How am I doing?

In 2 days I am living Rwanda … except the things I already mentioned before in the past week I went through amazing moments.

One of them was the second national conference ever done by AIESEC in Rwanda which I chaired. We came up with a Rwandese word to name it “Haguruka!” which means “Stand up!”; as delegates we had Rwandese members but also international delegates from Uganda J ; facilitators were MC & 3 national support team members and some of the delegates from Uganda. For most delegates & facilitators was their first AIESEC conference so it had to boost their spirit and motivation to work in AIESEC. The venue was the Univesity’s classes, on Friday we only had the Opening Plenary, on Saturday we started around 10 and finished at 6 p.m., on Sunday we started at 2 p.m. in order to allow people to go to church in the morning.

I did a lot of back up work and out of 14 hours of agenda I delivered 8 as just 4 other people had knowledge to deliver a session. The atmosphere builded up througout these days and at the end we had a beautiful closing plenary with traditional Rwandese dance, a role-call from Ugandan delegates, sugar-cubes, unveiling the secret friends and finally having a “Haguruka!” dance. The members liked it a lot and are very motivated while I had the most energy-consuming and emotionally demanding experience in my life.

Something I really didn’t expect was to hear & see the people from Uganda very shocked of the big differences between their country & Rwanda … I initially thought they are very similar …

On Tuesday I went for a visit to Gisenyi, probably the 5^th most developed city in the country, a place locally known for its touristic attraction. It is on Kivu Lake and has a nice beach but not a lot of sun J as it is close to a big vulcano which I could see at distance after rain. While walking with my companion along the lake we were attracted by some nice houses and planes landing and taking off we could see ahead. While walking in that direction we were surprised to find a barrier, it turned out to be the border with Congo!!! We had to go back as we didn’t have our passports with us so we asked for a place were we can have a drink on a nice terrase and we were recommended to go to Goma, in Congo, the city we were heading just before. As we couldn’t go there we went to “Tam Tam” a place next to the beach where we were the only customers. I ordered a beer and I got a 72 cl one, another time I ordered an Amstel and the waiter brought 2 as they consider it too small (33 cl) so they bring 2 of them J

On the 15^th of August we were still in Gisenyi and it was a holly day, Saint Mary, so normally people were not supposed to work but go to church. At 5 a.m. we were waken up by the Muslim prayers from the mosque just across the street we were staying. We went up the hill on the path many locals take every day, we found a lot of banana trees, poor houses, small goats and children screaming “muzungu!” when they saw me; for sure there weren’t a lot of white people on that hill before. Just some hours later we were in the most fancy place in town, Serena Hotel, and the difference is huge, for 1 night here you pay the amount a person up the hill would live from for 2 months probably.

The landscape to Gisenyi is impressive: poor villages and cities, a lot of banana, mango and avocado trees, tea, potato, cabbage and coffee plantations, hills everywhere you look, people on the streets, vulcanoes and volcano rocks. All these together with impressive 4x4 cars, commercials for banks, Guinness or mobiles.

For photos, check my 2 albums from Rwanda: http://www.facebook.com/photos.php?id=503656679

# posted by Daniel : Thursday, August 16, 2007  0 comments links to this post

I just read the whole article on Wikipedia about Rwanda and realized what an incredible history this country and region has.

For sure I’d like to know more about the reality of the country and I just realized that living in Kigali only is not representative for this country, almost 90 % of the population lives in rural areas and 60 % of the population under the poverty line. It’s hard to perceive these things when everyday I go around a large city with commercials of mobile companies and fancy drinks. Most of the times I eat I go for a buffet so all the people there can take as much food as they want and they actually do it, their plates are always topped.

Today this country is peaceful and calm, like after a storm I’d say … that quiet! I went to the Kigali Memorial Centre, a modern-equiped museum that tells the story of the Genocide that took the lives of 1 milion people in 1994 … I can’t really perceive how this could happen just 13 years ago in the country I am now travelling in. But 1994 was not the beginning and was not the end; other hundreds of thousands of people were killed before in Rwanda and Burundi (a country that shares a common history over the past century). Moreover, after 1994, around 3 milions were killed in the first and second wars in DR Congo involving Rwanda, Uganda, Angola and Zimbabwe – the backbone being the same for the events in Rwanda.

4-5 milion people died because of some foreigners’ decisions and policies implemented for Rwanda … how sad is that?!

Nowadays Rwanda is growing at a good rate and has just joined a regional union of East-African countries. In the meanwhile African countries are aiming for unity through the African Union which will bring member countries closer and closer. An Indian teacher also told me about Japan’s initiatives in Asia for a closer collaboration among Asian countries.

Rwandese people are said to be shy, respectful, calm and honest. The country is recognized for it’s low corruption and high involvement of women in the country’s affairs – 49 % of the Parliament’s members being women – the highest rate in the world!

There are so many more things to say from my experience here, I’d just like to thank you for reading until here! I am glad to share things about Rwanda with you, it’s a story we should all know and learn from.

I will soon post more … I am chairing their second national conference and next week I’ll be travelling around the country hopefully seeing vulcanos, beautiful lakes and wild animals in a national park.

10 days left …

# posted by Daniel : Thursday, August 09, 2007  0 comments links to this post

I am now for 4 days in Kigali and it’s more shocking and enriching from cultural perspective than 13 months in Belgium. In just 4 days I found out so many differences that I feel I am living on a different planet. Let me tell you some of them …

On Friday I attended a “Career Day” event – the biggest organized by AIESEC in Rwanda so far – and I noticed some things. One of them is the protocolar environment around the event; for example the university has a group of students who are part of “Protocol” which are doing reception and socializing with the important guests of the event; sometimes they are asked for events outside university like the ones organized by government. Another one is the way students reacted when a company was saying that they want to recruit graduates and they are interested in the students present there; students were cheering and claping J. The morning session lasted for 3 hours without break and almost no student left the room in this period …

Now I really feel like sharing about today which is one of the most shocking days I ever had. First of all at 10 I was supposed to have a meeting but because the person was sleeping we only had the meeting at 1:30, with a small delay of 3h30’ :D. Next to that at 2 I was supposed to have a meeting with the MC but we only started at 3, a small delay of 1 hour :D. As you ca imagine time here has a different meaning J

Furtheron, in the evening I went for dinner with Julius (former MCVP in Uganda now doing an internship in Rwanda). We went to a restaurant and when we arrived we realised there was a wedding happening but we could still take a table and have dinner. So I ordered … banana chips (meaning fried bananas in the same way as potatos) with fish brochette (frigarui) and Maracuja juice (passion fruit juice) while Julius ordered rice with vegetables. The waiter brought 2 brochettes on a plate, the rice on another plate, the banana chips on another plate and 2 empty plates, one for me and one for Julius. We only ordered 1 brochette but he brought 2 in order for my companion to have one as well and the rest of the food was on different plates … here they really encourage you to try the food of the other person you are with J. Another interesting thing is that if you just ask someone “are you hungry, do you wanna go and eat?” means you are inviting that person for dinner and you need to pay for him/her as well.

About how weddings happen here … first of all when a couple decides to marry the parents of the girl will ask the boy some things (objects, animals. etc) as payment for the girl. If the boy manages to bring all those he’ll most likely have the approval, if something is missing he will get a “fine” so he’ll be asked to bring even more to the girl’s family. Once that is settled it comes the financial part of the wedding, the event itself is free for all the guest and you can expect uninvited people to show up. In order to cover part of the costs the couple makes wedding meetings before the wedding itself where they invite friends/relatives/colleagues and they present their plan for the wedding and ask them to contribute in order to cover the budget. Once this is settled the wedding takes place and usually ends around 10 p.m. Once they are married there’s a very low chance they will divorce! Since I was so excited about the wedding I wanted to take some pictures but I was hold back by my friends telling me that it’s not OK to take pictures if I’m not a guest; furthermore it’s not OK to take pictures of the government’s buildings or people I don’t know …

So we left the wedding place and went to a cool terasse and ordered an Ugandan beer. Here is some other cool facts about drinks in Rwanda: they call Fanta any sort of soda drink so in case you want to order a Cola you need to ask for a “Fanta Cola” and the bottle has 30 cl. Beer you can find in bottles of 33, 66, 72 cl while watter in bottles of 56 cl!!!

Now let’s talk about beauty … here has a slightly different meaning. For a man an important characteristic in order to be considered beautiful is the height, the taller the man, the better, women appreciate that. For girls big hips is a good thing, contributes to beauty =))

People also talk different … instead of saying “I’ll give you a missed call” or “I’ll beep you” they often say “I’ll flash you!!!” They pronounce “word” and “world” in the same way, idem for “walk” and “work” so many times I am confused of what they mean J

In order to relax a bit I wanted to play some pool but again I had some surprises: the white ball is smaller than all the others and the holes are smaller than the ones I am used to …

Just imagine myself doing something, anything; it will most likely be different from the way I’ve done it before. Seeing all these differences I am wondering if I’d be in the situation to stay here if I’d adapt to this whole new way of doing and perceiving things. In case all the things are not enough for you to understand how different things are you should know that even white people look at me in a different way, like I am the weird one for them!!!

I’ll keep you updated!

From Nyamirambo, Kigali

Dan – Muzungu

# posted by Daniel : Sunday, August 05, 2007  2 comments links to this post

At the time I am writing is 11:34 p.m. which for Rwanda is very-very late. At 6 it gets dark and people usually go to sleep around 10-11. Kevin just told me that people here don’t party too much and the drink we had yesterday can be called a party.

I am fascinated by the surroundings, the way the things look, the way people are and behave. I am staying at Kigali Hotel which is OK but in order to understand what OK means you should know that for having a warm bath I need to go with a bucket and get water from a heating machine and than poor it with a cup on me, the shower has only cold water. I already knew about this, Vincent told me and he also told me that he got used to it J

Today I changed money, bought a SIM card & an atlas of Rwanda (my first negotiation J ), had my first Rwandese meals. The food is very tasty and I can feel is natural – tomato really tastes like tomato, eggs really taste like eggs, chicken really tastes like chicken (just like I remember from childhood when living in the countryside with my grandparents). Some unusual things poped up in my plate though: raw bananas, avocado, pumpkin and another vegetable I never ate before J

For Wednesday I had a buddy, Ahmed, he is Muslim (4 % of population) and he lives just 500 meters from my hotel. He was very kind and helpful throughout the day and he is a very interesting person, in his last year at university, previous involvement in youth organisations.

I also had my first meeting with Kevin and even though it was short we agreed on some things for the next days. Tomorrow I wake up at 7 and go with him at the university to prepare for Friday – their biggest event in their 1-year short history.

As taxi I used motorcycles today and I liked it very much!!! Some other cool stuff: prices are not fixed for many of the products (you need to bargain), they have cars with wheels on both left & right, internet is very-very slow ...

The best part so far was my reception at the airport, I never felt so welcomed in my entire life. Around 20 members were waiting for me for almost 2 hours as my plane was delayed, I shaked the hands of the girls, touched 3 times my side-forehead with the boys (their traditional way of greeting), listened to them singing in a chorus “The lion sleeps tonight” and “welcome to Rwanda, Daniel!” – I was so-so-so impressed by them, they were so friendly and enthusiastic about singing and meeting me J.

After we took a taxi and went to the School of Finance and Banking where we had a small get to know and drank juice – Coca Cola products made in Rwanda, it tastes differently and also the botles are different. I got to explain them about the MC flieces & dog, that I am not from Belgium but from Romania. Finally we went to the hotel where I spent my first night.

In just 30 hours so many new things happen, I am a bit overwhelmed but looking forward for the days to come J

Here are some pictures from these 2 days http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=9856&id=503656679&pwstdfy=95e4f04eaea4b5b3298dafed334df6fe

PS: while walking on the streets some people call me Muzungu and they scream after me - it means white man.

# posted by Daniel : Thursday, August 02, 2007  1 comments links to this post