A Perfect Smile by Sarah E.

Sarah E.
Eastern Province, Kirehe District

Every Peace Corps Volunteer has their reasons for wanting to live 27 months away from home. One of mine was to get away from fast-paced technology, to slow down a little bit. While the internet offers all the information in the world, a way to know exactly what you want to know when, I was interested in what life would be like without the constant communication. I didn’t know then what I know now: that fate always has something in store for you, and that connections can exist before they’re even made.

When I applied for Peace Corps in August 2010, I requested sub-Saharan Africa as my future home, and that, even, wasn’t guaranteed by Peace Corps. Peace Corps puts an applicant where they’re best seen fit, where their qualifications match the needs of a country. I waited and waited some more, and in July 2011, I learned that I would call Rwanda my home. 

After three months in training, I moved to my village in the Eastern Province, and on my first day of teaching, I noticed a girl who sat in the front row. I had about 50 students in each class I taught, and it took me months to learn all their names, but I learned her name within the first week: Francine. She’s a small girl with quiet confidence. When I said a joke to the class, she’d giggle to herself as opposed to out loud. Because she sat in the front row, I often borrowed her notebooks and pens to demonstrate new vocabulary, dropping them on the floor or tearing a piece of paper out. I borrowed her things so often, that when I approached her desk, she’d have something ready for me to grab, handing it to me. Her personality reminded me of myself, 12 years earlier: quiet, polite, and a little nervous. Francine has a cleft lip. Err…had a cleft lip.

Operation Smile came to Rwanda a year ago, but at the time, I had internet problems, so I couldn’t connect with them. Another PCV informed me that Operation Smile was coming again this year, so she gave me information about the dates and location. I connected with a member of the Operation Smile team through Peace Corps Rwanda and was able to get more information about who is selected to get the surgeries. I then met with my school headmaster and Francine, to discuss the possibility of her going to Kigali. She said she was interested, so we kept up communication with her father. During these conversations, her father became more and more excited – to the point that he said I could call Francine my child. I shook his hand a few dozen times – his happiness infectious.  While in Kigali, their food and lodging would be provided by Operation Smile. I knew their family was poor – both of Francine’s parents are farmers – so I gave them the money needed for Francine and one parent to travel to Kigali and return to our village: the equivalent of $25. The best $25 I’ve ever spent.

Francine being chosen for surgery was likely because she had an unrepaired cleft lip, Operation Smile’s first priority. After Francine left for Kigali, I felt like I was playing the waiting game, hoping that her and her father weren’t going to be disappointed. Five days passed, during which time I told my landlady about what was happening. She confirmed the name with me, and told me that just a year and a half before, Francine’s father was one of the constructors of my house! This house, which was being built around the time I received my invitation to serve in Rwanda. I knew in that moment: when my recruiter and placement officer placed me in Rwanda, and when Peace Corps selected me to serve in this village, it was all meant to happen. It may be easy to find mutual friends on Facebook and discover how small a world it is online, but when you’re put in the middle of nowhere and “the real world” can seem so far away, those bonds that form through no force of will on your own but through the actions of fate are meant to be.

I continued to wait for news, and then one of my fellow PCVs, volunteering for Operation Smile for the week, called me to give me the good news: Francine was chosen!

I’d like to give a shout out to the people of Operation Smile for doing what they do. In this global world of ours, it is nice to get away from it all, but it’s also nice to use connections to give people what they deserve: a perfect smile.

Since her surgery and returning to school, I’ve visited with Francine and her family. Here are a few photographs:

Francine is in the middle, wearing her school uniform. She is surrounded by her family.

Francine's father with one of their cows.

Me with Francine and her parents.

Francine's father with their other cow.

International Women’s Day

Whitney Goldman

Health 3 - Nyaruguru District

On March 8th, Rwanda joined the ranks of many other countries is supporting International Women’s Day.  Throughout the country, District, Sector, and Cell offices held special events and speeches in celebration. 

Scouring the internet for some good old fashioned news and articles, I came across a few  things I found interesting and want to share:

- The theme for this year’s International Women’s Day at http://www.internationalwomensday.com... The Gender Agenda: Gaining Momentum.

- The World Economic Forum’s best places for women using their rank in gender gap (according to health and survival, access to education, political empowerment, and economic participation) in order from 1-10: Iceland, Finland,  Norway, Sweden, Ireland, New Zealand, Denmark,  Philippines/Nicaragua, Switzerland.

 - An excerpt from remarks from Michelle Bachelet, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women at the International Women’s Day Commemorative Event 

            “If we act with courage, conviction and commitment, we can change violence against            women from being the most pervasive violation of human rights to being a rare occurrence that is considered unacceptable and no longer tolerated. Each one of us has responsibility and duty to act.”

While she goes on to talk about the role of the Member States of the United Nations, I think it’s nice to end the point here.  Period. 

Read the full transcript here 

- The UN’s official “One Woman” song.  Did you miss it?  If so, you can listen to the song here

- Current Peace Corps volunteers by gender: 62% female, 38% male.  Find more fun facts about Peace Corps here 

 - An interesting point from  Zillah Eisenstein in her article International Women’s Day: New challenges ahead
             “On this Day, let us reject the idea of "unity" as "oneness" and rather understand that women's power lies in her diverse unity. Feminists of all sorts have written of "diverse commonality" and "common differences" for years. And it may also be the case that women are now more diverse than they have ever been given newly formed economic disparities across the globe.”

The full article can be found here

I hope you all had a wonderful March 8th, no matter where you were or how you chose to celebrate.

Celebrating Gender Differences by Sara A.

Sara Aubrey Allen

District: Ngoma, Eastern Province

My intermediate English class always ends with a debate. The debate topic was chosen by my smart and empowered female colleague. She wanted to argue against our open-minded and sweet, male counterpart “Women are stronger than men.” She stressed that women work extremely hard to sustain and protect the health of the family, and men are selfish in nature and tend to spend the majority of the money and time in the bars. He argued that women are physically weaker, and thus in need of men to assist in the necessary tasks of life. She said that the only time men are stronger physically, is when women are pregnant. He agreed, and admitted that he viewed this as a flaw in women, making men stronger. As passionate and opinionated as I am about this topic, I waited until they both felt finished debating before I voiced my opinion. I argued for neither side, and instead of chose to focus on the value of their differences and the benefit of working together. I stressed that I believed that the world could be a healthier and more productive place if we recognized the importance of equality between the sexes. We discussed how entrenched the Rwandan culture is in defining what the roles are for men and women. Men in this culture never cook or clean. The tend livestock. It seems that cultivating is a shared task. Women in this culture always seem to have a baby strapped to their back throughout all of their work. I told them that in many parts of America, families are redefining the roles in the family. In extreme cases, men stay at home and take care of domestic chores, and women have jobs. In less extreme cases, men might enjoy cooking or doing laundry. While this was a bit shocking for my male co-worker to comprehend, my female co-worker lit up with the possibility of having a stay at home husband. While many Rwandans strongly believe in a sedimentary nature of their culture, many young Rwandans are inspired by the evolving nature of many developed countries.

The phrase, “It's just our culture,” is used often here in Rwanda by diverse people and in response to a diversity of topics. Being an America whose culture is so incredibly diverse and constantly changing, I don't think I will ever able to truly understand this. I have a constant battle inside with this because I can't help but initially see it simply as a cop-out to justify reluctance to change. Empathy and respect to their culture is always something I strive for, but it is difficult to do when I notice oppression. Many women here, as in America, are content to be domesticated, but what I am fighting for is for their ability to choose. Women everywhere deserve the access to an education and family planning. They should be able to decide their futures just as men are. 

  While discussing with newly acquainted  male Peace Corps volunteers I admitted that  I was in GAD and a feminist. I could immediately see them tense up a bit, which tends to the usual reaction. I followed by saying that I don't want them to be scared, that I love men, and I appreciate a good debate, and that I promise to not get angry. Still, a couple guys seemed a little unconvinced. I was pleased that one seemed to light up, and said actually he would love to discuss. He told me that he admitted to another volunteer who is a feminist that he loves to date Rwandan women because, “they take great care in preparing a home.” He told me that he thinks it is beautiful that when she wakes-up the first thing she does is clean his shoes. He said that he never asks her to, but that he showers her in appreciation afterward. There was something really loving in his voice and his eyes as he described this. The feminist that he once admitted this two said that he was being “chauvinistic.” My impression was quite different than hers. I felt his sincerity and love he had towards her. He appreciated what his girlfriend does, and how she makes him feel supported. I told him that I think that what she does is lovely. Rwandan women are incredibly motherly to everyone. I told him that I think being a mother is one of the most important, exhausting mentally and physically, job anyone can have the pleasure or curse of having. I told him that there is no way that I would ever be a housewife, but that doesn't mean that I don't respect women who do. I will admit it, I tend to poke fun at them a lot, but despite my jokes, I do think that it is a beautiful thing to wish to support one's family so fully.

With love, compassion, and respect of both sexes with their important strengths and differences, I believe we can together work towards gender equality and development around the world. A teenage Rwandan boy turned to me and asked me how I thought Rwanda could develop as a nation. I said to put it simply, “Read every chance you can, and treat women as your equal.” After I said it I realized that I believe it is true for everyone everywhere.