August 26 - John and Jimbo

First day in Rwanda. It was what I was expecting—rolling hills, crowded streets, red clay, the whole bit—plus more. The SIT group started off the day by having some breakfast next to the hostel, Moucecore, we were all staying at in Kacyiru. My two roommates are John and Jimbo, who are both amazing people and speak my language when it comes to social justice and inclusiveness of all identities and nationalities. This post is dedicated to them.

John and Jimbo at our Hostel in Kacyiru

We went to orientation at our School for International Training site across the street from our hostel. Celine, our program director, led the first discussion of orientation. During this time, she gave us our program material and we talked more about the stressful road ahead. She stated that we should not get offended “when we walk down the road as a collective group or individually and get called ‘Muzungu,’ white person in Kinyarwanda. It is very common for Rwandans to label you based on your race.” It does not accompany a malicious or racist intent, but it is Rwanda’s way of categorizing you as American rather than African.

This came as a shock to me as I would think that Rwanda would not want to be as racially divided and discriminatory as it once was during the genocide. It also surprised me to learn that most Rwandans believe that all white people come from America…did they not understand European colonization? Also, in their society, anyone Asian is from China and anyone my skin color is assumed to be Indian. I reflected and discussed with classmates about my previous supposition concerning the lack of adequate geography education in America; I failed to realize that this cultural and ethnic ignorance/unawareness is everywhere and not exclusively reserved for the American psyche.

Nastia and I on the bus back from mumugi

Later in the day we went in mumugi (in town) and bought internet modems and searched around the UTC market for a while, asking for directions and help with the limited Kinyarwanda we knew collectively. After searching for the correct TIGO brand, exchanging our money for Rwandan Francs (about 700 for 1 U.S. dollar), and inciting several gaping stares along the way, the adventure concluded, and we made our way back on the bus.

Buffet at Danikos

We had dinner at Danikos, the same place we had dinner the night before. Except, for some odd reason, it felt more like home and all of us relaxingly settled into our seats without apprehension or first impression jitters. That night we all worked on our homework assignment which involved writing a letter to ourselves…a letter which would be opened by the end of our study abroad experience. The letter was supposed to detail how we were feeling during these first few days of orientation and what we desperately hoped to get out of this trip. Of course, all of our letters mentioned something about growth and transformation as each one of us does not want our educational knowledge supersede our realignment of sociality and culture concepts.