Abazungu Problems

Hello from the beautiful countryside of northern Rwanda,

After a few hectic days in the capital, Kigali, I was looking forward to leaving the crazy traffic and terrifying moto-rides and go to the slower countryside a few hours away.  But, new adventure brings new responsibility and the true EWB work began today.  

We all woke up early and  piled into the big van and headed off to Musanze with a plan to head straight to the Cyanika government building. On the ride over, through the mountain roads very much reminiscent of Colorado, we all fell asleep after the initial excitement of seeing a bunch of monkeys crossing the street like squirrels! But on a mountain road in a van with no seat belts and leather seats, we had to get as comfortable as we could to sleep on the ride over. 

Stephanie ready for a long trip to the country.  Needless to say it was an early morning

Falling asleep in the back seat getting as comfortable as humanly possible.

Once we arrived, we met with the Chief of the sector (like governor of a county) along with a few of the other representatives from the villages at a Community Vision Board Meeting. They were completely welcoming to us, and we got some great information about what they expect from us. The meeting was very fruitful and gave us all a lot to think about. They were so willing to help that we all piled back into the van and went to the water source that we are considering tapping into.  I was surprised about how many people from the community valued our presence in the community, most of them even joined us on the trip to the water tanks and even farther along the pipeline. Upon arrival to the water site, we were swarmed by children yelling "Abazungu!" (white person), including one lonely boy who said "give me money" in English, which we were slightly stunned at. But still the children were completely adorable and the community members were very gracious to us, so look forward to working with them.

Wonderful community leaders in Cyanika after the community vision board meeting.  Half of us piled into a van to head to the water source.

In other news,  we continued to adventure pretty far north and tried to make an appearance in Uganda. But...didn't make it much past the intense security along the border.  It was still pretty great! 

Almost to the border of Rwanda and Uganda! We weren't allowed to go any farther.

Quick language lesson: 

• amarfaranga means 'money' and not 'friend' as Jordan originally thought when it was yelled at her last trip.
•  Jimmy cans are actually the African cousin of Jerry can 
• When 'pump' is said by a Rwandan, it can also mean 'pipe'. Which is very confusing on conversations about pipes, and pumps.
• The proper response to 'amakuru?' (how are you?) from a Rwandan priest is always 'AMAKUYOU!' right back to him

...more to come of our language adventures here too.  We are trying really hard to learn as much Kinyarwandan as possible. 

Now we are all settled into the hotel here in Musanze and are getting task named out for the next few days.

Have a great day!
Ariana