Cards

Rwanda is a hierarchal society in every sense of the word.  People refer at all times to whoever out ranks them in a situation – and Rwandans always hav a clear sense of who outranks them. I, however, often have trouble navigating these webs because I honesty, even if I screw it up I have a pass as a white lady. For example when I have a problem at school there is a specific chain of comman I have to speak to in order to get an answer even when I know that the person on the bottom of the chain can’t help me.  Also, women are simply not regarded as equal to men and as a result are shocked by my actions at times. The behaviors that have become so common to me in the past few months, but I was shocked by a recent revelation when some of the other volunteers taught me a Rwandan card game. It turns out Rwandans have changed the traditional setup of playing  cards so that Jacks are higher than Queens. On one hand this isn’t that surprising because women don’t out rank men in this society an they are just conforming the game to their own standards. However, on the other hand it seems a bit extreme to me that you would have to change a universally popular game because of prejudices against women.  Then again this is partially only a glocalization effect of making a game that was implanted from elsewhere feel a little more familiar. While I was borderline amused by this development I know that some volunteers are  much more upset about this. Its just another reminder of how different  the world I live in now is from America. Can you imagine the feminist reaction if an American man decided Jacks trumped Queens? It would be comical.