The day to day

So I would say that I am becoming extremely comfortable here in Rwanda...almost too much so. Sometimes I am walking down the street and have to remind myself that I am in Eastern Africa! But I'm glad that I am feeling much more at home here.



Today was a cool day because I got to work on finalizing a grant. Mardge, who is my supervisor and one of the heads of WE-ACTx arrived last night. She is fantastic--such a character (in a very good way)! So she has been going strong since the moment she got in yesterday afternoon. So a huge grant was due today at 4 PM. It had to be turned in before then to this U.S. Office in Kigali. The problem is--there are absolutely no printers at WE-ACTx and for that matter....very few printers in all of Kigali. So we needed to put together 14 reports, all of which were about 80-100 pages each! In addition, we had to collect resumes from everyone in the office, edit them, and print them--all before 4 PM. It was a disaster--we had to figure out page numbers, font size, changing American paper format to Rwandan formats...and go to about seven different stores to take care of everything! So every time there was a problem, someone would slip in their USB zip drive (or whatever it is called) and send me out to all these different stores to get one print copy (being here really makes me appreciate Kinkos...that store is genius). OK, so I go to the "print" store where there is a computer circa 1990. I think it is the same one on which I played Oregan Trail in first grade! By this point in the day its around 3:15 already...so we are rushing. After I obtain the one copy from the print store I had to run to another store to make photocopies. The machine was constantly breaking down and printed one page at a time--it's nothing like the nice ones today where you just place in a tray all of your papers and they practically bind a book for you--in 5 seconds...so anyhow, it took a while. But SOMEHOW we managed to get it finished--it really was so funny and also a huge adrenaline rush. We were using glue from the donations box meant for little kids and these "zig-zag" scizzors which are meant for cutting cool designs into paper...but really somehow it worked out.

So we had 12 minutes to drive to this U.S. place to drop off the grant--we got there with around five minutes to spair. However, we didn't realize you needed to have a passport to get into this tightly secured building! So the only form of identification that any of us had was my U.S. drivers license....somehow they allowed us in--we were sprinting! We made it inside and the box was signed as recieved on time. I almost passed out! But it was fun to see how Mardge works--she's such a firecracker! I also was thinking I would really like to do grant writing....OK I know nothing about it...but I like the organization part of it and collecting and putting together all of this information, creating a budget, etc.--maybe someday I will learn how to write one (then probably hate it) but for now it seems like something I would enjoy.

On another note--I am starting a really cool project! I am going to develop a program for the adolescent girls in WE-ACTx. Today I wrote up an interview to ask mothers of all different education backgrounds and socioeconomic groups about the transition from childhood to adolescence in Rwanda. Some questions I am asking: "At what age do girls in Rwanda typically begin menstruating (age range)?", "What kind of education and support do they receive when they begin their period?", "With whom do young women discuss their transition to adolescence? (Family member-please specify, peers, teachers, doctors, counselor, other),"Is there an established program/model the government uses to teach adolescents about this developmental stage?". Other topics are drug use, sexual practice, stigma associated with HIV and being an adolescent....already I interviewed one woman, a mother of two girls. Something very interesting about the culture here is that it seems as if mothers send their adolescent children to their aunts or grandmothers to learn about this transition. I am going to hold a focus group of adolescent girls to assess their needs and hopefully develop a program so the girls in WE-ACTx (many who are orphans) will have peers and trained counselors with whom they can talk.

Next week I start two projects at the family program: one is the diary project that I mentioned before, the other is a new one--an art class--where we are going to draw self portraits. OK the reality is I am a mediocre artist at best....but these kids have zero art education and it would be fun to help them with the few things I do know about art with portrait drawing and also would be a good opportunity for them to draw how they percieve themselves...My hope is that I can keep some of these pictures and bring them back to the U.S. to be used during fundraisers.

Alright that is all for today.

ps--the pictures of the gorillas don't just appear close-they are close!