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!