Blogs from Kigali, Ville de Kigali, Rwanda, Africa - page 12

Kigali, Rwanda I have finally made it to Rwanda, The Land of a Thousand Hills. We flew in on Friday from the Arusha-Kilimanjaro airport on a twenty seater RwandanAir Express plane, and from the window, looking out over the country I already knew I would love it here. On a quick side note: I had overheard the man in the aisle next to me mention that he was from Pasadena, so when he pulled out his maps of Tanzania and Rwanda I had to lean over and ask him where he had bought them. Surprise surprise, he had picked them up a couple weeks before at Distant Lands. We had a great laugh when I mentioned that I worked at the same store in Pasadena throughout the year. What a small world it is! Running into ... read more

So, I decided that I would give a little bit more information about my time in Kigali, as it is limited. WE have not done many like super interesting things this week so far because we have had some lectures and have done papers and research, etc which is interesting to me because duh, i'm studying that but, not really that interesting to hear about. Today was interesting though, we went to this organization Women for Women which is doing wonderful things for women in Rwanda, among other countries. I really believe in the empowerment of women and encouraging women in business. I think I am surrounded by such successful and intelligent women like my mom, my grandmothers and all of my aunts that it is really easy for me to see how women have the ... read more

Hello Everyone! I am in Kigali, Rwanda now (have been for about three weeks), and I am having an absolutely wonderful experience! I've learned so much about Operationg Crossroads, which is the program I'm working through. It turns out they are having their 50th anniversary next year and they are the program that actually started the Peace Corps. It's basically run by one guy (Willis Logan), who knows everyone's name somehow when you get to the conference in New York. While in New York, we met our group and learned about what other groups were doing. There are groups going to Kenya, Ghana, Gambia, Uganda, Senegal, and Rwanda this year, and they're all doing really different projects. Some are doing women's studies programs, others are assessing microfinancing, there are health programs, building libraries, the works. It's ... read more

Life on the street... For children on the streets of Rwanda, is always a familiar story - abusive parents, lack of money for school fees or a uniform, being forced into manual labour in the home or conflict with step-parents, who often, according to the culture, cannot accept the child of a previous marriage and makes life unbearable for them. Equally common are the children who have been driven from their homes, and those who have no home. In this respect, Rwandan street children are nothing special, which is exactly how they feel, what is different is the sheer volume of cases. The boys hang around the taxi-bus stations, steal in the market, beg from passers by. They do small jobs to earn their daily food, and spend what little they get on sweets and drugs. ... read more

Happy 4th of July!!! Have some watermelon and good American food for me!! And Happy Birthday Tadia and almost Birthday Seamus! OKay, so we arrived in Rwanda yesterday and I have a lot to write about but, I want to start from Monday because I have been unable to use the internet for a while. So, on Monday we visited Rwandan refugee settlements which are in Southern Uganda. It was really interesting and completely different from the IDP camps. These refugee settlements have actually been there for a very long time. In 1959, many people, mainly Tutsis, lived in these 'settlements' because they feared the ruling regime. Then, in 1994 when the regime changed after the genocide, many Hutus fled the country for their fears of the ruling regime. So, now there are supposed to be ... read more