Thursday, June 15, 2017

Wally Sucks at Soccer

As it turns out, Rwanda is a pretty amazing country. This trip has certainly been a pain in a lot of ways for a lot of people, but that all changed the second that the plane landed in Kigali. Everyone here is more relaxed which I think helps to make all of us more relaxed. Yesterday was yet another early day--we had to wake up before 8:00-- and for whatever reason Travis's toast looked like it had never seen the likes of a toaster. That being said, the rest of us enjoyed a lovely breakfast. In fact, Xilal  was given a second round of toast and a second omelet which I think annoyed Travis even more which in turn lifted the rest of our spirits. It was at this point that I knew it was going to be a good day.

We got to Munini around 10:00 yesterday and from the get go it was very exciting. Travis and I were the first to climb atop the enormous 10.000 liter tanks--they use periods instead of commas here. One of the lids to the tanks at Munini is missing, and because of this there is algae in one of Munin's tanks. As gross as this sounds Hassan pointed out that before we added these tanks, these people drank the water from the lake, so either way this is an improvement. After we got done inspecting the tanks we got the chance to hang out with some of the kids in the village. I showed them--the kids and Wally--my magic trick. All of the kids smiled as I revealed their card, but Wally had his skepticisms. He tried to replicate my trick, but we're pretty certain that all of the local kids told him my card in Kinyarwanda because none of the locals seemed impressed even though he guessed my card correctly. Either way, we spent the rest of our time in the community playing soccer with the kids. We played for 10-15 minutes before Wally realized that all of the students were on a lunch break from school, and needed to go home to eat. He used a stick to herd the students back to their village in the same way that the locals herd the cows. After most of the students left, I asked Wally if he was any good at football (soccer), to which he replied "Yes yes, I am very good"... sure enough, he wasn't. Hassan started a Penalty Kick contest with Xilal, and as soon as Wally took over as Goal Keeper, he narrowed the goal from around 15 feet to around 6 feet, which confirmed my belief that Wally sucks at soccer.

When we got back to Musanze, we had little to do but sleep. So far, I have been participating in Ciesta by napping every afternoon, even though I am quite certain that this isn't customary in Rwanda. Yesterday I didn't wake up in time for dinner, so Xilal had to come wake me up.

I cannot get over how in love I am with this country. Even though this is my third time visiting Rwanda, I feel that every time I come here I fall even more in love with the way of life here. Everyone here is so humble--except for Wally-- and works so hard. Today we got the chance to meet with some of the oldest members of Gasebya as they expressed their appreciation for our work. After hearing their stories and how these systems have changed their lives, it's hard to fathom the difference that these systems make for these communities.

This morning was a good morning, they didn't screw up Travis's breakfast which I think he appreciated. We did a lot more walking today than we did yesterday. Today we inspected the systems as Gasebya, and learned that they are in desperate need of another tank... that will be a discussion for the fall. As it turns out, almost 900 people live in Gasebya, but they have one of the smallest systems (if not the smallest system). Travis asked to hike to the edge of Gasebya, through which we learned just how large Gasebya is (it's big). It took a while to get to the edge of Gasebya from Ignase's house (the chief of Gasebya). At one point along the hike, Hassan asked how much further it was to the boarder to which Ignase laughed and replied "not much farther".... it was. At the edge of Gasebya, Hassan pointed to the top of a hill off in the distance where Gasiza is (one of the villages in Cyanika). After seeing how far Gasiza is from the nearest road, I am so ****ing thankful that we aren't implementing there. We got back to Musanze around 2:00 and ate some chapati which as far as I can tell is the dankest food on this planet. I took another nap today, but this time Xilal didn't have to wake me up. I want to preface that Rwandan food can be very delicious, and in all my past experiences is quite tasty. That being said, apparently we budgeted for roughly $1.50 per person for dinner so some of our meals have been subpar. Tonight's dinner was one of those nights. Either way, we had fun tonight. We've been going back and fourth between playing Hearts and Gin Rummy after dinner, and I think it's worth mentioning that I am winning by a long shot in hearts (Travis got the queen of spades like four times tonight). It's almost midnight now, And all the staff seems mad that we're still awake so I suppose that we should go to bed. Until next time.

-Max


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