Doing Chores

As you can probably imagine, household chores here are a lot different than in the U.S.

Cooking – I eat a lot of bread, peanut butter, oatmeal, and fruit; but, I also do some real cooking over a little kerosene stove. To buy kerosene, I walk into town with an empty 1.5L water bottle and have it filled up at a stall at the market for 1,300F (about $2.50.) I mostly cook pasta (with butter, knock-off Laughing Cow processed cheese, or, every once in awhile, Kraft mac & cheese or other sauce mixes sent from home), couscous (with butter), rice (with soy sauce), and occasional vegetables (mainly onions, carrots, and green peppers). I’ve been keeping an eye out for peas and green beans, but sadly haven’t seen them yet. I have no intention whatsoever of ever trying to cook meat on my own here, but we’ll see if I (wo)man up.

Dishes – I wash dishes by hand and them dump the water outside. To cut down on dishes to wash and thus water use, I typically eat out of a pot or frying pan, and (depending on what I made) I use the water I cooked with to wash it.

Cleaning – I clean by sweeping dirt, dust, dead bugs, and animal droppings outside and by dumping the water I bucket-showered or washed clothes with (water is scarce!) on the floor and squeegee-ing it outside.

Laundry – I wash my clothes by hand in a basin and hang them on a clothesline in my spare bedroom.

Rwandans often ask why I don’t hire someone to cook and clean for me, which I’ve thought about doing, especially since those tasks take so much longer and are so much more difficult here than they are at home. In Rwanda, as in many countries, it’s nearly a given that most families have a houseboy/housegirl to do their chores. But, it seems that people who live on their own don’t have one, which obviously makes sense, since they’re only doing chores for one person and not a whole family. Now, it’s fairly rare here for people to live on their own, as most live with their parents until they get married. But, my town is full of university students around my age who live on their own, and I think it’s most appropriate for me to match their standard of living. As someone who’s trying to integrate and to reduce the gap between “us” and “them,” I think it’s important for people to know that I, a rich and exotic muzungu, am not above doing the work that Rwandans in similar living situations do. I feel conflicted, though, because hiring an umukozi would mean giving somebody a job, which would obviously be a good thing. I do occasionally have pay someone to tend to the small farm that is my yard, so that’s something.