Michelle has been focusing on her job search resulting in three interviews for very different positions working with NGOS and potentially the US Embassy. It has been six years since she last participated in the game of job hunting so starting this process was quite intimidating. The whole practice of selling yourself has never been Michelle’s forte and yet that is how the game is played. It was a significant learning experience, getting in touch with her insecurities and discovering a confident voice despite the reality that she always has more to learn.
Once people identify their shortcomings, and everyone has them, they can then embrace their full selves in a new way. Very helpful for the interview process! Seriously, when are you ever critiqued more on self-awareness and on your ability to articulate personal attributes than in the context of an interview? Perhaps we all should adopt the practice of reflecting on personal strengths, weaknesses, accomplishments, and failures on a regular basis as if we are preparing for an interview. There is something very satisfying about sewing a thread through the patches of life that make each person the quilt that they are. Michelle is inspired to live boldly into who she is rather than living as she is not. All the while being inspired to change as experience and circumstances allow. Today, she celebrates her courage in overcoming paralyzing fears that have robbed her from internal freedom.
In addition to job interviews, we have been busy traveling to different parts of the country. On March 6th we attended the First Inter-Institutional Conference on Teaching, Learning, and using English in Rwanda. The conference took place in Gitarama at the Catholic University of Kabgayi (CUK). Gitarama is the second-largest town in Rwanda and home to Rwanda’s first President Gregoire Kayibanda, whose tomb sits in the middle of town centre. Meredith Pike-Baky (one of Nate’s colleagues at IEE) was one of the main organizers of the event. It was an epic moment for the development of teaching English in Rwanda. There were about 150 participants representing students, teachers, teacher-trainers, NGOS, and government sponsored programs. Michelle initially joined the IEE team for the free ride to Gitarama so she could tour around. However, once she heard the first speaker, her curiosity got the best of her and she ended up staying the whole day. Nate took advantage of the networking opportunities and assisted in facilitating a small group discussion with students. The whole conference was a HUGE success! We were proud to be one of the sponsors for such a ground-breaking event.
The other trip we took outside of Kigali was to Mugongo to see the well known Imbabazi Orphange founded by Rosamond Carr. Both of us read her book: Land of a Thousand Hills: My Life in Rwanda, before traveling to Rwanda five years ago. It was a very special experience to see her orphanage first hand. We had a chance to meet some of the orphans since it was a Sunday afternoon and not a weekday when they would be in school. They were very friendly and were busy preparing potatoes for dinner. Our tour guide David was wonderfully hospitable, offering to show us the inside of Rosamond’s house and allowing us to use the bathroom in one of the guest houses before our journey back to Musanze. For those who don’t know of Rosamond Carr I highly recommend her book because her story is inspiring. She was a remarkable woman who devoted 54 years of her life to the people in Rwanda. A highlight for us was walking through her elaborate gardens. While we were there, we learned about an opportunity to support the orphanage by subscribing to a weekly bouquet service that delivers a flowers from her garden every week. You can’t get much better than that! It took all of 10 seconds to decide that we wanted to participate. The flowers are delivered to Kigali at various pick up locations. Lucky for us, one of the locations is the US Embassy, which is a 10 min walk from our house.
Other exciting developments in March were setting up internet at our house (finally!) and signing up for a year-long membership to the Nyaturama Sports Center. Both have boosted our quality of life by 200%. It has been such a treat to have unlimited internet access without having to leave home or spend money at expensive cafes. Don’t get me wrong, this luxury doesn’t come cheap! We spend around $200 a month for decent internet that comes and goes with our daily power outages. It took us 2 months to emotionally jump on board. Every frugal bone in our body was screaming “This is a terrible deal, don’t do it!” Our monthly payments are twice the cost of Cablevision’s offer in the US for a product that is not even half as good. BUT, c’est la vie!
The Nyaturama Sports Center is one of the 3 clubs in Kigali that provides athletic services including a pool, tennis courts, aerobics, and indoor gym. We like that it is on the cheaper end and attracts more locals rather than mzungus (we finally learned how to spell this word). The pool just opened two weeks ago. We signed up that very same day and spent both Saturday and Sunday enjoying some poolside R & R. Nate’s first dive off the diving board attracted a small group of Rwandan men who admired his form. Little did we know, Nate would soon have a class of 5 amagabos (men in Kinyarwanda) learning how to dive. It quickly became a community affair when each man’s first dive resulted in a magnificently painful belly flop. All eyes were on the professional mzungu teacher as he critiqued and guided each attempt into actual dives. Our lifeguard instincts couldn’t resist the idea for potential business opportunities in offering swim/dive lessons. We’ll see if that takes off!
A fun discovery Michelle made this month was the Kicukiro market. Kicukiro (kee-CHU-keero) is another neighborhood like Kacyiru (where we live) that borders farmlands. Most farmers who travel to big markets in the city charge inflated prices for their produce because it is costing them more to sell at that location. Not to mention the wealthier people live closest to the city centre. Michelle loved this market because the people gave her great deals despite being mzungu and the quality of the food was fantastic! She is excited to go back soon.
Lastly, a highlight of the month was definitely our first football game (aka: soccer for the Americans following along) at The Amahoro Stadium in Remera (another sector in Kigali-where Meredith lives). It was a BIG game! You will find the coverage of the game here. Esron is a die-hard ADR fan, which is one of the Rwandan teams. We couldn’t pass up the opportunity to take him such an important game. The Rwandan ADR team was up against the African champions, Mazembe, a Congolese team. The Stadium was PACKED! President Kagame even made an appearance to support his local team. Nate and Esron were decked out in the ADR colors, black & white to display their loyalty. What an experience! We were packed in shoulder to shoulder with fans from both teams. There was lots of trash talking to say the least. If you bottled up the energy in the stadium, it would have fired a rocket to the moon! Much to our disappointment, there were no refreshments available. We realized how attached we are to cold beer and hot dogs at sporting events. In Rwanda, most people don’t even eat three meals a day let alone snacks throughout the day. It was a wakeup call on how much affluent communities eat in abundance just because they can. Affluent or not, we still missed our cold beer during the 2 hour game. Luckily, the game was so exciting that we were well distracted. ADP took the win in the 88th minute of the game which is 2 minutes before the final whistle. Esron was beside himself!! His face was beaming so brightly that we wondered if we needed a flashlight during our 7 mile walk home in the dark. We were grateful to share in that moment with him.
Thanks to all of you who follow our Ubuzima in Rwanda. It doesn’t make up for the distance, dinners together and hugs but it helps us feel less alone. We love you all!!
Imana ibarinde kandi ibahe umugisha.
sweet motorcycle! CT
ReplyDeleteI can only imagine how much fun that game must have been to celebrate with everyone. I remember being in Italy during the World Cup and it was a blast. I can't wait to visit this new market! I also had a good laugh at the description of Nate teaching diving lessons. I wouldn't be too quick to let this idea go... sounds like Potential!
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