A lot has happened in the past week. From cockroaches to farms to soccer games to the big city, there's honestly too much to include in one blog post. That being said, stay tuned for separate posts regarding food, living conditions, and some other specific topics. I am having an incredible time so far; Rwanda is more amazing than I could've imagined.
The Flights
Most important take-away: on-flight food is awesome.
I took two flights to get to Kigali, Rwanda. First, I flew from Houston to Amsterdam. The flight was about 9 hours, but there was a +7 hour time change so I left at 3pm on Saturday, and I arrived in the Netherlands at 7am on Sunday. There, the A&M group met up with a few other participants for a three-hour layover. Finally, we boarded an 8.5 hour flight to Rwanda.
Now the important part: food. Wow. First of all, we were served two meals on each flight. I don't know if any of you are familiar with airplane meals, but these things are legit. I'm talking bread, entree, sides, dessert, drinks, and cheese(!!!) for every meal. The food was warm and delicious. IT WAS ALSO PRECEDED BY HOT TOWELS. It was magical. You'll just have to take my word for it. 10/10 would recommend.
The Place
Kigali, Rwanda. The Land of 1000 Hills. Rwanda is divided into 5 provinces. North, South, East, West, and Kigali. (Guess which one I'm in)
More specifically, I am staying in the neighborhood of Kicukiro. I am living on-campus at the IPRC (Integrated Polytechnic Regional Centre). There are approximately 5000 students who attend, and the campus is pretty big! There is a variety of buildings, a soccer field, a cricket field, and lots of friendly people! Here's some sick pics.
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| IPRC campus, outside my classroom. |
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| Crazy-nice IPRC building. We've met here a couple times. |
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| Kicukiro |
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| Kigali viewz |
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| Kigali viewz pt. 2 |
Actual School
I have to go to class during the week. That's the "study abroad" part of this trip.
Moving On
Just kidding. I'll elaborate on the school. It's actually a lot of fun! During the week, we meet from 8-5 with an hour for lunch around noon. From 8-12, we have language class. Mostly, we have been learning the local language, Kinyarwanda. How much have I learned you ask? Well, the title of this blog post means "Week One". I think. Our teacher's name is Francis, and he is a really cool guy. He says the place he most wants to visit in the United States is Nebraska because "nothing is in Nebraska." Sorry, Nebraskans.
From 1-5. we have technical lecture and lab. The lecture is taught by Texas A&M's very own Dr. Cote, and one of our EWH coordinators, Maddy, teaches the lab. So far, we've done some pretty cool things. We made an extension cord, we learned how to solder, and we learned how to use a multimeter. Interesting note: when we first plugged in our soldering irons, we blew out the circuit breakers in our first classroom. There was smoke pouring out everywhere; it was great.
Once a week (for the first month) we will be traveling to a hospital. This week however, we spent Friday in the Equipment Room instead. Here, we spent all day taking apart different medical equipment to learn how each device works. We took apart an oxygen concentrator, a suction pump, an autoclave, and a centrifuge.
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| Our classroom. RIP circuit breakers. |
The Weekend
Rural Rwanda is breathtakingly beautiful.
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| I posted this on Instagram. Go like it. |
An estimated 1,000,000 Rwandans were killed in 3 months.
The church we visited was filled with remnants of the genocide, the metal doors were warped and broken by the grenades which blew them open. The roof was perforated with shrapnel holes from similar grenades thrown inside the church. The walls were loaded with craters left by gunfire. Piled in the church were the clothes of the people who died there, and underground there was a mass grave which stored their bones. There were 70 survivors. 10,000 Rwandans were killed inside the church.
Since the genocide, Mayange, Rwanda has become a part of the Millennium Village Project (read: http://millenniumvillages.org/the-villages/mayange-rwanda/). After the memorial site, we visited a village in which Rwandans (both genocide perpetrators and survivors) live together in unity. They share everything, and they have forgiven each other. We listened to people from each of the aforementioned parties tell their stories, and their testimonies were followed by a traditional dance performed by some of their youth. To say the least, it was a very emotional experience.
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| This church replaced the one which we toured at the memorial site. |
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| The whole squad in Mayange. |
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| Some goats. |
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| Savannah scaring away some goats. |
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| This is what our yard looked like in College Station before we got a weed eater. |
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| "I KNEW that was a banana tree!" - Mom |
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| Choppin' some cassava. |
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| The stank face award goes to... |
To end the day, we attended my very first soccer game. The Rwanda national team played Mozambique. Even though Rwanda lost 3-2, it was a lot of fun.
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| Bringing the 12th Man to Rwanda. |
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| I apologize to Aggies everywhere. |
I should also mention that church here is great! A few of us went to a really cool English-speaking church where they played a lot of familiar music. We learned about glorifying God through our work, which is applicable both to my Rwanda trip as well as my time in college. It is also a topic I have learned a lot about at my college church. All in all, my church experience was very similar to what I am used to back home. I liked it a lot! I was also interested to find out that the majority of Rwandans are Christian.
Wrapping Things Up...
That's it for now! I have a bunch of other things to say, but they'll have to wait. I'll most likely make separate posts about the food, living conditions, and the culture here. Thanks for reading! Also, feel free to message me on Facebook or WhatsApp; I'd love to talk to you guys!!
Gig'Em and God bless.
Bryan
*I'm sorry for reusing this pun. By the way, it's supposed to sound like "I freakin'" for those of you who didn't get it (Dad).
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