Email 2- after 1 week

Hello Everyone

It is Sunday afternoon, I am sitting in Bourbon, a coffee shop about 5 minutes on a motortaxi/ 30 min walk form my house and right next to school. I have officially finished my first week in Kigali and have never been enjoying life as much as I am right now.
As I said in my last email, it is extremely challenging at the school. Just the number of classes, the disorganization, the administration, and the frustration that the school has so much potential but is just not quite reaching it. Just a quick recap for anyone who did not get my last email, I am teaching English to grades 7, 9 and 10, two class for each grade. totalling in 25 classes a week (may i just point out that this is more than Lauren, John (our close friend and history teacher) and claire have!) Anyways, as you can imagine my days are extremely tiring and pretty stressful form class to class because I can honestly say I have no idea what I am doing But I am learning very quickly and am beginning to get into the swing of things. My 9th graders are definitely the hardest, mostly because there are about 30 kids in each class after they decided to add and entire class 9C to my 9A and 9B classes. so not cool of them fyi. but im making it work haha.

Yesterday we went to the market to buy groceries with our friend Eric who we met/ who works at Bourbon. Hes Rwandese and a really nice guy, he claims to be 25 but we think he is lying and trying to make himself seem older so that he can get with Lauren. Clearly being 25 rather than 22 will be beneficial when hitting on a 40 + year old.... Anyways hes extremely nice and helped us to not get completely screwed over with prices at the market. We bought lots of salad stuff since literally all we have eaten since getting here has been carbs and starches. We also attempted to buy chicken but got distracted first by the full skinned cow that was hanging from a hook and then by the skinned rabbits that were packed into a cooler. I think we'll be sticking to vegetarianism from now on :)

After the market we went back to our house and all passed out from being so tried after the school week. We woke up and went out that night for the first time since being here. We went to this club called Cadillac with our friends Eric and Yanni. It was absolutely hilarious and one of the most amusing nights I have ever had. From the old white men grinding up on prostitutes, to old Rwandese men slapping our backs and saying "dontworrydontworrydontworry", to the fact that here, men dirty dance with each other and therefore with out white guys friends who couldnt manage to get anyone but old men, to the fact that some of our students were probably there and we didn't even recognize them! the entire night was just one hilarious thing after another. Also, what can top going out clubbing with a former teacher?! Such good times!

Apparently prostitution is a huge problem here though, and we definitely saw that last night. It may have been the most disturbing thing I have ever seen, these disgusting white old men probably pushing late 60's getting with these gorgeous young women. Truly gross, but I guess you gotta do what you gotta do to make some money.

Today, we are going to one of the memorials for the genocide which I am really looking forward to. Mum, i started to tell you this, but there are exhibits about 40 minutes from Kigali that are literally areas that have just never been cleaned up since the genocide. All of the bodies have been preserved with lime and you can see all the slashes and dismembered people. Lauren wants to go and take pictures for future references for art and I am probably going to go with her. Alex and Yanni said that it is extremely disturbing and they are not planing on ever going. One of the women who overseas the exhibit, her two daughters were killed and are in the pile of bodies. Apparently she goes every day, takes the two girls hands and talks to them about her day, how life is, and telling them not to be scared.

Although looking at Kigali on the superficial level you cannot see any sort of remnants of the genocide, it is truly everywhere. Even just in how people pretend that it does not exist, makes it exist even more. Since Kigali is so small, you have to be extremely careful who and what you talk about because everyone know eachother and overhears you. Even at the house, if the conversation ever turns to the genocide, we literally have to whisper just incase any of our neighbors o hears us. Basically you have to pretend that it does not exist while also constantly remembering what happened.

K im off to get my nails done

talk to you all soon.
Love
Alexandra