The applications are in! Hopefully all the time I spent in Kigali working on my computer pays off and I am offered a scholarship to do a PhD. Today is the first day I've been able to focus on my field research. I always feel a bit shy contacting people to meet, but I know if I don't take initiative my research will never get done! So, today I meet with the Deputy Director of SPREAD (Sustaining Partnerships to Enhance Rural Enterprise and Agribusiness Development), a USAID-funded organisation that works with coffee cooperatives on fair trade and organic production and health. I am also meeting with the Rwandan representative of Transfair USA. Hopefully the meetings will help to get the ball rolling!
Once I get going on my research, I think the homesick feeling will diminish. When I'm back home going on and on about how much I like Rwanda, I always conveniently forget the period of time it takes to adapt, and that there are always lows in addition to highs that come and go. I'm grateful to have a Rwandan home that welcomes me with open arms. It's also exciting to see the changes that have occured in Rwanda since I was last here in 2007. There are now street lights in Kigali, and crosswalks, and these are obeyed by drivers. There is a campaign against drinking and driving, and police roadchecks enforcing this with breathalizers. You can also be fined for talking on your mobile phone while driving. So things are quite orderly on the road, although I am still nervous on moto taxis and prefer to take taxi buses.
The food is the same as when I was last here. I was happy to buy fruit at the market for the house the other day, as I am already tired of eating meals centered around white rice, cooked green bananas, and potatoes with a tomato or peanut sauce and beef all the time. We sometimes have green beans and carrots mixed in the sauce, which I like, but more often we have little green eggplants or 'legume vert', which I think is amaranth. I love vegetables, but I find the green eggplants inedible and pick them out like the kids I live with. The amaranth greens I eat only because I know they're good for me and I can disguise them by mixing them with the potatoes/rice/bananas and sauce. So, I keep reminding myself how lucky I am to be able to buy and eat 2kg passionfruit, 1kg Japonese plums, 1 papaya and 1 pineapple for only $5.
That's all I can think of with regards to updates for now. Miss you all!
2 comments:
Your mom gave me the link to your blog so I will enjoy reading about your exploits again. The fairtrade coffee thing I know I will find interesting as the company I used to work for was big into this - so I will look forward to hearing how it is from the other side of the world! Well, just to let you know that Peter has finished his radiation treatments and will have a CT scan on Tuesday and a PET scan sometime soon and then I am hopeful that the surgery will happen in October - haven't heard, but that is my hope. I know that your mom and dad will keep you informed, but I will pop in from time to time and give you our perspective too. Love to you and hope all goes well!!!
April and Peter
Hello Sara. I'm sorry to enter like this in your blog without having ever met. My name is Arancha. I live now in Goma (DRC) but I used to live in Rwanda for one year, four years ago. The reason why I'm writing here is quite unimportant, so I apologize twice. I found your blog while I was looking for informations about hotels near Akagera Park, and there was a sentence in your blog talking about Centre St Joseph. Somewhere else I also found informations about Umbrella Pine Hotel. If you're not too annoyed yet by my comment, would you mind telling me which one do you think is best to go to Akagera Park from there? (By the way, thanks for your blog, I found it interesting regardless of my personal research). My email: amareca@gmail.com
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