Daily life and "Single Ladies"

Let me tell you about work here.Well, I'm pretty busy.Most mornings, I give class to children who have lost one of their parents or whose parents are poor therefore making family life not exactly enjoyable.Some have also lost both parents and live with friends and relatives.I try to teach them English...Try...it's hard as some of them above the age of 10 have only recently started school as they afford the school fees (cheap for us but not for them) when they were younger.Now most of them are sponsored by people abroad.
Around 11 am, I help women make these really nice baskets, which they sell at the market.I try to teach them some English, especially numbers and basic maths so they can try and establish a business.They are all single mothers who have lost their husbands (particularly during the genocide) or who suffer from gender-based violence or inequities. I was a little skeptical at first but then yesterday, a woman who started here now has her own business and does really well.It's nice to see it works.I know some women in Gisenyi (near the Congo) make dolls, necklaces etc and I plan to visit them.We also have a nice and comfy counseling room here where people can come talk about their problems (there quite a lot of trauma centers around the city).Claire is really good at that so she sits down with them and tries to help.
Around 2 pm, I entertain some 20 children of all ages.They all need affection and time as their family life is quite hard.They gladly ask for a hug or for you to read them a book.Anything makes them happy as long as you pay attention to them.I usually finish around 5 and walk home (which is always nice as Kigali is beautiful and people always greet you just because you're white...or Muzungu as they say).
I'm also working on HIV and Gender-based violence presentations, which is quite hard cause you have to make it simple for them to understand.It's for older children, so their English is better but nonetheless. You have to make it simple and interesting.

The kids here are hilarious: they know the words to Beyonce's "Single Ladies" but cannot necessarily write very well or make long sentences. They started singing it the other day and just found it hilarious. I think it should be ob youtube.They are obsessed with Shakira, Kanye, Chris Brown and the likes.Even adults. Some even paint their trucks after some singer or band. but don't ask who the Beatles or U2 are...they have no idea.Go figure...oh and they know "Mr Bombastic" and Jay-Z "99 problems"...yes, inappropriate for a child but I doubt they understand.

As I explained in my previous blog, the genocide is very much present. People don't easily talk about it but they will mention it.I was walking with a girl my age the other and she showed me where she had hidden after her parents was killed.People move on but somehow it's forever present as well.There are a lot of NGOs cars and UN buildings (Unicef, World Food Programme, Development,...), you also often see military trucks (elections will take place in August so security is needed). You can sometimes see prisoners (perpetrators of the genocide): they use them to build roads and buildings.You can recognize them by their red (convicted) or pink (not yet convicted) attire.

A few volunteers who were here at the beginning of April went to see President Paul Kagame speak on 7 April (at the stadium) and said it was quite a strange experience.Rwandans are not very private so they openly show their pain and emotions.Apparently, it was not rare to hear people wailing and crying.Claire, who takes care of us here, lost her father and other family members and always tears up when she talks about the genocide but she will gladly explain everything about it and what she has been through. She even has some friends in Montreal so I hope I can meet up with them when I get back. During the week of April 7, nothing but church music can be played and on the 7th, all shops and bars are closed.I think it's quite amazing how far Rwandans have come.Everybody here must now consider themselves as Rwandan, not Hutu or Tutsi.They all work together and live side by side and things seem to work that way. I hope it will continue like this. You never know what might happen, right?

This Saturday, we're going to Akagera, a national park near the Ugandan border.I'm quite excited since I've never been on a Safari!!LIONS!

Muraho!

Finally some news!I have arrived well and loving Rwanda!It is an amazingly beautiful country.Very green and inbdeed the land of a thoudand hills. Kigali itself is beautiful.It's very clean, green and full of flowers as a\every roundabout is carefully decorated.I think the government it's trying it's best to make people happy by making sure their physical environment is peaceful and beautiful.Kigali is not very big and not too complicated to understand...at least in comparison to Accra.

I've already been to a couple of genocide memorials.They are very gri9m and emotional.The one in Kigali is rather big and gives a lot of information about the genocide, its roots and consequences.I also visited one in Nyamata, a church where 10,000 people were killed in one day.The clothes of the victims were placed on the ground and the mass graves at the back of the church can be visited...grim indeed.Skulls and bones are lined up in rows.
April is Genocide month so you can see signs of the victims being remembered.I saw a few ceremonies and it is not rare to see men and women break down in tears.
There are signs of the genocide everywhere: memorials, cemeteries, courts, international commissions,the UN, Red Cross, USAID, loads of NGOs...

This weekend me and some volunteers went to Lake Kivu, which is on the border of the Congo, where the conflict is still raging.We saw refugee camps on the way there as well as a few UN and Red Cross trucks.We walked to the border then went back.Lake Kivu is beautiful so it's strange to look at the other side of the lake and think that war is going on there.It was a fantastic weekend: beautiful hills, birds, etc

Work is very good as well.I do different things every day: helping single mothers make baskets and establish a business, helping children from poor families, teaching about gender-based violence and HIV/AIDS...I'm very busy but really enjoying it

I have a lot more to tell and hope I can post pictures at some point.Internet doesn't seem too slow....