Randoms from Rwanda: One Month in the Rolling Hills

1.     When more than 600 eyeballs are looking at you, don’t reach in your bag, grab lip gloss and apply it. They will laugh at you J

2.     Students STILL don’t like to get caught cheating. “Forgiveness” means that instead of giving them a zero I give them an opportunity to retake it. Not.

3.     That motioning my hand in the manner where my fingers move up and down against my palm is not just simply a sweet wave here; it summons people. I can attribute many awkward moments to this cross-cultural faux pas. I think I am giving a cute wave and a student runs out of the middle of the lecture to come and see why I have called them. Oops. And oops again.

4.     People speak French to me because I should be Congolese. Sometimes Swahili because I could be Kenyan. Not American, of course ;)

5.     There is absolutely nothing wrong with staying home and reveling in the joy of living single, having time to relax, think, plan, envision and dream.

6.     Jogging will cause the entire campus to come out and look at you. Jumping rope in front of your house on campus, will attract a group of students, who will stare while you try not to trip over the rope.

7.     That culture really is the basis of our beliefs and our truths. I put too much pepper sauce on food here and people stare at me. Finally someone was brave enough [instead of staring and passing judgement] to tell me why it is frowned upon to add too much spice. The belief here is that too much spice is not good for an unmarried woman. To the well-meaning waiter who informed me of this, I quipped, “Where my blood is from, we cannot eat without spice and in fact, women there get married. I intend on getting married too.” Exit Stage Left ;)

8.     Rwanda really is a quiet place. Being here at this point in my life is needed. Master plans come alive in these spaces.

9.     I can live without rice. Maybe even bread. But not plantain. I tried and it didn’t work. If my Panamanian crew knew the struggle I go through to get plantains, they would value Fruteria Mimi. Rwanda isn’t a tropical country afterall; and plantains are expensive here.

10. Giving up my short shorts and bikinis for the lecturer look hasn’t been as difficult as I thought it might be. The beach still awaits me though.

11. I catch my students sneaking pictures of me; apparently, even if I thought some were not paying attention, they still find me interesting, I think. 

12. Lecturers can flex on em’. Translation: Educators are respected here. Little ol’ me J

*This blog (Bee's Backseat) is not an official Fulbright Program site.  The views expressed on this site are entirely those of its author and do not represent the views of the Fulbright Program, the U.S. Department of State or any of its partner organizations.