Women's Association and Bisoke!

While we were in Butare last week we visited this women's association that was in a small village up in the mountains. The road was AWFUL and small, and if you looked out the window you could see that there was nothing separating us from falling off the side of this cliff, and believe me, we were really high up! It was also raining, which made the muddy road even more difficult to drive on, so were were all kind of freaking out in this van that was literally hopping up and down because of the rocks in the road on the side of a mountain (while the guy driving us kept looking back at us and laughing instead of looking at the road!) Ok, it wasn't that bad, but definitely slightly scary! Anyway, we got to this village and filed into a room that was filled with rows of wooden benches. Several women were in the room vigorously stirring some yellow-ish looking liquid in an enormous bucket. We later learned that they were making soap to sell as an income generating activity. This women's association was formed organically after the genocide. There was a priest and a nun in this area that were working with a group of Tutsi women whose husband's had been killed during the genocide one day per week, and working with a group of Hutu women whose husbands where in jail as perpetrators of the genocide another day per week. The group of survivors told the priest that they wanted to see what he was teaching the other group of women. The wives of the perpetrators came to a meeting of the survivors, and then returned to a second meeting. At the second meeting, the wives of the perpetrators asked for forgiveness, which the survivors accepted. The two groups of women began living and working together, realizing that they were more alike than they thought. Though the circumstances and reasons were different, each group of women did not have their husbands, were raising their families by themselves, and were suffering from trauma in some form or another. They have been working on unity and reconciliation, and have become a force for promoting peace and reconciliation among their community. During our discussion, one of the women said,

"We lost so much human capital that all we want now is to be human beings and to share what we have to help each other. We don't care anymore about what happened, we now want to move on together."

I thought it was incredible to see how this group of women has come together to help and support each other, when so many things have happened in the past that would keep them apart, and even make them enemies. The women explained that it has been a long process and at times has been very difficult, but that it has really helped them to reconcile and form personal relationships with each other. I asked them whether their identity is more tied to the actions/outcomes of their husbands, or their shared female identity, and it was interesting to see how matter-of-fact their answers were. I'm not sure they have the same conception of "identity" as we do, and though I'm sure identity plays a role in their lives (especially because so much of the genocide and post-genocide discussions have to do with identity), it was not something they were interested in talking about in a theoretical way. They are all women who have endured very difficult circumstances and have now come together to support each other and bring a polarized community together, that is what matters, not "which part of their identity is more salient." I still do think it is interesting to think about, however, because i wonder if they truly do look at themselves as one group now, or if the past divisions still play a role in the association and in their lives. I think they have done incredible work so far, and it was really inspiring to see their desire to move forward and reconcile overpower the past animosity and problems, to create a unified group who is working together to promote peace. As we were about to leave, the women began singing and dancing so beautifully, pulling us in to join them. Unfortunately we couldn't stay and dance for long because it was beginning to rain harder and our academic director was worried that our van would get stuck in the mud on the mountain road if we didn't leave soon, but it was so wonderful to see the joy and smiles that they emanated as they were dancing, despite all of the hardships they have had to face.

This weekend, three other girls in my program and I decided to go climb a volcano in Volcanoes National Park. After class on Friday, we hopped on a two hour bus to the town of Rhengueri. We got there at about 7pm and found a hostel that had been recommended in the guidebook. The hostel is a restaurant, a bar, and a hostel, so the man led us through this 4 and a half foot tiny door (kinda like a hobit hole?), through this tunnel type thing that consisted of a sheet of metal separating the room from the restaurant, to our cozy toilet-smelling home for the weekend. It had a flushing toilet and and running water though, so we were happy as ever! The four of us shared two little twin beds, which had toy story and alphabet sheets on them. We went to a couple of little shops to get food for our hike the next day (a loaf of bread, peanut butter, chocolate spread, bananas, apples and peanuts) and then got dinner down at a restaurant down the street (a heaping plate of rice, beans, plain spaghetti, and potatoes for the equivalent of a dollar!)

My friend Chiara wrote about our hike on her blog, and since I don't have a lot of time to write it all out and i think she described it perfectly, I'll copy and paste hers and then add some more of my own comments!

"We started out walking through beautiful tea fields that went on an on until they hit the sides of a series of volcanoes far off in the distance. We reached the edge of the park and climbed over a short wall into what seemed like a jungle. The path we were walking along was narrow and extremely muddy because it had rained the night before. Initially. we were trying to hop around and over the mud puddles to keep clean, but as we went on it started to rain and the mud got worse and worse to the point where every step you took you were slipping and sliding and hoping you wouldn't face plant into the mud or the stinging nettles that bordered the path. It was exhausting because not only were you trying to scale 1000 meters up a volcano, but you also had to un-suction your feet from the mud as you went and pull yourself over particularly slippery parts using tree branches, vines, and our walking sticks. Lets just say that it may have been the most intense full body work-out that I've ever done. But it was beautiful, the surrounding jungle was gorgeous and at one point we had to make a detour off the path straight into the bushes because a pack of Gorillas had decided to use the path we were on. It was soo cool getting to see the huge animals, even if it was just for a second because one of our armed guards carrying an AK-47 was ushering us forward. I forgot to mention that we had two armed guards with guns accompanying us on our hike...reassuring? The volcano is actually directly on the boarder with the DRC. When we reached the top and look out over the crater lake we could see the DRC, they suspect that armed militia may be in the bush there, not to mention Gorilla poachers and the likes. The way down the mountain was extremely messy because it had rained for a good 2 hours of our hike up. We basically slide down the 1000 meters on our butts. Needless to say I was covered in mud, you couldn't even tell I was wearing shoes anymore. For some time I slide with an entire plant stuck into the mud that was caked onto my shoes. I wont lie, it got pretty old after a while. We were all really excited to get back to our room that smelled like toilet and take freezing cold bucket showers."

It was quite an experience! The hike was soooo unbelievably beautiful, and it was incredible to see the gorillas! People pay $500 to go gorilla trekking, and we just ran into them on our hike!! Our group was awesome and consisted of the four of us, a South African couple, 3 Rwandan porters and two armed guards. It was so exciting to get to the top of the volcano, it felt like we were on the top of the world! Going down the mountain was REALLY scary because we were slipping and sliding all over the place, but one of the porters was sooo helpful and pretty much held my hand down the mountain. It was half hilarious half terrifying, but I'd definitely say the hilarious end outweighed the terrifying part! It was an incredible experience!

Some of the women from the women's association



The volcano we climbed!


The gorilla we saw!


This is our "just conquered the mountain" pose!