I am the Worst Blogger Ever

Hello.
Since we last spoke I have been in Paris with Janis, Cedric, Lauren and about a third of the Tulane population, Versailles, Prague, Vienna, and Budapest with my Dad (and Mira, briefly!) and back to London.
Now I am in Kigali, Rwanda.

Some interesting travel observations, briefly:
1. If I never see another Impressionist or Post-Impressionist painting in my life, I think I'll be good.
2. The Charles Bridge in Prague was made of sandstone, but the mortar was mixed with eggs and wine to keep it strong.
3. Entry in my travel journal from Vienna: "VIENNA...eh"
4. There are a lot of Neo-Nazis in Budapest and Hungary as a whole. I saw a Jobbik (the political party) rally and it was scary.
5. In Budapest, you can not ask for directions to "The Synagogue." You must ask where the "Jewish Church" is.

Now for Rwanda. It is the most beautiful place I have ever been, in terms of natural landscape. It is a lush, hilly (Milles Collines means 1000 hills, after all) region that doesn't really fulfill any Western stereotype of Africa. The people here would not be out of place in New Orleans or other homey cities in the American South. Everyone is immensely friendly and will go out of their way to be helpful and nice. My placement is with the organization's "HIV/AIDS" program, but there is very little program to speak of. I am working at a health center, the Centre de Sante Kimirongo (Kimirongo is the district--it is the health center for the whole district). At first they didn't really have a job for me, but after several strange days of placements that included weighing women during their family planning consultations and sitting in a room for three hours listening to doctors and HIV+ patients talk about ARV (anti-retroviral medication) results in Kinyarwanda, a language of which I speak about thirty words, I have finally found something that I enjoy doing and actually helps: today I administered Polio immunizations to about two dozen babies!!! It is possibly the best job ever. I sit in an immunization room with these brand new babies--I'd say none are more than 7 months old, and a couple were quite literally born yesterday--and I smile at their moms and administer the immunizations (which are not shots, but liquid drops that they swallow) and hold the babies sometimes and play with their fingers to keep them from swatting away the vaccine. BEST JOB EVER.
The other component of my placement is home visits and consultation with the "Association," which is a UNAIDS CHAMP (Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project) group of community members comprised both of people living with HIV/AIDS and their negative-status neighbors and friends. The group I'm working with has 81 positive individuals, and an additional 25 or so community members who merely wish to lend their support to their friends. The people in the group (I met only with women last week but men and children also belong) struggle through so much, but they asked me question after question about HIV/AIDS in the United States and whether people in the US suffer the way that they do. They were shocked and frankly appalled that the US Government does not provide free ARV treatment as Rwanda does, and wondered aloud how Obama and his colleagues could "leave people to die." I assured them that it wasn't quite that harsh, though definitely a shame.
I don't quite know how well I will be able to help the Association, unfortunately. Visiting with women confined to their homes by the side-effects of ARVs coupled with a lack of sufficient and nutritious food (which is especially important to people on ARVs) and an advancing syndrome is interesting for me and, according to my translator, assures the women that people care about them and that they are not isolated from the rest of the world, but I want to give them something real and tangible. I am kicking ideas out with my translator (a woman named Claire, who is one of the warmest people I have ever met) regarding proposals and income-generating projects that I could endeavor to help them create.

On a lighter note, here are some fun notes about Rwanda:
Learn Kinyarwanda!
Muraho - hello
Mwaramutse - good morning
Amakuru ki? - how are you? (what is the news?)
Ni Meza - I am well/the news is good

and, as in all East African countries, Muzungu - whitey (not a diss, just a manner of addressing you)

I have been able to use a lot of French here, which has been tremendously handy, especially in the Centre de Sante. Rwanda taught French in schools along with the native language until LITERALLY this year, when the government decided to switch over to English. Therefore, many teachers are immensely confused and all of the better-educated people over 15 know French. My Frenglish has progressed immensely.

Another note: the Backstreet Boys are strangely popular here.

Finally, a breakdown of some prices here:
Avocados- $0.18 each
Pineapples- about $0.90 each
A plate of spinach, beans, rice, potatoes and french fries at the hospital- about $0.90
A $10-at-CVS jug of Carlo Rossi wine- 20,500 RWF, or about $36