Matt and Angie Kutz loved the vicarious
adventure offered by "House Hunters International."But the Perrysburg couple’s sense of
adventure extends beyond watching the Home and Garden TV show.Early this year the Kutz family, including
sons Nathan, 12, and Jonathan, 10, spent six months in the central African nation, of Rwanda.Matt Kutz,
who teaches athletic training and is coordinator for clinical education at Bowling Green State
University, received a Fulbright Fellowship to teach at the Health Institute in the Rwandan capital of
Kigali.Being "adventurous," the couple decided the whole family would accompany him. That
necessitated finding living quarters.As a fan of the "House Hunter" program, Matt Kutz gave
the show’s producers a call. Sure enough they were interested. And they filmed an episode that will air
tonight at 10:30.That bit of show business was just a small part of the adventure of living in Rwanda
for the family of four.The country still lives in the shadow of the genocide of 1994, when ethnic
attacks claimed as many as 1 million ethnic Tutsis, about 20 percent of Rwanda’s population.Almost 20
years later, the country still suffers from the effects.Rwanda’s health care providers, he said, did not
know how to treat simple sports injuries. They are more used to the traumas caused by violence,
including amputations."They’re still a very hurting people," Angie Kutz said.When the
anniversary of the slaughter arrived, it was marked by ceremonies including graphic images and videos of
what happened.Angie said she once asked someone why they do this, and she was told: "We don’t
forget so it never happens again."The pain of reliving the genocide is worth it if it saves another
generation from experiencing it.Angie Kutz home schooled the couple’s sons. They would regularly travel
to a rural school to teach English.Classes were taught by a teacher standing at a blackboard with the
single piece of chalk.

The Rwandan children, she said, have little to play with, no balls or even
simple card matching games.So the boys taught their peers how to play organized games and sports.The
impact of their visits came home to Angie Kutz during one visit. The week before she’d read aloud a
Little Critter book. On returning to the class, a little girl came and sat on her lap. Having only heard
the book once, read in a language she didn’t know, the girl recited it back word for word to Angie
Kutz."It was very humbling," she said.Matt Kutz was teaching basic sports medicine in the
Health Institute’s school of physical therapy. Sports medicine, he said, was "very much a new
concept."They were not used to dealing with otherwise healthy people who hurt themselves playing
sports. They would treat them in the most aggressive way, when less invasive therapy was called for.They
still used treatment, especially applying heat, that had long been discredited elsewhere.That outdated
treatment was not surprising given their lack of information.The BGSU professor said his office library
was better stocked with books on physical therapy than the school’s library. They still relied on a
dial-up internet connection, and that, he was told, was a great improvement over what they had just a
few years ago.But the nation is interested in developing sports. President Paul Kagame "is a real
proponent of national identity" as a way healing the nation’s wounds, Matt Kutz said. "One of
the things he decided would help facilitate that national identity is sports."But before all this,
the Kutz family had to find a home.What will air on "House Hunters International" is actually
a reenactment of the family’s home search filmed two months after the fact.The couple was surprised at
the options. That imagined the housing would be more primitive, but Matt Kutz likened Kigali to Detroit,
though the traffic laws were "more suggestions."They looked at more than 20 homes. Many are
compounds unto themselves with gates and enclosed yards. The entrances are guarded."It was a little
eerie, but reassuring," he said.But even the more palatial homes had the hallmarks of Third World
living – daily electrical blackouts, water not fit for drinking and no laundry facilities.Laundry had to
be hand-washed in a single sink.The family ended up in an apartment on the outskirts that was
specifically decorated and equipped to make Western expatriates feel at home. A washing machine was
actually provided for the last couple months. The day of its arrival, said Matt Kutz, was like
Christmas.The family had to deal with a language barrier. French is one of the official languages, a
reflection of the country’s colonial heritage. Angie Kutz speaks some French, so that helped with
Rwandans who had some education.But the dominant tongue is Kinyarwanda. She made an effort to learn
basic phrases.The effort pleased Rwandans, she said.Being able to go to the market by herself and buy
oranges was a major accomplishment, she said. "It felt wonderful that you could experience that
culture and grow from it."Though they were a little nervous about the impending Rwandan sojourn
Nathan and Jonathan enjoyed their time there, their mother said. They and their parents are already
considering returning to Rwanda at some point.