Copying and printing

Found out where the copier was today. Turns out there is one printer for the entire campus… Yup for 6000 students and however many number of faculty and administrators here's one printer/copier. There are of course individual printers that certain faculty have on their desks. But not too many as they are very easy targets for theft. Of course the University printer is located at a separate building from where my community cubicle is… So every time I need to make a copy or print something have to walk across campus to pick it up. Because it's the only printer usually there is a line of other people waiting to access it. Oh, and I am limited to 100 prints per month… No exceptions and no additions allowed. Ironically, it has nothing to do with recycling or being "green"… It's just too expensive to buy paper ink.
Also got my teaching schedule today (I should say I got my teaching schedule for next week)… Will get a new teaching schedule next week. But as it stands for next week my classes (or modules) are scheduled to meet Thursday and Friday my teaching times are slotted from 1 to 5 PM on Thursday and 7 AM to 3 PM on Friday. Those are the times that I have to teach, but I still do not know and will not know until a day or two before exactly how many of those hours I have classroom for. I may find out that I only have classroom for two of those hours, or all 10, or 2 hours Thursday and one on Friday, or none… Who knows!? So I guess I'll have to be prepared for any number of possible combinations of classroom availability.

On a positive note (not that those above are negative, I'm actually adjusting pretty well and so far not having any problems) found Mountain Dew today! But… Alas, it was not real Mountain Dew it was more like Fresca in a Mountain Dew bottle. I was most disappointed… Way more disappointed in the Mountain Dew than I am having to walk to another building to pick up a copy from the printer.

Teaching... No Problem!

classes start Monday and students are starting to show up on campus. The place is becoming quite crowded. I understand that they have 6000 students here at the Kigali health Institute and they cram all 6000 into two academic buildings each about the size of Eppler Center. Having the entire Eppler complex would be a dream for them (there are other administrative buildings but no classes are held there). Because of the space constraints there is a tremendous shortage on classrooms. Each course (what they call modules) has limited classroom time and classroom locations change week to week, often with only one or two days advance notice. For example, I am teaching a 50 contact hour exercise physiology module, but of my 50 contact hours I only get a classroom for 20 of those hours. The other 30 hours I am responsible to find my own space to conduct course requirements. It is certainly been quite a learning experience. And because of the classroom scenario the planning that is required to teach these courses has taken on a whole other level. In addition to classrooms changing each week, the days the classrooms are available and the hours they are available changes as well. So for example the 20 classroom hours that I do get a classroom for, I won’t be sure of the day or times it is available to me until the week of. So I am in a constant state of flux. I may have a lab planned for Monday at 1 o’clock, but I may find out Monday morning that my classroom time for the week has been scheduled from 1 to 5 PM, so I will have to move my lab to a different time because classroom time is a premium. And if I’m not in my classroom within 15 to 20 minutes of the start time I am told that other faculty parole the hallways looking for empty classrooms and will pounce on it. Apparently there is a first-come first-served basis on classrooms and if you are not in yours at the allotted time you lose! Imagine being an administrator or department head in a situation like this! I can tell already this is going to be fun!

Here is my multimedia screen in the classroom... cutting edge technology. I am going "old School" Literally. My presentation skills should improve dramatically. I wonder how much more my students at BGSU will learn when I come back and refuse to use powerpoint and make them actually write down everything I teach... hmmm?

Another interesting thing I learned about the physical therapists here in Rwanda is that there are many who do not like it and had no intention of being in that profession. Apparently the way their higher education system works here is once you declare a major and begin a course of study in a particular discipline or field you can’t change it. For example, in talking to one of my new colleagues today, I learned that in high school he was very proficient at and loved physics and wanted to be an engineer. When he entered into University the advisor/registrar mistook his inquiry about physics for Physio and signed him up for physiotherapy… Forever dooming him to be a physical therapist. A profession which he admitted to me he didn’t particularly care for or like – although he is a brilliant physiotherapists and works very hard! I asked him why he did not change majors once he realized the mistake and apparently it was too late for him. I found it interesting that once you start a course of study you have to stick with that course of study. And the way their loans and grants system works here even if he wanted to change his profession in graduate school he would not be able to. Learning that spoke volumes to me about why and how things are some of the way they are… I wonder how much better he would be, and the Institute would be, etc. if he was passionate about what he did.

Here is a picture of our teaching lab space!! Yes, that is a diathermy in the back corner... so all you BGSU students who have never seen one... get a good look.

This is one of the famous all day faculty meetings... yes, my fat self was sitting in a students chair with the little folding desk poking my belly all day...
working on the projector is Manu (the Dept Head), I believe he is typing in details on a syllabus for Gerard (behind him) cuz the keyboard is in french. I think we are arguing over what the bullet points should look like... and in the foreground is Maurice, one of the more vocal faculty members... All three are great guys and awesome professionals!!! I am better for having met them already!

Had a close encounter with a Moto taxi yesterday… I was walking down the road on my lunch break to get some cash out of the local ATM machine and one of the little Moto taxis nearly ran me over from behind. Was pretty scary, if he actually would’ve hit me it would of been a big mess. Probably in more ways than one! But, thanks to my catlike reflexes, and tremendous muscle memory, and many of your prayers, I was able to employ evasive maneuvers and got out of harms way just in time. Taxi scene caused a little bit of a commotion on the road – it really was almost a tragic accident – but we all recovered and walked away friends. Thank the Lord!

Till next time – Acuna Mattia.

Shopping Adventure

We have been here about 11 days now and it is not getting any easier. Note, that it is not hard per se, it is just not getting any easier. We gotten pretty good at flagging down taxis to get to the places we need to. Describing the places we want to get to is very difficult because there are no street signs or house numbers here. This is a zoning commission’s worst nightmare. Any place you want to go you have to describe what it is close to and then tell the driver (if they speak English) turn by turn once you get close. If they don’t speak English you just have them drop you off as close as you can and walk the rest of the way.

Jay goofing around at dinner time

Basically life is good here and very simple, it is just figuring out what to do with our time that is difficult – it’s amazing how much we depend on reliable and fast Internet access to communicate and how much of our time we use watching television. In the long run this can be very good for us – but the withdrawal it’s pretty tough. We have been reading a lot, on average we are reading 3 to 4 hours every day. That will also prove to be very good for us. Today (one Saturday every month) is some sort of national work day, so all the businesses are closed and everybody is supposed to be outside contributing to the greater good of the community by cleaning etc. On that note we are found Kigali to be a very clean city (other than the exhaust from the automobiles, which obviously have no emissions regulations here). We also just found out about a kid’s soccer league that runs on Saturdays, but of course not today because of the workday… So next Saturday we should be able to take the boys for an afternoon of “open field” soccer.

House Hunters International

Other exciting news is that we have been contacted by the popular television show House Hunters International! We talked with the producer of the show via telephone for about 1 hour yesterday and they are very interested in our story. The paperwork has already arrived (waivers, informed consents, etc.) and it looks as if we are going to film for house hunters international here in Kigali and document our house hunt. We will keep you posted on that and how it progresses. Of course, it is not 100% for sure yet, as we have to get waivers signed by different landlords etc. but as far as house hunters international is concerned we are “a go” and they would love to tell our story. This should be great publicity for Kigali, the Fulbright program, Bowling Green State University, the Kigali Health Institute, etc. pretty cool huh?

Our Apartment

Nate playing with lizards on the porch

We have a wonderful little apartment. It is a two bedroom one bath, with an efficiency kitchen. The efficiency kitchen is perhaps what is most bothersome for us. There’s no real oven or stove to work on and the counter space is nonexistent. Therefore, it makes it very difficult to prepare meals. Also making meals difficult is the fact that everything needs to be prepared well in advance and thoroughly washed with the boiled-water bleach solution bath so that we do not get sick. There is no laundry here so we (mostly Angie) have to do the laundry in the sink. Our landlord promised us that she would purchase a washing machine for us in a few days… We will see? It is proven very difficult to get anything done in any realistic amount of time here. What would literally take us about 30 minutes to complete in the United States takes 6 hours. For example, we had quite a grocery shopping experience yesterday….

Grocery shopping

Well today (January 25) was the day we tried to do grocery shopping. We had a totally different expectation of how it would happen – and of course – it didn’t happen how we expected it to – but it did happen.  We (i.e., Matt, as Angie decided not to go last-minute and what a wise choice that proved to be for her) had to hire a driver for the day and it literally took us six full hours to get about four day’s worth of stuff. While it took a mind boggling length of time to get what we needed, we did find out that we can get just about anything we need. That’s the good news. The bad news is it’s very, very, very expensive to get it and it takes an incredible amount of time and inconvenience to get it. We had to go to about eight different stores, none of which were close to each other at all, to get the supplies and groceries we needed. Making it even more difficult was that driving across the city, you literally take your life into your own hands. The traffic laws here are more like “suggestions” and nobody follows them, because nobody enforces them. What is worse is there are about 100 million little Moto bikes (taxis) that cause bottlenecks on every street. And then navigating the marketplaces is another adventure in and of itself. No one speaks English and everything is bartered for… So buying 6 oranges took me about 20 minutes, repeat that for carrots, one bell pepper, potatoes, bananas, pineapple, and few other small things I was done grocery shopping… and just those things alone took me about two hours. We still had to buy meat, kitchen supplies (bowls, cups, knives, etc.), rice, eggs… Only the basic necessities. I could’ve purchase that all at Walmart in 40 minutes – no problem. Here only got half of what we needed in six hours. This brings a totally new perspective to a popular phrase by ex-pats and Africans alike, around here, “African time.” Also interesting is that the second you walk into the market and you are mobbed by porters wanting you to hire them to carry your groceries for you for what amounts to a few cents tip. There are no shopping carts, no shopping bags, or convenient way to carry groceries you must hire these porters to carry everything… Of course the porters get kickbacks if they bring you to a certain vendor in the market so you being pulled 100 different directions by 100 different people, and three different languages all the time and all you trying to get his six oranges. Anyway… The day proved to be most exciting and by “exciting” I mean frustrating, exhausting, and educational.



I start teaching next week and based on the faculty meetings that I have attended so far will prove to be just as exciting! Stay tuned next week for more exciting updates, same time, same bat channel…

Jay found a Hippo tooth



These moto-bikes are dangerous... someone killed on them everyday!!!! but there are 1000's of them craming the streets.



My favorite pic of all... my super-trooper wife doing laundry by hand in the sink! I love you babe!!!!

Faculty and Safari

Hello again!

Faculty News

Classes do not start for two weeks, but this is my third morning in a row driving into town for faculty meetings. Consensus seems to be the order of rule in faculty meetings. It seems little or few decisions are made without consensus of the whole. Therefore, everything is discussed out to a nauseating length. Decisions just do not get made quickly. And it seems to be a social sin to conduct any business via email. What makes it more interesting is the local culture here where you do not publicly disagree with any supervisor. This makes the process painfully long. Every time the meeting facilitator makes a suggestion everyone agrees, but then later on behind closed doors, or between meetings and breaks the real discussion happens about what’s good what’s not good. So the meeting facilitator has to be especially skilled in drawing out dialogue – it takes forever. Faculty meetings are crazy. They last literally all day and every item of business seems to need to be approved by every faculty member. For example we are discussing content in modules (or syllabus) the department chair is projecting the syllabus onto the wall from his laptop and every faculty member in open public forum is critiquing and analyzing every item of the syllabus – line by line – what should be included what shouldn’t be included, content that should be covered, etc. it’s taking us like two hours to get through one syllabi and if the objectives should be listed numerically, round bullet points, or dashed bullet points… and there are many, many, many syllabus. I have never participated in a process quite like this before. What is most interesting is when faculty start getting frustrated and try to make their point they revert to their native language and everybody’s yelling back and forth in the language I don’t even understand… it is watching it like a tennis match. I can’t wait for classes to start… Wonder how that will go?

 Safari News

 

I swear this guy wanted to eat me...
or thought I was his long lost twin or something.



King Fisher bird... the boys were thrilled!

Tuesday, January 22, we took Nathan and Jay on the Safari to Akegera national park. This was Nathan’s birthday present – his 12^th birthday was yesterday! Happy birthday Nate, you are growing to be quite a good young man. It was a long day in the car – nine hours total, but I can say that it was truly an awesome experience. We saw several different types of animals and birds. Both the boys were in their glory. Taking the Safari was just like I imagined it would be. If you ever watch the animal planet or Nat Geo Wild you’ll understand what I mean. We were in a Jeep riding on dirt roads through the savannas, Bush, and prairies of Africa driving right up behind the next to elephants, hippos, African river crocodiles, Cape Buffalo, Sea Eagles, baboons, different kinds of monkeys, hyenas, warthogs, zebras, giraffes, topes, antelope, Impala, and all kinds of other animals and birds that I can’t remember right now. It was truly an awesome experience. There were no glass walls, no fences, no borders or boundaries to keep us “safe.” When we saw an interesting animal – that was a safe distance away – we got out of the Jeep and walked as close as we felt safe to it took a picture, got back in the Jeep and would drive somewhere else. We stopped to eat our lunch in the savanna surrounded by the wild zebras, giraffes, warthogs, and hippos. Being out on the African savanna was truly an awesome experience. Standing in the Valley and looking around, in front of you were zebras, to the left of you were giraffes, to the other side were Buffalo, behind you in the river you could hear the hippos snorting and wrestling. I know I keep saying this, but it was a pretty awesome experience. The pictures do not do it justice. Keep in mind that these pictures you see here were taken with a digital camera we bought at Walmart, no super zooms, no wide-angle lenses… This is just a testimony of how close we actually were to the animals. At one point we were driving down the road and an elephant came out from behind a tree. We stopped, it stopped, the elephant looked right at us while standing in the middle of the road. We could not pass the elephant and our guide was getting nervous that the elephant was getting too close and would charge us. So we put the jeep in reverse backed up pulled behind a tree waited for the elephant to finish snaking on the tree that was in the road and then we continued on. It was truly a grand adventure. And if you ever get a chance to take a Safari – do it!

 

These guys were everywhere... awesome sight!



I guess it is extremely rare to see a giraffe drinking... awesome scene.

This guy was watching us pretty closely

This guy was hiding on the riverbank right in front of the hippos... scary cuz we didnt see him at first.

More later…

Picture updates

Angie with her new friend Chrissie (a missionary from the UK, who works with refugees). Angie may start to work with some of the widows to teach them English.  We also found a private school where she and boys can help teach the students English... that's be great.

Here are the boys swimming at the "European" hotel.

See a lot of this and it is amazing what they can actually carry on their heads, especially given there is no flat terrain anywhere. Saw a guy yesterday carrying a table and 4 chairs on his head.

Nate and new friend Mugabu playing badminton at the hotel near the pool.

We are here, lost bags, jet lagged and all...

Well... Dorthy said it best, "We are not in Kansas anymore, Toto."  We arrived in Kigali Tuesday evening about 2 hours late (midnight or so) after about 22 hours of travel. We were so exhausted and hungry that we didn't even care that they lost one of Angie's bags.  I guess we did pretty good, though... only losing one, I am told this is VERY good odds - side note: it has been 4 days and still no sign of her bag. Waiting for us at the airport was Janu and Chrissy, the folks we have emailing and have become friends with (a connection through Angie's niece).  They are wonderful people. They drove us to our hotel (apartment) and it is lovely. Plain, but very comfortable.  The jet lag is horrific!!! For the past 3 nights we all have been getting up around 2:30 am for a few hours then going back to bed about 5 am (or so) for a few more hours of sleep.  Yesterday morning (Thursday) was the most interesting. Only having just fallen asleep, probably around 8:00 am, the cleaning lady just let herself in to our locked apartment and started to clean as if we were not there. Jay found her first, he was walking out of the bathroom and looked up to see this strange very dark black woman standing in our hallway... imagine the shock... After we sorted it, out all was well. However, it was very clear she was not leaving and she had a job to do. She would just work around us and try to not make any noise (she spoke no English at all).  That was fun. we will be having a talk with the hotel manager.

Internet has been spotty. But worse, right now I do not have access to my BGSU email account so that has been extremely frustrating. Even more frustrating after reaching them via email from Angie's account their return email was that it would be best to call them directly so they can fix it. Even though it was explicitly clear in my email to them I was in Rwanda and have no phone.

Last night (Wednesday, night #2) poor Jay, in spite of the mosquito netting, was attacked by some sort of bug, we think mosquitoes - but not sure, he has about 14 blazing red bug bites on his arms, back, and legs. He is being real trooper!

The past two days we have been doing a lot of house shopping (both the boys have been great and not shy about letting us know what they like and dont like) - so far we have seen about 10-11 houses or apartments. We cant stay in the one we are in now, because it is too expensive and there is zero yard for the boys to play in. However, we are hopeful as we have seen some decent places, one VERY decent place, but expensive... and a lot of not so nice places.

So far the food has been good, a little off, but good. For example, we have decided that there will be no drinking of milk...ever. However, the fruit and cheese is very good, the bread when bought fresh is also very good. Most of our meals in the first 3 days have been sliced bananas, oranges, tree tomatoes, bread and cheese. We did have eggs for breakfast Thursday morning and although their color was off, tasted fine.

Let's see... what else can I say for now... I am writing this blog, it is 3:20 am me and Jay are up, Angie and Nate only fell asleep an hour ago.  I cant wait till this jet lag wears off! We are planning on looking at more houses tomorrow and then swimming at one of the neighboring hotel pools tomorrow afternoon with Janu, Chrissy and their son (6 yrs old). We are all looking forward to that.  I have an all day meeting Monday at KHI (Kigali Health Institute) where I am teaching so I will post something after that meeting, After having a very brief visit their yesterday I am sure it will be interesting... for example, I was told my main contact and mentor (the Department head I have been working with for the past year) is leaving KHI and new dept chair will be voted in on Tuesday. That makes me very nervous... I will keep you posted.  Anyway, I will also try and upload some pictures for you soon. All for now!

The Adventure Begins

Well... we leave for Rwanda on Monday. It has been amazing over the past several months the number of people we have come in contact with who have some sort of intimate or close connection to Rwanda. In fact, we have already made some close friends with families who live in Kigali and we are very excited to meet them, and they are very excited to introduce us to their friends, their culture, and their community. These new relationships have already proven to be very beneficial and meaningful to us.

It has been quite an experience getting everything ready. It's amazing what is required to leave the country for six months. Attaining our malaria medication has been the biggest challenge of all. Our main problem was not in the medication itself, but in getting our insurance company to approve a six month supply for each of us. So here's a little note for anyone planning to travel for a long time… be sure to talk with your insurance company plenty in advance about getting medications that cannot be refilled overseas. The other challenging thing was getting all our documents together for our visas. Who knew that I would need to take diplomas off my office wall, as well as original marriage certificates, birth certificates, accreditation reports from the universities I attended, as well as every other official piece of paper I was ever given by anybody at any time in my life… What a thrill it was tracking all those down. The other grand adventure has been packing! Our biggest prayer and hope is that everything arrives in Kigali international Airport when we do. Each of us are taking two 50 pound bags, plus a carry-on, and a personal bag. And all those bags are full of toys (mostly baseball equipment), toiletries, clothes, electronics equipment, Nathan's guitar, tons of legos, and six months of home schooling curriculum. The boys are really hoping that they can teach the Rwandan children how to play baseball as this is going to be the thing they anticipate missing the most. All in all – we are very excited! In fact we are starting to not be able to sleep at night in anticipation of the forthcoming adventure. Next time I post to this blog we will be in Kigali having endured a 20+ hour plane flight. Looking forward to chatting with you again soon!