Experience is the best teacher (especially making mistakes)

Making mistakes in a new culture and country is bound to happen.  It's more a matter of when and how big of a mistake.  

One of my funniest in China was when I needed help lifting a bag over my head while on a train.  I asked a young man in my best Chinese if he could help me.  The problem was that the Chinese word for 'help' sounds similar to 'hold/hug'.  So instead of asking for help, I actually asked for a hug.  :) Thankfully, he was gracious and we both laughed heartily at my error.  

After living in Rwanda a couple of months, we ventured out of town for a day.  We headed out in the morning and were on the streets just a short time when we noticed that they were empty.  We realized right away that we forgot it was ‘Umaganda’ Saturday. 

Umaganda is a morning of community service scheduled the last Saturday of every month.  This citizens of Rwanda gather together to do projects around the village/city and clean up.  We were aware of the importance of this monthly occurrence and understood that we were welcome to pitch in around the community if we wanted but foreigners weren’t required to as the locals are.  All businesses are closed and the city pretty much shuts down.  This began after the 1994 genocide in an attempt to unite the country and work together for its betterment.

We encountered a road block with two heavily armed officials just ½ mile from our home.  They took one look at our car full of Mzungu (foreign) faces and waved us on.  We thought we had hit the jackpot.  No traffic.  No need to dodge bicyclists, motorcycles, and pedestrians…score!  What a perfect day of travel we thought.  

We were waved on through about 4 more roadblocks that were scattered throughout the city.  After about the 5^th one we were stopped and asked to get out and work.  To our right was a field full of Rwandans with machetes, hoes, and tools diligently working or staring at the Mzungus stopped by the police. 

One officer was bent on forcing us to the field while the other was more willing to be done with us and allow us to pass.   Eric and the officers had a lengthy back and forth dialogue about the matter and they finally allowed us to pass. 

We’ve now learned that it is respectful to stay off the streets, work if you’d like to, or otherwise sleep late and stay home. 

We want to honor the culture and traditions and didn’t realize our error at the time.  I’m sure there will be more opportunities to learn lessons through our mistakes.