Saturday, February 23, 2013

An Open Letter to Gracie Elder (very belated)

So, I recently* received some mail:

* Sorry about the lengthly delay in my reply, Gracie.  Things have been pretty busy here and there is not always electricity, which we need for both computers and for the dern temperamental internets.

Some context for you non-Gracies out there, Gracie is 9. She is my cousin Matthew's daughter.  She is adorable, as are all the mini-Elders:

She asks some good questions.

1)How is it in Africa?
Well, this is a bit broad and there are many lengthy textbooks on the current state of political stability and economic development of the 52 nations on the African continent.  Somehow, I doubt this is what Gracie meant, so I'll just say that things for me in Rwanda are going pretty well.  I am working a lot and spending time with the girls from my family when I can.  Most days I am up early for meetings, and then I work in what is basically a guidance counselor's office every Monday through Friday from 3-8.  After that I have dinner and usually some scheduled activity. Power and water outages are infrequent enough to be pretty easy to manage so far. When I go in to Kigali, every other weekend, I buy Snickers bars to supplement the beans and rice I eat in the dining hall at 2 and 8 PM each day.  I still don't love cold showers.  Today is a Saturday so I woke up at 5 AM to go running with the entire village and then worked in the kitchen, mostly stringing beans and chopping carrots from 7 AM - 3 PM and came home after that to do my laundry in a bucket.  I am tired.

2) Are there lots of bugs?
Yes!  Lots and lots and lots.  As I write this, there is a big green grasshopper in my room maybe 1 meter from me.  There are four visible spiders: one big and spindly like a daddy long legs in a corner, one about the size of a quarter, but much thicker than the big one, he's on the wall and two tiny, almost clear spiders crawling on my chair.  There is also a cricket that I suspect might meet his demise to one of these spiders. Sorry Jiminy! When I work in my office, we have a lot of flies, and some bees that come in, as I joke, for help with their college essays.  When we weed in the banana planation I see many new types of bugs I have never seen before.  I don't take my camera to the farm, or I'd have a photo of this giant beetle that is the size of a walnut or so that makes me scream when I see him and all my girls laugh and laugh at me because it  is so silly to be afraid of a bug.

What I like to think about all the bugs, is that they are really, really important.  Rwanda has so many beautiful birds.  Like this one:


I think the birds have the time and energy to grow such beautiful feathers because they have plenty of bugs to eat all the time.

(Luckily, I have had a pretty good stretch with the mosquitos, which I attribute to all the bug spray and leave in clothing treatment I got from my sister and my mom for Christmas this year.  Knock on wood.)

3) Can you see wild animals out the window?
This is a good question.  No, I cannot see wild animals out the window.  What I see out the window looks like this:

There are lots of birds, but right where I live there are no giraffes, lions, hippos or rhinos.

One way to think about it, is that it is a lot like home.  There are lots and lots of horses in Louisville, but you can't see any of them right out the window.

If I got into a car are drove about one hour east to Akagera National Park, I could see giraffes, lions, hippos and rhinos on a safari.

4) Is everyone nice?
Well, in a word, yes.  Everyone is really, really nice.  Rwandans are very friendly and polite.  They ask strangers as they pass how they are doing.  Everyone asks how you are and your family and they really mean it.  You typically cannot do business, like walk in a shop and purchase some sugar and some laundry detergent without first asking how someone is doing and exchanging pleasantries.  As a New Yorker, I sometimes find all this friendliness a bit tedious, but I am hanging in there.  Everyone in the village where I work is super nice to me.  The 16 high school girls in my family are all vulnerable orphans, and would have good reason to be grouchy sometimes and instead, when they see me they smile and greet me like I am the best news they got all day.

I hope you had a great Valentine's Day.  Thank you so much for your letter.

Additionally, I'd like to compliment you on your strong spelling and I hope you enter your school spelling bee when it comes around.

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