The lucky travelor
So far the other volunteers in my guest house have been plagued with every sickness under the sun, I have not had so much as a sniffle. Picking up the language and other essential skills such as negotiating , finding land marks to find my way around, and getting rid of persistent street vendors I have picked up easily. I am extremely fortunate, and even though I have had my bad days I have really only had good experiences here. I came to Africa preparing myself for anything, and really life has been a piece of cake. My neighbors and the people of Rwanda are mostly not that fortunate, yesterday one of the women who works at the director of the orphanages house led me through this fence and there was an old women cooking fish to prepare for the market and inside their dirt poor home was the son who is severely handicapped and in a wheel chair and has the mentality of a 5 year old. This woman worked for herself and for her son but the work she does doesn't buy her the essentials of life. I really want to help this woman financially before I go, there is also another little girl Sandrine who lives in the area of the orphanage she comes out running everyday arms wide open towards me . She is 3 but has some of the best English I have heard on a little child in Rwanda, she doesn't have a father and her mother works full time so Sandrine is home alone or playing with the neighbour children , she is extremely intelligent and if possible I want to sponsor her for schooling when she gets to the age of 5 or 6.
Yesterday was visitors day at the orphanage and 2 sponsors came the kids were wearing their best clothes, the babies were wearing nappies(!!!!!) and the kids were also on their worst possible behavior before the visitors came and I had to break up several physical fights between the younger boys and girls, the orphanage was made to look spik and span and the children practiced traditional dances. When the first woman came (an American who was married to a Rwandese man and had been living in Kigali for 4 years) she said me and my husband run this orphanage, I had never seen or heard of her before and the kids said they saw her maybe once a year, so Amy a volunteer who was visiting for the day and who sometimes comes to help out and who volunteers at another orphanage started going on and on what the other volunteers had provided that the volunteers had bought beds and books and fixed things etc and stressing it in such a way to make the point that before volunteers came this place was like a colorless prison. She then proceeded to say once the lady had left ' if this lady runs the orphanage how can she sleep at night' , it turns out she gives money for food etc, and it made me realize that we can do a job but not do it properly , like I could volunteer and be there but not make a difference. So then the next visitor comes from America and he last year adopted one of the boys from the orphanage, and then the kids did there traditional dancing , again this man said I give you good bed and good food etc . Again something that wasn't true, because before the children were sleeping two or three to a bed and then a past volunteer bought 9 bunk beds for the children , as for food a volunteer who is here for two weeks he is setting up a fund that will make sure the children get fruit three times a week , in a land where fruit grows everywhere its very sad to see fruit is a special treat for these children . The sponsors visits made me decide that I am coming back to Rwanda if not next year but the year after, because sending money is one thing but it might change the lives of someone in one aspect but not fully.
The weekend was interesting , it was a TIA (this is Africa ) weekend , I walked around to find this fair trade shop on Saturday but I got totally lost and ended up finding this really cool market! I made some nice friends and got unwanted advances from old men and to get rid of them I gave them fake email addresses or I said I would take there number and I would text them if I felt like it , which of course I didn't. This Saturday I am going to Butare and seeing an apparently horrific genocide memorial something I feel is important for me to see but not something I am really looking forward to . I also got nearly frozen to death when I caught a moto in rush hour traffic with only a skirt and a t-shirt on , will not be doing that again!! The power has gone out three times this week and one time this was 6 minutes into a documentary of animal friends that everyone had really been looking forward to seeing. I can hardly believe I have been here almost two months , its gone fast but also really slow!!
One little girl at the orphanage said I was very bad because I was going home soon, I wasn't allowed to see my family from her, because I was her family she said, so thank you Chance (the little girl) for confirming my desire to return to Rwanda.
anyway I am very hungry because it is dinner time and all I have had today (as every day) is some fruit stale bread with butter, rice and beans ..
hope all is well
and until next time !!! Maaramootchi! (this means Goodbye at night)
Yesterday was visitors day at the orphanage and 2 sponsors came the kids were wearing their best clothes, the babies were wearing nappies(!!!!!) and the kids were also on their worst possible behavior before the visitors came and I had to break up several physical fights between the younger boys and girls, the orphanage was made to look spik and span and the children practiced traditional dances. When the first woman came (an American who was married to a Rwandese man and had been living in Kigali for 4 years) she said me and my husband run this orphanage, I had never seen or heard of her before and the kids said they saw her maybe once a year, so Amy a volunteer who was visiting for the day and who sometimes comes to help out and who volunteers at another orphanage started going on and on what the other volunteers had provided that the volunteers had bought beds and books and fixed things etc and stressing it in such a way to make the point that before volunteers came this place was like a colorless prison. She then proceeded to say once the lady had left ' if this lady runs the orphanage how can she sleep at night' , it turns out she gives money for food etc, and it made me realize that we can do a job but not do it properly , like I could volunteer and be there but not make a difference. So then the next visitor comes from America and he last year adopted one of the boys from the orphanage, and then the kids did there traditional dancing , again this man said I give you good bed and good food etc . Again something that wasn't true, because before the children were sleeping two or three to a bed and then a past volunteer bought 9 bunk beds for the children , as for food a volunteer who is here for two weeks he is setting up a fund that will make sure the children get fruit three times a week , in a land where fruit grows everywhere its very sad to see fruit is a special treat for these children . The sponsors visits made me decide that I am coming back to Rwanda if not next year but the year after, because sending money is one thing but it might change the lives of someone in one aspect but not fully.
The weekend was interesting , it was a TIA (this is Africa ) weekend , I walked around to find this fair trade shop on Saturday but I got totally lost and ended up finding this really cool market! I made some nice friends and got unwanted advances from old men and to get rid of them I gave them fake email addresses or I said I would take there number and I would text them if I felt like it , which of course I didn't. This Saturday I am going to Butare and seeing an apparently horrific genocide memorial something I feel is important for me to see but not something I am really looking forward to . I also got nearly frozen to death when I caught a moto in rush hour traffic with only a skirt and a t-shirt on , will not be doing that again!! The power has gone out three times this week and one time this was 6 minutes into a documentary of animal friends that everyone had really been looking forward to seeing. I can hardly believe I have been here almost two months , its gone fast but also really slow!!
One little girl at the orphanage said I was very bad because I was going home soon, I wasn't allowed to see my family from her, because I was her family she said, so thank you Chance (the little girl) for confirming my desire to return to Rwanda.
anyway I am very hungry because it is dinner time and all I have had today (as every day) is some fruit stale bread with butter, rice and beans ..
hope all is well
and until next time !!! Maaramootchi! (this means Goodbye at night)
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