Getting Ready for Round 2

I can't believe it's been more than two years since I set off on my first trip outside of the United States. Since then I've graduated from college, worked at a nonprofit in DC, and am now ready to jet off again to do some more learning and growing - this whole "stay in one place, work from 9 to 5" lifestyle really just isn't my thing...on that note who knows how to turn a travel blog into a paying job??

In a little less than three weeks I will be heading off to New Zealand and Thailand with two of my best and oldest friends. We will be WWOOFing (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) and backpacking for several months in New Zealand and then hanging out for several weeks in Thailand.

After meeting up with a friend who did a similar trip to New Zealand last year, I could not be more excited for everything that awaits us.

As always...

Epilogue

After exactly 100 days of being away from home and travelling this world, a wonderful chapter in my life is sadly coming a close. I have changed and grown so much as a person thanks to the people I’ve met and the experiences I’ve had throughout all 8 countries I visited. And I am so so thankful for everything. I know the opportunities I’ve had will affect everything I do in my future. I’ve learned countless things about myself, and the world around me, over this past semester and I know these incredible memories will live with me forever. 

You never realize how much home is home until you leave, but damn does it feel good to be home. I was worried about this semester coming to end, returning home, and quickly becoming stir-crazy and bored out of my mind. But I’m now realizing that there’s more to my favorite quote “this is an adventure.” When I left the United States 100 days ago I wasn’t starting my adventure, I was simply continuing the one I had been living my whole life. This is an adventure. Life is an adventure. And it always will be. 

Shout Outs

To each and every one of you hooligans that I travelled the world with – we will always share that special connection and we all have truly become family. I’m looking forward to all the crazy shit we’re gonna get into next semester and beyond.

The whole group on our last night in Lugano.

The Rwanda group with Teddy, Leon, and Steve

And again to my parents – I cannot thank you guys enough for supporting me in every way possible throughout this journey. I will forever be grateful for everything you guys have given me, both tangible and intangible.

Excursion through Rwanda - Week 5

The last week we spent in Rwanda we spent as tourists as we travelled around in a van that was way too small for all of us plus our luggage. I’m not a big fan of the whole tourism thing. Don’t get me wrong, everything we did was a lot of fun, but I would have almost rather spent that last week spending more time with our students.

The week started out with horseback riding in Kigali. Only a few of us actually got on the horse, but everyone came along anyways. I haven’t been on a horse since the beginning of the summer and I’ve only ridden a few times since college. Makes me sad when I think about how I used to ride multiple times a week for so many years of my life. But it felt really good to be back in a saddle. The horses were Kenyan polo horses and although I was super out of shape, horseback riding is something you never really forget to how to do once you learn and its cool to say I got to go riding in Rwanda.

The next day we set out towards Nyungwe National Park – the rainforest! We did a hike there and a canopy walkway, which was a freestanding bridge suspended 60 meters above the forest. It was pretty scary since the whole bride shook with every step taken, but it was so cool to see the forest from above. Throughout our hike on the Igishigishigi Trail (which means “tree friends” in Kinyarwanda) we saw three different types of monkeys  - baboons, blue monkeys, and white and black ones that I don’t remember the name of – and lots of birds and plants. After seeing the rainforest here, I definitely have my eyes set on the Amazon someday.

Canopy walkway

After the hike we went to museums all about the history and culture of Rwanda. It was so cool, especially the geography room because I’m all about that. I really like how the museum didn’t mention the genocide at all. The genocide is what typically comes to mind whenever they think about Rwanda, but it’s really not prevalent at all in day-to-day life here. The museum focused more on traditional Rwanda – traditional housing, clothes, wildlife, drink – all that good cultural stuff. I’m not really into museums, but I enjoyed going.

That night we drove to the eastern side of Rwanda to Lake Kivu. Lake Kivu is huge and we stayed at a motel right on the water. Since we arrived at night, I had no idea how close we were, but when I got up early in the morning to use the bathroom I stepped outside to the enormous lake right there. It was beautiful. That day we went to a small beach to go swimming and then caught a boat to a small island. We spent the rest of the day on the island, hanging out, eating good food and drinking good beer. We were served fish that was caught right before it was grilled and fresh lamb brochette (skewers). I love being around the water, so it was an awesome and relaxing day.

On Thursday we went to Akagera National Park (a savannah grassland park) where we went on a safari. To our surprise a guide just hopped in our already crowded van and we drove that instead of a jeep…another bumpy ride. We saw so many cool animals so close up: a few different kinds of antelopes, giraffes, zebras, monkeys, hippos, warthogs, Nile crocodiles, quails, and other various birds. Unfortunately we had to turn back because of an incoming storm before we saw any elephants or Cape buffalo, but that’s all right. Just means I have to come back someday, right? We were out in the park for a good six hours and we all just wanted to get out of that damn van. But we had to head towards the northern country, so back into the van we went.

The next day in Northern Rwanda we saw the volcanoes from a distance and we were going to hike around them, but instead we went on a tour through some caves. It’s so crazy, but we were actually the first tour group to ever go through the caves. They had finished the trail through them a few months ago and just opened it up to the public the day before we went. And good thing they did because the caves were awesome. They are 6 millions years old, created by volcanic activity in the area. Now this was no Luray Caverns, walk in the park. I haven’t been to Luray since I was little, but I do remember everything being lit up along the way. Not here. The only light you had was the one you brought with you. The guide (Fernando) made us turn our lights off a few times to just stand in the dark and listen to bats flying around us. Kind of creepy, but very cool. We saw so many bats. Fernando said that nobody has done research on the bats, so no one really knows how many there are in the caves, but by what we saw just standing there for a mere 15 minutes, it was clear there were thousands.

The last day of our excursion before heading back to Kigali was to visit Lake Kivu again in the northern part of the country. I went jet skiing for the first time with Shannon, it was a lot of fun. We got some more sun, so I got a nice tan before coming home to the cold and snow.

Saying goodbye to Leon, Teddy, and Steve at the airport was really hard. They helped us so much, we literally couldn't have done anything without them, and they became good friends. I know I'll keep in touch with them and I hope someday we'll meet again.

Nyamyumba, Kigali - Weeks 3 & 4

I was really looking forward to Nyamyumba because I excited to make the transition from a busy city to a small, rural village and I was interested in learning about a more traditional Rwandan way of life. And I definitely got to experience that. In Nyamyumba our guides were Leon (who leads the NGO we worked with when the founder isn’t there) and Teddy (she also works for the NGO).

The drive from Kigali to Nyamyumba (with a stop in Buhtari – the old capital) was a bumpy one…I have never been as car sick as I get here with all the potholes and uneven roads…all part of the fun! But the trip was also beautiful. Rwanda is also called “the land of a thousand hills” and damn, are those hills breathtaking.

Drive from Kigali to Nyamyumba - hills on hills on hills

Coming into the village we were greeted by running children yelling “ciao-oh” after us. They learned to say “ciao” to any white person, but pronounce an extra syllable at the end, so cute. You could see from the streets that people didn’t have much. The houses were small and simple with a fenced yard and small garden. But you could also see that they didn’t need much to be happy either. I witnessed the biggest smiles and best laughter from both children and adults in Nyamyumba and I will never forget that.

We were there to teach English to primary school students (ages ranging from 8 to 15) through an organization called Mabawa. Mabawa basically built Nyamyumba from the ground up after the genocide and provides stability for all of its residents. Homes, schools, and terraces were built, running water and electricity were installed, and cows were purchased for each family. The village is still growing, but Mabawa is a truly amazing organization and you can see the appreciation in the people of Nyamyumba when they talk about Mabawa or Katrine (the founder).

We quickly adjusted to the slower pace of the village, which included teaching class in the morning, lounging in the sun until the afternoon, working on the terraces until teatime, and playing cards and/or watching a movie after dinner.  We had a lot of free time, but it was really nice to have time to relax and think – after seeing such a different world there was certainly lots to think about.

Teaching the students was an absolutely incredible experience. They put in so much effort to learn English (we taught them nouns, verbs, conversational expressions, and worked on sentences through games, songs, and writing) and they were able to teach us some Kinyarwanda!

Izuba – sun

Ibyatsi – grass

Umuneke – banana

Mushiki – sister

Umuvandimwe – brother

Inshuti – friend

…my Kinyarwanda vocabulary is quickly expanding.

These kids have some of the greatest personalities and I miss them dearly already. It’s amazing how quickly you can bond with kids who don’t even speak the same language as you. After class everyday they would walk us all the way home, carrying our bags, teaching us more Kinyarwanda, and using our phones to play music and take pictures. And they really loved to take pictures. Even during their recess they would ask for our cameras and phones to take pictures of each other, the scenery, anything they could think of. Some of them were pretty good too. I let them take my phone for the whole walk home and would get it back at the gate to our house and I always found the most amazing photographs. Not only do I have pictures of beautiful Nyamyumba, but I have Nyamyumba captured through the eyes of its children.

Students in the classroom

Selfies with my girl, Clementine

In the afternoons we would normally go to work on the terraces. We met the lady whose terraces we were planting – she was en elderly woman who had no husband or children and in order for her to get a cow she needed to be able to grow food for the animal. We planted many rows of French Cameroon (feed for the cows) in order to help her. She was so thankful. However, I, being the stubborn girl that I am, refused to wear gloves because none of the villagers wore gloves when they worked and so I had to deal with blisters on top of blisters for a few weeks, but it wasn’t too bad.

We also worked on building a house one day. One group was in Nyamyumba the weeks we were in Kigali and they had already started the house. We carried bags of sand from a pile up to the house that would be used to make concrete. It was hard work, but for fun we tried to carry the bags on our head like the women in Rwanda do. We failed horribly, but it was worth a try – I don’t understand how they can make balancing huge things on their head look so easy! The women laughed at us as we walked and we were laughing at ourselves too.

One day we went on a hike, which passed by one source of the Nile. The part we saw was barely more than a stream of water, but I thought that was one of the coolest things we saw. The Nile River literally gives life to millions of people and I got to feel that energy. The views from the top were incredible also. We looked out onto the terraces we worked on and what seemed like all of Rwanda laid below. We got back just as the sun was setting – definitely one of the best hikes I’ve ever been on.

Beautiful view from the hike 

A source of the Nile River

The food in the village was amazing. It was all so fresh, much of which came from the garden outside our house or from markets within the village. Leon cooked and let me tell you, he is an excellent cook. We ate and drank (Leon always made sure we had red wine to go with dinner) well. I’m especially going to miss the fresh mangoes, avocadoes, and pineapples the most. Once we bought 6 avocadoes for 200 Rwandan Francs, which is equivalent to about 20 for $1. On Thanksgiving, we prepared turkey, potatoes, and green beans. Leon had never tasted turkey let alone cooked one, so it was an interesting/hilarious experience for all of us. The turkey ended up being very chewy (turkeys in Rwanda aren’t fattened up like they are in the States) and Leon had a very creative way of carving the turkey (basically ripping it apart down the middle with his hands). Not exactly a home-style Thanksgiving, but we sure had so many things to be thankful for.

Leon and Taylor with our turkey

The last day of class (which also happened to be on Thanksgiving, what a lovely coincidence) the students put on a traditional Rwandan dance for us and made speeches (which had to be translated, but were still heartwarming) about saying goodbye. We all ended up crying, which caused the students to cry to. It was so sad, but I’m so happy we got the opportunity to meet them and learn from them. I hope in a few years I’ll have a way of getting updates on them through Mabawa. I know they’re going to grow up to do great things.

Last day treat of Mandazi (tea cakes) and soda

Traditional Rwandan dance

Leaving the village was very hard and it was also weird to transition back to the chaos of Kigali. However, we were only there for a few nights to meet up with the other group before heading off on our excursion for the last week.