June 19, 2007

It’s Tuesday and already I am ready to be done with work this week. Yesterday was possibly the most tedious day of my life, and today I translated Excel banking documents into French. It will only last until Friday, but that kind of work is fairly unbearable. Especially since I am unfamiliar with banking terms in general, so forget knowing what they are in French. Also, there is one person at work who creeps me out, and I always end up working with him on stuff, so I never get a chance to evaluate if my creeped-out-ness is reasonable or not, because he’s always there being creepy… Next week, though, we won’t be working in the same office, and then after that if the weirdness continues I will say something. Okay, enough venting. But it does feel good…

Before delving into more serious topics, here is a list of lessons learned so far in Rwanda:

1. Do not take motorbike taxis in torrential rain.
2. Always decide on the fare prior to getting on.
3. Insecticide is awesome.
4. Bugs are smarter than mosquito nets.
5. Bananas are the most versatile staple food ever.
6. Patience is really, really, really important. And wears out fast.
7. Cars are like Mary Poppins’ bag: they hold 100x what you would expect.
8. Bucket showers are cool.
9. Refrigeration is highly overrated, and you can definitely eat meat that has been at room temperature for more than an hour.
10. Running water and electricity are not necessities, but cell phones are.

On to more serious things, on Saturday I went to see Pastor Francis and the kids he takes care of. He runs a child sponsorship program, mostly for orphans. The majority are orphans of genocide or AIDS, but some were kids whose families are simply too poor to feed them. He has 350 kids sponsored so far, and more all the time. I went to play with them, and it was really fun but heartbreaking at the same time. Some of the people who work with them told me stories that make you realize how sheltered we are. There was an 8 or 9 year old girl, but she didn’t seem older than 6, who basically is a mother to five younger siblings. Her father is dead and her mother is bedridden, so this girl begs for money, cooks, cleans, does laundry, bathes and clothes her brothers and sisters, and still finds time to make it to school on occasion. Another boy lost his whole family in the genocide, and now stays with distant relatives who are too poor to care for him, and who don’t really want him anyway. For years they didn’t treat his like a person, they called him ‘dog’ or ‘dead body’ and wouldn’t feed him anything. But now that he is sponsored, he brings home food and soap from the program, so they treat his like a human being because he contributes to the household. The woman who told me this said there are many stories like his, because so many kids were forced upon relatives after the genocide.

On the way home, I ran into some kids who were coming home from school (which the have on Saturday…) and they insisted on walking me all the way to my house. They didn’t believe that a white girl lived in their neighborhood. They were really darling, and taught me some songs. I took their picture, and if I can figure out how to post photos, they’re the kids in uniforms.