Hashing... but not the way youre thinking

Yesterday, I went with some of the other interns here, Jeri, Kate, Leigh, and Marta (I just realized their names are alphabetical) to an event called the hash. A hash, at least the way we did it yesterday, is an event where people meet at a bar and then run or walk a pre-marked course through the city and end at the same bar and then celebrate their athleticism by drinking beer. Although hashing is apparently a popular event the world over (there is a hash in Atlanta every week), this was my first time. Im not sure that I see much of a point to it as as legitimate sporting event or club, but it was a great hike and way to see the city. All in all, I think we walked about 3 to 5K through Kigali and saw some sights and neighborhoods that we probably would not have had a chance to see. And we gave the neighborhoods a chance to see a muzungu parade, something that I know they appreciated based on the laughs and number of children we acquired throughout our hike. And when I say hike i mean HIKE. I think that I have said that Kigali is built on a series of hills? Well these arent bluffs gently rising from the plains. These are straight up moutainous hills. And I mean straight up. At one point, we were scrambling up a hill covered in scrub, grabbing onto whatever bush or tree we could find and attempting not to slide back down to the bottom of the hill and do it all again. It wasnt dangerous, although there was a point where we were going one by one across a small ledge above someones yard. She was just standing in her doorway looking at us like we were crazy (not far from the truth). In fact, it was really fun and entirely exhausting. Although you wouldnt know that by the 5 year old, Ben, and 7 year old, Maurice, that came with us and kicked everyones butt. Ben was at one point hiking up hills holding his nose and demonstrating how he could constrict his breathing and then about ten minutes later sprinted to the end destination. He also decided that he wasnt dirty enough at some point and sat down to play in the dirt while we all caught up to him. I assure you, we were all plenty dirty enough. Finally, we got back to the bar and enjoyed some beers and much needed water and those of us who had never hashed before, including Marta, me, Jeri, and Leigh were officially inducted into the club. You see apparently you cant just show up to a hash. You have to be a member, a devotee. There was one man (I think he may have been INSANE) who apparently travels all over the world doing hashs. And accordingly, he has a sacred hash vessel (an orange plastic hat) that is the only thing out of which he will drink his beverages. And when you ask why he is drinking out of an orange plastic hat (a legitimate question I think) he only replies, why would you drink out of anything other than the sacred hash vessel? ...Right... This man later told Ben after he had touched the aforementioned vessel "When you walk with the big dogs, you have to piss in the tall grass". And then repeated it several times because Ben didnt understand. Can someone please explain it to me? Because I didnt want to ask this guy a legitimate question after the vessel incident and I certainly didnt want to ask what the hell he was talking about! Anyway, it was a great, dusty, exhausting day and one that will hopefully be repeated (hashs are every week and they follow a different course each time). Attached are some of the photos I took along the way. Scenic tour of Kigali!

First Few Days... and some blatant plagarism

Well its been a few days longer than expected. Even though we have internet here, it isnt always the most reliable. It might take five minutes to load before finally just giving up in an exhausted unable to locate server message, despite the person next to you having full access. Aahh... the mysteries of Africa.

All in all, things are going well here. I am really enjoying Kigali and am constantly surprised by the people and the city. As many of you know, when you live in Africa or Asia, there is a certain mystery to being white. Something that is so intriguing that people will stare, yell, touch, or generally make a scene. Its not the most comfortable feeling by any means, but you get used to it. But here, there is really very little of that. It seems that most Rwandans just go on about their daily lives, and though there is some small notice taken of us (we do stick out), we just arent interesting enough to really point out. I even went running with one of my roommates, Leigh, yesterday and hardly anyone made fun of us or even took notice. Granted, most people do speak Kinyarwanda and could have been saying things I dont understand, but running certainly wasnt the show that it was in Uganda. And the city is nice! I mean really nice. The three main streets are lined with trees with medians in the middle, also lined with trees. There are streetlights and sidewalks, and although the street is crowded it isnt an overwhelming push of people by any means. Despite its size, 700,000, for the most part, the city feels like a large town. There are no huge buildings, few concrete walls, and you can usually look across the hills and see another part of the city or just deep green trees. And... AND... there is regular garbage pickup. Every Friday! Thats pretty amazing.

Activities have been pretty slow around here. I have gone to the project the past two days and been introduced to dozens of people I have already confused or forgotten. Carey, my friend from Emory, is great and knows everyone and everything. Our first attempt at a tour ended up with us drinking coffee on her couch and catching up and then her showing me off to the study. Yesterday, we had a series of management meetings (yep Im management) which was both interesting and tedious. The meetings seemed to primarily consistent of people avoiding blame for small problems that really could have been solved in two seconds. But these were my first meetings and I had very little knowledge of what was going on, so perhaps these impressions will change as I become more involved in the project. Yesterday I also signed up for French classes, two hours a day, three days a week. Yikes. There is another girl, Marta, who also just arrived for one year who will be taking them with me. Marta is here to help produce a movie about the project as well as do law and advocacy work regarding the extradition and trial of the people responsible for the genocide who continue to have political asylum in the states. Marta's job is cool.

Im still dealing with jet-lag and continue to wake up at 4 in the morning. Last night I passed out at around 9 and woke up at 230. Hopefully I will adjust soon. Oh and I got a phone. My number is
011 250 037 53835. If that doesnt work try taking the 0 out after the 25. But I think thats right.

Finally, the plagarism bit. I wanted to take a bit out of Carey's blog and from wikipedia regarding the history, culture, and because it is unavoidable the genocide.

Brief history via Carey Spear
"It is the one place I have lived in Africa where the colonialism thing just didn't stick, like they just laughed at it and kept moving forward. Their government is and has been stable (ok, bar the genocide planned by the govt), this country lacks beggars, theives, squatters, shanty towns (they actually don't exist here), has policy in place and is actually enforced. All the backwards things i fully enjoy about Africa just don't exist here. Turns out that since time immemorial Rwanda has had hierarchical organization that has been respected. Of course, one cannot ignore its small size and the fact that there has always only been two or three tribes (as opposed to South Africa's twenty something tribes, 11 official and as many unofficial languages, beliefs and "political systems").......anyway, I am still trying to suss this one out but it is amazing to me how clean, organized and "westernized" Rwanda is.
It has a fairly simple history compared to even some of its neighbors (i.e. the DRC), the "hills" (aka: 5,000-10,000 foot hills) really kept people out! the Germans tried to colonize it for a while but the Belgians kicked them out. The only lasting memory of the Belgians is their french language - even that is being overtaken by English (now one of the official languages along with French and Kinyarwanda); Rwanda "gained" independence in July of 1962 and has carried on just fine without their colonizers ever since. They export loads of coffee, tea and bananas and import nearly everything else (thus the prices); petrol is $7.50 a gallon which is reflected in the cost of taking a taxi, but not in the number of vehicles on the road in the city! Crazy.".

Finally a bit on the genocide. Many of the people that worked for the study were killed and many that work for it now where opponents of the genocide, many suffering heavily for that. Almost everyone had a family member or all of their family killed. It is impossible to be here without feeling the effects of the tragedy. However, Rwanda and its people are committed to avoiding anything similar in the future. Here is a little bit on the history of the genocide courtesy of wikipedia.

"

The Rwandan Genocide was the 1994 mass killing of hundreds of thousands of Rwanda's minority Tutsis and the moderates of its Hutu majority. Over the course of approximately 100 days, from April 6 through to mid July, at least 500,000 people were killed.^[1] Most estimates are of a death toll between 800,000 and 1,000,000.^[2]

The genocide was primarily perpetrated by two Hutu militias, the Interahamwe, the militant wing of the MRND, and the Impuzamugambi, the militant wing of the CDR. It was an eruption of the ethnic and economic pressures ultimately consequential after Rwanda's colonial era and the fractious culture of Hutu power. The Rwandan Civil War, fought between the Hutu regime with support from Francophone nations of Africa, as well as France itself, and rebel Tutsi exiles with support from Uganda, after their invasion in 1990, was its catalyst. With outside assistance, in 1993, the Hutu regime and Tutsi rebels were able to agree to a cease-fire, and the preliminary implementation of the Arusha Accords. The diplomatic efforts to end the conflict were at first thought to be successful, yet even with the RPF, the political wing of the RPA, and the government in talks, elites among the Akazu were against any agreement for cooperation between the regime and the rebels to solve the ethnic and economic problems of Rwanda and progress towards a stable nationhood.

A resurgence in the civil war and the French government's support for the Hutu regime against the Tutsi rebels compounded the genocide. The situation proved too difficult and volatile for the United Nations to handle. The invaders successfully brought the country under their sway, although their efforts towards a conclusion to the conflict were brought to a contravention after the French, under Operation Turquoise, established and maintained a "safe zone" for Hutu refugees to flee to in the southwest. Eventually, after the UN Mandate of the French mission was at an end, millions of refugees left Rwanda, mainly headed to Zaire. The presence among the refugees of the genocidaires (see Great Lakes refugee crisis) on the border with Rwanda was the cause for the First and Second Congo Wars with clashes between these groups and the Rwandan government continuing.^[1]

The UN's mandate forbids intervening in the internal politics of any country unless the crime of genocide is being committed. The United States government did not recognize the genocide. The governments of Belgium, the People's Republic of China, and France in particular still receive negative attention for their perceived complacency towards the Hutu regime's activities and the potential for UNAMIR to save Rwandan lives. Canada, Ghana, and the Netherlands provided consistent support for the UN mission under the command of Roméo Dallaire although it was left without an appropriate mandate for the capacity to intervene from the U.N. Security Council. Despite emphatic demands from UNAMIR's commanders in Rwanda, before and throughout the genocide, its requests for authorization to end it were refused and its intervention-capacity was even reduced." The full link is at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rwandan_Genocide. Please read it

This weekend I think that I will be going to two of the memorials to the genocide. I am sure that I will more impressions and photos to share as a result. In the meantime, I hope that everyone is healthy and happy and I miss you all!

Welcome to Rwanda

Bonjour! I've been in Rwanda for a little over 24 hours now. My first impressions, though minimal because I have been sleeping most of the time, are good. I arrived at around noon on the 16th after about 27 hours of travel and was almost immediately through immigration, baggage claim, and customs. A driver from the study picked me up and brought me very slowly to my house. The first thing I noticed is that people do not seem to drive like maniacs around here. In both Uganda and India, it seemed like traffic laws were really more traffic suggestions. One way streets were only one way if going around the long way would result in a higher fare and lights were mostly for decorative purposes. But here, at least so far, it seems that people obey traffic signals, stay on one side of the road, and stay somewhere around the speed limit! And I saw a traffic cop (which was, other than the city center, the only thing pointed out to me by the driver).

My house is about a half an hour drive from the airport so I was able to see some of the city, which seems pretty orderly (sidewalks!) although a little confusing. Kigali is built on a series of hills so the roads run around the hills rather than up and down which makes it hard to figure out any sense of direction. It is beautiful though. The hills are a deep green and the roads, which are mostly unpaved, are a deep orange red. The roads circle around the hills and as we drove higher, I could see down into the valleys, onto the silver rooftops of the houses.



My house is very nice. Four bedrooms, two bathrooms, and oh wait for it... a washing machine. Oh yeah! We have a porch in the backyard that looks out over an adjacent hill behind which the sun sets and I imagine I will be taking quite a few leisurely sits, watching the sun and listening to whatever random songs the hotel next to us chooses to jam (last night I heard a pretty great selection of African music supplemented by Pat Benetar and Bruce Springsteen. There are some pretty banging club beats right now.)







Unfortunately, when I arrived yesterday the house was empty. This past Friday was a holiday which apparently means that everyone gets out of town. So Saturday evening I puttered around the house, read, and watched some movies. I wont lie, I was a little bummed that no one was here. As excited as I am to be here, a year seems like a very long time right now and to arrive in a country with no one here to talk to made me pretty lonely. I missed people like crazy. But today my housemates came back and having other people around was very cheering. One of the women, Jeri, is here only for another month but the other, Leigh is an admin intern and, like me, will be here until next summer. Not much else to say quite yet since I just met them, but they are both friendly, get along well together, and seem like they will be easy to live with.

Well, there isnt too much more to write just yet. I'm pretty tired despite sleeping almost 18 hours today. Tomorrow is my first day of work, which Im pretty excited about and I will be sure to update more once I actually know what I do!

In the newest installation of Little Linnea's African Adventure...

She moves to Zambia! I accepted an internship working with RZHRG, the Rwanda Zambian HIV Research Group, which is the worlds largest couple's HIV study. Although technically I am an intern, I will actually be managing the quality of recruitment and counseling of couples. Its an internship but it has a lot of responsibility and skill building (as is my understanding). My contract is for one year and I leave in August. There should be at least a couple blog entries resulting from this new endeavor...

More photos

http://emory.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2012907&l=03b56&id=48101028

Here are some more photos!

TIA

Lets talk about this week shall we? Lacey and I had the crazy idea that maybe we were going to get some work done. We had arranged for travel with two other agencies, as well as the district, had contacted the health facilities. We were ready. Only I forgot, this is africa (TIA). Nothing is how you expect it to be.



Monday, we had nothing arranged so Michael, my research assistant, and I sat around the office doing transcription, while I simulatneously brushed up on my Spider Solitiare skills. What with the field research, Ive been getting rusty. Monday was without question the most useful day this week.



Tuesday, I went with American Refugee Committee to Atiak, a camp that is about 10 kilometers or so from the Sudanese border. Except that when we were about six kilometers away from the camp we ran into a large mud puddle. But this isnt a normal mud puddle, this is a completely impassable washed out stretch of road, mud puddle. When we first arrived there were three or four transport trucks lined up on our side and one truck (overpacked of course because they all are) stuck in the middle of the road listing at about a 45 degree angle. Our driver got out and went to check the situation. Im not sure what exactly that included but apparently it was enough to give him overconfidence in himself and the truck, because we ended up door deep in mud. Luckily, we got out before he decided to drive head long into an impassable mud puddle and we ended up on the side of the road for four hours. But dont worry, we werent alone. There were already about a hundred people there and some had been stuck for days. By the time we were pulled out by another vehicle from ARC, there were at least two hundred people, someone had set up a makeshirt restaurant, several other vehicles were stuck in various parts of the road, and least thirty vehicles were waiting to pass. I just heard that the current count of vehicles blocked at that same spot is one hundred.

Oh yes and of course there was a cowboy there. A real cowboy. This guy shows up, dressed up in the plaid shirt, too tight jeans, huge white cowboy hat, belt buckle, and alligator boots and walks around inspecting the situation. Hes Ugandan, so he gets into some conversations with people about whats going on and which parts are passable. Of course there arent any passable parts, which is why there are two hundred people on the road, and he is told as much, but hes a cowboy and cowboys make their own way apparently. Unhappy with people telling him that the laws of nature simply will not allow him to get by, he returned to his Toyota four runner and decided to make his own way up a muddy hill and around the mud puddle by driving on the flat part where everyone who is stuck is standing. But he got stuck on the hill and had to be pushed back. So then he decided to try the other side of the road with the exact same plan only it was even less successful. Hes not foiled though. Instead he came up with a brilliant new plan. To do exactly what he did the first time. And since there were mud tracks, he got stuck even deeper and had to have men push the vehicle on two sides to make sure that it didnt fall over. Dont worry, dont worry. Hes not done yet. He decided that the best thing to do at this point would be to drive right through the center of the road, between the overpacked truck that is in danger of falling over at any moment and our vehicle that is stuck on the side. Technically there is room to do this but again laws of nature being what they are, its unlikely that this will end well and very likely that his vehicle will tip directly onto our truck. The cowboy then backs up, guns his motor, and goes whole hog for the opening until three guys literally throw themselves in the way to make sure that he doesnt screw up an already totally screwed situation. Now Im not sure that I have fully described the character of this gentleman, but in case you had any doubts or questions, let me put them to rest. At this point, the vehicle is quite close (given that it is now stuck almost halfway between our truck and the other one) and we can see that the side of his truck is a homage to a partnership with none other than the great state of Texas. Texas-Uganda Construction with a big old logo of a bull in the state colors of Uganda. Oh it was priceless. I think that I laughed for about ten minutes.



Refusing to admit defeat, ARC and my research team decided to go back up to Atiak on Wednesday, only this time we went on a different dirt road, one that is less traveled. This actually turned out to be a good idea. Although we managed to get stuck not once, not twice, but thrice we also managed to winch our way across various stretches of road with our front winch and the help of several trees (many which gave their lives for the sake of our journey). We also stumbled into the Ugandan Peoples Defense Force training grounds and got to see some training exercises real up close and personal. At one point, we came across a truck that was stranded in a mud hole and couldnt get out. After we too got stranded, they helped us get across, with the expectation that we would then help them. But instead our driver said we couldnt because their truck was much bigger than ours and we took off. Quite rude you think Well i thought so too until I looked over and our driver was laughing to himself. And I said, "Kennedy, why didnt we help them. That was pretty mean". And he said, we didnt help them, but we helped the people of Uganda. Turns out that the man that we left stranded is the Minister of Works for the district and is responsible for fixing the roads. If you knew the condition of the roads here, you would understand that leaving the guy stuck in the mud in the middle of nowhere is more than just. Anyway we ended up getting to Atiak and had a couple of focus group discussions (two). At this point in the week, we should have had four. Knowing that there was a very real chance we would be spending the night in the camp if the road was impassable, we had to leave two hours early. Luckily it was much better on the way back and we only got stopped once, to deal with attempted extortion from the military. They were helping other stranded vehicles and tried to tell us that we were going to get stuck if we continued, unless they helped us and we of course would pay. So our driver kind of looked at them, considered, nodded, then put the car in gear and drove around the puddle and back onto the road. Awesome.



So Thursday...

Thursday was ok. We showed up at the Norweigan Refugee Council at nine, the agreed upon time, and left around ten thirty since our driver apparently had to go buy a mattress. Leaving at ten thirty when you are supposed to leave at nine is actually pretty good. When we finally got to the camp where we were hoping to conduct research, turns out that the camp management did not know that we were coming and had not mobilized any people for us. Not the end of the world but mildly inconvenient. Since this is planting season, most of the women between the ages of 15 and 24 are out planting the fields. And because this year is the first year that they really have the opportunity to return to some semblance of normal life, there is just no way that I can insist on taking people from legitimate work. We ended up having only one focus group with a mixed bag of ages. Which of course leaves the information open to all kinds of bias. Oh bias has fully infilitrated now. The participants said that they would try to find some younger women and maybe we could have another group, but after they left, no one showed up. We waited for about half an hour (during this time I watched a goat being born. Dont worry i took pictures. It was sort of as though the mama goat just pooped out a little baby goat) Anyhoo, no one showed so we left and told camp management that we would be abck the next day and could they please mobilize the men for us.

Friday...
I arrived at the NRC office at 9 per our arrangement, except that apparently the program officer we were working with didnt understand that we needed to go into the field two days in a row. So we didnt have any transport. In fact the vehicle that was going the same direction that we were and that had room for us, had just left about ten minutes before I arrived because they didnt know that we were coming too. Neat. So I spent all of Friday sitting in the office and much of that time was spent composing this ode to why research sucks.

But then Lacey and I walked around Gulu town, did a bit of shopping, came home and hung out with our guesthouse-mates and proceeded to drink beers and play poker. It was necessary darn it. Since then, I ahve just been relaxing and wiling away the hours. Next week we are going to try to finish research so that we can presentour findings to the district health officials on Monday the 30th (I have no idea how we are going to do that since we will be collecting data up until the day of the presentation). On that note, I need to get some work done. Neato gang. Neato

Sorry its been so long

We started research two weeks ago, and actual work combined with power outages, means that I havent really had too much time to write.



So as I said, we started research the first week of July and have been been pretty constant in that. Im not sure that all of you know what I am researching so maybe I will explain it a little...
First background...
I am a firm believer that there are just too many people in the world and that overpopulation is a contributor to excessive poverty, mortality, and resource exploitation. But since I also dont believe in genocide or war, the solution to overpopulation, is controlled growth or even controlled shrinking of populations. Thus my neverending love for family planning and contraception.
What my research is on...
So this summer, I am working the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Like most UN organizations, its acronym doesnt actually match its official title. Its the UN. Why would it make sense? They are interested in the quality of health services that are being offered and I am interested in family planning. So combining these two things, I am researching the quality of family planning services that are being offered at IDP camps. This has also been expanded to return settlements, communities to where people are returning as peace talks continue. I am going to health facilities, intervieing health workers, and evaluating the facilities on measures of quality. I am also talking to communities and assessing their opinions of the family planning programs.

What I actually do...

NOTHING. I have two research assistants who do all the community interviews because most people dont speak English. Or if they do, it is still better if they answer in Luo, the local language because they are better able to express themselves. And Lacey does most of the health facility assessment because she spends more time at the health facility for her research on ante-natal care than I do. So I go to the communities, talk to the camp leaders, and then have Joy and Michael lead the discussions. OK during this time I do actually do some work. I usually find the health workers and interview them because they are able to speak English quite well. But we are in communities for two days, one day with females and one day with males, and interviewing health workers only takes one day. So, doing the math then, I am not doing anything most of the time. Which means that I am playing with kids most of the time. Kids LOVE white people here. At first it was kind of annoying, and sometimes it still is, but most of the time, it is fun to play with them. Sure I dont know what they are saying and they only know a little of what I am saying, but making funny faces and running around is pretty universal. And even though they only really want to play with me because I am white and not because we have any real basis for a friendship, I still really enjoy playing with them. Its fun to be able to amuse other people so easily. Lacey and Enrique are less enthusiastic about acting the fool and creating a somewhat tarnished image of white people but I think its fun to play with kids, so I dont mind. Why take yourself seriously?

So what has my research shown...

Nothing new really but it is still interesting. Im not sure what I can really say about it right now because we have a bunch of ridiculous rules about what we can and cannot say as interns at the UN. But I think that I can say, overall, people are receiveing poor quality service and thus, arent using the services at all. Which then contributes to high fertility, high maternal mortality, high poverty...and what and what...

So that is my research in a nutshell. Most days it is frustrating and tiresome. People dont really like to participate unless they are getting something for it, but since I cant afford to give them anything other than soda, I dont. Which means that sometimes, they are not forthcoming or useful. We had one group a few days ago where women just stopped talking after twenty minutes. And when we came back the next day, people told us that they had complained the day before because they thought that it was useless and a waste of time. So days like that, I usually come home and stare off my patio for a couple of hours and regroup. But other days, the research goes really well. One of our first groups, the women were really talkative. The older ladies were great in fact. One of them adopted me and said that she was going to build me a house in the community, find me a husband, and that I was going to stay there. And all the other ladies agreed to this plan, which was quite affirming. And I got to play with kids, which as I said before, is great. On days like that, I usually come home and stare off my patio, and think about how great life is. All together better.

So that is what I have been up to. Also, I have been to two ordinations for catholic fathers in the past week which are experiences unto themselves. Maybe I will write more on this later but I think that this is long enough as it is.

Finally, I have added more photos to that same link that I posted before should people be interested.

Love you all

Linnea (aka Lenny because people cant say my name right and i actually kind of like this bastardized version and Anyadwe which means daughter of the moon)