The market in Rubona is rather wild on Friday Mornings, with goats running around, people trying to sell unidentified fried foods, and little kids running to schools. If you didn’t know you were in East Afrrica, you would think you were in the Machneh Yehudah Shuk on a Friday afternoon.
The first highlight from market day was when I gave the correct amount of money to a woman for some bananas, but somehow she gave me back two 100 frank coins (600 is about one dollar). I thought I gave her the right amount, but I guess she wanted a different fairer price. Here is a woman who has maybe a mud hut and some land for a banana farm, giving money back to a rich Muzungu (white person). If that’s not real honesty, I don’t know what is.
Highlight two was the “pepper from hell” incident. I spotted some small looking peppers lying on the ground, and was exited to buy this rare commodity. In the market you have to buy at least for to six of an item, so I pointed to a small pepper and asked to try one. The woman nodded, and but sternly put up one finger. I put the pepper, which was only the size of my pinky into my mouth, and ate the whole thing in one bite. My throat was the fist thing to catch fire. Next I staggered backwards, and started coughing.
This was literally the hottest pepper I have ever tasted. I tried drinking water, but I began to tear up. About ten villagers were staring at me with intrigued looks, completely confused by my behavior. The taste didn’t leave my mouth until my friends gave me some gum. Close call.
Highlight three was the hot milk and bread we got at a little shop. The milk was fresh from the morning, and tasted like Chai. It was in a huge glass. I drank it in about five minutes. It was delicious. My friend got yogurt, which was extremely sour. Our whole meal was about fifty cents!
Shabbat at Agahazo-Shalom was interesting. Every Friday we bake challas, which are delicious. The cool thing is that all the Rwandans know what Shabbat is, because there have been a lot of Jewish and Israeli staff and volunteers here. This is rather helpful to me, because I don’t need to necessarily explain when I need to do something special. For example, when I needed to leave basketball practice early for candle lighting, I simply said to the team “It’s the Sabbath, I need to go”, and they all shook there heads knowingly. I sang Kabbalat Shabbat to myself in near the edge of the farm. The birds were chirping beautify, I think they were trying to make minyan with me.
Today I went on a hike to a lake near the village. We with two of the year long volunteers, who apparently run the two mile stretch down to the lake everyday, to train for the Kigali marathon. Before we went on the hike, Mikey from Tufts, told us that a group of white people had never walked through this specific rural area, “and not to give anyone anything, because that’s what white people always F**ing do”. The route was through some very small villages, with mountains on both sides. Most people were at church because it was Sunday, but the people who were outside their clay houses greeted us politely.
The river was really beautiful, but we couldn’t swim in it because it was unclean and could have given us parasites. To get back we walked across this rice patty next to the river, via the coolest man made bridge I have ever seen made up of only straw. People had put down a layer of thick straw in the shallow marsh, that is strong enough to hold a person, but will still sink down when stopped on. It’s like a waterbed. Some people ran across in fright, others took their time. I didn’t see any water during the entire journey across, until I took a bad step, and came up with a soggy sneaker. Well worth it!... Pictures soon
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