Correspondence Home

Me and David, my landlord and friend at our house

I recently had two friends from Seedpod, the old co-op I lived at in Boston, write to me. I thought I'd shared to help describe what my life is like here. The first one here is from Janalyah, the 7 year old daughter of Sparklle who brought much joy to our house:

"Dear Andrew,

I really miss you.  You missed the time after the blizzard.  Becca, Alisia, Diego, and me had a snowball fight.  I missed when we used to play connect 4.  You also missed another movie night this time we watched Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.  I hope you will come back soon to visit us.  I will still give you 8 blow pops (this was a bet we had made over a Connect 4 game she lost).  I hope you write a letter back.

Love, 

Janylah

(questions)

Oh and, how is the weather in Africa?

It rains every day very hard and I often get drenched. The temperature is usually very pleasant and constantly around 80 F. In about a month or so the rain should slow down as the rainy season ends and the dry season begins (there are two each of these a year here).

Did you meet a lot of people?

Yes I am meeting lots of people! Most people want to say and get to know the foreignors here, especially the Americans, which they like very much. Many people ask for my phone number even though I know I'll never see them again. Sometimes they even call, just to say "hello" or ask how I'm doing, it's very strange and different than the U.S. Outside of the capital city Kigali where I live, people are even less used to seeing white people and most people say "muzungu," which means white person, as you walk by. Everybody is very nice and welcoming and I have a few people at this point that I consider friends. My roommates are great, one is also from Boston and the other is from New Zeland. We just went on a crazy trip together this weekend with a Belgian guy and Moroccan guy, just a little younger than me, who are also working in this country. We visited a small town on the lake called Kibuye - that you can see here: https://maps.google.com/maps?q=kibuye,+rwanda&ll=-2.060865,29.348602&spn=0.778147,1.352692&hnear=Kibuye,+Karongi,+Western+Province,+Rwanda&t=m&z=10

Dis you get a good job?

I think so. My job is interesting and I get to travel a lot in the country. It's challenging and different than my last job and there's a lot of opportunity because we are a new company. 

What do you live in?

I live in a house shared with a few people (as mentioned above). Our house is on a dirt road behind one of the main roads where many of the government buildings and the American Embassy is - our neighborhood is called Kacyeru and most of the roads do not have names and the houses don't have numbers so it's always difficult to explain to guests how to find our house ("the one behind a blue gate near a small boutique" we say)."

The second email here was from a previous Seedpod roommate Natalie:

"Hey Face,

Also, can you answer the following questions for me and I'll do the same?

1.  Where do you use the bathroom?

At work I like to go to the bigger and nicer one near the reception which has a one way window allowing me to see people entering the building but they can't see me! I usually stop afterwards to get some nice cold water from the water cooler and to say hi to angel at the front desk and try to say something in poor and goofy kinyarwanda 

2.  What did you eat for dinner last night?

Tomato-e and onion peas, pork chops, and sweet potatoes! The house boy usually cooks

3.  When was the last time you talked to Maya?

Besides tonight we talked just earlier this week. I think Tuesday? Skype is difficult though here. You need a lot of patience with the break ups and poor reception. . 

4.  Are you lonely?

Here I have some friends but no one I'm that tight with yet. A good mix of expats from all over and Rwandans  I keep myself pretty busy though with work and sports so I don't think about it too much. I have a routine sort of now. I hang with my roommates a lot also who are cool.

5.  How many hours do you work a week?

50-60, a lot and travel in the country brings it up! I don't even have Easter off!

6.  What do you wear on a daily basis?

Nice pants, like kakis and button down shirts with a belt. It's definitely more

Formal here in the business world. I can't get away with the same outfit that I could for EE

7.  How do you get your exercise?

Soccer and tennis primarily. But I also run; it just rains so much it's tough. Oh and also I've gotten into ultimate frisbee here. It's quite a scene really, but sadly and not surprising at all to you probably it's mostly bazungu (white people). I think the rain will slow down in a few weeks/month, I hope at least!

8.  Are you getting enough protein?

Yes, I'm eating way more meat now. It's such a big part of the diet here. I try to get some fish here and there but hard to find tofu and soy. Peanuts are around and delicious and the traditional eating out for cheap is the East African buffet classic - hundreds upon thousands of carbs. Pasta, rice, potatoes, chips(what we call fries), sweat potatoes, beans, and usually one green and beaf pieces in a flavorful tomato Based broth" 

Communication

I often find the communication in East Africa pretty different than back home. Working here can be a challenge because answers are not always as direct. Here's a good recent example from a Gchat with a co-worker in Uganda:

martin:  Hi

 Sent at 3:47 PM on Thursday

 me:  Hi Martin, how are you? Please remind me which Martin you are! There are so many.

Kampala based?

 Sent at 3:48 PM on Thursday

 martin:  Ok

 me:  So you are the Kampala TDR or area sales manager? or a different Martin?

 martin:  Ok

 Sent at 3:54 PM on Thursday

 me:  Ok what? Are you confirming or saying no?

 martin:  Yes

 Sent at 3:57 PM on Thursday

 martin:  Andrew am Martin.Fenix

Area Sales Manager

How's Rwanda?

Work

I almost called this post 'white privilege', but that's not entirely what it's about. I was told before coming here that people really respect white people doing business here, which is a weird thing considering the colonial past unless I guess you take into account that there’s issues here with inferiority complex’s even today. I benefit from this phenomenon and it’s weird. I remember reading an article awhile back in the Atlantic Monthly about how in China you can hire a “white guy” for important business meetings. So basically as a white guy you can go there and pretty much get paid to act, and go to fancy cocktail parties and schmooze, kind of a good deal huh? I am sometimes asked to come to meetings by colleagues and always wonder how much of it is trying to give legitimacy or added weight to the meeting vs. I actually have something they want me to contribute.

I was hired at my company Fenix as the “innovations manager,” which is a cool but vague sounding title. Just exactly what am I managing? In fact, I don’t actually have anyone specifically working under me but when I moved to Rwanda to our small little operation of just 3.5 people (our accountant is a part-time person), all Africans, the two non-managers automatically started introducing me to others as a (or their) new manager.  I was given a lot of trust considering I had been with the company for two weeks when I was moved and asked to help manage this new office (about 8 months old) and make this operation work. Maybe it’s just that most white people here are aid workers, NGO or non-profit employees, or volunteers, so by virtue of our numbers business people are more rare?

So coming here has been pretty good. People ask for my opinion a lot, even when I really have no authority or background on something. It may be an ego boost but maybe it actually helps you grow too? And I can get people to do things when other people can’t (like get a meeting or push someone to follow up), which is also strange as I don’t think I’m doing anything that special. The other day, the manager of our office, Eric, was working on our monthly budget. I submitted what I thought I needed and tried to keep expenses down. I also felt like my accommodations budget should be less than the two traveling salespeople even though their numbers seemed ridiculously low (a little under $40 for lodging for the whole month on the road). Eric said I should take more money for lodging and specifically told me that “I was more senior” so I should get more money, even though I’ve been here three weeks, and again, have no official power. But I suppose this is also all part of being at a start-up. It really is so fast moving and our business strategy evolves every day.

Our office is housed within a larger human resource consulting company. Fiona, pictured front, center, celebrated her Birthday recently

So far the work has been good and challenging. More updates on this to come

The best cure for terrible diarrhea…

 It turns out is not a two hour moto ride into the bush. Let me rewind to provide some background as to how I got to this point. After two trips to Africa and a fair amount of time spent on the continent my lucky streak of never getting sick finally came to end. I always thought I was especially strong or something, but maybe I’m just like the rest of you. It’s not like I ate some suspicious meat off of the ground this time, in fact I've only been eating “known” sources of food but somehow I got a 24 hour rush of the most horrible something or other that I will not describe here in more detail for the sensitivity of my younger readers (ok I don’t have any younger readers, that I know of, but I might have some one day) but just know that it involved stuff coming out both ends. I suspect in the end that it may have been a salad prepared at work and some strange dressing but I can’t know for sure. I also had some local water at home, which was boiled, so it shouldn't have been a problem (and no one else from my house got sick). Drinking boiled water here is actually really common in a way that it was not in other developing countries that I've been to. I wonder if the water is “good enough” that you can do that here for some reason but not in other places? It cuts down quite a bit on cost not having to buy water all the time.

Anyways, getting back to the story at present, so I had unfortunately timed some in-country travel with getting sick just perfectly which really sucked. I traveled to the “college” town of Butare this week to begin some work for my company on a new pilot project with a micro-finance organization who can help people get affordable loans for our product. It’s a nice town, although I used quotation marks around college because we couldn't find food past 10 pm and there was no real places to go out outside of the Friday-Sunday usual nights, which is really surprising for a town with the country’s biggest university (over 15,000 students go to Rwanda University). I suppose college town is a cultural U.S. thing (I know even in Europe in college towns students often live at home still with their families for example). I was already committed to visiting a rural area where people already wanted the loan for our product when I was sick, so when I felt slightly better at 6 am the morning of our excursion I decided to go, and we literally left at 6 am. Spending two hours on the back of a moto on rough, bumpy, and steep hilly roads though is a pretty horrid experience; my back was killing for two days after this. There’s no support structure, or something to really hold on to on these bikes. Considering how far we went, the $16 or so we paid is pretty cheap.

We were right next to the border in this town called Nyarugulu with Burundi when the “muzungu” show arrived. Meaning, me, the “muzungu” (white guy) was the attention of town and everyone who saw me, especially children thought it was important to tell me, or remind me, that yes, indeed, I was a muzungu, thank you Rwandans. It’s not that I find it that rude, it’s just weird. No one in America would see a black person and say “black guy,” hey, “black guy,” and not really say anything else either. Cultural difference I guess but I never know how to respond to this call. I sometimes just say “Rwandans,” “Rwandans” in return, but this seems to just confuse people.

the view from the road

me on the suzuki moto bike

Urwego bank (lender to the poor) loan officer Steven. Good friend now, with members collecting money in the field. Beautiful fields of maize in the background!

When I was told the trip would take two hours I actually didn't really believe it. But it was actually just about two hours. You can’t really believe people around here with time. People even joke about being on “African time,” which usually means being late. But in the case of the bus to go to Butare, they swore that the bus didn’t leave until 11:30 (I just missed the last bus around 11 and I wasn't wanting to wait) but looking down at my phone as we pulled out it was 11:20, I knew the 11:30 “time table” was a bunch of BS. The bus here leaves when the bus is full. 

March Update from Rwanda

March has arrived and I have now spent equal amounts of time in Rwanda and Uganda. Within Rwanda I’ve traveled to Gisenyi and the Congo border (at Goma) and stood at a pedestrian only crossing where thousands of people pass freely every day between countries (see billboard sign here). 

Standing in the sun all day marketing the ReadySet was exhausting and pretty boring since most people here only speak Kinyarwanda and sometimes Swahili. But it’s an interesting job going around to farmer cooperatives, meeting up with UNICEF, and working with Africans as co-workers. I got to stay for the weekend to check out nice lake Kivu (one of the African great lakes), which is where I snapped this classic white dude with small African children picture.

The other day I was walking down the street and a small group of school girls walked by. One of them turns and spits on me for no reason. I got pretty upset and the girl (maybe 12 or so?) got scared and started to run away. Eventually she apologized but it was such a bizarre event that I can’t imagine happening in the U.S. Besides getting the middle finger randomly one other time (and I don’t know if it was on purpose), Rwandans have been very friendly. They really like Americans (really most foreigners outside of Belgium/France for obvious reasons) and many people you meet on the street want you to stop to say hello and find out what state you are from.

I bought a mountain bike to get to and from work, about a 15 minute hellish commute down one steep long hill, through a golf course, and then up a very steep hill. Everything around here is about going through these dips or going all the way around the valleys. I usually show up to work sweating terribly and then arrive at home at the end of the night in a similar state.They call Rwanda the land of a 1,000 hills but there's got to be way more, and who's counting anyways? 

I am paying $320/month for rent in Kigali, which is more than I would have thought it would be here, but everything else is similarly expensive, except moto taxi rides which are usually less than a $1 and take you pretty far. My rent does include utilities though, meaning water, electricity, and oddly enough the “house boy,” which sounds off to call a “utility.” Back in Uganda in Kampala this also usually meant the guard since all of the places were gated with a security person. Here we have rex, the dog, so I feel safe (not that I wouldn't anyways actually, Kigali is incredibly safe). The house boy does the laundry, cleans up around the house, cleans the dishes, and even cooks us meals at night. It’s incredible; it’s like living in a hotel. It’s also the opposite of the living situation I came from where as a member of the coop, I had jobs and felt like I continually needed to clean more. One could get used to this life style here. It is a bit weird though still and has taken me time to get used to it. Edward, the house boy, does not speak any English or French, and he hardly speaks otherwise. So it’s kind of weird just having this person who goes around the house (he’s probably a few years younger than me) that I know actually nothing about. It also feels weird having the African wait on the muzungus (white people, same word they had in Uganda for us) here but I guess it’s a job and normal here. It’s just a different culture.

At work we have a cook, Deo, from the Congo, who makes bomb food every day. It costs 2,500 francs (which is like $4.20 or something). We also get a free breakfast, it’s kind of amazing. American offices should learn from this (google has). We are more productive when we are well fed and we don’t waste time going out for lunch.  

The first picture here is of Kacyeru, the neighborhood I live in, looking across from Nyarutarama, where i work. There's also a couple pictures below of the breakfast and lunch we had recently at work.

Potatoes, collards, pasta and veggies dish, sauce, and fried fish for lunch

cassava, bananas, and avocados for breakfast