Welcome to the jungle, and a whole new year!

It seems like it’s been a very long time since my last post. I’ve had a busy January so far, between work and other adventures. Work has been going really well. I started my GLOW club with a group of girls here at the local secondary school, to work on girls empowerment and health education. I’m really excited to be working with this particular group, as they are more likely to end up not finishing school and working as subsistence farmers or doing other local jobs than the many kids who are sent out to various boarding schools. My friend Justin is trying to go to a secondary school in the district center which would cost around 75,000 Rwandan Francs to go there each year. I was initially blown away by the cost, but after the conversion, realized that is roughly $150 US dollars. Relative to monthly income, especially for families that do have many children, this is very high. Fortunately there are many organizations that come to pay school fees for children. Justin sought out World Vision, and will maybe be leaving soon for school.

Anyways, I’ve also had several meetings with a group called Utabera Amahoro, which has the main aim of promoting peace in the community, and they are also the only group that I am aware of thus far that works to prevent Gender Based Violence (GBV) in my community. A lot of times when volunteers, maybe foreigners or even Rwandans, go in front of a group of people, introduce ourselves, talk to them about ideas you have, ask them questions, anything, the audience often just looks at us. I have had too many meetings where I’ve asked a seemingly simple question like,
do you know of cooperatives in your community, where the proverbial crickets were chirping and I stood relatively stupidly in front of a group not really sure how to proceed. My meeting with this group, and their director were not this way in the slightest and it was a major ego boost, not to mention helpful to my positivity levels.

So, these meetings were great as I was able to speak Kinyarwanda, understand them, and we communicated! My focus on Journalism and writing throughout my life, never really put into perspective the value I have on being able to communicate. Learning a new language showed me that, and although I hear the grammatical mistakes coming out of me when I speak with people, we can understand each other. So I am so happy to finally be able to do that in Kinyarwanda. That’s not to say that the GBV training I’m trying to write in Kinyarwanda is not totally kicking my butt though! We talked about what they thought the community needed to prevent GBV as well as what we can expect from each other. They said they wanted some sort of report. To which I said I could help them write it, but for me to go into people’s homes and ask them if their partner beats them, wouldn’t be very useful, because people aren’t about to tell all their problems to a foreigners. My audience paused, thought about it, and agreed that that was true.

We talked about what I am able to do and what they want from me, and I was very happy with the conversation. So it has been a great dialogue. The most recent meeting too, got me out of a day of church, which the last two times I went, went on FOREVER! Seriously. The Sunday before last. They had a visitor, but she showed up an hour and a half late. So they were about to finish when she came in and started talking. Ninety minutes later, I had had my fill. She had called Nick (my site mate) and I abazungu several times, which made me very much feel like I was a guest here and hadn’t spent the last six months of my life in this community. About every fifteen
minutes she’d mention that she was finished then just keep talking. So, I faked a phone call and left. Apparently she called me out angrily, and questioned Nick in front of the congregation if he was going to bail to. I felt a little bad, but seriously, there’s only so much I can give to that part of
integration!

Other work projects are progressing as well, although, those two are at the front of my thoughts and focus thus far. So, in other news, this past weekend we had lots of visitors. My friend Kate from my group came with her parents. Whitney and Jake also from my group came with his younger brother, and a friend of Nicks from college, all visited starting last Saturday. It was really nice to see people and be able to speak lots of English about home and other such things. We cooked dinner each night together, fajitas the first night with homemade tortillas by Nick. Night two we had salmon from Alaska courtesy of my mom, with teriyaki stir fry. We played card games and other such things. So it was a really nice break, while still being here at site.

Monday, Nick’s friend Rachel, Nick and I went hiking in Nyungwe park. On constant monkey alert, we trekked through the jungle and up a mountain. There were phenomenal views from the top, even though it was a hazy day. Apparently on clear days you can see all the way to lake Kivu. It was really beautiful though, and increased my anxiousness to hike Kilimanjaro with my dad in December! We didn’t see any monkeys, but after a somewhat tiring hike up, we discovered we had been reported to the Rwanda Development Board (RDB), and some staff came looking for the “crazy” abazungu that traveled into the park on their own. We were greeted by two displeased men in the green uniforms of RDB. One had a large rifle slung over his shoulder who scowled as he brought up the rear of our escort down the mountain.

We were later sent to the director’s office where we were informed that to enter the park we must give them money. To do this one trail would have cost us each individually $50 US dollars including park entrance fee. Maybe somewhat to my fortune, I actually didn’t have the
equivalent of $50 on me or even with me at my site currently, and it’s not like I can just write them a check. My debit cards are all locked away safely with my passports with Peace Corps, so I legitimately couldn’t pay. Fortunately the director was understanding, and since it was Nick and I, we were given a warning and sent on our ways. It’s a bummer though that we are not able to
explore the national park which is a part of our home for the next two years, without forking over obscene amounts of money. This makes me appreciate the national parks which I love so much back home, with their $25 entrance fee. I guess you have to be wealthy and not a Peace Corps volunteer, or a college-grad with lots of debt still left to pay, in order to really be able to visit the
beautiful national parks of Rwanda.

But it was worth it and I got lots of great pictures on the trip, in case I never get to do it again. I may never see Lake Kivu from the top of the hill, but it was a gorgeous hike in the land I call home for one and a half more years! I am officially ¼ of the way done with my Peace Corps service, and I have spent 8.5 months in Rwanda thus far. Time seems to be flying by. My host mother just called me, because she’s home alone, has finished her cooking and cleaning, and wanted to visit. All the kids are off at school, and for a woman who works as hard as she does all the time (I mean, she has seven children, and is required in this culture to take care of her husband) I think she’s not quite sure what to do with herself during free time. Anyways, it seems like it’s been forever since I lived with my host family, half a year ago. It’s only been a month since Nick came to site and I haven’t been the only foreigner here. He may already be stuck with my friendship far beyond Peace Corps service in Rwanda, after just a month of being site mates.

Yesterday, my health center staff finally had a New Year’s celebration. Before Christmas they initiated a secret Santa game where we all drew names and were told to buy this person a gift. I asked about kind, and spending limits and such, to which I was told “whatever works.” I’m not sure they understood, that I was new to this in this culture! I drew the name of the gardener here which made me really happy because he is one of the nicest people and also one of the people here that has the least. So we all got together at the health center last night, and everyone
was so happy and excited to find out their surprise. It started with the titulaire, or the head of our health center, who described her person as everyone shouted out guesses. Finally it was revealed, and then that person did the same with the person whose name they drew.

I’ve been kind of sick and so I spaced out a bit as I was coughing and the next thing I know everyone was shouting my name. So I tried to give even the slightest impression that I knew what was going on. I was somewhat shoved into the middle of the room and wrapped in a full body hug by the accountant who had drawn my name. First she pulled a necklace from her pocket and clasped it around my neck, jerking my scarf off and flinging me around so everyone could see it. Next she pulled three wooden colorful bracelets out of her pocket and shoved them onto my wrist. Then she handed me a family (or costco) sized package of cookies, as everyone cheered! I really like my gifts, but this was not the night for grace or poise in front of the audience as everyone was so excited, and I seemed to be tossed in every direction at some point throughout the evening.

Unfortunately I missed the memo about needing a gift bag, so I was the only person to actually give my gift in a paper bag, somewhat embarrassingly, however, he was thrilled either way, which was awesome. The whole night was full of laughter, cheering, yelling, and all other sorts of celebration, and it was so much fun to be a part of it and see all these people I’ve known for six months now, open up in this way. It was also pretty cool to be part of a work party in Rwanda. This world gets smaller every day! This whole week has been much needed, visitors and celebrations. Life in Rwanda continues on, but I feel as if I do have a place here. Although, I’ve been mentally exhausted so to speak the last few weeks, my good humor, and maybe more importantly, my patience, are returning to me, thankfully! So much love everyone and until next we meet, may the road rise to meet you, wherever it is you go and end up! Miss you!

The first three photos are from my hike in Nyungwe National Park with Nick and his friend Rachel. The fourth is my co-workeer Venuste dancing as he received his secret santa gift from Bazalisa, and finally, this last picture is of the healthcenter staff and myself (unfortunately much too close to the camera)!