Hell no Nido

So NestleNido is a very expensive fake milk product sold here in Rwanda. Many people use it in their tea and coffee and it totally dominates the market. I might be a crazy person but it drives me nuts every time I see it. Any you might ask why???? (thanks for asking, sorry this post is a little bit more hardcore than the others but i find it important and its been slapping me in the face the last couple of weeks)
A couple of years ago Nestle decided to push their fake milk product even further in developing countries so they made up a couple of little lies to sell more product.
These little lies turned out to be a little bigger problem than they expected. They started a marketing campaign saying that their fake milk product was healthier for a baby than their own mothers breast milk. This is simply not true and wrong to promote. They did this by buying up tons of advertising space in developing counties. They even had their employees dress up in nurses uniforms and go into hospitals to tell new mothers that they should use the nesmilk instead of their own breast milk because it is healthier for a baby. They would even be generous enough to give a free sample to the mother to the exact length of time that it takes for a mothers breast milk to dry up from not being used after having a child.
This strategy worked as mother spent much of their money they had to buy the new Nestle formula. The success was "huge" as this this killed hundreds of thousands of babies. Mothers would mix the formula with unclean water and many babies died.

So please maybe give this a thought next time you see the many enticing Nestle products on the shelf.

75 Miles from the Equator

Things get a little warm when you’re living 75 miles away from the Equator. Without running water and electricity being out 8 hours a day, the realities of the environment have hit home, literally. We are some of the lucky ones though. The school has been able to afford these huge rain collecting basins, which we draw a couple liters of water from every day. Folks not so fortunate have to go down to a watering hole everyday to collect a couple of gallons. This isn’t so bad until the dry season comes. That’s when things get really interesting. People have to travel further and further for water as it becomes more and more scarce and I will tell you what, water is heavy. We have been instructed to save at least 4 Jerry cans worth of water in preparation for the driest month, June.
I have always been an advocate for the environment, but to be honest, it’s not so much because I’m a huge fan. I mean I have always loved the environment and animals, but this has really put a human face on the environment and I really care about people. As the affects of climate change worsen, the seasons here in Nyagatare will become more sporadic and tougher to grow crops. I would guess 85% of Rwandans are farmers. Climate change will make the rainy season more violent and the drought months more intense. This will make the very thin safety net in which people lean on, even thinner and could cause many people to loss their livelihood and even their lives.

Take That Globalization!

So I don’t have McDonalds, Wendy’s, Burger King, Jack in the Box, Checkers, Hardees, Cookout or Steak n Shake but I can get some awesome fruits and veggies for super cheap! The fruits and veggies here blow away the artificially low prices of things in the states. (the government subsidizes corn which is then substituted into almost all products and I mean all, including meat and cows can’t even digest corn but they feed it to them anyway (check the documentary King Corn to learn more)) Do you want to know why, because all the food here is local. True, I don’t get as much diversity, but it is awesome paying the prices I do. I’m just going to give you a sample. 1 good pineapple- .40¢, I would guess that over 90% of America’s pineapples come from either Costa Rica or Ecuador. 2 avocadoes- 17¢, Again I would guess that over 75% of American sold avocadoes are from Mexico. I will only do 1 more, 1 glass of cold fresh out of the cow milk- 17¢, this is real milk too, not diluted with water, full of fat and cream. You can’t even buy those gross boxes of milk that they always sold you in elementary school for that much.
True, your right, I would bet your thinking hey, it’s a different standard of living and PPP (purchasing power parity) is completely different in Rwanda, which I totally agree with you but still…. those in the states, you have options. Use your old friend Google and search Community Supported Agriculture or CSA and then what ever town you live in. Sign up if you can. In brief, CSA is where you pay a farmer up front to grow a variety of crops for a season and once a week that farmer drives into town and drops off a fresh box of fruits and veggies for you. If you find a good CSA I will guarantee you that the fruits and veggies will be safer for you and your family (no pesticides, usually organic), will be fresher (not flown halfway across the world in preservatives) and cheaper (it will cost less because it doesn’t have to travel far). I cannot guarantee you Rwandan produce prices but you certainly have better options than you think you do. Rereading this, I feel that I might come off as being a little superior in my food choices, trust me this is not the case. Although I feel very fortunate to have these food options right in front of me, it has been a bit tricky to cook. Without fresh water and having dodgy electricity it has become quite a chore to be able to cook all this fresh food that is bought.

The Unseen

Please do not read if you are already feeling a little down today.
I’m just going to share this and you can take as you want to because I’m not really sure how to articulate it. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I want to bring this into the conversation and that’s all. The other day we were in a bus going Nyananza and stopped to for a bathroom break in a random town. It was no big deal at all but as people were dispersed throughout this little town for a few minutes, a mother let her daughter who clearly had Down’s syndrome out of the house to come and greet the muzungus. It was not problem with us, but the folks from the town gasped in horror as a child with disabilities and beautiful smile pushed toward us just wanting to hold hands. The reactions of the people in the town startled me. Overall it was really a non event as the child was able to hold hands with somebody for a minute and then we had to pile back on the bus and went on our way. The subtlety killed me though. My mind raced for the rest of bus ride about what happens to those with disabilities in developing countries. Let’s be honest, as things have tightened in the US, the facilities for those with disabilities have vanished. I cannot imagine a developing country. I think that little girl will be alright. You could see the love her mother had for her but still, what about the others I have not seen or they have not seen much daylight. How has their fortune turned out? I don’t know if I’m out of the loop but I really haven’t heard much about helping those with disabilities in developing country. A while ago, I met a guy who started this organization called Hisperian to help those with disabilities in developing countries, but haven’t heard from the organization since.
I don’t know if you believe in higher power, but if you do, please pray for those with disabilities especially in developing countries. That’s all I got and I have to put it up to that because I’m not big enough. I will continue to try to do what I can and if you check out the Hisperian website and feel comfortable giving them money, I’m sure they need some.

A little late but stilll really cool

I'm way late on this but I thought is was really cool and wanted to share.

Apparently Glen Hansard called up Bono and Damien Rice to do a little Christmas busking for charity.

Busking standing on the street playing for money if you wanted to know.

They raised over $50,000 for Dublin Simon Community. Aint that cool!

Get to Know Your Food

So some friends and I tried to order the goat bruchettes at a local restaurant the other day and they told us that they were on the way and if waited for 4 hours then they would have them. I know your first reaction is hell no, I would never wait that long for food. But when your average wait time for a meal outside of Kigali is a cool 2+ hours, waiting an extra hour and a half doesn’t seem that bad. We all decided to order something different and hold off on the goat for another day. Probably within 10 minutes of ordering we hear the distinct squealing of a goat. We see a man riding on the back of a moto holding a goat upside down going toward the back of the restaurant.

They were nice enough to let us muzungo’s watch the simple slaughtering and preparation for a meal. With this, many folks were not so hungry for bruchettes anymore.

I’m not going to lie, I appreciated the simplicity and closeness of the food I eat here especially in comparison to the perverted American factory farming system. It’s nice to see goats on leashes eating grass spread throughout the country. Do you ever wonder where all the meat you eat comes from? Americans are biggest consumers of meat by a long shot and really how many cows, pigs and chickens do you see hanging around? Not many huh? It’s because we like to be efficient and pile our animals in building where nobody can see them. I believe that if we opened up the doors to the factory farms in America, a lot more people wouldn’t eat meat. Please find the source of you food and decide if you want to eat it still.

It's a Strange Familiar

I have decided not make any judgments or assumptions about any new place that I am living in for at least a couple of months. We shall see if I keep to it. Instead I will make some observations about myself. Regardless of the faux Wal-mart and Starbucks I have felt a strange familiar with this place since I arrived. I obviously have never been and many things are very unknown to me. Its a new culture, people and way of doing life. Many things have changed but I think one thing has to be in common.
I cannot help but believe that we as human beings have a common strand of humanity. That we were created to be together by something greater than us. There are so many different languages, cultures and traditions that at first glance seem so foreign but even without understanding, I feel a bond between me and all beings in this earth. Am I the only one that feels this? Without knowing a thing I get a deep inclination of more... there's more than just flesh and blood down here. I believe we are living a shared humanity. We belong to a greater story than we can imagine and were doing it together. I would hope that regardless of the many differences we can find each other that we respect the divine humanness in each of us.

Kigaliaround

Greeting from Kigali, Rwanda! I have been amazed at how much development has occurred in this country over the past few years. I’m not going to lie, I was not expecting to see the Wal-mart equivalent Nakumat open 24 hours a day sitting next door to the popular Starbucks equivalent called Bourbon after Bourbon Street. Speaking of coffee, although I’m not a coffee connoisseur, the coffee here has been quite phenomenal and might turn me into a regular drinker. If you’re asking yourself, man, I would love to get my hands on some Rwandan coffee, look no further. Land of a Thousand Hills Coffee House sells absolutely delicious fair trade coffee directly from Rwanda and my friend Chelsea works there. Don’t worry if you don’t live in Atlanta, you can order it on-line. It’s quite interesting to go halfway across the world and still feel so much familiarity. Americanization?

We are staying at a beautiful Catholic mission called St. Paul’s. It is maybe half a kilometer (I’m going to write in the metric system because A) the English system is stupid and B)I better start getting used to it) to the center of Kigali. St. Paul’s is a very interesting place to stay. The Mission served as a safe haven during the genocide 15 years ago. Two thousand people took shelter on the grounds and possibly even the bed that I am sleeping in tonight. If you travel a quarter kilometer, north of the mission you will run into the now extravagantly nice Hotel Milles Collines (Hotel Rwanda). If you decide to look south toward the curving hills, maybe 2 kilometers in the distance you can imagine the RPF marching through the outskirts of Kigali. It is 15 years later and Rwanda has a very new face.

The sun is shining and there are many smiling warm faces around. There seems to be an infestation of falcons that fly about the surrounding area performing sweet in-flight maneuvers, keeping me distracted from training. The climate around Kigali has been quite hot while the showers have been so cold. The city has been a generous place.