Luckily I was too busy most of the day on Tuesday to be depressed about it being my last day in Rwanda. If I had been given too much time to think about it, my passport may not have made it all the way to the airport.
I spent the whole morning getting packed up and preparing for the presentation we would be giving that afternoon at Kigali Institute of Education (KIE) to university students about what we had learned on our trip. Not surprisingly, we returned to Bourbon Coffee for lunch and finalizing the presentation. Somehow I was delegated the responsibility of putting together the whole thing over lunch, so I can't really say it was a relaxing time.
In a perfect summary of our experience with 'African Time', we were rushing to get everything finalized for our presentation and ended up arriving at KIE about 45 minutes later than planned and about 15 minutes after we were supposed to have started presenting. Not to worry, though, because John, our contact at KIE, had made absolutely zero preparations for us to present by the time we got there. We had to tell him again everything we needed for the presentation and he went about making arrangements. The students of KIE seemed to be the truly informed ones, as everyone showed up about an hour after we were supposed to start presenting, just a little bit before we did actually get around to starting.
When we finally began, it was really a little bit awkward. What do we tell Rwandans about Rwanda? I felt like we were walking a fine line between being interesting, insightful, condescending, and offensive. More like balancing at the top of a pyramid I guess. I was particularly unsure for myself, considering I was comparing American healthcare to Rwandan healthcare. It didn't make me feel any better when we were grilled with some really tough questions afterwards, including some instances of being told that our information was totally wrong (such as not knowing the correct number of districts and provinces in Rwanda...oops).
I was really afraid we had done a poor job, so I was amazed and delighted when all the people I talked to afterward during our 'mingling time' were all very pleased and thanked me for the presentation. Maybe we had managed to balance after all. Anyway, I was really glad not to have offended anyone, and I even made a few friends in the process.
We said our goodbyes to our new friends at KIE only to head to Gisimba in order to say our goodbyes there as well. While I don't think we connected with the orphanage as much as last year's group might have, it was still really hard to leave. One moment that really got me was when a boy I had played with quite a bit walked up to me. He hardly knew any English, so he just outlined tears on his cheeks with his fingers and stared at me. Ouch.
As I was talking to Ashley she brought up another pretty sad reality: the depth to which all the kids understood what was going on. They had gone through it many times before - everyone that comes and helps out at Gisimba eventually ends up leaving too. It gave me an even greater understanding and appreciation for the relationship all the orphans have with each other...
... And before I knew it we were driving away. We went to the Hotel Des Mille Collines (from the movie Hotel Rwanda) to spend the evening since our plane wasn't leaving until 4am and we had already checked out of Chez Lando. I got a few humbling lessons in igisoro, my new game, from one of drivers Guillaum. As a group I think we really bonded with our drivers/translators/fixers, and I know I'll really miss them.
They took us to the airport around midnight, and I had to say goodbye to both our drivers and the city that I'd spent the last few weeks falling in love with. It was a little unreal... I felt like I was just going on another weekend trip and would be coming home before too long. Instead I was moving on, but not without leaving a part of me in this little country in Africa.
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