Where's The Beef?

I used to have a t-shirt that said “where's the beef,” based off of the Wendy’s slogan. Thank goodness I became a vegetarian years ago because there’s no beef to be shown around these woods, and therefore I had very little, if any difficulty adjusting to the vegetarian diet in the Village. Inspired by many friends and family members inquiring about the food in Rwanda, I decided to keep a food journal for one week in order to exemplify my diet while here. After being here for nearly 3 months, I have found that there are only 2 foods I cannot stand eating. I tried both of them, and one I will tolerate if I am really hungry (Japanese BITTER eggplant, which was actually just served at lunch), but the other I just absolutely refuse to eat (cassava bread, which is not bread at all, but can be depicted as a lump of disgustingness). To bluntly describe it, cassava bread has the consistency of homemade play-do, minus the taste, with an added bonus – it smells like rotting feet. It really is that disgusting.

Now that I have discussed what I do not eat, it is time to enter into the world of what I do eat. Welcome to my world of food in Rwanda:

NOTE: If you are contemplating moving to the Village for a year and you don’t like beans and/or rice and/or repetition, this is probably not the best fit for you :)

Day 1:

• Breakfast – an American “dinner roll” and porridge. The porridge is similar to cream of wheat, but a bit grainier, and it gives off the smell of burnt toast. Honestly, I really like it.
• Lunch – cooked bananas, “salad” (green beans, coleslaw, cucumber), white rice, bean and carrot stew
  
• Dinner – white potatoes with scallions and garlic, white rice, cassava greens and bean stew

Day 2:

• Breakfast – an American “dinner roll” and African Tea (known as Chai in the Western world).
• Lunch –sweet potatoes with chives, hard boiled eggs, white rice, carrot and pea stew
• Dinner –cooked bananas, white rice, sauerkraut stew

Day 3:

• Breakfast – an American “dinner roll” and porridge.
• Lunch – white potatoes, “salad,” white rice, eggplant/green bean/peanut sauce stew
• Dinner – sweet potatoes , white rice, bean and cauliflower stew

Day 4:

• Breakfast – an American “dinner roll” and porridge.
• Lunch –cooked bananas, white rice, carrot and squash stew
• Dinner –white “Irish” potatoes, white rice, bean and carrot stew

Day 5:

• Breakfast – an American “dinner roll” and porridge.
• Lunch –fried sweet potatoes (yummy!), white rice, cassava greens stew
• Dinner –cooked bananas, white rice, bean stew

Day 6:

• Breakfast – an American “dinner roll” and porridge.
• Lunch – white “Irish” potatoes, green beans, white rice, bean and sauerkraut stew,
• Dinner –cooked bananas, white rice, eggplant stew

Day 7:

• Breakfast – an American “dinner roll” and porridge.
• Lunch – cassava bread, white rice, bean stew
• Dinner – sweet potatoes, white rice, carrot stew

It would be unfair to lead you to believe that I eat every meal in the dining hall. Breakfast begins at 6:15am and is far too early for me most days, so I generally opt to make oatmeal in my room, porridge in my kitchen, eat a maize cake from the local market, or have a honey and peanut butter sandwich on homemade challah, which I try to bake each week in the Village kitchen. (see photo to the left) I generally eat lunch in the dining hall every single day, and once or twice a week, I make pasta with fresh, homemade tomato sauce, avocados, spices, and occasionally an egg on top. All fresh ingredients are either purchased from the farm in the Village, or from the nearby local farmer’s market.

Just for your reference, breakfast is at 6:15am M-F, 7am S-S. Lunch is at 2pm M-F, 1pm S-S. Dinner is at 8pm M-F, 7pm S-S.

Even though snacks are not part of Rwandan culture, I am American and can not quite kick the habit. Some of my favorites include (aside from the snacks I brought from America):

• Freshly roasted peanuts (see photo below of me roasting them myself!)
• Tea biscuits with peanut butter
• Maize cake (similar to corn bread) either plain, with peanut butter and/or with honey
• Butterscotch candies
• Amandazi (Rwandan fried dough) - plain, with peanut butter and/or with honey
• Chapatti (Rwandan pita) – yes, with peanut butter, or plain
• Mango
• Pineapple
• Sambussas – thin pastry shell filled with potatoes and spice (see photo below)
• Avocado (with two brother’s seasoning from my mom’s grocery store)
• Chocolate yogurt lollipops
  
• A spoonful of peanut butter…my addiction hasn’t stopped just because I moved to Africa
• Ice cream - believe it or not, there is only 1 store in all of Rwanda that makes its own ice cream - it is called Inzozi Nziza (Sweet Dreams) and is located in Butare. When I stopped there, I indulged in pineapple ice cream with fresh passion fruit topping...YUMMY!

Although many foods that I could or would buy in America are available here, a) there isn’t much variety to choose from (ie. Skippy peanut butter is the only American brand of peanut butter available) and b) imported products are EXTREMELY expensive (ie. Skippy peanut butter is $25 for a jar, cereal is over $10 a box, etc.). Some items that are disappointingly difficult or impossible to find are:

• Dried fruit (although I just found raisins!)
• Chocolate chips
• Trail mix
• Mixed nuts, or anything besides peanuts
• A REAL salad, made with lettuce, not cabbage
• Sweet corn
• Mushrooms
  

Acquiring food is just different here. If I want to cook something myself, I either have to negotiate a fair price (as soon as a white person approaches a local vendor, the price instantly doubles) at a local market (see two market photos to the left), or search for the best price of a product at one of the grocery stores in Kigali and then transport the food 60km to the Village on a mini-bus packed with 19 passengers. Generally speaking, it’s just easier to go to the dining hall and eat whatever is being served that particular day. If nothing else, there is always white rice to eat. And although the Village food could use a little bit of spice and extra flavor, I know it isn’t an easy task to cook for 650 people at one seating, so I can't fault the cooks, and I can’t be too critical. If you are still curious about the diet here in Rwanda, why don’t you come visit and taste it for yourself! My first visitor arrives in 33 days!!!

Present time can be hard, but life unfolds as it will...

Emotions are a funny thing. In my previous place of employment, I was labeled as "emotional," and to many in that environment, that was deemed a bad thing. It was a battle I fought vehemently, insisting that to have emotions is a positive attribute, and without them, we just become machines, performing robotic functions, not caring about others, and not respecting the people who are intricately involved in the work we do. Emotions elicit passion, and without passion and inspiration, what is the point?

Emotions in Rwanda are different. They aren't deemed negative, but rather aren't acknowledged much at all. For a country with such a deep, dark history, for the most part emotions are kept at bay, and there are rarely open expressions of any extreme - anger, happiness, sadness, etc. Every once in a while I will even see a student quickly covering his/her mouth with a hand to disguise an unexpected smile. Tears are never shed out in the open, raised voices are not heard, and squeals of delight catch people off-guard. I have found that it isn't so much that people don't "feel," it is just that they process their feelings more inwardly than what I am accustomed to, and that has taken some adjustment on my part.

I have come to understand that each of us have a past which is filled with events that have unfolded in various ways, and those unique events bring about emotions in us that can, at times, catch us off-guard. Oftentimes I find that it isn't until later that I uncover the truth behind the emotions that have built up inside me, and realize that it is my history that has shaped me and that makes me react to situations and circumstances in various ways. We are not robots, and we are not meant to be robots, so I struggle with environments that are emotionless, and I am intrigued by the typical Rwandan response of "I'm fine" when asked how they are doing. In fact in many English-Kinyarwanda dictionaries, the basic conversational exchange that is taught goes as follows:

• Good Morning - Mwaramutse
• How Are You - Amakuru
• I'm Fine - Ni Meza

There is rarely another response that is heard or expressed, other than, "I'm fine."


Last weekend one of my friends in the Village, a fellow American, received horrific news that her father had suddenly and unexpectedly fallen gravely ill. He passed away this past Monday, nearly 24 hours after she arrived back in the States to say goodbye. I can not describe the emotions that I felt when I heard the news and when I saw her in the airport to bid her farewell. Not only was I sickened for her and her family, but my mind and memories immediately jumped back to the morning when I received a similar phone call about my brother, and in an instant the gut-wrenching, hollow pain in the pit of my stomach returned. The rush of emotions that have been surfacing within me since last weekend have been a bit unexpected and startling. I understand that my feelings are not irrational or incorrect, but they are different on so many levels from what other people around me feel, and it is impossible for anyone to understand or relate to what is going on within me. I am surrounded each day by people in the Village who harbor such sadness, but with such limited outward expression of emotion, it is not possible to "heal" in an open way. That realization and feeling of isolation have been my greatest challenges this week.


Ironically enough, the evening before my friend's father's accident, I had a conversation with another friend about untimely death and trying to process the pain and seemingly lack of understanding that I have regarding a life being cut so short. Most people don't know that after my brother's death, I looked into going to India for a bit to spend time meditating at an Ashram. As you know by now, I ended up in Rwanda, but in a roundabout way, a message from an Ashram reached me. During the above-mentioned conversation, my friend told me a story that he learned while living at an Ashram several years ago. He told me about a talented artist who lived at the Ashram. She painted incredibly intricate paintings and once they were finished, she would place them in a body of water and watch as they disappeared out of sight forever. Someone asked her how she could destroy such works of art after spending so many hours creating them. She explained that what is important is to memorialize not the piece of art itself, but rather how it made you feel while you were creating it, and how it made you feel while you spent time with it. THAT feeling will stay alive and with you forever, living in your mind and in your heart.


Looking back on being called "emotional" and being looked down upon for having that trait, I have to say that I have now learned to put aside judgments like those which prevented me for so long from looking inward and understanding my own individualistic way of understanding myself and the world around me. I have emerged as someone who is not ashamed to feel, who can both outwardly express and inwardly process my feelings, without feeling the need to validate or legitimize them. My life has provided me with events, interactions and experiences which have made me a unique individual. How each of us responds to the world and its inner workings is a result of our individual histories. My emotional complexity is something to be valued, and for all those naysayers out there who beg to differ with that opinion, well, I just look at them as being simplistic and dense, and are far too fearful to examine the inner workings of who they really are and why they are that way. Having emotions, whether internal ones like the Rwandans, or more raw emotions like I have is something to be valued, as it makes us complete human versions of our true selves.

Dorea, I miss you more than words can express...sending you hugs from Rwanda xoxo

monkey business for my birthday

My father has always teased me that one day isn’t long enough for me to celebrate my birthday. Who am I to disagree with him – this year I allowed the celebration to last a few days…this may be my only birthday in Rwanda after all. I wanted to be in the Village for my actual birthday because the girls in my family seemed really excited that my birthday was coming up, and I honestly couldn’t think of any other place I would rather be, or any other people I would rather be surrounded by. They didn’t disappoint, as they had a whole celebration planned, complete with candles, a MOUND of confetti, which they threw on my head, songs, and handmade birthday cards. The amount of love they showed me was magnificent and so moving.

Since my brother’s untimely death this past July, I have really been thinking quite a bit about growing older, and I am trying to be thankful for each and every day that I have here on Earth with family and friends. That is honestly what I thought a lot about on my birthday – I want to make each day of my life meaningful and I want to find something to be grateful for in each of those days. My brother accomplished an astounding array of achievements in his short 33 years; however there was still a lot that he never got to encounter, so I am trying to make sure that I make the most of every situation so that I can experience things for the both of us.

I decided to make this weekend MY weekend, and I did something that I have dreamed about since I was a little girl – I went into the jungle and chased around chimpanzees! My friends Melanie (Briggs) and Monica (Timar) have supported my chimpanzee obsession by buying me many things chimp-related (statues, notebooks, key chains, etc.) for years, but the real chimpanzee is so much better! It was a long journey to Nyungwe, Rwanda – about 6 hours by bus across the entire country. The final 2 hours through Nyungwe National Forest reminded me of Tanzania with respect to the roads – they call it an African massage because of the constant bumps/shaking/vibration caused by the rough terrain. The scenery however, reminded me of Costa Rica – I had entered a dense, primary rainforest. It was early to bed because I had to wake up at 4:30am and get ready to meet the guide at 5am. Then I was back on the bumpy road for another hour and 45 minutes toward Cyamudongo Forest, where a family of roughly 40 chimpanzees reside. The terrain was fierce with wet, thick underbrush underfoot, tripping vines grabbing at my ankles, choking vines grasping for my throat, prickly branches sticking to my legs, and lichen-covered trees everywhere in sight. The sky was barely visible, and the make-believe path that we were following was nearly 75 degrees steep (or so it seemed)! As soon as I reached the top of the hill, I got word from the chimpanzee trackers that the chimps had changed course and were headed down the hill, which meant I had to backtrack and run back down the same “path” that I had just climbed! It was more treacherous going down, and I found myself on my butt more often than not. I have to admit that I was tempted to go Romancing-the-Stone-style and just slide down the darn muddy hill. If only I could use all 4 limbs like the chimps!

As soon as I reached the main path, I was told to wait for the chimpanzees to reach the same point because they would cross the “street” and head down the next steep hill, into the valley below. Sure enough, after a few minutes I could hear the “hoot” noises coming closer and in a matter of a few seconds, an entire group crossed the street, one-by-one (with the exception of the one momma chimp with the baby on her back). As each one emerged out of the jungle, they stopped, stared in my direction, and then scampered back into the forest below. It was breathtaking! After another bit of time waiting on the road above, listening to the chimpanzees below, I got word from the trackers to venture down into the forest. After trudging through more vines, trees, moss, and mud, I found them. There was a moment when the tracker pushed me ahead of the group and told me to run down the path…moments later, I found myself 20 feet from a group of chimpanzees who were standing on the same path as I was, staring at me as if to say, “why the hell are you running after us?” I stopped, frozen, unable to grasp the reality of the moment. Who gets the opportunity to truly chase after chimpanzees?! It was an outrageous notion, and I had just done it! As we were staring at each other, the tracker told those of us in the group to turn around – here WE were also being chased…one of the male chimpanzees was following us on the path, keeping a close eye on what we were doing. It was astounding.

The trek wrapped up with our group chasing the family of chimps up and down a few more hills, and then coming to a halt, standing still, watching them swing high above us in the rainforest canopy, from branch to branch, tree to tree. I decided to just put my camera down and watch it all transpire without a camera lens hampering my view. I took many mental pictures, which will be with me long after my digital photos are forgotten. The monkeys’ free-spirited and playful nature made me smile and made me escape the reality of my world for just a few moments. I got lost in the moment, and loved every second of it. I came here to be present and live in each and every moment, and I did that while I was with the chimpanzees. I had lived yet another dream, and crossed yet another thing off my bucket list. What’s next? You’ll have to stay tuned to see…

A memorable moment from this weekend – hitchhiking (to save $120), and getting picked up by a dump truck (see photo to the right, inside the cab)! Aside from the ridiculously fun, ultra-bumpy ride, the 40 minute ride was FREE!

Another memorable moment from this weekend – while playing cards at the Gisakura guesthouse in the afternoon, my friend Miki and I found ourselves suddenly SURROUNDED by blue monkeys who smelled the bananas we were eating. They swarmed around us and made me giggle like a toddler. It was so thrilling to have so many monkeys so close in proximity to me (at times they were 2 feet away)! (see photo to the right)

Another fun adventure from this past weekend – the canopy walk, complete with a 1 and 1/2 hour hike, high above the Nyungwe Rainforest! The canopy walkway is 200 meters long, and is suspended 70 meters high between giant trees. It offers a magnificent view of the upper canopy. (see photos below)

Stomach-turning moment from this weekend – on the bus ride back to Kigali, the man seated behind me was unable to wait to “pass water” (what they call peeing in Rwanda), and ended up peeing himself. Yes, the bus reeked of urine, and we still had 4 hours left in our ride.

Urgency, Effectiveness, Efficiency, and a Recipe for Success

Life is different here. Every day I see, discover and hear things that strike me as odd, but that is just because they are different from what I am accustomed to. I find some things amusing, others intriguing, and others just downright baffling. My quest to learn 1 thing a day is still alive and well, as there is always something to learn here in Rwanda. I will start with the notion of urgency, effectiveness, and efficiency. Those are three words that have been engrained into my thoughts and actions since the day I began working as a teenager at the local Geauga County Fair. As I have grown older, I have become someone who requests that those three tenants be respected and heeded, so I have had to switch gears a bit, take a back seat, and bite my tongue since moving to Rwanda.

Urgency does not exist – plain and simple. Rwanda has its own pace, and it is most definitely NOT urgent. The other night I was walking back from the dining hall and one of the staff members mocked me because I was, “being passed by Rwandans.” People here walk S-L-O-W-L-Y, so to be passed by a Rwandan indicates that you are practically moving backwards because they are never in a hurry. I must say though that I have learned to take my time and not rush. It is refreshing to slow down and live in the moment, and to allow myself to get lost in my surroundings as I go to and from a place, BUT, the slower pace means that less gets accomplished, especially when there is a lack of effectiveness and efficiency. Case in point - last week the Village water pump stopped working, and we ran out of water. For two days, there wasn’t any running water – to shower, to brush your teeth, to flush the toilet, to drink…the pipes were dry. Although I was beginning to feel as though the water issue was an urgent matter, none of the Rwandans seemed especially concerned. There was even a hour when I saw people using the backup collection of rain water to wash a Village vehicle. Clearly THAT was an urgent activity, although not an effective or efficient use of backup water from the point of view of a Westerner :)

It is so easy as a Westerner to be tempted to jump into a project that is underway and explain, show, or overhaul the process from a Western perspective. But, I stop myself every time because that is not why I am here. I am not here to tell people how to do something, or to explain that the Western way may be better or faster or more effective or efficient. My job is to assist the Rwandans and support them with their efforts; all while proposing supplemental ways of enhancing their ideas or plans. Even if I have a great idea, I have to introduce it in a way so as to make them think that it is an idea that they cultivated, thus making them believe in it more, thus increasing the odds that there will be buy-in from those involved. It’s a slippery game, but oddly intriguing. The key is sustainability. I can arrive with the most incredible plan or idea, but if there isn’t local buy-in and belief in that plan or idea, it will die when I leave this Village 10 ½ months from now. It also has to make sense to the locals. In a way, many people here seem to have the old-school American mentality of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” They seemingly do things a certain way because that is the way it has always been done, and there isn’t any reason in their mind to change the course of action, regardless if the “new” way is more effective or efficient. That notion drove me batty at my last job, but keeping it in context here in Rwanda, it makes sense here, and with that newly found discovery and understanding, I have a new sense of calm when it comes to those kinds of situations.

In addition to appreciating and understanding a new way of looking at things and situations, I also uncovered an discovery. I came to realize that urgency, effectiveness, and efficiency aren’t as important as I always thought them to be. What matters is to have competent, intelligent leaders above you and workers surrounding you, all who possess the passion and inspiration to make the work meaningful, and the respect for one another to make the work possible. If you have those key ingredients, most everything else will fall into place, and the bits that don’t, don’t really matter. That recipe for success did not exist in my life before Rwanda, and I am so thankful to have made that discovery so early in this journey. This really is a good fit, and these people are exactly who I want around me each and every day. They make me stronger, smarter, more worldly, and more productive. They are what each and every place of employment needs.

Funny Story of the Week: I was sitting and waiting to meet a tour group which was coming to the Village, and several staff members scolded me for sitting out in the sun. When I came inside to sit and wait, one of the staff members said to me, “your skin is changing color…WHAT IS WRONG?!” I looked down and all I saw were my ever-present freckles, which apparently are not very common here. It is one of those things I have taken for granted because in America, I don’t think I have ever had to try to explain what freckles are to another person. Like I said before, this place is different. Think about it – how do you explain freckles? After trying to clarify the dots on my skin, the staff member responded by saying, “so it is a skin disease that you will pass on to your children.” There was no way to cleanse that way of thinking, so I just had to laugh. I really wanted to tell him that because I have been eating so many beans, the color of the beans is starting to ooze through the pores in my skin, but I refrained.

Sweet Moment of the Week: It was one of my little sister’s birthdays this past week, so I found her in the dining hall and gave her a hand-made card and a hug. During our nightly family meeting, she mentioned how my gesture made her feel so special, and that she could feel the love that I had for her. She said that I made her day special. Little did she know that I was struggling a bit emotionally that day, and when she left her friends at dinner to come sit next to me, SHE made my day special.

Cultural Highlight of the Week: A Kigali-based theatre troupe (Mashirika) and The Anne Frank Project from Buffalo State University came to perform at the Village on Saturday. The entire show involved our own students performing traditional dance, Mashirika performing an emotional and thought-provoking piece about genocide, and The AFP performing a medley of Rent songs intertwined with scenes from Romeo & Juliet. It was a joy to watch it all take place outside in the amphitheatre!

What I Am Craving This Week: dried mango, apples, southern sweet tea, and my iPod (mine died)

It Is A Challenging World In Which We Live

This week I hit a milestone – one month in Rwanda :) If you have been following my blog, you know that the past 4 weeks have been filled with adventures and many opportunities for learning and growth. I don’t want to paint an unbalanced picture however, because there have been challenges, which is to be expected no matter where you live in the world. I did not come on this journey to escape trials and tribulations or to avoid the world, but rather to be inspired by, and learn from the challenges that will be presented to me while in Rwanda.

Challenge 1: Most of you won’t be surprised to hear that I was sick this past week. The truth is that I tend to catch colds and much more serious infections/diseases rather quickly. Quite honestly, that was the one fear that almost kept me from coming on this journey, but luckily I took the leap despite my fear of not having a CVS down at the corner, or Western Medicine within the boundaries of my living enviornment . This week was nothing serious – I picked up a wicked cold and sinus infection, all mixed in with some chest pressure. It is always miserable being sick, and the challenge of such seems to be exponentially worse when you are far away from home. Although I brought boxes of cold and flu relief with me, nothing seemed to want to boot out whatever was in my system, which is when I turned to Rwandan Mother Nature Medicine, or so I call it. There are many plants, weeds, and trees that grow in the Village, and when Western boxed medicine failed me, I trusted what I was told by the locals and loaded up on sage, lemongrass, mint, honey, and a special tea made with an “antibiotic” leaf (see the picture to the left), which just so happens to grow in the courtyard of the health and wellness center here in the village. The leaf is quite well known, in fact any time anyone saw me with it, they inquired whether or not I was ill. I have no idea what the leaf actually is, what is in it, or whether or not it actually has magical medicinal powers, but I was willing to give it a try. Depending who I spoke with, I heard various tales about the antibiotic leaf. I was told that my best bet was to brew it into a tea. A second option was to hold it over my nose and mouth and breathe through it, much like an oxygen mask on an airplane. The third option seemed to be the most risky – I was told that I could chew the leaf and/or tuck it between my gum and cheek, but that the side-effects were strong and included a sudden loss in blood pressure, the loss of hearing (for an unknown amount of time), and/or the numbing of my tongue and cheeks. As I stated, I was willing to give anything a try, but I was not willing to faint, lose my hearing, or my sense of taste and feeling in my mouth over a leaf. In the end, I honestly don’t know whether it was my immune system, the numerous American cold pills that people were pumping into me, or the magical antibiotic Mother Nature tea which took away my ailments, but here I am a week later feeling much better.

Challenge 2: A second challenge I was faced with this week involved teaching English to 34 first year students in the Village (including the 2 boys featured in the traditional African dance video in my last blog). I never have been, nor have I ever planned on being a teacher, but when it comes to the kids in the Village, I do what I am asked to do. Every day this past week, along with one of the week-long ESL volunteers, I made lesson plans and taught English for 4 hours a day to the advanced students within the first year class. The challenge wasn’t so much in the lesson planning, or the instruction, but it was everything that goes into teaching students life lessons. The students here all come from very challenging backgrounds, ones that would put most Americans’ “tough lives” to shame, and although they have each been “raised” to an extent by an elder, there are seemingly many holes when it comes to them having worldly awareness and knowledge, and respect (for themselves and others). Don’t get me wrong, these students are brilliant – they could easily go toe-to-toe with many American University students when it comes to their ability to discuss and debate many topics at a high level, however when it comes to history for instance, their knowledge-base seems to be a bit one-dimensional, and when it comes to manners and respecting themselves and others, their knowledge-base seems to be semi-non-existent.

One of my favorite pieces of the Village’s mission is to educate students both formally (in school) and informally, and to teach them academic lessons, as well as life-lessons. Simple lessons like not conversing with friends while someone is speaking seems to be a new concept to so many students here, whereas in America, I am pretty sure we learn that in Kindergarten. Other lessons like respecting each other’s opinions, whether you agree or not, and not insisting that your opinion is more valuable or more accurate also seems to be novel (although many Americans don’t know those lessons, regardless of age).

The biggest and most surprising challenge arose while discussing various leaders, role models, and inspirational figures (specifically Anne Heyman, Nelson Mandela, Lady Gaga, Barack Obama, and Steve Jobs) with the students. During the discussion and lesson, other notable “leaders” were brought up by the students, particularly Hitler and Gaddafi. During those discussions, not only did I realize how insular my educational background was when it came to those two men and their actions, but I was also made aware of how narrow the views were of the students in my class. The big difference is that many of the students' views were polar opposite from what I had been exposed to in my formal education. It is all a matter of context and perspective I suppose, and it was a HUGE lesson learned on my part. It was a challenge like no other I have really ever faced, but it was a lesson.

This year will undoubtedly be filled with ups and downs, and although this past week was filled with challenges including those listed above and those not relayed to you via this blog, I am confident that this was the best decision I likely have ever made for myself – to stop living a life that didn't fit and which was challenging me in really negative ways, find the courage to walk away, listen to my heart, follow my instincts, and become a better version of who I was before. As Steve Jobs said, “Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life…Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

I challenge each of you to heed Mr. Jobs’ advice, or at the very least, learn from others who have.

Most Touching Moment of the Week: The girls in my family were making acrostic poems with their first names and decorating them for their rooms. Several of the girls wrote in the background of their poems, “I LOVE” and drew and line after the phrase. They then came up to me and asked me to write my name in the blank so that it read, “I LOVE BARRETT.” Priceless.

Most Amusing Moment of the Week: One of the boys in my advanced English class that I have been teaching for the week was asking me to tell him about my family and friends in America. He and his friends were very inquisitive about my romantic life back in America and found it “impossible” that I didn’t leave a boyfriend behind when I moved here. In the next instant, one of them raised his eyebrows in a flirtatious way and said, “well, I am available.” Again, priceless.

Best Meal of the Week: Not just once, but twice this past weekend I went to the Indian restaurant next to the Kigali house to eat, and gorged myself until I was sure I was going to pop. I have never had such amazing Indian food in my life, and I have a feeling that I just began a new ritual for each time I go to Kigali. If you are ever in Kigali, you must eat at Zaffran in Kiovu! PHENOMENAL!

Best/Oddest Compliment of the Week: I was buying groceries at a supermarket in Kigali, and during checkout, I was conversing in Kinyarwanda with the clerk (just basic greetings and conversation, NOTHING advanced), and after our exchange of words, he asked, “are you Rwandan?” I almost laughed out loud, but resisted the urge and told him that I was from America. I know that I have picked up a lot of sun, and that I have a lot of freckles, but there is no way in the world that anyone could possibly think that I am actually from Rwanda! I took it as a compliment nonetheless.

Kinyarwanda Phrases:

· Nimenshi Cyane! – That’s too expensive! (really helpful when you are bargaining for a moto or in a market)

· Ndwaye ibicurane – I have a cold

· Ndi ingaragu – I am single