Two Canadians

I went to Egypt…and now I’m back in Rwanda. I’ve been back for for a little over 2 months now and the transition has been up and down, specifically the first two weeks back. My first week back, everybody at the hospital was glad to see me, wanted to hear about Egypt, see pics and it was great. Then the second week, I fell into a funk and started missing my family/friends back home and then started thinking about just traveling some more. On top of that, I got sick and started thinking I was going to be med-evac to South Africa or Morocco after learning I was exposed to a Nurse who has Swine Flu. But nope, just a nasty bug and now I am feeling 100% again. Don’t get me wrong, Rwanda is great and I enjoy my community, but the language barrier is still frustrating and it gets in the way of getting things accomplished, even when it’s hard enough on its own here. Sure, I help around the office and help facilitate meetings when I go out into the field with my Supervisor, but I hate learning about meetings a day or two before and then not entirely understanding what the meeting will cover. I’m not going to lie, there are a couple of days that makes me wonder why I am not a PCV in Latin America but for the most part, I am really glad I am here. When I am more familiar with processes and people at Health Centers, I will go out on my own and work with the staff members of the Health Centers and Community Health Workers. Being a PCV at site for almost 8 months now, a two-year service makes complete sense to me.

Vacation...

I had an amazing time exploring different parts of Egypt, but the best part was being with my folks throughout those days. About 9 months without seeing people you have seen almost daily for 24 years is a long time and it was the best vacation I’ve been on yet. Eurotrip ‘08 with two of my friends comes in a close second though. None of us had ever been to Egypt, so of course we did all the touristy stuff (Pyramids, Sphinx, Valley of Kings, Tomb of King Tutankhamen, etc..). We visited Cairo, Sham El-Sheik and Luxor. Coming from tiny Rwanda (which is one of the few countries in the world with the lowest car ownership per person record..Thanks George for the Guinness Book of World Records!) to insanely hectic and populated Cairo was definitely a shock. On top of the change in scenery, the traffic terrified me and I thought for sure I was going to die in a car accident my first day there. On our second day, we visited City Stars Mall in Cairo and it is an enormous mall with so many stores and restaurants. I did what any American who has been living in a country with no Western Food would do…I ate some damn good KFC and drank Caramel Frappuccino from Starbucks. I saw the stores and my mom just looked at me and said “Ay, pobrecito…anda compra". While my parents wanted to eat Egyptian food, I just wanted some food from back home first. We went to Cairo, Sharm El-Sheik and Luxor before I had to come back to Rwanda. Sharm was the highlight of the trip in terms of vacationing and not doing anything. We were on the beach by the Red Sea and the weather was perfect. The water was super salty and I just floated around for a good couple of hours and enjoyed the Sun. By the end of Sharm, my mom was burnt everywhere and I started calling her Tomatina because she looked like a tomato. I’ll spare you all the details till I see you guys back in the States, but know that I enjoyed every minute of the trip…even when we were being hassled in Luxor every 5 minutes about going on a boat ride, carriage ride, etc…good times every step of the way.





Monster Mash...

I didn’t have much expectations for Thanksgiving, but it turned out to be amazing. A month prior, it was Halloween and I was with a few other volunteers in Kigali. I didn't dress up as anything because I had just gotten back from Egypt a few days earlier and just stayed at site the next few days till Halloween. Was planning on going out to a open bar (supposedly, but never actually confirmed by the 2 PCVs that did end up going) but just watched a really bad movie with Madison, Kentucky and her bf following dinner with two other volunteers. Anyhoo, back to Thanksgiving. About 15-20 Volunteers met up in Kigali at the Peace Corps office and made a bunch of food. Since I am not that skilled in cooking sophisticated stuff, I helped Meredith (fellow PCV and neighbor) with the Mashed Potatoes with a few other volunteers. I must have peeled a crap load of potatoes for 3 hours and then we mashed them up after cooking them. Ahmed made the Turkey and it turned out really good. Tom made cranberry sauce without using cranberries and stuffing. His wife Malea made dessert and others brought stuff too, but I can’t remember them now. Everything came out really great. To top it off, Crissi, Kara and I bought 2 boxes of white wine and it just made the day/cooking all that much better.




Fire on the dance floor...

The next morning, I went to Nyanza to meet up with the new group of Trainees and to see their PST site since I haven’t been there and PST was coming to an end soon (they swear-in this Friday and then head off to sites the end of this year, I think). Met great people who were chill and laid back and we ended up going to a club at a fancy hotel in the town. Music kept stopping every 2 minutes which was annoying, but whatever, it was fun and I got to meet new people and escape site for a bit.

Up where we belong...

With Thanksgiving just passing, it meant my 25th birthday was around the corner. I turned 25 on November 28th and I celebrated it at site with my students (Hospital Staff) and some members of the community. It was the BEST and most memorable birthday I’ve ever had. They knew I was going to Kigali and then Nyanza for 2 days, but they insisted on me coming back home on my birthday to meet two Canadians that were supposedly coming to my site. I thought it was extremely weird that Canadians would even come to my site because it’s rural and it’s not Kigali. I had a feeling my students were up to something because after class one day, they told me that I had to leave because they had a meeting. Being at site for over 7 months at that point and not once had they had a late night meeting at 6:30PM. Sure enough, I come back to site by 4pm like they told me and walk into the staff room to see a Birthday Cake for me with candles, music playing in the background and my students singing me Happy Birthday. It was extremely thoughtful of them and of course I was surprised the lengths they went to get me a nice cake from Kigali. Not only my students planned it, but also my Supervisor, other Hospital Staff members and members of the Community. I thought the cake was sufficient enough, but nope, they bring out brochettes, fried potatoes and pastries. Amazing to say the least. Then of course, we danced (I tried my best doing the traditional Rwandan Dance AKA Cow Dance, but I need practice), then came the speeches (notorious at parties!) and finally gifts that they collected money for. I received a bottle of wine and a really nice decorative to hang on my wall outlined in the shape of the country Rwanda. I thought things were going well at site and I was integrating, but I didn’t expect anything for my Birthday. All the stuff they did for me that day showed me they really accepted me as one of their own in the community. Loved it and love them. Oh and the two Canadians never existed.





Girl Power

Some of the Health Volunteers organized and executed a 5-day Camp for Secondary School Girls in Kigali last week. The Camp focused on various topics, such as Health, Life Skills, etc…I didn’t participate this time around, but I will next time (June ‘10?) and I hope to even bring some girls from my Secondary School class when I start teaching in January.


Mr. Reyes

Being a Health Volunteer is pretty great, but not really structured and requires lots of self-motivation and taking the initiative to speak to the right people and talk to them multiple times to get things done. In addition to working in the health field, I was interested in work at my local Secondary School teaching. Therefore, I told the Secondary School Director that I would like to be working at the School starting in January and he was happy about it. I will be meeting with him and the Pastor (my resource family at site, but also he is President of the School) to discuss how I can assist and in what capacity. They may want me to teach English, but we’ll see at the meeting.

I’ll need to update once a month from now on because writing a blog entry about the last 2 months and a half without it being crazy long is difficult. Quick notes..might go to Akagera National Park the end of this month with other Volunteers, so it’ll be a Christmas Safari…Pot-Luck at my site with Hospital Staff either at the Hospital (probably not so the pts don’t see all the good food and then just stare at us watching us eat food) or my house…300 books are being generously donated to two Secondary Schools at my site thanks to The Feminist Press at CUNY and especially Maryann for the connection…Still working (and by working, I mean having friends/family back home helping me out tremendously on this with fundraising) on the Books for Africa proposal to raise money (Check out the link below to see how much we still need… https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=696-001)

Feliz Navidades y Feliz Ano Nuevo amigos!