From The Land of 10,000 Lakes to the Land of 1,000 Hills

Rwanda is nothing like I imagined it to be. While planning my capstone project with IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature), very few people I knew had much experience in this country, or the region. Luckily, I have learned better than to try to anticipate a lot. For me, traveling abroad brings endless new experiences where I am faced with my limitations while also recognizing and appreciating the occasional gift of being a foreigner. Being here in Rwanda creates situations and experiences where I really have no context and no pre-existing experiences that seem relevant in the moment. As a result, I am forced to guess or fake it as I go along – keenly aware that I probably won’t do anything too egregious or against the cultural grain, keeping in mind that things will get easier with time. Studying and working abroad is, in a sense, a perpetual equilibrium breaker – an endless opportunity for the kind of disequilibrium that maybe, hopefully, one day, leads to wisdom. I like to think that these experiences will make me a better student, better leader, and a better global citizen. But more on this later.

Although this newness is already starting to wear off, the first few weeks in Kigali were filled with a mountain of tiny challenges. Challenges that I can now handle with ease, but gave me a mental workout early on. Things like remembering the Kinyarwandan words for good morning (mwaramutse), good evening (mwiriwe), or thank you (murakoze); figuring out why the hot water wasn’t working or the electricity was flickering in my new apartment (turns out you have to plug the water heater in around back and you have to prepay for electricity like pre-paid mobile phone); trying to understand work relationships, culture, and dynamics; and honestly just figuring out where I should buy food, or perhaps more importantly, what to make with the often starchy ingredients that were readily available. True to millennial fashion, I made plenty of avocado toast, especially after a storm knocked avocados into the street for anyone to have.

Now that many of these tiny challenges (maybe a more apt name would be tiny mysteries) have been solved, I have had a lot more time to enjoy myself and the new culture around me. I have seen elephants, giraffes, baboons, and zebra in Rwanda’s Akagera National Park; traveled across Kigali by motorcycle during a sunrise; danced my butt off in one of Kigali’s bars, Trattoria, until 4am (I really couldn’t make it to 5am); and sang Piano Man karaoke-style with a ragtag group of new friends and fellow expats. I am even going on a wonderful yoga retreat this weekend to Lake Kivu and I am visiting some Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) field sites next week.

On a slightly reflective side-note, traveling abroad to work for an international NGO, while earning my master’s degree, is a large topic to unpack and I won’t even pretend to have any conclusive thoughts about it. If you’re unaware of the debate around this subject, there are ample opinion articles and even research papers committed to addressing the benefits and draw-backs of working as a white expat in a developing nation on a short-term basis. However, I wanted to reflect briefly on this opportunity. I recognize that I am coming from a very privileged and lucky life where I have the freedom of mobility, privilege that exists from English being my native tongue, and that I can afford an experience like this. Heart-wrenching human migration stories, unchecked racism, and impossible college admission costs have been persistent in the news back home, which have caused me to reflect more deeply on my experience and my work here in Rwanda. However, addressing this privilege is only part of the reflective puzzle. In addition to recognizing and confronting this privilege, I am also recently more aware of the heavy-handed influence of western culture and neo-capitalism on developing nations, and more specifically in conservation programs (thank you UW). I try to be cognizant of the labor I impose on my coworkers, neighbors and other people I interact with here as they work to teach me those things which I am ignorant of. I also work hard to reflect and seek local opinions on the conservation recommendations I make as my capstone project develops. Yet even with all of this reflection, I doubt my cognitive dissonance will be resolved soon, if ever. I can promise though, that I will never stop trying to understand the ways in which I move through this world with privilege and how I can change my actions to make welcoming space for others, amplify voices which want to be heard, and make the world a little bit better for everyone.

Now that I have included that brief, but important aside, I want to also mention that I have more personal goals I want to achieve while working abroad. Apart from the myriad of ways I will be challenged and grow on a personal level from working internationally, more and more teams are seeking culturally diverse and experienced employees who can work in a global workspace. A review of the history of conservation has taught us that conservation is a relatively new practice to most cultures. Furthermore, the focus of conservation actions used to be on a single species or a distinct natural area (e.g. cheetahs, Yellowstone National Park). Conservationists are becoming increasingly aware of the inescapable and complex nature of conservation problems which require a broader more holistic perspective. Today, leading conservation programs study transboundary species migrations, vast watersheds, or global carbon emissions. And those programs which were once focused on hard science metrics and biophysical factors are finding success as they look beyond the borders of their park or individual species and address policy, economics, cultural perception, human health, and education (among countless other factors). As the scope of conservation programs gains a wider view, new skills are needed by its practitioners – adaptability, open-mindedness, patience, experience with complex systems, and knowledge of business practices and cultures outside your own. Through this experience with the Rwandan IUCN team, I want to show my peers in conservation (and myself) that I am motivated, empathetic and able to adapt to changes and new challenges.

Working with IUCN in Kigali, Rwanda has already helped me begin to realize these goals and has offered me practical experience in the daily operations of an international non-profit conservation organization. The IUCN team located in Kigali consists of about 10 people, though the organization itself has a vast network with over 900 staff in over 50 countries. The Kigali team I work with is known through the organization as IUCN’s Eastern and Southern Africa (ESARO) hub for Forest Landscape Restoration and in many ways this team, and Rwanda in general, are leading the way on Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) projects in this region. In an almost absurdly brief description of my capstone project, I will be working, with the support of my team, to evaluate and operationalize Rwanda’s FLR monitoring system which currently sits abandoned, mainly due to its user-antagonistic nature.

My next post will include some background and context on the national FLR Monitoring system I am evaluating followed by some stories from IUCN’s FLR implementation sites. I look forward to sharing more of my conservation journey with you!

Murakoze!

Kyla Tripp