Volunteers and my first trip to the market.

So it’s been raining for three days, I was told that we are moving into the dry season, I remain skeptical. Rain usually provides me an opportunity to catch up on my reading and the little bit of paper work that comes with this intern gig and while it does those things and more, it should be pointed out that the only paved road in this country is the main highway going to the capital.
While I spent my time in the Caribbean dodging vehicles and stray dogs, I find that my walks to and from work consist of me navigating mud puddles. Just like knowing which mango trees are best for escaping stray dogs, here its soft ground vs hard ground.

There is not a whole lot to write about. I accomplished my task of getting the financial data from the coffee cooperatives, however because of the rain the internet has been down so I was not able to share the success with my counterpart in the capital, exciting none the less.

As you may or may not know, the Peace Corps is back in Rwanda for the first time in 15 years. Coincidentally Lenar is friends with many of these new volunteers. Saturday, Lenar, invited Trish a volunteer who lives in a nearby village over for dinner. Now, Lenar is not opposed to volunteerism, however, he is amazed that people will willing join an organization that advocates bathing in a river and living in a grass hut. While I did bathe in a river, my Peace Corps accommodations were not at the grass hut level. Swapping Peace Corps stories made the night interesting, it gave me a feel for what it must be like to live in a small Rwandan village. What struck me is the difference in the level of development among the Caribbean and East Africa. While I had running water and cold storage in my village, volunteers in Rwanda are forced to adjust to a life without those luxuries. I was fortunate that the challenges I faced as a volunteer were primarily cultural, while I did experience the occasional water and electricity outage, having to live a life without those things would have been challenging.

Dinner with Trish, also gave us a great opportunity to visit the local market. Local markets in Africa, just like in the Caribbean are social phenomenon. They are outdoors and serve as a place where people from the village or city in my case can catch up on the best gossip and daily news. I have been thinking lately that I must add to the social aspect of the community by providing humor for all those that have been watching the muzungu (Local word for nameless white person) roam the streets of Butare. You see for the last week and half I have been carrying around a look of amazement on my face, my trip to the market was no exception.

At the market you can find almost anything you need, whether it is bath towels, cleaning supplies or vegetables. The market in Butare is unique in that it has its own army of seamstress. Now you’re probably sitting at home thinking of ladies creating a pair of drapes with a nice electrical singer, sewing machine. As my brother would say “that is absolutely not the right answer”, the machines they are working with are pre World War II, complete with a foot pump for automation, as a matter of fact it’s the same type of machine my great grandmother had in her house in the late 1920’s. This blew my mind, because the only other ones I had seen were at the Smithsonian and my grandmother’s house.

Still with the look of amazement on my face, walking through the market I found the butchers block, where you can get fresh cuts of meat. The only other time I have seen an outdoor butcher was when I was in Trinidad doing some research on local markets, and even still that was amazing due to the lack of cold storage available to these producers. This was no exception, here it was 4 in the afternoon and the various cuts of meat along with the more obscure parts of the cow such as liver and tongue were displayed in the hot sun ready for purchase. I was reminded by a local, that the market opens at 8 AM, so if I was thinking about purchasing meat locally that I probably needed to do it at 8 AM.

My trip to the market and dinner with Trish made for a full and productive weekend; let’s just hope that the rest of my time in Rwanda will be equally as enjoyable.