End of Week 3 & 4

The past few weeks have included trips/events during the weekend, but this weekend we are just bumming around the convent. Next week we are going to the Nyungwe Park (I am probably spelling that wrong) and that should be pretty awesome. Peace Corps has been paying for the entrance fees to the past events, but this one is going to come out of our pockets. I don’t really mind since I think it will definitely be worth it (probably cost us around $100 each). This Park doesn’t have the Gorillas (they’re at the Volcano Park located north of Kigali) so I’ll have to wait longer to see them. It’s pretty expensive to go to that park and I believe it currently costs about $500 for Foreigners and $250 for residents (which I will be once they give us our Work Visas). However, the Host Country Nationals (HCNs) are telling us that the prices will soon double, so I need to go once I have some free time after I am done with Training. Even though it’s pricey, I’ll probably go 2 or 3 times while I am here. It’s not like I’ll see Silverback Gorillas running around NYC, so might as well enjoy where I am now.
So I haven’t really mentioned my living conditions here, aside from the food, so I’ll write a bit about it. We have about 11 teachers (Language Training Facilitators) and they live in the convent with us. Some of them have families and children, but yet they live here with us so we can continue to practice our language with them even after classes. Our classes are held in small little huts (I took some pictures, but loading them is a pain and costs money with the waiting time) and each hut has a name that supposedly represents a region where we will be placed at the end of training, but who knows at this point. I do know that usually a new Peace Corps group enters a country twice a year, but since Rwanda is still a new program, the next group of volunteers will not be coming until January 2010 and they will primarily be Education Volunteers (The group I am in is primarily Health Volunteers). I just strayed away from living conditions, so I’ll get back to that. The convent has staff that does our laundry weekly, but after I got my laundry back the 2nd week, my polo shirt was missing! Arg! I barely have enough clothes as it is. So I pretty much wash my own clothes now.
So a week has passed by since I finished this blog entry…We went to the Park this past Sunday and we saw Colobus Monkeys (no Chimpanzees this time). The trek into the forest just to get to see them took an hour and a half about and it was a steep trek! I fell a couple times and scratched up my left hand, but I’ll live. It was an amazing time and the Park has various trails they offer (some last 7 hours!). I hope to go on most of them with friends/family before I leave here. I took some pics and I’ll try to post them up soon. From the Park, we were able to see Lake Kivu and the DRC (Congo!)…it looked amazing. Apparently there are methane bubbles in Lake Kivu, so people have advised us not to swim in it, while others say that it’s not deadly like people believe. Some years ago, a tiny umudugudu (village) near Lake Kivu was wiped out by a large methane bubble gas that exploded overnight and killed some 70 people. I’ll probably still swim in it anyway since we are told to just avoid the bubbles and we’ll be ok. So next week I find out where I will be living for the next 2 years. We will meet our counterparts and leave our comfy convent and stay at our potential home for a week. Our counterpart will show us around the community, we will learn more about the Cooperative we have been paired with to work for and many other things. I requested to live in a rural setting, but I told them I was open to living in a city as long as they matched me to a job that best fit my experience and skills….also, I wanted a bike! Hahaha. That was really the only thing I requested, but nothing is guaranteed when it comes to placement. They said that some of us might have to share the same house and stay in separate rooms, but still work separately….housing seems to be an issue. I wouldn’t mind it, but I would prefer to live alone (and have a toilet, hot water, free internet, etc…haha, yeah right) I didn’t have any expectations coming into this, and I still don’t. I am open to anything and ready to experience everything I can. Language training seems to be going alright for me. As of now, I am at mid intermediate and I am doing very well according to the Training Director. I need to improve one more level to reach high intermediate by the time I leave training in April. I will be just fine with respect to language I think. I am just excited to finally be leaving the site for a week and going to my potential site and meeting my abaturanyi (neighbors). I’ll try to post a blog weekly and pics whenever possible. I just managed to post a pic and it took me 15 mins! Patience is definitely something everyone needs here. Thanks again for all your comments!

Also, Feliz Cumpleanos Ramiraso! Happy 60th Birthday!