Another Update from Blake in Rwanda
The last week has been fairly interesting. The weather has been sunny yet my legs are Canadian white because walking around in shorts just makes you look like too much of a tourist.
On Thursday I went out to visit one of the potter associations but what makes this one unique is that it is run solely by widows. Apparently during the Genocide this Batwa village was decimated and practically every man was killed. Consequently, not only are they widowed but they also do not have much chance of meeting someone new as there are zero men to go around. Strange enough even the girls who are 20-25 who have never been married have little chance of meeting someone as obviously it was not just men who were killed but teenagers as well.
We drove up to the village unannounced as they do not have a telephone. As an aside, despite Rwanda being one of the poorest countries in the world they have a very sophisticated telecom industry. In Kigali I have met homeless who have prepaid cellphones. There are even people who work for the mobile companies who walk around as a public phone and rent out their airtime to the general public. In small villages obviously this is not the case. As we arrived we were greeted by a bunch of kids (hmm no husbands and no men around so something must be going on - perhaps a new religion could start from this?!) I have to say that they looked pretty ragged compared to the other villages. I am not a doctor but it looked like most of the kids had scabies. Nonetheless they looked happy to see us if for no other reason we could provide some entertainment. As it turns out the President of this association was not around as Thursday is market day and she was at the local market selling her pots. I looked on the ground and saw 6 big pots stacked one on top of the other. I then looked at the girl who was going to carry it. I am not exaggerating when I say that she stood 4′10 at most and weighed about 90 lbs. She was going to put these pots on her head (about 45 lbs) and walk to the market. That is about an hour uphill! We decided to postpone the meeting but I suggested we give her and her friend a lift in our truck. When we told them this they started to giggle.
I assumed it was due to the fact that they were going to be seen in the truck with two “studly” guys like myself and my counterpart Jean! 
As we began to drive I noticed more giggling and their eyes were quite wide open. I asked Jean if they had ever been in a truck before. He said probably but asked anyway. It turns out this was the first vehicle they had ever been in and they were loving it! Even though they were riding in the back (one was wedged in with the pots) you would get the impression that they felt like this was a stretch limousine! I do not mean to write this in a condescending way. Rather, it is easy to forget how much one takes for granted. The ride to the market took 10 minutes by truck and part of that time we had to wind our way through waves of people. It was a local market so tourists did not go there. Essentially we were the only truck and I was the only white guy around so as one can imagine we were a bit of a spectacle. The women were waving to their friends and laughing. We dropped them off and went headed back to Kigali and I have to say that the whole experience made me feel pretty good.