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!