Cross-post- Faithful Politics

Hello family and friends,

I'm currently enjoying Christmas Eve with my sister and her family here in London, England. I'll post some photos later, but for now, here's an article I wrote for Faithful Politics, a website which is devoted to exploring the interplay between our Christian faith and our political actions and beliefs. The website was started last year by one of my good friends from Wheaton, so it's worth checking out the other articles on the site.

http://faithfulpolitics.org/2010/12/24/a-tale-of-two-kings-herod-jesus-and-the-glory-of-christmas/

It's Not Really Looking Anything Like Christmas

Another sunny, 77° degree day here in the tropics. Even though that's 50 degrees warmer than Littleton and London, and 70 degrees warmer than Medford, I'm not going to gloat. And although there is less humidity here than all of those places, keeping it mild and cool despite the warm sun, there's no sense in me bragging about it.


Actually, I am a little jealous of the snow and cold, partly because I'm weird like that, and partly because it is evocative of the most wonderful of times of the year, the Christmas season. (As I've mentioned before.) But I am trying to enjoy it as much as I can today, because if the news reports are to be believed, England looks something like this:

London, today

Which will be fun, as long as my plane lands. My next posts will be from the motherland, where I will almost assuredly have some Vin Diesel-like shenanigans with dirty diapers and baby vomit.

PS- Nuclear family- your Christmas gifts will arrive some time in January, I haven't sent or ordered or thought about them yet. Sorry.

When Moths Attack: UPDATE

I have no idea how, but this guy managed to squeeze himself through a crack somewhere and ended up in my kitchen. (UPDATE: There are two of them.) As you can see, he is very large. A cat was trying to get to him before I came out and chased it off to take this picture.

Commence: Operation Kitchen Liberation. Updates to follow.

Update:

Kitchen is secure. At approximately 9:33 PM, I approached the kitchen from the east. Preliminary visual surveillance showed no sign of the intruders.

Fig. 1: Preliminary surveillance. Visual contact: Negative.

After a brief delay dedicated to writing my will, I breached the kitchen door at 9:36 and cautiously moved inside. Knowing something of the habits of moths, I was careful not to touch anything, or put my hands in areas where they might be hiding. I could not see either moth, so I fell back to my room to regroup and rearm.

Fig. 2: Weapons

I again returned to the kitchen with sandals in hand this time from the north, and immediately laid eyes on bogey 1. As you can see in this picture, he had positioned himself perfectly for a sneak attack above the door I had previously used to enter the room. A chill ran up my spine as I understood his dark purpose, and wondered at the malice in his tiny heart.

Fig. 3: Evil incarnate

My attention immediately turned to the moth that I knew remained hidden somewhere in the room. I slowly went around the room, poking my sandal into bags and under cupboards where it might be hiding. The second place I searched was the corner with the trash bin. I hypothesized that the moth would allured to the smells of death and decay.

Fig. 4: An Ambush

I was, unfortunately, correct. No sooner had I kicked at the trash can than the moth launched itself at me. I dodged and parried its strikes, until I could put some distance between myself and that confining corner. This one was considerably larger than the pictured moth, who twirled his mustache and gazed through emotionless, dark eyes at the events below. Then without warning, the attacker flew out of the open door and into the night.

At 9: 45 I coaxed the remaining moth down from the corner by throwing things at it, then dealt it a death blow in midair with my sandal. I put its carcass in a paper bag and was taking it out to the trash, only to discover that the other moth was WAITING ON THE PORCH FOR ME. No joke, this moth flew at me again, then took up a watchful position near the porch light. If I could somehow make this house airtight, it would be so.

Bird-Sized Moths are now #1 on the list of Things I Will Not Miss When I Leave Rwanda.

I'm Still Here

Nothing eventful has happened, but I thought I should update everyone on how it's going.

Well, I'm sick. Nothing bad- just fever/bowel issues. If at home, I would just lay up for a couple days, but here there's always the worry that it's dysentery/malaria/typhoid. Probably not, but I'll let you know if it is.

Work is going fine, albeit slowly, because the major focus of my work has not yet started. This is kind of nice, as it allows me to work from home a couple days a week, and I've used the extra time to orient myself a little further with Kigali. I'm getting a better feel for the shops and how to get from A to B.

I ordered a desk for my room from a small furniture shop. They're one of these poorly located, not advertised, wouldn't know about it except that my friends told me about it, kind of place, so that's fun. After a very brief haggling session, I agreed to pay RWF 20,000, or $33 for just a simple table. But of course, Jerome told me that it would be ready in two days. That was nine days ago. Which I'm okay with, because I'll now be able to pay like half that amount. My goal is to get it down to 12,000.

Only six days until Christmas break! I'm flying up to London this Friday to hang out with the Wallace family for a couple weeks. In case you're not a member of my family or otherwise not aware, my sister gave birth to little Georgia Ruth Wallace a couple weeks ago, so I'll get to meet my niece. Looking forward to that very much.

It's been raining for days. It's usually clear in the morning, but heavy, wet tropical storms come through in the afternoon that disrupt the power and the internet, along with making everything humid and preventing the clothes on the line from drying. This is the end of the rainy season- when I return to Rwanda in January, we should have at least two months without a drop.

Thanksgiving

L-R- Sam, Lisette, Davina

Thanksgiving abroad is an interesting affair. First of all, it doesn't feel remotely like Thanksgiving. It's in the 80s every day and sunny, and everything is green. I see friends posting on Facebook about listening to Christmas music, and I just have no real desire to listen to it- it's impossible to get into the spirit. I could go through the rituals of these holidays, force myself to eat turkey and listen to the PoG Christmas CD, but it's weird when the form is divorced from the context that I'm familiar with. It just doesn't feel right.

Which is why it's somehow appropriate that this was my Thanksgiving dinner:

This is none other than Khana Khazana, the best Indian food this side of the Mississippi. I didn't know that I liked Indian food until I ate here over the summer; all I had had before was those crappy buffets. It's pretty expensive for Kigali, but hey, it's Thanksgiving. Drinks and tip and everything was like $17 a person.

But, of course, the important part of Thanksgiving is giving thanks. I'm thankful for:

-A good job that has allowed me to come all the way over to Africa, meet a bunch of great people, and learn a lot;

-Family back home that is praying for me and has supported me through the last two years of unemployment and hurry quick I need to buy stuff for Africa;

-Housemates that are cool and I get along with;

-most of all, for Andrea and Dave's beautiful baby girl and my neice, Georgia. I'm very excited for getting to visit them over Christmas.

P.S.- my housemates are Sam and Lisette, Davina is a friend of Lisette's who hangs out with us on occasion. Sam (Philadelphia) is here teaching dance, and Lisette (Netherlands) is doing Malaria research for a Master's thesis.

Daily Commute

Andrea suggested that I post some pictures of the scenes I see every day on my way to work. So, praying that the moto driver didn't do anything crazy, holding the motorcycle with one hand and my camera in the other, I took some pictures from my commute to work this morning.

It's sort of boring to me, but I guess people have certain expectations of what a morning commute in an African city is like, so here's a little bit of my experience in Rwanda.

This is the street I live on. That trench on the right is typical of the gutters here- they're everywhere, even in poorer areas, and in the hills, even in some of the more remote parts of the country. The soil is pretty poor here, and they prevent the hills from getting saturated and leading to erosion or landslides. Occasionally cars get stuck in them.

On the road heading up towards the city center. This road is fairly new, as you can tell, and the the lanes in the opposite direction are still under construction.

Same road, getting closer to the city. Hopefully this gives you a sense of how hilly it is- the roads go around the hills in spirals with occasional switchbacks. You can see on the left how much dirt had to be removed- and this is getting close to the top, where it levels out a little. They'll eventually cover that bare face with a wall.

The city center. That tall modern looking building is brand new, the first of many such projects that are part of the government's 'Vision 2020' programs. This program involves eminent-domaining all the poor people out of the downtown area and replacing them with big buildings like this one.

The city center. This is the main roundabout in the center of Kigali, and you can see how well it is maintained, with all the grass and bushes. All of it is done by hand, with machetes and clippers. Even the grass. You may be able to see the fountain in the middle, which wasn't on this morning.

Going around the roundabout. In the very center of this picture and to the left is where all of the buses go. I catch my bus home pretty close to the new tower. Further left at the top of the hill is where the Union Trade Center (UTC) is, which is sort of a Western-style shopping mall. Also up there is the Simba grocery store, where I get all of my non-produce foods.

And back down the other side of the hill, to the Muhima district where VFC (Vision Finance Company, the MFI that I'm working at) is. The whole ride is about 10 minutes, and costs me 700 RWF (a little more than a dollar). I usually take the bus home, because that's only 180 RWF, or 30 cents. And it's easier to carry groceries on the bus.

Introducing Nigel

This is my current roommate. We are able to be friends because we do not eat the same food. I trust him fully with the chocolate in my room, and I do not encroach on his supply of cockroaches and mosquitoes (although he's smaller than most cockroaches).

Our House in the Middle of Our... Kimihurura

This is where I've been living for the last three weeks, and where I will presumably be for several more months. It's a little bit east of the city center, sort of on the top of one of the hills opposite Kigali proper.

There's room for five separate tenants, but only three live here now. It's reasonably nice, and the rent includes utilities, internet, 24 hr guard, 3 days a week housekeeper, and laundry.

The kitchen (no ants, but plenty of cockroaches)

It's in the suburb called Kimihurura (the 'K' pronounced like 'ch'), which is populated mostly by ex-pats and wealthy locals. There's a few nice places to eat, like Papyrus, an Italian restaurant that features their own dairy where they produce cheeses and delicious yogurt. There's also Executive Carwash, the bar where I went this summer to watch the World Cup games on a giant outdoor screen. Tonight we're going to try Flamingo, a local Chinese place that I've heard is pretty good.

Our spacious backyard, perfect for tossing the football around... maybe four square? That brick structure is actually a huge grill that doesn't appear to have been used in quite a while.

The best part of the house- the gazebo in the front. Perfect for relaxing and reading during the day, at least before the mosquitoes come out.

View from the front. My room is on the back, a couple rooms up from that big dish that's just taking up space because we don't even have a TV.

My room, back when it was nice and tidy. I'm going to have to buy a desk. And some rugs- tiles don't work well in a bedroom.

Akagera... AGAIN

I went with some housemates to good ol' Akagera National Park, where the only things rarer than visitors are the animals.

Just kidding, kind of. This trip wasn't as good as my last one, because this is the rainy season, so it rained half the day and the roads were terrible. We didn't see any elephants (which is the whole reason for going during the rainy season), and the rain prevented us from going off the road to see the big herds of topi and impala. But we got pretty close to some giraffes, and saw some crocodiles as well, so here are some pictures.

The sunnier half of the day

Evidence of elephants

Topi during the rain

Crocodiles. I was highly disappointed that nothing got attacked or eaten.

Giraffe!

Pregnant giraffe!

Buffalo!

Bringing Home the... Fruit

Just to give you an idea of what I get when I go to the market. I went to Nyabugogo market on Thursday after work, 'hired' a boy to carry my bags ("Give me a job." "Ok.") and bought all this stuff. It cost 7000 RWF, or about $12. I'm sure that's significantly more than the locals pay- no matter whose stall I went to, they seemed to have a set price as if it were run by the local passion fruit and onion cartel. Usually I hear a high price and bargain it down eventually, but I was unable to budge them more than 100 RWF or 2, even after starting to walk away.

Anyway, the only things in this picture that maybe aren't easily recognizable to Americans are the tree tomatoes (oblong red/yellow things on the right) and passion fruit (small green/brown fruit on the right). And the big green things on the right are mangoes. Papayas are gross.

It's Hard Out Here For A Mzungu

Living in Africa is not easy. A good deal of that difficulty comes from the fact that it's unfamiliar; from navigating the bus routes and roadways in a place where there are no street names and everything is in a different language to navigating the claustrophobic and dirty markets while constantly saying "No, thank you" and "No, sorry" to the peddlers and street children vying for attention.

There are difficulties specific to us mzungus - mainly derived from this widespread logic: 1. We are rich. 2. Therefore, ripping us off is ok. Most of the time it's fairly harmless, because I am rich compared to most Rwandans, and don't mind that people in the market inflate their prices, or that taxi drivers never seem to have exact change, so they end up with a little more than the agreed upon price. The more egregious examples are more trying, and more difficult to brush aside. Such as the lunch buffet near work raising its price by 50% when I come in, and insisting that that's always been the price, or our Akagera guide lying to us about the cost of transport home that we needed to pay him, inflating the originally agreed-upon price five-fold. Or our housekeeper over the summer, who was found to be grossly overcharging us for food while feeding herself and her family from the food that she did buy.

There's also institutionalized ripping-off, practiced by the businesses geared mainly toward expats. These are the giant supermarkets that sell goods in a style that appeals to Westerners with the bright lights, fully stocked shelves, and fixed prices. These carry absurdly expensive, usually imported goods of low quality (usually from China). The handle of the food storage bucket I bought broke off after a week of light use. The banks charge high fees to get money from my bank account back home, and put the money through several (poor) exchange rates before you get it.

All of this put together makes day-to-day life more difficult. It's terrible to go around doubting the honesty/intentions of everyone around me; I've already found myself mumbling 'no, sorry' when spoken to on the street and then turning and finding someone simply saying hello.

So I'm looking forward to being back in the land of plenty in 9+ months. Until then, I suppose I'll learn some Kinyarwanda and get real familiar with what prices are supposed to be.

In Which I Go to Rwanda

Well, I've arrived. I was on the very first direct KLM flight from Amsterdam to Kigali, and we were greeted at the airport with drums, dancers, souvenirs, and cameras. I'll put some pictures of that up once I get my computer.

I moved into a house with a few other expats in the Kimihurura neighborhood (just a short bus ride west to get to the center of Kigali) and I'm settling in. The house is rather poorly equipped (especially in the kitchen), but it's comfortable enough and my housemates seem to be cool. I had a good time buying sheets in Nyabugogo market last week, making sure that they're 100% cotton instead of the 65% polyester blend that are presumably cheaper.

I've been enjoying plentiful fruits, such as mangos, passion fruit, bananas, tree tomatoes, and avocados as big as grapefruits (I'm serious- I'll post pics) that are fairly cheap in all the markets. It's kind of a pain to get around, having to rely on buses and moto taxis, but once I get in a rhythm it'll be easier.

Work in Africa wouldn't be complete without a few hitches, such as not having the computer that was ordered for me a month previously, and the two main people on my project being transferred to other branches within two weeks of my arrival, and needing to train their replacements. Which is to say that everything is going as expected.

T minus 38 hours

About to embark. Purchases are made, luggage is partially packed, as much good American food as possible eaten. (It's been a good couple weeks- Chipotle, shawarma, Whitehouse Restaurant in Clare, Cops and Donuts, Ted's Montana Grill, and of course good home cooking.) I'm eating like a prisoner on death row, not because Africa's that bad (it's not), but because I really really enjoy burgers and ice cream, and it'll be a while before I find a quality imitation of either.

So here's the plan: Denver > Detroit > Amsterdam > Entebbe > Kigali. Just over 24 hours from start to finish, so not terrible. I have a couple potential apartments to visit (really just rooms in houses w/ other expats) and as soon as I'm moved in, it's off to Nairobi for a couple weeks. I'll post here on occasion, hopefully the transition from my old blog doesn't cause people any difficulty.

I appreciate your prayers as I travel and get settled in in Rwanda.

Rwanda, Round 2

As of October 1st, I will be a bona-fide employee of World Vision. I'll be returning to Rwanda sometime in the next couple weeks, where I will spend 11 months doing pretty much the same things that I did this summer. My responsibilities will include working on the Micro program and various donor projects, such as hosting donors and groups that may visit.

I'll be sure to keep you all updated, via this blog or perhaps a new one with a simpler url.

Cowboy Obama

The upcoming constitutional referendum in Kenya is commanding a lot of attention, thanks to all the various groups who have a stake. The 'Yes' side is made up of a lot of the government, the Muslim groups, and the 'No's' are mainly the country's Christian population (+80% of the populace). This is because the proposed constitution allows for Sharia courts to govern the Muslims, and allows for them to set up mosques all over the country, not just in their historic coastal areas. It also allows for abortion in some cases, in a vaguely worded clause that the Christians worry will become a slippery slope towards abortion on demand.

It also contains provisions to counter Kenya's rampant corruption, so the 'Nos' are branded as obstructionists who are opposed to all reform, despite the issues they have brought up.

So the Obama administration, via his ambassador here and Joe Biden, has been interfering in a sovereign country's internal politics- in favor of the new constitution. Of course, getting involved all over the world is a proud American tradition going back many years, so I can't fault him too strongly for that. However, given the Obama administration's support for promoting abortion all over the world, and attempts to make Muslims like us more, this interference strikes me less as 'supporting the process,' and more using US taxpayer money to influence the outcome of the referendum.

Interestingly enough, this all came out when Patrick Kennedy (w/ Keith Ellison) began to request hearings into right-wing Christian support for the 'No' campaign. Of course, this money came from churches and NGOs; all of the taxpayer money involved has gone to the 'Yes' campaign. Kenyan 'No' supporters have called for Ambassador Ranneberger to be recalled, and many are angry at the way Obama is meddling in their internal affairs.

For much of the last eight years, we've heard how Bush was a COWBOY, swaggering around the world with a gun on his hip, offending our allies and alienating the rest. But now it seems that in Kenya, the land of his ancestors, his hope and change has come to another group of people who are no longer captivated by him. If the new constitution is confirmed, it may be partly because Biden hinted that Obama would visit if it passes, or because Obama himself says:

"…this is a singular opportunity to put Kenyan governance on a more solid footing that can move beyond ethnic violence; can move beyond corruption; can move the country towards a path of economic prosperity. And so, I hope that everybody participates, everybody takes advantage of this moment, and those who would try to undermine this process, I think, are making a big mistake."

But if it fails, Nairobi can be mentioned alongside Copenhagen and Washington as places where Obama's bloom is off the rose.


BACK TO THE BLOG:
-My camera was stolen out of my hotel room, so no pictures of Kenya. The hotel's security officer is on the case, so I may yet get it back before the weekend. I'm not holding my breath. My knife is also gone, but that fell out of my pocket in a cab after two weeks in Kigali.
-I've learned more about Kenyan politics in three days than I learned about Rwandan politics in three months.
-Talking to one of my colleagues about Obama's tendency to take on huge, ambitious, unpopular projects, she described him as 'Lone Ranger' and explained, "He's a lowlander."
-Work has been going great. Everyone is very professional, and I've had no problems getting time to meet with people or in conveying the purpose of the Micro journals.
-I need ideas for what to do this weekend. Basically anything cheap and not too far from Nairobi. I don't have to be at the airport until 8:00 Sunday night, so I'll need to occupy myself in between the hotel and the airport.
-Looking forward to being home. Some of the parks here have terrain that would be perfect for frisbee golfing, so I'm looking forward to that. Also, pizza and Chipotle.

Nairobi

As I told someone today, Kigali is to Nairobi as Colorado Springs is to Chicago. Kigali is hilly, dusty, and comparatively quiet; Nairobi is flat, sprawling, and has terrible roads.

I arrived Sunday afternoon, and checked into the Red Court hotel. Tried to change money, but francs might as well be denarii here. I'll have to hold on to it until I can make my way back to Rwanda, or settle for a terrible exchange rate when I get to an international airport. Which sucks, since I have about $150 tied up in Rwandan currency. Yes, I should have changed it in Kigali, but the last couple days there were pretty hectic.

I think everything at VFC is as good as it's going to be; not as much changed during my stay as I hoped, but I think they have all the right processes and training in place now. They just need to apply the proper resources to it- time will tell if anything changes.

The MFI in Nairobi, however, is quite a bit more advanced than VFC, and they have none of the problems with connectivity and translation (everything's in English!) that Rwanda has. So the week here will be more than sufficient, thanks to the three month training boot camp I went through in Kigali and the fact that we're working through things at the beginning, not five months after implementation.

So I'm expecting this week to be a good wind-down to end my time in Africa before returning home next Sunday. Maybe I'll get to go to a safari park over the weekend, and make sure that I don't return home without pictures of elephants.

Akagera National Park

Sunday we went to Akagera National Park, which rests on Rwanda's Eastern border with Tanzania. The elevation is lower, being part of the Great Rift Valley, and is filled with swamps and lakes that attract the wildlife.

It was once quite a bit bigger (it's a third of its original size) and had a higher population of elephants and lions, but in the chaos following the genocide in 1994, there was no protection for the animals. As a result, farmers with cows like these:
would poison the carcasses of cows killed by lions, greatly reducing the lion population here. (Our guide, Samuel, has worked at Akagera since 1997, and has only encountered lions three times.) Other game was driven out by poachers and settlers. After the genocide, the government gave the Western portion of the park to refugees to return to and settle. So this is a park that is struggling, but could potentially be among the great game reserves of Africa; it contains a wide variety of terrains that allows animals to stay year-round, instead of migrating to distant water sources. It's relatively unknown; we only saw a couple other cars the whole time we were there. And it's home to several varieties of antelope- we saw impalas, waterbuck, Cape buffaloes, topi, and giant eland.

Topi (can run 55 mph)

Cape Buffalo- by himself. He had a broken leg.

Baboon family

L-R- Antonina, her husband Dmitri, guide Samuel, driver Gervais

Giraffe, obviously

We also saw zebras, hippos, warthogs, baboons, various birds, and (my favorite encounter) a 4-5 ft cobra that slithered across the road in front of us. (UPDATE: based on my extensive Googling, I think it was likely some variety of spitting cobra. The black-necked spitting cobra [naja nigricollis] is most common, so it was probably that. They can 'spit' venom accurately up to 10 feet or 3 m.) It was a pretty cool trip, I'll have to return some day during the rainy season when more animals are around.

2nd Trip to Gikongoro

Last week, I went south again to meet with the Loan Officers at the Gikongoro branch for a brief meeting. We were implementing some new processes and going over some questions they had, but that only took about an hour. The rest of the time, I took advantage of my translator/co-worker/Micro counter-part Gilbert who went to National University of Rwandain this part of the country. He showed me around the National Museum (pretty small, no pictures allowed) and the Royal Palace (the dwelling place of the monarchs until the 1950s. They charged to take pictures, so no pictures). We also visited Gilbert's old campus:

which was very beautiful, and also had MONKEYS:
which were exciting to see. Fortunately , they completely ignored us, so I have no stories of poop-flinging or attack. The photo at the top was taken on the NUR campus, near where the monkey troop (herd? school?) lived.

We also visited the Murambi Genocide Memorial near Butare, which is one of the largest and most famous of the memorials in Rwanda. It is built on the campus of what was originally a technical school. During the genocide, about 50,000 Tutsis fled there, and their Hutu attackers cut off the water supply to the compound and killed them all a few days later. They buried the bodies in several mass graves, which were later exhumed (in 1995). They found that a lot of the bodies had been deprived of oxygen in the grave and hadn't decomposed, so they preserved over 800 of these bodies and keep them in rooms for visitors to view. It's shocking, and sobering, especially when entering the rooms that contain the remains of children who were slaughtered. They keep these bodies uncovered so that no one in future years can deny that the genocide occured.

There are also plaques around that mark where mass graves were found, and where the French flag flew during 'Operation Turquoise,' where French soldiers moved in towards the last days of the genocide to protect Hutu genocidaires from the avenging RPF. Rwandans are still waiting for an official apology from the French- for this, and for supplying the Hutu militias with arms in hopes of supporting the existing power structure, and defending the Hutu refugees as they continued to attack from the DRC. The decision to switch from French to English has deep-rooted social/political causes behind the peripheral business causes.

P.S.- We also visited a craft co-op in Butare where I got some sweet souvenirs and gifts. If anybody wants anything specific, let me know and I can get it for you (wood carvings? baskets? jewelry? knives? toys?) when I go back down in a couple weeks.

Pics

Genocide Memorial near Butare

Street food vendor near Ruhengeri

School children in Kigali