Claudine's Visit

So I think I should rename this blog - cultural misconceptions. I've been having some great cultural exchanges lately - so yay 2nd and 3rd goals of Peace Corps.

I went to visit my buddy Claudine. She lives down the street from me but is usually at her boarding school an hour away. She happened to be home for a school holiday so we reconnected. Claudine's cousin was also there - Jean Damascene. Unfortunately, as I have witnessed many times, the males in this country seem to have a much better grasp of English than the females. Jean Damascene quickly took control of the conversation. I believe this was mainly because he doesn't often have the opportunity to talk to an native English speaker who lets him fire away endless questions. It was actually quite entertaining to sit back and give him some time, seeing the wheels in head spin, as he formulated his curiosity into English questions.

But first- it's always interesting to see where Rwandans get their knowledge of American culture. Since a lot is from horrendous news stories and rap videos, you can imagine the misconceptions of the everyday, Michigan life I used to lead. During this visit my phone started to vibrate in the pocket of my cargo pants. I reached down to see who was calling. Apparently this triggered something in Jean Damascene's mind about the US having a gun problem. He assumed that every American owns a gun and carries it around all the time. He was relieved to see me pull out a cell phone. I understand the fear he had but I couldn't help but laugh at him. Even if I carried a concealed weapon in the US, I doubt the Rwandan government would let me carry it around Rwanda as well. This conversation segwayed into a discussion of the hunting culture in the US, particularly Michigan since I know it well. All of a sudden Michigan was looking like the primitive culture as I explained that people go out and kill animals and the families eat the meat.

Then I had to adamantly defend proper English. Jean Damascene gets a lot of his English vocabulary from song lyrics. I also had to argue that the word boys isn't spelled boyz. Sometimes I'm seen as the biggest expert of the English language and other times they won't even believe that boys doesn't involve a z.

So a great Rwandan question that you would be hard pressed to find outside of a American geography class is - what do you cultivate there? I often have to scratch my head thinking of what we cultivate in Michigan. Once again I need to defend my answers to Rwandans who clearly think the US is all city and no farm.

I'll end this post with Jean Damascene's explanation of old Rwandan marriage customs. Now I was the one questioning. He says one set of parents go to the next village to another set of parents and arranged the marriage. Then one random night the eligible bachelor hears on the bedroom door. Parents say and that's the end of that. Jean Damascene must have seen the skeptical look on my face because he ended it with this gem - Love goes where it wants but parents often try to orient it.