Football Match, Rwandan Style

Soccer, or should I say, football is a really big deal here. Like a really really big deal. People LOVE it. So to join in the fun, I decided to go to a Rwandan league game one sunday afternoon. The tickets were only 1000RWF - ie. $1.80. How could I resist?

So we arrive at Ramera stadium in Kigali, where the game is happening, and see herds of people. You'd think that they only sell tickets they have seats for, but oh no, there are far more tickets than seats. So getting into the game was a total gong show. People stormed the gates, it was kind of scary and the police started hitting people with these soft batons. We kinda stepped away and just waited for the mayhem to stop before we tried getting in.

Apparently though, all you need to get into the game is be a muzungo (white person). Awkward much? While groups of people tried to shove their way in, we eventually got an escort into the stadium because we are 'guests'. Super nice but also so unfair and let me tell you, you feel like such an asshole for going with it. But by the same token, it's offensive to say no, so we did what we had to do. 

Norah and I taking it all in

Posing with our friend Joel

The game consisted of soccer and acting. Lots and lots of acting. Dramatic productions galore. The smallest trip results in a 5 minute episode of pain and agony. It was more comedic than anything else. Oh and a fight broke out. And the Rwandan riot police intervened. This all sounds intimidating but it was actually hilarious.  The best part is when the players were taken off the field via gurneys and then proceeded to return to the game, oh 5 min after. 

In the end, it was a tie game. Definitely a fun experience. Africa takes passion for football to a new level!

A Runner's Dream View

I love to run. But I love to run even more with views like this:

This is Kibuye during sunrise. I usually hit the road by 5:30AM and run up and down the hills. The view is absolutely amazing and I have to sometimes remind myself to take it all in and not take it for granted. Canada is without a doubt a beautiful country as well but the environment here is what makes it so unique. Even at 5:30, the people in the village have already started their work. I run by children and older woman carrying huge bunches of bananas on their heads. I run by cows randomly grazing at the side of the road, and herds of pigs munching away at the grass. I've even looked up and seen a hawk circling overhead. The women wear vibrant clothing and carry their babies in wraps around their backs. When I run by, the mothers stop to show their baby the white girl running by. Kids are mesmerized by the colour of my skin. The staring is a bit intimidating and sometimes annoying, especially when all you want to do is finish the challenging hill ahead and get home to get breakfast. I sweat everywhere and the last thing I want is to be the centre of attention! But I've learned to let it go and instead, I just wave at everyone and say Mwaramutse! which means good morning in Kinyarwanda. I get some pretty good reactions from the people when I bust out the Kinyarwanda! A mix of laughs and astonishment usually. It's pretty awesome!

One time, I had a couple of kids start running with me. I ran slowly up a hill so that they could keep up (and so that I could catch my breath) but when it was time to run ahead, I stopped to shake their hands and say hello. I didn't exactly get the reaction I was hoping for because they looked at me wide eyed, filled with fear and ran away as soon as I held my hand out for a handshake. I didn't realize I looked that scary when I ran! But seriously, it's pretty incredible running out here, even if the people think I'm crazy and/or scary!

Camping in Paradise

After two tough weeks of teaching, I decided to end it off with a weekend of camping on Peace Island (one of the islands in Kibuye). It was quite possibly the best weekend of my life....

Our campsite

Where do I even start? I mean this was the site right outside my tent:

The lake was sparkling and so refreshing to jump into. We more or less had the island to ourselves. The only other human inhabitants were the owners. There was a monkey on the island that had a tendency to steal our food. I named him Rafiki!! We also shared the island with a turkey and her chick and a really massive snake that I only saw once (thank goodness). There were hammocks on the island and Norah and I were pretty excited about that....

We usually started the day with a run around the island and then jumped into the lake. We took out canoes (but not like Canadian style canoes) - these things were handmade wooden little boats that consistently tipped. I managed to tip it twice in the span of 10 minutes. Good thing I can swim...

The boat ride between Peace island and the mainland

The views out here were unbelievable. On the first night we arrived, I noticed an orange haze in the horizon (this was night time so it looked pretty conspicuous). I laughed and told everyone, "hey look, it's a volcano in the Congo" - little did I know, it actually WAS a volcano in the Congo. It was unbelievable. It wasn't erupting but you could see the glow of the lava and I'm guessing this is from a very far distance. I mean we were close to the Congolese border but not THAT close. As you can imagine, I was super excited. And the view during the day was just amazing. There are little lush green islands with different shapes and sizes dispersed throughout the entire lake. 

So much fun!

Yoga on Peace Island

Peace island is, as you can guess, very peaceful. I almost managed to fall asleep a few times in this hammock!

Relaxing

The last day we were there, we swam across to another island. We then hiked to the top, barefoot. I felt so hardcore! The view from the top was the best thing ever. Unfortunately, I didn't have a waterproof camera so I couldn't get any shots. But trust me when I say it was AWESOME. The storms out here are also beautiful. Check out these storm clouds:

The last night I was on the island, the sky overhead was clear as could be and I saw millions upon millions of stars. I've never seen anything like that. It's like someone had splashed the night sky with white, sparkly paint! The craziest thing though is if you looked just to the West across the lake, there was a huge storm over the hills. None stop lightning illuminated the sky. And then to the North, there was the Congo with the orange glow coming from the volcano. Nature is magnificent and there are no words to describe the beauty of this place. Definitely a weekend I will never forget...

Life in Kibuye

Kibuye is quite easily the most beautiful place I have ever visited. It's a very quiet, more rural part of Rwanda and is located in the Eastern part of the country. The town lies on Lake Kivu and across the lake are mountains, volcanoes, and the Rwandan-Congolese border. The hills are actually endless out here - you cannot see flat land anywhere in the horizon. 

The sunsets are the best time of the day. The sky is pink behind the mountains and the colours reflect and glow off the lake. It's amazing how beautiful this country is - it makes it hard to believe that such terrible and gruesome things happened here less than two decades ago.

During my time in Kibuye, I have been teaching Anatomy and Physiology to first year students at the other Kigali Health Institue (known as Nyamishaba). Below you'll see my classroom. It's been quite the experience teaching difficult scientific concepts to students who are still learning English. They are no where close to mastering basic words, let alone words like duodenum and pericardium! You also really begin to appreciate the role of technology in education. Several times, we had no power and it makes powerpoint presentations impossible. Some programs rely on the internet to work and functional internet is definitely not a regular part of life.

Funny enough, weather out here even impacts teaching. The roofs are made of tin and so when it pours, you can't even hear the sound of your own voice. Lightning struck the roof of this classroom during a lecture once and it made it pretty difficult for the students to focus or for me to even keep my composure! Scary stuff. 

My first year orthopaedic students

I'll be returning to Kibuye in early November. I feel very fortunate to be able to explore the country through my work. This is a great place, not only for the nature but also the people. Everyone is so friendly and welcoming. Rwanda is truly the land of a thousand hills and a million smiles!

At the Top of Kigali

While on a high from adventuring through Akagera Park, a few friends and I decided that we would devote the following day to climbing up Mount Kigali and enjoying the views from the top of the city. 

It was a hot, sunny day so although we were climbing at a slow pace, it was challenging and oh so sweaty! We walked through little villages and when we got to the top, some locals asked to take photos with us. We also found a group of children playing soccer and decided to join in. Of course, being the clumsy fool that I am, 5 minutes into the game I tripped on a rock and tore my arm open. I'm fine now (this was about 2 weeks ago) but I had to deal with a lot of blood, pain and a lovely infection. On the bright side, now I'll have a scar that will always remind me of Rwanda!!! 

Taking it all in...

Green hills everywhere 

As we descended, we could see a storm brewing over the city. While there was lightning and heavy rain a few km ahead (we could hear the rain pounding), it was still sunny on the hill. The weirdest thing, but the weather can vary from just a km away. So because it was sunny on the hill and raining in the city, a rainbow formed. It was lovely. 

Kigali is truly a city of contrast. It ranges from typical urban chaos, to small rural villages, to rugged dirty mountains, to lush green forest. And lucky for me, I got to see it all from the top! 

African Lion Safari! (the real thing, minus the lion)

When I was a kid, the Lion King was my favourite movie. I dreamed of one day being able to see real life Zebras and monkeys. Timon and Pumba were basically the greatest Disney characters ever and I more or less worshipped Rafiki. As I got older, I got hooked on National Geographic (the magazine, before the channel was available). I'd love to look at the pictures of the lions and the giraffes and all of the African animals. I always dreamed I'd one day see them in real life, not just the Metro Toronto Zoo.

For those of you who know me, you understand that I have a serious passion for animals. That's why my trip to Akagera Park has been by far, the highlight of my time in Rwanda so far. Akagera National Park borders with Tanzania. It's the home of dozens of animals - from impalas, to hippos, to even elephants, Akagera has got it all (except for lions, unfortunately but I'll hopefully see those in Kenya next year). 

The day I went to Akagera started out a little rocky. We had to get up at 4:30 AM and no matter what, getting up at that hour hurts. The drive to Akagera takes just over 2 hours so we wanted to be there early to have the full day to explore. The drive there was a little scary - let's just say that the rules of the road are seldom followed here. People drive crazy. It's not as absurd as Beirut (that is the home of the craziest drivers I have ever seen) but it can still be a little nerve-racking. When we finally made it one piece, the park ranger told us that there were no guides so we were on our own to drive through the park and find all the animals. I was a disappointed because I thought it might be difficult to actually find the animals - but boy was I wrong....

The first darlings I laid eyes on were the Zebras (and I fully squealed with excitement):

These striped stallions are actually really beautiful. Their stripes are so pronounced. I managed to get pretty close to them. I can't even explain how happy I am in the picture above. Next, I saw giraffes. Definitely the highlight of the safari. Giraffes are...Majestic. It's the best word to describe them. They are so long and oddly shaped but yet they are such graceful animals. And you can even see their eyelashes. I loved them!!

Baboons - these little hairy troublemakers (I sound like Steve Irwin) are really shy! I don't know how I got so close to this one but in general, when you get too close, they scream and dash off into the bush. They travel around in big families too and are pretty curious. They'll run off but then they'll watch you from behind the bushes. Smart little fellas!

MONKEY!!! Monkeys are the best. Hilarious animals. This little monkey friend was SO into us. He kept getting really close (we were holding a piece of bread outside the window) and then he'd freak out and run back into the tree. He was so cute. I wanted to squish him with love.

Look at his long neck!!!

The impalas seemed to roam everywhere. There was always a large herd of females and calves and one dominant alpha male. Then we saw smaller herds of just the non-dominant, younger males. When impalas run, its exactly like in the Lion King. They hop so high and can run off very quickly. Speedy four-legged creatures!

Hippo!!! The hippos are HUGE. They love the water and just sort of watched us from a distance.

I saw so many other little animal friends - wild boars (aka. pumba), a plethora of colourful birds and even a single elephant bathing itself far off on the other side of the park. It was such an interesting day. In December, I'm planning to do another safari in Kenya where I hope to add to the number of animals I've seen in the wild. I love Africa - where else can the Lion King become real life? 

Hello Kibuye, Goodbye Internet

I know I haven’t updated my blog but I have so many fabulous stories and pictures to share. I’m in Kibuye right now, which is a small town 3 hours outside of Kigali. The internet here is really bad so I haven’t been able to post any pictures – hence my lack of blogging. I'm going to share a bit about my experience teaching and then load a million pictures when I get back to Kigali. It's really beautiful here, I can't even describe, so I'll let the pictures speak for themselves once I get a strong enough connection to upload them onto the blog.

During grad school, I had the chance to teach and so I'm not exactly a rookie when it comes to leading a classroom. But all that experience counts for nothing out here - the dynamic is completely different in Rwanda it seems. When I was a student, you had to turn off your cell phone, listen tentatively, and definitely not laugh at your instructor. It's slightly different here - the students think my accent is funny and just start laughing aimlessly during class. Most of the time, I start wiping my face thinking I have some left over chocolate or something funny on me but I've put it together that the way I speak is the primary source of humour. So it's been a little hard to adjust to that. The students here also ask very diverse questions, which is great and has really got me thinking a lot more about the material I'm teaching (anatomy and physiology). They call me lecturer (lecturer, please enjoy your lunch; lecturer, when will we have the assignment, etc.) - it's cute and I always chuckle at the idea of being called 'lecturer'. I think it's secretly because my name is really hard to pronounce. The 'r' sound is a challenge for Rwandans to say so they tend to avoid saying my name. The language barrier is tough though and has by far been the greatest challenge when it comes to teaching. These students grew up in the French system and now they are being thrown into English for their post secondary education so I can understand why English can be so daunting for them. 

The environment out here is incredible and I wish I could post some pictures. I'm on Lake Kivu so while I'm teaching students about muscle contraction and the circulatory system, the sound of waves can be heard in the background, which can be detrimental as it is very soothing and can put the students to sleep (or maybe it's me putting them to sleep?)...however, for the first time, I am feeling the effects of the altitude. I really feel out of shape here. Even walking up the hills is a challenge. You get winded pretty quickly. I guess it's good practice for my Mount Kilimanjaro climb!!!! 

Anyways, I'll share more once I can get the pictures up. On Saturday, I went on a Safari and on Sunday and climbed Mount Kigali. Be prepared for some great sceneries and GIRAFFES (yes I saw giraffes in real life, best experience ever). I'll hopefully be able to post by the weekend. Stay tuned!!

Lots of love from Rwanda!