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)
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