Stories of the Land 2017

from Matthew! This course, aptly titled "stories of the land", provided a unique and meaningful experience for the whole group.  From the beginning of this trip the focus was clearly academic, something that allowed my classmates and me to have a more meaningful experience. The group focused on being open to a different view of Africa than the one we had been presented with in our experience with western media. Through our experiences we were able to connect with and form our own, overwhelmingly positive, views of the "bright continent". The trip also served to change our opinions about controversial issues such as the choice by Rwandan President Paul Kagame to run for a 3rd term. Our on the ground experience also allowed us to meet "real people" and hear their stories. Last night we discussed our threads of the trip , a trend or common theme which we wished to further explore, and I was impressed by the insightfulness and variety of the threads. ...

matching earrings ;) from Philson! Today we started our day later than normally because as a group we decided not to visit another Genocide memorial. The memorial we were supposed to visit was made out of a church. Nyamata church was the site of thousands of deaths brought about by the Catholic Church's involvement with the interahamwe. Within the church the clothes of all the victims are preserved and laid out in the positions which the people wearing them died in. As a group we felt as though visiting two memorials in two days would be emotionally draining so we opted out and slept in. At 10 am our group gathered and headed to Kigali's biggest open-air market--Kimirongo. The hustle and bustle of the market was intoxicating and everyone who entered left with something. From the market we went to lunch and got gelato as a treat. From lunch we wen to Gahaya links an organization in which women work together to make beautiful works of art such as woven baskets, earrings...

From Andrew! Today we started the day leaving the Nyungwe Hotel, where everyone had been really kind to us (even baking a cake to celebrate Jack's birthday!) Our first stop on the way back to Kigali was to tour a tea factory. There we learned the process in which the tea is produced by getting a full tour in the factory. First we were shown how the factory purchases the tea leaves from local farmers who bring the leaves to Gisakura Tea Company.  The professional chemists sort and separate the good leaves from the bad before they actually buy the leaves. Then we were brought inside where we got to see the grinding of the leaves that would ultimately become black and green tea. We also got to see the man who runs the factory taste each grade of tea. He was able to tell just by taste whether someone in his factory had not been patient or careful enough, which would lower the quality of his tea. Many of us tried the tea, including a strand called PB-1, which they ship directl...