Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Intermission

So I am half way through my time, started slow and calm, now building momentum. The interesting aspect of my internship is the not so apparent cultural undertones that coincide with body language, eye contact, and lack of emotive. I am learning slowly, in addition to realizing my assumptions are often wrong.

As a response to the genocide, in 1998 the Rwanda government's Ministry of Rehabilitation, at the urging of a British citizen Rwandan women (who lost fifty members of her family in the genocide and returned to help bury the dead and help survivors), developed the Funds for Support of Genocide Survivors (FARG) which, among other objectives such as housing and education, recruited and trained the first lay trauma counselors. As reported by someone who was within this initial group training, their role was crisis intervention, going into schools and places of work, when a genocide survivor was having acute flashbacks or trauma stressors. In 1998, there were only 30 counselors nationwide, on call 24/7, providing counseling for both survivors and perpetrators. It was a daunting task. In resource limited countries lay counselor are trained to address the trauma of post conflict or natural disasters. In recent years over 10,000 Rwandans have accessed trauma counselors and the number is growing.

Part of my placement is working with WeAct's psychosocial team to provide case consolation in using Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). The complications arise when trauma counselors are trained in a specific active listening and trauma narrative training, so using CBT can be confusing and cumbersome to navigate at first, although it has been surprising me how quickly the youth grasp and apply cognitive restructuring as benefiting themselves and their relationships. As a way to help the youth counselor utilize CBT, we have been doing joint sessions together, beginning with me modeling CBT and will change over to her taking the lead and debriefing afterwards.

For many youth the living situation consists of a combative relationships with his/her mother or caregiver, unknown father, HIV+ status, and living in chronic poverty. To be honest, I understand how anger could be a major player and a negative self identity could be established. Although I felt like we were making progress in session with a young man, from what I gathered during the session, he would rarely make eye contact, never smiled even at my horribly cheese attempt to be funny, and seemed utterly bored and ready to bolt. At the end of our last session we were rescheduling for next week, he said he can't come next week, to be honest I was not surprised and thought at lest he is letting us know now instead of not showing up, I asked why, ready for him to make up an excuse, he said he didn't have bus money, I asked if you had the bus money would you come, he said yes, I said how much is it, 1000 Rwandan francs ($1.50). He said "I want to change, I want my family to change, I want to work on my anger". I choked back tears and gave him the money.......all the assumptions I was making during the session fell short of incorporating a cultural competent understanding of body language!
 Again, I learn ;)

Wish you all well, thanks for the feedback, it is both reassuring and inspiring.


Gives you an idea of the landscape,



May be little, may have a funny mohawk and a seemingly extra long tail , but wakes me up very morning at 5:30am. 


Monday, February 13, 2012

Coasting

All over Rwanda, rural or urban, there is a massive number of moto (motorcyle) taxis. Much cheaper than car, they are the primary mode of transportation for shorter distances. It is no exaggeration to say there is never a flat area in Rwanda (except maybe for the Eastern Provence), therefore in an effort to conserve gas, the moto drivers change to neutral gear when down hill coasting for miles. In another life, I would love to be a moto driver in rural Rwanda!

So it has been some time since I last updated you, no specific reason, but simply articling thoughts and feelings about my everyday experience here has been difficult, they range on the hour so pinning them down feels complicated.  Although, my scope of work is consistent, for the most part, since my last update, the fluidity of cultural norms, my western perspective, and the background of historical trauma keeps a consistent ebb and flow of hopeful and discouraging feelings.

 Once again, I am reminded international work provides a platform for intense personal reflection and awareness. Putting academic endeavors in the midst and my own fueling of goal objectives while at WeAct has provided a complex assortment of pressure to be organized, goal oriented, and a clear outcome to substantiate my time here was productive. When voicing my frustration and fears to a wise friend, she reminded me of our innate cultural need as Westerns to set a goal and measure our accomplishments, contrary to African culture (and many others) who value the process regarding relationships and fostering a sense of community (Thanks, Kim!). Therefore, instead of speeding to a goal telling me I have arrived thus confirming my contribution, I am working at coasting, conserving my self serving need to check off a goal obtained, and focus on partnering with WeAct staff and youth to assure to meet them where they are most in need, to take time to understand the cultural perspective of care and where I can help contribute, support, or just listen.

Oh...and over the weekend visit to Lake Kivu, I took an amazing moto ride along the coast although it was mainly up hill, so we didn't get to coast :)

Lake Kivu, North Western Province

Home made pottery from a local co-op.

Sixth largest fresh water lake in Africa. Really nice swimming, this is an inlet, the lake is vastly wide you can not see the DRC on the other side. 

Fishing village

Hitching a ride!!

Heading out at dusk. The fishermen collectively sang rhythmic traditional songs on the way out and the way back home. Amazing moment to witnesss.  I have video, but my internet is too slow :(