Saturday, July 26, 2008

Uganda...

After dancing the night away for my "host mom's" 34th birthday celebration (i decided it was a good idea to stay up all night and then hop on my 5 am bus) i spent a lovely 9 hours on the bus to uganda. some gems of the trip that cannot go unrecorded include the following:

1. I was told Jaguar was the premier bus to take to uganda. So i was expecting a greyhound with maybe a slightly older decor. I was not expecting 12 inch seat allocations, sans bathroom, an older man next who repeatedly spit on the floor 2 inches from my flip flops, or the women sharing her seat or rather my seat with me continuously falling asleep on my shoulder.

2. The 70 man in front of me reading in an english newspaper and article entitled, "how to give your woman the ultimate orgasm." Not bad for a country with a history of Female Genital Cutting.

3. The toothless "doctor" with a kermit-esque monologue who spent the last hour of the ride pacing up and down the bus selling such useful remedies from anything for headaches, to worms, to some sort of stomach remedy that he gave to the woman across the aisle from me who was quietly vomiting into a bag. (!!) It involved rubbing a chap stick type liquid on her palm and her licking it. Pleased to report it seemed to work, but was i a little concerned when the woman next to me bought the worm pills. (how's that for a squeamish public health practitioner. but in my defense, she was taking up 3/4 of my seat and who knows what other little parasite we were sharing during the 8 hour drive.)

4. When people were lining up (10 minutes before we actually arrived at the station) jamming into the 6 inch aisle one woman repeatedly wacked me in the head with her purse. luckily another kind woman interjected (i'm assuming) "hey watch out. don't hit the muzungo" very polite these people.

5. When looking for my luggage upon arrival, they opened up a flap containing the gas tank and out popped 4 chickens who apparently had came along for the ride-even though they may have been slightly baked.


Anyway, I arrived safe and sound, albeit exhausted, and classes start tomorrow...

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

What one learns on a trip to one of the remaining virgin rainforests in the world….



1. The disappearance of elephants in Nyugwe national park (by poachers) has greatly effected the forests’ eco system, allowing evil plants (that only bloom every 15 years) to grow unchecked. Every 15 years when these plants bloom bad things tend to happen, i.e. genocides or famine. Watch out 2009. And even when they are not blooming, they contribute to forest fires, and kill trees.

2. The army ants in Rwanda are more aggressive than the ones encountered in Paraguay. And it is preferable to have your brother pick ants off your naked legs, than your African forest guide.

3. Reservations for chimp trekking are necessary. For some reason guides don’t hang out at the office at 4 am waiting for tourist groups to randomly show up…go figure.

4. But should you show up two hours before the office opens without a reservation, have no fear because you can always sleep in the car or catch up on the 4 required 300+ page readings for your class in Uganda which begins in 6 days. And trekking Colubus Monkeys is a pretty amazing alternative.


5. While stopping in a rural town’s market en route to by bananas, it is perfectly acceptable for the markets “security guard” to beat the 20+ people that have gathered around your car with a stick. They will leave and stop staring.

6. Squirrels looks surprising like monkeys to the untrained eye. And its possible to make your entire group stop and look for said monkey in a tree for 10 minutes only to later discover your error.

7. 4 hour walks on the “pink trail” will cause your calves to be in intense pain 3 days following. (even if you have long prided yourself in strong calf muscles)

8. Chimps (even if you don’t get to see them) are very smart creatures that use leaves for sponges, sticks to beat (and kill L) Colubus monkeys, and beat on tree trunks to communicate.

9. Potholes.




10. If you decide to drive the 5 and a half hours to sleep in the supposedly picturesque Cyumbe (sp?) at the base of lake kivu, you may want to attempt to see it in the daylight, something that won’t happen if you hike until 5pm. And then get up at 4 am to go chimp trekking.


That being said, I had a great time and highly recommend the trip to Nyuguwe. Beautiful. Lots of Gorillas in the Mist type scenery

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Beacoup du travail

i apologize for my lack of posts this week. The Canadian consultant whom I have been working with on the Curriculum review process arrived on Saturday reminding me that my life here is more than just over-indulgent buffets, (speaking of which tried the $22 (!) Mongolian dinner buffet at the Serena Hotel last night, and despite the sub-par desserts, it was heavenly) and traveling to lake side resorts.

Instead, I have been inundated with setting up meetings and attending meetings (entirely in french! mon dieu), digging up WHO research reports, hounding the professors to give me power point lectures from 2003. So i'm using my free moments between 8:47 and 8:59 to update. Didn't want the mongolian buffet to pass without note :) (take that cait! :))

Friday, July 11, 2008

TSS....

Kinyarwanda word of the day: ni byo (That's right)

Ni Byo, I think i've officially hit local status. this morning I "TSSed" (loud hissing noise used for anything from getting a waiters attention, to local kids trying to get my attention (so they can insult my legs)) a moto without even realizing it.

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Going Batty

I have come to the realization that my name is quite challenging to say to the non-English world. It started in Kazakhstan where even though they have the tss (as in beTSy) as a letter in their alphabet, i was forever known as betty.
I was reminded of this charming fact this morning at the gym, where for some reason every time i check in at the front desk i have to provide my name. Despite the fact that I go at least twice a week (remember my shower situation), and there are 3 girls that work there, only one of them has mastered the "betsy". I have been "betty", "pepsi", "patty", "whitney", "bette" and my personal favorite, "batty".
Which considering some of the names I have encountered here isn't too strange. Let me just name a few of my favorite local names:

Innocent
Providence
Jean de Dieu (aka John of God where there are not one, but two gods working at the school of public health...)
Esperance
Prosper
La Duece
Peace and Joy (who of course are sisters)

These are just a few of my favs....To make things easier for my local friends i am henceforth to be referred to as Batty de Dieu....

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Mr. T to the Rescue

So one day last week I was in a very bad mood. I believe it was due to the combination of the following things:

  • My 3 hours sleep due to a mosquito continuously dive bombing my head (i have since obtained a net. keep your fingers crossed that i don't have malaria)
  • the 3 moto drivers who "ganged" up on me and refused to take me to work for anything less than 1,000 francs (usually i pay 600, so I had to walk another 10 minutes to find someone that wasn't using secret hand signals to his buddies to increase the price)
  • I turned on my computer and found that at least a weeks worth of accredidation paperwork had mysteriously disappeared from my laptop (!#@#!@#!!!)
  • I was late to the lunch buffet at work so there was no salad or fruit left, so my $5 lunch consisted of rice and oily chicken livers (which by the way, kids LOVE here and fight over?!)
  • During my 20 walk from work to the main road along a dusty, hilly road, I was harrassed by a group of 10 year old boys who seemed to find much amusement in saying my legs were fat (hey, at least my french comprehension is coming along) and then taking turns trying to touch them, even after i turned at yelled at them in kinyarwanda.
As I was telling a friend, you know you are having a bad day when you ignore the cute kids (not the aforementioned leg insulters) who run up to you and give you a big hug and say "good morning" even though it is 5 in the evening.



Anyway, as I was stewing over the days events on my moto ride home (this moto driver, i should mention, did not try to rip me off for once) we stopped behind the pictured bus. and I realized, when you are in rwanda, strattling a man who probably has not showered for at least a week (but actually, come to think of it, have I?!), starring at a bus that features a picture of Mr. T a.k.a. "the boss" you really need to put things in perspective and understand how random and fun life can be....thank you Mr. T, for single handedly turning my day around. I pity the fool that does not realize this little life lesson.

Saturday, July 5, 2008

Stars, stripes and M16's

Conveniently the fourth of july is a holiday in Rwanda as well. While Rwanda's Independence day (from Belgium) is on July 1, July 4 or Liberation day marks the end of the 1994 genocide. (the current state of Rwanda is summed up quite nicely in this NYT's blog. ) In fact, I am writing this entry from one of the "two european standard malls" located about 400 meters from my home.
So no fireworks here on liberation day, just closure of a lot of stores, some small parades (which i watched on TV), and hours of oddly amusing music videos on Rwandan TV (the only station we get) which consisted of the Rwandan Defense Force awkwardly dancing (and singing) to what i believe to be rwandan folk songs while pumping automatic rifles in the air. (with occasional footage of hand held rocket launches shooting at planes) i can only imagine what would happen in America if instead of the latest american idol belting out the stars and stripes they had a camcorder recording of the marines singing its a grand old flag while doing the macarena....
Meanwhile, I engaged in a rather typical 4th celebration and headed over to the American Embassy. There were over 200 americans there and i spent much of the 3 hours waiting in line to get my hamburger and potato slaw...(by the time i got through the line the brownies were long gone...booo!!!!). Anyway, while in line i was sandwiched between some very nice interns for a youth leadership group who are working at a local orphanage (one just graduated from simmons, but alas did not know katie) and a group of 3 businessmen from Texas who worked with various orphanages internationally (one had been to uralsk!). It is astonishing the amount of ex pats that live in this city! Anyway, the marines provided free beer, blues traveler and guns and roses belted from the sound system, a volley ball tournament was organized and i can only imagine what the Rwandans were thinking on the other side of the massive fortress that is the U.S. embassy. (pictured in the times article). Despite the lack of fireworks (and brownies) it felt very fourth of julyish....
Today i found out that my "host cousin" Kuku and one of my closest local friends here (some people call us twins because i am exactly one day older than her, and she also works in public health) is dating a member of Parlement who aside from being slightly creepy-today he informed me that one of the only words i know in kinyarwanda and one that i use on a regular basis "amazi", i have been mispronouncing. Instead of saying I would like water, I have been saying something to the affect of I would like to be pleased (if you know what i mean)....hmm...anyway, after i offered him some amazi he offered to drive me to Burundi in a few weeks...tempting, as i have heard they have some of the best beaches in Africa, but i'm not sure i want to get caught up in some sort of rwanda political scandal.