Rebirth, fresh starts and new beginnings.

So first, Happy Easter to those who celebrate it! Spring has always been my favorite season because everything comes alive and you think it’s necessary to wear shorts or skirts in 50 degree weather because “it’s so warm outside!” The flowers bloom, trees seem alive and everything becomes green. I hadn’t realized until I moved to Rwanda how much trees and green…ness mean to me. I don’t know if it’s just because green is my favorite color, but when I’m surrounded by it, everything seems happier!

Maybe it’s because you always have shade from the sun, a little protection from rain or just something to sit under while you read a book. I guess there’s a level of protection or comfort that they can always provide. There’s also a stability; mature trees lend themselves to a sense of the history of a place. You know that you are looking at this tree just as so many people have before. It’s a connection to the past.

Now I can’t say that because my area has few mature trees I am uncomfortable, but I definitely appreciate more the parts of Rwanda that do have so many. The whole country used to be more forests but with population growth, obviously that has changed. People need the trees to build their homes and to cook on. The majority of the population still lives in these sorts of conditions. I can’t begrudge people for cutting down the trees they need to survive, but it still makes me sad.
I have many similar reactions to things people view as life necessities here. I was recently visiting a PCV friend of mine and we were discussing dogs with a coworker of hers. Now dogs have a beyond complicated history here in Rwanda but the discussion turned to how Americans treat their pets. We were discussing how people don’t ever eat their pets, now this was a laughable luxury to her counterpart. He absolutely lost it when we went on to explain that people could even be put in jail for treating their pets badly. I guess I’d never really considered animal rights a luxury, but I suppose they are when you can’t afford to do anything rather than eat them (the animals, not the rights).

So you know, just another moment in which I’ve realized how privileged our lives are. I knew I would get that coming here but it’s funny how little you can be cognizant of, especially when you invest so much energy in TRYING to cognizant of those things. Oh Life!

My mind has once again wandered and this has turned out to be nothing that I started writing about. Maybe I’ll actually write what I intended to write about tomorrow…