The milk shop that caters to women, which I noted earlier has branched out to selling shoes, jeans, and perfume, has also – I could not help but notice – started selling feminine toiletries. Ah, and now they carry those very thin cigarettes that only women will be caught smoking. Though no one ever smokes anywhere, from what I have seen – occasionally, very rarely, I will see an older slightly crazy-looking man smoking in public, but this is, in general, taboo. I think the skinny cigarettes are just there for show. Y’know, to show that this is a boutique milk shop. Ah and how, oh how, could I forget: the ladies milk shop is also the only place for miles around – and I have searched miles – that sells chocolate. Real chocolate, not only the lollypops. I’m a little afraid to taste it, because chocolate has a shorter shelf life than chocolate-flavored lollypops. It is the weekend now, so maybe I will give it a try.
One of the better restaurants that sold mostly rice, beans and potatoes – the standard Rwandan dish – has closed down and been replaced by yet another milk shop. There must be at least six across one mile, and four within the tiny little Rubona center. Stores are doing everything they can to get an edge in the milk-shop sector, and it should be interesting to see how they market themselves to stay in business. Because they are so similar to each other, differences are easier to catch.
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In “debate club” last night – which is more like a discussion group – students discussed the policy in Rwanda of government institutions striving to have an equal number of men and women and, what was most relevant for them, the policy of affirmative action where women can be accepted into university with lower marks. The student who was translating for me was a very shy, quiet boy. He did not say anything almost the whole time. Then, the councilor was responding to students who complained that the policy was unfair by explaining, “It is a government policy for equality” trying to persuade the other students that the policy was a good one. “The government wants to create balance!” she said, raising her hands up like a balance. After she said this a second time, the small, quiet boy next to me loudly erupted in anger with, “_________________!!!!!!!!!” Well , I don’t know precisely what he said, but it was clearly a very angry, loud, impassioned outburst disagreeing with her comments and this policy. He finished talking, scowled, and then the scowl returned to his calm, quiet, relaxed, polite face. He started translating the next comments being made, not his, as if nothing had happened. So I quickly asked him what he said and he told me it was “unfair that girls can get lower marks to get into university. They are less qualified to start university and this is unfair.” He seemed to emphasize the fact that it was unfair, not that girls may be less qualified when they start university, thus hindering their own success. (I don’t agree with this argument, but it’s at least an objective argument that takes into account the women’s needs.)
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The students are working on deciding what famous people in history their houses will be named after. They each received a list of sixteen names, and each family must decide what their first choice is. Then, if there are multiple families that want the same names, they will compete in a class-wide quiz.
Somehow, Christopher Columbus and Vasco de Gama got on the list – two men who arguably committed major human rights violations upon discovering new lands. Thank goodness for Wikipedia, a pretty accurate source for finding information on these particular explorers. None of the girls wanted the house to be named after either one after reading about some of the terrible things the explorers did. In the end, it was good they made the list, because it pushed the students to learn something they did not know, and be critical of the names they were given. They wanted Rousseau at one point, and asked me to help research for them. I brought a bunch of quotes from Rousseau to family time. I explained that many great people also did some not-great things, and to take that into account. I read somewhere that Rousseau said, “Women, in general, are not attracted to art at all, nor knowledge, and not at all to genius.” I can’t find the original source this was written/said in, but when I read it out-loud it was unanimously agreed not to choose Rousseau. I hope this is a real quote. It would be nice to find the original source. I hope it’s not an inaccurate meme that has just sort of spread.
Right now Julius Nyerere is the top choice they will be competing for - a better option, from the very limited information I have about him.
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