Anokwa.com » Archive for rwanda
July 7, 2007 at 6:12
tags: rwanda
ve been walking around Rwinkwavu to get a sense of my new home. There is a river a few miles from the house and I walked there a few days ago. It’s clear to those I meet on the road that I’m not like the other PIHers, but my clothing and demeanor mark me as a foreigner. I’m a minority in the majority. I don’t get chased by kids screaming ‘muzungu’ like the girls here do, but I’m still stared at. The Rwinkwavu populous speaks no French or English and my Kinyarwanda is non-existent so the whole thing tends to be awkward when someone bothers to talk to me.
I ran into three kids near the river. One kept saying ‘ça va’ but when I responded he just kept laughing and repeating ‘ça va’. The river water is not clean, but the kids do enjoy swimming and occasionally drinking the water (see below). Laundry and some bathing is done in the river as well. Kids who have bikes ferry water from the river to their homes at the top of the hill. Sometimes you can ride, but a lot of times, you have to push.
Near the river, there is a primary school campus with a few buildings. The old school is really rundown but there is new construction and the difference is pretty amazing. I have those pictures in the gallery, but check out the kid drinking out of the water
July 6, 2007 at 13:27
tags: openmrs, rwanda
I’ve been hyper busy with work, but don’t feel I’m getting a lot accomplished besides being tired a lot. Regardless, expect a few extensive (but hilarious) posts soon.
Until those posts arrive, check out Bill Clinton’s TED 2007 speech about the Rwandan health care system. http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/85 has the video and audio.
June 25, 2007 at 23:39
tags: rwanda
In an earlier post, I made a bold claim. I called bacon a terrorist.
Although my word should have been enough, I did not stop there. I presented evidence of the viciousness that only delicious strips of meat could muster up. I posted pictures of the damage that bacon inflicted on my face. I thought the case was a slam dunk but the hate mail I received accused me of making a twisted play on pork and Islam. If only it were that simple…
In rural Rwanda, not far from Niger where enriched uranium is so abundant it’s spread like peanut butter on toast, I suffered the ravages of a new terrorist threat — the cold shower. Unlike bacon, the cold shower has no ties to organized religion. It simply hates for the sake of hating. So bold is this chilling new threat that it mounts its attack on the most private of places during the most private of times.
The water fell on me like torture from the sky. My yelps were only interrupted with obscenities muttered through chattering teeth. ‘Manning up’ was no where to be found that morning. The shock was so severe that I forgot to scrub as I ducked in and out of the arctic stream. Once I had shivered most of dirt of, I called it quits.
I’ve heard the experience described as invigorating and I say you’d have to be daft to call it that. If I were to sum it up, I’d call it a terrorist.
Consider yourself warned.
June 24, 2007 at 10:27
tags: rwanda
Until I setup a proper (rss, geotags, descriptions, etc) gallery, I figured I’d tease the masses with this picture from the first day.
June 23, 2007 at 23:22
tags: rwanda
This has been my longest flight so far — 24 hours, 35 minutes. Flew from Boston to Washington to Rome to Addis Ababa to Nairobi to Kigali. Ethiopian Airlines came highly recommended and it was more comfortable than my time on long european flights. The layovers were all about an hour so the breaks were all spent on the plane. Fortunately, I sat near a really cool Kenyan family and we had a blast cracking jokes. When the plane touched down in Addis Ababa the cockpit erupted in applause. Applause when a job is performed as expected? Classically African.
Flying into Rwanda I got a look at the country and it’s a stunning landscape. Rolling hills of green streaked with lines of red dirt. Once on the ground, everything is coated with the ubiquitous red dust. Most people walk, but there are a fair number of motorcycle taxis and lorries.
The recent genocide has slowly made it’s way into my conscience. I can’t explain, but walking around the city, it’s hard not to wonder who did what and to whom and how things seem so normal…
I haven’t been suffering the ravages of jetlag and I seem to have avoided any major sicknesses. I’m still in Kigali at the PIH house, making sure the Internet stays up for my colleagues. There were a few PIHers around (all quite cool) and we managed to score some pretty good Mexican grub only a few blocks from the house. I can report burritos in East Africa are quite reasonable…
I’m heading to Rwinkwavu (soon to be home) in a few hours. The server out there was working when I left Boston and now it’s down. Oh, and no hot showers in Rwinkwavu. Sigh.
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