May 5, 2023
I’m a little late with this one…World Malaria Day is April 25. Who knew? Not me, but Peace Corps has volunteers dedicated to educating about malaria, which is still a problem in Rwanda despite everyone having a bed net. (Peace Corps gives us a bed net and provides us with our choice of malaria prophylactics – I take Malarone.) My colleague got malaria about a month ago, but he’s already back at work. One of his children got it last year. The mosquito is the world’s deadliest animal, believe it or not. I did my part on educating about malaria with my students by doing a ‘True or False’ activity about common myths about the disease. There was some lively discussion about whether mangoes can give you malaria (they can’t), whether alcohol protects you from malaria (it doesn’t), if malaria is only a problem in rainy season (it isn’t) and if you can know if you have malaria without taking a test (you can’t). Ms. Shemsa, a 10th grader is leading our class in this activity.
May 3, 2023
It was a tragic day in The Land of a Thousand Hills. Heavy rainfall triggered landslides in western Rwanda. Many people were killed as their houses were washed away. I live in the eastern part of Rwanda. It is less mountainous than the west, and there have not been similar problems here. Below are pictures taken by Penny, a Peace Corps health volunteer, who was traveling in the west today. Mud, rocks and trees cover the roads.
May 2, 2023
While I’m not a birder, Rwandan birds and their songs are spectacular and really capture my interest. Even though I live in an area where there aren’t a lot of trees, there are plenty of birds, which are colorful and sing well. I must’ve seen 10 new species that we don’t have in the U.S. so far. The picture below is of two birds who alit on the ground just behind the staff room at school. They are black and white and I noticed that they hung out in the area where sunlight and shadow meet. Clever! The birds here have interesting behaviors, too. Because the outside of some of the windows of my house are mirrored, I occasionally get a bird who wants to battle it out with himself, sometimes at 6 a.m.
May 1, 2023
This blog has been on a hiatus for a while because my house was broken into while I was away from Kabarore. On the night of April 12-13, a thief or more probably thieves cut an iron bar that protects my bedroom window, then smashed the window and entered around 3 a.m. They took nearly everything in my bedroom (luggage, wallet with credit cards, clothes, passport, laptop, bedding and mosquito net) but left the rest of the house and my meager belongings there alone. The Rwandan Investigation Bureau donned white plastic suits and dusted my room for fingerprints. They and the Rwandan police were very professional. My friends and neighbors here in Kabarore were very helpful. Peace Corps was also supportive and got me a new computer so that I could continue to teach (all of my lesson plans, grades, student rosters and e-copies of the textbook were lost, though) but I’m haggling with them about replacing my other things. While suspects have been questioned and detained, there’s no sign of my things. I will have to get another passport. The funny thing about that was that I had just renewed it for 10 years and had it in my possession for about a week when it was stolen. Here are photos of my bedroom window after the break in and with the security upgrade.
Apr 11, 2023
One major difference between my two Peace Corps services is that, in Thailand, my students were everywhere around town and it was easy to meet them and their families. In fact, one of my students lived two doors from me in Pakkard. Here in Rwanda, our school is residential, so the students are not available to bail me out in town (i.e., help in shopping, help in saying things in Ikinyarwanda, etc.). One of my students, Eric, lives in the same town as my nearest PCV neighbor, Sandra. I told him I would visit him when I next went to Nyarabuye, which is about 12 km from Kabarore. The other day I went there and met Eric, his father, his sister and brother. Here’s a picture of me with Eric and his cute 4-year-old sister.
Apr 9, 2023
Friday, April 7 marked “Kwibuka 29” or the 29th anniversary of the start of the genocide against the Tutsi. Along with the principal of my teacher training college and three colleagues from Zimbabwe, I attended a commemoration ceremony in the village of Cyabusheshe, about 20 km from Kabarore. It was a solemn ceremony with many people in attendance and several speakers. Rwandan president Paul Kagame spoke in English via broadcast. He gave a stirring speech, talking about many nations (including the U.S.A.) turned their backs on Rwanda in their time of need. He also said that if you behave kindly to others, you will always be in the right. The Genocide against the Tutsi was a terrible event but the Rwandans do an excellent job of addressing this ugly part of history, reconciling with their neighbors and building a better country from it.
