The One Where Time Passes
On the Relativity of Time
I have hundreds of pages of notes in my Notes app on my phone. I write everything down in that app, from grocery lists to professional emails to recommended book titles. The other day, I stumbled across a note I started the second day I was here. It was a countdown of how many days and weeks I have in Rwanda. The last time I edited it, I left it as this:
6 weeks (7 weekends)
43 days (out of 70)
To the unknowing eye, this might not seem like much. But to me, it conveys so many feelings and represents so much growth. At the beginning of this trip, I was aware of each passing hour in each long day. I started this list to remind myself that I really don’t have too long here. I can do it; the proof of how far I have left is right there on paper. Quantifying my reality somehow made it less difficult and easier to say, “look how far you’ve already come.”
Soon, my heightened awareness of time started to slip away. I began getting used to everything and making friends. I didn’t need to count the days, hours, minutes of my time here because doing so would make me realize how I don’t have enough time left. Isn’t it strange how time goes by so slowly when you don’t want it to, and then, when you’re finally enjoying it, it passes by in a blink of an eye? I never thought that I’d get to this point in Rwanda, where I’m so comfortable that leaving feels like uprooting my life. I don’t know when it happened, or how, but it did, and now all I can do is enjoy my remaining few hours and days. Maybe this time I won’t count them, though.
On Working
This week, I finished up some ongoing projects from the previous few weeks. I finished my research and edits on the Burundi page and sent it off to IBJ’s Burundi office to prepare it for posting. I also finished writing the proposal for the Open Society Initiative for East Africa grant and received the first round of edits. As a former journalist, I’m used to receiving constructive criticism, but I received a lot of edits for this grant! I didn’t think compressing all of this information into a comprehensive summary (all while staying under 750 words) would be too hard, but it definitely took a lot more work and time than I expected. I learned a lot about persuasive writing and effective summarizing through writing this grant, a skill I’ll be sure to use next year in school and post-graduation.
On Art Hunting
This weekend, my friends and I made it our mission to hunt for art and souvenirs. On Saturday, we began by visiting a few local art shops around Kigali. Many of the shops were artists-in-residence programs, meaning they recruited artists from Rwanda or elsewhere to live in the shop and develop their artwork as a full-time job. We found everything from watercolor paintings of the rolling hills of Rwanda to avant-garde mixed-media statutes of women. We were able to meet many of the artists at the shops who made the works and asked them about their processes and inspiration.
That afternoon, during our brunch stop, we found a Rwandan clothing designer with a shop in the restaurant we were eating at. I found a shirt that I loved, and she offered to tailor it for me and make similar shirts with different fabrics. Getting custom-made clothing is a must-do in Rwanda, and I immediately took her up on her offer. We headed to her main shop, where she took my measurements, asked me the style I wanted, and then allowed me to pick out the fabrics and colors. She ended up making three shirts for me with fabric found at the
market. I know I’ll be wearing them constantly!
On Sunday, we kept the souvenir train rolling by heading to the Kimironko Market. Since my second week here, I’ve been meaning to visit this market, which is the biggest and most popular one in Kigali. I’ve been nervous to go alone because I have read and heard about how overwhelming it can be from the aggressive sellers, crowded alleys and sheer size of the place. Every weekend, I put it off because I hadn’t worked up the courage to just rip the Band-Aid off. But this weekend was the perfect moment to go with friends in search of souvenirs.
We opted to visit on Sunday mainly because it was raining on Saturday but also because it tends to be less crazy on Sundays, with many stalls taking the day off. The market is in Kicukiro, a suburb of Kigali about a 20 minute moto ride away from my guest house. Our motos dropped us off on a dirt road just outside the looming market building. The market stalls are housed in a huge warehouse-style building that’s half inside and half outside. Each of the thousands of stalls are about 3-feet wide and sell everything from imported second-hand clothing to hand-woven baskets. The main aisles are relatively wide, fitting about three people across, but the real fun is barely squeezing down an alley to visit the stalls inside.
To my surprise (and relief), the market is relatively organized. We first passed the imported section, then the raw meat, then clothing and fabric, and ended at the Rwandan souvenirs. We didn’t even get to the other half (produce, household necessities, fishermen, etc.) despite spending over three hours wandering around the market. With its vibrant hanging fabrics, stacks of colorful baskets and displays of products from around the world, the market was beautiful and hard to capture in photos. The sellers weren’t too aggressive, but it was nice to be prepared for them following me around, pressing me to visit their stall. I felt like a hot commodity!
We came with stacks of small bills and, thanks to our moto experience, were prepared to ride a hard bargain. I thought I was going to end up paying high prices (my bargain skills are subpar at best), but I got some great deals! We walked away with our arms overflowing with baskets, traditional paintings made with cow dung, fabrics, custom-made clothing and more. We struggled to fit everything on our moto ride back, ready to take a well-deserved nap. Now the hard part will be fitting everything in my suitcase!