Dear FF&B,
By far my favorite breakfast place has got to be Vanilla Restaurant. Eggs are cheapish, chai reasonable, and chapatti downright cheap. In fact, my one chapatti was cooked right into my omelet… a right tasty and substantial meal. But the best part is the down-to-earth ambiance. The size and intimacy of the staff feels like you’re in someone’s home. It just feels like family. I makes me want to jump up and help in the kitchen or learn how to make something new...
Now back to my program:
I’ve always found that new cultural experiences take a while to process and sink in before you can write about them. Today is my 33rd day in Rwanda – my last full day. As I sit here in the Mzungu-laden Union Trade Centre hammering out some practical emails, I can’t help but think about how much this research project has changed over the past 4 weeks, or remember the inevitable newness, confusion, and excitement that come with the start of a new project.
Yes, I have some follow-up calls and emails... but this is it. And what better way to wrap up a trip than to reflect on the beginning?
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I arrived in Kigali after 30+ hours of travel from San Francisco. With considerable layovers in both Amsterdam and Nairobi, I arrived at my hotel feeling okay... but fairly tired and worn out: I fell asleep for a couple hours and almost missed my dinner appointment!
I had pre-arranged for my lodging through my translator (also arranged via email through my in-country contact’s niece). It turns out that my translator was also distant family and had put me up in a place that was only a couple months old. It was very clean and surprisingly had free WiFi... but it was just a tad out of the way: 20 minute walk to the taxi-bus station, and another 30 minute ride to downtown (20 min with no traffic or stops). Nevertheless, we stayed there for most of the first week. Besides, I had a couple days of market surveys before Jessica even arrived... so there was no need to be right in downtown. As we would find out, few affordable restaurants stay open for dinner anywhere we visited – with the notable exception of Butare (which holds the national university and functions like a typical college town).
One of the first things I noticed was the public transportation system. Compared to my only experience in Lusaka where mini-buses were prevalent but the system did not seem as extensive and was much more expensive. Here, you can take a mini-bus for 150 francs from Kimironko to Mimuji (Kinyarwanda for "(down)town") – somewhere between 25 to 30 cents for the 20-30 minute ride. On a good day in Lusaka, you could do the 7 minute ride from Alpha Bar to Arcades for 1,000 (33 cents)... but more often you would be charged 2,000 if you are a Mzungu. Here in Kigali, the taxi-bus fares are standard and it is one of the few places where I did not need to barter for the fare beforehand (as opposed to the rest of Rwanda or anywhere in Zambia). So let me assure you what a relief it is when I had a meeting on my last day in Kigali and could finally stop being suspicious of exactly how much I was being overcharged or should try to negotiate down!
After Jessica arrived here in Kigali, we began work in earnest through a myriad of interviews with environmentalists, development workers, professors and students, and a long host of bureaucrats who worked in agriculture, energy, environment, forestry and other natural resources, technology development, and even waste management. We also found time to meet one cooperative who was doing waste collection and briquetting organic waste into energy pellets. With each meeting, we would start to form a picture of the different organizations that were working the area, the latest energy development ideas, and the sense of large production that pervaded Kigali. Even the more peri-urban/semirural cooperative was working with automated machinery to grind and briquette their organic mass! With each meeting, we would ask for not only background history and current developments, but also relevant statistics, plans, financial figures... and ALWAYS contacts, contacts, contacts. Most of the time, meetings could be arranged on one day’s notice (or less), and we got a surprising amount of understanding for only three and one-half days of the workweek.
Now, there is something about Kigali that reminds me of San Francisco. Perhaps it’s the fact that it is a city of hills. Or the quick-changing weather that may be third-degree hot at one point, and overcast/rainy 15 minutes later. Perhaps I best described it in one aborted entry from May 30:
"Kigali is beautiful. Since arriving one week ago I have marveled at the green spaces, hillside panoramas, and sense of peace and security when walking at night. Each time I turn a corner, I get a new perspective of this town."
During our first week, we were in a variety of meetings and meet in the evening with UNDP. Earlier in the day it had been roasting hot and neither of us had brought a poncho or umbrella. Sometime during the 90 minute meeting, I heard the pitter patter start... but having seen some small drizzles start and stop before, I hoped it would peter out. Unfortunately, the rain was steady when we left. Being far from the hotel... but wanting to get into more comfortable clothes (we had been in meetings and on the go for about 11 hours straight), we decided to take the walk back. Sometime in the next 5 minutes, the steady rain turned into a downpour, and we were so soaked we couldn’t do anything but laugh and continue on. No one else was on the roads. Everyone took cover in awnings and doorways, staring at us like some deranged school kids who couldn’t stop giggling at their "mis"fortune.
Here are some other highlights from May 22 – May 28:
- Touring the briquetting cooperative. Even though the machine wasn’t working at the time, you could tell the potential for serious volume. As a business student, I was happy to see that the possibility of profit was associated with this kind of alternative energy production. I just had questions about whether it could be done in a low-tech, small volume scenario.
- Learning some of my best Kinyarwanda. While I may have learned more in the rural areas that spoke less English, the very basics were practiced every day from the start. Muraho (hello), mwiliwe (hello/good day), amakuru (how are you?), murakoze (thank you)... these are the staples to any greeting or interaction and I learned them well. A more extensive explanation of words may come in a separate entry.
- Attending the first annual Environmental Health Conference. We didn’t go for long, but were welcomed to participate in the break-out sessions prior to lunch (on the day we left for Gisenyi). Some good friends of one of Jess’ MIT contacts were attending and we learned how small but close-knit the newly-formed environmental health sector was (most working at far-flung NGOs and helping each other get jobs).
- Losing my hat and running out of sunscreen in the very first week! The first was an oversight when leaving a taxi bus, the second was due to my quick departure State-side... and not realizing how unavailable sunscreen would be in Rwanda (nothing available more than 6 SPF – which I finally got two weeks later!) Dear friends, fear not... I am not the crispy lobster you come to expect in these circumstances... but it’s been challenging!
I suppose there were many other smaller moments. Everyone seemed to be so friendly... even when they couldn’t understand a word of what we said. But we did not even have to use a translator every day as more than half of the bureaucrats and other contacts could speak decent enough English to be productive.
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And with that, I must begin to prepare for the journey home. Look forward to more when I return State-side. And please feel free to send in your thoughts or requests!
Safe and Peaceful Journeys,
-Stan
P.S. I will try to post some pictures to go along with these blogs when I safely land in the States.
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