Tea and Internet



It is only 10:30 AM and so far today has been an extremely interesting. It is the second day of classes and the Internet is down institution wide. But even more interesting was that when I arrived this morning I found someone else sitting at my office desk. I was quite surprised, but I have come to find out that there is no such thing as personal space here! One of the other faculty members had temporarily moved in, he moved my things over to the side – he did put it all in a nice little pile for me . Apparently he was finishing up some work – grading of papers, which I also found out is a community event here (all final marks are deliberated between all the faculty - even for courses and content they have never taught) – with my office mate and needed my desk. So… when I walked in he simply said to me “no problem” you can use my desk until we are finished. So I walked over to his desk of course he had stuff everywhere I felt very uncomfortable rearranging his things so I just left and went for a walk until they were finished.



Here is Anne, my office mate talking with a student... Yep, we share offices and there is no privacy what-so-ever. No headphones, etc for computers either. Her music, her videos, her students, etc... all for public consumtion :-).  Since we have only 3/4 walls you can also hear what everyone else is listening to on their computers as well. Usually 2-3 faculty to an office space that is at most 5x10. Since I am an honored guest we get 2 in our space instead of 3. Good thing Anne is skinny... not the small space between our desks.



 After I was able to get into my office and at my desk it was told me that the Internet was not working today. I’ve come to rely heavily on the Internet here at the Institute (because the Internet at my apartment hardly works at all) to do the bulk of my business and communication and much to my chagrin the Internet is completely down Institute wide. I am amazed at how very little I can do without the Internet! Of course I’m not the only one frustrated the rest of the faculty are also extremely frustrated, but apparently this happens from time to time. So today I’m just sitting in my office perusing through old textbooks- page by page -hoping that the Internet will come back on soon, but so far it’s been three hours and no Internet.

I did get a little more clarity on the number of students here – I had previously reported 6000… that number I was told today at tea is a gross exaggeration for propaganda and marketing. Apparently, there are only 1500 students the Kigali health Institute. That makes much more sense to me, as it appears to be nearly impossible to accommodate 6000 students on this campus. Keep in mind 1500 students is still quite a bit for a campus of this size.

Tea Anyone?

One of the unique things here that I think is great is that every day from 9:30ish to 10ish AM the entire staff and faculty of the University break for tea. At that time we all congregate in a common area, relax in the shade, and have tea. This is a great time to get to talk to and meet your colleagues and discuss their courses, their research, their professional interests, and just generally get to know them. I have found it to be an extremely useful and valuable time – something that I wish the universities in the United States would do. Unfortunately, the only tea they have here is Rwandan hot tea. It is very strong tea and served with milk that I consider to be “just a little off.” Therefore, I have not indulged in the drinking of tea, although I do enjoy the company. They also have available hard boiled eggs and an African flatbread (kind of like a tortilla). I have been getting a lot of jokes because I don’t drink the tea so today I brought my own tea from home – iced tea! You should’ve seen the looks and eyes – even faculty members from other departments were asking me what was in my bottle. I just brought it an empty plastic water bottle. When they saw that it was cold they literally shivered and cringed. So I took most of the morning handing out tiny sips of my iced tea and it was met with 100% rejection rate. Iced tea apparently is unconscionable to the Rwandans. So I had my fun with real texas tea and now they think I’m even more strange than a typical muzungu (which means white man). I am assured it is not racial or discrimanatory at all... but everytime someone calls me a muzungu (pronouced Moo-zoon-goo) it is followed by laughter...

Here is the Kigali Downtoen skyline.

Oh, I completely forgot to mention in my last blog that the "special" faculty restrooms don’t work like we are accustomed to in the states. If you have to go to the bathroom while you’re here you have to go to a spigot (in adavance of course) and fill a 3 gallon bucket of water with you and carry it into the stall because the toilets don’t flush. They are manually flushing toilets – in other words – you do your business and then pour in the bucket of water. And since there is no water you have to go to another floor or another building to wash your hands when you’re done.

On the homefront

we did hear back from house hunters international and it looks like we’re going to move forward with production and filming. Apparently, when the producers met to discuss our situation coming to Rwanda was a no-brainer. So now we are going about trying to get waivers signed by landlords and homeowner so that we can go through and film. The boys are pretty excited – and so are me and Angie. Our friend, Jano, the Rwandan native who helped us look at houses is also thrilled to be on American television. We will keep you posted on how this exciting little distraction develops. 

Also, I have had the opportunity to begin working with World Relief a humanitarian organization that helps esatblish infrastructure to Rwanda's villages and cities (www.worldrelief.org). I will be training their management staff in "Creating sustainable change" of course we are using the contextual intelligence model of leadership :-)  I will also be going into the villages, etc... to train and teach local city officials the same... should be very educational, for me especially! I am looking forward to this and the other opportunities it opens.

Angie and the boys spent their first day yesterday out in some villages working with orphans and widows teaching them basic English and American games. Of course, they were huge hits! Angie and the boys loved it and the people in the villages loved it. It looks like it is going to be a twice a week routine for them. Thank you very much to Karen Campbell for talking to her school’s librarian and getting several children’s books donated to us. The boys will be using those books in the villages for an “American storytime” where they will read the children stories and use them to help teach English.

A lot of exciting stuff is happening... We will keep you posted!

Here is me and Jano, a new friend, and will be our "Real estate commisioner" for House Hunters Intl. We are both sampling, for the first time, some of Rwanda's finest, a beer called Turbo King.