i have been thinking about doing a blog for a long time. i’ve just never done anything about it until now. i decided to get started as my field research gets under way.
i am doing a study that is designed to contextualise the lived realities of individuals in post-genocide rwanda. i am interviewing ‘ordinary’ rwandans on their lived experiences before, during and after the genocide of 1994. my interview data is inherently subjective, anecdotal, partial, selective and, of course, individual. i am currently running around meeting with various government officials and representatives of civil society trying to get the necessary local approvals and letters of permission before embarking on the actual interviews. i hope to be in county at least 6 months and will remain until the work is completed. i wanted to blog my experiences for a wider audience of individuals doing research in countries where politically sensitive research is also difficult and, as a means of documenting my own feelings, perceptions and beliefs about rwanda and the stories i am privileged to hear as they unfold. i also thought a blog would keep me honest as i tend to ignore my own journalling and diaries in favour of repeat episodes of ’seinfeld’ or ‘will and grace’!
i used to live in rwanda in another life. i worked as a lawyer for the UN human rights mission in 1997-1998 and then left the UN to teach law at the national university of rwanda on a USAID contract. rwanda was a very different place then, and i was a very different person. so, with new technologies, i hope to map out the nooks and crannies of all that i experienced between 1997 and 2001 when i lived in rwanda, and my return now, in mid-2006. just as i was based in butare from 1998 to 2001, i am now too based in butare. i have only been in country about a week and must admit i am still suffering sensory overload, and have yet to calm my mind sufficiently to write about what i am seeing, hearing, and feeling to be back in-country.
right now, as the day ends and the swelter of heat that marks an ordinary day in rwanda begins to dissipate, i need some dark roasted coffee to transition from day to night. unfortunately, with the recent agreement that government of rwanda signed to sell its premium bourbon coffee to starbucks, the only coffee available within walking distance of my hotel is instant nescafe!!!
