Ndi Umuhinzi!

Thursday, March 25, 2010

I spent this afternoon with another trainee, drawing a very skewed map of Rwanda on concrete in front of our training center so that we could all get our site placements and stand on our spot on the map. So we all know the area where we are going and which of the other trainees are nearby. So I have my site placement!!! I will be spending my two years of Peace Corps service in Gashora, Rwanda, in the Eastern Province. And it’s the exact site I was hoping that I would get! I’ll be working for a program called the Access Project, and I’ll look up some more specific information when I can, but for now I know that it’s a new health center and I’m the first volunteer there, so I have a ton of work cut out for me. The organization has a few other current health volunteers at other sites in the country, and from everything that they said, it is a great organization, well-structured, and there is a ton of work to be done. Particularly in human resources! I’m absolutely floored, so excited… I feel like I will actually be useful for the next two years and will be able to make a difference. From what I know, the area isn’t incredibly rural, but isn’t big city either… there are two or three really pretty lakes… it’s flat, and really hot, and drier than the rest of the country… it’s close to the Burundi border and not too far from Kigali, the capital city… and apparently that area has some kind of interesting genocide history. I’m using the term interesting very loosely… but… didn’t join the Peace Corps because it was going to be easy.

So on Sunday we leave for Kigali, where we will meet our supervisors and community guides… we’ll stay in Kigali for a couple of days, and then all leave for our separate sites and stay there until next Sunday. I’ll be staying in a hotel at my site… so who knows what that will be like, but it means that wherever my house is, it isn’t ready yet… but hopefully they will know where it is and I’ll be able to see it! Site visit is supposed to be one of the most stressful times for a trainee/volunteer and supposedly we will all hit a slump after the visit… but we’ll see. I know it will be awkward and I don’t know enough of the language… but I’m still excited. We will receive our job descriptions tomorrow and spend the morning doing “site visit preparation” so hopefully I’ll get a chance to write another blog with more info and get to the internet to post. For now, I need to go to bed… I’ve been waking up at 3:30 in the morning for the last three or four nights… hopefully I’ll sleep better now that I know what my site is, and I got what I wanted!

Mwaramuke!


Friday, March 26, 2010

Hoping to make it to the internet café tonight or tomorrow… but for now I’m still extremely excited about my site placement. We got our job descriptions today, and mine basically says that everything needs to be done! My site is in the Bugesera district, and the health center is the brand new Gashora Health Center. I’m placed in the district with three other volunteers in the district, and quite a few will be pretty close. My job’s primary function will be managing the health center. Training and mentoring the staff… and working to get sustainable programs in place to make the center more efficient, even after I leave in a couple of years. It’s a huge job… and I can’t wait.


Saturday, March 27, 2010

I farmed today!!! And for those of you that would never believe it… there are pictures! Although it may be awhile before they’re seen depending on the internet speed…

So on the last Saturday of every month, everyone in Rwanda is required to participate in Umuganda, which is basically work done in your community, organized on the community (umudugudu) level. It’s amazing. Anyone who doesn’t participate is reported to community leaders and issued a fine. So, our group went to a large project where a community was tilling a huge grassy field, on a rather large hill, in order to plant cassava for the community. Hundreds of people working together in a line with nothing but hand-held hoes tilling this field… and not one of them was getting paid for it. It is such an amazing concept. Can anyone actually see Americans doing the same thing across the country on one day a month? So we got right in there and tilled this field with the Rwandans… who of course laughed at us, and then showed us how to do it right. So I got my technique down pretty good and was actually called “umuhinzi mwiza” (good farmer) and one guy said I was strong… in sign language. It was a really great experience. Although I do have some rather amazing blisters on my hands from the work… some gardening gloves would have been a good idea! So the last Saturday of every month I will probably be spending half of my day helping my community in the fields. How awesome is that?!

Not much else going on here… last night we had the group talent show, which was hilarious… I can’t even put that into words! And now I’m trying to prepare for my site visit this upcoming week… doing laundry (by hand, in a bucket… every simple task is redefined here!) and hoping it doesn’t rain so that it will dry!


Ok, now sitting at the internet café with no power, a storm rolling in… and therefore no internet connection… love it! So this morning while I was doing umuganda, I was having one of those moments that I periodically have here where I am just amazed that I’m here. This really is the experience of a lifetime and I’m so disappointed in myself that I can’t explain it properly! I mean, it’s not just about the location, and the scenery, and the experiences themselves… it’s about the people… and the fact that we are in the middle of a completely different culture, communicating (little by little… buhoro buhoro…) and being involved in their lives… it’s incredible.

Success! And check out www.theaccessproject.com for more info on my organization...