Long time...

Tuesday, May 25th, 2010

It has been a long time since I blogged, I know… and tons of things have happened… but I have, unfortunately, forgotten all of the good things I should write here. I was sworn in at the Ambassador’s house, ate tons of good food in Kigali… went to Musanze for a week for some minor training with Access project… and then came here to my site in Gashora! It’s everything I remember it to be… small and beautiful… the lakes are gorgeous and it’s quiet. At night, the stars are like nothing I’ve ever seen before… even here in Rwanda. Without a light, it’s completely and totally pitch black at night, unless there‘s a moon… when it‘s ridiculously bright and I can see more stars here than I ever have. I have electricity, but one of the neighborhood kids fetches me water a few times a week. And the electricity tends to go out every so often. The people are very friendly… the market is small, but I can buy tomatoes, green beans, bananas, pineapple, avocado, and potatoes most days. I haven’t figured out where I can buy eggs yet… might have to negotiate with the neighbors… or buy a chicken. But as you can see, protein and fiber are a bit of an issue. I have a small kerosene stove, but haven’t actually used it yet… I do hate to cook! I plan to try it tonight though, because I have an eggplant and some carrots that I bought in town this weekend!

Speaking of, I spent the weekend in Nyamata with a couple of other volunteers while they exterminated my house. I didn’t sleep all of last week because of the noise, which I thought was rats. My house has a tin roof, help up by wood beams, but no ceiling, so they are incredibly loud! Come to find out, it’s bats. Which may be a bit harder to get rid of seeing as last night they were definitely alive and well. So we’ll see how that goes.

The job is going well so far… I have tons of things that I can work on… but I can’t seem to convince the head of my health center (the Titulaire) that I’m not a nurse and I can’t help him with medical protocol types of issues. I’m here to help with bigger management issues. But we’ll see how it goes!

I’m supposed to get a modem here, but it may take a week or two… for now, I can walk 20 to 25 minutes to the one hotel to get wireless… so it’s not bad. And the walk is gorgeous along the lake… even if it is a bit hot!!!


Sunday, May 30th, 2010

Well, bats came back… they exterminated, they closed up some holes in the house, but not all of them, so I still have bats. Less than before, but they are certainly still there! So, let’s just say sleep has been a bit of an issue!

Work is going well… slow, but pretty good I think. I really like the people I work with… so that helps a lot. And this weekend has been absolutely wonderful! Yesterday, I did Umuganda, which was at the health center… we basically weeded the driveway type area, and edged the grass with hoes. Interesting. it certainly wasn’t the showing that I saw in Nyanza. Many people just didn’t participate. But I had a good time. Then I went home, hung up clothesline outside, hung up some hooks in my house (which is interesting when you have cement walls, rusty nails, and a rock for a hammer), did laundry, washed dishes, worked out to P90X on my computer, and made garlic bread (I can actually get good bread here on Fridays)… I felt very accomplished yesterday! The thing is, everything is such a process here… so all of that literally took up all of my day!

Today, I woke up, avoided going to church (which makes me a bit of a bad volunteer… it’s the best way to integrate into the community because it is such a Christian society…), took a long walk down to the lake down little paths and through some serious brush (for as close as it is, it took awhile to find me way to the actual lake side), then went to the military base here with my titulaire to see monkeys! Because they have large areas that are actually kind of wooded, tons of monkeys hang out there. So I took tons of pictures (which I will hopefully post to Facebook soon), and saw monkeys goofing off up close. I actually saw one chase a rooster… which was pretty funny. Then, we headed to the other lake in my town, where the police and army operate their marine functions… and headed out on a little speed boat and just kind of toured the lake. The guy driving had a rather good time chasing off groups of ducks, and although we didn’t see any crocodiles or hippos, it is really beautiful. I’m warming up to the birds here, they are just so pretty! I just don’t want to be too close to them… particularly the big crows and hawks! Then I walked down to the resort here… and realized I am quite sun burnt. I did put sunscreen on, but the sun here is ridiculous! And you don’t even realize it because it’s not very humid. But I figure that my day was very fulfilling, and I integrated with the people who do not go to church, which may be more worthwhile for me anyway!

So it’s been a great weekend… I’m realizing things about this culture that drive me absolutely insane every single day… and I hate going home and then all of my neighbors and the children want to talk to me… the people here just don‘t understand the benefits of having time to yourself… and let me tell you I am dirty! Everything I own, and me, is almost always covered in a thin layer of red dirt, and bucket baths don‘t quite do enough… it’s ridiculous… but it really is wonderful here overall. I wouldn’t be having this experience any other way.

Leaving Nyanza...

Sunday, May 2nd, 2010

Tomorrow’s our last day in Nyanza and it’s just unreal right now! A bit scary that we’re completely out on our own soon… a bit unbelievable that training is over… and really exciting that we’re going to be actual Peace Corps Volunteers as of Wednesday! I’m definitely going to miss it here. As much as it has driven me crazy from time to time to have more than 35 people around all the time… there are some amazing people here and I’m going to miss them. I’m going to miss our house of 17 people, my three roomates… and definitely the staff here. Our LCFs (language and cultural facilitators) have taught our classes and answered our questions and just been there to talk to us. They’re all close to my age and they’re definitely friends and colleagues… so I’m going to miss them. Our training director is Mupemba… and I can’t even begin to describe him… he’s Papa Mup to all of us here… and he’s incredible. He runs training and takes a ton of crap from our group… from our complaints about classes, our worries about tests and site placements, to our basic complaints about the food here. We get sick, homesick, stressed out, and cranky and he takes care of us all while running the logistics of an intense training program that supports more than 50 people. And he does an amazing job and really does care about each and every one of us. I can’t imagine having had this experience without him.

And here shortly we’re out into the real world… but before that we get to run around Kigali… eat decent food and shop… not to mention getting sworn in at the Ambassador’s house! Now if I can just manage to pack everything up in the next day or so… which is more of a task than it would seem since it won’t stop raining long enough for my clothes to dry on the line outside! I’m definitely much more aware of how amazing many of the creature comforts we have are… washers, dryers, and refrigerators in particular… let me just say that ice cubes are going to make me ridiculously happy in two years!