Strange Encounters II

Bar Food

During my site visit, my counterpart took me to a bar to have a quick snack since we had been out all day touring the village and surrounding areas.  I'm not fond of the bars here as PC tells us to stay away from them as much as possible, but I was hungry and in no mood to object.  The food actually turned out to be pretty good and me and my counterpart decided on Fanta's instead of beer (I don't drink beer anyway).  We had brochettes (goat) and plantains.  Just before we left, though, my counterpart and the server shared a few words and left me wondering at what was just said.  Once we were back outside, my counterpart told me that he was not happy.  I asked why, and he said, "Because the chef had too many drinks and did bad things to our food."  I started to ask what bad things, but then thought better of the situation.  I'm sure I was better off not knowing what was done since the food was already sitting in my tummy with no way out until later.  Instead, I said a silent prayer and hoped my body wouldn't end up rejecting whatever the chef had done.

Rumors:

After just two short days at sight, already I have become a part of the village's latest gossip.  I was at one of the nurses homes sitting on a short bench next to a deaf guy when my counterpart walked up.  The deaf boy hopped up immediately and started making gestures and faces that I didn't quite understand (I later realized that he was telling my counterpart to sit next to me).   After a few more gestures from the deaf guy, everyone began to laugh.  I asked what he was saying and my counterpart said that because he has been showing me around the past couple of days, everyone in the village had seen us together and assumed that we were in love.  He told me that no matter what the relationship is between two people, if they have never seen one of you before, but then they suddenly see you two together all the time, they will assume that one person is in love with other.  And it didn't help that he had been driving me around on the health center's moto as our mode of transportation.  I just laughed this one off...I guess people will gossip no matter what part of the world you're in.

Visit to the Primary School:

For one of our stops around the village, my counterpart took me to the primary school and no sooner than our moto pulled onto the property, I was surrounded by what seemed like hundreds of kids.  I must admit I felt a bit overwhelmed.  I said hello and threw out a "how are you?" at no one in particular.  The kids surrounded me and just stared...if I had seen something like this in America, I would have thought there was either a fight or celebrity at the center of the crowd.  I'm assuming my counterpart could sense my discomfort because after about two minutes of introductions with the teachers that came out to greet us, he looked at me and said, "Maybe we can go now?"  I responded by hopping back onto the moto and putting on my helmet.

Is the sun big and bright in America?

I thought this was the cutest question.  One of the first things one of the cleaning ladies at my health center asked me was, "Is the sun big and bright like this in America?"  She proceeded to point up at the sun and I couldn't help smiling as I responded.  This made me think a bit about the cultural and educational differences between America and Rwanda.  We are so blessed to have access to a decent education, where we can learn about other countries and cultures in addition to our own.  And even when it isn't taught in school, we have access to Google and other sources where we can find answers to the most trivial questions that float around in our heads.  This was one of those moments that just made me think...

You can cook!

There are times when I feel like Rwandans think that I, as an American, am very incompetent.  Whenever I pick up a knife to help cut potatoes or even attempt to stir whatever is cooking in a nearby pot, anyone who can see me says, "Wow!  You can cook!"  I find this both amusing and insulting; amusing because many of the things that I see my Rwandan mama do, I have done at least once before, and insulting because American's are not stupid. Where on Earth did these views come from that we cannot complete even the simplest of tasks without a little bit of help??

What kind of girls do guys like in America?

So the nurses are very youthful and as soon as I got to the health center, I noticed that they like to laugh and joke around just as much as I do.  At one point in time, we ended up talking about America and one of the nurses asked me what kind of girls guys like in America.  Well this answer certainly depends on the guy, but I went ahead with what I know best.  My response was, "Guys like girls with big amabunos."  They all busted out laughing (amabuno means butt btw).  There were three of us in the room and one of the nurses said, "the guys would love me in America!"  Then the other stood up, turned around, pulled her skirt really tight around her derriere and said, "Would the guys like me in America??"  All I could do was laugh. 

Love and Peace Corps,

Dametreea