Down to the river to pray... so to speak!

So not too much has happened since my last posting, especially by way of pictures. I’ve been feeling a little on the tired side the last week or so, maybe in part to the rain, maybe the constant overworking of my brain in order to speak Kinyarwanda has finally caught up with me. So last weekend I largely spent at my home, taking naps, reading good books, making another giant pot of soup! The usual. However, I woke Sunday to singing, but not coming from the usual direction, that is, the church. It was coming from the valley by my house. So I investigated to find around 100 people singing in brightly colored igitenge at the bottom of the valley. I soon discovered that it was a baptism, and even better, a baptism by the church I go to. So I threw on my rain jacket and headed down.

The people had built a dam to stop the canal water and were using this as their baptism pool. When I arrived there was a pastor dressed in white standing to his stomach in the murky brown water. Other people dressed in white would enter the pool on the right. The pastor would hold his right hand up, say something in Kinyarwanda, then forcefully throw the person back into the water. Then they would exit to the left with another joining the pastor from the right. Everyone was singing and cheering, it was such an amazing event to see. After the baptisms were over, I watched as they broke up the dam and the water flooded out into the next valley of tea fields. That was the highlight of last week, but there were other good points as well. The above is a picture from the baptism.
This is one of the views from my house, complete with the cabbage garden, which I'm hoping to commandeer a corner of to make into a herb garden at some point!

Tuesday I walked to another cell within our sector. To digress for a minute, Rwanda has four provinces, North, South, East, and West, and I guess they also have Kigali. Within the provinces are districts, which might be like our states, so to speak. Within the districts are sectors, which might kind of be like counties within the states. My health center serves an entire sector. Within the sectors, you have cells, which may be kind of like rural cities, and within these you have umudugudus, or villages, which are actually a lot like neighborhoods. There are five cells in my sector, and 30 imidugudus (imi makes it plural). There are also around 25,000 people. OK, digression over. So we walked to this other cell to meet with the community health workers. It was somewhere between eight and ten kilometers, so it was really nice to exercise as well as to see more of my new home. I also learned a lot of different back ways, and paths that are always really fun to explore, although you never know where you might end up.

Wednesday I went to one of the local schools to help teach about parasites to the primary kids along with teaching about drinking clean water, and hygiene and the like. Then we taught the secondary students (ages 12 and up) about sex and such. It was kind of entertaining to watch them all giggle about the pictures of the naked man and the naked woman, as I very much being the same way at that age. But it was nice to get out in the community in both cases, and to continue testing my Kinyarwanda.

This is a picture of the University that I teach English at with Nyungwe National Park in the background.

Although I very much wanted to do a repeat of the last weekend with this one, I forced myself out and it was very much to my benefit. I began Saturday with Umuganda, the day of service in Rwanda. I didn’t go last weekend, which was the national one, but fortunately my sector has them every Saturday. It was also nice to be there with a smaller crowd as I was able to talk to many more people. So I arrived and helped them wire metal together, making supports for cement and foundation work. I think there’s a specific name for those, but maybe I’ll try construction work after the Peace Corps, then I can tell you all! Haha. Anyways, it was a lot of fun, and all the men were impressed that I knew how to do it, and that I even knew what pliers were. I really enjoy Umuganda as it gives me a chance to do some physical work, which is like going on vacation with my dad. Haha.

On Sunday I went to church again, although I was still feeling sluggish and tired. But the singing and dancing was enjoyable as usual and I made a pretty good dent in the bible that day. To explain, I’ve decided I should actually read the bible if I am going to take offense to it in any way. So what better time than in church during the sermons that I can’t possibly understand yet. So that goal is underway, and I’m sorry to report, it’s not convincing me into some sort of conversion. But, I am learning a lot about religion that I wouldn’t have known if I hadn’t come to Rwanda. It’s such a religious country. All the people are religious, many of the organizations that assist here are religious based, and there is definitely no distinction between church and states, or schools. So I am finding many good life and cultural lessons.

Anyways, sorry for that digression. After church I went to visit two of my co-workers, as she gave birth to a baby girl last Sunday. It was so nice to visit and feel like I have friends to visit here, but it was also really sweet to see their daughter and also think about being back home with my baby niece. It was a successful day complete with homemade curry for dinner and even some time to continue reading The River Why. So the adventure continues. I have a wedding coming up, a potential visit from Pastor Bonnke, my host father, and IST (In Service Training) all coming in the next month. Maybe I’ll be able to sleep next month! Haha! Until next we meet!

On the road again....

This past weekend, I visited my host family in Kamonyi for my host parents 25^th wedding anniversary. It was so much fun! I left Friday for Butare, where I was so happily greeted at the post office with three boxes from my parents, another padded envelope from my mom (containing the book The River Why, which I’m already reading again!) and another small package with my new English, French and Kinyarwanda dictionary! I’m so thankful that we have a volunteer living in Butare, as she let me keep my packages there over the weekend as I continued my travels. And although I appreciate it immensely, my dad did his shopping at Costco, which made carrying all of this stuff, a very heavy process!

So Friday I met a few other volunteers in Butare. A couple of us went back to the PCV’s (Peace Corps Volunteer) house and ended up accidentally stopping a robbery in progress. This is the third time it’s happened to her, although the second and third times the attempted thieves didn’t actually make it in the house. It was kind of a bummer though. I have to say this volunteer has more poise and grace than most people though, as she handled it so logically and calmly. In the evening. we went to what’s becoming a PCV favorite that we have dubbed “The Pork Place.” You order pork by the kilo, and it’s really good, although I think I overloaded on meat this weekend, as my stomach was not too pleased with me! I don’t eat any meat at site. Worth it? I haven’t decided.

This is a picture of Saj and I at the anniversary celebration. Saj is the youngest of my host siblings.

So Saturday morning, I got up bright and early dressed in my Rwandan igitenge dress and jumped on a bus to Gitarama! As I waited for my host family here, I stopped into a boutique for a mug of hot milk, and between playing solitaire on my cell phone, I talked to some kids who wouldn’t stop staring at me. Then my host father showed up and took me to my host family! It was so incredible to see them all again. It felt like I had never left, but this time I knew so much more Kinyarwanda that I could actually talk to them. We all piled into a “squeeze bus” or twegerane, which means squeeze, and drove to a church, where my host sisters immediately made me change into a shananana or some such Rwandan dress. It consists of a tank top with a few pieces of material wrapped around. I felt very exposed after months of dressing modestly, even for me. The ceremony was a lot of fun, and I was expected to take pictures so I didn’t feel intrusive. I walked with all my host siblings (except Nafta who returned to University in Uganda) in front of my host parents as they entered the church. Then they sang, and prayed.

Finally the gift giving began, which was so entertaining to watch. Looking at a lot of Rwandan’s photos, they have tons of receiving gifts or giving gifts, so it was fun to see these pictures come to life. Everyone comes up and presents their gifts to the families (there were five couples celebrating their anniversaries). After the ceremony, we went outside for photos, followed by a nice meal and fantas. It was so much fun to be with them all again, and I had the wonderful opportunity to meet my host father’s father and his surprisingly young looking new wife. After all the festivities, we changed back into our normal clothes, piled into the twegerane, me with Immacile on my lap, and drove the forty minute drive back to their house in Kamonyi.

There were tons of people at the house, which now finally has electricity by the way! We ate again, but it was really nice to help my sisters serve the plates and clean up, because it made me feel like I belonged there and less like I was a muzungu (foreigner) tourist. On Sunday a new group of volunteers came and my host family received another one. I had the privilege of speaking with her Sunday night when my host father called to see if I made it home safely. She seems so nice although sounded the same as I did on my first day, giggling a lot, as I was definitely overwhelmed. But anyways, they moved the “volunteer” room outside, to Nafta’s room, which I slept in Saturday night, and it was so weird. I missed Nafta a lot. But, after the guests departed, and I caught my little host brothers drinking sorghum beer out of a water bottle with a straw, we settled down and exhaustedly headed to bed. Aline (my oldest sister) laid on my bed and talked to me for a little bit before we went to bed, about life, her new job and her desire to go to University soon.

This is a picture of my host parents during the anniversary celebration while they were praying.

This was one of the most amazing parts as, I have these four amazing host sisters, these truly awesome women, that I’ve never been able to have a real conversation about life or anything really with. So it was really nice to see how far I’ve come in my Kinyarwanda, and to continue to ferment these life long relationships. Aline is so amazing, as she’s the oldest girl, she more often than not takes the role of surrogate mother. Wrangling the children, making sure they all have food (as she does most of the cooking) and making sure we’ve all bathed. Everything, and she’s only 20.

Sunday, I took a brief detour to the Peace Corps “Hub” as we call it. I got to see Mupemba, our training director, Esperance, the language coordinator and Nonci, my wonderful teacher. It was so nice to see them all, and I was able to speak in Kinyarwanda the whole time, which was also nice, and I could tell they were so pleased. They tried to get me to stick around until the new volunteers came, but I thought it would be really unfair to the new volunteer to automatically feel like they were competing with me in our host family, or seeing my relationship with them and that I am able to communicate with them now. That and I had a long way to go. So my sisters walked me to the twegerane, loaded me up and sent me down the road to Kigali.

This picture is of our group. All my host siblings, except Nafta. My host sisters are all down in front, my host grandparents, host parents, and more extended family and friends.

I began with a trip to Nakumatt, to buy things to cooked westernized food. Including, very excitingly curry paste and red wine vinegar. My parents have done an amazing job of sending me seasonings. I made chili the other night for the first time as a result of chili and baja seasonings sent to me. It was semi-vegetarian as it had no meat, but used beef bouillon. I also had potatoes and gravy the other day. I’ve eaten really well since I’ve been at site, and I’ve discovered new realms of chef-ery within myself, I never experienced in the world of pre-made canned goods known as college. After Nakumatt, I went to Bourbon Coffee and had a salad (with real lettuce, not cabbage) followed by chocolate ice cream. Then I headed down the road to Butare. Here I went and visited the volunteer there, picked up my packages, we ate my bag of cherry tomatoes I had bought at Nakumatt, which were AMAZING! Then headed to my next stop.

On the bus to Nyamagabe, I ran into my friends from the Environmental and Conservation College here at site, that I just started teaching English at. Eve is from Uganda and only speaks English and she’s the same age as me. Denyse is one of our students. It was nice to see that I have really started building friendships here to. And it’s nice to have someone that I am able to carry on long conversations with that isn’t just associated with the Peace Corps, gives me a little diversity. They fortunately had a truck coming to pick them up in Nyamagabe, so they invited me to ride with them, which saved me a very uncomfortable 30 minute motorcycle ride to my home carrying all my insanely heavy things. They even helped me carry my extra bag, which was the heavier one. So I successfully made it back home, after a successful and very fun, but tiring weekend.

This is my host parents, with Pastor Bonkey's father and his new wife.

Now I am back at work. I attempted to do my interview with the Community Health Workers (CHWs) yesterday as part of the community needs assessment that I need to do. It was a very frustrating experience as it began with my co-worker demanding I buy him fanta if he was to help me. Which I was very offended by, as I help any way I can here and he was one of the biggest proponents of me teaching them English and I told them I didn’t want any money. So to say I had to pay him for his help in doing a report that will help me understand better how to help our population, just seemed counterintuitive. It was frustrating. The actual questioning didn’t go so well either, as they all just stared at me until the head of the CHWs helped me. Even then, I had to explain the concept of resources to them. Needless to say we didn’t get too far. But to be positive and optimistic I did learn some very valuable information! That’s what I’m sticking with from that endeavor.

Later yesterday I caught two of my co-workers laughing at a woman because she wasn’t wearing shoes. To which, I wanted to literally beat the crap out of them for. They explained to me why they were laughing and I said I understood. Seeing the displeasure (I hope) on my face, they asked if I agreed with them, and I said no. Which I continued to explain why I thought it was so awful they were laughing. They explained that she was a friend. To which I countered, but she’s not laughing. She’s not happy. I pulled out the whole, to laugh at someone is mean, but to laugh with someone is ok thing. To which one of them then apologized to the woman. I was glad he at least recognized the problem. But to laugh at someone because they don’t have shoes. I wanted to slap their superior selves right in the back of the head!

Last night, I taught the whole class at the university by myself, about pronouns. I had no idea I knew so much about pronouns, but it went really well. I guess that whole journalism education thing planted seeds in my brain that I had no idea were actually there. It’s a nice break to go there with people other than my co-workers. It’s giving me a life outside of the health center as I live with my co-workers, work with them, go to events with them. They are amazing people, but it’s nice to have a multi-faceted life, especially when it’s still doing positive things like teaching English. Well, that's all for now. Much love and best wishes everyone!

This picture is of Byishimo and Saj (the youngest of my host siblings and host brothers) eating dinner, before they got into the Sorghum Beer.

Good Afternoon Teacher!

This past week was my very first teaching English to my co-workers. The first day was relatively hectic as everyone had an opinion about how I should teach and what I should teach and pretty much everything else that fits in there. So after the first 30 minutes I sat down and let them talk it out in Kinyarwanda. Then they told me what will happen, to which I replied, OK. The second day went much more smoothly, although less people could make it. They said they wanted to learn about health, so I prepared a list of health words and taught them to them as well as drew a questionable picture of a human with all the body parts labeled. We ran out of time, but we had just started doing a role play where one person played the physician and the other was the patient (both words I taught them that day!) So we will pick up there next week.

This is a picture of my health center with the Rwandan flag flying outside. Not long thereafter the flag tore, so we haven't had one for a while.

Last weekend I spent with my fellow volunteers from my training class in Butare. My friend Christine had her birthday, so we all came together for a celebration. It was a lot of fun, but I was actually pretty sad about being away from site for so long. But I stalked up on things to cook Americanized food and I even got to buy the cutest mobile for my adorable little niece. How to get it to Oregon, I will figure out later. Before I left I was worrying that I wasn’t making a good impression with the women at my health center, as I live with three men, and the men are always around me. They are much more social in a lot of ways. But I would sit down by myself to study or work on a project, and then one of my male co-workers would ask me a question about English or what not, and the next thing I know, they’re all asking me questions while the women sit on the other side of the waiting area. But this week I really made an effort to be around the women, and I think it paid off. It’s an interesting culture to navigate, especially not knowing the language, but buhoro buhoro (slowly by slowly)!

They have me back typing reports, which never seems to end. But now I’m typing their required monthly reports, which I’m excited about, as after I can do some yearly analysis to discover trends and the like. I think this will be very informative. I’m also going to start assisting to teach English at the University here next week, two evenings a week. The university here trains all of the people who work in the national parks, so you all must know how exciting that prospect is to me! It’s nice that projects are taking off. It’s also nice to teach English as it’s something that they really do need. For those that don’t know, Rwanda recently switched their national language from French to English. So all of my co-workers who are over 22-ish never studied English. Everyday my co-workers will say something I taught them in English, and they study so enthusiastically. It’s really rewarding. One of the talked about problems that volunteers apparently face is feeling like they actually didn’t accomplish very much during their service. But, I know if I can help my co-workers learn English, even though that’s not my main job, I know I will have helped them a lot. Especially because most of them know French and Kinyarwanda, so they will be close to trilingual which is amazing!

This is yet another picture of the Nyungwe forest with tea fields before it. Will you ever get tired of these, because I never get tired of seeing it myself!?

Other than work, I’m still madly involved in my love affair with Rwanda. The rains are coming and it helps settle the dusty haze that developed. So every day, my view of Nyungwe National Park and the mountains, and hills and everything else, gets more and more beautiful. We also even had hail yesterday, to which I was jumping up and down about and my co-workers were laughing at me. But I had a dream last night, that it hailed just enough that I could teach them how to make mini-three-inch snowmen. It was a very exciting dream. I’ve also begun my usual itch for Christmas. I’m struggling not to listen to Christmas music. I know, I know, it’s September! Haha! Maybe I’ll never learn!

I’ve been cooking a lot of soups, which of course, is no surprise. My mom has called me a soup-a-holic ever since I was somewhere around ten or so when I would eat soup practically every breakfast, lunch and dinner. But it’s been fun as I’ve gotten to cook all my food from scratch. I think my community is both surprised and incredibly pleased with how many onions and tomatoes I buy all the time. I went through two kilos of tomatoes this week, and just bought another one today! I still haven’t figured out the kilo thing though. Some things like veggies, I need way more. Then they try to sell me a kilo of beans or rice, and I have to explain to them that I just simply can’t eat that much. I still have rice from the first kilo I bought the first week I arrived at site. To it’s credit, I think I’m a little burnt out on rice. I did find couscous last weekend in Butare which was really awesome, and I have some lentils, so we’ll see what I can make with all of these things.

I’ve finally gotten to the point that I am eating normal amounts again. Living with my host family, eating carbs, carbs, carbs all the time, I definitely gained weight. So it’s nice to control my diet again. It’s also nice to be able to eat vegetables pulled right out of the ground, and avocados taken right off the tree. It just makes me feel healthier. Even if I ate the same proportions, it feels better because it’s not just potatoes, rice and beans. They also use a TON of oil when cooking, which is a little overwhelming. They think I’m weird that I don’t love their oil. But they think I’m weird for a lot of reasons. I was talking to one of my co-workers/roommates the other day, and told him that after seeing women in maternity give birth, I’m not sure that I want to go through that. To which he replied, why? To which I said, do you want to give birth? This went on for a while including his quoting the bible saying I MUST have children. Then I explained the concept of overpopulation. I also explained the concept that the bible was written by a group of men, which also segued into the idea that there are so many different churches in the world because everybody interprets the bible in different ways. I concluded with, when you want to go through labor, maybe I’ll consider it. We all laughed.

This is a picture of my village from an adjacent hill. The health center is out of the picture to the left, and you head to the right to get to Gasarenda, Butare and even Kigali. To the left, past the health center is Nyungwe, and then eventually the Democratic Republic of Congo.

So, I have continued my church hopping. I went to the Anglican church this morning, which was very similar to the Pentacostal services, but they had the most intense introduction I've experienced so far. When the churches have guests, they introduce themselves to the congregation. This one made us come in front of everyone and with a microphone do the introduction. They love it when you call out hallelujah or amen, but I'm just not there yet, so I stuck with a queit "Imana ishimwe" which means God Bless You. It made them happy, so what the heck right? But after the four visitors were done, they all started singing and clapping, and formed a line to come by and do this hug/handshake thing with each of us. It was intense! I wasn't really sure how to explain the concept of blushing to them, but I'm pretty sure my face was red.

This is my co-worker Emile and I coming back from a baby-shower-esque celebration for our titulaire. They apparently have these about three months after the baby had been born. I've held a lot of babies here in Rwanda which is so unusual because the only baby I held before coming here was my cousin Ally's daughter Gabby, which lasted about 20 seconds and then she started crying and I gave her back. Hopefully I will finally be ready when I make it home to meet Gracie!

Today is September 11th and I'm very sad that I am not in the states right now partaking in the memorials and rememberances. I can't believe that it has been ten years, and it's disheartening to see some of the things that have unfolded as a result of September 11th, 2001. It's also amazing a lot of the things the last decade has held. I have been watching the online news coverage to the best of my ability, but it's also weird being nine hours ahead of Oregon, as it's almost like I'm living in the future. I have to keep doing all the calculations in time to know when everything happened. I was also really disheartened by the comments many people have posted on articles on the news websites. Well, everyone is very much in my thoughts and much love to you all! I hope the next decade brings more positivity to our world and to our country. We could really use it!

Ndi Munyarwanda Kazi...

I can’t believe I’ve been into this new world for a month and a half already. I was sitting here typing reports in excel spreadsheets today, feeling that this was totally the right decision for me, even though I spent a good 20 minutes venting to my mom on the phone the other day. I was venting about how sometimes I feel very much like I expect animals in the zoo feel. As I sit here and write, a young girl was standing at the door just staring for a good 5-10 minutes, even after I greeted her in Kinyarwanda and asked her how she was. She’s now back again at a different window staring in. Usually they get bored when the realize the “muzungu” doesn’t do very much that is exciting. But, I am very happy here. I feel like I’ve found a niche, at least in myself, what I’m doing and how to exist successfully in a culture so different than my own.

The last few weeks I’ve been typing reports for them and I realized as I struggled over reading their cursive writing, that I learned how to type on computers in school, while they learned to write cursive. Never thought I’d regret not remembering to write cursive. Haha! Anyways, it’s been nice to jump into something. I also have my community needs assessment that I’ve been working on. I just had my co-worker edit my questions in Kinyarwanda, and I feel like I’m incapable in writing in any language now! But my Kinyarwanda is definitely coming along really well. A lot of the time I can have an entire conversation in Kinyarwanda without saying “sinbumva” which means either I don’t understand or I don’t listen, depending. They always think I mean the I don’t understand one though, which isn’t always the case. It’s so easy sometimes to just space out everything that is being said as they speak at their normal pace during meetings and stuff. Then they say my name and I smile and nod. Not always the best method, I’m sure, but I always ask for clarification after the meeting. (To my credit, our meetings are at 7am daily, and I can barely think in English, let alone in a foreign language!)

The above picture was taken at the Assumption Day Ceremony. It was raining, just a little bit, and I loved all the colors of the umbrellas. It was a lot of fun, although I believe the rain was unintentional!

Anyways, the rains have begun to return. It’s been really cold at my site, which is really nice. I was reading the introduction to Rwanda material they gave us at staging in Philadelphia that I never bothered reading, and it mentioned that the average elevation in Rwanda is about 4,000 feet, and the Virunga Volcanoes to the north get up to 9,000 feet. Just outside of the national park here, our elevation is also pretty high, so we get colder weather, and more rain. Funny how that happened… I thought I left the Willamette Valley?! So I’ve taken to sleeping in my sleeping bag, partly in response to the cold, and partly in response to Bedbugs II, The Sequel With a Bite! Hahaha. Anyways, hopefully they are subdued again, the jerks!

We had a regional meeting in Butare the other weekend and many of us converged on Inzozi Nziza (Sweet Dreams) an ice cream shop run by a women’s cooperative. We had our meeting and then stayed the night, going out for dinner, and some dancing. It was a lot of fun to get a tour from people who knew where they were and to be around another group of volunteers. It was a much enjoyed break, and yes I did eat ice cream again for breakfast in the morning! It was epic! Hahaha! Another weekend, I went for a bike ride, which was ridiculous, in that the hills here are completely ridiculous. So I made it probably three quarters of the way on my bike and then walked it the rest. I was super tired afterwards and it was awesome! I rode the six kilometers out to the tea factory and then back. It was pretty.

This picture was taken on my walk to the tea factory with my friend Adele. These are baby tea plants and they are sitting in water that sources the Nile!

Ironically the next week, Adele (my co-worker and manager of the Community Health Workers) and I walked out past the tea factory to visit some of the health workers. It’s really cool to explore this area, and it’s more and more beautiful every time I find somewhere new. When I was a little kid I always dreamed of finding secret trails that no one else knows about, and a lot of the time that’s exactly what exploring here feels like! It’s always like a secret pirate adventure on land, and in Kinyarwanda. And I live next to the jungle. Speaking of which! So, Adele’s husband works for RDB which stands for Rwanda Development Board, and they manage Nyungwe National Park. So they have told me that I can’t go walking by myself on the trails in Nyungwe because the animals, the monkeys, will eat me! I mean seriously! Did someone make them aware of my monkey fears before coming here!? Haha. I am allowed to walk on the road though and there’s a bee cooperative not too far in and they manufacture honey that is really great! So, death by monkey versus really awesome honey?

A week ago was a holiday in Rwanda. It was Assumption Day with the Catholic church, so I went to the ceremony with one of my roommates. (I’ve taken to calling my three male roommates as my older brothers, even to other people in public. It seems to help squelch wild community ideas, but maybe not!) But we went, and being a foreigner has it’s perks. They had us sit under the tarps in the plastic lawn chairs, which are much more comfortable than the wooden school desks they had pulled out. So, partway into the ceremony it starts raining, but the choir just keeps singing, and these poor girls dressed in white dresses with blue ribbons, continued to dance in the rain. Then it started pouring, and people brought out their umbrellas and everyone made a valiant effort to stay in place and celebrate the assention of Mary to heaven. As it continues to pour, puddles began forming on the tarps above us, and people in the crowd began scattering into school buildings.

These are some of my coworkers picking carrots at the health center garden. Mama Inyoni to the left, Teoneste in the middle, and Teodozie on the right.

We stood strong for a good ten minutes and then I turned to Alphonse and told him that we needed to go. He shook his head, and I glanced back at the developing puddles. Suddenly one of the ropes holding a tarp further back broke and water came rushing down. Fortunately I wasn’t hit, but as muddy water began circling my sandaled feet, I gave a last look at Alphonse and turned and ran under the protection of the school roof. I couldn’t stop laughing. Men continued to go around and push the puddles off the remaining tarps and several times it came down in buckets on the people seeking shelter. This just made me laugh harder. It was really great! The whole time the priest was still speaking into the microphone trying to bless the sacrament but it really felt very much like a lost cause.

I’m very happy here, and the time is flying by. To be clear, my close of service date is July 13^th, 2013. That seems pretty far away, but I’ve been in Africa for almost four whole months already, which is almost half a year! WHAT? Hahaha! Little crazy! It’s going so quickly already! So hopefully my mom will visit in May and then my dad in the following December, and maybe Felice and whomever else would love a semi-local guided tour of this beautiful part of the world. And, after I’m done being a PCV (Peace Corps Volunteer – they love their acronyms!) I plan to take maybe a month trip south to explore some other parts of Africa before returning state-side and figuring out what the heck to do next!

As you can see in the above pictures, the rains have come, although today was in fact really sunny and hot. The true rainy season isn't supposed to start until September!

But, to close, Friday is Lindsey Jackson’s birthday! She would be 23! That seems so old for her! Haha, but I will be celebrating as always, and I wanted to wish Happy Lindsey’s BDay to all my wonderful friends back home missing her as well. I have my album turned to her picture standing in my room right now, and I can’t help but look back on who I was when I was 18 and how much I’ve changed in 5 years! Lindsey definitely helped me get to where I am today. She instilled so much confidence and genuine all-encompassing happiness in me, and those have helped guide me so far in life. So happy Lindsey birthday August 26^th!

Finally, although I am unsure if it has been mentioned, but I thought it was the best possible ending point! I AM AN AUNT! Gracelynn Haley Foster was born on August 3^rd and she’s so freaking cute. I’ve been showing all my co-workers pictures of her and my family. I never thought I’d be so freaking excited to be an aunt, but I definitely am! I can’t wait to meet her… in two years! Bummer, I know, but I’m so excited to know her and see how our lives grow. I was talking to a friend the other day about how we ended up at the point where our siblings were having kids. What happened to college? How’d I end up in Africa? It feels so much like I was in high school just the other day, and now I’ve gone through so many stages in my life already! Does this mean I’m getting old? Haha! I’m so happy that Gracie is now a part of this world and a part of my family! Much much love as always!

This final pictue is one of my house, the door to my courtyard. I really like my house, in spite of the agasimba (small animal) problem that I tend to have. Meh. Whatever!

Lesson number 182,406... Be careful when offering help, more than likely I'll have no idea what's coming!

So I’m finally a working girl again, although I would have to say that learning Kinyarwanda is kind of like working. During my first week on the job, the Rwanda Ministry of Health had a special event that worked to distribute vitamins and shots to mostly children throughout the sector. My sector has 30 umudugudus or villages. I spent the week about an hour truck ride away, although it was only 15 kilometers or so. About 15 of the health workers loaded into the bed of the pickup truck and thank fully I landed a spot inside. There’s some things that just seem easier in the familiarity of home. The site was really pretty and there’s a separate health post there that was just built.

I helped by recording the distribution as I am not actually supposed to distribute medicine as in fact, I am not a doctor. But it was so cool. The first day we distributed vitamins to over 150 children and the next two days, over 200 each, not including the group that went to the school next door which gave out over 500. One of the nurses that came with us also distributed Depo Provera shots to mothers who were interested as there is a huge push for family planning in Rwanda. (Depo Provera is a type of birth control you get once every three months). The final day of my first week was spent hanging out at the health center and then accidentally watching a woman give birth. It was horrifying (sorry Kaleigh)! I will spare you all details, but I was telling my co-workers after that now I’m not sure if I want to go through that and have children. They laughed as they thought I was joking. Not getting married or having children is relatively unappreciated in Rwanda, at least it thus appears so far.

The Above picture is taken in Nyungwe National Park.

As I brag about my future niece, I tell Rwandans her name and that she’s a girl and they are shocked that we know the sex already and they also find it really shocking that she already has a name. They don’t name children until a day to a week after the birth. Anyways, week two was spent doing impromptu job shadows throughout the health center. I figured I had to learn how everything works, although directly after our daily 7 AM meeting, I’m not the most functional, but especially in Kinyarwanda. This week I have helped and watched in HIV testing, family planning, the pharmacy, consultation, baby monitoring and maternity. I’ve also met with the community health workers and planned out some adventures for the following week. When I type all that out, it seems like I’ve done a lot more work than I actually thought I did.

After lunch every day, nothing seems to really happen. Especially the last couple days, it has been raining and things kind of stop when that happens. So after lunch, I’ve been hanging out and studying Kinyarwanda at the health center as well as joking with my co-workers and watching American movies on Rwandan television. I have resisted telling any of my co-workers my age as, I’m close to marrying age in Rwanda (and no I don’t want a Rwandan husband)! But, a lot of people my age also haven’t been to university or held many, if any jobs. So, I’m torn between maintaining professional credibility and not being married off without my knowledge (or with it). It’s become a good joke though because I tell people I’m a child and then after a while I tell them I’m an old woman, and we all laugh. I also joke that I already have two husbands in America, as I wear two rings. It’s nice to be able to communicate jokes again.

I spent my first weekend here by going for a walk/hike in the national park and it was so cool. As I walked along the road, I could hear the monkeys crashing through the trees next to me. Cool, yes. Scary, yes! I then found this trail leading off to the left and decided to explore. I shortly ran into a man who was out walking and chatted for a few minutes then headed in opposite directions. Shortly thereafter I came to a fork and decided to head uphill. To my surprise the man came running after me telling me to take his machete because there were animals along that trail. Needless to say I took the other trail and the man joined me showing me the way and a really nice loop that I can hike. There were monkeys every step of the way. At one point the jungle was ringing with monkey sounds. Fortunately I didn’t see any until we got back to the road, and he pointed some out to me. They were so big! I’m glad I saw them from afar. I have a lot of monkey fear to come to terms with over the next two years!

The above picture is of a village that my health center serves. The bright green on the hillside is tea and the yellow in the distance is wheat!

Today I had to go to Butare, the nearest city to do some banking. I went with Christine a PCV that’s really close to my site. Although, I had to take a twegerane or a squeeze bus, or a small bus that lots of people shove into. Unfortunately the only twegerane that leave my site go sometime between 6:30 and 8 in the morning, and I’m such a morning person. So I got up this morning at 5:45, rolled out of bed and walked down to the town center to wait for the bus. I took that to my nearest big town, where I waited for Christine and then we took a bigger, but still packed express bus to Butare. I went to the bank, the post office, the market, had ice cream and met up with a bunch of other volunteers in my training class. It was a good day, but tiring, as the only twegerane that returns to my town leaves between five and six in the evening. It’s a full day process, so I’m glad I hopefully won’t have to go back for a while.

This picture is along the road to the health post I worked at the first week. I love the wheat, it makes me think of home, I can't imagine driving a combine on these hillsides though!

In our closest big town though, we’ve found good American food, a nice hotel, cheap massages, and a potential night club, not to mention a really cool outdoor market. My site is pretty cold and every one casts a worrisome look my way when they say that. But I’ve finally learned the word for snow, and try to explain that we have that at my home in the states. My Kinyarwanda is very limited still, but I can have conversations and everyone is very patient. I joke that I can only speak and think in Kinyarwanda between 10 AM and 2 PM when I’m the least tired. But it’s relatively true. It’s so easy to space out when you need to work to understand what’s even being said. But I love that I learn something each day. I am so happy that I am here and it’s weird that I’m already three months in! How did that happen? I will be done and back home much quicker than any of us expect it to feel like! Crazy! I’ve got lots of work to do though, and a lot of that will be initially trying to figure out what work I need to do. And all that is in a brand new language! OY! Wish me luck! Much love.

24 Months To Go.... Let the next adventure begin!

Welcome home…. Or rather, welcome to my home… This is a picture outside my home on my very first night at site!!!! It’s so beautiful, or Ni heza cyane! – Just a quick rant about Kinyarwanda. There’s the whole obnoxious noun class thing, but there’s also the fact that they have very few words. It all depends on the emphasis on the syllables. For examples gusura can mean to visit or it can mean to fart. Gusura is visit, but gusuuuura is to fart. Easy mistake right? But the other thing is that –iza means good, pretty, attractive, smart, and many other positive adjectives. This is annoying! So when I want to say sweet, pretty, nice, good, and many others when describing a person, in Kinyarwanda I can only say mwiza. When describing a place it’s heza (that’s the whole noun class thing!) Anyways, long story short. They need more words.

As one fellow trainee said the other day, “I’ve never learned a language that actually made me appreciate English before learning Kinyarwanda!” I would often times agree with that assessment! hahaha

Well, I am officially a Peace Corps Volunteer. We had our swearing in ceremony in Kigali this past Wednesday. Dressed in our traditional Rwandan garb (most of us) we swore in at the US Ambassador’s residence. Apparently there may have been an article on it in the Rwandan New Times newspaper, or a broadcast on national television. It for sure made it on the radio as we heard that. We were allowed to be unleashed on Kigali and to fend for ourselves and I think for everyone it was a success.

I learned how to get back and forth to the town center using public transport, which in my book was a huge success! (Kigali is HUGE by the way!) Anyways, I finally bought some sunglasses – mine broke on the flight to Rwanda. I also made some other purchases that I am so happy to have now that I am here at my site! I ate some ice cream, which is always rewarding, and I ate lots of American food, like a hamburger!!!! Yep… it was awesome! I also purchased some green and yellow Nike flip-flops, which I had to throw in here, only to emphasize how awesome the Oregon Ducks are!

The above picture is of my host parents and the one down below is me with my oldest host brother Nafta, and my youngest host brother Saj.

“Site Installation” as the Peace Corps calls it, which was really shoving as much as we can into a compact space and being driven to our sites and thrown out with a fond farewell and a “do good work!” However it is organized, ours happened yesterday. It was a long day. I was the last one to be dropped off, which was nice to see some other PCVs (Peace Corps Volunteers – the PC loves their acronyms) sites and to see more of Rwanda. But I was glad to arrive. After cooking, arranging my room a little bit and visiting my co-workers, I ate and watched some TV on my computer and ended up going to bed early! It was nice. One of the hardest parts of my job will be the daily 7 am meetings! OY! I might try to figure out the logistics of bucket-bathing in the evening, while trying not to be bitten by imibu, more commonly known to us as mosquitos!

So I am officially at my new home, amongst the tea covered hills, next to the Nyungwe Forest. No monkeys yet, don’t worry! I am so happy to be here. I’ve had such a positive experience so far. When I did my site visit a month ago, I was much more stressed out and the constant calls of “Muzungu!!!!” got to me a little bit. But I’ve enjoyed my interactions so much, so far. Maybe it’s because my Kinyarwanda is better. Maybe, I’m just not as stressed out now, being unleashed into the world of Rwanda all on my own.

Since I’ve been here, I have adventured to various places to buy different things. I cooked “Grandpa Haggerty’s Spaghetti” last night over charcoal and I’ve had like 10 cups of tea out of my new electric teapot! I also used it to heat up my water for my bucket shower this morning! I love it! Anyways, today I ventured into town with one of my co-workers to talk to a carpenter. Hopefully next Tuesday I will be able to pick up my two bookshelves that they are making!

Other than that, I have spent today beginning to compile all the information on my community so far in my community needs assessment that I need to put together for the Peace Corps. It’s a really awesome tool, and I am glad that I’ve been able to add it and “Participatory Analysis for Community Action” or PACA to my tool book. So, I began the compilation, which has helped me think about what I would like to learn in the next three months (broadly of course)! I will actually begin this whole working thing on Monday morning, and between now and then, I need to study Kinyarwanda, collect myself, eat, maybe fit in a movie, do some reading and go to church on Sunday.

Church is a great way to be accepted into the community, and since my health center is housing me with three of my male co-workers, which is commonly frowned upon in Rwanda, I think I will need the positive attention. Since my host family was Pentecostal, I may try to adventure there on Sunday as my co-worker told me it’s only two hours! I think he may be lying! Some Rwandans seem to really love their church here! I will try to switch it up though and attend different churches over the course of my time here though ( I hear the Catholics usually have the shortest service with only 1.5 hours!) Sorry mom, but I may need to make that my service of choice. The Sunday services though are usually really cool because they are half singing and dancing. The other day I walked into my host family’s church to everyone dancing up and down the aisles and singing. It reminded me of the scene in Blues Brothers, where Jake and Elwood finally see the light and join the dancing! It’s kind of awesome!

This last picture is from Swear-In on Wednesday. It has some of the new volunteers, some teachers, Gordy the program manager, Mary the Country Director and some others. This is after we had all stuffed our faces with amazing American food or rather food we're more used to, like quiche, pizza, spring rolls, carrot cake!!! And of course they had meat on a stick!

Until next we meet... May the road rise to meet you!

One week left to real/actual volunteer-dom!

To start... I'd just like to point out in the picture below, my sister, chantal, is wearing a nike t-shirt. But that's not the super amazing part... On her lower back there, printed in blue letters are the words, Beaverton, Oregon! HAHAHA! Obviously it was meant to be, and for the record, she had that shirt before I came!

On Tuesday, my group mates and I had to do a presentation in Kinyarwanda (the language in Rwanda) on washing your hands! It was quite stressful, but it went so well. We had a game, we had a sketch and we built a hand washing station, which is so freaking cool! It's literally four sticks, a jug, some nails and some string, but it's rigged up so that you can press on one stick with your foot and it tilts the jug to pour water and you don't even have to touch anything with your hands. I think I may need to bring it back to the states when I come!

I'm now in the last week of training. I have a language test saturday morning at 8 and then hanging out with my host family. Logistically speaking, I cannot say that I think the move to my site will go smoothly, largely due to availability of wanted amenities and convenience of transportation. But as always, tuzareba, we will see. Every day my Rwandan family tells me how sad they will be when I go and that it's really bad that I am leaving. I will miss them a lot, but I will get to visit. It will be a lot harder to leave Rwanda in 2 years as I already have so many good Rwandan friends! But that's a ways away, and I'm already looking forward to getting to see Family and Friends back in the states. I miss you all so very much!

This last weekend, I got to go to the market again, where I bought some igitenge (sarongs) for the women in my family as a thank you. To my host father and my host brother, I gave my really awful kinyarwandan dictionary - it had none of the words I needed but somehow found it necessary to include the kinyarwandan words for g-string and for card number three in a deck of cards! - anyways, they loved the gifts, which I gave them Sunday evening. Monday was liberation day in Rwanda, so no one had to go to school or work. It was a really great day because we had a host family appreciation ceremony with all the families and me and another volunteer gave a short speech in Kinyarwanda.

The only thing that was missing Monday were fireworks, and maybe a cold brew, but mostly fireworks, and barbecues and maybe the fair my brother said he went to back in Oregon. But it was a really good day. Just as a side note... there is absolutely no shortage of guacamole in Rwanda, or at least the materials to make it. So far, it still kind of frightens some of the host families a bit. Especially the not-cooking part.

So a week ago, I bought some igitenge and I had a traditional Rwandan dress made, minus the head wrap, which I didn't have enough cloth for. I wore it to church on Sunday and my family as well as everyone else in the church were so happy. It was a lot of fun. I'm planning on wearing it at the swear-in ceremony next wednesday! Every day I kept asking my host family, is it saturday yet, is it four o'clock on saturday yet? I then taught them the word impatient, as I explained that I was being very impatient. They just laughed at me. We laugh at ourselves a lot. I recently learned the words for liar, shut up and various explanations equating to "Oh My God" and "Holy Crap" -more or less anyways - and so we've had a lot of fun joking with each other.

A lot of people have bought electronic movies over the course of their time here, so we've done some movie watching which has been really nice. I've also watched a lot of "How I met your mother" which I have to say I'm really hooked. It's a nice distraction from the stress of the day at night, when I can tuck myself in under my mosquito net, put my computer on my lap and watch a little bit of what could be considered a normalcy in my life (television!)

Life is good. Last night I had to explain homesickness versus missing someone. I was trying to explain that homesickness often implies a level of being sad that you are where you are and not at home. I was also trying to explain that I was so happy to be in Rwanda and in Africa, but that I missed my friends and family. Language barriers really make messages hard to get across sometimes.

But as for here, my volunteer swear in ceremony is this coming Wednesday at the US Ambassador's residence in Kigali. We met the ambassador a little while ago, however he just happened to finish his "tour of duty" so to speak, so it's an ambassador-less residence. Next Tuesday I will be packed and leaving for Kigali before swear-in on Wednesday. Then Thursday I'm headed to my assignment! Crazy that it's that close!!! That is of course if I pass all the tests today and tomorrow! OY! My brain is slowly wilting under the strain of studying! (I thought I wasn't a student, in the formal sense, anymore!) I was practicing my vocabularly last night and learning the names of some of the animals. So I told my host-brother Nafta, that I wanted to be a hippo, to which our visitor replied, "That's not possible!" I found that comment quite rude and limiting in how you address and view your life, but anyways... hahaha.

OK, now I very much need to study to prepare for my language exam, but just a short update on the world of Africa, or rather the world that I currently exist in, in which Africa is a part of! Can you tell my mind is stretching a little thin or becoming a little crazy? haha -Much love