Twatembeye kuri Africa Hepfo

Dear everyone out in blogland, it has been awhile since I have last blogged. Things have been pretty crazy lately with us going to South Africa and all. I am going to try to get back into the routine of writing at least once a week. I want to try and concentrate this last 11 months on things that I do that are routine that may be weird to you. I will answer questions such as: how do we bathe? How do we get food? How do we get water to drink? What happens when we walk to school every day? What are typical salaries in Rwanda?If you have any specific questions, please comment to this blog and I can answer as I am sure many other people are wondering the same thing!!

First of all, Carina is doing great and is all recovered. Her surgery was quick and there wasn’t too much recovery time. She was back up and moving around the next day.

A little bit about South Africa. It was indeed a very interesting place. First thing I saw as our plane made its decent to the Johannesburg airport was a nuclear power plant. After I saw this, I knew South Africa was ‘very serious’ as they like to say in Rwanda. Next thing I noticed were the strikingly ‘American’ like freeways complete with thousands of cars zooming here and there. To take a step back one moment, I want to touch on the flight from Rwanda to S.A. It was the first airplane I have ever flown on that was 20% full only. Each person had his own row of seats. The next thing that you should know about ‘non-America’ based airlines is that you get free liquor, wine, and beer. Hard to imagine, but it is true. So, on the 4 hour flight from Rwanda to SA, I managed to drink 4 mini-bottles of wine. Then towards the end, I made some friends and we have a whiskey and coke together. So yes, it was a nice flight. Back to the J’burg airport. As I walked out of the gate I saw Carina’s beautiful, smiling face. This was the longest we had been apart since being married (about 12 days). The next thing I saw were lots and lots of white people. This was quite surprising to me as well as me and Carina are usually the only white people in the crowd. Then we walked into the parking garage and I saw were BMW’s, Mercedes, and new VWs. I had to wonder where I was. . . .Africa or America?!?

SA is a very strange place. It is a country of sharp contrast. There is development unlike any other on the African continent, then there are villages with mud shacks also. The skyline of Pretoria is dotted with tall buildings and large housing complexes. Then there are many people living on the streets. I will tell you one thing, it was probably my least favorite country I have visited. I am sure it has more to offer than what I saw (I have heard Cape Town, the wine country, and the coastal towns are breath-taking). The houses all have 8 feet tall cement walls around them topped by 2 feet of electrical fencing. The houses’ property all look like mini-prisons. They say it is dangerous, but I never felt in danger. They do have a large problem of unemployment with a staggering 25% unemployment.

Then, there is this strange tension in the air. It’s hard to describe, but it lurks everywhere. SA is just emerging from Apartheid (in the early 90’s) and it feels like what I would imagine America was like in the late 60’s. We met some younger people there and went to a bar with them and they had no shame in describing their superiority to Africans. Then, we went to another bar and it was all white people. Then the bar next to it that shared the same courtyard was all black people. Crazy, crazy, crazy.

But it wasn’t all bad. The development there leads to Western style things – like ice!!! There were large, fully stocked grocery stores with pretty much everything you can find back in Texas. Carina even managed to locate some Dr. Pepper although it alluded me when I was there. They have shopping malls – lots of them. There were 3 within walking distance of where we were staying. There were movie theaters. There was a zoo (awesome by the way). There was a high speed train system. There were restaurants of any food that you desired. There were refrigerators. There was a swimming pool. There was hot water. There was bacon. There were KFCs; you thought correct, Kentucky Fried Chicken in Africa. There were McDonalds. You could drink the tap water. . . . .it was a place with all that you wanted at your fingertips.

Most days we just hung out around the guesthouse we were staying at. It was very cozy and felt like being at ‘grandmas’ house. We had a very sweet ‘house Mama’ that took care of us and cooked us amazing omelets every morning. The guesthouse had a swimming pool, free internet, and a kitchen to cook in. Peace Corps Volunteers from all East and South Africa come to this guesthouse when they have more serious problems. We had a few people staying there from Tanzania and Zambia that we got to know very well and hang out with. Sometimes we would go to the store and get a few beers and just sit by the pool and share Peace Corps ‘war stories’. Then in the evening we would walk to the grocery store, buy food, and go back to the house and cook together. It was a very relaxing time without a care in the world. It was infinitely more relaxing than vacation because usually on vacation you are moving around, trying to go to here or there. But for 10 days, we were just literally hanging out in one place.

Cool things we did. We went to a few good souvenir type markets. We went to the Pretoria zoo. Surprisingly, I haven’t seen many wild animals in Africa yet (except for our gorilla trekking). Rwanda is mostly devoid of wild animals except for in the national parks. So this zoo was a chance to see many of the animals that people think of when they thing Africa. We went to a place that served burritos. Doesn’t sound too exciting except that instead of burritos using tortillas as the wrapping vehicle, they used pancakes!! A most ingenious invention (do I hear business idea for Texas?) We meandered through the city and went to some beautiful parks. We ate pizza, Thai food, African type food, ‘Chilis’ type food, McDonalds, and cooked Mexican food.

All in all, it was a great trip. I got to comfort my wife and see a small part of a new country (that now makes 15 countries I have traveled too). But it has been very good to return to Kinihira as we both missed it very much. This village has become home and the people, although we can’t communicate with many of them, are friends. We are happy to be back with the students and trying to leave our mark on the lives of the people here. Peace out!!

I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle. – Winston Churchill