It’s been quite a while since I’ve posted on here! This has
been a very eventful week for me. I’ll start off with last weekend. On Friday,
Petek and I went to Kigali to hunt for souvenirs for our friends and family. We
were able to buy some African shirts for our parents. I bought my dad a beige
shirt with a rhino on the front. For my mom, I got her an authentic African
dress. I hope they like it! After all our purchases, we went to Bourbon to get
dinner then headed back to Petek’s homestay. The wait for the bus to Kicukiro
took around 2 hours. The traffic was insane that weekend because it was the
weekend of the African Union. Many roads around the Convention Center were
closed off for security reasons. Unfortunately for us, we had to pass the
Convention Center to get back to Kicukiro. After getting on the very crowded
bus, we finally made it back to the homestay.
On Saturday, we met up with Jade, Laura, and Bre and J
Lynn’s for breakfast. It was nice seeing some familiar faces! We talked about
our experiences at the hospital and towns. After breakfast, we made our way to
town to go to Kazi ni Kazi: a small shopping area to buy spare parts and electronics.
We had to buy some spare parts for our hospitals and materials for our
secondary project. Petek and I were able to buy a new charger, paint brushes,
and super glue from there. Afterwards, we parted with the other group and went
to go get souvenirs. We went to Kimirongo and bought masks, artwork made from
banana leaves, figurines, and plenty of keychains. I was able to bargain for
the first time there! It was quite fun to bargain because the vendor was very
friendly and willing to lower the price for me. For dinner, Petek and I went to
a Korean restaurant called Dae Jang Geum. I ordered galbi tang (short rib soup)
and kimbap (Korean sushi) whereas Petek ordered bibimbap (mixed rice). Although
the food wasn’t as good as in the US, it was delicious! It definitely satisfied
my cravings for Korean food. It was Petek’s first time trying Korean food as
well! She really enjoyed eating her meal as well.
Our Korean meal!
Yummy kimbap
This week has been very busy for Petek and I we because we
started our secondary project. We decided to make some shoe cubbies for the
dentistry department and OR. We started off by first cleaning some old cubbies
that we found in the scrap metal pile. We couldn’t find anything that could
help us rinse the cubbies so we decided to wipe them down with baby wipes,
which took half of our Monday. On Thursday, Petek and I painted the cubbies. We
were both very pleased with how both of them turned out! We also left our mark
on the cubbies by putting a hand print on them. On Friday, we did some final
touch ups. Now all there’s left to do is to give the cubbies to the
departments. We hope they’ll find our cubbies useful!
We had to stop taking inventory to take a selfie with Serge.
Our cubbies!
Matching with the finished product
Hospital partner selfie feat. scrap metal
Left my mark!
On Friday, Petek and I stayed with my homestay. It was very
nice to see them again and catch up. We also had dinner with them. It was so
nice having a home cooked meal! The food tasted amazing as well. The next day,
we made our way to Nyanza to visit the King’s Palace. It took us quite a while
to find the palace, however. First, there was a bike race in Nyanza, which
blocked off a lot of roads. Second, the signs “directing” us to the palace were
not very helpful because we got lost. Third, not a lot of people spoke English
so we weren’t able to ask the locals where the palace was. In the end, it took
us about an hour to find the place. We were able to find some locals who spoke
English to help us out. The palace was beautiful! It was nice to learn some of
the Rwandan culture. The king’s palace looked like a giant dome. There was a
pole in front of the entrance that was called the forgiveness pole. Our guide informed
us that once someone touched the pole, the entire village, including the king,
would forgive that person for whatever they did. There were also sticks at
coming out from the top of the roof. Having one stick coming out meant that
there was a widow living in the house. The other two symbolized that the house
belonged to the king. We took off our shoes and entered the palace. Inside
there was a waiting room, a VIP room for the king’s friends, another room for
the queen’s friends, and the bedroom. The bed was huge. It seemed like it could
fit maybe five people on it! A fun fact I learned was that the shortest king
was 2.17 meters! The bed was definitely fit for a king, especially for a king
of that size.
Front entrance of the palace
Inside! P.s. check out my cool African shirt
There were also two smaller dome shaped houses behind the
palace. One of for a girl who was in charge of the milk. The other was for a
boy who was in charge of the banana beer. These jobs were very honorable jobs
because the boy and girl were chosen out of the rest of the village to serve
for the rest of their life. After seeing these two houses, we visited the cows.
The cows had huge horns! There was a cow herder there that would sing to the
cows. We were told that the cows love music and attention. One of the cows came
up to us, ushering us to pet him. Cows were my favorite animal as a child, so I
was super excited to be able to get so close to one!
The milk girl's home.
Pots that stored banana beer. The sticks are actually straws made of papyrus.
In front of the banana beer boy's home.
Inka! (Cow in Kinyarwanda)
We were also able to see the modern palace. The palace was
very big and had multiple rooms. I was able to learn more history about Rwanda,
including the expansion of the country (Another fun fact: Rwanda means
“expansion”). In the 18th century, Rwanda’s borders used to expand
into Uganda and the Congo, with a little help from Belgium. However, when these
colonizers left, the borders shrunk to today’s borders.
After visiting the palaces, Petek and I took a bus to
Muhanga where Savannah and Grace lived. We were able to also see Addie, Katie,
Megan, Gabby, and Bryan. We all cooked dinner together and had a feast. We made
spaghetti, mashed potatoes, sautéed green beans and carrots, and garlic bread.
We enjoyed our dinner while watching The Office. Grace also made these deep
fried banana balls for dessert! Although it a simple dish, it tasted very good,
especially with Nutella drizzled on top. The group sat around and caught up
while enjoying these banana balls.
Group pic with the food we prepared!
Serving it buffet style~
My plate of food. My favorite part was the garlic bread and veggies!
The next morning, we all woke up around 8 AM and made
grilled cheese sandwiches with avocado and omlettes for breakfast. There were
also some left over banana balls, so we ate those as well. We ate breakfast while
watching Despicable Me 2. After eating and finishing the movie, Petek and I
made our way back to Byumba. It’s shocking to know that we only have one more
week left here. This Friday, I’ll be heading back to Kigali for the EWH
conference. Next Sunday, I’ll be getting on a plane to go back to America. Time
has definitely flown by! I will definitely be making the last week memorable. I
wonder what adventures will be in store for us this week.
Grilled cheese and avocado! Not pictured: omlette and banana balls because I ate them haha...
No comments:
Post a Comment