University of Rwanda Day 1 and Nyamirambo
Hello Family!
Each day here is so different but so amazing! Today we started the day at the University of Rwanda where we had our first day of the global health practicum. The practicum is a three day course series. Today we got to hear first from a Rwandan professor, Patrick Karakwende. It was really cool to sit in class amongst Rwandan students and get a feel for what it is like to be a student there. Teaching style is very different here! It was very interactive. The professor always had us finish his sentences. They talk very quietly here so I really had to focus in order to hear what he was saying. We also got a lecture from Waleed Fatth who is in charge of us here. He participated in a mission for Doctors Without Borders in Yemen so he presented that project through a public health perspective. We met a lot of Rwandan students, they are very nice! I think we will have some lasting friendships with this group! They are so smart and fun to talk to. After class we got lunch at an African restaurant. What did I have? You guessed it! Potatoes, beans and rice! I don’t know how they do it here but everything is so flavorful. It is so yummy! After lunch we visited Nyamirambo, a lower class neighborhood in Kigali. So far what I have seen of Kigali has been amazing in terms of cleanliness and safety. Since I have arrived I haven’t seen a single piece of trash on the street until today. It is very very clean here! Nyamirambo is a poorer neighborhood in Kigali, the roads are dirt and there are a ton of people. The main reason we went to Nyamirambo was to visit the women’s center. The women’s center was started by a group of women in the neighborhood who wanted to empower the others and help them to obtain the skills necessary to have a job. They began by teaching the women how to sew. In Kigali if you can sew you can have a clothing business from your home easily! Some Slovakian women found this collective and wanted to help them get the supplies and resources they needed. Through fundraising and finding supporters they were able to buy a handful of sewing machines and begin a building for the women’s center. Today they offer classes for the women ranging from sewing, to cooking, and even how to do hair. It is a really cool place! After we toured the women’s center our guide walked us through the Nyamirambo neighborhood. This area was very very poor. The people there were so nice and so excited to see us. They kept asking us questions in Kinyarwanda and they would cheer when we replied with the right answer. We have been working really hard on learning the language! There were a tons of secondhand markets as well as produce and cassava. It was really cool just to spend more time with the locals. I love them so much! They are all so happy and nice. I also love how they carry their babies on their backs, the moms just work in the yards or at the market and the babies chill on their backs. Today was another great day in the books! I love it here!
Each day here is so different but so amazing! Today we started the day at the University of Rwanda where we had our first day of the global health practicum. The practicum is a three day course series. Today we got to hear first from a Rwandan professor, Patrick Karakwende. It was really cool to sit in class amongst Rwandan students and get a feel for what it is like to be a student there. Teaching style is very different here! It was very interactive. The professor always had us finish his sentences. They talk very quietly here so I really had to focus in order to hear what he was saying. We also got a lecture from Waleed Fatth who is in charge of us here. He participated in a mission for Doctors Without Borders in Yemen so he presented that project through a public health perspective. We met a lot of Rwandan students, they are very nice! I think we will have some lasting friendships with this group! They are so smart and fun to talk to. After class we got lunch at an African restaurant. What did I have? You guessed it! Potatoes, beans and rice! I don’t know how they do it here but everything is so flavorful. It is so yummy! After lunch we visited Nyamirambo, a lower class neighborhood in Kigali. So far what I have seen of Kigali has been amazing in terms of cleanliness and safety. Since I have arrived I haven’t seen a single piece of trash on the street until today. It is very very clean here! Nyamirambo is a poorer neighborhood in Kigali, the roads are dirt and there are a ton of people. The main reason we went to Nyamirambo was to visit the women’s center. The women’s center was started by a group of women in the neighborhood who wanted to empower the others and help them to obtain the skills necessary to have a job. They began by teaching the women how to sew. In Kigali if you can sew you can have a clothing business from your home easily! Some Slovakian women found this collective and wanted to help them get the supplies and resources they needed. Through fundraising and finding supporters they were able to buy a handful of sewing machines and begin a building for the women’s center. Today they offer classes for the women ranging from sewing, to cooking, and even how to do hair. It is a really cool place! After we toured the women’s center our guide walked us through the Nyamirambo neighborhood. This area was very very poor. The people there were so nice and so excited to see us. They kept asking us questions in Kinyarwanda and they would cheer when we replied with the right answer. We have been working really hard on learning the language! There were a tons of secondhand markets as well as produce and cassava. It was really cool just to spend more time with the locals. I love them so much! They are all so happy and nice. I also love how they carry their babies on their backs, the moms just work in the yards or at the market and the babies chill on their backs. Today was another great day in the books! I love it here!
The University of Rwanda
Nyamirambo Womens Center
Cassava
Ground Cassava
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