Rusizi District, Western Province
Before I begin, let me introduce
myself. I’m Caitlan and I’m another newly elected GAD representative from Ed 4.
My husband and I, Luke, live in the southwest corner of Rwanda, known by most
as the G’ug, known by all as Rusizi. My husband and I both teach Senior 2 (eighth
grade) English along with Creative Performance. We have served for 8 months now
in Rwanda.
Currently there are only two
married couples serving in Rwanda, and being one of those, I tend to focus more
on what is happening in marriages in Rwanda and how both women and men feel
about their place in a marriage.
The other day one of my fellow
female teachers visited another community where a health volunteer lives. They
had a brief conversation about Luke and I and within that conversation the
teacher kept asking questions about our marriage. “Why don’t they have
children?” “When will they have children?” “How many children will they have?” “Will
they have children in Rwanda?”
As one can imagine, there are still
strictly defined gender roles within a marriage. A man is expected to work a
job that provides for his family. Sometimes wives work too, I know of three in
our school that are married and teach. But a wife is also expected bear
children as soon as possible, raise the children, cook for the family, clean,
wash clothes, and go to the market.
What is interesting to me is how
women, both married and single, perceive me in Rwanda. Most, if not all of the
teachers, know we can’t have children in Peace Corps, I have worked hard to
explain how we have work and projects to do here and if we have children that
would make our jobs much more difficult and we would not have the time to give
to our community like we do now. Yet, obviously, women are still confused about
our choice to wait.
When it comes to gender and
development we try to expand the minds of both men and women to help them see that
there are other forms of gender roles, different ways to accomplish things, new
methods of running a household, and better ways to treat the opposite sex. So
many times I can get caught up in this spirit of change and development for
women, but it’s moments like this one last week that make me realize that women
are not even questioning their roles at times. The women I work with are content
with their place in society and can’t even comprehend my choices.
The question remains, how do we
encourage women to think outside of social norms, to imagine the possibility of
new gender roles in marriage? How do we start that change in gender roles in
marriage?
The only answer I have so far is education. I can educate my colleagues by continuing to show how my husband and I interact, educate through open and honest
conversations, and to explain how every marriage is different in America. Whether or not it is in a classroom I believe education is the key for gender and development.
What I
want to see most during my service here is for at least one women to realize
things can be done differently,
there is no one way. I think when women
and men can finally begin to imagine a new paradigm of gender then that is when
we will see a change in gender roles within Rwanda.
"Education in general has[sic]...wide ranging beneficial effects of the demographic, social, and economic development patterns of a nation." - Kenneth Hadden and Bruce London
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