Cassava greens and Kinyarwanda

Dear Blog Readers,

Satisfaction and contentment are the only two words to perfectly describe my state of mind right now. It is the end of week two at training and there have been many ups and downs so far. Today, however, has been one of those rare days where everything aligned to make the perfect day. The skies are clear and the weather has settled to a nice 75 degrees. The birds sang all day and the roses, daisies and other flowers are in full bloom around our campus. I have gone to two language classes today and they have been great as well. I don’t know how long this feel-good state of mind will last but I am enjoying it to the fullest.

Our training so far has been very intense and difficult. I learn so many words each day that it is hard to keep up. By the time, 5:00 pm rolls around every afternoon, all I want to do is sleep or eat. Yesterday, however, I forced myself to make flashcards of all the words I could not remember. After fifty flashcards, I gave up and fell asleep. This Saturday, we have our first test so I better start studying after class.

Training however has not been all about studying. After class, we usually go out in groups to the local cybercafes or to the market. In the late afternoons, a group of us go to the courts to play volleyball. The last time I went to one of the volleyball games, my forearms were so bruised that they swelled up. Needless to say, I decided not to play volleyball the rest of the week. If we are not playing volleyball, we usually gather around the porches in our center and play card games or listen to the guys play their guitars. Our teachers are our age so they are a lot of fun to hang out with. One of the teachers plays the guitar amazingly and the rest of the teachers sing along with him. It is awesome. They all know these hauntingly beautiful Rwandan folk songs. I want to learn how to sing the sings. Of course, I probably won’t sound as good as they do.

Although my life here in Rwanda is very different from the one I led in the United States, I am adjusting. I do miss a lot of things right now. Some of them are good to miss like the people I left in the United States: Nathan, my family, my friends, and my church. Other things are more material. Here is a short list:
*ice cold sweet tea
*shoes that don’t hurt my feet. Actually, they only hurt my feet because I’m not used to walking for kilometers at a time.
*Hot long full blast showers in the morning.
*My mom’s coffee. (The coffee here is so thick I can put a spoon in it and it will stand up. Right now, I’m filling my mug half full of coffee and half full of milk and it is still really strong.)
*Cheeseburgers
*Water that tastes like water and can be drunk from the faucet.
*Availability to make phone calls without paying $.60 to $.70 a minute.
*Washing machine
*A digestive system that is accustomed to the local fare.

Don’t get me wrong. I actually really like it here. The people are great and really friendly. The culture is very interesting and the countryside is breathtakingly beautiful. Even now, I know I will miss this country when I eventually leave. The food here is good too although I am having to get used to some of the dishes. For example, they cook a lot of goat and rabbit meat. They seem to love potatoes and sweet potatoes, boiled or fried. They even serve us French fries sometimes, which goes over very well with us. Rwandans love cassava (or manioc). They either boil the cassava in pieces or they mash up the cassava and make a type of soft bread. They also boil the cassava leaves and make a dish, which is eerily similar to Southern-style turnip greens. My grandmother would be proud of me. I am actually trying to get used to the cassava greens. If I mix it up with my potatoes or carrots, I can hardly taste it. In restaurants, they serve beans and rice, which is very delicious. Sometimes, they put sugar or cinnamon in the beans. I am not sure I like that as much. I keep putting salt in the beans when they do that because I am not used to beans being sweet. Boiled squash, peas, and boiled carrots are also popular. I eat a LOT of peas and carrots. Also, bananas and plantains are huge here. With the plantains, they cook and season them as if they were potatoes. I’m still getting used to that idea. The bananas are served as dessert, along with passion fruit, Japanese pear???, papaya, pineapple and sometimes coffee cake (very good). My favorite Rwandan food so far has to be the sambusa. It is like a little fried piece of goodness with ground beef inside and a fried crust on the outside. For those who know Brazilian food, it is basically a “pastel” and it tastes just like it. When the cooks serve us sambusas for tea time, we attack the platters. First come, first served. I usually try to eat only three because I’m being good although others eat as much as six of them.

When we are not eating or suffering through language class, we also have cultural sessions with our teachers or our resource family. It is super interesting, especially when our teachers talk about dating and marriage. First off, a Rwandan girl must never ask a guy out on a date. Instead, she must hint around that she likes him until he asks her out. The dating time before marriage seems to be about the same as in the United States, six months to a year. When the guy decides to marry his girlfriend, he must purchase a cow for the girl’s family. It is a symbol of how important the lady is to him. In Rwanda, the cow is the ultimate symbol of richness and beauty. To have cows means that you are rich. If a lady is said to look like a cow or to have the eyes of a cow, it is the highest compliment. Poetry and songs are written about cows. Schools, institutions and people have names that have the word “cow” in it. Before the genocide and even many years before, when Rwandans owned many cows, a man would bring his bride’s family to his cattle ranch and the family would choose a boy with a strong throwing arm. The boy would throw the spear towards the herd of cattle. Wherever the spear landed, the family would receive all those cows. Obviously, the objective would be to throw the spear as far as you can. Now, however, it is only necessary to present one cow to the bride’s family.

Other interesting cultural notes are the handshake. In Rwanda, if you meet an elder or someone of respectable position, you must wait until he offers his hand. You must never offer your hand first. Then, when you shake, if you want to be polite, you must place your left hand across your right arm when you shake. It is extremely rude to shake hands or to offer any type of food or object with your left hand. If you meet an old woman or old man in the village, it is okay to say “Hello, old man or hello, old woman.” It is actually a sign of respect because age is respected here. Unfortunately, the Kinyarwandan word for “old man” is only a letter away from the word for “crazy man.” You can also call a woman old enough to be your mother, “mama.”

I will present a short disclaimer here about the culture. Given I have only been here a short amount of time, I may be wrong about certain cultural aspects. I have only written what I have been told by Rwandans and what I have experienced in Kigali and Butare. Kigali and Butare are the two biggest cities in Rwanda and they are more modern than the rest of the country. Cultural issues and food may differ across Rwanda depending on proximity to the borders or isolation from other villages. I will continue my cultural notes whenever I observe them and when I reach my site. Forgive me however if I make assumptions based on one town or stereotypes based on a group of Rwandans I know. Rwanda is a very dynamic country and I am looking forward to experiencing the rest of Rwanda.

As always, I miss you guys and I hope you are doing well. Take care and tell me how Obama is doing so far. He is immensely popular here in Rwanda. I bought an Obama hat in the airport, and I am probably going to wear it around soon to show it off.