EWB Saves the Day

A little insight into the culture here. Yesterday, we began to notice that a number of orphans weren't going to school. After inquiring, we found out that many of the orphans had been turned away from school because their hair was too long. Apparently, the school requires students to shave their heads shaved once a month. Why? Well we asked around and nobody seemed to have an answer. While this was seemed strange to us, we were much more concerned by the fact that these kids weren't going to school and weren't allowed to return until their hair had been cut. We found out that the buzzer that the orphanage owns was out of commission and that someone had been sent all the way to the capital city, Kigali, to pick up a new one. He wouldn't return for a couple of days. But we weren't going to let that stop us. There were two ways to get back to school if you were a student: go and ask for forgiveness or go and get your hair cut. When we found out that at the local barber it costs 100 Rwandan Francs per student to have their hair cut, we were so taken aback. We needed about 70 haircuts, so the total would be 7,000 Rwandan Francs. Divide that by 600, the exchange rate with the US Dollar, and it costs a little over $10. That is to say, it costs less for 70 haircuts here in Rwanda than it did for my last haircut in the States (which was also a buzz cut). Needless to say, our EWB team offered to pay for all 70 haircuts, "saving the day". We thought the kids would be upset with us for spoiling their "vacation" from school, but instead most cheered when they heard the news!