Day 3

Live from Rwanda! The trip only took a total of 40 hours. 58 for the rest of the group! I flew out of Dulles at 7 p.m. Saturday evening, spent almost a day at Heathrow, where I met the rest of the volunteers, then boarded a plane for Kenya that evening, arrived in Nairobi at 6 a.m., where we had a 10-hour lay over, and then made a final 2-hour flight to Kigali (capital of Rwanda). With almost no sleep during the trip, except for a couple of hours Steve and I were able to pass out at Heathrow, I felt like a total zombie towards the end. I don’t really know what it’s like being a zombie.

My team mates include Steve, Emilia, Nasseem (from Canada), and Sam who’s from Phoenix. Sam is 22 and is responsible for the creation of Orien Aid. All the volunteers are super chill and very laid back. The girls are a lot more quiet the guys. The guys tend to dominate the conversations, which I hope changes soon. Emilia seems to be the only one who might feel the least comfortable. I think this might be her first time far away from home. We’re working

We were welcomed at the Kigali airport by Teddy and a couple of other men who work with the Orien Foundation. Teddy Anderson is American/Persian and grew up in Rwanda, but is visiting for the summer. Teddy’s parents run another organization along side Orien, and the two pair up to provide service to the near-by villages outside of Kigali. Teddy’s parent’s house is the home-base for the group, from which we will do most of our driving expeditions to the villages. The house runs on solar cells, and there is no power most of the time. No running water either. They own a big piece of property on the outskirts of the capital where they are building a school and clinic. It’s really peaceful where they live and you can see the city below you. I’m trying to get the pictures to upload so you can see for yourself. From what I understand. the Anderson’s work in Europe, where they try to raise money for the clinic and school.

As some of you know, I wasn’t really sure what to expect when I got here. All I knew was that there were some positive things happening in Rwanda and I was just drawn to be part of them. Orien Aid is a cultural exchange initiative, that allows volunteers to come here and learn more about the Rwandese culture, and to hopefully share something about us with the people. This is the 5^th or 6^th Orien trip to Rwanda, so the surrounding villages are expecting to see some familiar faces. We basically do lots of road trips, meet with the locals, ask them how they are doing, play soccer with the kids, do some unity-oriented work-shops with the hopes that it will inspire the kids. We’ll also be trained to give advice on nutrition, AIDS education, and compost treatment.

Rwanda reminds me a lot of Cameroon, with the rolling hills and cool temperature. It is, in fact referred to the land of a thousand hills, and if you have seen Hotel Rwanda, the name of the hotel means the hotel of a thousand hills. The people are extremely welcoming, which seems to be a quality that is shared by most Africans. We are “Mozungu” here J. The kids whisper it when you walk past them, but mostly they shout it at you, with big smiles on their faces. They are amazingly resilient for being a post-conflict society. You can sometimes sense the pain in their eyes. Most families here have lost at least one member in the genocide. The words “Hutu” and “Tutsi” are now considered taboo, and no one ever talks about the genocide, except maybe in a side joke. Just to tell you how sensitive it can be, I was told that one of the volunteers last year was asked by a Rwandese how many siblings he had, and he answered and then asked the same question back. The man responded with a blank stare and did not say a word for the rest of day.

Villages here continue to have fact-finding meetings every Friday, where family victims air out their emotions, and attempts are made locate those responsible for individual deaths. Usually, neighbors killed neighbors. Most of those who took part in the killing have since been released, so this is an attempt to find some closure for the people.

It’s amazing how recent all this death and destruction occurred. I just hope we can learn all we can and be able to share our experiences with our family here.