A Day in the Life

It’s been a week since I got off the plane, wide-eyed and ready to see this new, beautiful country! Here’s a little description of what my life looks like:

I live in a one-story house that is gated from the jagged, narrow dirt road. My host parents work incredibly hard during the week, often leaving before I get up and coming home after dinner. When I’m home, I spend most my time with their two precious kids (ages 2 and 4) as well as with their two “nannies” and “guard” (very loose terms to describe what I’m still not sure is their job). In Kigali, it is extremely common if both parents work to have live-in help. Everything is done by hand and takes a long time (cooking, cleaning, etc.) so it’s virtually impossible to have two full time working parents without help. We teach each other Kinyarwanda and English, laughing and using more hand motions than a game of charades.

Those smiles tho!
(this is the view from house looking over Kacyiru, the
neighboring hill...you can kind of see it)

Also, I’ve learned there is not really a “poor” or “wealthy” area of Kigali. Everything is mixed together. So on our street, there is a beautiful brick Catholic school, houses locked behind gates and extremely run down homes all next to each other. You see kids running around in clothes that look donated from decades ago, playing next to roosters and goats. Then, a moto will zoom by with a professionally dressed businessman on his way to town. Women with huge baskets of fruit balanced on their heads walk next to groups of school children in their uniforms (blue button up, navy skirt, and tom shoes). There’s a lot to see just looking out on the road.

Kigali, like the rest of Rwanda, is spread out over huge hills.  Even though everything is close, I’m learning it takes me 3x longer than anyone else to walk to places. Back in VA, we would “hike” these hills, not walk them. I briefly considered joining my coworker's jogging group, but then I actually went for a walk and that dream got shot down real fast. 

Incredible full moon-it's bigger in real life!

It’s easy to make friends everywhere you go if you’re the “muzungu” (white person) and speak a little Kinyarwanda. Everyone really responds to my attempts to speak and understand, and they always want to teach me more. Today I was walking to the town center when I turned around to find 5 school kids following right on my heels! One of them quickly took my hand when I stumbled on the uneven road, introduced himself as Samson, and became my personal guide to the neighborhood.

Clumsiness is becoming a new theme to my life. I’m constantly tripping on the unpaved roads, and I’ve had more people hold my hand for my own safety than when I was learning to walk (I think). To cross the road, my host mom always grabs my hand so I don’t get run over in the world’s most terrifying game of frogger. 

My internship is so wonderful—one of the many highlights of my day. It’s located in a small house rented from the Baptist Church near all the embassies. I love noticing the differences in the buildings; meaning, the US embassy is a big, gated, over guarded cinderblock building while the South African embassy looks like a hotel from a dream catalog. 

The office is also where more Kinyarwanda lessons continue, and usually a couple Rwandan culture lessons as well. On Wednesday, our lunchtime became an hour-long lecture in the significance of dowry parties in Rwanda. They pretended I was getting married to “Francois” as a role-play scenario, and doubled over laughing when I got so offended I wasn’t allowed to attend the part of the ceremony where they decide on how many cows I’m worth! One of the many ways God has answered my prayer for joy and laughter

My mouse friend at work faithfully reminds
me when its 5:00 pm and time to go home for the day

Accomplishment of the day: A man tried to sell me a Kinyarwanda dictionary, but when I responded in Kinyarwanda, he retracted it saying, “oh you know Kinyarwanda!” I think if I kept talking to him he would’ve forced me to buy it for my own good, but it was a personal win for the day!

Tourist’s tip of the day: Do not ask to see Hotel Rwanda; it is not an actual place. One of the biggest laughs I’ve had is with my coworkers who told stories of Americans asking to stay at Hotel Rwanda. The hotel that the movie is based on is Hotel Des Milles Collines (“Hotel of a Thousand Hills”), and it’s about 10 minutes away from my house (but 30 minutes walking for me). 

Hope that gives you a little idea of my time here!