Things I Miss From Home

Trying to post more often since I only have a few months left but since I’m sick with a cold, I can’t really muster up enough creative juices to type anything too meaningful and when I get bored and have nothing to do I start to think about all the things I miss from home so here is a off the top of my head list (in no particular order).

• Friends/Family
• My Car
• My Computer
• Fast Internet
• Video Games
• TV
• Food – Pizza, Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Italian, Burgers, Wendy’s, cereal, cookies…I could easily make a list of foods I miss so I’m just gonna stop there
• Washing Machine/Dryer
• Dish Washer
• Constant Electricity
• Constant Water
• Clean Water as in I can walk up to a sink or water fountain and drink the water…its been almost 10 months since I’ve been able to do that.
• Cold Beverages
• Assortments of Beverages i.e. gatorade, iced tea, milk etc.
• My Pets
• My Bed
• Stores
• Movie Theaters
• Being able to cook what ever I want when ever I want it
• Grocery Stores/Costco (with an abundance of food and various choices)
• A normal cell phone where text messages aren’t charged at ridiculous prices
• Not being called umuzungu everywhere I go
• Not being stared at like I have 3 heads
• Being able to have a conversation and understand the person I am talking to
• Being able to have a conversation and have the person I’m talking to understand me
• Not have to take death defying moto rides to get places
• Feeling clean (when you live here you NEVER feel clean)
• Being able to work out…at a gym…with weights
• Having things to do (unless you want to go out to a club, there really isn’t much to do in town and NOTHING to do in the village).
• Redbox/Netflix/VOD/Movie Channels – I am starting to double or triple watch movies I brought with me…it’s really really sad.
• The beach
• Malls (if even to just walk around at…there is nothing like that here)
• Horseback Riding (I’m so going as soon as it is warm enough at home)
• My pool – it gets so hot here I just wish I had a pool to jump into to cool off in
• An oven – I haven’t seen an oven in nearly 10 months everything I cook has to be cooked on a burner which is currently on my floor…which brings me to the next point
• Not having to sit on the floor to cook a meal
• Not having to jam myself into a bus where I can barely fit

Aight well thats all I can think of right now.  I’m sure there are others.

PresenTense Article…

Hello all,

Below are two links to an article I wrote that was published in the latest issue of PresenTense magazine. For more info on PresenTense you can check out their website at www.presentense.org

The first link is a link to a cool PDF viewing of the article.  My article is page 13 but be sure to check out the funny comic book picture page on page 7.   The link is: http://issuu.com/presentense/docs/presentense11

If you want to view the article just off their website you can find the article here: PresenTense Article

Hope you enjoy and comments are appreciated.

Day-to-Day Rwanda

Here are just some things I notice about Rwanda, life here, the people etc. This isn’t really a thought provoking post just some observations.

- Rwandans don’t walk their dogs they walk their goats.
- A house strictly made of mud is actually pretty sturdy
- Lines DO NOT exist here. Not only while waiting to pay at the store but also while waiting for a bus. Not only do lines not exist but common sense when referencing the concept of a line does not exist for example, when you want to get off a bus you have to literally fight your way through the crowds of people who are fighting to get on the bus. If they would just stop to think for a second, obviously for them to get on, the people on the bus need to get off first…but no. Without fail it is a daily occurrence if you take a popular bus route during a busy time of day.
- You can be walking or driving through an area of Rwanda and see a house constructed of only mud and right next door or a couple houses away a nice brick home with painted doors, windows, trim etc.

- A tire and a stick is the most popular game amongst kids in which the kid walks while hitting the tire with a stick to make it roll next to him.
- People here are ridiculously resourceful. In America if you break the shaft of your shovel, sledge hammer, pick, hoe, etc. you go out and buy a new one even if the head is perfectly intact. Here they build their own shafts out of trees, and will create stop-gaps to fix it if doesn’t fit just right. — Rwandans modify old bicycles so that they can carry a very heavy load of what ever kind of produce they need to move from place to place and use the bicycle as a cart instead of a riding vehicle to push the items from place to place. — Some of the buses in town are REALLY old, but the people here fix them up and Pimp them out with different plastic coverings for the seats, or fabrics or w/e to keep them in shape. there are many other examples but I won’t go on.
- The people here some how have herculean strength when carrying things on their head. I have seen men and women much smaller than me carry what has to be over a hundred pounds on their head, not bracing it with their hands, and at a fairly fast pace. It is kind of ridiculous.
- Rwandans are super super friendly and helpful (in a generalized statement). For instance, when getting on a Moto if you have a bunch of stuff in your hands the moto driver will automatically try to help you with your helmet. If you look like a lost puppy by the buses, someone will help you, if you are not sure how much a fare should be while taking public transport, someone will help you (even if they can’t speak English), people always try to talk to you, ask how you are doing etc.

Ok that is all my fingers will allow me to type. But I will hopefully start to post more as I am getting berated on multiple fronts for not maintaining this blog.

Stuck in a Funk

As a friend pointed out coughcoughClairecoughcough I haven’t been blogging too much. Sorry for who ever actually reads this thing. For a while I wasn’t blogging because I didn’t have my laptop…stupid video card. Then I went away on vacation with my dad. Tanzania was amazing btw. Will try to post a few pics (some are on my facebook page if you are friends with me, if not then who are you and why are you reading my blog haha).

It was amazing that my dad came. Part of me was so shocked that he actually made it and without any drugs. But he and I had a great time. 1st big trip we took together since our California adventure which was MANY years ago. I’ll try and write more about the trip in another post.

Then I went to Israel for the JDC mid year seminar. It was amazing to meet all the other JSC volunteers from around the world. The JSC has volunteers in Kiev Ukraine, Dnepropetrovsk Ukraine, Jerusalem Israel (2), Mumbai India (2), Kishinev Moldova & Minsk Belarus (1 volunteers splits her time), Berlin Germany, Bratislava Slovakia, Turkey, Addis Ababa Ethiopia, and then the 10 of us in Rwanda.

It was also nice to be in a “western” country and city. I had only been to Israel once before on Birthright and it wasn’t the best experience of my life. They cart you around from place to place and you don’t really have a chance to soak up the atmosphere and enjoy where you are. So it was definitely nice to experience Jerusalem and fully enjoy it (which I did). Crazy story about Israel but I’ll save that for another post…

Anyway back to the original thought of this post. I’ve been in a funk ever since I got back from Israel. I knew it was going to happen before we left. It happened the last time I was in Rwanda and left the country. It takes a little getting used to living here and once you get used to it if you leave and experience all the things that you miss living in Africa but have learned to live without, its hard to come back and not have them. Being in Jerusalem it was so easy to get around, the food was amazing, the atmosphere was great (I love old cities like Jerusalem and Rome). Definitely didn’t want to leave for more than one reason but I had to.

That’s not to say I wasn’t excited to come back to Rwanda and to the village. I love it here, I really do. And when I landed at Kigali International Airport I stepped off the plane and took a deep breath in and said to myself, its nice to be home. There is something about the land of a thousand hills with its red earth that is just intoxicating. Adding the fact that I was going to be able to see my kids again after a few weeks of not seeing them, I was very excited to get back to the village.

As soon as I arrived I woke them up (they were napping) they all gave me big hugs and were very excited to see me. It was great. But after that initial excitement passed it was back to the daily grind. And it has been painful to get back into. Apparently this isn’t some strange phenomenon as many of the other volunteers are experiencing similar feelings.

It’s been real hard for me to get back into village life…probably one of the hardest parts for me in general. I think I would have a much easier time overall if I was not living in the village (something I have said before). But especially going from a city like Jerusalem to the village life it is a little jarring. I have rarely ventured to the dining hall for meals, which has been made easier to do since my dad brought me a bunch of food when he came to visit. But still would be nice if I could cook every day for myself. Which is hard to accomplish as I can’t really go out and buy vegetables every day. Additionally, my roommates don’t always clean the kitchen super well and leave food out which means ants come marching in and when you see your kitchen infested with ants it doesn’t really a welcoming cooking experience.

So yea…I dunno just living in funky town now and not the good kind. Its great that all the volunteers are back together. The first time in a few months (with the exception of one volunteer who is still in Israel but we got to see her when we were there which was nice).

I don’t even know where I am going with this post, sorry I’m out of practice, just throwing stuff out there.

Anyway I’m pretty much halfway done with my placement. We got here in December and it looks like we will be leaving in November. I’m going to try and leave Rwanda in the beginning – middle of November so I can be home in time for thanksgiving & my boy’s bachelor party/wedding. We’ll see what happens. Still haven’t gotten a definitive answer as to when we are able to leave and I don’t have a flight or anything yet but will update when I do know for sure what my plan is.

Ok thats it for now. Will try to write more on a regular basis. I’m starting to feel the tingles of motivation coming back. Hopefully that means I will start diving head first into my side projects, something I put on hold during my vacation/seminar time and have yet to be able to get back into.

Mike Brand signing off…for now.

It’s Been A While…

Guess who’s back…back again.

Some of you may or may not know a couple of months ago my video card in my laptop died.  When that happened I stopped blogging.  Now with laptop working and in hand, let the blogging continue.

This isn’t going to be a big post I just wanted to post a couple of cool pics I took of the village as I was flying over on a trip back from Tanzania.

The Car Ride That Never Ends!!!

So…last week was crazy.  A team from Liquidnet (ASYV’s corporate partner) was here to work on the IT infrastructure, among other things.  So I was working like crazy with the guys learning new things, setting up the network etc.  I didn’t get back till 2:00 am most nights and had to wake up to teach the next day too.

Anyway, one of the days we went to Kigali for a few meetings and training (since the power was out at the village).  Putting the meeting aside (that is a whole other story), we finally were ready to leave Kigali.  It was around 6 when we were ready to leave Kigali.  We got in the car and started driving.  The car was packed 8 people in a land cruiser.

We started driving and I immediately noticed we were going a different way.  Then I realized we weren’t heading home we were making a stop.  Communication is a big problem in Rwanda.  Usually back home if you were driving someone and you had to make a stop somewhere you would tell them.  Just as a courtesy.  Not here…

So we stopped.  Our driver started making some phone calls.  We waited there for about 10 minutes, didn’t do anything and then started driving again.  Then we drove for another few minutes and made another stop.  Again nothing happened besides the driver making some phone calls.  Waited another few minutes and then continued driving.  Then we made another stop.  This time there was someone at the side of the road waiting for us.  We saw our driver hand her something and then they told us it was his wife.  So we said hi and everything and then we started to drive again.  We thought maybe now our “errands” were done.  Nope.

We headed towards the direction we needed to go so I was hopeful.  But when we were supposed to turn right we didn’t.  So, yup, another stop.  We got to the house of one of the passengers’s cousins.  She had to make a stop there.  So she got out went into the house, a few minutes goes by and then she finally comes out.  Again, since we were so close to the turn I thought for sure we were heading back.  Wrong.

The woman who got out of the car told us that we needed to pickup the village nurse because she earlier went to the hospital with one of the kids but she couldn’t stay the night there.  So we started driving again (after some more time waiting).  Almost hit a person crossing the road, o btw the power was out in Kigali so we didn’t see them.

Go to a gas station.  Wait a few minutes.  Call the nurse.  She’s not there.  So we start driving again.  Apparently it was a different gas station.  So we finally find the nurse.  And along the way I said to the woman in the car, “where is she going to fit?”  If you remember the car was already jammed pack with 8 people and we are not small guys.  The nurse would make it 9.

She finally got in and basically sat on the lap of the other woman.  So I asked to be sure, “now we are heading back to ASYV?” and they said yes.  Finally some good news.  Too bad it wouldn’t last long.

It takes about an hour to get to ASYV from Kigali and by this time it was maybe 7ish, so we thought we should be back around 8 something.  Nope wrong again.

About halfway into our trip one of the guys sitting next to me said he smelt exhaust real bad.  I noticed it but didn’t think much of it as a lot of cars here spew out lung clogging black smog.  I just assumed it was a car in front of us.  Not much you can do unless you can pass them.  However, there wasn’t anyone in front of us now and we still smelt it.

It got progressively worse very quickly.  To the point where our eyes were burning.  We shined a flashlight out the back window and saw a big cloud of smoke.  It ended up getting so bad to the point where you could barely see the light from the taillights.

We continued to drive, the gauges were reading fine but, that doesn’t mean much as most cars here, the gauges are broken.  All of a sudden the car started sputtering.  We asked the driver what was wrong and his response in kinyarwanda was “The car is tired.”  That answer just added to the hilarity of the situation.

So the whole rest of the way all of us are praying we don’t just break down.  Once we got to the dirt road in the town near ASYV, we were able to put the car in neutral and coast down the hills.  Which definitely helped.  Things were looking good.  We were able to see the lights of the village around the side of the hill, but it was still a ways away.

When all of a sudden the car started skidding and the ride got real bumpy.  ”Yup, we got a flat.” I tell everyone.  The driver kept driving at first. Till we told him he had to stop.  So we get out, and yup as flat as a flat can get.  Good thing I saw them change a flat on this truck before.  We were able to change it relatively quickly. Standing around in the pitch black with our phones, head lamps and flash lights.  It was quite the sight.

Some locals walked by, I don’t know how they can see in the dark cuz I definitely can’t.  One of them walked by and I greeted her in kinyarwanda.  The conversation went like this (translated into English):

Me: Good evening.

Woman: Yes.  How are you?

Me: I’m fine.

Woman: How can you say you’re fine when you have a problem?

Me: O no problem. No problem.  Have a good night.

Woman: You too.

It was very funny how she said how can you be fine, you have a problem.  It added a little comedy to the crappy situation.

Once the tire was changed we commenced our drive.  We got back to the village in a few minutes. It was now a little after 9.  And while all we wanted to do was crash, the night was just starting.  We were up at the school working on the network till 2:00am.  Good times.

So that is the story of the car ride that never ends.

At least it’s a Step Forward

Adm Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff said in front of a Senate hearing that repealing the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy is the right thing to do.

Some quotes from Adm Mullen:

“No matter how I look at this issue, I cannot escape being troubled by the fact that we have in place a policy which forces young men and women to lie about who they are in order to defend their fellow citizens.”

[The issue] “comes down to integrity, theirs as individuals and ours as an institution”.

Now this is not to say that the policy has been repealed or is going to anytime soon, but for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to get up in front of the Senate and say the he believes we should repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell” it is definitely a step in the right direction.

While President Obama has already committed to repealing the policy, it will definitely be helpful and more widely accepted in the military if more high level military officials get on board.  Obama has been slow to make the move to eliminate “don’t ask, don’t tell” but hopefully 2010 is the year for change.

Dangerous Minds, Sans the Dangerous

So…Tuesday came and went. Bringing the total of 7 IT classes without electricity, which means no computers which means no IT lesson.  The thought of continuing hangman on Wednesday for another 3 classes made my brain hurt. So I spoke to one of the English teachers and asked her what I could do to supplement her lessons.  The classes are divided by their English and math skills so there are 2 classes that have a higher level of understanding of English.  I did some basic lessons with the lower level classes but I wanted to do something different with the higher level class.

I asked the teacher again and she suggested I do a short reading comprehension exercise.  It sounded good but I couldn’t find a passage from one of the books that was short enough, I liked or was easy enough.

I went to the class empty handed. Thinking I would just wing it.  I asked one of the volunteers who works in the school to come to class and help me since I was out of ideas.  But when I got in the class my awesome think on your feet mechanism kicked in and I knew what I wanted to do with the kids.

I proceeded to write on the board the words to my favorite poem, Dreams by Langston Hughes. In case you don’t know the poem here it is:

Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.

I thought the poem was perfect because it is short, simple and has a good message.  I was thinking it would be great for them to analyze the poem, break it down line by line and figure out the message.

We got off to a slow start as I had to explain a lot about the poem but as soon as we got past the vocabulary i.e. barren, hold fast, frozen, snow etc. we were rolling.  The kids were awesome.  Their analysis was great. So creative and just awesome.

Completely making up as I was going along, I decided to take the project one step further.  I told the kids I wanted them to write their own versions of the poem. But instead of it being about what happens if you let go of your dreams, I wanted them to write about what would happen if you hang on to your dreams.

While they were writing I leaned over to the other volunteer and said “I feel like I’m in Dangerous Minds.”  If you are unfamiliar with the movie, the reference I am making pertains to the teacher who teaches poetry and songs specifically Tambourine Man by Dylan to inner city kids who have never analyzed poems or music lyrics.  At first it was tough but they all really got into it and were great.

Same kind of thing happened with my class.  At first it was tough and the kids seemed a little frustrated.  But as we broke it down and they understood they all got really excited.

I collected their poems.  I had to assure them that they wouldn’t be graded on them, it was just for fun (the kids get a little nervous about grades).  The poems are great.  Some of the kids totally got the concept of a metaphor.  And utilized it.  Others didn’t fully employ metaphors in their poems but the poems were still great and still about achieving your dreams.  Which really was the whole point of the lesson.  Getting the kids to think about their dreams, think about the future and the importance of working hard and being determined to achieve what they want, especially given the opportunity that is before them.

I found out the power may be out until the end of February, so I may have more opportunities to work on lessons like this with the kids.

P.S. the best part of the lesson was the very end when I was ready to leave and I asked if the kids had any more questions and one girl raised her hand and said “Is this IT?” (referring to the poetry lesson).  I just laughed and said “No, this was fun…No power, no computers, no IT”

No Power, No Computers

Monday started out like a normal week (albeit normal as of a week ago). I woke up early for school, took the hike up the hill and went to class.  I had my lesson planned and was ready to teach my 3 classes.  In the middle of my first class, the power went out.  Now this is not a rare phenomenon here in Rwanda.  Electricity is not as stable as it is back home and the power almost always goes out if there is a big rain storm. Although, the power outage sometimes precedes the rain, as an indicator that the rain is coming.  However, Monday was a gorgeous sunny day.  I went through the rest of class reviewing the parts of a computer then we went back to the classroom and played a few rounds of hangman.

After an hour it was time to switch classes.  Still no power.  I went to catch the kids before they left their room to go to the computer lab.  Here in Rwanda, and apparently in a lot of places except for the states, instead of the kids switching classrooms the teachers switch classrooms.  Except for labs (bio, chem, physics and computers).

I grabbed the kids and told them we were going to stay in their class. When they asked why I explained that the electricity was out.   “No power, no computers.” Little did I know that, that phrase would be the slogan for the week.

The kids were very upset but we had fun learning English and playing a few rounds of hangman.  I did the same thing with my next class.  Three full classes of no computers.

The power was out until about 5:00 at night.  I was very excited to see the power come back on because it meant I could use my computer and I could teach computers the next day.  Or so I thought.

Tuesday same story.  Woke up with the intention of teaching computers. But, since Tuesdays my first class does not start till later, I woke up later and the power was off.   At least this time I was aware there would be no computers.  There would be no false hope for the kids.  They wouldn’t have the computers suddenly shut off mid lesson.

So I went to their classes and again we did some English and some hangman.  Hangman is actually a great teaching tool.  The kids get up in front of the room and write on the board.  It allows them to practice writing, reading, spelling everything.  I also would jump in with some bigger words, have them figure out the spelling and then they would ask what the word meant so they also learned some vocabulary.

The story continues in the next post…

Dropping The Ball

One Year Ago:

On January 22, 2009, President Obama issued an Executive Order to close the Guantanamo Bay Detention Facilities. The executive order’s title was short sweet and to the point Review and Disposition of Individuals Detained at the Guantanamo bay Naval Base and Closure of Detention Facilities (emphasis added by author).  Sec. 3 of the Executive Order states:

Closure of Detention Facilities at Guantánamo. The detention facilities at Guantánamo for individuals covered by this order shall be closed as soon as practicable, and no later than 1 year from the date of this order. If any individuals covered by this order remain in detention at Guantánamo at the time of closure of those detention facilities, they shall be returned to their home country, released, transferred to a third country, or transferred to another United States detention facility in a manner consistent with law and the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States.

Quotes of the day (circa early 2009):

President Obama stated he issued the order to close the Guantanamo Bay Detention Facilities in an effort to: “restore the standards of due process and the core constitutional values that have made this county great…”

He also stated: “This is me following through … on an understanding that dates back to our founding fathers, that we are willing to observe core standards of conduct not just when it’s easy but also when it’s hard.” (see CNN).

One Year Later (the deadline for Gitmo to be closed):

Guantanamo is still going strong.

Quotes of the day (circa present day):

“Guantanamo, we had a specific deadline that was missed.”

“You know I’m not disappointed, I knew this was going to be hard.”

“We are on a path and a process where I would anticipate that Guantánamo will be closed next year.”

Not disappointed? On a path…closed next year?  That is just not acceptable.  Personally, if I made a plan to accomplish something, even if it was inconsequential, by a specific date and then missed that date by a year or more, I would be more than disappointed, I’d be angry.

President Obama made a very strong statement last year within the first month of his presidency. He made the order to close one of the most notorious and loathed pieces of the George Bush’s cluster-$%&*.  With Gitmo being one of the many examples of the United States trampling human rights, Obama’s executive order, while it did not negate everything the Bush administration “accomplished” (more like got away with), was like the breaking of the storm.  The light finally began to shine through the darkness that was clouding American foreign policy for nearly a decade.  It was a step in the right direction, and not a small one at that.  However, today it seems as though instead of taking a big step forward, Obama has missed the step and fallen flat on his face.

Closing Gitmo was huge for the Obama administration.  The announcement was coupled with banning torture.  The two coupled together were probably the strongest pro human rights action the United States had taken in a very long time (which is such a sad statement).

Made shortly after Obama took office, these actions set the tone for his administration.  Human rights activists praised his efforts. Even if some criticized the year wait, it was a welcomed decision.  Conservatives on the other hand criticized the move.  Now, a year later, it doesn’t really matter.  Obama and his administration were unable to follow through on one of his principal decisions and campaigning points.

The rhetoric was great.  The follow up was even better.  However, Obama dropped the ball when he was not able to deliver what he as the executive of the United States of America ordered to happen; especially within the unambiguous date that he himself created.

With the State of the Union just days after this missed deadline President Obama should undoubtedly address this issue in his speech.  In doing so he should be sure to convey a stronger message to Congress and the American people than “I’m not disappointed.”

He should be disappointed.  Disappointed that America blatantly violated the rule of law, Disappointed that America violated detainees human rights, Disappointed that America held prisoners indefinitely without representation or a trial…There are many things Obama should be disappointed about with regards to Guantanamo, but most of all he should be disappointed that he is now part of the problem, not the solution.

President Obama must convey to the American people how he will stand by his rhetoric & how he is going to ensure that America is once again a nation that respects and promotes the rule of law and human rights.