Mbabarira

So it's been a while and I have been meaning to update the blog, mbabarira! (Excuse me!) I was sick last week (Guhitwa, Kuruka, etc...) but now I am feeling well. Something I ate didn't sit well with me. I will definitely update the blog this weekend when I head into Kigali and let you guys know what's been going on here at my site.

This article discusses a little bit about the organization I work for here in Rwanda and some of the things we are working on...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/prweb/20090811/bs_prweb/prweb2736394_2

I'll write more in a few days...Check back then!

From Memorial to Amahoro Island

Seems like forever since I’ve sat down and typed up a blog entry. Sorry for the lack of entries lately! Lots to cover here! Hopefully the pictures I am including in this entry will make you want to read the entire entry! Ha!

Memorial for Pastors
My house is right next to the Presbyterian Church (I hear singing at all odd hours of the night and morning) and in front of my house is a memorial site the church is in the process of building for Pastors killed during the 1994 war. About 4 weeks ago, my village had a commemorative event of the memorial site and it was quite the experience. I was planning on going to Kigali that weekend (I always seem to find myself traveling to Kigali instead of the Gitarama, which is the next major town over) to visit a friend’s house and family, but I scrapped those plans once I found out about the event a few days prior to it. I figured it would look poorly on me to travel away from site while my community was having an event that Friday and Saturday. I figured a good amount of people would come, but I was surprised to see how big the turnout was! I think it was over 500 people that were outside my house and the people must have come from the entire Cell, not only the village. The events started that weekend on Friday at 6pm, which was perfect timing for me since I finish working at the hospital on Fridays at 6pm (My current teaching schedule is Mon/Tu/Thur from 4pm-5pm and Wed/Fri from 4:30pm-6pm) . I was tired when it was time to begin the ceremony, but what could I do. Outside my house in front of my gate, there was a large tent, a bunch of benches and a fire pit. I made sure that it wasn’t close enough to burn my house or gate! Before the ceremony began, the Pastor (my resource family here) asked if it was ok for the church to use my living room and empty bedrooms as counseling rooms since during ceremonies, people experience ‘crisis’ attacks (His words, not mine). He said that since my house is near the event, it makes more sense for the people to go there for comfort instead of the local school. The school isn’t even that far (less than a minute walking really), but of course I am not going to deny him and tell him that the people can be counseled elsewhere during their ‘crisis’. He said that it will probably be a few people anyway, so I said no problem. So people start showing up at 6pm, but it doesn’t really start till 9pm and I see lots of students from the local secondary schools (I have two relatively near me) and people from the community. In addition, important people from the District arrive as well, such as the Mayor, the District Police Commander, Military Reps, Pastors from other sites, etc…The moment I saw the Mayor there, I knew it was going to be quite the ceremony. Before it begins, I make my way to introduce myself to the District Police Commander since I haven’t met him yet and my organization tells us to meet all the important people of our community for various reasons. His English is really good and I am able to explain to him who I am and what I am doing here in a mix of English and Kinyarwanda. I tell him I teach English to the staff and of course he says he wants to come learn from me, so I tell him sure, no problem (As of this day, he has never been to class, but really, he is the District Police Commander, so I would hope he is busy keeping this place safe anyway). We sit there and wait for the event to start and he starts asking me questions about America and then it turns into how much I know about Rwanda’s History and the 1994 War (You can obviously tell that I am avoiding using the “G” word because even here, I never say it since they tell us that we never know who we are talking to about it and what role they or their family played during that time). He tells me his story and frankly, I am quite surprised because people here don’t talk about it to random strangers and I just met the guy that night. He says some things that make me feel uncomfortable, but all I can do is sit there and listen as he talks about the crimes committed by Rwandans and the lack of help from the international community. The talk lasted a good 30 mins and he tears up at various times and as much as I wanted to ask questions, I knew it was better to just listen. As the ceremony is about to begin, he tells me that the country is headed in the right direction now and thanks me for being here to help out and then he goes sits in the VIP space of the event. The entire ceremony is in Kinyarwanda and there are songs performed by students and speeches given by various people. They light up the fire pit and the VIP go around it and say a few words about friends/families they lost during the war. About 30 people were around the burning log and all of them started out by saying “Twibuke…” which translates to “We remember…” Around 11pm, the Mayor and other VIP leave, so I figure we are coming to the end of the ceremony. I should mention that in front of the tent and facing the large crowd is a big white sheet tied to two logs. They turn on a projector and begin showing a film about the 1994 War called “100 Days”. It was filmed in Kibuye and the scenes in the movie are rather violent. We saw this film (well, I and other people walked out after 20 mins since we couldn’t see any more films regarding the war and it was the 3rd film in 2 days) during Pre-Service Training. I asked my friend if we were going to be watching the entire film and he said, “No, just a little bit”. I knew enough about this film to know it was a bad idea to show this to a crowd and not expect to trigger ‘crises’ from a lot of people. Well, we ended up watching the ENTIRE movie and it didn’t finish till about 12:30am. From 11pm to then, A LOT of people were crying, wailing, screaming and being carried away. It was pretty intense and I was dumbstruck about how anybody thought it would be a good idea to show a film about the 1994 War to people who lived through it or been affected by it and not expect to trigger these emotions. After the movie finished, all I wanted to do was go home and try to sleep after all this. Of course, since many people needed counseling, my living room and other bedrooms were full of people either sleeping after being sedated or people crying. It was intense to say the least. As I was waiting outside my house for the Hospital Staff to transfer the patients to the hospital, a Church elder came to me and told me that this is part of their culture and this is what happens during ceremonies. I wanted to tell him that OF COURSE this will happen if you show a graphic movie depicting events that more likely than not happened to their family members and friends, but I didn’t say a word. My house was finally empty around 2AM, but I wasn’t able to go to sleep till 4AM since I couldn’t sleep after all that. A few days later while working in the Mental Health Department, a lot of our new patients were people who were traumatized from watching the film. I think I need to admit that there are some things here that I don’t get and I probably won’t while I am here since I am a foreigner and didn’t experience what people here did.
The next day was the 2nd day of events planned for the memorial and it started at 9am. I didn’t wake up till 10am, so I made it outside around 10:30am and I found an even larger crowd than the night before. Another tent was set up and there was even more VIP, which included 2 Americans or Europeans somehow connected to the Church I think (they left before it was time for refreshments so I couldn’t talk to them). That ceremony started in the church at 9am and made its way out to the tents around 12pm. They asked to use my living room again as counseling and I of course said yeah. The event consisted mainly of speeches and prayers and it ended at 2pm with refreshments afterwards. Nobody needed counseling that morning so my living room was empty. What they didn’t tell me was that they were planning on using my lawn as the space for serving drinks, so once the ceremony was over, my yard was full of people and garbage thrown about everywhere. Not cool. Around 3pm, people came over to clean and I helped them out for a bit. After all that, I needed a break from my community and hopped on the next express bus to Kigali to see a friend and relax for a bit. It was quite an experience to say the least. Below are some pics from that morning.



From the President of Rwanda
Below is a link to an article the President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, wrote about my group and the Peace Corps being here. Check it out if you haven’t read it already. Pretty amazing.

http://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.media.press.view&news_id=1462

Simfite Imbwa/I do not have a dog
While I love dogs, I decided that I couldn’t keep Niko while I am here. I found him a better home and I gave him to one of my closest Rwandan friends here since he was looking to get one anyway. Niko is still in my village so I can go visit him whenever I want, but I realized that having him at my home will be tough for me to travel around the country and explore more of Africa while he stayed at home alone. Pic below (thanks to my umukuru/brother) sums it up.


Independence Day Camp Out at Amahoro Island
This past weekend was 4th of July and not only is it a holiday back in America, but it is also a holiday here. July 1st was Rwanda’s Independence Day and July 4th is Liberation Day. It marks the end of the 1994 War after 100 days. The two holidays just happen to be on the same week. So a few of my fellow PCVs and I decided to spend the holiday at Kibuye on Amahoro Island. It is a touristy town and many people go there. One of my friends lives in Kibuye and handled the camping reservations. I just had to show up! I was planning on spending two days in the Western Province since I haven’t been there yet, but my friend’s work schedule didn’t allow her to take time off on Friday and I ended up working on Friday all day anyway. So my fellow American friend here in my village and I left Saturday morning to take a bus to Gitarama and then to Kibuye. Since Saturday was a Holiday, the buses weren’t running on ‘schedule’ (not that there really is a schedule here like NYC MTA Buses). Instead of taking a bus from the village to the main road, we hopped on motorbikes and headed to the main road to catch a bus from there. Usually, you can see 5 busses pass within 10 mins, but this time, about 2 buses would pass! As we were waiting, my friend in Gitarama called to inform me that no buses were leaving to Kibuye from there until the afternoon. My friend and I decided to just head to Gitarama because we were both tired of going to Kigali and were looking forward to seeing a new place and Lake Kivu! We eventually got to Gitarama within 30 mins and met up with my friend. We waited a good 20 mins before a bus magically appeared heading to Kibuye! Sometimes, people just tell us things to agree with the statement we said. Case in point “There are no buses going to Kibuye until the afternoon!?” “Yego!” Regardless, we eventually got to Kibuye after about 1 hour and 45 mins. The road to Kibuye is pretty awful and I felt like throwing up a few times. I was even feeling sick throughout the rest of the day because of it I think. The roads curve every 10 seconds and it was pretty nauseating. Anyhoo, I am just glad it was pavement and not a dirt road because the bumps would have made it worse. We get to Kibuye and I see more PCVs and we head out to Amahoro Island. We were a group of 11 people and travelled by boat to the Island, which took about 30 minutes. It was just amazing to see a body of water! Once we got to the island is when we first began dealing with various nuisances. The boat operator wanted us to give him more money (a main theme here for Abazungu) than agreed upon earlier. We (and by we, I mean Rwandan friends that came along with us) talked with the guy and he finally agreed that we would only pay him 11,000RwF instead of 15,000RwF. I was pretty sure he wasn’t going to pick us up the next morning, but we managed to get back on the mainland the following day. The place itself was amazing though and it had a volleyball net, a swing, a hammock and a monkey! The poor guy was attached to a tree with a wire though. PETA would not have been too pleased to say the least. The only bad part about the place was the service and the food. Too expensive and it took way too long (about 2 hours for a freakin omelet!) to be ready. They even botched the orders and tried giving us goat instead of cow (which was more expensive) and then they gave us gross parts of the animal and not actual meat. We were planning on shopping for snacks at stores before we left to go to the island, but everything was closed. Aside from the crappy food/service, we relaxed by the lake, listened to music and enjoyed each other’s company. We were all ok until it started to get darker and the tents for our camping wasn’t set up and then the owner only wanted to give us 4 beds for 11 people to share along with a light cover. It was nice and hot during the day, but it got cold at night! I wore a beanie and sweater trying to stay warm. However, once all of us were at the camp site, the owner finally gave in and gave us more covers and extra mattresses. They had told us that the price included individual sleeping material and a bonfire (a lie!). Aside from that, we slept pretty comfortably huddled next to each other and definitely a one-time experience for me while I am here. I woke up early enough the next morning to see the sunrise (cliché, but deal with it) and it was really amazing being there and being here in Rwanda for that matter. I definitely enjoyed the weekend though and glad I experienced all that with friends so we can laugh about it later.




Running of the Children…err
I just heard a familiar sound while typing up this blog and I remembered back to a few weeks ago while I was leaving site early morning to go to a PC meeting in Kigali. Since I live in a rural village, the children LOVE seeing me walking around the village and go absolutely insane when they see my ‘muzungu skin. Whenever I walk to and from home, I can always hear the patter of children running towards me from behind until they get close enough and then go back to a walking pace. I usually look back and tell them hello and give them a handshake or a high-five. While I was heading to the bus stop to go to Kigali at 6:15am, I heard the familiar pitter patter of something behind me slowly increasing in pace. My first reaction was “It is way too early for this.” I just continued walking and wanted to get on my bus as quick as possible because I am not a morning person (especially this early). I kept hearing the sound getting closer and I thought it was odd that it wasn’t stopping like usual and then I heard adult voices saying something I didn’t understand. I thought for sure it wasn’t adults running behind me because they never do that but I figured I should turn around and just say Mwaramutse! / Good Morning! like I usually do to the adults of the village every morning. I finally turn around and instead of seeing someone running behind me, I see a freakin’ cow with massive horns coming up behind me! I realized then that the adults were trying to warn me, but of course, I had no clue. Luckily, I moved out of the way and avoided being trampled by the cow and stabbed by its horns. The cows here have massive horns like I have never seen before. It was definitely not children and now I look back whenever I hear something running towards me from behind.

Thanks again everyone for the comments, support, packages (Mom, Monica & Jean!), cards (Darbooze!), etc...I know more are on their way and I appreciate it! (Mom again, Brohams, Nicasia, ???) Next time, I will be going into more work related experiences since things seem to becoming more together here.

Also, I didn’t have power again from the generator hooked up to the local school for the last 2 weeks about, but tonight, it was finally fixed!! Of course once I open my front door to thank my friend Pascal, half the door swings further than it should have and it comes off the wall. Now it needs to be soldered in order to be fixed. This is my life here.

Niko

Here he is...puppy 'wanjye'! Inshuti wanjye gave him to me when she came to visit me this past weekend. However, I told her that I will keep him for a month before I decide to keep him for sure. She had him for more than 3 weeks before she brought him here. Right now, I am 50-50% about keeping him, but we'll see as the days go by. He LOVES to bite on my clothes and shoes...but he is really awesome. I gave him the name Niko because it's a word people here use when they want to grab someone's attention (like "Hey!").The only thing is what to do with him when I travel around. I would say 90% of Rwandans are scared of dogs...so yeah, that's the major issue I have right now. Anyhoo, I now 'have' running water in my home!! I say 'have' because apparently they told me it goes in and out a lot, but that's ok with me since it's better than no water at all. Later amigos.

It's over....I'm finally going home

Since the last entry, I have been kept busy working outside the hospital and in the Health Centers. Since my hospital only has 1 staff member who speaks English very well, the Director pretty much paired us up whenever I go to the Health Centers in my district (There are 11 and the farthest is about 3 hours away from the hospital driving in car due to the poor road conditions). She is a Nurse and works in the Mental Health Department. The initial job description says that I should visit each health center once a month, but it's not possible because of the limited availability of the hospital truck. Since I've been here, I have been to 5 Health Centers so far. Whenever I go to a Health Center, I meet the staff (Lab Techs, Nurses, Titulaire (Person in charge of the HC) and support staff. The Doctors make visits to the Health Centers whenever needed, otherwise the patient is transferred to the district hospital in an ambulance (We only have 1 ambulance, but 4 trucks..hmm). The Health Centers are smaller than the Hospital, but I swear, I think they are usually more crowded. Anyhoo, I am going to be talking about various Health Issues in each of these Health Centers while I am here. But for now, I am tagging along with the Mental Health Nurse (Jen) and she lets me sit in on her consultations with her patients. We went to one HC and 30 people were there waiting for her so they an be seen. We only saw 14 that day (we stayed there for 4 hours) and gave the rest appointments for another visit, which happens to be tomorrow. I understand bits and parts of the conversation and I am grateful they let me sit in on the discussion so I can continue hearing the language, while at the same time, learning about Mental Health. One female patient (late teens) was a bi-polar pt and once she saw me, she blushed and mouthed the words "I Love You". It was really cute. After she left, the Nurse told me that she gets extremely violent. Perfect. One of the other patients that sticks out was a mother who went to the HC regarding her small child. The child was 4 years old I was told, but he looked 1 year old. His neck was stiff, his head tilted back and his legs were bent and whenever he moved a little bit, he would cry in pain. I am sure there are some other serious issues aside from malnourishment, but Jen was saying that they are going to see if there is anything they can do for the child, but she didn't think so. She said that the mother let too much time pass before she finally came in to get help. The mother was in her late 40's, so her age may have also contributed to the child's problems she said. When I am not out in the Health Centers, I am in the District Hospital and go to various departments each week to see how they operate and learn more about their services. Last week, I was working in Family Planning. The Nurse in charge of Tuberculosis and its activities was actually working in FP because the other nurse was out sick (Staffing is a major issue here). I helped in the FP by doing the typical stuff (filing, writing medical records, filling out books, organizing...etc) and they also let me the take blood pressure of the women coming in for their Birth Control (Injections or Oral Meds) and their weight. Simple stuff. I did notice that the Nurse didn't use gloves when he gave the injections and I was asking him about it and told him that he is taking a risk being exposed to patients' blood (in my best attempt at speaking Kinyarwanda). He said that it wastes time (Ha! That's a laugh here) and the gloves weren't in the office at the moment and he didn't want to go get them. Not 5 minutes after this conversation, he injects a patient with a needle and blood drips from her arm onto his fingers. Luckily, he didn't have any cuts, but after the patient left, he left the office and came back with gloves. The other weekend, I saw a couple of my friends (fellow PCVs) and met with them in Kigali. My resource dad at my site is the hospital administrator and he invited me over to spend the weekend with him and his family at their home (less than an hour away from here). He lives in one of the better parts of Kigali and his house was the second house I've seen here in Kigali with porcelain tiles on the floor. They were still laying them down in parts of the house, but it was definitely a nice house. It even had an amazing view (then again, most places here do since hills are everywhere) of downtown Kigali (also known as Mu Mugi). We got their Friday night and I met his 4 yr old son (Bruno) and his wife. I felt bad going without bringing anything, but shopping in my village is very limited. I don't think a bag of powder soap would be appropriate. Saturday, I went into Mu Mugi to meet my friends since my resource dad had to go back to work and his wife was going to the doctor for an appt with their kid. I met up with 5 friends and I haven't seen them since our departure to site over a month ago. It was so good to see them and be able to talk at our normal speed and joke around. Unfortunately, two of my friends have left the Peace Corps since swearing-in. One went back home to USA, but the other one stayed here to work for an NGO till the end of the year (I'll see her around Rwanda). The friend who went home was my neighbor during site and she is a great person all around. Bummer, but I've only heard of one group of PCVs that made it to end of their 2 year service together. On a happier note, I got a package from a friend in MA 2 weeks ago (delivered to my site by the SSC) and I was seriously in an Oreo overdose after that week (Not complaining!). I was just told that I have another 2 packages in the office waiting for me and I can't wait to get them this week. It helps get through the days sometimes! However, the reason why the Safety and Security Coor. came to my site two weeks ago was due to housing! It also has to do with my dramatic title to this blog entry (hope it sucked you right in to read Moni!). Obviously, I am not home home (NYC) and my PC experience is only JUST beginning. I told my counterpart and the PC folks that I really didn't like my housing (very isolated from the community and didn't feel like a home to me). I spoke to the Pastor of the local church (my other resource family) and he told me that they have a house next to the church that they use as a guesthouse when they have visitors from America or Europe. I told him I wouldn't mind living there and going back to sleep a few nights in my first housing place when the visitors come. The way I see it, I'd rather spend my 700+ days here living within the community and whatever couple of days away from the community. So the church elders agreed to let me live in their guesthouse and I am currently spending my 2nd night here! It has a night guard (awesome!), 4 bedrooms (furnished with 5 twin sized beds) and a toilet! Plus a nice front yard with a great view and garden (also a cown pen!). I posted up some pics of my new home on Facebook, so if you are on there, you can check it out. So what else does this new house have? Well, since my district doesn't have running water or electricity (must be the 100th time I said that), my house doesn't have running water (need to buy buckets to fill up with water from the Hospital/church or rainwater or ???) but it is connected to the Secondary Schools generator, so I have power in my home from 6pm to 11pm! I think there is power during the day, but I am not sure yet since I am at work during the morning. Anyhoo, I have missed lit up rooms at night and thought I would be ok without electricity, but I am seeing that I need it (no running water is ok so far...). Now that I am here, I need to buy many many things. The hospital still lets me eat with them for free, so that is awesome. But, I am hoping I am not relying on them too much and I am able to feed myself (Who doesn't love grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch and dinner?!) I know I will be spending more money now that I need to buy food and supplies, but it's totally worth it I think. I joined the PC for the cultural experience as much as the work experience. Just yesterday, I borrowed a Jerry can and filled it with water to take back to my home (a good 10 min walk). Many people in the community were smiling and laughing watching me struggle to carry this heavy ass jerry can to my home. People offered to help, but I wanted to be able to do it myself for once. Since I've been here, everything has been pretty much given to me and now I have to do it on my own. It being the 2nd day spent at my home, I am meeting 'new' people in the community and today I hung out with 30 teens from the secondary school after my English Class for the Hospital Staff (I'll talk about that more next time) and tried to convince them I am Rwandan and only speak Kinyarwanda (surprisingly, it didn't fool them though). Of course, they wanted me to teach them English and I told them that I hope I get to teach English or another subject at their school soon. Secondary students range from 14-21. I am finally feeling like I am a part of the community (small steps, but it's something) and I hope I can learn more about it and work with them in the future. Anyhoo, here are a few pics of my home so you guys can check it out. Ohhh, I almost forgot. I am getting a puppy next weekend (thanks to Madison!) and another American moved into the same village. She will be around for 2 months before she heads back to USA. Thanks again family and friends for the comments, letters and packages!

Just two hours...

Where to begin? Since it’s been a while since my last real entry, I’ll just start with the beginning of this month. May 1st was a holiday here and back in the states we know it as Labor Day, but the Rwandans call it International Work Day. Since it fell on a Friday, it was a three day weekend and I was glad to relax and enjoy the long weekend. I asked around to find out if my village does anything special for the holiday and one of my friends here said that there is a parade at 10AM. I went to the local soccer field (about 20 mins walking) with my counterpart at 10:15AM and see that nobody is really there yet and he suggests we wait. I expected to see people marching to the field and listening to some presentation, but I notice many staff members from the hospital wearing soccer uniforms arriving. I realized that there was no parade, as we know it, but basically a soccer match between the hospital I work in and the local school. It didn’t start till 11:30AM and I was just fortunate enough to be sitting on a chair and waiting. Local kids are intrigued of seeing me and all huddle around me saying random things and I’m not even sure what they are saying (My Kinyarwanda is probably at the level of a 5 year old). So most of the staff members are in their late 20’s and 30’s, so when I find out who they are playing against, I think this possibly can’t be fair since the other team is full of high school kids and they are going to lose for sure. Well, I was wrong. The Hospital team ended up losing 1 to 0 and it was an exciting game. They asked if I came to play, but I told them that I had no idea there was even a soccer game happening since they told me it was a parade. I went to the event (knowing many people from the village would attend) dressed in slacks, buttoned shirt and work shoes. I was wrongly informed about the special event and I am realizing that whenever I ask a question about an event or at what time something starts, I get nods of yes and people are just nodding not being sure of what I asked and not asking for clarification. After the game, I notice members of the Cooperative of PLWHA and ask (in Kinyarwanda) where they are going and if I can tag along, since I had nothing else to do and I believed that this was the only event happening today. Again, I was wrong…or at least, not given all the details. The Coop. of PLWHA tells me that they are going to the local school for a meeting with the Mayor of my District, Police Representatives, Military Reps, Directors of the Local Schools (Private and Public) and of course I want to go to see what is being discussed. We make it to the school and I see one of the Rehab. Therapists along the way and she speaks some English and says she can help translate some of the meeting. I ask how long it is because I would like to go bike around and wash some clothes. She tells me it’ll be 2 hours at the most and I figure it will finish by 3pm so that’s ok. I will still have the afternoon to do what I want to do before it gets dark (usually around 615PM). The woman I was sitting with didn’t really translate a lot of the meeting and the issues that I was told about included; teachers being paid to little; the hospital not having enough ambulances (they only have 1) to meet the demands of the community and not having places for children to study at night. After people discuss their issues, the Mayor of the District provides responses to each one (not sure how this really works since he is just hearing about these issues that same day) and I will say he is quite the talker. Not that I knew what he was saying, but the rate at which he spoke was definitely something else. I honestly think he said 10-15 words per minute and looked into the crowd most of the time just staring. It was painful for me and the benches we were sitting on were definitely not the best. About an hour and half into it, they provided lunch and beverages to us for free and I thought that was really great and figured the meeting was coming to an end. Let’s just say that I need to stop assuming things here. The meeting lasted until 5:30PM and the day (which started at 10AM) did not really feel like a day off. What started out as just going to see a parade finished with much more than I expected. It would have been fine, but not knowing what is being said for 80% of the time gets annoying. It does motivate me to study, but it’s still not the same and I pick out some words in a sentence. The next day, Sunday, I decide to go to Church to speak to the Pastor (my Resource Family here at site) and attend service as well. I get there at 9:30AM, which is when they told me service starts, and the church is pretty big. Service hadn’t started yet and I am brought to the front of the church to sit with a church member who will translate the service for me. I ask if the Pastor is here and it turns out he is in Burundi and won’t be back till the next week. I have never been to a Presbyterian Church service and the service has lots of singing, dancing, sermons and it’s very lively. At the beginning of the service, the other Pastor asks all guests to stand and introduce themselves. Of course since I am the only Muzungu there, I am brought to the front of the stage (I am sitting in the back of the stage facing the entire congregation – at least 500 people) and a mic is given to me to introduce myself. I pretty much impress them when I speak a few sentences introducing myself (the ones they taught us during training! Haha) and what I will be doing here. They clap and definitely made me feel welcomed. I am not religious at all, but figured I should go so people will know who I am and won’t continue being puzzled seeing me walk around the village wondering why I am here. Catholic service is an hour long, but I learned Presbyterian service is at least 4 hours long. During the service, they had a very long list of names of people who have helped the church in some manner and they are each called individually to the front of the stage. This one part of the service lasted 30 mins and everyone called comes up and everyone else claps for them. I asked the translator if this happens every week and she says No. (Side Note: I went to Church again today and lo and behold…this part happened again and lasted 30 mins as well.) Towards the end of the service, they dance and stomp while collecting money in a basket and so much dust is being kicked up and my allergies are kickin’ in (I’m allergic to dust) big time. During collection, the men put money in first, then the women, then the boys and finally the girls. Since I am in front of the church, I notice people not really putting money into the basket, just tapping it. I begin to wonder if I should go up and give money as well, but I decide it’s best not to seem like the American who has lots of money and donating bills into the basket (since that’s all I had). Not a day goes by here where I am not asked by someone to give them money. Annoying, but part of the deal. For teens, I mess with them and pretend I don’t know what they are saying and tell them “Yego, ndashaka amafaranga”/”Yes, I want money!” and put my hand out as if I want money. They look at me confused, but I’ve only done it a few times. It makes them laugh and it makes me laugh. No one gets hurt and I don’t continue saying No, sorry / Oya, Ihangane every time. Also this week, my Assoc. Peace Corps Director (Health) came to my site this past Thursday to speak with my Counter-Part, a Co-Worker named Claudia who works with CHAMPS and who I’ve been working with and also myself to discuss a job description. We decide that I’ll be working with various departments in the hospital (VCT, PMTCT, ARV, TB, Malaria, Family Planning) and also going to the 11 Health Centers at least 1 month and seeing how I can help there (not really sure how yet since I haven’t been there and the guy I was suppose to go with got fired for missing too many work days, but I assume it’s creating presentations about various topics and presenting to the people who come to the health centers). I’ll also being working on M&E and going to trainings that CHAMPS does with Community Health Workers. I’ll also be teaching ESL to the staff 3 days a week from about 4PM to 5:30PM. I come out of the meeting feeling better since I now have some direction and people understand what I’ll be doing here. I made a Work Plan for this month and I spoke to the Supervisors of each department I will be working with and made a schedule of when I’ll be working in their department. It sounds a bit much right now, but I am looking forward to knowing exactly what kind of service is provided. Aside from that, I also made contact with Representatives from Manna Energy and Family Health International. I will be meeting with the Rep. for Manna Energy this Monday and they are working on water sanitation and providing water treatment plants using eco-friendly means (http://www.mannaenergy.org/projects.html). A RPCV (that served in Ecuador) is part of the company and I asked him how I can help here in my District so I will soon find out this coming week. One of the things I am still getting accustomed to is the fact that so many professional Rwandans I’ve met are eager to have me over there house and how friendly people here are. Just this past week, I’ve received invitations to stay at various people’s homes in Kigali, such as from a Doctor from Kigali Health Institute (he has American citizenship but was born in Uganda), who is amazed that I am going to be living here for 2 years and even more surprised that I come from a family of immigrants, but yet I am here. He said it must be hard for my folks to accept that I am here considering that they went to the US for better opportunities for their children and yet, I decided to come live in Africa for a few years. So with that, now I’ll finish up this blog entry with these final words: Happy Mother’s Day Mom!!..and also to the rest of the Mothers reading this!

Mfite inshuti n'Oreos!

Just received 2 packages from family and a friend from home. I have a included a pic because everything was perfect and today it was a good day! I started typing a blog entry about work here, but I'll finish it and post it up this weekend. Thanks to Darbooze (for the Xth time!) and Mama Reyes. The other pics includes an awesome view of a Volcano from the hospital I work in, the home I currently live in with the Doctors (Abaganga) and lastly a new friend named Gabriel. You can't see in the pic, but his foot was run over by a car and he walks around with a stick as a crutch. Really awesome kid and he is usually in my office every day just hanging out and drawing on paper. Anyhoo, I'll post up my next blog entry this weekend. Whenever I get something, I share with the locals here and they are amazed by how good the stuff is. All these goodies will definitely last me a while...the Oreos, prob a week. Thanks amigos for everything!

Pineapples and Avocados...yum

First things first, I am officially a Peace Corps Volunteer…however, I think most of you following along knew that because I would have called people if I were home. There is an article about our swearing in ceremony on the Peace Corps website and it includes a picture of us…Click on it to see me...I’m in the back on the right. Two Peace Corps Trainees went home right before swearing-in due to personal reasons. They are a married couple around my age. I'm glad I met them and I know we'll keep in contact. So anyhow, I live in Kamonyi District and it’s about an hour away from the capital. I wasn’t the closest volunteer near the capital up until the 2nd day at site because the closest volunteer had her site switched for several reasons…and it’s a bummer for me because she was close enough to me that I could have ridden my bike to her place and get there within 1 hour probably. We had planned on going all over this district, but I guess this just shows there should be no expectations while here and things can always change. So moving on to a little bit of info about my district; It has no electricity (completely dark after 625pm) and there is no running water in homes here. Water is a major issue here and luckily I met a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (who happened to serve in Ecuador…what are the odds) at the swearing in ceremony and he works in Rwanda now focusing on water sanitation. He told me that he is going to start working in my district so that’s definitely a contact I hope to use while here. Aside from that, my site is on a dirt road from the main road and the road isn’t that great. I found a place that sells pineapples and various other fruits, so that is amazing because I thought I would need to travel far for these things….but I do need to travel to a big town if I want chocolate or sweets of any sort…ugh, but oh well, better I am not near it. The view from here is amazing and I could even see a Volcano located near Ruhengeri. We each have a counterpart who will guide us at out site as we arrive, but since mine is the Director of a Hospital; he is extremely busy and travels a lot…meaning I was pretty much left on my own this first week and not really having an idea what I should be doing. In addition to the counterpart, we have a Supervisor and he works in Kigali, so that’s also kind of tough considering he isn’t here to ask questions. I called him up the 2nd day here to ask him where should I go to meet the people I will be working with (I found out at Training that I was placed here to work with a Cooperative of People Living with HIV/AIDS, or PLWHA for short, that does home based care). I was waiting to find the representative of this group that my Supervisor said I should look for and I met the President (not the rep I was waiting for) but she seemed confused as to why I was here when I first met her the 2nd day here and asked point blank what I can do for them. According to her, they need better material to make Agaseke (weaved traditional baskets) and members of the Coop needed to be trained on how to make it…kind of tough to help out in that area considering I don’t even know how to make it, but at this point I am just nodding my head, grunting, and taking down notes. They also need materials to give to patients when they do their home care rounds because they just go around empty handed and only words. So during this 1 hour meeting I have someone helping me translate because the President only speaks Kinyarwanda and I definitely don’t have the level to explain my interests and abilities aside from the basic sentences of what Ill be teaching as a health volunteer. After that meeting I become a bit frustrated because of various things, such as language issues, still not meeting the rep., not having a counterpart or supervisor to help guide me along this first week and then finding out my closest volunteer moved away. Later in the day, I talk with one of the lab techs and he takes me around to show me where I can get fruit from nearby because I was given the Impression I needed to travel to the next town over…but not so, it’s just down the road from the hospital entrance. I buy a pineapple and 2 avocados (I didn’t like Avocados till I came here) and my day goes from “What the…” to “I can definitely make it here”. This past Friday, the Coop of PLWHA had their monthly meeting and I attended to introduce myself and let them know I will be working with them for the next 2 years. The meeting must have had over 50 people present and I found out that it consists of 4 Associations and its membership is over 300 people. They meet once a month and the group is 90% women and 10% men. They spoke about their issues; having meetings but then not knowing what to do, members of the Coop owe other members money for providing Agaseke and selling them but not giving payments, increase cost of membership to join (still confused about this because the person who translated said people have to pay 500RwF (less than a 1USD) for lifetime membership but the overall membership costs that they pay to the govt doesn’t add up), people not attending the meetings, trying to determine when they should meet 1x a week to make Agaseke here and really that’s just a few things I picked up from the not so great translation I got from one of the members…but this meeting lasted over 3 hours without a break. There were 2 new members to the group and they also introduced themselves at the beginning and the person who translated said one of them was not right in the head…but I wasn’t sure what that meant considering she looked fine and even had a baby tied to her back…until I saw her peeing in her seat (she’s in the 1st row in front and I am facing everyone…basically a Muzungu show for them) while the meeting was still going on. I thought it was her baby, but her baby was sitting on her lap and the urine ran behind her leg and did not stain the front of her dress if it were to come from her baby…and to top it off, she rubs the urine off her leg with her hand and just sits there. Even though the meeting was long, plenty of other members easily got up and walked to the latrine that was 20 feet away…even members with a baby on their back. After that, I sort of understood what the translator meant. Aside from that, I was so glad I met the group because I knew there was work to be done. The President of the group (after that 1st odd meeting, she warmed up to me) spoke for about an hour and basically read out info about HIV/AIDS and some opportunistic infections, but the look on their faces said they already knew this info and they even laughed at her advice of eating 5 meals a day considering they can barely eat 2 proper meals a day according to the translator. They argued back and forth about what day of the week to come in to work on Agaseke and some wanted Friday, but for others they couldn’t because of religious reasons, and some wanted other days but that was also problematic…and it continued for a good 10 mins. At that point, I ask the guy translating, “Why must they all be here on 1 day? Is there a specific reason why and maybe I just do not understand? If they are unable to attend one day then they should be able to come another scheduled day.” He said he didn’t know either why it must only be one day. He then tells the President and group that I suggested that they choose 2 separate days because it will be difficult to choose 1 day and having all 300¬ members agree to come that one day. The group thinks it’s a good suggestion and decides to choose 2 days and see how it works and if people attend then. After the meeting, members of the Coop thank me for being here and welcoming me to their association. It felt good, I am not going to lie. In addition to working with the Coop, I will be working with a school (still not sure which one considering there are 3 near me- 2 govt owned and 1 by the Church) teaching English, starting Health Clubs and possibly Science clubs. I’ll also be working with the hospital helping supervise 12 Health Centres and the activities they are doing pertaining to the prevention of HIV/AIDS; Malaria, Tuberculosis, Family Planning, Hygiene and sanitation in general. I still haven’t seen the 12 Health Centres because my counterpart is still away and the guy who I will be going with to the Health Centres has been sick this week. All in all, it has been an interesting week and there are lots of things I can be involved with while here. It was a rough few days, but things should be getting better. The only thing that continues to be annoying is that the main generator for the hospital is still out and since it was providing electricity to my room, I sit in the dark with a small candle. They aren’t sure when its going to be replaced…they said a few days, but it may actually be a few weeks. I’m realizing the key to surviving these next 2 years is Patience….I’ve waited hours to meet people at a time they said they were going to arrive, I’ve waited hours for food to come and I’ll be waiting for many more things I’m sure…just part of the experience…but also not letting the word Muzungu and constant staring bother me so much. It’s really annoying, but until I say Mwiriwe or Muraho (Hello), they smile and wave back. Before I forget, even though my site has no internet, I couldn’t imagine not having it and travelling over an hour to get to it, so I bought the Internet Modem. Since I only have a room to really furnish and not 4 or 5 rooms like other volunteers, I was able to have enough money to buy it. It’s not cheap, but it’s better than nothing. I can use it for Skype (Most likely catch me on weekends if you are in the States) and getting resources off the internet to help me along on my projects. Plus, I’ll be able to upload blogs and pics more frequently. It’s a win-win situation for everyone. I miss everyone back home and I really wish I was able to go with my entire family to Ecuador next week, but I’ll just have to wait for the wedding next year. Thanks again everyone for the comments.