Rwanda Is You and Me

A few days ago the GO team was having lunch in Muhanga. Costa (our host) gets up before the food arrives and wanders off. He shows up as we are finishing our food and sends his food back for something else. When that comes out he tastes it, tells them it is no good, and orders something not on the menu. That comes out and he starts eating, and we tell him that we are already late for our meeting with the mayor. When he finishes eating we walk to the mayor’s office, about 45 minutes late. Bart mentions on the walk over to the mayor’s office that it was “kind of a rock star move.” After thinking about it, Costa is absolutely a Rwandan rock star. Here are five illustrations of Costa's rock starness.

1. I am sitting in Costas living room, having never met him, but he invited us over to a graduation party at his house. Family members slowly trickle in and reassure us that Costa will arrive soon. We are shocked when Costa walks in wearing a cap and gown. Thirty family and friends sit in a circle feasting in the yard using various levels of English to converse with us. Costa tells stories in 3 different languages, translates many things for us and cannot stop smiling.

2. During a ten o’clock dinner, Costa tells us that he spent the day checking up on a recently placed orphan two hours away. The orphan has been put into a family as a week trial before Costa asks if they like the family. The orphan approves of the family, but Costa must be at the office at 8 clock the next morning (leaving at 5 AM) to get a stamp so that the adoption can be official.

3. While Eve and Denise tried to teach me how to do laundry and speak Kinrwandan (I cannot say chicken or get shoes clean), I learn that Costa’s wife is their older sister. They watched their mother be murdered in the genocide in 1994 while hiding above the ceiling. Two orphans live with the family, children of those who murdered the family’s parents. Costa met the orphans and upon noticing their struggles asked them to join the family in Kigali.

4. I wake up early, and Costa is frantically tying his shoes. He explains that his friend’s child is very sick and to tell everyone he would meet us later. Costa rides the kid to the hospital on the back of a bicycle. Then, he gets in an argument with the mother who is convinced that he is cursed, not sick. After the positive TB X-ray Costa convinces the doctors not to let the child leave until he is healthy. On the way home he calls a friend to go to the hospital and stand guard.

5. Costa convinces a friend who owns a mini-bus to drive for a family outing to a genocide memorial. Nineteen people fill the minibus; many have never been to this memorial and had families killed in the genocide. After many tears and emotional moments we pile back into the bus and drive to a soccer game. Bart, Costa, Kyle and I are thrown into the action and at the end Costa brings out 1300 pens, a trophy and a soccer ball for the kids.

Early in our friendship with Costa, he said that he was not the best man in Rwanda. I told him a few days ago that I have not met very many Rwandans, but it will take a lot to convince me otherwise. I find it hard to not support people doing amazing things for their community.

More blogs and pictures here.
http://groundworkopportunities.tumblr.com/

FOOD

When my sister came back from Nepal, we talked for the first hour about the food. So, before venturing into Rwanda I will comment on the food in Tanzania.

Best entire experience:
We had just showed up at the school to play with the kids when we realize we have 30 minutes until the kids finish their lesson. So, Kyle and i aimlessly walk down the threet to find lunch. In 3 minutes we walk into a local restaurant with meat on a little BBQ. Perfect.
Kyle: "Do you serve food?"
'Yes, you want meat?'
Me: "Yes"
'Ugali or wal?'
(Blank stare)
'Wal is rice.'
"Oh, yes rice."
'With rice, you want...?' She clearly cant think of the name.
Kyle: "Vegetables?" 'No'
Ryan: "Sauce? 'No'
Kyle: "Beef Stew" 'No'
Ryan: "Chapati?" 'No' "Beans?" 'Yes' Big smile.
"Yes, we would like beans"

We sat down, drank orange Fanta and watched the locals fill the restaurant. We got white rice, with a scoop of whole pinto beans in a thick sauce, a chopped green leafy vegetable, and a bowl of goat stew with squash and potatoes. I promptly dumped my bowl onto the rice and enjoyed the meal I have had several times in Tanzania.

Most Unique: Ethiopian platter
A spongy crepe with piles of sauces/meats/vegetables on it. Rip apart the crepe and scoop full of spicy concoctions Wash down with house fermented honey wine.

Staple: Chapati
Wile ugali is the staple (soft doughy flour biscuit), chapati (fried tortilla) I could eat every meal for the rest of my life.

Most Creative: Salomon
Our cook on Kilimanjaro wowed us with many dishes. Early in the trip we had half an avocado filled with a coleslawish salad. I told him it was the best thing I had ever eaten. Sorry mom.

Late night craving: Zanzibar pizza
After walking out of the pool hall and back to the hostel. You could not walk past a person cooking on the street without spending 70 cents of a Zanzibar pizza. Ground meat and vegetable mixture is dumped into a freshly rolled dough square. They then crack an egg into it, fold it up, and fry it. its served with hot sauce and a garlicy hummussy side. One night we arrived 5 minutes too late. Cried ourselves to sleep.

Mt. Kilimanjaro

I managed to sneak in to a trip up the tallest mountain in Africa as a fund/awareness raising venture for GO (www.groundworkopportunities.com). We set off on an exciting bus ride early in the morning. Our bus is packed with porters, which we think is probably the most efficient way of getting a bunch of different groups up on the mountain. No. We have 16 porters, a waiter, a cook, and 2 guides. Which seems a bit excessive. But we are supporting the local economy I suppose. We go up the Rongai Route and day one is very easy. We pick up some porters bags (they each carry a backpack with their supplies and no more than 20kg in a bag on their head) and while we can carry them, it is hard to imagine carrying it all the way up to the last camp. The cooking on the trip was incredible. We had a mess hall set up for us every camp with a table, chairs and a 3 course meal. I felt like a general in a war a few hundred years ago. The guides taught us 2 new card games which we would play with them every night.

Day two was also fairly easy as we are starting to get into the groove of walking and hanging out at camp. Getting acclimated mostly involves going much slower than you want to, but it was nice to take our time. By the end of the second day we were above the cloud layer and would wake up to watch the sun rise over the clouds. Pretty average.

Day three we decided to change our itinerary and made it much longer. We climbed up a ridge and then back down to the same elevation on the other side of the mountain. Doing a big day three allowed us to finish our 1000m ascent on day 4 before lunch. We napped for the rest of the day and woke up at 11PM for summit night.

At about mid-night we set out for the summit. We rapidly pass most of the others who have set out a little before us. There is one group where many of the guides are singing songs in Swahili, I really liked walking near them. After about half the way up, we start moving very slowly. Bart and I got drunk from the lack of oxygen and Kyle got nauseous. All of our water froze so we were probably quite dehydrated as well. We got up to the summit, snapped a couple of pictures, and started down. Kyle vomited on the way down and I was very dizzy until we got a few hundred meters lower. It is crazy how elevation effects different people.

It takes us two days to get down to the bottom. After a day to recover, tomorrow we start helping with a school being built about 30 minutes away from Moshi. I am very excited to see what this will be like.

Peace Corps Test

Here is my post on Nic's peace corps blog after spending a week with him.


Hello, my name is Ryan, and I have known Nic for about 18 years now. I applied to the Peace Corps and have been waiting to get my assignment. I am not sure that the Peace Corps is in my future, but I was interested enough to apply and spend a week with Nic in Kenya. I am incredibly luck to have this opportunity and cannot thank Nic enough for letting me interrupt his life for a while week.
I do not know what to say about my time in Kilisa Village. I have done my best to not try to interrupt what is going on here while being whatever help I can to Nic and the community. I have done lots of water pump trouble shooting and discussing economics with Nic.
I cant imagine have been raised in Kilisa Village. Being breast-fed in the meeting room of the KVDC, building forst our of bricks in between shops, and going to school for 10 hour days are normal life here. The people are beautiful and I will remember the smiles and brief conversations with those who are willing to speak english, which greatly outweigh the unwelcomness that I have also received.
Nic is much stronger than I am in the difficulties that he has dealt with in this project. I do not envy his position. It is great to see someone put their heart and soul into a community that is struggling. Struggling may be the wrong word. Life is harder here.
As I explore, I become less sure about everything. I hoped that by the end of this week, I would know that I definitely wanted to join or avoid the Peace Corps. But, I still find myself totally unsure of what my future will hold. I plan on visiting Nic in a month again, but in that time I doubt I will have reached any new conclusions. Then I will go to Europe, will I find what I am looking for there?

Now I am in Tanzania preparing to climb Kilimanjaro. Check out GO's website for what I will be doing for the next 2 months http://www.groundworkopportunities.org/kilimanjaro/index.htm

Every Continent (Almost)

So I still have not been to Antarctica, but I now have been to Africa for a few days. Everywhere I go, things are very different from everywhere else I have been. I spent two days in Nairobi at a cool little hotel. I applied to the Peace Corps and am in Africa to visit a friend in the field and do some volunteer work. At the hostel we had a 4th of July party and I met about 15 peace corps volunteers. It was great to get about 12 one-on-one interviews, very productive and fun stay.

I am currently on my peace corps test. Nic (a friend from Pleasanton) and I spent 4 hours crammed into a matatu (bus) to go to his site. He has no power, pays someone to bring water, and has a small kerosene stove. This place makes southern Utah look lush and wet. Everything is red from exposed soil and everything is covered in dust.

I am helping Nic with a water pump to bring water from a subsurface dam to the village. Nothing is working. It is interesting and I am using some of the boring parts of firefighting to help. I think that I have a more lucid idea of what the Peace Corps has to offer, but every country and project is so different that there is no way to know what I might be getting into.

River Kwai

From everyone who I have talked to, the tour we went on was a typical example of tours in south-east Aisa. At 7 AM a can picks me up and use drive around town picking people up. Some guys sitting next to me at the hostel show their papers and are told to wait. My paper gets taken away and they put a sticker on me 25 vans show up in a spot and people get off and others are put on. After about an hour I get put on a new van with no one with my color stickers. We go back to my hostel and pick up the two guys sitting next to me and we drive west.
We go to a cemetery and a museum, Australians love their WWII history. Then we get dropped off at the "optional" train ride which is clearly necessary to get to lunch and continue on the tour. After lunch we go and splash around in a waterfall. Two dutch guys and I get stopped by a Thai couple because they want to take pictures with the half-naked white men.
No one on the tour knows what they have signed up for, has paid different amounts and are constantly told to do different things. We stay for two nights on a floating barge on the river Kwai. The next two days involve more waterfalls, elephant riding, a bamboo raft float, drinking games and great Thai food. A unique three days with lots of unique people.

Bangkok

So the main thing that I have learned in the last few weeks is that you cant get jetlagged if you dont sleep. It works much better.

I am now in Bangkok. I have been here about 18 hours. My flight got in at 11PM and I think I had a pretty typical first few hours. Customs and everything was no problem. Got in a cab to take me to the hotel. It drops me off and tells me to walk down the street, everything is perfect. My hotel is no where to be found. Dammit. I walk for about 15 minutes, get into another cab who drives around in a huge circle, drops me off at the same place but this time gives me directions (in Thai). I follow them to a hotel that has a very similar name to mine, but I talk to someone inside who gives me new directions. While walking down a back alley, I pass two teenagers with automatic weapons. I think they were fake. I check into my hotel about 1 AM and go to sleep about 45 minutes later when my heart rate was no longer 200.

The next morning I talk to a couple of very unhelpful travel agents, wander around and get a cab to go to STA travel so that I can change my tickets to stay in Africa for longer. We hit serious traffic, and they just closed when we finally get there. The cab takes me to a bunch of spots for commission that I need to talk him out of and pulls out a brochure of hookers and asks if I am interested. After finally getting him to go back to my hotel, he tries to charge me extra because we hit traffic. I was not in the mood for that. Jesse would be quite satisfied, that for once everything was not going right for me.

But then I found a new hostel that I like much better. They have a very nice travel agent so I talked with her for a while and tomorrow morning I am going into a National Park in the area I wanted to visit, west from Bangkok near the Myanmar border. We are hiking, floating on bamboo rafts, riding on elephants, etc. I suppose I may write a post in a few days about that. I wish I spoke a little Thai, that would help.

Blitz-Road-Trip

From 4 months in OZ, the main thing I have learned about myself is that I am a poor blog updater...

Last week, my cousin Megan showed up with a friend. We hung out in Sydney for two days and then jumped into a van that they rented and headed north. I had 2 ½ days off, and they were flying out of Brisbane in 3 days. There was a bunch of flooding on the coast highways in between Sydney and Brisbane. Most people use the Pacific Highway, and we started our whirlwind tour in similar fashion. After buying some supplies, we made lunch in a park in Newcastle and headed inland to avoid the closed freeways. We jumped over some mountains and drove for a ways in the dark after an unreal sunset. It was sad to miss the scenery, but when we stopped cooked an easy dinner the best stars I have ever seen were out. The Milky Way completely filled a huge section of the sky, it was unbelievable. We drove on and slept a little way off the highway in a wooded area.
The next morning we continue along inland and found a set of beautiful waterfalls. When we finally ran back into the coast, snacked on some cheese and crackers, went for a swim and enjoyed the sun on a nice little beach. We rolled into Nimbin that afternoon to check it out. It is hard to spend long in OZ without hearing of Nimbin. This is straight from Wikipedia…
“In New South Wales, the cultivation, selling and possession of cannabis is illegal. In Nimbin all three activities are part of every day hippie culture. Nimbin has a high tolerance for cannabis plant (marijuana), with the open buying, selling and consumption of locally grown cannabis on the streets and laneways.”
I avoided the drug dealers and spent 6 minutes in an internet café booking my flight for the next morning. We arrived in Byron Bay just after sundown because I was driving too slow, the left side of the road thing is still very weird. We had a nice little birthday dinner, drove up to a random forest above the gold coast and spent the night there. The next morning I packed while Megan drove us to the airport, and I made it early enough to work to take a quick shower. Great little trip. Thanks girls.

Anzac Day

OK so I have been mostly working and not wandering around as much as I want, but last Saturday was Anzac Day. From what I was told, it is Veterans Day in the states except it celebrates a day where Australia invaded a country and got slaughtered. Also unlike our veterans day, the main Anzac tradition is "Two-up". I had been told a lot about two-up before going out but I was still quite surprised.
So we go to this bar that is about a 10 minute drive away and is about the size of a small Vegas casino. We show up around 1 PM and it is already quite busy. When we walk out into the courtyard, there are about 400 people standing in a circle. Everyone has a beer and many are holding money up in the air and shouting. The the announcer yells gibberish and everyone cheers.
Two-up rules: A person from the crowd (similar to craps) goes into the middle of the circle and gets a wooden stick with three coins sitting on it. They throw it up in the air and which ever one has "2-up", or three up, Wins. Everyone else in the crowd holds $10 or more above there head (only girls are allowed to bet $5) and yells "10 on heads". Everyone else then walks around and gives 10 to a person with their money in the air, who is now betting tails. The announcer yells tails, where the handful of money is exchanged, or hehehehaawwlllllsssss in which case the whole crowd cheers, the person holding the money keeps it and the tosser gets to toss again.
I was down $10 to random Australians most of the day and finally break even on the last toss as the sun is going down. We go to a couple of other bars, and a party then I walk back home. I feel a little groggy at work the next day.

Manly Apartment and such

OK I am going to stop being lazy now. I don’t have internet at my new apartment so there will certainly be a drop in my online availability. First we will start with some details. I started working for Trek and Travel last week. They are an outdoor retailer selling high end really good hiking and mountaineering products. I seem to be averaging about 30 hours a week which will probably not be enough to sustain me so I will probably get another job soon. The reason that it will not sustain me is because I am living on Manly Beach.
6/31 Victoria Pde.
Manly, NSW 2095
Australia
…if anyone was interested. Really cool apartment and I living with an Aussie girl and a Kiwi guy. OK probably most people know this already but I will put it in here. If anyone in the States calls (925) 208-4723 it will forward to my cell phone here. The time difference is 5 hours behind, but tomorrow. I really like where I am working and where I am living. I go into the ocean every day, run on the beach or in the national park nearby, and today I think I am going to swim in the marine reserve about 5 minute walk from my apartment. The picture is out my living room window. OK hopefully more shortly….

Settled in Sydney?

Wednesday the 18th of February really wasn’t that unusual of a day. I didn’t do anything crazy but I think I will talk about it for a minute. I woke up had a bowl of muesli, took a shower, and caught a bus to the city. Once in the city I stopped by Trek and Travel and picked up a packet of catalogs to read before starting work next week. That will probably deserve its own entry some day. I then walked up towards the ferry and bought a set of headphones (my headphones got messed up in Ecuador because of the humidity and I finally gave up on them). I caught the ferry from the city to Manly (during the trip an apartment I wanted to see in Manly called me and a bunch of people glared at me for talking on the phone). I walked over to the Allens’ house and met Allen Yulle (sp?) for some tea. Allen Hill showed up and we went for a walk and then had lunch (they know how to eat) Mediterranean salad, potatoes, corn on the cob and kangaroo steaks. I was pissed that I only brought jeans (it was raining when I left) because at this point it is beautiful and everyone goes for a swim except me so I walk around exploring Manly a bit. I drop by the apartment and its right on the beach, everything is cool, unfurnished and really expensive. I then bolt out catch the ferry back and jump on a bus to Maroubra (most southern beach that I know of in Sydney). The apartment smells like cigarettes the second I walk in so that’s probably a no but she offers me a beer so I hang out and chat with her, she was very nice. I catch a bus transfer to another bus to Bondi and meet 2 new guys in an apartment in the most popular beach in Sydney. Another cool place. I mess up leaving their place and the bus driver tells me in the middle of nowhere that this is the last stop. A couple gives me directions to the bus I want but there is an Italian restaurant right next to the bus stop so I sit down for dinner. I was thinking about how cool the Manly place was but that I couldn’t afford it and the guy from Manly calls to say the place is mine if I want it and I say yes. Totally irresponsible but brilliant. I catch two busses and a train back to Balmain for quite a productive day. I spent over $30 on public transportation in one day.

Newcastle

I once again took a weekend train trip from Sydney. But this weekend I went to Newcastle with no plans except for what hostel I was checking into. I go for a run when I get there and get very lost seeing incredible beaches, beautiful lighthouse, and a cool little part of the town. The hostel is right on the beach. I find myself in a poker game just after getting back with 5 other guys (German and Canadian). After the game we hang out, meet more people and go out to some bars which weren’t much fun. The next day I take a free surfing lesson which is awesome and meet a bunch of girls (German and Canadian, I think this will be the theme of my time in Australia). Played a couple more games of poker, watched a couple of movies and wandered around. On Sunday I was pretty sun burnt by 11 o’clock (they claimed it was going to be 37 degrees), had another surf lesson, played a game of poker and headed back to Sydney. Absolutely the most beautiful beaches I have seen since I was backpacking in Hawaii 10 years ago. I will definitely go back and spend some more time there. I wonder what grad programs they have at the university…

Blue Mountain National Park

For the weekend, I headed to the blue mountain national park and the town of Katoomba. I checked into a YHA hostel and set off into the national park. I was out of the range of my map quickly and wandered around the trails aimlessly. I came back to the hostel to find that everyone cooks at YHA hostels which I would take advantage of the next day. It is very quiet that night and at least half of the guests are over 40 years old. I meet a German guy that night and we decide to hike the next day. The next day we go to ruined castle, a very cool hike and climb the golden staircase on the way. I probably did close to 40 kilometers over the two days. I bought some beer and came back to the hostel and offered them out to make more friends, in return I had dinner made for me of salmon, potatoes, squash, and steak. The crowd was a girl from Santa Cruz, two Canadians, one Scottish, two Germans, two French, and an Irish. We stayed up late playing a guitar that I checked out from the hostel, drinking wine, and telling stories.

Australia Day 2009

I have heard a lot about Australia Day before arriving in Australia, mostly from Daniel (one of my Ecuadorian traveling friends). But my Australia Day, while being brilliant, was very different from what I expected. I wandered through Darling Harbor which was not very exciting, and I was worried about my prospects for the day until I found myself in The Rocks. There was a 9 stage all Aussie band music festival going on. I saw non-stop unique music, until well after sun down. Each band was incredibly different and I am giving pandora suggestions for a few people.

Dan Sultan - Mom - A young indigenous guy who is wicked on the guitar but most of the time sings while jumping around with a moraca. Imagine James Brown growing up in the outback in a rock band.

Coco's Lunch - Zeka - All female acapella group who's songs were mostly inspired when traveling through India. A little lesbiany but I have never heard music like this.

Perry Keyes -Denise - Present day classic rock. I think the main guy with the acoustic electric guitar would sound better on his own, but the band was fun.

Watussi - Daniel - Some Columbian guys singing in spanglish and killer guitar with a salsa vibe. Incredible bongos, trumpet, saxophone, trombone.

The Herd - Brendan - Hip-hop guys that sound a little like Rage Against the Machine mixed with Linkin Park. Rappers with 2 guitars, a bass, and a guy on accordian/clarinet.

Whenever I look up music after a show I am disappointed so if anyone doesn’t like the music I picked for them, I will blame it on that. The rain started during Coco’s lunch and hasn’t stopped yet. But everyone was jumping around all day in front of the stages. Several people got arrested for jumping into the harbor in front of the main stage. Quite a day…