April update – in May

I think overall, I have failed on this whole blogging experience. I just have not kept up with writing. In addition, my internet situation has been shotty. So when I am in Kigali, here is a list of things that I do instead of blogging.

1) eat copious amounts of food
2) surf YouTube
3) hang out with other volunteers

Furthermore, I am not comfortable shamelessly promoting myself on the Internet via Facebook. ( I’m an introvert not a attention grabber)

However, I have done some things. First, I have completed a permagarden training with my community health workers and attended the behavior change conference.

*I’m currently at site, so I’m using the WordPress app on my Techno Phone to write this. Let’s see if this photo / blog even uploads *

At the behavior change conference, I think the most useful thing that I learned was logic trees. These attempt to categorize problems into immediate, underlying, and root causes to plan activities, objectives, for a project.

Here is a logic tree from the WHO about chronic malnutrition: (which I was unable to load – try googling it)

Bientôt,
Taher Bhaijee

Some things that I have learned

1) Life throws you weird curveballs.
2) kitch is a German fashion word for extravagant in poor taste.
3) gezellig is the Dutch word for cozy ambiance /good time /good company.
4) I know nothing.
5) may the force be with you.

Religion in Rwanda: Visiting a Catholic Church, a Masjid, and a Hindu Mandal

Rwanda is a predominately Christian country with a majority of the population practicing Catholicism, Seven Day Adventist, or Protestantism. However, there is a portion of the population that practices Islam. This portion is typically all around the country, but primarily concentrated in the regional towns. A typical regional town will have a masjid somewhere. In addition, there are a few Desi population in the capital city of Kigali only which led to the formation of the only Hindu Mandal in Kigali. Below are some pictures of visiting religious institutions in Kigali.

The Catholic Church in Rwamagana, Rwanda where my host brother practiced his confirmation. 

The Masjid in Rwamagana, Rwanda in the Islamic Neighborhood during Ramandan.

The Hindu Mindal in Kigali during the festival of Garba.

Experiencing these places and events felt good but also felt similar.  Different religions have different beliefs and traditions,  but the feelings,  spirituality and the emotions are the same.  Here is to hoping to build a more tolerant world.

Admin Update:

Hello all,

Just a quick note that I have posted 5 posts about past experiences. I had them, but I was trying to figure out how to make them a page instead of a post and put them all on one clickable category to the side. I couldn’t figure it out unfortunately. As a result, I just posted them, lumped them into one category, and the tab Letters from Paris has a link to the category so it shows the post. (aka just click on Letters from Paris).

I studied abroad in Sept 2011 – Dec 2011. This experience is important, because it took a middle class suburb kid and put him in a city for the first time. Definitely changed my perspective and experience in the world. I will be polishing them up soon. In addition, I gained the ability to marginal speak French which helped me get into the Peace Corps.

A bientot,

Taher Bhaijee

Paris Letter #5

Yesterday, I had a great night. I went to this foreign culture exchange thing called “franglish”….native French and English speakers come together for 2 hours to speak in French for 7 minutes and then in English for 7 minutes. It was amazing talking in French to French people (finally!!). Also these are my first French friends. I met a group of French friends, Laura who is working for the Ministry of Defense, Chloe, Cedric, and Aday. They were all friends who decided to do this program. Also I met some American literature grad students who came together Hayley, Kelsy, and Matthew. So all 8 of us hung out at this English chain place by the canal and I ate a hamburger for the first time in 2 months!! So til around 11, I hung out with them speaking English and French alternatively. It was definitely more english than french, but I am pleased by the amount of French that I learned and I can also carry a conversation. It was really fun and again in another part of Paris which I discovered.

Today I went to the salon du chocolat which is a chocolate exposition. Expositions are not a great place to go to if you want to see equality in our society. I wonder who puts these expositions on. Anyway from a consumer point of view, it is a great place to go and buy chocolate or a least try a whole bunch of free chocolate. The fashion show was cool too. Overall it was a wonderful night . If I was super rich and I could buy a piece of everything and then I would be perfect. However, I am not so I can only modest try the free samples and make smart buys. Really none of the chocolate is worth it unless you can gift it to someone. Chocolate is definitely a pleasure item. What really disturbed me was that in 2011, Europeans still have Africans going “native” dances for them. I wonder how much of the “dances” were really ethnic cultural dances. One of them had amteur dances on the stage, but the clothes were stereotypical. They were super revealing and had animal patterns. I doubt any traditional African entire is that revealing. They need clothes to stay warm and give them protection. The most I think about how they dress and how they dances, the more I think that it was just a stage act. These were people who needed money who dances and dresses exactly as whoever total them to dance. Finally, the models were disgusting also. I thought models were supposed to be model clothes and be well – attractive. I didn’t realize those models are not attractive at all. They are freakishly thin, they don’t have boobs, and they are super tall. I have never seen tall girls be that attractive. Literally they only where they look attractive is in photos or movies. I have lost a lot of respect for the chocolate business in general. Or at least any of the high-class racist chocolators that were in this exposition. I guess racism and sexism sells though. I found the whole thing slightly distastefully. Racist is still very much alive in the 21st century. The pho is good though, but the spicy sauce is definitely water down a lot. Oh well, white people can’t handle favor.

Paris Letter #4:

The Margaret  Cho show was in Belleville. Belleville is the underground artist side of Paris. This is every the poor good artist who haven’t made it yet live. Belleville also has a lot of legal streets that have graffiti. The whole street is reserved for people to paint there and then repaint over the old stuff. It really gives a crazy impression. That used to be Montemarte, but Montemarte has become popular, rich, and touristy so all the artists who make it live in Montemarte now. So again, I went a different side of Paris due to a show.

Already so all of these stories have a common theme of food, but I yet again went to a different side of Paris due to rendez-vous with my Adopt-A-Student mentor who I tried to speak French with. So I went to Chez Gladines near the Place d’Italie. I am not sure why they call it that, but I think there used to be a Italien quarter there and there is a lot of Italian restaurant nearby, but there are also a lot of Asian in this side of town to. Asian are everywhere in Paris. I still really haven’t found where all the Vietnamese people live either. Anyway I really regret this trip because I was having a good time eating dinner sitting next to these two attractive girls. Midway through the dinner, the girl next to me, who I was listening to talk ( because she was speaking in English and French she had an American parent) It was super cute how she would switch back and forth between English and French) starts talking to us, because we mentioned Berkeley.

I went to Montemarte today. Montemarte was happening with a huge festival. There were booths with food and wine. Tons of tourists .There was a Italian singer named Yuri. There was a huge parade with tons of bands, especially this one band that was going crazy and blocked the street. There were also people in artist costumes. Also I went to the café where Amelia worked at in the movie. Then I went to Markaz. Markaz was definitely an up and down roller coaster ride. If I get to play soccer tomorrow then everything is good!

Paris Letter #3:

First, I went to Disneyland Paris. That was a really adventure in itself. The Paris Disneyland is really a smaller carbon copy of the actually Disneyland. My friend Paul and I started to call it brazzo Disneyland actually. They had four areas which where futureland (instead of tomorrow land), frontierland (which was wild west theme), adventureland (which was jungle themed), and of course fantasyland. In futureland they had star tours, space mountain 2, and the buzz lightyear ride. In frontierland, they had the haunted mansion ( which was the masion de horrur) and thunder mountain (literally the exactly same design). In adventureland they had pirates of the carribean and indiana jones. and of course they had it’s a small world, teacups, peter pan, etc in fantasyland.

It was definitely fun hanging out with friends, but the rides were ok and they kept breaking down. We didn’t get to go on Indiana Jones or Pirates because they broke down. Also I have been on all the rides so it was just alright.

The other park, Walt Disney studios was definitely a lot more fun. I have never been to California Adventure, but I imagine it was like California Adventure a little bit. There were a Hollywood Tower of Terror which I went on twice, a Toy Story themed area ( like the bugs life area in California Adventure), some sort of studio tours thing like at Universal Studios, and a couple of shows. The shows were the best part in my opinion since they can always change the shows, but the rides stay the same year after year after year.

In addition, there was a Disney village that was like Downtown Disney. In essence, I went home for a little bit on Saturday.

Then Saturday Night was Nuit Blanche. I thought that meant that it was a white night and that all the museums would be open all night. Well that’s wrong. Nuit Blanche is a idoimatic expression for an all nighter. So in the city of Paris in certain areas was alive at night with crowds and crowds of people. Granted a lot of the people were drunk, but it was still fun to be out. There were a lot of people who were just by the river’s side (the Seine) or in circles hanging out with friends. My friends and I went to Hotel de Ville, then we ran along the Seine to Notre Dame, then went to the Pantheon, and then finally we ended at the Louvre. We were just walking around town at night, talking, making jokes, visiting monuments, and watching people hang out til 4 am.

Paris Letter #2:

One of the best things about Paris is the architecture. First you have the Catholic cathedrals that are all over France. I went to the Cite de la Architecture which is the Museum of Architecture. There I was able to see copies of call the major parts of the cathedrals from all over France. The cathedrals are broken up into 8 styles of architecture; Roman Languedoc, Roman Poitou Saintonge, Roman Auvergne, Roman Provence, Roman Bourgone, early Gothic, High Gothic and Flamboyant Gothic. I actually went to Rouen and Chartes to see two of the Cathedrals in addition to the ones in Paris. The Chartes Cathedral is an example of high gothic while the one is Rouen if definitely flamboyant Gothic. ( Now I wish I took pictures…) Anyway, if you google the two cathedrals you can definitely tell the difference between the styles.

The second best thing about Paris is the art. I went to the Dali Exposition last Saturday and I got the full experience of surrealism. Pictures of Art can’t convey the mood or the feeling of art. I literally did not remember what surrealism, but now I won’t ever forget it. Its loneness, its clocks, its time, its fantasy, it’s a representation of reality, its deformed, its juxiposition, it’s hard to explain. You have to experience it. Also I went to the Musuem d’orasy a couple of weeks back where I was able to grasp impressionist. I definitely have to go back to that museum, because that was only a little part of the picture. Impressionism is nature, is buildings, its movement for things that are still. Its lush, its bright, its dots, its spots, its changes from near to far. Its heavy brush strokes, its lots of paint. It’s motion. I tried to see what Monet saw at his Garden in Givery, but I couldn’t. I went to the lily pond and I watch the tourist go by and saw the lush nature, but I couldn’t see how he derived movement from stillness. Also I was watching the reflection of the plants for a while too, because the impressionist also painted water with the reflection of the landscape.

The third best thing about Paris is the gardens. There’s a lot. There’s gardens everywhere with different feelings and themes in each of them. There’s a long garden called a Promenade Plantee. It used to be an aqueduct or a metro line, but it’s a long thin garden that is above the streets and its several miles long. Anyway on the weekends, families and old people walk in the garden while people run in the morning in evenings. French teenagers smoke, hang out, and be obnoxious in the afternoons on the weekdays. If it’s a normal Sunday day in French, then a ton of people do to a grassy park to sunbath. Literally the entire grass area would be covered with sunbathing French people. I think they do it when they get the chance, because usually there’s always clouds, wind, or rain.

Obviously , the very best thing about Paris is the French. I love walking and hearing people speak French. It’s a beautiful language and it gives so much culture and meeting to a small little region. I wish I could find somebody to practice French with all the time. As I mentioned before, I am in the apartments where everybody speaks English, but I started to speak in French to my roommate. He still responds in English, but whatever. I also started to try and talk longer conversations to random people at stores. Basic stuff like asking what time it is, where to find something or how are you and where are you from.

Letters from Paris #1:

(9-25-11) Letter 1:

Paris is without a doubt an experience.

I learned a lot about myself just by living alone away from home. I really had difficulties doing simple stuff like going to the grocery. Before I would just do grocery when it was convenient, eat Steven’s food, or I would just get something fast food. However, in Paris since everything is super expensive and they don’t even have many fast food places I really had to do groceries and figure out what I am going to eat. I am still trying to transition into trying to buy stuff at the open air markets.

Obviously the language is a barrier and I am still a little shy, but after a month I am starting to talk to random strangers. Also since this is my first time living in a city, I am always amazed and how many people there are. Lucky living in California and doing to Riverside has prepared me enough so that the diversity of people in Paris is not shocking at all. It is sad that the different groups of people do tend to stick to their own groups, but it is hard to break centuries of prejudices.

I wish I had a good friend already in the program from Riverside that I would be comfortable speaking French all the time with. Since I am in the apartments with all the other UC Americans, everybody speaks English. You really have to put an effort to speak French.

Other than that I am very pleased that I grew up a bit because I traveled here. Before I would stay awake until 1-2 and wake up at 10 or 11, but I now I am doing to sleep at a decent time and waking up at 7 or 8.

Some of the best things that I have done so far is seeing the sunrise at the Effil Tower and Sacre Couer, going to the September 11 memorial and getting interviewed and watching football with friends, going to Chartres to see the Cathedral, going to museums to see surrealism and impressionist paintings, feeling extremely insignificant at the catacombs, going to see Monet’s Gardens, there a lot of parks in Paris so I was going to a lot of parks.

The Times That I have Gotten Emotional and Cried in Rwanda

Living in another country is a very strange experience. It is easier to get emotional, because sometimes you have to hide it or it is subconscious. Sometimes it just builds up. I have cried more times in Rwanda than in the States. Here are some of the times that I have gotten emotional and teared up/cried in Rwanda.
I cried when I traveled to Butare and seeing the Genocide Memorial at the Rwanda University. They had pictures of students and professors that were missing/killed. It hit me that I could have died in that situation. My friends, my professors could have died.

 

I cried during the Swear- in Speech when our country director talked about her 3 African colleagues who died during pregnancy/childbirth because they lacked access to the health services that could have saved her life. This is what I am hoping to prevent by increasing maternal education in my community. We are switching our health program to the first 1,000 days program.I cried on my first week of site when I was explaining what it means to be a Peace Corps volunteer and it hit me – I finally made it. My dream came true. 

I cried during the development session when talking about the European immigrants crisis and for the all the Syrian refugees who displaced during the ongoing Syrian Civil War.