What one learns on a business trip

1. Rules of the Road: So this is my second venture out into the wide world of rural rwanda, and i have finally deciphered the various hand signals that drivers give to each other when they pass each other (on very curvy, at times frighteningly narrow roads)

• Flashing of the lights once (nearly every car/bus/truck does this when passing): this is a little, "hey can you tell me if there is a cop coming up"
• Flashing of the lights multiple times: there is a cop coming up.
• sticking hand out the window and pointing down several times with your index finger: slow down, cop ahead (basically same as blinking rapidly).
• sticking hand out above the window and waving your hand towards you kinda like you are beckoning someone: all clear ahead, no police: i.e. pedal to the medal regardless of whether you are on the side of a cliff

So I actually had the opportunity to warn several oncoming drivers of cops ahead (finger downwards) and i must admit, it is quite fun. We passed probably 7-8 policemen on the way home. It is rather odd. They stand in pairs on the side of the road in florecent jackets and point to cars they want to pull over...what stops people from ignoring them is beyond me, because the cops don't seem to have any vehicles themselves....yet somehow despite the hand signal system i saw at least 4 cars pulled over, which could result in a ticket of anywhere from $50-$150.

2. Paying $40 a night for a hotel doesn't necessarily mean that you will get hot water or a working television.

3. Spit is very important when determining your future. i.e. when going to a fortune teller or traditional medicine healer if you spit on the beak of a chick and then the healer cuts open the chick and examines their intestines they can solve you problems. They will continue to have you spit on chickens until they find one whose intestines tells a positive story (not sure what this is? a chick that has access to chocolate?!) and then you take the bones of that chick and wear them around your neck. If perhaps you are adverse to the chick technique, might i suggest spitting on two butter patties putting them in hot water and seeing if they blend together and turn white. if so, rest assured, your fortune is good. if not, have no fear, spit on butter again until you get the desired result. (this information is curtesy of the rwanda national museum.)

4. There are really cute monkeys on the campus of the national university of rwanda (which looks kinda like a U.S. University minus the monkeys and the architecture is a tad older/1970's dutch influenced at times.

5. There are many different kinds of locally grown beer (the main being banana beer or sorgohm beer) and they each have a specially shaped guord or pot to drink out of. And banana beer is not difficult to make...the whole process takes 3-4 days and it involves digging a pit, heating some bananas and some other steps i can't seem to remember at the moment.

6. The business of my business trip lasted about 23 minutes.

7. Stick with brochettes (i.e. beef shishkabobs)--although spagehetti may sound appetizing at times, here, it never is....

8. There are many different baskets/contraptions made to facilitate carrying things on ones head.

9. Very special cows get to wear jewelry for important ceremonies--usually in the form of a tail decoration and necklaces.... (number 5, 8 and 9 curtesy of the Rwandan national Museum)

10. Rwandan countryside continues to be some of the most beautiful landscape i have ever seen....

Thus wraps up my report from Butare, "intellectual capital of Rwanda"