Now that I’m back in the land of fast internet and constant power, I’m going to start posting links in my link database, more videos and much higher resolution of shots in the gallery.
To start this off, I have some new pictures from Indianapolis loaded in the gallery. I’m also embedding a video of the KeepOn robot below. If you love me, buy me one of these.
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Two weeks ago, I flew from Kigali to Nairobi to Amsterdam to Seattle and spent a week catching up with Hélène and the rest of the Seattle crew. I’m now in Indianapolis for Christmas and New Year’s and it feels good to drink water out of the tap and not get queasy each time I ride in a car. There isn’t so much culture shock as there is the shock of how much money one can spend in the developed world. It’s hard to look at a bill from Starbucks and not feel sad.
My six months in peaceful Rwinkwavu was amazing and the hardest thing about coming back home was leaving all the projects and the people behind. It is hard to put it all into words, but many of the friends I have in Rwanda decided to stop whatever they were doing, get on a plane (or for the Rwandans, a bus) and make the commitment to make a difference in the lives of those less fortunate.
I suppose we all do it at some personal expense, but I can safely say that I left with much more than I gave. That’s the craziest part of the whole experience and it’s only when you do it yourself that you know just how rewarding it is. I could talk about how much I’ll miss everything and everyone, but I think my previous pictures and posts demonstrate that enough so I’ll end with a bit of my own personal philosophy…
Traveling gives you get a chance to gather stories about people and places and things which eventually change the way you look at other people, other places and other things.
One of my favorite stories of all time is about a man who late one night walks into one of the PIH houses in Rwink. He finds the kitchen and proceeds to wolf down a large jar of mayonnaise. One of our doctors hears the noise, wakes up, walks into the kitchen and sees this guy pounding back the mayo. She freaks out, screams and the guy instead of stopping, continues to suck down the rest of the mayo before running out of the house. The next morning, we get to the hospital and there is a patient waiting with epic mayo-like diarrhea and we all have a good laugh about it.
You can only get these stories in Rwink and it’s funny because Rwandas definitely have an unhealthy love of mayo. At the same time, why a man would be so desperate as to eat that much mayo can only be understood by those who live and work in Rwinkwavu.
It is for trying to understanding both the humor and sadness of that story that I know I’ll be back very soon. Until then, I’ve put a few pictures from World AIDS Day and my last, but not final moments in Rwanda.
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