9/26/2020 2 Comments Eventful First week of classWhat an eventful week! (Hello St. Johns Choir group! Glad to have you all here! :D )
9/21: On Monday we began our first full day of classes. In the morning we had a lesson on sexual harassment and warnings of things that may happen in the city/ things/ places to avoid. Then we learned about more of the cultural practices in Rwanda and things we should be aware of. We broke out for lunch and a few of us went to the Shokola café, the top floor of the local library! The views were gorgeous, as always, and the food was incredible. Coming back we started to think about what we would be doing for our Independent study projects, then went home and had a group dinner in the hostel. 9/22: We started off the day with a Survival Kinyarwanda with one of our outside instructors. Took a nice break with chapati and meat samosa. Then 4 of us went to a local vaccine office and got our Yellow Fever vaccines. The nurse giving the shot acted very different than getting a shot in America. She said hello, asked if I liked eggs (I said no which was very surprising to her), she walked over and asked how I was and while I answered she gave me the shot. It was quick and very painless. For those that know me, I get very nervous and chatty whenever I am getting a shot, but this nurse moved so quickly that I didn't even have time to register what was happening. We went and had a group lunch at Meze Fresh, the Mexican restaurant, and came back to watch the movie Ghosts of Rwanda. After classes, Anna and I stopped at Gladden's café to study and have dinner. I got a salad for 1500 RF or $1.50 USD! 9/23: ANNA'S BIRTHDAY!!!!!! We start the day wishing Anna a happy birthday and heading to SIT headquarters for our last Survival Kinyarwanda class. We learned how to ask for directions, ordering at restaurants, directions to give taxi drivers, etc. After a break, we had two of our three Pre-genocide identity politics classes with Professor Bernard Rutikanga. The classes were incredibly engaging and informative. It is amazing what different information is released by American journalists concerning the genocide. For example, almost every article/history overview you will read about the genocide will say around 800,000 Tutsi's died. However, the Rwandan Government estimates that around 1.2 million Tutsi's died and have the statistics to back up the data. At lunch, we took Anna out to Casa Keza, an amazing local Spanish restaurant! While the food took awhile, the atmosphere was wonderful and the company even better! I got the Potatas Bravas (a bowl of potatoes) which was very delicious! Unfortunately, this lunch went on long and we were a little late to our last class with Professor Bernard Rutikanga, though he said it was fine and that we were on 'African time now'. On our walk home, Anna, Asia and I stopped at a cute local craft store and looked around for awhile. Asia bought some beautiful prints. Meanwhile, some of the other girls went to go get Anna's favorite cupcakes for an after dinner surprise! We had dinner at the hostel, and celebrated Anna's birthday right with cupcakes and South African white wine. After dinner, we sat around playing cards and having fun as a group. 9/24: Oof, this morning did not start great. I woke up very sick for a few hours, and tried taking meds though they were barely working. Though this was the day we were going to the Kigali Genocide Memorial, and I was not going to miss that. So I took some more meds and pushed through, getting to the SIT Headquaters. Once there, unfortunately, I threw up. It made me feel somewhat better, but also pretty weak. I let our facilitators know, but we agreed that I could still go, knowing there were restrooms at the memorial if needed or that I could go sit in the van/be taken back to the hostel if I felt sick. Though feeling like crap and weak, I made it to the memorial, and it was very much worth it. This memorial was built in the 2000's, and had around 250,000 buried in mass graves outside. Inside there were exhibits teaching the history of the genocide, tributes to the victims and survivors, and reminder for the youth. It was a lot to take in, violent images, and reminders of the past. One exhibit was dedicated to the lost children, showing a panel with their name, a nice photograph, details of their favorite foods/activities, and then how they were killed. It hit everyone the hardest, and many of us, including myself, were brought to tears at the horrifying details of what these children endured. We were there for around 2 1/2 hours, taking in the emotions and horrors of the event. Afterwards we had lunch as a group at Sundowner, and went back to SIT for a debrief. Our debrief was with Apollon Kabahizi, who was in charge of building the memorial and was involved in everything with it. If there was anyone to talk about the Memorial with, it was him! He explained how he wanted it to be shocking and not allow for the denial of the genocide, but not be a place of trauma and allow for survivors to come and reconcile with their past. He included an exhibit detailing genocides that have happened across history because he wanted to show that this isn't something that has only happened in Rwanda. The discussion went on for awhile and was incredibly touching and informative. That night Anna, Asia and I got together and went to Casa Kava's again to share tappa's and enjoy the night and reflect on the day. 9/25: (3 months til' Christmas!) We had our first Research Methods & Ethics Class and started planning our ISP's. After a break, we have many tea breaks, Grace and I were the leaders for this week's readings. Everything went very smoothly and we got some great deep discussions going. Every week we will have a "processing session" where we talk about how we've been feeling about the program, and kind of just a general check-in. Our leaders of the session decided for us to go to lunch together at Fresh Foods Restaurant, where we wrote down anything we wanted to bring up anonymously. We had some productive discussions, and got to know each other better. Later that night, Anna, Asia, Caleb and I just hung out in the common room and decided to watch Midsommer (which I was only able to stay for the beginning of). Overall, it was a really great start to the first (real) week of classes! (Sorry to Elon people who are about to do mid-terms!)
2 Comments
Kenille Baumgardner
10/10/2020 10:40:11 am
Mary, keep the blog coming. What an amazing experience you are having. I have traveled to many places but nothing quite a terrible as this location. Accepting man's inhumanity to man may be the hardest thing to accept especially with our Christian background of love. But certainly if you have read any history of the Crusades (done by Christians) you know of the thousands that were killed and the atrocities to men, women, and children. If we don't learn from history we will repeat it. I don't think I could have gone to the memorial but the impact of this on the rest of your life will no doubt become more apparent as you grow older.
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Kim Giles
10/12/2020 05:00:09 am
Love reading your posts! Love seeing things through your photos too! Can't wait to hear more about your journey.
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