My Umbrella

Another gem from Jean D’Arc, who has terrific stories about rural Rwandan culture and superstitions. She is somewhat unusual for Rwandan woman – she talks about sex. As a nurse, I suppose it comes with the territory.

As part of her job, Jean D’arc advises couples on family planning, including condom use. Sometimes she demonstrates how to unroll a condom (think the banana in health class).

One day, a man she had counseled came to her, confused and upset:

“Jean D’Arc,” he said, “I followed your instructions exactly for using the condom, but my wife still got pregnant!”

“Tell me what happened,” she asked.

“I did it just like you showed me. Before I made love to my wife, I put the condom on my umbrella.”

Holy Guacamole

Jean D’Arc relayed an interesting anecdote to us one morning as we drove up to Shingiro. We were discussing food and, of course, I touched on my love of avocados. Apparently it is very hard to find avocados in the Musanze District. The locals believe that avocados cause HIV.

The reason why hilariously illustrates the leap of logic from correlation to causality.

Avocados are a staple food in southern Rwanda. When migrant laborers, soldiers, and truck drivers from Musanze returned from working in southern Rwanda, people noticed that these groups were more likely to have HIV/AIDS. Because the biggest difference in their lives was what they ate, these people assumed it was the avocado that was causing HIV.

Just remember kids: if it’s casual, it might also be causal.