A Fun Little Photo Shoot

So maybe you remember me mentioning getting a pair of pants painted from a previous blog post.  You probably thought, she can't be serious.  Well, I was serious.  Thank you, Innocent!  Here's a fun little photo shoot Tom did with me in his backyard in my new painted jeans.  I don't really know how to behave in a photo shoot, hence the awkward faces in most of the photos.  I also don't really know how to re-situate photos in blogger, hence the awkward photo placement.

   

Apparently the "hands on hips" pose is a favorite of mine.  I might need to diversify if I choose to pursue a career in modeling.  (Don't worry.  I'm not going to pursue a career in modeling... And I know you were worried...)

A Thrilling Final Exam

I recently gave my senior one (7^th grade) students their final English exam for the second term.  The final question read as follows:  “Write a paragraph of at least 6 sentences about a famous person.  Make sure your subjects and verbs agree and that you punctuate your sentences correctly.”  I think you will be amused by the variety of the list and the frequency of certain famous people.  Following is the list of all people who were written about more than once (along with the number of times they were mentioned):

Michael Jackson 23

Nelson Mandela 23

Gisa Fred Rwigema 18

Famous People in general 13

Off topic 11

Gandhi 8

Paul Kagame 5

Bob Marley 4

Barack Obama 4

Chris Brown 3

Jesus 3

Martin Luther King 3

King Mutara III Rudahigwa 2

Ben Carson 2

Abe Lincoln 2

Christiano Ronaldo 2

Neil Armstrong 2

Some other notable people I read about include 2Pac, Miley Cyrus, Oprah, President George W. Bush, Swarzenegar Anord, Jesse Jackson, Roald Dahl, and Black Obama (not to be confused with Barack Obama).

Clearly, however, the most fascinating paragraphs centered around the “King of Pop,” Michael Jackson (or if you prefer Mickel Jackson, Meckeal Jackson, or my personal favorite:  Mick Jason).  My students have baffled me.  I’m quite confused about where he was born.  Was it Los Angeles?  Chicago?  South Africa?  Kenya?  And when was he born?  1953? 1958? 1954? 1959?  And his death date?  Was it 2008?  10 January 2010?  25/05/2009? June 25, 2009?  Most perplexing, however, is the cause of his death.  I always thought it had something to do with a drug overdose, but maybe it was nose cancer after all.  Or a stroke.  Or skin cancer.  Or maybe he was poisoned. 

Here are some of my favorite sentences from the paragraphs:

“In America there was a good dancer called MICHAEL Jackson in a small town called CHICAGO.”

“Before he was born with a long nose then they cut it off and replaced it with a plastic nose.”

“When the machine transformed him, it didn’t transform his nose.  Then they gave him another nose after he got nose cancer.”

“Although he was very handsome, he had blood cancer.”

“Another thing is that he is the first black who became a white man.”

“And he died in 2009 of poisoning him but they don’t know they are still searching and they said that his maid was a Rwandan.”

“But some people said that he is alive and others said that he died.”

I do not share this with you to mock my students but to offer some insight into life outside of the good ol’ ethnocentric US of A.

Obviously, the American influence in Rwanda is enormous.  I’ve been given the opportunity to be the only picture of the US that many of these students will ever have outside of pop culture.  What pressure!  I can only hope that I can help diminish some misconceptions.

Another lesson I think we can learn is the importance of filtering the information that constantly bombards us.  You can’t believe everything you hear!  Sometimes your brain is a good enough filter, but sometimes it’s not.  When in doubt, look it up!  We’ve been blessed (and arguably cursed) to have the worldwide web at our fingertips nearly 24/7.  And while we must be careful utilizing it, it can be a valuable resource for deciphering the truth from the lies that we regularly face. 

One thing I’ve learned since moving to Rwanda six months ago is the universality of practically everything.  Human nature is human nature everywhere.  Rwandans are just as obsessed with juicy gossip as their American counterparts.  It don’t matter if you’re black or white.  And stories get twisted as they are passed from person to person causing gross misunderstandings that can get pretty ugly.  Chances are, Michael Jackson misconceptions are not going to cause much strife around these parts, but if I do recall, some terrible things have happened here (and everywhere else in the world) because of “mere” misunderstandings.

Finally, notice, if you will, that tied with Michael Jackson at the top of that list is Nelson Mandela.  These kids admire courage, and that is encouraging.  In a land where courage will take you further than musical talent, I can only hope that my students will start with the man in the mirror to embrace the positive traits of their so-called heroes and heal the world, to make it a better place!

Sometimes I Forget Why I Love This Place

Sometimes I forget why I love this place.  You know, like when the power goes out just as I’m getting to the best part of a movie.  Or when the Internet goes out just as I’m FINALLY catching up with a good friend from home.  Or when it starts raining dogs and cats just as I am getting ready to go somewhere.  Or when I eat something from a restaurant I go to all the time and wake up puking my guts out at 3 o’ clock in the morning.  And then it happens again the very next week.  And the next.  Or when all I want for dinner is a fish brochette, and I go to a restaurant to find that the fish is “finished.”  Or when my entire body is infested with ringworm and then I go for a run for the first time in ages and I get nice and sweaty and come home to find out that there is no water to wash off the stench which inevitably means ten or so more ringworm lesions will pop up on my body causing me more itchy, sleepless nights which in turn give me a cold which makes me grumpy, and no one wants to be around me when I’m grumpy.  Really, though…you don’t.

But then I remember the contagious laughter of the senior class for whom I performed my rendition of a popular Rwandan pop song, “Igipimo.”  And the children who run barefoot down the road with me to keep me company while I run.  And the five magnificent volcanoes that tower over my town. And the hugs I get from my students everyday at school.  And the thousand lush, green hills that surround me. And the enlightening conversations I have with some of the most incredible people in the world.  And the sweet smile of my house girl who has faced more adversity in her life than any of you could even begin to fathom, yet cleans our house with infectious bliss day in and day out.  And the beautiful babies tied on the backs of their hard working mothers.  And the joyous singing and dancing of children at an orphanage.  And the cute little geckos that scamper over the walls.  And the sweetest little bananas and the most luscious pineapples and the most delicious avocados in the world.  And the inspiring artists and the burgeoning art scene.  And the fact that I can wear my Chacos literally everyday.  And the smiles and smiles and smiles that go on for… kilometers.  

You Go, Girls!

This week has been a loooooooong week.  Anna went home for some weddings leaving me as the lone Muzungu at Sonrise, and this week was my week on duty.  That basically means I have to be at school until 9pm for the whole week, and be at school on Saturday and Sunday.  It was quite long, but also a very rewarding week.  The highlight was definitely today when I got to accompany 23 girls from Sonrise to a celebration where they were awarded for scoring high on their national exams.  There were about 50 girls recognized in the Northern Province, and I’m the proud teacher of 22 of them!  Here’s a little recap of my day for you:

6:00 – My alarm clock goes off, you know, just in case they actually pick me up at 7am as they said.

7:27 – My teacher friend calls to tell me to walk to the courthouse to meet the bus.

7:30 – I arrive at the courthouse and carry on a conversation with Jean Claude who apparently has mistaken me for Kim, another Muzungu in town (we look nothing alike).

7:43 – Teacher friend calls to say there’s no room for me in the bus, but I stay at the courthouse to give them my camera, anyway.

7:57 – The bus arrives, and they decide to squeeze 5 (though it’s not really squeezing when it’s 7^th grade girls) girls in the back seat to break the law to allow me to come along for the festivities.

8:00 – We stop by the bus station to service the bus.

8:03 – Depart the bus station.

8:34 – The first girl pukes.

8:39 – Several girls are feeling a little carsick, so we pull over and rearrange seats so that the sick ones don’t puke on other people.

8:45 – The second girl pukes.

8:47 – We reach the Gakenke district and stop to ask for directions to the ceremony.

8:53 – Head down the road to the field where the ceremony will take place.

8:56 – Girl #3 pukes.

9:00 – We arrive at the destination and get the girls all seated in their special seats and signed in to receive their awards.

9:30 – The ceremony begins!  Only 1.5 hours late!  For the next 54 or so minutes, we watched various dance troupes do various traditional dances.

10:24 – The emcee interviews a male teacher, a female teacher, a mother, a father, a high school boy, a high school girl, a primary school boy, and a primary school girl.  She asks them what causes the gap between boys and girls in education.  The female teacher noted the fact that girls are expected to do chores at home and thus have no time for revising.  The high school boy mentioned the fact that girls are distracted for up to two weeks per month by menstruation (to which my male teacher friends responded, “That is so true!  He really has a point!”).  The primary boy said that when girls fall behind and ask boys for help, the boys say, “I’ll only help you if you’ll be my girlfriend,” and then the girl is distracted by the boy and thus never gets the academic help she was seeking.  These are the only answers which got a reaction from the audience and thus the only ones which I had translated.

10:56 – Finally, the moment we’ve all been waiting for!  The girls receive their gifts:  a duffle bag, 4 dictionaries, an atlas, a mathematics set, a calculator, a watch, and 20,000RWF!

11:38 – Some women who care for orphans in the area were also recognized and given a cow as a gift.

12:01 – Representatives of the Inbuto Foundation brought gifts for the mayors, the governor, the first lady, and the president.

12:05 – The governor of the Northern Province gives his address.

12:26 – A crazy little man riles up the crowd, and the girls go dance in the field.

12:30 – Group photo time.

12:34 – We are finally dismissed, and then the girls finally see what I mean when I tell them that people stare at Muzungus.  As the lone Muzungu among thousands of Rwandans, I got plenty of stares.

12:54 – We depart for Musanze.

1:42 – We arrive at Vision2020 for a good ol’ Rwandan buffet lunch.  It was QUITE a treat for the girls!  And they totally deserved it for being so diligent in their studies.  I am so proud of them all!

2:43 – We take a group photo at Vision2020 and board the bus for Sonrise.

2:47 – The fourth girl pukes.

2:50 – We arrive at school and get the girls all their stuff stowed away in the Discipline Master’s office so no one will steal all their hard earned prizes.

3:22 – I ride the bus back to town with a girl who is going to the clinic tomorrow in Kigali. 

3:25 – We get off the bus and meet her mother who invites me to her house.

3:30 – I visit with the family, see the family photo album, watch her little brother sing and dance my new favorite Rwandan song (Igipimo… I’ll sing it for you sometime if you Skype me!), drink Fanta, and watch random American music videos.

5:00 – I arrive home and finally get my first chance to relax and to update my blog in over a week!

I LOVE My New Painting!

Just wanted to share my new painting with you all.  Innocent is one of the self-trained artists at Ivuka Arts, and I love love love his work.

Next up, some sweet painted jeans like his!  Gotta go brave the clothing stores soon to buy a pair to paint!

RIIIIIIING...RIIIIIIIIING...RIIIIIIIIING... Hello? Is that you Worm?

Today, in lieu of a typical blog post, I would like to share with you a little playlist I created that does a pretty good job at describing the last week or so here in Musanze.  If I knew how (and had fast enough internet), I would link the songs to actual music, but alas I neither know how nor have fast enough internet.  Listening to the songs is unnecessary, however, as I chose them based solely on their titles.  Not only will this give you a picture of my week, but it will also give you a glimpse into my iTunes library, and thus my mind.  Yikes!  Enjoy!

1.  Nasty Girl - Destiny's Child
2.  Should've Known Better - Nickel Creek
3.  Karma - Alicia Keys
4.  Can't Touch This - Vanilla Ice
5.  Dark Circles - Bela Fleck and the Flecktones
6.  Cover Me - Jo Dee Messina
7.  The Sharing Song - Jack Johnson
8.  I'm Not Alone (Calvin Harris cover) - Mumford & Sons
9.  Catch My Disease - Ben Lee
10. And It Spread - The Avett Brothers
11. Another One Bites the Dust - Queen
12. Help! - The Beatles
13. We're All In This Together - Old Crow Medicine Show
14. Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometimes - Beck
15. You'll Get Through This - Martina McBride
16. Don't Want You Back - Backstreet Boys

Disclaimer:  Don't you worry; no one's dying of any terrible illness.  Those dark circles that cover me are just a little (or a lot, actually) friendly tinea corporis.  That's right; there's a fungus among us.  We're being treated and improving slowly by slowly (that's Rwandan for slowly but surely).

Number One: Chances of Meeting Famous People

I know the anticipation was killing you, and chances of meeting famous people may not be what you were expecting as the number one difference between the US and Rwanda, but I have to keep things interesting or I might lose my 18 followers.

Some of the most common conversations I have with Rwandan students are about famous people.  They want to know if I know Chris Brown or T-Payne or Barack Obama.  I tell them I know who they are, but I’ve never met them.  They seem to think that if they were in the US, they would be BFFs with the Pres. They would just walk right up to the White House, knock on the door, and have tea with Barry and the first family.  I try to relate this situation to Rwanda to help them understand.  None of them would ever get close enough to Kagame’s compound to even so much as get a glimpse of his house, much less sit down and have tea with him and his boys.  I try to inform the kids that they probably have a better chance of meeting famous Americans in Rwanda than they would if they traveled to the US.

I have found this to be quite true, myself.  The closest I have ever been to meeting a famous person in the US was being a receptionist at Camp Ridgecrest where Bobby Bowden’s grandson and Doc Watson’s son attended camp for a week (or less than a week in the Watson kid’s case.)  That or being babysat by Arnold Palmer’s grandchildren’s babysitter once as a kid.  However, in my short time in Rwanda I have had the opportunity to meet a few famous people.

Last summer I lived in the same house as the Von Trapp children for a week in Rwanda.

I also met Jack Hanna when he came to Sonrise for a visit.

And just last month I spent a week with Kris Allen, the most recent American Idol. 

I apologize for being the world’s worst photographer in both quantity and quality, but if you need proof that I hung out with Kris Allen, look very closely for me in the following YouTube videos:

 Kris Allen - TOMS Shoes/Bridge2Rwanda - Send Me All Your Angels

Rwanda Shoe Drop

Kris Allen - Ring of Fire

Celebrities are just people like you and me, and I've been very impressed to find that each and every famous person I meet is extremely down to earth and a joy to be around.