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2023 Fellows

Grass Will Grow Greener Where You Water It

Grass Will Grow Greener Where You Water It

One idea that has helped me adjust my mindset and reshape my expectations is that “the grass will grow greener where you water it.” I understood this as not trying to accomplish my big picture goals in one day. You can’t get everything you want in 24 hours. Instead, what has helped me is not neglecting the little things. Recognizing the beautiful, little moments and being engaged with them.

For instance, my samosa guy, Faustine, has prime real estate in town and I can’t turn down his smile. He’s been popping a free one in every other order because he probably feels bad about how much I’m spending at his shop. Or Francine. She’s unreal. Electric every time I walk in her shop for some eggs or noodles. Our conversation never goes beyond the basic greetings, but I want her at my wedding. I started out as Nate down here, but switched to Nathaniel (Nath-an-yell) to be more accommodating to the Francophone tongue. Now the women yell out my full name when I go to the local market on Friday, and I can’t get enough of it.

The Calm and The Chaos

The Calm and The Chaos

In Rwanda, there is a commonly used phrase: “buhoro, buhoro,” meaning “slow by slow.” I often use it when I try out my limited Kinyarwanda knowledge and people ask me if I can speak the language (“I’m learning slowly”), or when I am on the back of a moto-taxi and I hear an engine about to rev up (“slow down”). But here, “buhoro, buhoro” is also a way of life.

Working in Rwanda, it feels that there are periods of utter chaos, and in between those moments, there are periods of extreme calm and slowness. The past two months have been defined by this cycle. At times, it can be frustrating, but at the same time, it has taught me to navigate the through space and find balance in each of these moments.

Heat On, Windows Down

Heat On, Windows Down

The summer going into my senior year of uni I was living up near campus. Pockets were empty so I was grinding away, helping prepare the Brody dorms for the incoming freshman class. It wasn’t much, but it was honest work - washing walls, painting bedrooms, vacuuming carpets. Walking to work for the 6am shift was out of the question, so I borrowed my good friend Bryan’s (Mazzy) moped for the summer. Trash can on wheels is what it was. One afternoon I was cruising home on Grand River going about 20mph (40km/h) and I was cut off by someone. I slammed on the brakes and turned the moped to avoid a crash. I hit the ground, moped fell on top of me. Scraped up my leg and arm real nice, got a tetanus shot for peace of mind. Moped was in an even worse state after. Bryan refuses to this day to accept I was cut off – just thinks it was a solo crash – files it away as negligence.


I tell this story because as luck would have it, 6 years later I would move to a country that relies on motos as a primary source of transportation. We’re talking hopping on the back of a two-seater and zipping around to get from point A to B. Maybe do a little research eh guy? 

Other than a few trips to the capital, Kigali, I have been in the village of Rwinkwavu (Rwink). It’s located in the Eastern Province, in the Kayonza District. Kayonza is where we have 5 of our 7 Shooting Touch courts. A crucial part of my job out here is to travel to practice at one of these courts every day. There is a court in Rwink that I can walk to (huge), but below is how I get to the rest of them from the house in Rwink:

  • Nyamirama (2 courts): Moto to Kabarodo, Bus to Nyamirama (Repeat for return)

  • Mukarange: Moto to Kabaronda, Bus to Kayonza (Repeat for return)

  • Rukara (buddy): Moto to Kabaronda, Bus to Kayonza, Moto to Rukara (Repeat for return)

So yeah, had to get over the fear quite quickly. The first few trips were pretty brutal. I had white knuckles the whole time, holding on so tight. Teeth clenched. Always yelling, “Bahoro (slow),” to the drivers as they rip it up and around the hills. Each driver has their own unique style, and you can usually tell the type of guy behind the wheel within the first 30 seconds. Obviously prefer the cruiser type, just vibing on the roads versus the speed demons.

As I’ve put in my kilometers, I’ve started to get more comfortable with motoing around the country. It’s part of the life, I just needed some practice runs to suppress my past anxieties. Although I’m more relaxed, my riding style is still nothing compared to Rwandans. They’re riding no hands, answering phone calls, carrying huge pieces of luggage, just hanging out back there. I’m still rocking with two hands (practicing with one though), but I’ve started to appreciate my surroundings more.

As I’ve stated before, the country is full of hills and luscious green backdrops. I can now sit back and appreciate the scenes around me - rows of banana trees that look like paintings, people cultivating in the fields, hang outs at the water pumps, the exotic and vibrant birds flying around, crowds of schoolchildren in uniform yelling “muzungu (white person)” as I cruise by, smoke from the trash fires in the hills, goats eating on the side of the road (always feels like one is going to just dart out), women in kitenge wraps carrying a baby on their back, while balancing a mountain of food on their heads, yellow jerry cans. The moto rides capture the essence of daily life in the village. A 20-minute ride is like reading a few books; each turn opens to a new road, with new characters, images, and a different story to tell. Since my fears have subsided significantly since my first trip, I now enjoy the moto rides because of the time it gives me to think; and I think about everything. What was once a stressful part of my day is now a time I look forward to.

The buses have been an easier transition for me (although the first one I took I got off at the wrong spot and had to walk 25 minutes to the court). There’s no room to be bashful on the buses between villages, and be sure to give yourself extra time to accommodate Rwanda’s schedule. The bus from Kabardondo to Nyamirama, for example, is a 10-minute drive - on paper. Ah but wait, the bus at Kabarondo Bus Park won’t leave until it’s full. Twenty minutes go by and now you’re finally on your way. Okay, I can text the coaches and tell them I’ll be there in 10 minutes, right? For sure you can’t. Along the way, the bus will stop half a dozen times, people will get off and get on. Nice try. Keep a book on hand and don’t let the thoughts of frustration enter your mind. 

Once you’ve grown accustomed to this dynamic, its easy living. Again, I’ve come to appreciate this time in transit. The bus offers a chance to spark up a conversation with a local who speaks a little English, to people-watch on the bus, and just see life happen around you. 

One of my favorite memories is actually when I was waiting nearly 30 minutes for this bus I was on to fill up so we could leave the bus park. Not ideal, but I was calm because the driver was jamming to some old-time Don Williams. Couldn’t believe it, being the big-time country fan I am. This place is full of surprises.

February Is Only 28 Days??

February Is Only 28 Days??

It was early in the afternoon on a Saturday, and I was sitting with a bunch of our U18 players on a mini-bus that was chasing down the mini-bus that I was supposed to be on. The kids around me were giggling with joy and would even let out a boisterous laugh every time we passed another vehicle that was traveling ahead of us. I found myself in this position after I had spent the morning watching our girls scrimmage at their morning practice in Nyamirama, before sitting in on “My Voice My Power,” a youth gender equity workshop series led by our nonprofit partner, Paper Crown Rwanda (PCR). After an electric morning filled with empowerment, dancing and lots of learning, I was catching up with Clementine, who leads the sessions for PCR, just before I was meant to ride the bus back to Rwinkwavu with our players. I thought that I was keeping an eye on the buses, but after a quick jog down to the bottom of the driveway, I realized the one that I was meant to be on had already left. I told the other bus drivers that I would simply take public transport, but the one who was meant to be headed 40 minutes in the opposite direction was not satisfied with that answer. He insisted that we leave right away and catch the bus that had already been able to make pretty good headway on us. In about 10 minutes, we caught up to the bus in front of us and honked until it pulled over, and all of sudden, I was sitting on the right bus and enjoyed an easy ride back to the Shooting Touch house. 

This experience pretty much sums up what the month of February felt like – in some moments, I thought that there was no way we could finish everything that we needed to do in the time allotted, but somehow someone (or everyone) would pull through and the result would be spectacular. In February, our Shooting Touch team accomplished a lot. We began our second unit of Adolescent Reproductive Health (ARH2) at five of our six courts, and there is much to be done before we start teaching a lesson. At the end of January, I ran a three-day long health clinic, where I covered all of our curriculum with the coaches, with the support of our Kayonza District Community Engagement Coordinator, Melissa. It was my first time teaching a group that large, but I personally thought it went really well, with our biggest issue being our coaches’ inquisitive nature sometimes taking us into much more detailed explanations than are needed for our curriculum. At the same time, Melissa and our Bugasera District Community Engangement Coordinator, Ingrid, were conducting focus groups with our Women and U18 Boys and Girls groups in order to gather more information on their experiences relating to our health education , including but not limited to questions about contraception, family planning, and menstruation. Melissa and Ingrid also mobilized field staff to conduct short surveys to reach even more of our players, and at the courts our coaches facilitated a ARH2 pre-test with our players. It has been such an amazing experience this month to see our players interested in learning more about reproductive health and our coaches doing an amazing job teaching!

After launching ARH2, I quickly began reviewing our next unit that will launch at the end of April, which focuses on HIV. Reviewing each curriculum provides me with the opportunity to research and learn more about these health issues and how they affect Rwanda specifically, so I really enjoyed reading through the curriculum and working with the team to update some of our lessons. At the same time, I have begun to process all of the data that we have collected, both at the start of ARH2 and from our previous unit. While I have been busy working on our health curriculums, the whole of Shooting Touch Rwanda has been busy planning our registration periods at all of our courts, as well as the two big community events that we have planned for March.

The first event was a Community Day in Bugesera, the District where our two newest courts are located. The coaches’ selected teams for each of the age groups and players from the two courts came together to compete against each other. We also mobilized the community in order to test adults 35+ for non-communicable diseases (NCDs), such as diabetes and hypertension, and community members 15+ for hepatitis C. It was a hot and sunny day at our Rilima court, Shooting Touch’s new court built just last year, but the players, healthcare workers, and coaches (and Nate) all showcased their commitment, passion, and hard work in order to put on a super amazing event at the beginning of March. This also served as a practice run for Nate and I, as our International Women’s Day (IWD) event quickly approaches.

Our IWD event takes place in Nyamirama Sector, Kayonza District, and we bus in players from the three other Kayonza courts. In addition to the basketball tournament and health testing, we also lead a 5K March to the courts in the morning. This event is usually our largest community gathering, and March will surely be busy, with all hands on deck to make sure everything runs smoothly, and we can maximize our impact. In March, I will also have the opportunity to attend the African Health Agenda International Conference (AHAIC) and listen to Chloe speak about Shooting Touch as a speaker on one of the panels at the event.

On a personal note, this month I moved into my new house near our Mukarange court, which is central to all four of our locations in Kayonza District. I was without water for the first week, but luckily, I had the support of my landlord and some of the women that work in his house to make sure that I always had water on hand. Since getting water back, it has been smooth sailing, and I even have a hot-water heater, which is a luxury in the Provinces. Another personal highlight was when Sam treated me (since the Eagles beat the Niners) and Chantal, friend of Shooting Touch, and her three kids to lunch at “Jambo Beach” to celebrate the youngest’s birthday. Nate then treated us to a boat ride on nearby Lake Muhazi, and we got to witness Sam geek out over all of the birds that resided near the water. I could describe the day in more detail (including some very heavy rain fall), but life out here is pretty exhausting at times, and I’m tired. Until next time. XOXO.

First Week in Rwanda

First Week in Rwanda

I stepped out of the Kigali airport at seven in the morning local time. I had been traveling for 30 hours at this point, and the gentle Rwandan breeze greeted me as a panacea to the sleep-deprivation that naturally comes with that much travel. With each breath and intake of my surroundings, the nerves of moving half-way across the world from where I had lived for the first 22 years of my life began to disappear. Before arriving in Kigali, I had never been to Africa, or even flown across the Atlantic Ocean, but when I first stumbled upon Shooting Touch through social media, I was instantly drawn to the organization and the country. As a Division 1 athlete, I had experienced first-hand the transformational power of sport and understood the force that sport can be for bringing communities together and building confidence. I was further inspired by their mission to create healthier communities through health education, partnerships with local organizations, and providing health insurance to their beneficiaries. With these feelings of inspiration, I embarked into uncharted territories, spending eight months in a foreign country with people I didn’t know.

My first day in Rwanda gave me a taste of the peaceful pace of the weekend, but this relaxation and recovery would not last long. The following week was long, informative and borderline exhausting, as I had to start a new job in a foreign country where I did not speak the language. Luckily, I was not alone. I was greeted by two Shooting Touch veterans, Chloe and Sam, who served as perfect guides to start the transition into my new way of life for the next eight months. I was also joined by another fellow, who was embarking on the same adventure as me. During that first week, we took care of the logistics of moving to a new country – getting a new SIM card, phone number and data plan, and spending an early morning at immigration applying for a visa. We also went to the Kigali Genocide Memorial, which gave me the space to learn and understand the history of Rwanda in a different way, as well as pay my respects to those who had lost their lives.

As I was beginning to prepare for life in a new country, I also was trying to fully understand the organization that I would be working for and my responsibilities as a Health Operations Fellow. The Shooting Touch Rwanda team sat around and had discussions about our values, professional expectations and what we each wanted to achieve with our work. The energy was palpable, with the whole staff committed to making an impact on the organization and our participants. With that under my belt, I felt confident that I was ready to go to my first basketball practice. We spent an evening in Bugesera, a district in the Eastern Province of Rwanda that hosts the two newest Shooting Touch courts. At the newest court in Rilima, I was immediately greeted by tons of children who were hanging around the court as their mothers practiced and learned basketball. I used my limited Kinyarwanda with these kids, asking them how they were, introducing myself, and asking their name. The language barrier dissipated into nothing, as I read the familiar physical cues of the children and was quickly able to determine if they wanted to play a game of keep-away with the basketball or use me as a climbing toy.

Our second stop was at a court in Mayange, where I caught the end of their final practice of the night, with their U-19 boys’ group. Seeing this second location, I soon realized that each of the Shooting Touch courts would likely bring their own energy. The next day we would travel to the court in Nyamirama and the following, one in Rwinkwavu. The energy at both of these courts, where Shooting Touch has been operating for a much longer time, simply can’t be put into words. After the women’s practice at Nyamirama, community members and participants greeted me with hugs and welcomes, and with each introduction, relinquishing the nerves that come with being the new person to join a well-defined community. Each hello reaffirmed the power of sport to build and unite a community. Throughout the afternoon, I began to see how different players engaged with the game – some were there to win and others were there to learn and grow. This subtle distinction across and within different age groups reaffirmed a different core component of the Shooting Touch mission: sport is for everyone. At the Rwinkwavu court, I began to understand what community looked like for them – women took turns helping to care for a crying child, so that no one had to miss out on a drill.

This week marks only the beginning of my time with Shooting Touch, and while I feel that I have learned so much in such a short time, I also know that there is much more to learn. I am excited to visit Shooting Touch’s two other courts, in Kayonza and Rukara, and learn how basketball brings these communities together. I am impassioned to begin to learn from these communities and try to continue to help use the power of sport to create healthier and happier people.


About the Author

Laine Garber is the 2023 Shooting Touch Rwanda (STR) Manager of Health Operations Fellow. She graduated from Yale in December 2022, where she was a member of the varsity field hockey team, and is excited to travel to Africa for the first time and support Shooting Touch with their health operations.

One Down Out East

One Down Out East

“Doc, I’m in no mood. I was supposed to be at Joe B’s two hours ago. What’s the verdict?”

“NOT ALLERGIC.”

(Shakes head) “No chance.”

“May just be a severe irritation. I’ll write you a prescription for an EpiPen.”


As I stare down the barrel of potentially 8 months as a part-time vegetarian, I’ve begun to reflect on the above interaction from nearly a decade ago. Living in the villages outside of Kigali has me seeking extra calories to sustain my already slim frame. I’ve started to ponder my options, recognizing I have no unwanted poundage to shed, also noting my limitations with nuts and slimy fruits (mangos, pineapple, bananas). The issue for me is that the Rwandan village diet relies heavily on these ‘deadly’ fresh fruits, and the incorporation of peanut butter and nuts is utilized heavily for quick nutritional boosts. No doubt I will survive though. (Irritation might also be fake – had pad Thai with peanuts a few months back and nothing happened). 

Trivial issue relative to my environment out here, but I thought I’d start my blog with my first and lingering observation. My reliance on meat heavy meals and the overabundance of items to choose from at shops in the US and Europe has certainly given me a jaded perspective on food consumption throughout the world and I’m learning quickly I need to adjust.

Moving on.

I’ve always had the tendency to romanticize experiences in life. People have then always been quick to warn me about the dangers of dramatizing the world and the threats of being let down. Don’t think like that, it never works out the way you imagine, they say. Often that is true – you don’t get into your dream school, your dream job ends up being unfulfilling, or you don’t meet your future wife reaching for the same vegetable at the grocery store (dang). 

My first month in Rwanda has reinforced the notion that romanticizing reality is better than the alternative. The saddest stories are those of regret from people who were too risk-averse to disrupt and abandon their comfortable lives to achieve their dreams. Fear creeps in and triumphs over passion. I’m certainly from a position of privilege as I say this as well. Responsibilities are true barriers. Not everyone can say hey I want to move to Africa and just pack up and leave. I’ve had incredible support systems throughout my life who have always encouraged me to pursue my passions. My point is that I think we need to shift the narrative to discuss what will go right if you take a chance versus being so concerned about what will go wrong. If you’ve got the chance (and support) to make a big change, and you’re concerned with the associated challenges, it’s natural, but the regret of inaction will be harder to deal with.

This reliable support has helped me develop the mindset that it’s better to be positive about life and expect everything to work out. Why not? Experiences will always be different than what you imagine, whether you’re overly optimistic or you attempt to take the ‘rational’ and ‘practical’ pathway. You can dream about a place or experience, but until you’re in the moment, it’s impossible to verify.

I’ve had this desire to move and work in Africa for some time now. I can’t remember a specific reason why, I have just always been drawn to the continent, the people, the differences. Now that I’m in Rwanda, transporting from the progressive, developing capital city of Kigali, to the surrounding rural villages embedded within the land of a thousand hills, my initial lived realities and true feelings towards this country are nothing compared to what I imagined. They’re a combination of things; better, unexpected, different. It’s not a binary experience.

It's good to romanticize. It’s good to imagine yourself living out a dream. I glamorized an experience and a place I had no idea about. Grateful for those daydreams – they were the best use of my time. Getting lost in thoughts about Africa pushed me to take the necessary steps to get out here. As I said, it’s impossible to replicate an experience in your mind anyways, so why limit your imagination? My time so far has been awesome. Even if it was the opposite, at least I would be able to confirm that, instead of being one of those “what if” people that live with regrets.

Advice to my future self out here in Rwanda, as well as people in general, is to keep an open mind instead of allowing the negative thoughts of “it never works out like you would imagine” enter your mind. Obviously, my Rwanda experience is going to be different than I imagined. How would I ever be able to predict my experience without having ever been to Rwanda? I was right about some things, wrong about others. Some things I had no idea about. Loving every minute of it right now though. Excited to keep learning about this place and the beautiful people – continuing to confirm previous expectations, while keeping an open mind about the new and exciting knowledge that’s yet to come. 

Enough preaching. Some quick hitters for my millions of readers:

  • The big smiles and joy from the basketball courts – easy to stay energized watching the women and children hoop.

  • Your body receiving an unannounced “African massage” from being tossed around on the bumpy, broken dirt roads.

  • Kitenge – colorful fabrics with vibrant patterns that give an elegance to everyday life/activities

  • Coffee, beef samosas, mandazis, chapati. 

  • Rwanda wins – having a plan for the day and that agenda being completely interrupted by the Rwandan flow of life.

  • The Shooting Touch impact is real. It’s palpable. The team is full of gems (and weirdly good at card games). Excited to grow with them.


About the Author

Nathaniel Cueter is the 2023 Shooting Touch Rwanda (STR) Manager of Operations Fellow. He received his Master’s in International Relations from IBEI in Barcelona this past summer. He is excited to share his love for basketball with the communities in Rwanda, experience life in Africa, and contribute to the Shooting Touch mission.