Abashitsi (Visitors)

Ben drinking traditional sorghum beer

As I’ve mentioned before, hosting visitors is a huge honor in Rwandan culture. Visiting someone is a way of showing respect, appreciation, and friendship. I love visiting my friends and coworkers, and have been honored to receive quite a few visitors myself, Rwandans and Americans as well! 

Several volunteers from the most recent health group have been installed at sites near mine, and showing them around my community and the District Hospital has been a really great way for me to see how far I’ve come since I arrived eight months ago.

The most exciting visit so far was from my world traveling friend Ben Cole, who worked for Google all of last year and was based out of Accra, Ghana. Introducing my “cousin” to neighbors and colleagues was really fun and a huge cultural moment for me. In a society where family is so highly valued, why a single, twenty-three year old white girl would move half way across the world to work is hard to explain. A visitor from home seemed to make my existence a little more real. 

So: karibu, karibu! You are all welcome!