In the south for one week

Hey this is going to be very brief because I am leaving at 5 am tomorrow for Butare. I am spending a week at the University there--I will be working with Mary the trauma psychologist--she is teaching for a week--the first psychology masters program in Rwanda. crazy. So I'm really interested in seeing the university and learning about trauma counseling. So I wont have email access until Friday.

This past weekend was great--I went to Akajera in the north and saw giraffes, zebras, hippos, gazelle, baboons. It was really cool! Here are a few pictures, one is from before I left at the Mille Collines Hotel--the hotel on which Hotel Rwanda was based.




Today I went to the famliy program and had the best time. I feel like I am really developing relationships with the kids, which makes it all the harder because I'll be leaving soon. But I started my art class today. It went so well! I worked with a small group--fifteen girls--and we did self portraits. It was so much fun. I thikn it was the first art class many if not all of the girls had ever had. Some of the portraits are really good. They are all fast learners. After, I taught the english class-- 60 of the older kids--this was also fun. What I have them do is get into partners and then they have to do demos in front of the class--so one person says to the other "Hi, how are you?" and the person answers: "I am...." and then they show a particular expression on their face (happy, sad, mad, tired, etc.) and the person who asked the question has to say "He/she is happy/sad, etc.". They love it! I think they are really learning, although it is hard because there are so many kids.

The little kids are mroe than adorable. Watching them eat their snack is my favorite part, i think. They drink these huge glasses of thick sweet milk (its like yogurt!) and get huge milk mustaches. I promise I'll bring my camera next week so you can see pictures of some of them.

On another note, I have learned that they do not have any antidepressants available in Rwanda. This is unfortuante because so many people suffer from post traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, etc. Something else I learned was that abortion is completely illegal here. This country is religious and because of this--rather conservative (not in the Bush way, but in a religous way...if that makes sense). There has been so much rape and pregnacies b/c of the rape--and there is nothing these women can do about it. In addition, birth control pills are extremely rare--and the people that take them are almost always married.

Many of the kids in the program have mothers who are prostitutes. I learned that the prostitutes charge more money if the man doesn't want to wear a condom....so this, clearly, exacerbates the spread of HIV. Something else--mamy of the prostitutes were raped or sexually assaulted and sometimes purposely spread HIV to the men so they become infected. THe cutest girl in the clinic (if i were to adopt a child, she woud be it!) was born to a prostitute. She has a new baby eveyr year.

Alright, I'm exhausted and I have less than five hours before I catch a bus tomorrow to Butare.

Take care everyone! I'm thinking about you all.