Nguynwe National Park



Standing next to an elephant skull.





Enjoying the view before the hike.



Walking across the canopy bridge.

Swaying 200 feet above the ground.

Another view of Nguynwe.  At the top right of the picture is Lake Kivu.

Rwanda has three national parks: Volcanoes National Park (gorillas and volcanoes), Akagera (savannahs, rhinos, elephants), and Nyungwe (monkeys and rainforests).  The Rwandan government is pushing tourism to the parks, especially towards Akagera and Nyungwe.  With the success of Volcanoes, Rwanda tourism is trying to parlay tourists into extending their visits to the other two parks.  With increasing infrastructure and knowledge of these areas, visits are expected to rise in the next ten years.

For a weekend trip, the training group went to Nyungwe because it is the closest park to our town.  Even though the park is close, it still took two hours to get to the park, and an additional hour drive through the park to get to the center.  In Africa, it takes time to get around, even to the close places. 

Nyungwe is a very diverse park, which contains 1000 plant species, 120 species of butterflies, and 75 species of mammals.  Due to varying altitudes of landscape and location in Africa, Nyungwe can support such a rich variety of animals, from chimpanzees to elephants (now extinct from the park).  Nyungwe also sits on a continental divide, water that falls on the southwest portion of the park drains to the Congo River, and water that falls on the northeast portion drains to the Nile River.  In fact, Nyungwe is the southernmost tributary for the Nile River (the Nile technically starts in Uganda at the northern end of Lake Victoria in a town called Jinja). 

Our group took a hike to the new “canopy trail.”  There are a ton of trails to hike, and one of the highlights is seeing primates, especially when tracking the chimpanzees.  Hikes vary from waterfalls to springs to uphill climbs.  The hike took about three hours, and was highlighted by the canopy walk (newly installed) where you swing about 200 feet above the ground.  It’s fun but unnerving (that’s partially why it is fun; you do sway a good amount).  To cap it all off, we were caught in a torrential downpour on the way back.  We learned firsthand why it is called a rainforest. 

My Host Family

Host families are given to almost every single Peace Corps trainee during their training period.  In most cases, the trainee lives with the family for the three month training period.  Our training group is not living with our host families; instead, we are living in group houses with LCFs (language coordinator and facilitators, which is a Rwandan that speaks fluent English).  The reason for group houses instead of living with host families is largely due to the logistics of housing a huge training group living with seventy different families. 

Typically, we go to our host families twice a week for dinner.  If there are any family events (dowry ceremonies, weddings), we usually attend these too.  Most of the trainees have been to their host family’s church and visited distant host family relatives.

The purpose of having a host family is to adjust the trainees to the family life, culture, cooking, and language of Rwanda.  The Peace Corps believes that the best way for trainees to learn and adjust is through complete immersion.  The family is the cornerstone of this cultural training. 

My host dad, Alexis, is a principal for an elementary school.  This elementary school also hosts a Protestant mass on Sundays, and holds my dad’s three cows and multiple rabbits.  Typically, it takes about an hour to walk from his house to the school.  Every day, he walks one hour up and down various hills to go to school, and then walks one hour back to home.  This doesn’t include walks into town or to the markets.  I estimated that Alexis walks at least seven miles per day.  Furthermore, Alexis’s daughters walk almost daily to the school to milk the cows, and return to the house holding two five-gallon containers of milk for the entire walk back.  Impressive.

Alexis has a wife, Soranje, who takes care of the children and house.  Together they have three boys (Marcel, Billy and Viki) and three girls (Esperanz, Reyez, and Bela).  Six children is a lot in post-genocide Rwanda, but not an unusual number of children. 

The two pictures are of me with Soranje and Alexis at a wedding, and me with Alexis and his cows at his school.  I milked the cows rather unsuccessfully, but it was a great time.  Enjoy.

History of Rwanda to 1960

I decided to break down the history of Rwanda into two parts: pre-1960 and post-1960.  The main reason is that East African countries started to gain independence around 1960, which resulted in a paradigm shift in traditional East African politics, lifestyles, financial investments, and infrastructure. 

Rwanda has an oral tradition, so formal history was never written down before Europeans arrived.  The Portuguese arrived to the eastern Africa coast (present day Tanzania and Kenya) around 1500.  They retained general control of the area, including trade routes, until Arabs dominated the area starting in 1700.  Slave trade became in such high demand that slave traders started to take slaves from present day Rwanda in the 18^th century.  For the next 200 years, approximately 50,000 slaves would leave Zanzibar Island (where all Rwandan slaves would likely have been detained) per year. 

In 1890, Eastern Africa was broken up into German and British spheres of influences.  Germany took control of present day Rwanda and Burundi.  From 1890 to the World War I, Rwanda would be defined by colonial control which included new hospitals, roads, and missionaries.  This period would also be defined by famous African explorers.  Two of the most famous pairs of explorers would make their way around present day Rwanda: Burton and Speke (mainly seeking the source of the Nile) and Stanley and Livingstone (“Dr. Livingstone, I presume?”). 

The next main shift occurred during World War I, when battles between the Germans and Belgians occurred on Rwandan soil.  After the war ended, a League of Nations mandate declared that Rwanda-Urundi be under the administrative control of Belgium.  This decision is a major reason why one of Rwanda’s national languages is French, why there are direct flights from Brussels to Kigali, and why the famous “Hotel Rwanda” was a hotel owned by a Belgian airline at the time of the genocide. 

The Belgian government decided to start a system of differentiating Rwandans into intelligent, ruling Rwandans (Tutsis) and lesser, laborer Rwandans (Hutus).  From 1935 until the genocide, Rwandans would have an identification card with a line specifically for their “ethnicity.”  These differentiations were based on head size, leg length, and other physical aspects. 

The 1950s were a period of independence in Eastern Africa.  Kenya, Uganda, and the Congo were all pushing for independence from colonial powers.  Increased resentment towards Tutsis continued due to their preferred status and different viewpoints on a path towards independence.  After the attempted assassination of Kayibanda (Hutu), the “Hutu Revolution” resulted in the deaths of approximately 100,000 Tutsis, with an additional 150,000 Tutsis fleeing to neighboring countries. 

Belgium decided to split Rwanda and Burundi, and Rwanda was officially independent in 1962.  While Rwanda was independent, the country did not change from its colonial past with ethnic matters.  Events that would unfold in the next 30 years would result in a course changing event that has altered Rwandans ever since. 

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Peace Corps training

            Peace Corps service is broken into two main segments: a three month training session followed by 24 months of service.  Our training began on October 19, and ends January 3 when we swear in as Peace Corps volunteers at the United States Embassy in Kigali.  For those three months, we study culture, language, safety and security, medical, technical aspects (teacher training), and various miscellaneous tasks.

            Culture: We study all cultural aspects of Rwanda.  This includes the history and genocide, but includes faux-pas, dress, marriage, and perceptions about Americans and westerners in general. 

            Language:  We have seven, 1.5 hour classes a week.  These are 3-on-1 classes that are aimed at getting us to an intermediate level of Kinyarwanda by the end of training.  The language is fairly intense, but necessary since this will be our only means of communication with our village during service. 

            Safety and Security:  This deals with several aspects of living in a new country.  A native Rwandan deals with all cultural and social issues that could hinder our health and safety.  Transportation issues, locks, emergency action plans, and site situations are all dealt with in this section.

            Medical: Rwanda has a fairly low concern for amoebas, parasites, and disease relative to other countries in Africa, but it is still a definite issue.  People in Peace Corps say that the medical attention we receive is the best we will ever have in our lives.  Medical training includes inoculations, AIDS, general sickness, malaria medication, diarrhea, and how medical issues are treated.

            Technical:  Five to six days a week we receive training on teacher pedagogy.  We review educational theory, lesson plans, objectives, classroom management, learning styles, and aspects of the Rwandan education system.  The Rwandan school system is in their American equivalent of summer break from the end of October to the beginning of January.  Since the youth are out of school, the Peace Corps trainers have recruited children from the Nyanza region to come to our mock classrooms and acts as students for three weeks while we try out actual in-class lesson plans for four hours, five days a week. 

            Our training is conducted in a town called Nyanza, approximately two hours south of Kigali.  There are 68 trainees, approximately 15 language and cultural facilitators (LCFs), and various additional staff (technical training staff, directors, medical, cooks, etc) that are assisting us with getting ready for the next two years.  It is six to seven days a week, and fairly intense.  However, the training will ensure us a smoother transition into our sites and help us deal with any issues inside and outside the classroom that we might encounter. 

Welcome to Rwanda!

             Welcome to Africa.  Those were the words as we got off the plane on Thursday.  Excited?  Yes.  Tired?  Yes.  We just left the plane, got to the compound, and passed out under a mosquito net to our new life in Kigali.  Here’s what happened:

            We all met on Tuesday, October 12 in Philadelphia.  Prior to meeting all of the new trainees (that is the term for Peace Corps volunteers who haven’t finished the three months of training), I went down to Independence Hall for a tour and saw the Liberty Bell.  Did you know that the Liberty Bell was just another bell until the 1830s?  There was nothing special to the bell, but it became a rallying cry for the abolition of slavery when it was re-discovered that the bell said, “Freedom and Liberty For All.”  Prior to that, it was a bell that sat in the Pennsylvania State House and was hid during the Revolutionary War not because of its significance or message, but because the Americans were afraid that the Brits would melt the bell into ammunition and cannons.  I digress…

            We came together with a huge amount of anxiety.  Two days of training in Philadelphia (which included a yellow fever shot) were followed by a bus ride to New York City.  We flew to Brussels on an overnight flight, then arrived in Kigali the next day.  The first three days were logistics and orientation in Kigali (shots, medicine, bank accounts, documentation, photos, etc).  We took one afternoon to visit the genocide memorial in Kigali and discussed some of the heavy issues that remain from a country that is only fifteen years out of a genocide.  Finally, we took a two hour bus ride to the village of Nyanza.  This is where we will be spending the next eleven weeks (up until about January 3) for training.  We are officially in PST (pre-service training), and are considered members of the community now.  

            Here are some fun and interesting facts about the 70 remaining Peace Corps 2010 Rwanda trainees.  The trainees come from all over the country, from California to Massachussetts to Texas to the Virgin Islands.  I’m the only volunteer from Nevada, and about the tenth oldest trainee in the group.  The average age of a Peace Corps volunteer is 28 (my age), but I feel a bit older for my group.  Most of the trainees just graduated college, or have been in the working world for one year.  All of the trainees have college degrees, with a large focus in education.  This is no surprise since we are all training to become teachers (15 are math teachers, 10 are science teachers, and 45 are English teachers).  There are three married couples, which one couple is about 70 years old and married for over 40 years.  The group is about 60 percent women, which is about the average for Peace Corps.   Also, almost everyone has student loans that are being deferred during service.  There are a ton of sacrifices being made to be here by the whole group, from selling cars and quitting jobs to leaving ill family members and boyfriends/girlfriends. 

            Rwanda is gorgeous.  It’s named the Land of A Thousand Hills, and it’s accurate.  The entire country is mountainous, with nice roads that seem to go from hilltop to hilltop.  We feel lucky and excited to be here.  We’re in the honeymoon phase, and spirits are high.  There is so much to learn and see, and so much we have found out so far.  We’ll save some of that for next time.

Getting Started

A big package came in:

What is this?  If you're my mom, it's a dreadful package.  If you're a Peace Corps volunteer, it's the famous blue packet.  If you're anyone else, this is the final packet given to you prior to moving over to your host country.  Inside you'll find forms for your visa/passport, financial information, resumes to write (again), life insurance, privacy form, and the final registration form. Basically, more and more forms to fill out. 

So how did we get here?  To get the final packet, let's go through the timeline of starting the idea of serving to getting your blue packet:

August 2009:  Filled out the very lengthy (it makes your extensive college application look like a one page form) application and very lengthy medical history.  These applications and medical history go through your legal situation, financial situation, relationships, work history, transcripts, etc. 

October 2009:  Traveled to Oakland for a two hour interview.  Upon arriving, I am greeted by a new person who said that my main point of contact can not do the interview today.  I go through the interview and have a solid performance, but my interviewer and I tussle over one main concept: geographic preference.  I say it's Africa or nothing.  She says that's not my call.  We end at a Mexican standoff.

December 2009:  Nomination received from the Peace Corps.  In it is a one page letter stating that I will be serving in math education in Africa in mid-October.

February 2010:  Medical review.  In order to be cleared for an invitation (blue packet), you must be cleared medically and legally.  The medical review comprises of eye doctor examinations, dental x-rays and dental health, vaccinations, blood work, physicals, psychological review, etc.  It takes a lot of time out of your life. 

September 2010:  Phone interview.  This is sudden and unexpected (it happens while I'm at the horse track on Labor Day weekend), but must be done immediately.  I pass and am awarded a nomination.  Up until this point, there is no guarantee of a job in the Peace Corps.  In fact, very few people get to this point.  One stat said that only 30% of the applicants get an invitation.  Once I get the invitation and blue packet, the final forms are sent back to the Peace Corps and ready to go.

Here is the timeline up until I become an official volunteer:

October 18-20: Travel to Philadelphia for staging.  Staging includes introductions and final vaccinations.
October 20: Drive to New York for the international flight.
October 20-22: Fly to Kigali with a stopover in Brussels.
October 22 - December 30: Training.

Why Brussels as a stopover?  What is the staging?  How does this work?  What about Kigali, Rwanda?  All of these will be answered over the next two years.  We'll go over the culture, history, quirks, Peace Corps life, and anything you want to hear about in Rwanda and East Africa.  We'll go over the past years of my life and decision to join.  Finally, we'll go over traveling and the adventures of living in a third world country. 

My life is changing from the beach house in Newport Beach to a hut house in Rwanda.  So much is changing other than the walls of the residence.  I'm ready for it all...