Frustration, Success, & Progress

So I can officially say these past seven days have constituted the LONGEST WEEK EVER. Between the lingering jet lag, lack of coffee, and what seemed to be endless hours of training (50 collective hours including our lunch breaks), I am finally settling in and can’t believe I have only been in country for 10 days. To date we have received three vaccinations with the promise of more to come every week, and spent several hours talking with our medical team about water/food safety, common diseases, and acute diarrhea/dehydration. Sounds fun right? 

In addition to these delightful topics we have also spent some time learning about the structure of the Rwandan Education System and the site availability for our future placements. So what this means is there are potential sites available in the following regions: 11 in the Northern Province, 13 in the Eastern Province, 13 in the Southern Province, 8 in the Western Province, and 2 in the central area around Kigali. Out of these sites there are 39 possibilities for where the 10 volunteers doing the primary education teacher training pilot program (we don’t know who they will be yet) could be placed. Fingers crossed, I will be selected to participate in the pilot program and will serve as a teacher assistant in a primary school classroom. If selected, I would also be in charge of leading English language (and possibly methodology, not sure) classes for the teachers at my school. Before arriving in Rwanda I had my heart set on a Northern Province placement, but now I don’t have much of a preference and know I will be happy wherever I get placed. On October 2 (just under 2 weeks away!!!) we will each be given our potential site placements and find out whether we are going to be in the pilot program or working with secondary school English classes. 

Fun Foods & Host Family Life

I have been very lucky to be placed with the family that I am currently living with, they are extremely kind and patient with me as a stumble through sentences in Kinyarwanda and attempt to learn the “proper way” of doing chores. So far I have befriended the baby in the family, my parents, and Clarise who is one of the abakozi (Kinyarwanda for house workers; singular form is umukozi) in my house. My two challenges for this week are to get my little sister and Emmanuel (another umukozi) to speak to me. Frenzy, my little sister, speaks English so she is just being extremely shy. Emmanuel on the other hand speaks absolutely no English so I need to work extra hard on my Kinyarwanda language skills this week so I can attempt a basic conversation with him. Now for the house workers, it is important to note that they are very common in Rwanda and can either be treated very well or terribly, it depends on the family. My family is very kind to our abakozi and provide them with food, housing, and clothes/shoes in addition to their pay. Both Clarise (12-15 years) and Emmanuel (about 20 years) are young and likely minimally educated, so my family plans to send Clarise to technical training school as the baby gets older and to help Emmanuel with language classes. I am very happy to be living with a family who treats these people with much kindness and appreciation.

FOOD… So moral of the story, my family drinks Rwandan milk tea (icyiye) twice a day which is killing my stomach. If anyone wants to send me some lactaid so I can get through the next few months I would be greatly appreciative J We eat some combination of plantains (igitoki), rice (umuceri), potatoes (ibirayi), and beans (ibishyimbo) every day. We have also had cassava a few times, sambaza (little dried fish from Lake Kivu), and imikeke (a fish that comes from Lake Tanganyika in Burundi). Last night we had sambaza and I cannot say I am feeling 100% today, so I am politely declining that food from now on. 

And then there was language class…

So language class is full of frustration, success, and progress. It is great when you start out the four hour class completely oblivious and at the end of it you have mastered how to say a few new phrases, but everything in between those two points is extremely frustrating. My most triumphant moment thus far has been hearing my Mama say “Emmanuel, nda shaka amazi koga” which loosely translates to “Emmanuel, I need water to bathe” and understanding what she said. Other than that, I am still an umwana (baby) and speak Kinyarwanda like a 2 year old… Buhoro, buhoro (slowly by slowly)

On to week 2 of training!

A Whole New Chapter

Staging

After a 45 minute plane ride in the SMALLEST commuter jet ever, I finally made it to Philadelphia to visit Laura for a night before my Staging for Peace Corps began. It was great to see this lovely lady and her family before leaving for Rwanda! She brought me to Valley Forge Park where Washington had fought in the Revolutionary War; it was really cool to see this little piece of American history before transitioning to a new country and culture with its own unique background. The following day, Laura dropped me off at the hotel and I began my Staging!

Although our Staging event was only a day, it was a great opportunity to meet the Rwanda Educ. 7 group and to learn some basic information on the Peace Corps and its program in Rwanda. I met some really great people and got to know a few of them over our last dinner (The Last Supper) in the United States for quite some time. After a good meal of pizza and lemonade it was time to lay awake in bed and get excited about our flights!

Travel to Kigali

So after three hours in a bus travelling to JFK, we arrived at the airport and found out we couldn’t check in for our flights for an additional hour. After MORE waiting, we finally got through and got on our plane… just to find out that they hadn’t fueled the plane yet and we would continue to wait in a cramped plane for an additional hour and a half before take-off. Brussels involved more waiting and late take-offs, but after the 8 hour flight we FINALLY made it to Rwanda around 7pm local time. You’d think the chaos would end there, but no… Imagine trying to organize 47 jet-lagged, sleep deprived Americans (each with at leastttttt 2 bags) and load them onto buses in the dark. Needless to say, I don’t think I have ever slept better once we got to the hotel and I climbed into bed. 

PST and Arrival in Rwamagana

The first few days of Pre-Service Training (PST) have been filled with paperwork, discussions on health and safety, and a bit of language training to get us started with our host families all while we are fighting the seemingly endless jet lag. On Sunday, we loaded up our things, decided what was to be stored and what we would bring with us, and we got matched up with our host families! My host dad came to pick me up while Momma Violette stayed home with the children. My new Rwandan parents are awesome and my host siblings are ages 5 and 1 ½! We had dinner together and I went to bed nice and early. Today, I spent 3 ½ hours at the Zion Temple for Born Again Christians for a church service with my host family.. I felt bad because I am so tired and couldn’t help but start nodding off, but the service involved lots of singing and dancing (much more fun than any Catholic service I’ve been to).

Well, that’s all I’ve got for now. Overall I am healthy, happy, and super excited for the next few weeks of getting to know my host family and learning Kinyarwanda in PST!

Time Flies

Over the past few months there has been a lot of running around, seeing people, packing (and repacking), and finally saying my temporary goodbyes. I had an awesome going away party with my family and friends on Saturday, and now I am leaving for my Staging event in Philadelphia. Saying goodbye is bitter sweet, but it is time for the next chapter in my life to start and I know I'll have all of these amazing people to greet me when I get back!