Akagera Photographs

On Monday and Tuesday I  went on a safari through Akagera National Park with my mom and sister. We had a wonderful time so I wanted to share some of our favorite photographs with you! The highlight was probably our encounter with the elephant. At one point the car was a little too close and he had his trunk straight up in the air which is apparently an early warning sign of charging. We found this experience rather thrilling but our poor driver, Claude, was terrified. I worry he may hesitate to accept trips into the park again after our interaction with an angry elephant! Overall it was a really fun experience and I would recommend it to anyone traveling in Rwanda- just be sure to bring a guide (they are really knowledgable and keep you safe from charging elephants) and be cautious of the horse flies. Make sure you have the ability to put the windows up in whatever car you hire- it may sound romantic to go on safari in an open-air car but there were parts of the park with an obscene amount of horse flies and their bites can be really painful and lead to bruising and annoying amounts of discomfort.

Here are some of the favorites from our many photographs:

Tomorrow I leave to be a counselor for camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) so there will be another quiet period for the next week in terms of posting here. School starts again on September 3rd so I will have one weekend after camp to finalize my lesson plans and get ready for third term- I am sure that period of time will be wonderfully stressful! Hope everyone back home is doing well!

Family in Rwanda

I am having a wonderful time with my mom and sister! I will post more about our adventures later, but for now, here are a few pictures from some of our activities!

One night we taught the nuns how to make s’mores over the fire.

Stephanie’s tattoo parlor at the orphanage.

Mom’s face painting station- very popular!

   

We had a dinner with the other teachers from my school and Mom and Stephanie had lots of cuddle time with the babies!

   

We went up to visit my host family and this is my youngest brother, Alfa.

 

My amazing host parents!

 

Visiting with some of the village kids

   

Stephanie, Mama Jean, Mama Suzanna

We are having a wonderful time together and I will work on posting more pictures soon!

Family

 

 

You don’t choose your family.  They are God’s gift to you, as you are to them. 

~Desmond Tutu

As I write this my fabulous mother and sister are on their way to Rwanda! I so incredibly excited to see them- I am not sure how to articulate my feelings into words. Suffice to say it has been almost a year since I have seen a member of my family so I have been looking forward to this trip for a long time- almost a year now! 🙂

Living abroad has definitely given me a new sense of gratitude when it comes to family. I never imagined I would lose two grandparents during my service and especially not within one month but the world has a way of going on, even when you move far away from those you love. I think the biggest sacrifice I made in order to come to Rwanda was putting so many miles between myself and my wonderful family. I gave up my opportunity to say goodbye to my grandfather and Grandma Jessie when I moved here and that is a heavy burden to bear sometimes. I truly believe in my work here and I am happy with my decision to serve 27 months in Rwanda, but Africa can feel very far away sometimes. When you say goodbye to a grandparent on their death bed over the phone it really makes you evaluate your life. I sat down and asked myself if I was still happy with my choice to be here and after a few hours of reflecting the answer was an overwhelming yes- so here I am- still in Rwanda and loving life but with a heavy heart for those I have lost.

With all this in mind I am extremely happy that my family is coming to visit and I hope I have time to post some pictures here during their trip. I will cap this off with a few photos of my adorable grandfather who recently passed away. I especially love the last one of him smelling the flowers that my family gave me at my graduation ceremony last May.

 

Our most basic instinct is not for survival but for family.  Most of us would give our own life for the survival of a family member, yet we lead our daily life too often as if we take our family for granted. 

~Paul Pearshall

It’s All About Attitude

Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference. 

~Winston Churchill

The electricity has been off almost every night since I arrived home from Tanzania. I honestly don’t mind the darkness that much but it can make certain tasks tricky to accomplish. Tonight I was putting soy sauce on my rice and, since we only had one candle at the table, I couldn’t tell that I had dumped way too much onto my plate. After the first horrifying bite I used my phone light to examine the damage and found that each individual grain of rice was drowning in a sea of soy sauce and I knew there was no hope for salvaging this meal. Of course I ate it. Soy sauce is a precious commodity and one doesn’t just throw away a meal here because you fail to add the correct ratio of sauce to your rice. You man up and eat it and vow to never again pour soy sauce in the dark.

Later in the meal I made a crucial mistake when selecting a utensil to stir my hot chocolate and ended up using a spoon that was covered in rice. To make matters worse it wasn’t even my spoon! Seeing that I had finished eating, the nun next to me had started consolidating the utensils and added a few extra to my plate without my knowledge.  It was at this moment that I could hear my mother’s voice saying, “You cannot always choose what happens to you but you can choose your attitude and how you respond to these things.” Part of me was really disappointed and angry that there was rice floating in my hot chocolate (a gift sent from home) but there was no way I was wasting it. I did my best to imagine the rice particles were tiny marshmallows and it honestly wasn’t that bad. Something like hot chocolate is a rare treat and even mixing it with rice cannot take the joy out of drinking it!

I am learning more and more every day that attitude really makes a big difference in life. There are a lot of elements of my life here that I cannot control and that is incredibly frustrating, but I am finally realizing that I do have the power to control how I respond to these situations. I will admit it has been a slow process and I wish I could say I am consistently positive about everything but that would be a pretty significant stretching of the truth. My Peace Corps journey has really helped me to embrace a life fueled by gratitude and optimism. On days when I am sad or frustrated I have learned to stop and ask myself why I am feeling that way. Most of the time, when I reflect back on the situation that made me upset, I realize that I could have reacted differently.

It can be hard to accept responsibility for negative emotions but through acknowledging the fact that my attitude is something I can control I have discovered a newfound sense of empowerment. It really sucks to admit that you are sad or frustrated because you chose to be, but in the same line of thinking, it also means you can alter your behavior to make yourself happier. This of course does not work all the time, but it is very applicable to my life in Rwanda. I am learning to react differently to the daily conflicts that once ruined my day. When people insist on informing me that I am fat before they even ask my name I do my best to smile and thank them for what they perceive as a compliment. When the other teachers show up two hours late for a meeting I try to be grateful for the time to read or daydream. When one of the kiddos from the special needs preschool sneezes in my face and then wipes their snotty nose on the skirt I just washed I try to remember that spending a time with these kids is a blessing and constant contact with their mucus will build my immune system- at least I hope so!

Some situations are easier than others when it comes to adopting a positive attitude. On sleepless nights when the rats move down from my ceiling and into my room I struggle to remain positive. When I try to trap them they manage to eat the bait and escape, so instead of solving my problem and killing them I feed them a midnight snack that energizes them for a night of scampering about my room and chewing on my favorite sandals. Sometimes I manage to stay positive by reminding myself that I should be happy that they are not in bed with me and sometimes I just feel sorry for myself and spend the night sulking. Even the most positive people I know have moments where they lapse into brief bouts of frustration or sadness. We are all human after all. This lesson about attitude is probably one of the most valuable that I have learned during my time here and I hope it is something I will not forget when I return home.

Here are a few photos from the past week and a half:

Adorable Arsene- he looked so handsome at the feast and spent the night sleeping in my arms after consuming his body weight in food- that kid loves to eat! Instead of writing another description of the feast I opted to simply copy and paste a portion of an email I sent back home to a friend:

Yesterday they had a feast down at the orphanage since the current
directors, Isaac and Serena, are returning to America on Monday. It
was good food and fun to be with the kids. We all ate in the church
and when it finished they put on music and all the kids danced. One of
the cute little boys, Arsene, came and sat in my lap for a while and
played with my watch- they love to mess with it and I often can’t
figure out how to change the settings back after they alter them. He was
getting sleepy so I asked him if he was tired and he nodded yes and
put his head on my shoulder. I started rubbing his back and he fell
asleep two minutes later. I spent most of the night with Aresene
sleeping in my arms, watching the other kids dance and run around the
church with their bellies full of good food and huge smiles on their
faces. I think it was the happiest and most content I have felt in a
long time. Sometimes I think it will be impossible to leave this place.

But don’t worry – I will return- eventually…

Mama Serena and some of the kiddos- she has been such a wonderful friend and I will miss her dearly!

Baby Isaac showed up to feast in a complete winter outfit- it looked like he was ready to hit the slopes for a day of skiing!

This little guy was born into a world of chaos since his mama died giving birth and the convent workers have resorted to bottle feedings to keep him alive. He is so cute (this picture does not do him justice) and I call him Rukundo, which means, “love” in Kinyarwanda. I try to visit him a few times a day and since humans are raising him he is a very social baby cow. While the other cows at the convent shy away when I come near (unless I have grass to feed them) Rukundo comes right up to the gate and shoves his little nose into my hand as a form of greeting. He loves to be pet and often tries to lick my hand so I usually forget he is a cow since he acts like a puppy. Hopefully I will get some pictures of me bottle-feeding him in the near future but until then you can just conjure up the image yourself- who knows, your mental picture might turn out cuter than the actual photo!

Since the theme of this post is about attitude here are few of my other favorite attitude quotes that I have hanging up in my room for those days when I need a little extra encouragement:

Happiness is an attitude.  We either make ourselves miserable, or happy and strong.  The amount of work is the same. 

 ~Francesca Reigler




If you don’t like something change it; if you can’t change it, change the way you think about it. 

~Mary Engelbreit

Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn’t learn a lot today,

at least we learned a little, and if we didn’t learn a little,

at least we didn’t get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn’t die;

so, let us all be thankful. 

~Buddha

You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn how to surf. 

~Jon Kabat-Zinn

A happy person is not a person in a certain set of circumstances, but rather a person with a certain set of attitudes. 

~Hugh Downs

People are not disturbed by things, but by the view they take of them. 

~Epictetus

Change your thoughts and you change your world. 

~Norman Vincent Peale

Tanzania Trip (Final Chapter)

Tanzania Trip- The Final Chapter (The long journey home)

Arusha, Kahama, Rusomo, Kigali

I will start by warning you that there are not a lot of fun photos in this entry. By this point in the journey a lot of things started to go wrong and whipping out my camera every few minutes to document things dropped very low on my list of priorities. During a visit to the bus station in Moshi we discovered that it was impossible to get from Moshi to Kigali without going through Kampala which would mean buying another visa just to get home. So we opted instead to take a bus from Moshi to Arusha, which extended our trip another night but meant we could find a direct bus to Kigali- or so we thought. So we arrived in Arusha and found a place that sold tickets to Kigali. They told us we could pay 35,000 shillings ($23.33) for a ticket to Rusomo, the border between Tanzania and Rwanda, or we could bite the bullet and pay 60,000 shillings ($40) for a bus that would deliver us straight to Kigali. We decided to pay more for the direct bus, purchased our tickets and headed off to find lodging for the night. One of the most convenient options was the 7-11 hotel, an establishment lacking in charm but nestled deep within the bus station which proved to be an advantageous location when it came time for the 5am commute to the bus. We asked the woman to show us a room and although she was not too pleased with the idea of all five of us in one room she eventually caved and, after swearing us to secrecy, only charged 50,000 shillings for the night. That means we each paid less than $7 for the night which was good because I was borrowing money from another girl at this point. We rested in the room for a while and then headed out to find some street food for dinner. I think my favorite option was grilled corn:

The secret ingredient for this delicacy is the lime covered in chili-salt that they rub all over the corn once it has finished cooking. Absolutely delicious! After we scrounged up enough food we returned to 7-11 to watch a Twilight movie and then went to bed. At 5:30 am we were all loaded up on the bus and very ready to be home! This particular driver was not my favorite for a plethora of reasons. He drove way too fast, never slowed down for speed bumps, only stopped for bathroom breaks every four hours, and once almost left us at a remote bus station. Under the mistaken impression that he was finally stopping for a break four of us climbed off in search of a bathroom. When we were walking back I noticed a bus that looked suspiciously like ours driving away from the station. We all took off running and chased it for a while before he pulled over and even then refused to completely stop the bus for us to climb on. Luckily Sara had been on the bus, shouting for him to stop, or else he probably would have just left us. So all in all he was not my favorite driver.

Towards the end of the 10-hour trip I noticed that the bus was starting to look empty which seemed odd. One of the other passengers asked us where we were going and we happily replied, “Kigali.” Then came the saddest news of all. This man informed us that we were almost to the end of the drive and this bus did not continue to Kigali. So we arrived in Kahama, about four hours from the border, with no feasible way to continue on that day. It is still unclear what happened with our original tickets- there was either a miscommunication or the men charged us way too much and helped themselves to the rather substantial difference. Either way, we found ourselves stranded in Kahama and the company issued us tickets to get to Kigali but the bus would leave at 6am the next morning. This meant finding another place to stay with even less money than we had the day before. One of the girls in our group started crying and this turned out to be a key turning point in the afternoon. The bus workers, absolutely distraught by our sadness, jumped into action. They used a little bus to drive us to a cheap hostel near the bus station, helped us negotiate a good price for one room, and even offered to pick us up in the morning. The good news was that the room was 7,000 shillings ($4.66) for the night. The bad news was that the room was 7,000 shillings ($4.66) for the night. We each paid less than $1 for the night, I think you can imagine what kind of place this was. We had one bed for the five of us, a bug net full of holes, shared latrines that happened to be down by a gathering of creepy men, and we used a padlock to close our door. I am happy that all five of us stayed together- everything is less shady when you are in a group! We made a quick trip out to find food and ended up at a real grocery store which was fun. We stocked up on food and hurried home so we could be locked into our room before it got dark. We enjoyed our random meals of snack food, watched a movie, and spent most of the night praying for the sun to come up faster! It was pretty miserable with five of us in a full size bed. You had to sleep on your side and even then there was no extra room to move around. There were also tons of mosquitos and our ratty net was less than helpful.It was a relief when the alarm went off at 5am! The bus came to get us at 5:15am (people are only early when you are not ready) and soon enough we were on our way! Of course when we arrived at the border they informed us the bus we were on did not continue on to Kigali so we had to carry our bags (remember mine was rather large) across the border and find another bus to take us home. Luckily they wrote out the tickets without charging us more and we finally found a bus and climbed in. There was an “umusazi”, or a crazy person, who came to the windows of the bus to talk with us until a police officer escorted her away. She promptly removed her plastic sandal and slapped the police officer across the face with her shoe and ran away. She returned a few more times before we left, running around with her shoe in the air and screaming things in Kinyarwanda. It was nice when the bus finally left!

Here are a few photos from the border:

Well I think that is all! It was a wonderful trip but I am very happy to be home. This morning there were some dark clouds in the sky so I am praying for rain! There has been a huge water shortage lately caused by dry season and a faulty pumping system in the area. If you know me then you know I love showers so taking a bucket bath every four days with my rationed water is depressing. Thank goodness for baby wipes- at least I can go to bed with clean feet! 🙂

Tanzania Trip (Part Four)

Tanzania Trip- Part Four: 

Dar es Salaam and Moshi 

After a wonderful few days in Stone Town we collected our bags and headed to the ferry to return to Dar. At this point I was really regretting the fact that I am not a light packer and I guess carting my bag all around town was my punishment for my gluttonous ways. Boarding the ferry was a bit of a traumatizing experience because the formation of neat and orderly lines is a foreign concept in Tanzania. Attempting to make it onto the loading dock is a vicious free-for-all and if you were to step back and observe this chaotic stampede the scene would inspire you to contemplate Darwin’s evolutionary theory that describes survival of the fittest. The locals have adapted the skills necessary to succeed in this competitive environment while many of the foreigners are left to fend for themselves while a combination of their fear and fancy backpacks weigh them down until they find themselves last in line. If you are not willing to be aggressive and push people around it is better to just wait until the end which is exactly what we chose to do. We ended up with seats on the bottom deck and ventured out to sea just as storm clouds came rolling in. The trip back to Dar was almost twice as long as the journey to the island and the incoming storm meant the boat had to battle some rough waves. Three of the five members of our group spent the trip on the outside deck throwing up into the little plastic “sick bags” that were distributed every 30 minutes. I was lucky to be one of the non-vomiting members and spent my trip sleeping peacefully and watching the TV that displayed videos of children reciting verses from the Quran- remember this was taking place during Ramadan. We finally made it back to Dar and headed out to find a hotel for the night. By this point we were all hot, tired and grumpy and also poor. Many of us underestimated how much money we needed to bring and found out the hard way that due to some political tension Tanzania refuses to exchange money from Rwanda. So this left us in a financial bind but luckily my sweet father stepped up to the plate and absorbed the hotel bill for us. I shudder to think of where I would be without the support of my fantastic parents, especially in situations like this where I don’t exercise my best judgement and fail to bring enough money to Tanzania! We found a place close to the bus stop called the Rainbow Hotel that had wireless internet, hot showers,and best of all air conditioning!

We cranked up the cold air and crawled into bed for a quick nap before heading into town. 30 minutes later we emerged from the room with a refreshed attitude towards life and ventured out to explore Dar. We didn’t make it too far before we discovered a building that appeared to be some sort of mall. One of the first shops was a Subway Restaurant which was one of the highlights of the trip! After exploring the mall we went to find the bus station to get our tickets for Moshi and then returned back to the hotel for the night. We didn’t spend a lot of time in Dar but we enjoyed our experience and found the people to be extremely nice and generous. If you ask for directions they not only stop to explain the way but they often walk part (or all) of the way with you.

From Dar we took a 10-hour bus ride to Moshi. When we arrived at the station a manager from the Twiga (Giraffe) Home came to collect us and we spent a lovely night hanging out and watching the TV that was showing highlights form the Beijing Olympics. The next day we hired an awesome guide, Baragash, to take us on a walk through the local rice fields and a really cool jungle. The whole trip was only $20 total and we learned a lot about the area. Here are some photos from that excursion:

This cool little plant looks like snap peas but when you break it open it is full of a really sticky goo that locals use as glue.

This adorable little boy was sitting at the base of tree that Catie was climbing in. I think he thought we were a little crazy but I love this picture of him staring up at her as she is climbing.

This a sweet little girl we met on our walk

Beautiful flowers along the path to the rice fields

First glimpse of the beautiful rice fields and surrounding jungle

One of the many cool birds we saw during our outing

You can actually see the top of Mount Kilimanjaro in this picture but the snow blends in really well with the clouds. Can you see the snow covered peak hiding behind the clouds? A pretty cool view!

One of the monkeys in the jungle- they were pretty fast and high up in the trees so it was easier to hear them thrashing about then to actually spot them!

This leaf was extremely rough and the locals use it as sandpaper- an interesting job for a leaf since we usually imagine them as rather fragile objects.

Our guide climbing a vine like it is the easiest thing in the world. Most of our group members struggled to get our feet off the ground. 🙂

This picture is blurry but I am still surprised I even had the courage to get close enough to take it in the first place! We saw a lot of big disgusting spiders and this guy still plays a leading role in my occasional spider-themed nightmares.

The first part of the jungle walk involved wading through a sea of enormous leaves like this one.

These women were transporting gigantic stacks of wood on their heads and I felt tired just watching them!

Cute baby hitching a ride on his Mama’s back.

After the rice field and jungle tour we stopped in town to eat lunch and then Baragash helped us find local transportation so we could visit a village near the base of Kilimanjaro. The bus was completely packed by the time we needed to get off and one of the annoying aspects of people on buses in Africa is that they tend to not move when you need them to make space. Baragash hopped out the window but I imagined myself breaking an ankle that way so I pushed and shoved my way to eventual freedom . We walked though another forest and then arrived at the border of the park where we paid to hike down to see the Ndoro Waterfalls.

Cool little house at the entrance to the park where they distribute walking sticks and collect entrance fees.

It was nice that the path had steps but most of the trail was very steep with big steps and loose dirt so it took us a while to make it to the bottom but luckily was all made it down in one piece! The hike back up was an intense leg workout but went a lot faster which was nice.

Finally made it! It was a beautiful area and it was nice and cool since the breeze sprays you with water every few minutes.

The whole group- you can see our handy walking sticks.

Meredith, me, Baragash, Heather, Sara (Catie was the photographer)

Beautiful flowers at the top of the trail

Celebrating the end of our hiking adventure!

After the waterfalls Baragash took us to a village bar so we could taste the local banana bear that was just as disgusting as the Rwandan banana beer. I suppose some people like it but the consistency and flavor remind me of vomit so every time I see, smell, taste, or think about it I want to vomit. It is probably really gross for me to equate a drink to vomit but that is truly the best description I can think of. How people voluntarily drink this vulgar concoction is a wonder to me!

Now that I have grossed you out with my description of banana beer I feel compelled to end this entry on a non-vomit related note. We really loved our time in Moshi and especially the Twiga Home- should you ever be in Moshi be sure to stay there! The workers were extremely friendly and always going out of their way to make our trip better and there is a free shuttle from Twiga into Moshi. The next entry will be the final installment of the Tanzania Trip Series and then I will continue on with stories from Rwanda. I am still on holiday and preparing for the arrival of my sister and mother in 9 short days!!!