’s life
	5:30	Wake up in dorm shared with 179 other people. The dorm is hall style with all the bunk beds in one room. Put on uniform.
Mom wakes each one up in his own room, complain that they have to share a single bathroom with each other, have cereal and milk for breakfast, running late so leave dishes for mom	6:00	Start prep time, meaning it is time to study independently!
Labor over clothing decision, catch the bus to go to school	7:00	Time for breakfast consisting of porridge and a hot dog bun sized piece of bread
Class starts, the students switch between rooms allowing them to decide which classes they would like to take.  One of my brothers takes band, the other an extra gym class, both take Spanish and technical classes. They choose a math and science appropriate to their level	8:00	Class starts, the students stay in the same room for all their classes and the teacher switches between rooms. All students take entrepreneurship, physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, geography, political education, English, Kinyarwanda, and French
	10:30	20 minute break time, then back to class
Lunch time- consisting of the their choice from the school lunch options or packed from home	12:30	Lunch time- Today it is beans, carrots, rice, potatoes and maize meal.
Time to go back to class	1:00	Still sitting with friends or starting to wash own dishes and clean up dining hall
	2:00	Time to go back to class
School is over, go to club, sports or band after school	2:45
Extracurricular time is over, time to go home on the activity bus	4:30	Class is over, time to change into sports clothes for free time. Popular activities are informal basketball or pattycake games
Home, greet parents, grab snack and work on homework until dinner	5:00
Dinner time, time to wash dishes, back to homework after dinner	6:00	Free time is over, time to shower in the communal bathrooms and change into prep clothes (uniform).  Study time until dinner
Done with homework, time to hang out	8:00	Dinner time, consisting of cabbage, carrots, rice, starchy baking bananas and cassava root
Mom encourages them to go get ready for bed	9:00	Dorm is unlocked. Students go and get ready for bed