Fotografie di Roma

From top: Via del Teatro di Marcello, vista di Ponte Palatino, Il Colosseo, Piazza di San Pietro, celebrating my 26th birthday with Jess at Piazza Navona, Fontana di Trevi, Sister Jacinta (friend from Rwanda) by Lago Albano a Castel Gandolfo, Il Papa Benedetto XVI at General Audience

Roma per una Bambinaia

Several months ago I applied to work as an au pair in Italy for the summer, and soon after learned of my acceptance by the au pair agency. My desire to spend a summer al’Italia had been brewing for some time now, so that my Italian becomes more than just conversational, and to experience il bel paese in the midst of its most beautiful season. Working as an au pair was the most cost-effective option; one in which I am forced to speak Italian and make my way here as more than just a tourist. In exchange for 30 hours per week of babysitting, I get room and board in an apartment in the center of Rome, plus a modest stipend of 100 euros/week and transit within the city.

It sounds like a dream job, no? Yes, and no. The family is accommodating and friendly, both eager to help me with my Italian and practice their English. There are two small children: a girl of four and a baby boy of seven months. Both the mother and father work in the father’s law office, which is on the same floor as our apartment; in case of a problem or emergency, I don’t need to go far. But despite almost 15 years of babysitting, multiple years lifeguarding and teaching swim lessons, and thousands of hours teaching and tutoring English, French, math, CCD and other subjects to children, I feel a little unprepared for the stress that accompanies taking care of a seven month-old baby! When he is not (and sometimes when he is) drinking, eating, pooping, sleeping, riding in the stroller or playing with something sufficiently distracting, he is crying. Often wailing, seldom whimpering.

I understand the psychology behind it. At this point in time, crying is the baby's only means of communication. But sometimes I look at his scrunched up little face mid-outburst – at once heart-wrenching and unbelievable adorable - and think: what is so difficult in the life of treasured bambino named Federico?

Baby Federico’s sister, Ginevra, was initially hesitant with me. She is opening up more and more each day. By now, the start of my second week, she has really come to life, and sometimes requires more attention than her brother.

It is surprisingly difficult to understand the Italian of a little girl, as she speaks in detailed run-on sentences, with a vocabulary that I envy. (Someday...maybe someday soon, I keep telling myself.) It is a humbling experience, speaking to a four year-old and receiving a funny look in return because she can’t quite decipher my convoluted Italian. I imagine things come out along the lines of:
-“Ginevra, now I will go together to the Park Borghese to play with your friends of the school”
or
-“I’m sorry, Mamma cannot come now to you at the room. She has the large invited ones of dinner that must to speak to. In the night, we see again.”

Maranyundo School ranks #3 in Rwanda, #1 among girls' schools

Rwanda's 2010 National Exam results were released yesterday, following the November 2010 exams mandatory of all 6th, 9th and 12th grade students. Students are required to pass in order to move on to the next grade level or university and qualify for scholarships; for this reason, these exams are extremely high stakes. I was thrilled to learn that ALL of our school's 9th grade students passed - many in the first division - putting our school at #3 among junior high schools in Rwanda, and #1 among girls' schools. Furthermore, a scholarship fund established by the Maranyundo Initiative in Boston will enable all students to attend senior high school, regardless of her ability to pay school fees.

In its third year of operations, this was the first round of national exams completed by our school's first group of 9th grade students. I'm bursting with pride for all of our girls, especially those that I tutored in the final term of the 2010 school year.

To read Kigali's New Times article announcing the results, click on the link on the right-hand side.

Reflection on two years in Sub-Saharan Africa

Peace.
It does not mean to be in a place where this is no noise, trouble or hard work. It means to be in the midst of all those things and still be calm in your heart.

Roughly six months into my first year in Rwanda, I received a package from a close friend. Opening that package on the concrete floor of my room in dusty, rural Nyamata felt like winning the lottery. I delighted in the tin of hot cocoa, boxes of mac and cheese, Twix bars, Cosmopolitan magazine, Swedish fish, mashed potatoes au gratin mix, brightly colored stickers, notepads and other goodies that I knew would last me the rest of my first year. Nestled amongst these goods were three sealed, numbered envelopes containing cards written by my friend. Her instructions were deliberate: I was to open the cards in order, at three times over the course of the next several months when I needed a boost. Having those cards stored away in my closet (along with the remaining spoils of the package) reminded me that no matter how difficult things got – no matter how much judgment I faced from Maranyundo’s nuns, no matter how many people viewed me as a walking dollar sign, no matter how many protruding bellies I passed on my way to the district office, no matter how bitterly cold it got at the top of Kilimanjaro – I was not alone.

One of the cards included this message about peace. I find that it appropriately describes much of what I learned in Rwanda, through getting to know those who have had to find peace in the most un-peaceful circumstances. In hard times, I think about these strong, resilient people, most of whom will never have access to the resources or opportunities that we as Americans often take for granted. In the hardest of times, I try to emulate their character, and I remember to count my blessings.

Lessons Learned
1. How to COMMUNICATE without words
2. How to pay close attention to my surroundings and become increasingly self-aware
3. How to have FAITH in God...and in the moto driver
4. How to APPRECIATE the many things I have as an effect of where I was born, and how to live without many of those things
5. How to WAIT –
for a bus to start moving, to earn the trust of school administrators, in line for peanut butter, for a student to respond to a question in English, for running water, electricity, world news, refrigeration, and the arrival of a friend
- for a seemingly endless period of time, without understanding why, and with no guaranteed resolution
6. How to LISTEN
and, when the timing is right, how to share advice
7. How to live as a minority in a rural village
8. How to be RESOURCEFUL in a range of situations –
open a can of tuna with a kitchen knife...launder clothes in a hotel bathtub...turn bug spray into WD-40...sub bobby-pins for paperclips...insert a European plug into a British outlet, sans adaptor...create an Irish flag using patterned fabrics from the market...force the unharmed exodus of a bird, monkey, chameleon or mouse from one’s sleeping quarters...turn a bed sheet into a movie screen, a ripped pair of pants into a headband, or red Gatorade powder into “cherry” cake frosting
9. How to GIVE fully and without reservation for just matters, however unpleasant the journey may be
10. How to LOVE those who may have nothing in common with oneself
11. How to spend the greater part of a day without eating, drinking or using the loo – and understand how many around me experience just that on a regular basis, without ever complaining
12. How to say NO...to racist policies and ignorant endorsement of such policies, to pretending that everything in Rwanda is perfect based on face value, to random requests for money, English lessons, my hand in marriage
13. How to earn the trust and respect of those who have experienced trauma, abuse, loss and betrayal by loved ones at various stages of their lives
14. How to LET GO – of past possessions, grievances and judgments
15. How to find beauty in a damaged people, a broken heart, a furry spider and a newborn’s cry