Homestay- June 7th

All is well with the homestay! I definitely nervous about my first homestay, but so far it is going really well. Matt and I are staying with Corneille and his family in the Gisozi district of Kigali. Corneille, a former RPF soldier, is an accountant for one of the largest micro-finance banks in Kigali and his wife, Latitia, works in the public warehouses. Following the genocide, Corneille and Latitia adopted Janvier, a genocide orphan who is now 23 and works in the import/export business. The couple also has an adorable three year old boy, Rene Patrick Joseph (or just Joe), and Latitia is six months pregnant with their second child.

After settling in on Sunday afternoon, Janvier took Matt and I for a walk around the neighborhood and must have ended up walking about five miles or so…but the views of Kigali where beautiful! When we got back to the house, there were about ten or so people in the living room…including another American? It turns out the American, Jennie, was an anthropology professor from Louisville who got her PhD from Carolina...small world after all! Jennie’s field of specialty is Rwanda and she has been back and forth since 1997 so talking to her was absolutely amazing. The other people in the living room turned out to be Latitia’s sister, nephew (who was just called “bebe”), mother, and grandmother. We also met Patrique, the family’s cook/security guard who couldn’t have been older than 16, and the family’s two house-girls (both of whom Corneille and Latitia are putting through school).

Dinner was traditional Rwandan food (yams, potatoes, rice, beef) and was delicious. Corneille can speak some English and Latitia can only speak Kinyarwandan, so Matt and Jennie did a lot of translating for me! Corneille explained how Rwandans divide their history into two parts…before the genocide and after the genocide. For Corneille, the genocide began in 1990 when his father, who worked for the army, was killed following the initial RPF incursion. Corneille went on to tell us how in 1994 he fled to the north and was able to survive by getting behind the RPF line. He eventually joined the RPF and fought to end the genocide. Corneille told us how he and Latitia had decided to adopt Janvier and said that “it was just what we had to do”…Corneille and Latitia are obviously pretty amazing people. The conversation switched to the present and Rwandan politics… Corneille perhaps explained the Rwanda’s current situation best when he said, “there’s safety, but no peace”.

After Latitia and Corneille went off to bed, Jennie stayed and talked to Matt and myself for about an hour or two. By all accounts, Jennie is a true expert on Rwanda, in fact she is currently writing a book about the evolution of race and the aftermath of the genocide…so it was amazing to sit there and pick her brain for two hours. We talked about Rwanda’s history, culture, genocide, and the country’s current political situation. She told us some really shocking and interesting details about the current government and it’s policies. Overall, it was really an amazing two hours and it was so interesting to hear her take on things.

So…the homestay is going really well! The house itself is pretty nice too. We even have running water (freezing cold)…well, most of the time! So, I’m really excited about the next couple of days here and can’t wait to learn more about Rwandans, their lives, their history, and their culture.

Keepin it classy,
Luke