It has been 4 weeks…

…and Kigali felt like “home” this week for the first time. The time has flown by and yet it feels like we have been here longer than a month. We noticed a trend in our emotions over the course of the past month. The first two weeks were full of excitement as we took in an abundance of new information. We remember feeling exhausted from the added energy required for settling in a new place but our spirits energized and eager to learn. Our third week in Rwanda was more challenging. The inevitable complaints started creeping in and dominating our conversations rather than the previous optimism that carried us through our initial transition. The things we missed most about home started feeling more prominent and ultimately made us frustrated at the fact we don’t have access to those comforts anymore. The epitome of our frustration came to a head one night when Nate decided to splurge and buy a Snickers bar at a small shop on the side of the road. We felt that it was about time to relish in something familiar. He was so excited for this Snickers bar that he willingly delayed his gratification. He wanted to save it for after dinner as a special treat. Needless to say, he thought about it for the rest of the day. Once dinner was over and the time felt right, he eagerly opened the refrigerator where his indulgence awaited. As he pulled back the wrapper with giddy anticipation, his heart dropped once he saw that his beloved chocolate bar was so old that the chocolate had turned almost white. He immediately ran to show Michelle and all we could do was laugh, probably to avoid tears from the disappointment.

This past weekend we had a chance to travel outside of Kigali. Nate had a meeting Monday morning in Gisenyi (3.5 hours away-see map on top left of our page) so we decided to take advantage of the opportunity to see more of Rwanda. Plus, we have been eager to see where our friend Cailey lived for 2 months this past fall. Gisenyi is on the west side of Rwanda, bordering the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). We have learned that it is viewed as a “vacation spot” in Rwanda due to is prime location on Lake Kivu (equivalent to one of the Great Lakes in the States).

Our travels began on Saturday morning when we boarded a 24 person bus at 9:30am. We quickly learned that you must show up early if you want good seats. We arrived at 9:26am and were lucky to get the last two seats next to each other in the very last row of the bus. Who knew that when it comes to bus transport, Rwandans actually arrive early?! Everything else has been quite the contrary. In fact, most appointments or timeframes are considered strong suggestions and rarely stick to the schedule. At first we thought it wasn’t going to be so bad since we at least had a window seat, only to find out that the last row is the only row next to windows that do not open. Normally this wouldn’t be so bad but in Africa, not having direct access to fresh air on a 3.5 hour bus ride without air conditioning while sitting shoulder to shoulder with your neighbor is torture! Oh, did we mention that Rwandans don’t even like the windows open! There was a French couple two rows ahead of us and when they opened the window during the drive, the Rwandans complained and told him to shut it. Our best guess is that they don’t like the wind. We, on the other hand, were so delighted every time he cracked the window, even for just a minute. Our prayer was to keep our stomachs intact as we traveled up and down, what seemed to be each of the thousand hills in Rwanda. We thought, both being prone to motion sickness, that would be the worst of it…little did we know how our ride would transpire.

Both of us remembered our previous trips to Rwanda when we traveled the same route to Musanze (Moo-saan-zay) formerly known as Ruhengeri. On the one hand it is one of the most stunning scenic roads you might ever see but your comfort level gets compromised as you wind around the edge of steep hillsides. The key is the driver and unfortunately they tend to have a heavy foot while disregarding the blind turns around the corner. For some reason, the bus drivers seem to think that everyone else will yield to them since they are so big. Real problems arise when that is met with a vehicle of equal size or larger. We had the unfortunate experience of facing this harsh reality.

Our driver was a crazy driver from the get go. He was practically running over pedestrians and motto taxis on our way out of Kigali. We shot a glance at each other that said, “Oh Boy! This should be interesting!” as we clutched the handle of the seat in front of us. It didn’t take long for Michelle to be completely tense as they flew down the side of the hills, tires screaming their protest at going 50mph around 180 degree turns. (Yes, going around corners so that you’re facing the same way you’ve just come from only a little further down the mountain.) At one point, another bus passed us which made us nervously laugh at what our competitive driver might do next. Sure enough there were 3 buses in a row, ours being in the middle. During one of the steep inclines up a hill, our driver tried to pass the bus in front of us. Keep in mind; this was the bus that had passed us earlier so our driver had some added motivation. Luckily he saw the oncoming truck up ahead (these are just 2 lane roads) and decided to wait. The bus behind us wasn’t so observant and decided to try to pass us and the bus in front of us. He got as far as being parallel to our bus when he noticed the truck barreling down the hill. Of course he freaked out because it was a stupid decision to make going uphill. So what does he do? What anyone else would do and swerve out of the way. The only problem was that we were right next to him, which ultimately made it look like he was trying to drive us off the road even though we knew his intentions weren’t malicious. Our driver slammed on the brakes to avoid being pushed over the edge and swerved to the right onto the patch of dirt that lined the right side of the road. To put this in perspective, the hills in Rwanda are actually more like small mountains and few roads have guard rails to keep cars from falling off the edge. This dirt patch appeared to be about 6ft wide before dropping off down the side of the hill. We could tell that it not only spooked out our driver but made him livid! He turned the music down and started screaming his head off at the other driver. This continued for almost the rest of our trip. Once we arrived at our destination we almost kissed the dirt ground in downtown Gisenyi.

During our walk to the lake, we saw a few upscale hotels that sit right on the water and are muzungu hot spots. We decided to treat ourselves to an early Valentine’s Day celebration and book a room for our first night at the Stipp Hotel because it had a swimming pool. After a ride like that, we needed some R &R by the pool. To be honest, it felt kind of strange being in such a fancy place in Rwanda. We were surrounded by mostly muzungus and felt like we were in some sort of resort. However, we enjoyed basking in some comforts that have become foreign to us.

Michelle’s highlights from our stay at the Stipp Hotel were the shower, continental breakfast, and gym. We have not had strong water pressure or steamy showers since we have been in Rwanda. Having both was quite the luxury! Sunday morning, we took advantage of our free continental breakfast. Now when we hear the words “continental breakfast included” we think of the cold Holiday Inn style breakfasts that are basically box cereal, stale bread or muffins, instant coffee, and yogurt or a banana if you’re lucky. THIS continental breakfast offered 5 types of fruit (passion fruit, papaya, pineapple, Japanese plums, and bananas), CHEESE (which is so expensive in Rwanda), omelets, toast, croissants, juice (which is also very expensive in Rwanda) and tea or coffee. Michelle was in heaven! After breakfast Michelle was able to squeeze in a run at the indoor gym before check out. It was pretty basic but most importantly it had a treadmill. This was also the first run she has had since being in Rwanda. After a breakfast of champions, a therapeutic run, and a refreshing shower she left Stipp hotel feeling like a new woman!

The favorite part of our trip to Gisenyi was visiting with Augustin and his family on Sunday afternoon. Augustin is the Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Kivu and oversees 20 schools including the Trinity Primary School in Bigogwe. This is the school that Trinity Church supports and where Cailey taught classes during the months of September and October of 2009. Nate and Savannah (Nate's IEE co-worker) set up a meeting with Augustin for Monday morning to talk about working together in hopes of improving the schools in his region.

Before we left the States, Cailey passed on some gifts for us to bring to Augustin and his family so we arranged to have some personal time with them before the business meeting on Monday. It was the most wonderful visit that lasted twice as long as we had planned. Claudine (his wife) was so hospitable and offered us sodas and African tea (Michelle’s favorite) upon our arrival. We quickly met three of their 11 kids. Bonnie (around 17 years old) came with Augustin to pick us up so we met her first followed by Giselle (about 18 years old) and then the infamous James (around 19 years old). Cailey, I made sure to give him a hug just from you. You have to check out the pictures we took as they opened their gifts. They were just overflowing with joy and laughter. I also took a video of each of them sending you a message. -Michelle

The first few hours we shared pictures and stories about Cailey and our families. Then Augustin was curious about IEE and how that fit in with Trinity School. Nate gave him the full picture on how everyone is connected. It was a great chance to see the thread woven into the fabric of so many people’s lives and knit together for a purpose. Augustin enjoyed hearing how Steve Paletta (the man who started IEE) is connected to Trinity Church and is even on the Trinity Council. Then how Savannah fits into the story through IEE and finally how we are connected to both IEE and Trinity Church. They were also thrilled to hear more about our affection for Cailey as we mentioned she was in our wedding along with Maddie and Aidan (her sister and brother).

After talking about IEE, Augustin took the opportunity to give us a snapshot of the schools in Rwanda and how they function. We learned that there are three different types of schools in Rwanda: public (supported by the government), private (supported by a person or group of people -most of the time abroad), and schools that are a partnership between the local church and the government. The schools in Augustin’s care are a combination of the latter two: public and partnership schools. That means that the Diocese oversees the needs of the schools and takes donations from other sponsors like Trinity Church. The resources are managed through the diocese. It also means the Government is responsible for the salaries of the teachers which frees up any one person or group of people from being responsible for the whole operation hence the partnership model. This is a great way for people to help support the schools rather than giving the money directly to the schools and not knowing if it would be managed well. Michelle was especially interested to know more about how Trinity Church supports Trinity Primary School from a funds perspective. It was encouraging to know that the church’s money is in good hands and will actually go to the people who need it most. Augustin displayed such passion and concern for the care of the schools. He was specifically concerned about the teachers’ quality of life as it connected to the students’ level of education. His dream is to see schools strive for excellence. Right now, he is very aware of the factors that are getting in the way of that goal.

The number one challenge in the education system as far as he is concerned, is teacher motivation. The teachers are paid around $70 a month which is just not sufficient to support a family. Naturally, they wouldn’t be excited to work their butts off, teaching in the morning and afternoon and planning lessons outside of school hours for such little pay. If we were all honest about it, none of us would be motivated to teach either unless we were getting some kind of appreciation outside of school. It is also common for teachers to try and balance a second job in order to put food on the table for their family. If the second job offers more money per hour, you better believe they are just waiting for the school day to be over to get to a better paying job. It is a sad situation because the government is doing the best they can. They just don’t have more funds to give out.

This dilemma really made us pause and think about IEE’s motivation to train teachers as a plan to improve the education. When faced with reality, we run the risk of insulting fully capable teachers who are well trained but could care less about the job because they don’t feel valued. Not to mention the idea of holding teacher training sessions on Saturday which ultimately gives them more work to do instead of being with their families after barely seeing them during the week. There isn’t an easy solution because the country’s economy isn’t in a strong place yet. It is growing but slowly. Rwanda is still a developing country and while it has solid leadership from Paul Kagame (the president) there are a lot of challenges especially in the wake of a catastrophe like the Genocide. The country is still rebuilding itself after such devastation. Michelle was especially concerned with trying to solve the problem of teacher motivation because in her mind, nothing can benefit them until that is addressed. Unfortunately, after hours of brainstorming we still had nothing. If this is bugging you like it bugged us, please send us an email with your thoughts. We recognize that solutions will come from the creativity of our minds while maximizing on the problem solving skills we all learned through our own education. We don’t mean to imply that the burden falls solely on us or that westerners will be the ones to come up with the answers, but we want to put it out there to our intelligent friends and families so more people are aware of the situation. Augustin is looking forward to many conversations with IEE about this dilemma because he believes that high quality education is the key to Rwanda’s future.

Given the location of Rwanda, exportation is not a reliable source of income to build their economy on since they are land locked. High trade tariffs prevent them from making a decent profit on any exports. Right now Rwanda’s biggest exports are Tea and Coffee which are doing well. But agricultural resources are not a reliable source of financial security in the long term because there are so many variables that can affect production. Tourism is slowly picking up in Rwanda, but it is not bringing in the money that this country needs right now. While outside funding can be helpful it is only a short term solution because the ultimate goal is sustainability. From a long term perspective the best commodity for Rwandans are their minds. Having the ability to start and maintain businesses in order to contribute to the local economy is crucial. This is only possible through education and is paramount for the prosperity of Rwanda.

It was easy for us to lose track of time when engrossed in conversations about Rwanda’s history and the reality of the education system. By 7:45pm Claudine insisted we stay for dinner. We had a delightful time laughing and using our limited knowledge of Kinyarwanda. We felt so grateful for all the things we learned from Agustin and for the hospitality of our new friends. Through it all, we were forced to get in touch with our own limitations and were left with a desire to pray for the teachers in Rwanda. It is a much bigger issue than our limited minds can tackle. Thank goodness God can see the whole picture and loves these people even more than we do.

Imana ibarinde kandi ibahe umugisha.