Heyo!
No, that’s not Kinyarwanda. I just wanted to say heyo. =)
This has actually been a pretty chill week. One group started Micro-Teaching, so a third of our classes were absent. Plus, they need the classrooms to teach in, so we had open afternoons.
One of the sessions we had together was on conflict resolution styles. A lady from PC Washington is working on a new program to train all PCVs in personal and group conflict resolution, and PCVs in post trauma countries more thoroughly in psycho-social causes of conflict that leads to violence and the cycles that people get trapped in, and how they work through to reconciliation. Yeah, I know that’s kind of a run on, but it all works together. Anyway, she is just creating the program, so she told us we were her guinea pigs for a first presentation and session as she designs her curriculum. She took us out to the courtyard, placed a chair in the middle that was “conflict”, and asked us to take a position towards it. I was a little surprised at some people’s reaction, but mostly, it was really interesting to see how scattered we were. Not only were people at different distances from the chair, but some had their backs turned, and Matt sat on the chair. I walked right in front of it, and put my hands in my pockets, because I have learned that conflict needs to be dealt with head on, but calmly and rationally.
The other major piece of the personal section was a “personal conflict style survey” (which I think I remember doing in my group communication class a ways back). It tested on 2 sets of responses – the “Calm”, when issues first arise, and the “Storm”, after the issues have been unresolved and have grown in intensity. The graph that accompanies the lists set the value of the relationship against the value of the issue.
In the Calm, my resolution style is a high collaborating, with a tied compromising and forcing. During the Storm, compromising takes a stronger lead over collaborating, and accommodating pulls above forcing. Which sounds good to me… (comments, rebuttal, anyone?) The only thing I didn’t particularly agree with in her discussion was negative connotations she applied to forcing. Both Bobby and I tried to voice the idea that you can be determined to share your point of view, and do it graciously and tactfully – she calls that manipulation. Whatever. Most of the time, what I really want is to be understood. You don’t have to agree with me, as long as you can see where I’m coming from…
We’ve also had a few sessions with Rwandans aimed at helping us understand the genocide and reconciliation since then. The following is the history of Rwanda as I understand it. (if you’re not that interested, skip to the *** part)
Please keep in mind that certain names and groups have not been too clearly explained to me, so if things don’t make sense – that’s how I understand it…
The Royal Era
There were 3 main members of the royal team; the king, the personal secretary (who was responsible for getting him crowned), and the queen mother. There were also 3 families (who intermarried) who rotated in the position of the crown. Beneath the royals were 3 chiefs: chief of land (farming), chief of pasture (herding), and chief of the army. The chief of the army was often called upon to settle disputes between the herders and the farmers. Beneath them was a complex hierarchy of sub-chiefs and regional directors. The government was decentralized here, which is unusual for the other plateau continent kingdoms. (The current government is Very central, but with hierarchy everywhere. Districts, regions, cities, even in schools – there is an order to be followed.)
Colonial Divisions
When the colonizers came, they noticed the difference and concluded that this style that was more similar to Europe indicated a higher level of thinking and required ethnic outlining. They decided that the leaders were descended from “Hammites” (yes, one of Noah’s sons) who was cursed. Now, colonizers had to choose certain people to educate and integrate into their culture. They carefully measured facial features and quantified any possible description, and determined that the taller, thinner, cattle herding people came from Ethiopia and were smarter, and the shorter, stouter, farmers came from Chad and were stronger. They chose the Tutsi sons of chiefs, who looked a little more like Europeans: tall, slender, longer noses, and slightly lighter skin. Anyway, they sent them to school in Butare, and when they graduated, they went to work for the Belgians as “assistants”. It is, in fact, these modes of “divide and rule” that help lead to conflict later on.
In 1933, they formalized identities based on ethnic labels as opposed to clan and region (which is where they stared). The taller men (with more than 10 cows) were designated Tutsi and the shorter farmers (with less than 10 cows) were designated Hutus. These labels were stamped on identity papers, and impacted whether or not you went to formal schools, and what kind of jobs you could get. The uber ridiculous part is that parents, children, siblings, any kind of relatives could be labeled with differing ethnicities. As these divisions solidified over the next generation, the monarchy pattern was weakened.
Major Colonial Malpractices
- Political Domination
The Belgians introduced “reforms” to reduce the number of Rwandan rulers. They reduced the number of sub-chiefs and slowly shifted power over major decisions to the colonizers. Also, ALL of the ruling positions left for the Rwandans were exclusive to Tutsis.
- Economic Exploitation
These jobs were called the Uburetwa. They were higher trained, and higher paid. There was, of course, the standard unfair taxation and confiscation and redistribution of land (and guess who benefited). I think the hardest piece that I have heard is the Akazi. Any infrastructure designed by the colonial powers was mandatory, unpaid labor, designated for the “stronger” Hutus. So roads, schools, churches, etc... was all slave labor.
- Social Repression
When these compulsory works were not completed, there was forced migration, beatings, and humiliation. Also, there was a historic relationship between the farmer and the cattle owner on renting cows for labor and milking and offspring and the use of the land for grazing called the Ubuhake (all very complicated, don’t really understand it) but this became more exploitative and started using colonial powers to support repression.
A Shift in the Wind
After WWII, the current king promised reforms and change, but they were all only half-fulfilled. He abolished Ubuhake, but didn’t create new laws to regulate the sharing of land. He abolished Uburetwa and Akazi, but the land belonging to the political leaders was not redistributed well. The beatings just shifted from the chiefs to the police.
In 1952, chiefs and sub-chiefs added councils and committees to help with making decisions, but the members were mostly Tutsi, and the councils held mostly consultative power. In the late 50’s, the councils were discussing adding Hutus to share power in the political arena, and some of the Hutu leaders were pushing for education for which would lead to social freedom in the future. Apparently they were pushing too strongly though, because the king rejected many of their requests as divisive.
Internal Divisions
Neither the Tutsis, nor the Hutus were a unified group. The older generations were more conservative, the progressive Democrats had studied in the Belgian schools, and, of course, there were always opportunists.
The northern Hutus were considered the “intellectuals”. A man named Gitarama, who had studied at seminary, created the “Hutu Manifesto” with the help of priests to state the rights and strength of the bahutu (the Hutu people). However, most of the bahutu were in the south, and rural teachers, workers, with small salaries.
And the “intellectuals” they were being oppressed by were not the majority of the batutsi, who were peasant cattle herders.
Most importantly, during this time the Tutsi in power were starting to push for independence from colonial rule. The Belgian government was not too thrilled with their pets trying to strike out on their own; they had educated them, reserved the nicest jobs for them, given them higher salaries, and now they wanted freedom.
Elections, and Early Violence
In 1959, we see the first political violence. There was a “revolution” by the Hutu leaders. Tutsi chiefs and sub-chiefs were killed, chased out, or demoted. This was also the first mass exodus of Tutsi and monarchists (which included some Hutu, and even the forest tribes of Twa / pigmies). This “revolution” was backed by the Belgian leaders in an attempt to regain control over the Tutsi rulers.
By the elections in 1960, there were 4 major political parties. The UNAR included Tutsi and Hutu and had traditional and progressive members. They wanted autonomy in 1960, and independence in 1962 with a democracy and constitutional monarchy. RADER was the moderate party with Tutsi and Hutu, who declared gratitude towards the colonial powers. They were willing to move more slowly with autonomy in 1964, and independence in 68. They also wanted a constitutional monarchy, but were most concerned with establishing the privatization of land. The MDR/PARMEHUTU were incredibly anti-monarch and wanted a republic government. They included intellectual goal and peasants goals in their platform; rejected inequality in salaries, and wanted land privatization as well. However, they claimed true independence would only occur when ALL Tutsi were out of power. Finally, the APROSOMA was the party of the Hutu leaders, and their line was “the party of the masses”. But they based themselves around the home of Giterama, regrouped the intellectuals in the south, and radicalized around the Hutus.
The PARMEHUTU won the elections, and were backed by the Belgians. This shifted all the power to the Hutu intellectuals very quickly. Refugee land was parceled out, Hutus sued Tutsi for “historic land rights”, structural counter-oppression, and bursts of violence still scattered around the country. As refugees tried to return between 1961 and 1966, not only were they attacked, but other Tutsi across the country were killed. It’s estimated that over 10,000 were killed during these years.
Ridiculous Republics
Under the newly independent government, the “Masses” were redefined as exclusively Hutu. The opportunists were not satisfied with state reforms, and were constantly fighting for more. In 1973, Habyarimana takes power, and promises “peace and stability”. He still employed a systematic exclusion of the Tutsi, but the major physical violence was stopped. Unfortunately, the exclusion included from the military, so the army was almost completely Hutu. During the world-wide economic crisis of the mid-80s, currency was devalued, population was still rising, and there was a natural land shortage. Unfortunately, the stress of one generation is passed down to the next generation, including who to blame.
Confusion of the 90s
At the end of the Cold War, a wave of democracy crossed Africa (I think. At least it crossed Rwanda…) People were critiquing the ruling party, and more parties were building for the elections in the following year. One of the major points of contention was all of the displaced Rwandans. Many of them wanted to come home, but the government protested there wasn’t enough room. They did work on improving relationships with neighboring countries so the refugees and displaced citizens could be more comfortable where they were, but this was not satisfactory to the refugees who were organizing outside the country. In October, the RPF attacked in an attempt to get back into the country. This did not help anti-Tutsi sentiments at all.
There were 17 political parties by 1991, and the country was shifting to a multi-party government system. They all exploited the ethnic factor, all appealed to Hutus, and almost all employed violence. In 1992 and 1993, there was a coalition government, and 2,000 more people were killed.
The Lynch Pin
When the Arusha Peace Accords were signed between the government and the RPF at the end of 1993, the building radical party threatened that this would be one of the final acts of the reigning president. In the first week of April, 1994, the president’s plane was shot down at 8 in the evening. By midnight, there were roadblocks, and people were being pulled out of their beds and their houses and killed. In many regions, Tutsi leaders were encouraged to gather together in “safe hiding places” that they were then slaughtered in. Churches and schools that housed fugitives were destroyed. The main radio station that had been broadcasting propaganda for months was now instructing Hutu men married to Tutsi women to kill their family, because the kids probably weren’t theirs anyway.
Rwandan culture is highly organized, and teaches obedience to leadership and conformity. For the last number of years, lessons were veiled propaganda messages as well. Students were separated in the classroom by ethnicity and daily denounced. Math examples said things like “if you have 10 Tutsis, and kill 2, how many are left?”.
Reconciliation
In the last 15 years, Rwanda has rebuilt from no money, no government, no infrastructure, to a country with national public service days, 9 years of mandatory education, medical and scientific universities, and a newly completed paved road system. They have governmental agencies that are designed to reeducate the populace on tolerance and reconciliation. People give conferences that gather city leaders or teachers together, and speak whenever they’re asked by any group, that teach the true history back to the Rwandan people and explain that how someone looks is not an accurate indicator of ethnicity, nor does ethnicity indicate intelligence or personality traits. They have changed the identity cards so that there is no ethnic label anywhere. There are local courts based in neighborhoods and districts called Gacaca where people can be accused of and bear witness to genocide atrocities. The panel of judges decides what level of crime was committed, which determines the length of their jail sentence. The organizers and instigators are brought through a higher court system and have much more serious consequences. I honestly don’t know if they have been sentenced to death or just life imprisonment or what because no one likes to talk about immediately after the genocide.
People are very good about keeping up the image of unity. I know most of the older generation still harbors resentments and prejudices, and they are probably passing some of them down to their children. But the children here are much more willing to believe teachers and government officials than their parents, so education makes a HUGE impact. I think it also helps that even though people don’t want to interact with or trust their neighbors, as time goes on and positive interactions occur, cognitive dissonance can affect how people feel as well. The best opportunity for this is definitely public service day – when you all work together to build a school or clean a road or anything, it’s difficult not to build camaraderie.
***
Moving on. =)
The town I’m staying in used to be the capital of Rwanda, and is where the royal headquarters were located. Nearby, a replica of the traditional hut the king lived in and some of his compound has been erected next to the “modern palace” that had been a gift from the Belgians. On the edge of the property is the gravesite of the last king and queen. On the opposing hills is an art museum. This is the highest spot in the district, and standing on the balcony, you can see for miles upon miles. All the art has been created post-genocide. Some of it is obviously an expression of pain and healing, but much is representative of daily life. I think my favorite part is the different mediums employed. There were paintings, drawings, sculptures, and embroidery scenes. One piece was drawn, accented with sand, colored beads (really tiny, not much bigger than sand), and I think painted in sections. Some of the sculptures employed mirrors, and there was a crane built with natural resources in the area: papyrus, eucalyptus leaves and branches, etc…
Farther south of us is the city of Butare. This is where the first universities and secondary schools were built, and even though it was built up by the colonizers, it’s still a very large city and the schools are running strong. On our way down there, we stopped at a very unique memorial center. Because this was the center of education, many of who used to be the Tutsi leaders (and now 3 generations of their families) lived in this area. Their Hutu friends directed them towards an empty building that was designed to be a school for hiding and safety. There was no food, no water, and probably 30,000 tried to cram into and around this school. They were left alone for 2 weeks, and when the Interhamwe (the Hutu army) came, they were too weak to put up any resistance. The Hutu then used the building as a base center to hunt down fugitives in the forests and hills surrounding it. Now, in the 5 buildings that would have been classrooms, over 50,000 bodies are laid out, preserved in lye, exactly as they were exhumed. I couldn’t tell how emaciated they were when they were attacked, and how much was deterioration from the mass graves. In some rooms, all they had were distinct, separate bones that weren’t attached to a skeleton. In one of the large hallway type buildings are shelves and shelves of personal affects – anything not valuable was left behind.
I wish we could ask our language trainers how they feel going through these places, as it is their history and their families that were involved, but one does not ask those things here. Every now and again, someone will say “oh, my parents/siblings/cousins were killed in the genocide”; but is it is a passing comment that is expected to passed by in the course of the conversation.
In training, our pedagogy classes are finished and 1/3 of the group has started micro-teaching (small lessons to volunteer students in the community). This means they are missing some language classes, but we will all rotate through it. Unfortunately, that means they feel vastly unprepared for the language evaluations we have been having. I think I’m somewhere between 60 and 70% of where they want us to be. We have started figuring out verb tenses along with sets of vocabulary, and things are getting very tricky. Although, I keep reminding myself that I’m trying to reach the same level of fluency of 3 years of HS French in 9 weeks, and I accept that it’s going to be frustrating.
Alternately, because the classrooms at the center are now filled with practice teachers, we have had a LOT of free time this week. Don’t ask me what I did with it, I don’t really remember… I’ve read almost every book in this house that I want to. I’m almost done with Salman Rushdie “Fury”, and I’m borrowing an F Scott Fitzgerald collection next. I ventured back into the market (which I have been terrified to do since the first group visit the day we got here) and helped my housemates buy things for their Halloween costumes. I sat. a lot. And enjoyed relaxing.
Medical training was fun this week. :ahem: “fun” , I should say… I have a glimpse into the world of diabetics and having to prick your own finger for blood tests; but I must say, the handy dandy spring loaded needles are much easier to use than the metal point I have to jab into myself. We also went back to 7th grade for a nice review of all the STDs and what they can look like. We also learned how to say all the “dirty words” in Kinyarwanda, and everyone giggled like a 12 year old boy.
The first care packages started to arrive! Lucky me, two of them were girls in my room. Loads of candy is always fun to parcel out. People have also gotten some really cute letters and cards from friends and family. Chris’s mom used an entire day’s newspaper to pack her box, so we now have sports articles and comics and things to amuse us by. I think it will also help to be able to use the articles as teaching tools later.
If you want to send me anything, get me your email address and I will set you up with the “Charissa Care Package Crew” who are collecting items to be sent together. =D
11 tips from other PCVs in Rwanda:
1 – Schools expect teachers to be in contact with their students. I mean, give them your number so they can call you at home if they have any questions, etc.
2 – A good way to get to know your students is doing a mid-term or end of term exam (since they’re on trimesters) where they get to talk to you for 15 minutes, but must do it in English. If you don’t ask questions, you aren’t pushing, and they will open up to you way more than you can anticipate
3 – Students expect teachers to be pretty open and to know a lot about their personal lives
4 – Evaluate while deciding how aggressive to be with your students. Try and discern between psychological behavioral outbursts and discipline behavioral issues.
5 – Teacher / Student relationships are not uncommon. Sometimes they are manipulative in one direction or the other, but when you have a Senior 5 class (Jr yr in HS) with ages varying from 15-36, it makes a little more sense. Many times, you will see relationships come to light after year end exams.
6 – The line between teacher and parent roles is not only blurred, but you are encouraged to be parental figures to your students. This is because of orphans, traumatized parents and grandparents, and the role of the school in building a new mindset for the country.
7 – you Will be asked to support students for their school fees.
8 – what you do Will be seen. Because secondary schools are often boarding schools, your students can live anywhere. If you go into the capital or anywhere away from your town, you never know who you will run in to. Especially because many of your students will be adults.
9 – Negotiate boundaries with your colleagues, professionally and personally. Find a way to share resources / help them develop their own.
10 – Dress nicely!
11 – Be friendly and social, interact with your colleagues. If you don’t spend any time with them, they will think you’re a terrible teacher and say so. If you engage with them, they think you’re amazing, no matter how bad your lessons are.
Umuganda –
Umuganda is the national service day on the last Saturday of every month. We all participated in our district and marched up the road to help build a school. The walls were already erected and had supports for the roof and windows, so we were working on the floors. The whole town. There was a giant hole about 20 yards from the building where they had dug up the dirt so it was loose and could be transported to the new building. One set of people stood on the pile of dirt and used shovels and hoes to fill our rice sacks, water jugs cut in half, buckets, baskets, and finally, someone found some wheelbarrows, which we hauled to the doorways and window openings where there were men inside who would dump the dirt and spread it out, filling holes from tree stumps and rocks and making an even, solid surface. Michelle and I picked a sack and filled it to the brim and hauled back and forth, non-stop for almost 2 hours. It took us a while to convince the diggers that we really did want more dirt in the sack, but once they figured it out, our shovelers loved us. They kept calling us “strong girls” and would wave us to the front of the crowd when they saw us coming back. The men inside the rooms were just flabbergasted (thanks sean, it’s a good word =) at how fast we made rounds, and just how much dirt we were bringing in.
At the end, when all the floors were as full as they could be of dirt (and it was starting to rain) we all gathered together to listen to a speech from the Mayor and vice-Mayor of Economics. Much of the speech was encouraging unity and a strong Rwanda, and that everyone that came together to work was building a better future and opportunity for their children. They even sang twice. (everyone, the whole crowd, led by the mayors) But the best part was the vice-mayor said “the foreigners are here and have joined us. They worked very hard this morning and are really a part of our community now, so when you see them on the street, don’t ask them for things! And look how strong their girls are! Maybe you can find some good wives; did you get their phone numbers?”
It was a good start to a GREAT day. I LOVED running around and working that hard and sweating and being strong. I have no coordination and no balance, so being athletic is out of the questions, but I really enjoy manual labor! After Umuganda, we all went back and a lot of us just collapsed, but I took a bucket bath and shaved my legs for the first time in 2 weeks (yes Charlynn, monkey legs). And I started typing this thing (I hope you guys realize how much time it takes just to tell y’all what I do with my time =). And then Scott came over to start cooking for our Halloween party! He was making Three-Ways. Apparently in Ohio, this is not dirty word, but a term for spaghetti, chili, and cheese. So almost all of the girls here in the Kitchen House got involved in some form or another. I helped Ashley cut/grate the Gouda cheese, and then helped our Rwandan cook Betty cut bell peppers while Ashley stirred them into the spice mixture. I HAD SO MUCH FUN!!! That was the most teamwork I have seen since I joined the PC and we put on Wicked and Chris got to play with the fire and it was just Awesome.
After we were all prepped, we gathered together the final pieces of our costumes. Bethel did my make-up, and I pulled off a very nice Gypsy. Chris was Quail-Man, Ashley was a Newsie, Katie was from the 80s, and we had 31 other awesome costumes. Austin was “a creeper”. Even our trainers got in on it – a lot of people were dressing up like other members of our crew. People started to gather at our house before the festivities got started, and some girls from another house put all the decorations together at the center. They folded paper cups and hand-decorated each one and filled them with candy for each place setting. Everyone was SO excited for the chili, but after 2 bites, people were sweating and blushing and Dying. Apparently chili powder in Rwanda is stronger than in the US and it was almost inedible. Thank goodness for the cheese! Scott felt just terrible; he was so looking forward to sharing this. He personally promised a lot of us better chili when we visit him at his site.
After dinner, we all grabbed our drinks (I, personally, had vodka and coke all night) and settled down for the talent show. Probably one of the funniest things I have even seen/been a part of. We had acts like “matt’s first hand-stand”, Janelle’s Halloween jokes, interpretive dance with headlamps, some Rwandan dancing – two of our girl language teachers opened beer bottles with their teeth! There is now a video of me performing an Ethiopian dance, I will send it home as soon as possible!! I also helped lead “Amazing Grace” in a round.
Apparently, in Rwanda, you need a permit for noise pollution / large gatherings to last past 10 PM. So the party moved back to my house where they set up speakers and we had a dance party for another 3 hours.
Best Halloween Ever. The only other one to come close was when we had our French foreign exchange student and we got to teach him about it and he got to be a terrible “Chicago Gangster”. Ya know, like Al Capone. =)
Ok, I think that’s all I can fit in for this week. Thanks for reading and commenting and writing back!
PS. I have added links to other Rwanda blogs on the side, so if you’re at all interested in some differing views, they could give you a more complete picture of life here.
