A couple days ago, I got my first package since arriving in Rwanda – I can’t describe how incredibly exciting it is to get mail here!
The box, from my mom, contained such prized goodies as magazines, lotion, tea, Clif bars, M&Ms, gum, and scented hand sanitizer. Three of my housemates got packages on the same day – the group of us pouring over English-language magazines and sharing coveted American food were like kids on Christmas morning!!
During our first visit to the cooperative, we talked to three of the employees and learned about the work they do and how their organization is structured. We also talked to them about their problems – the main one being a lack of customers. In fact, they said sometimes a week or more passes without any customers coming – which is really a shame, considering that the pottery is beautiful, unique, and reasonably-priced, plus you can watch the potters at work and see where their materials are extracted. So, our project was to work with them on ways to attract more customers.
After brainstorming and doing some research, we returned to the co-op to give a presentation on marketing and advertising. We focused on creating more and better signs and working more with hotels to sell the pottery and travel agencies to have their tour groups make a stop at the co-op. We did our speeches entirely in Kinyarwanda, which was a little rough, but people seemed to understand us for the most part, so I considered it a success!
The co-op’s employees seemed receptive to our ideas, but it’s hard to know if they’ll actually put any of them to use. All the current Volunteers have told us it’s sometimes really difficult to motivate people to change how they do things or to try something new. Regardless, though, it was great practice and a really interesting experience. Plus, I bought an awesome mug and candleholder for about $2.50 each!
Some samples of the pottery:
From April 7th to April 14th each year, Rwanda remembers the genocide, which officially began on April 7, 1994. I won’t go into detail about the genocide, so please click here for more information.
April 7th is a national holiday in Rwanda – everything is closed, nobody works, and ceremonies are held throughout the country. (As a side note, Peace Corps’ entire support staff in Nyanza had to work all day and miss the memorial events – it was not okay.) For the next five days, people work in the mornings and attend events in the afternoon, and the last day is a full holiday again.
On the first day of memorial week, we Trainees attended the events that took place in Nyanza. In the morning, basically everybody in Nyanza met on the edge of town and walked through town together behind a big purple banner. The walk through town ended at Nyanza’s genocide memorial, where everybody congregated and some laid flowers.
It was at the memorial that the traumatisms began. During genocide-related events, it is not unusual for people to suddenly begin wailing, screaming, even thrashing about, and eventually need to be carried out. That happened to several people at the memorial.
Next, the whole crowd moved to Nyanza’s small stadium (which seems to be the main gathering place for public events here) for the rest of the morning. Several government officials gave speeches (all in Kinyarwanda). Then, we waited until President Kagame’s speech came on the radio and was projected over the loudspeakers (I’m under the impression that it was played publicly in basically every town in Rwanda). Kagame spoke in both Kinyarwanda and English, and the English speech was fiery and intriguing – read about it here. Kagame’s speech was the last planned event, and the rest of the afternoon was a holiday.
Throughout the ceremony at the stadium, there were several more traumatisms. From time to time, people would also suddenly get up and sprint away from the crowd. Maybe to avoid a traumatism? I’m not really sure. It was quite shocking to us, but people seemed to find it fairly normal.
We also attended the memorial events on April 14th, the last day of memorial week. It similarly began with a massive march through town, which ended this time at the lake on the edge of Nyanza. The crowd sat on the hillside and listened to various speakers, mostly government officials. The speeches were all in Kinyarwanda again, but I was fortunate to be sitting near a Peace Corps staff member who provided some translation. The gist of the speeches was that this should never happen again, people should live together peacefully, and everybody should help those who were affected by the genocide.
It has been a really difficult week for most people in Rwanda, but I think it’s important that Rwandans take this time to talk openly about the past and to focus on peace and reconciliation.
Two weeks ago, we got our site assignments, and we visited our sites last week. My site is (drumroll, please)… Nyagatare, in northeast Rwanda! Nyagatare is Rwanda’s largest district by area and the most sparsely populated (an appropriate site for a Montana girl, I think!). According to the guidebook, the town of Nyagatare has about 9,000 people. My partner organization is EPR, the Presbyterian Church of Rwanda, which has an office in town and conducts various education, health, business, and community development projects in town and throughout the district. My direct supervisor, Néhémié, is the manager of the community development programs, though I expect I’ll be working with the health and education managers as well. My assignment falls under the umbrella of a USAID-funded project called Higa Ubeho (Be Determined and Live), which is being coordinated by CHF International and implemented by about 20 organizations throughout Rwanda. The project offers holistic support for people affected by HIV/AIDS by providing access to healthcare and education and implementing nutrition, agriculture, savings, income generation, gender mainstreaming, and prevention activities.
We Trainees and all of our supervisors went to Kigali for two days last week to meet each other and participate in a Peace Corps-sponsored conference about our assignments and our expectations of one another. On Tuesday afternoon, I left with Néhémié to visit my site. The town of Nyagatare is about a three-hour bus ride from Kigali and is very close to Rwanda’s borders with both Uganda and Tanzania. My closest Peace Corps neighbor will be a current Volunteer, also named Jen, who lives about 30 kilometers (a 40-minute moto ride) away. She’ll finish her service when I’m about halfway through mine.
Though it’s not quite what I had in mind or what I would have chosen, I liked Nyagatare a lot and my visit went great. The town is somewhat spread out, making it feel more rural, which I love. It has a market on Thursdays, several little shops similar to the ones here in Nyanza, a post office, and an Internet café. There are also a few bars and restaurants, as well as a store that had a big case of alcohol and such luxuries as Pringles and Snickers. To keep in line with both cultural norms and local standards, though, I will probably be mostly avoiding all of that.
During my few days in Nyagatare, I walked all over town and met about a zillion people, all of whom were extremely friendly and incredibly excited about my (very limited) Kinyarwanda. We went to the mayor’s office, a secondary school, the health center, and the market. We also took a moto out to visit some cooperative members and a family in a nearby village, which was the highlight of my visit. Moto trips are always fun, the countryside was beautiful, and the people were wonderful.
Anyway, that was my first taste of Nyagatare. Now, I’m back in Nyanza for five more weeks of training, until I head to Nyagatare permanently!
