The Cultural Exchange

 The Cultural Exchange 

By Syeda B Begum

Rwanda is described as the land of a thousand hills. Everywhere you look there is beautiful scenery, greens and land. Our team of 12 ICS volunteers are based in the district Huye, where there seems like there is  thousands of children as well as hills! We are four weeks into our placement with Let Us Transform Life Initiative (LUTI) who work with women and young people, that are often the most adversely impacted by poverty. 

80% of the team - sorry we are just too busy for group photos.

On our placement, we have already seen and learnt so much. But just how well does each volunteer know their counterpart? I mean how can you embed yourself into another culture without knowing the likes and dislikes of the person in that culture, whom you wish to learn about? It is the way of living that creates a persons culture. To test this cultural exchange we quizzed each volunteer with 6 questions about their counterpart. Below you will see the questions they were asked, then under each name you will see how they answered for their counterpart. Each person is then given a score out of 6 to show just how well they know their counterpart!

Essy (left) and Anne (right).

                  2/6                                                                    4/6

Claire (left) Julia (right).

                 5/6                                                                    4/6

Ari (left) Chris (right)

                  3/6                                                                    4/6

Syeda (left) Agnes (right)

                4/6                                                                    4/6

Aisha (left) Ange (right)

                 1/6                                                                    4/6

Team Leaders ; Dan (left) Sabrina (right)

               4/6                                                                    2/6

Now, we did not only just learn about our counterparts but the norms and values of the community, here are some facts we learnt 4 weeks into our placement!

Did You Know?

1    1. In Huye the buses will not travel to any destination until it is full with passengers,          meaning you could wait up to 20 minutes!

2. The word ‘Mazungo’ is commonly used to describe travellers/foreigners by Rwandan people, so if you come here everyone will call you this :/

3. Carbs such as potatoes, rice and bananas are the main foods in all meals. 

4. On Friday afternoons, people in the community leave work to play sports.

5. As Rwanda is close to the equator we get exactly 12 hours of light and 12 hours of night, meaning it gets really dark by 6 pm!!