Week 3: How Have I Changed?

An immediate change to my life after traveling to Rwanda is my career path. Before reaching Rwanda, I wanted to pursue the line of work of content creation and try my hand with documentary-style video in foreign countries. This trip, I must say has been one of the, if not the, hardest challenges in my life. This trip has tested my mental and physical strength and has taught me that I do not think working in foreign countries is for me. I love to travel and see the world, but the challenge of adjusting to different cultures while trying to create a documentary about the lives of locals is tougher than I anticipated, and at least for now, I will stick with content creation inside the United States.

Students at the Nyamirambo Women’s Center learn to braid hair on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2020 in Kigali, Rwanda. The women’s center offers hair dressing classes along with sewing and literacy classes. The Namirambo neighborhood is one of the most popular neighborhoods in all of Rwanda and the center for Muslims.

A student at the Nyamirambo Women’s Center in Kigali, Rwanda studies her sewing machine on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2020. She is a part of the women’s center’s sewing program to help her gain skills to earn an income for her family. This sewing program lasts a total of eight months and includes a literacy section.

An African dance troupe performs in a children’s center in Kigali, Rwanda on Saturday, Jan. 4, 2020. The dance troupe performed various forms of dance like African traditional dance and contemporary dance. The dance troupe is sponsored through a dance therapy program sponsored by Texas Chrisitan University.

This trip has been difficult for me to say the least, but I do see some positive takeaways from traveling abroad. I have furthered my skills in photography, videography and documentary-style storytelling. I have also learned a lot about African culture just in this short amount of time. The trip, although it changed my future career path, is a good experience because it has helped me discover that this choice is not the path for me.

What I’ve Learned So Far in Rwanda:

https://medium.com/university-of-nebraska-lincoln-global-eyewitness/what-ive-learned-in-the-land-of-thousand-hills-a-little-kindness-goes-a-long-way-c95efe9fc382