Yesterday (Sept. 25) I officially visited my first African wild game national park. I was invited along to Akagera National Park in eastern Rwanda (on the border of Tanzania) with Joan (from USAID), her husband, and an NGO (translation for those not in this field, non-governmental organization) AIDS worker. I admit that I have never been huge on animals – I like to do the old trip to the zoo now and again – but even I could not help but get a total rush from driving through the wilderness knowing that any number of animals could be around the next corner. It is the end of dry season, thus much of the park was very dry and huge parts even burned. So I didn’t have much luck with some of the big game (elephants, lions, giraffes) but I got more than my fair share of other goodies: baboons, hippos, impalas, zebras, vervet monkey, warthogs, mongoose, crocodile, etc. I was also among avid bird watchers and we saw over 35 different species of birds. This may not seem so interesting but all of these birds are amazing in color and appearance – unlike those birds that like to crap on our cars in the US. I saw the African version of the bald eagle too.

Today I had lunch with Rose KABUYE (they always alphabetize family names in Rwanda). She sent her car, with a soldier and personal assistant, to pick me up and deliver me to where she was having her hair done. Then we proceeded to her lovely house to have a nice meeting and lunch. I must interject that she pays half of what I pay a month for a beautiful house for her family. Next time I will have to get my own set-up. Back to Rose - I was very pleased to see her after a long hiatus. I was most appreciative because she gave me some clarity with regard to the work I am doing with the AIDS commission and I now have a plan of action for the remainder of the time. Now I am actually going to be useful! National AIDS day is December 1st and so the commission is trying to rally a large campaign targeted at youths. I will take some of the proposed projects and turn them into proposals for various funders (UNDP, UNIFEM, USAID, etc). This way I can actually see results from the work I am doing. Up until now I have felt a bit like a decorative touch with the Commission rather than a contributing member.

I still feel a bit in awe of Rose, I admit. I mean a over a decade ago this woman left her family in Uganda to go out into the bush to fight with the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). Now she is one of the most important women in the entire country, still working in the military but volunteering to be the president of the AIDS commission and also working on women’s issues (training them, encouraging participation). She also has a family with three children. Her husband is also in the army and spends the weekdays up in Ruhengeri (in the north).

Research:
My research is still slow in coming. I am devising an aggressive plan of action for myself to try to ensure that all interviews/data collection is completed early in November so I can spend the last month writing.

Next week the parliamentary elections will be held. The new parliament will be bi-cameral with an upper (26 members) and lower house (80 members, 24 of which are automatically set aside for women). What is interesting about these elections is that people vote for a party, not a candidate. I can see the merit and the fault in this, but it will be interesting to see what the results are. The dominating party of Rwanda, the RPF (which liberated Rwanda after the genocide and the current president is a member of) is reported to be harassing and suppressing much of the opposition, so the RPF will most likely grab most of the seats. I will let you know next week!

So tomorrow I am going to set off on a mini-holiday to Kibuye on Lake Kivu (the border between Rwanda and DR Congo). It was one of the most devastated areas during the genocide (about 90% of the Tutsi population were murdered) and there are a few memorials dedicated to this. It is also supposed to be gorgeous on the lakeshore and I am told you can even swim (further up the lake it is dangerous to swim due to the gases from the volcanoes).