Unexpected…surprises?

This weekend made me realize how much my village has become “home.”  What was meant to be just a weekend stay turned into a much longer than anticipated/wanted stay in Kigali.

I came into the city on Friday for the second official Project Muzabimenya meeting.  It was good and productive.  Me, Lucy, Mason and Scott compiled and reviewed all of the surveys people had filled out (a grand total of maybe 15…out of lots given out.  Better than zero!) and were able to get a better idea of what the Rwandan Chem/Bio teachers think are problems with preparing for the national exams.  And it seemed like all the surveys actually were telling the truth, no lies to tell us what they think we want to hear!  After a grueling 2 hour meeting, we were able to crunch out a rough format for the resource with all of it’s “chapters” and components.  Then, we were brain-dead.  We meant to sit down and work some more, but dang were we wiped out.  So instead we’re going to conference call sometime in the next couple weeks to finish up this month’s meeting.

But anyways, now for the unexpected surprise.  Now, for some of you this is going to be too much information.  But, I’m in Peace Corps which means a couple things: 1) Any filter I had before is gone and 2) Talking about gross medical stuff doesn’t even phase me in the slightest…not that it really did before.

Basically since Friday afternoon I had been having the amazing, awesome (can you feel the sarcasm??) sulfer (aka rotten eggs) burps.  Normally this tells me I’ve eaten something not so good and they go away after a day after everything has digested.  In worse cases, it means I’ve given myself (not gotten, because if I wasn’t so darn stubborn I could probably prevent it) food poisoning and that’s just a pleasure within itself.  So I’m thinking, great, sulfur burps, take the food easy today and tomorrow and you’ll be fine for Sunday.  Wrong.  Come Sunday it’s all just gotten a little bit worse.  Now, food just seems revolting, I want to stick my finger down my throat and puke…oh wait, I did that, still, it didn’t work and I feel like my abs are doing a workout all on their own.  Time to call the doctors.  Call the doctors.  “Hmm, sounds like you ate something bad” “Yeah, this I know, can you give me something to help the cramping and urge to vom?” thus, I get a relaxant for the muscle cramping and some anti-nausea.  Docs orders, stay Sunday night, hopefully things get better, you go home Monday.  Wrong again.  Sleep all day Sunday, Sunday night was a whole new adventure. 1) I did not know it was possible to have so much fluid in my body 2) I wasn’t even drinking anything because I couldn’t 3) this is a recipe for disaster.  Yup, destruction.  Starting roughly at 8pm, every 30min-1hr I was making the trip to the bathroom to somehow vacate more fluid from my body.  How? I’m not quite sure, at this point I was only able to take like 2 sips of rehydration salts (they’re gross) at a time so that couldn’t have been it.  Dehydrated? I think most definitely yes.  Monday morning comes, doc says “Come on upstairs” I say, “I’ll try”  5 minutes later (it’s literally just up the stairs..like 30 seconds) I’m up there about to pass out on the couch.  “I’m going to take your blood pressure” “mmmk, it’s going to be really low” …blood pressure taken “Yeah, you’re getting an IV you’re really dehydrated.”  More information I already know.  Multiple apologies from doc-man about putting in an IV, dude, you’re talking to a bio major/emt slash I’ve been stuck so many times I just don’t care, just do it.  He does it.  It feels soooooooo good.  2 hours later, problem with IV and now my arm is a nice big edema (think pillsbury doughboy style) full of saline.  Don’t know how, don’t know why, it’s not life threatening so I’m really not to bothered by it but it would be nice if the doc-man could do the IV right the first time. Oh well, at least they’ve got IVs here, right?  IV comes out, rehydration salts taken orally now  Hang out in the infirmary all day.  And by hang out, I mean sleep.  Literally, all day.  Again.  at about 4:30pm (office closes at 5) I go back down to the Case (PCV hostel) all drugged with Cipro and rehydration salts and the enlightening advice “try to eat something.”  Will do…I haven’t eaten for 48 hrs, I’m slightly hungry.  Good news! I eat some soup.  Don’t feel like vomiting and feel more like a person.  Go to bed.  Sleep through the night…mostly.  Only 2-3 interruptions from my body.  Woke up this morning feeling a lot better.  Not 100%, probably more like 70% but when given the option to go back to site or stay another night I responded with “I just want to go home.”  And by home, I mean my village.

Now here’s where some of my thoughts can possibly become meaningful.  Usually when I leave site, my umukozi watches Milo.  Granted, Donatira’s more than just an umukozi, she’s like my mom/sister/best friend basically she makes sure I don’t get myself into too much trouble.  So she calls me on Sunday, I pick up the phone and go “Alo?” and her response is not “Alo” in return but instead, “Ufite ikibazo, urarwaye.” (You have a problem, you are sick).  Yup, she’s awesome.  She tells me to be strong and patient and don’t worry, Milo’s find she’ll cook him some sweet potato.  Okay, cool.  At this point I still think I’m coming home on Monday.  She’s been calling every day to see how I’m doing, am I able to eat?  Don’t worry Milo’s fine, etc etc.  Which is awesome, because now I know when those unexpected surprises come up, it’ll all be okay.  This was further confirmed by earlier happenings in the weekend, on Friday, when I got a call from her saying something along the lines of, “Your door won’t lock because of the rain, when are you coming back?  Call Twaza, no wait, I’ll go down and talk to him.. Okay no more problem now” (This is the condensation and translation of about 5 phone calls).  It makes you feel good to know that in a completely strange and unknown place (yup, still unknown after 1 year) you can feel safe and secure.  It gives you those warm fuzzies.

When you start your training with Peace Corps, they drill into you “integration, integration, integration” and it’s great to finally experience that you have, somehow, become part of your community.  Because it’s hard.  And when I say hard, I mean HARD.  You don’t speak the language, you don’t look like the residents, your mannerisms are different, everything you do is a spectacle.  But it’s something you need to expect when you get yourself dropped into a totally and completely different culture.  After tears, frustration and days where you just lock yourself inside the house, you learn to appreciate the little things that show you are “somehow Rwandan.”  For example:
-Running and not having children run after you but instead saying “good morning” and going about their morning chores
-Having a pet, but showing everyone how COOL it is and them reacting like “BAHHHHH she has a cat.  Okay, that’s pretty cool, can I get one?”
-And my personal favorite happened this weekend.  My host sister now lives in Kigali and has been bugging me to come visit her.  And I planned on it this weekend.  But then I got sick.  And so I call her to tell her, sorry, I had meetings and now I’m sick and I get the overdramatic response, literally, word for word “WHY DO YOU REFUSE TO VISIT ME?!?!?!?!?!?!?!” bahahahah.  Now, for the few people that know Da’ada, this is totally her character, but still totally hilarious.  And makes me feel like a failure but still laugh hysterically.  I will visit her, but darn that was entertaining.

So there you have, a somewhat meaningful post that has nothing to do with Milo.  Also, in other news, in less than 1 month I will have been in Rwanda for 1 whole year.  Let that sink in.  Well, friends, that means I’m almost halfway through.  See ya’ll soon…ish.

Milo-3, Mice-0

I feel like all I ever update now are when Milo does something entertaining.  But, I feel like that’s legit because he is pretty entertaining and does funny things.  Last weekend he went up to the gorilla vet in Musanze and received all his vaccinations and got…neutered!!  Yay! To him, it was all a bad dream.  To me, I am very happy.  But, here are some entertaining pictures, including Milo’s great accomplishments like catching, playing with and then eating any mouse that ventures around my house.  Yet again, enjoy!

Cat in Isafuriya

Milo and a captured lizard…which he later puked up

Milo and one of his mice…

mmmm a delicious snack…

Milo and his arch nemesis…the paper bag

It didn’t even stand a chance

As usual, enjoy and I’ll try to think of something interesting to blog about!

Milo Update!

I realized I haven’t posted any recent pictures of Milo aka my crazy but awesome kitten.  So here are some updated photos of him being cute and, of course, not being a pain.

Playtime

“Hiding” in the “Jungle” of my backyard

Obviously NOT doing anything wrong or inhibiting my solar panels charging ability…

And also, I’m doing this for my Mom and her friends.  I bragged to Mom a while ago that I found a Coach purse at the GIsenyi market so here’s the picture.  YES, it’s real and I got it for like $5.  Win.

HIV/AIDs PEPF AR Conference

For the past 5 days, I got to enjoy myself on the lovely shores of Lake Kivu at the Centre Bethanie in Kibuye.  After spending school vacation in my village (slash Brittany’s village dogsitting) after an extremely long trimester…it was really nice to get out for a paid vacation.

Purpose of this one, to train the Education Group 2 volunteers and their invited counterparts (headmasters, teachers, students, nurses, best friend in the village…) in HIV/AIDs: what it is, prevention, problems in Rwanda, things infected persons face, how we can do training and awareness in our village, etc. etc…  So you know, it was full of stuff.  We had three days crammed full of sessions which were pretty dry but with occasional tidbits of informative information.  Overall, I think it’s fair to say the conference was good in that it connected counterparts with other counterparts, counterparts with their PCV and other PCVs and was just a good time had by all.

However, nothing can ever go smoothly though, right? Right.  So, we were scheduled to leave kibuye on Sunday…the day of the mass return of students to boarding school.  Which means, moving around the country is hard and a pain.  We were all able to get out of kibuye and to major cities, but me, I got stuck in Kigali because it’s impossible to get to my site on those days.  And now currently I am sitting at Simba Supermarket enjoying their free internet, food until my bus at 11:30, which I somehow got a ticket for when there were none left (score!) Eventually I’ll get home…and the first day of school doesn’t count anyways so there’s not really an issue with me missing today.

And here’s a “Holy wow” moment everyone: I have been in Rwanda for 10 months.  That means in 2 months I’ll have been here for 1 year, 1 WHOLE year.  Yes, I can do math and that is kind of crazy!  The time has been flying by, yet going so slowly sometimes, and I cannot believe for the life of me that I am almost done with one school year and half of my service! Wow.  If you think that blows your mind…it’s blowing mine even more.

And in other news, I am slowly gearing up for November and December when people finally start to come to visit me!!! We’ve got Dawson making the trek to Africa in November and I’ll show him how it is completely possible for me to live in the bush!  And then the parents are coming in December and we’ll spend some nice time in South Africa before gallavanting around Rwanda for a week.  So that is exciting and slightly stressful since that means I have to plan things and actually leave my village and stuff but it’s exciting nonetheless because I get to show people what my life is like currently!

As usual, life is just moving right along.  I don’t think it’s all that interesting but I do this for all my fans back in the states who want to know “What’s it like living in Africa?!?!” Well…it’s just, different.  I can try to explain my life all I want to you all but really, just come out and visit and you’ll see for yourself! I think that’s all for now, I’ve got to start packing up and making my way down to catch my bus…til next time!

Delayed Posting

Hey all, so the 2 blog posts I just put up...yeah they were written like 2 weeks ago and I forgot to post them. Oh well, I'd say I was busy...but I wasn't, just lazy.

Currently in the middle of school vacation, enjoying just sitting around, having no expectations or things to do.  Sometimes it's nice to be bored.  HIV/AIDs conference from the 18th-20th so that should be fun and around the next time I update.  Enjoy!

A Beautiful Disaster

And by beautiful disaster, I mean when it normally takes me 2.5 hours to get to Kigali from my site…this time it took 8 hours.  At first it was entertaining and fun and spontaneous trying to figure things out…then it hit hour 5 and I was not a happy camper.

This past weekend we had a meeting for another secondary project which teaches English to the Rwandan Judiciary.  It was a short orientation from Friday-Saturday, but was just a series of unfortunate events.  First, because school is now on break, Friday was the mass exodus of boarding school students making the trek from school to home for the holiday.  Which means…buses/taxis/etc are FULL and travel is really really hard.  The boarding schools over in Birambo (where all the taxis which pass my village start) bought out all of the taxis…all of them…going to Kigali…where I needed to go.  Long and short, I somehow got to Birambo, ended up in the wrong K-town (Kibuye), used the muzungu in me to force mine and Brittany’s butts onto an Express bus and finally at 6:45pm we arrived at Peace Corps in Kigali.  Keep in mind, I started trying to get to town at like, 7:30am.  Needless to say, long day.  But, again, good food, good company made everything better and the orientation went well and then, lo and behold, there were no such shenanigans getting back to site on Saturday afternoon.  Go figure, only in Rwanda.

On Wednesday I finished marking my students exams…and I have to say, this term was not pretty for a combination of reasons.  First off, this term is long, way.too.long.  It’s 14 weeks!  1st term was “12” and last term will be “9” (quotations because we all know classes won’t actually happen for the whole time, another joy of the Rwandan school system).  So, by the end of this trimester, the kids were just exhausted, pooped out and ready for a break.  Plus, they didn’t remember anything from the beginning of the trimester!  Which did not bode well for their exams…even though they were given warnings about what topics the exam would cover.  Also, some classes had a hard time because we had to deal with the cheating topic again this term…this time the solution to fix the problem was punish everyone.  It worked, but also hurt some grades, which they also had ample opportunity to fix.  Ohhhhhhh wellll….just another learning experience for me and them.  But, like I said, I finished marking on Wednesdays, turned in those grades, came home and let out a big sigh of “ahhhhh.”  You don’t realize how long the term really is until it’s over.

So now we’re on holiday, for about 3 weeks.  Lots of other volunteers are going off on vacations.  Me, I’m hanging around site (when I’m actually in site and not leaving for the silly amount of meetings I have), watching Brittany’s puppy Ishu for a couple nights and then we have an HIV/AIDs training at the end of the break.  So it should be a busy, but relaxing break.  Ideally, I would’ve liked to get up to the vet so Milo could get his vaccinations (and then get neutered) but I think that’ll have to wait until school starts up again, either way, that will get done!  As for how Milo is doing, he’s an energetic ball of hyperactive kitten.  Always sprinting around, pouncing on legs and feet every chance he gets and trying to catch lizards/bugs/anything that moves and could possibly taste good.  I gave him his first bath on Thursday…he was not a fan, but I was because then afterwards he smelled nice and clean!

And that’s just a quick update on life, I know I’ve been slacking on the blog updates but sometimes I just don’t feel like what’s happening is all that interesting to blog about.  So, I wait for something entertaining or important to happen and then share it with all of you!

And to close out this blog update…I just want to fill everyone in on a realization a bunch of us made Friday night:

-You know you’re close with a bunch of people when you have a long, entertaining, but continuous conversation about different gastro-intestinal issues you are having/have had/heard about.  You know, things like amoebas, explosive diarrhea, usual bowel movements…and all the stories that go along with those fun things.

Only in Peace Corps…Dr. Laurent warned us this would happen!  That’s all for now, take care!

Muzabimenya!

Or, in English, “You all will know it!”  Also the title of the secondary project myself and a few other science volunteers are kicking off and getting rolling.  This blog post is actually from a week ago but, 1) I was too lazy to write it and 2) Ihangane…be patient, everything gets done…eventually.

So, last week a meeting was held between myself and 3 other science teachers- Lucy, Mason and Scott.  We met up in Kigali (mostly for the free housing of the Case de Passage, the Peace Corps owned hostel for PCVs) to grade our bajillion exams and have what Scott so dutifully calls our “Kick-Off Meeting” to brainstorm ideas and set a foundation for the project.  We accomplished many things over the weekend; exams were graded (but not finished by any means), good food was cooked by all and Project Muzabimenya took form.  And of course, like any project, it had to have a cool name.  We decided on Muzabimenya because the whole idea of the secondary project is, well, so that students will know.

Allow me to explain the basis of our brainstorm.  Originally, we had the idea to translate all sorts of Rwandan Science National Exams from many different years.  So physics, chemistry, biology, maybe maths.  We thought this would be a good idea because Rwanda just switched to English and previous years everything was in French…French past exams are not helpful to study, they’re in the wrong language!  Ideally, we wanted to create a good, edited resource of past exams for students to study, take practice tests, see what the exams look like, etc.  Unfortunately, that idea got vetoed for a number of reasons, the main thing having to do with MINEDUC, the hierarchy and not wanting to piss any of the wrong people off.

Onto Plan B…which we didn’t really have at the beginning but ended up becoming a great new plan.  After discussing many ideas, we decided that Project Muzabimenya would be to create a resource (or two) for students and teachers to help students learn and practice test taking skills.  It was determined that a big problem is purely from the students difficulty in English.  Thus, this resource will be to aid and prepare students for taking an exam in English and succeeding.  We want to focus on things like understanding questions, answering what the question asks and not something else, knowing common vocabulary, how to properly write an neat and organized answer key, etc.  Things like that.  And, right now at least, it will focus on succeeding on the National Exams for Chemistry and Biology.  This is with the idea that later on down the road, it will be possible to develop other guides for other subjects.

All in all, we were happy with the results we came up with and are looking excited to get working on it.

And, like I said, the weekend was full of great successes…another being food.  Friday, Lucy and I made delicious tuna melts, with REAL (albeit mild) cheddar cheese and tomatoes with a salad full of the colors of the rainbow.  The boys came back to the hostel a little later and made a beef roast that smoked everywhere but smelled delicious.  Saturday lunch resulted in mozzarella, basil, tomato panini’s with another pretty looking salad.  We topped it off with a celebratory dinner at Zen, an Asian fusion restaurant that was actually more Thai but…whatever it was still good.

Independence Day

So, by pure and complete coincidence, July 4th is Independence Day for Rwanda and the USA.  And, Rwandan Liberation Day was July 1st…and was declared a National Holiday on Thursday night…via radio.  The result, a nice 4 day weekend vacation!

So, what did I do?  Decided to venture up to Gisenyi for the weekend with Keira. So, come early (like, 5:45am early) I made my way out of the village to make the 5 1/2 hours of bus rides up to Gisenyi.  Had a very quick ride out to Gitarama, checked the mail: thank you Aunt Linda for the mailing envelope! And Aunt Lynn for the letter…but office was closed to whoever’s package is here I was unable to pick up.  I’ll get it in 2 weeks!  Then made my way into Kigali, got a bus ticket for Gisenyi and then went and had PANCAKES at one of the “muzungu” marts called La Sierra.  Yes, they were real pancakes with fake “real” maple syrup (you New Englanders know what I’m talking about).  I have to say though, the other weekend when I whipped up pancakes…yeah those were bomb and better than these.  Anyways, hung out in Kigali for a couple hours before my bus and then it was off to GIsenyi!  Gisenyi is one of the Lake Kivu resort cities with the big, fancy, basically American style Serena Hotel.  Naturally, we went there and were overwhelmed by a) the Westerness and b) the amazing food, drink, dessert and outrageous pricing.  But still, it’s nice just to hang out and explore around on a weekend with nothing to do.

The weekend was really relaxing and just what I needed. Was able to catch up with an old friend from West Hill Beach Club who’s doing an internship in Rwanda for the summer.  And, highlight of the weekend, market shopping!!  The big city markets are always so much fun to go around and dig in, it’s amazing what you can find.  Case in point, I got a really cute dress, some shoes and a Coach (yes, it’s actually real) purse.  And I’m in Rwanda! Talk about bargain shopping to the extreme, it’s lots of fun.  Other than that, there was just a lot of relaxing on the beach (yes, there’s a beach) and enjoying some R&R.

On Sunday, left the nice little resort town and made our way back to Keira’s house to save some money and spend the night there.  It was really nice to finally see some other people’s houses and what their village/town is like.  It was another relaxing night, with scalloped potatoes, coffee cake (with coffee in it!) and watching GI Jane.  Currently, I’m in Kigali, at Bourbon Coffee where the internet is working for once.  It’s kind of like a ghost town here, so I’m a little worried getting back to my village will be a challenge…but not worried enough to freak out.  As the motto goes here in Rwanda, patience.  I’ll get home, I’m not too worried.  I unfortunately did not take any pictures this weekend, so there’s nothing to show off.  But once I get some interesting pictures, I will definitely post them!

School.  What’s going on at school.  Well, our trimester is slowly coming to an end.  this week is the last week of “real” teaching I have before I’m forced to start reviewing and then finals begin.  It definitely snuck up on me and I was hoping to cover a little bit more material, but all in all I’m pretty happy with where the classes are right now.  Students are, entertaining as usual.  For me, it’s hard to pinpoint what’s interesting right now since I’m living it, but I’m sure to all you reading, it’s enjoyable.  I honestly can’t think of anything else to say right now, so on that note.  I’ll sign off and say I’ll try for a more enthusing and interesting blog post next time!

Kwita Izina

This weekend was the Kwita Izina Ceremony in Musanze (well, actually Kinigi but they’re close) at Gorilla Nat’l Park.  Kwita Izina is the baby gorilla naming ceremony that they have every year to celebrate the births of all the new baby gorillas.  So, a bunch of us PCVs ventured out of our sites and headed up to stay with our fellow PCV Steph at her house in Musanze so that we could check out the spectacle that was giving names to baby gorillas.  It’s kind of hard to explain the whole ceremony, so I’m going to post pictures. But basically, there was a lot of traditional Rwandan dancing, lots of speeches, Kagame did not show up (or Jack Hanna) but we did get the Rwandan Prime Minister…and then they named the baby gorillas of course.  After was a reception with free food and beverages, naturally we mooched as much as possible.  And, like every successful PCV, some of us came out with free stuff (I got myself a nice “Kwita Izina” jacket, win!).  So, here are some pictures to explain the shenanigans:

Musanze…that’s a Volcano

Traditional Dancing 1

Traditional Dancing 2

Traditional Dancing 3

Traditional Dancing 4

Traditional Dancing 5

The Baby Gorillas…or small children in gorilla suits

 
Baby Gorillas hanging out on stage

And to be honest, site has been having a lot of ups and downs lately.  Since it’s been almost 8 months since I came to Rwanda, I’m starting to get restless, a little bored and frustrated more often.  I’m hoping that this this weekend and the 4th of July weekend will provide some nice relax and recuperation.  Since it’s been a little rough, I’m not going to talk about how site’s been, but I am still enjoying this experience, so no worries.

King of the Umudugudu

For those of you wondering, umudugudu means village.  And this short post is dedicated to Muremera’s newsest resident, Milo the hyperactive kitten!  So this weekend I was in Kigali to have more jiggers removed (gross, I know but we think they’re all gone now) I swear, I’m a clean person, this was just a case of bad luck to get 2 more.  I think they were building a duplex in my toe.  Anyways, while I was in the city I was able to pick up my kitten! (courtesy of another PCV who’s cat had kittens).  His name is Milo, don’t ask my why that’s just the name that came out when I was trying to find him hiding in the bedroom.  Right now he is about 8 weeks old and in the stage of life where it is playtime. Always. Every day. Even when I want to sleep.  So, today (Sunday) we have spent the day playing, eating, playing, sleeping, playing, eating, etc.  He has quite the tough life.  I can already tell he’s going to be a little Dennis the Menace because he climbs everything. Even things you can’t climb…like the brick wall in my kitchen/storage room.  Luckily, he can’t figure out how to get up to the windows yet so those can stay open.

Here’s some pictures of the little guy who I’m sure is going to be growing like a weed over the next few weeks:

 
So tiny he fits in my shoe!

Climbing all over things

finally calmed down, lying in the sun. (this is not my house by the way!)

Enjoy, don’t have many other exciting things to really talk about.  Schools is in week 7 of the 2nd trimester.  We’re moving slow, but I’m more concerned about them understanding rather than speeding through tons of material.  It’s now the dry season, so rain has stopped…I guess we’ll see what that does to the water supply huh?  Hopefully we don’t run out…Apparently rainy season starts up again in September.  Here’s to some dry days!

No, the bananas are NOT dead!

Yes, that was an actual sentence out of my mouth in a conversation Donatira and I were having last week.  Overripe bananas, perfect for banana bread, nice and mushy and a lot of me going “NO! The banana’s are NOT dead! Do not throw them out! They are good to cook with!”…”I am cooking tomorrow…No! They will not be dead tomorrow either, they will still be good for cooking.  You will see, be patient, do not throw them out!”

Such is the closest thing to an argument I’ve had with my umukozi, Donatira.  Next up for challenges, we need to change the cooking styles.  After giving myself food poisoning (I just hate admitting when food has gone bad, in this case, coleslaw). and eating plain food, not overcooked and NOT cooked in oil I realize my body just can’t handle the Rwandan food anymore.  Granted, I can do it sometimes, but basically everyday….no, not happening anymore.  Even with running 3-4 times a week I was feeling like a sluggish, gross piece of junk.  And after a week of oil free food, I haven’t felt this good in a while.

**So, I wrote this blog post a while ago and am just getting around to posting it now. UPDATE: Taught Donatira “very, very VERY small oil” which is good.  Small victory.**

I’ve really started prepping for the marathon these last couple weeks, like running longer, pacing, sprints and yeah, it sucks.  But, now I can easily run 1hr at over 6000ft in lots of hill, a feat I never accomplished in the states.  My legs are kind of beasts and my workout clothes…are pretty smelly.  It’s a Catch 22 really: wash workout clothes often and I’ll ruin the decent running capris and shirt I have here…plus then my clothes will be wet and no one likes wearing wet workout clothes.  But, wash them once a week, they’ll always smell a little dank but they’ll last longer…and hey, I’m in Africa, being smelly’s okay, right?  Ohh, the choices I make on a daily basis.

**UPDATE: I ran my leg of the marathon, 11k, wanted to die but it felt good.  For more details, refer to other short blog with more short details**

In other pointless news, I’ve perfected banana bread in the Peace Corps oven and figured out how to make multi-level mac & cheese.  Now, some of you might say that homemade mac & cheese isn’t that hard.  You’re right…but in a country that sells a grand total of 1 types of cheese (“Gouda”) that half the time takes kind of like rubber, this is a big accomplishment.  Heads up, this might gross some people out, but I live in Africa. Standards change, and when things don’t go your way…you still try to make it work.  So, here’s what went down:

Bought cheese a while back while I was in Gitarama with the pure intention of using it to make mac & cheese (I’ve got my priorities straight).  So, the next free weekend arrived and I assembled all my ingredients for a good bechamel sauce: fresh milk, butter, flour, cheese, seasoning.  Little did I know my “fresh” milk was slighly on the side of sour.  So, when i started to cook it, it started to curdle and my thoughts went “Oh crap, seriously Rwanda?! No, ruined, fail.” quickly followed by “Nope, not letting this happen, we’re going to keep going and see what happens…even if I give myself food poisoning again it’s worth it for the mac & cheese”  So, onward I forged with the funky milk.  Long debacle short, sauce ended up being a mix of Rwandan-rubber-gouda and something ricotta like.  Which makes for some nice variety in taste, texture which is pretty hard to come by here sometimes.  Add in some tomato, onion, bread crumbs (stale bread, whatever) and BAM, it’s almost like you used real cheese…with some imagination.  Like I’ve said before, it’s the little things.

Mail has slowly been trickling in, I’ve been thanking y’all as it comes through via the blog, facebook or Mother dearest.  Also, outgoing mail to the US is being accepted, Aunt Lynn, Linda Fox and Erkka…keep your eyes out.  Timing and price tag will determine whether I send anymore snail mail.

And that’s all for now, enjoy!

Jigger, what?!

So, today was the 7th Annual Kigali Peace Marathon (Contrary to the announcer continually saying it was the "70th").  Naturally, all 30+ of us running stayed up way to late last night, woke up way to early and then proceeded to get to the Amahoro stadium about an hour and a half prior to the actual start of the race.  Why? Because...we tend to run on time/early and everyone else, no offense, doesn't.  Long story short, people started filing in, we all got shuffled outside for a random half hour, we thoguht for forced warmups, and then got funneled back into the stadium for the race to actually start.  Full marathon started first, then the half/relay people and finally the "fun run" people.  About an hour later, Nora came running in (first leg of my relay) and then I was off.  Now, I've been training, kind of, for this and things were going pretty well.  Then, the last hill came and I wanted to die.  BUT, I finished, ran 11km (about 6.5 miles) and now my feet hurt.  Well, that's a lie, my entire body hurts but it was definitely worth it.

The more exciting part of the day though was realizing this morning that I had a new friend residing in my foot.  Yes, I finally got the infamous jiggers our PCMO's always talk about during training.  And I know where I got it too, when I was stuck in Kigali in a pouring rainstorm for 4 hours in flipflops where my feet turned black and were gross.  Basically, here's what jiggers are:  They are little tiny bugs that burrow into the skin of your feet and then take up residence there and start laying eggs.  It basically looks like a wart except it gets really itchy and hurts.  I caught it early though, so it was only a little bit annoying.  So, me and my jigger did the relay and then came back to the Peace Corps office where Dr. Laurent sliced a nice hole in my foot and evicted said jigger from its newfound home.  So now I have a hole in my foot, but that's okay.

I would love to write you a more detailed, entertaining post about my life and weekend and pictures and stuff but I'm honestly too exhausted to even think/move.  So, all you get it a blurb about the race and an entertaining story.  Don't worry you'll be okay, you won't get jiggers.

Marathon weekend!

Hello family, friends and other readers!

This weekend, on Sunday May 22nd, there is the Kigali Peace Marathon.  And Peace Corps has a BUNCH of people running, albeit relay team, half marathon or steve-charles doing the whole thing.  So, it is very nice because a) I get to be in Kigali for a little bit and b) I get to see a bunch of people.

Since coming in yesterday, I stopped by the Post office and am happy to say thank you finally to:
-Jack Anderson
-Mom's friend Linda Ferree (sorry, I didn't have the card in front of me when I first wrote this)
-Mrs. Huber
-Aunt Nancy
annnnnnd Ms. Erikka "PIC" Fisk

Finally got those packages mailed around my birthday.  Oh, and thank you brother Greg for the late birthday card, I forgive you.  Will update more later, probably after the marathon tomorrow maybe with some pictures but wanted ya'll to know that mail is slowly but surely making its way to me!

And out comes the camera…

So for those of you who have been bugging me (you know who you are) about taking pictures of my site, we want to see where you live, blah blah blah, I finally gutembera-ed for an hour and a half on Friday and whipped out my camera.  Yes, it was kind of a spectacle and I didn’t take any right in town because it started to rain, but here are some pictures of my site in the Southern/basically Western province and of my house…now complete with furniture.  And if it works…there’s a video of my house too.  Enjoy!

 
This is a panorama from right by my school at the top of the hill I live on.

Groupe Scolaire Munanira (my school)

View from around the village

That road in the distance…yeah, I call that our “main, back road” aka how I get out of site.

The video is taking too long to upload so please enjoy some new pictures of my house in the village!

New Furniture! (will eventually have cushions)

Desk, bookshelf…

Look Mom, a bedframe!

The view from my back door.

Mail Thank Yous...

Went to the Post office today too and thanks go to:

-Alicia for the AWESOME birthday present pet hamster.  I think it's going to scare Fred away.
-Linda Fox for a lovely care package of makeup, flashlight, etc.
-Aunt Lynn...I finally got your package and was extremely excited to see THINMINTS!!
-Mom & Dad, the package got here super quick with the headlamp, flashlight and glittery piggy bank.

I'll check again in a couple weeks when I head to Kigali for the Kigali Peace Marathon!

IST

IST- Interim Service Training…what exactly does that mean?  Well, it means a week in Kibuye at the Centre Bethanie on Lake Kivu.  Which, as you’ll see in pictures below, is absolutely gorgeous.  Of course, that also comes with full days of sessions to see how all of our first 3 months have been going, how integration into site is going, learning about things like secondary projects, etc. etc.  So it by no means has been all fun and games, during the day we’ve been very “busy” (sitting and listening mostly) but luckily we’ve had the nights off.  And I’ve been here since Sunday.  And in the more typical Caroline reasoning, that means I’ve had electricity, running water (which is HOT mostly), free wireless (kind of since everyone is mooching) and oh right, we’re on a beautiful lake.  It’s the little things in life, right?

It’s been really nice to see all of the volunteers from my education group, we haven’t all been together in one place since PST three months ago.  Along with that, I’m not going to lie, it was overwhelming at first to be surrounded by so many Americans and volunteers at one time.  I didn’t realize how accustomed I was to being the only American, actual English speaker and all of that jazz until all of a sudden there were 60+ Americans all in one place.  But it’s been nice to speak English…without any alterations for Rwandan speak and being able to use slang and just relax American style for a little bit.

School starts up again on Monday…or Tuesday, maybe not even next week at all.  That’s the beauty of the Rwandan school system, I never really know what’s going on.  I guess I’ll show up and maybe I’ll start teaching but who really knows.  Ihangane (patience).  If you ask me what I’ve been doing all break, I honestly don’t know.  I’ve been doing something to keep me busy in the 2 weeks of break I spent at site.  But I really don’t remember what I did.  I think I gutembera-ed (wandered) a bit, probably visited some families, hung out at home, went to the market, played cards…I lead a very exciting life.  But the nice thing about staying at site for vacation was to see how happy it made the residents.  They all kept asking “When will you leave? Where will you go? When will you go to America?” and were completely astounded when I told them that, no, I was not going anywhere, I was hanging out in the village until I had to go to training.  And, I would not return to America for 2 whole years because it costs lots and lots of money which I don’t have.  Then, once they got past the astonishment that I wasn’t leaving they were pretty happy with the fact I was hanging around.  I guess that’s good.

I really don’t have that much to blog on unfortunately.  Only other new, exciting things happening right now…my furniture (chairs/table) are finally finished and will soon be arriving at my house, I have to get back there first though.  And then following that delivery I’ll eventually buy the cushions and finally my house will look more like a home.  For me, it’s all about buhoro buhoro and taking my time with things.  Things will get done, they’ll just get done eventually.

Checked the mail last Friday, thank you Grandmommy and Grandaddy for the letter (sent around February I think) with the Lemon green tea, I’m excited to try it out.  I do have 2 packages (maybe more now since a week, has passed) but I did not pick them up because I was heading to Kigali and then to Kibuye and I did not want to lug more stuff around.  Now, when I leave tomorrow, Brittany and I are stopping through Gitarama and hopefully the Post will be open.  But it’s Good Friday…so maybe not.  We’ll see I guess.  If I don’t pick them up tomorrow, I’ll get there again in a couple weeks and pick stuff up then.  Thank you to everyone who has sent things, I really do appreciate it and it’s so nice to see how much people care.

I’ve also decided that my village now is ready to handle my digital camera, after 3 months.  So I will start taking pictures of my site and the surrounding area so that everyone can see the beautiful area I live in.

And now, I will share with you some pictures from my nice week of paradise on Lake Kivu in Kibuye, Rwanda:

Sunset on Lake Kivu

Panorama of Kivu from Centre Bethanie

Fishing Boats!  They row in and out singing and fish for Tilapia all night.

A blurry picture, but this is the fishing boats at night.  They just sit on the lake with their lights fishing.  A very serene and peaceful setting.
The Island we went to on Thursday for some relaxation.  So beautiful.

That’s all for now, enjoy!

Thank You to…

Carol Brown- For the nail polish and awesome Burt’s Bee’s Hand/Foot kit.  Super excited about the pumis stone!!

Linda Fox- For the “makeup” aka hard candies, hot chocolate, instant STARBUCKS(!!) and various teas

Grandmommy & Granddaddy- for the entertaining article, travel toothbrush head and the 2 instant soups.  They look delicious, I can’t wait to try them!

Mom & Dad- For the Birthday card and the package with mini cliff bars, fruit bars, hot chocolate, nail brush, toothbrush holder (w/ toothbrush), velveeta mac & cheese..you get the idea.  AND for the family pictures.  I can’t believe you brought the cat.  She looks absolutely terrified and, just so you know, she’ll never replace me!

To all of you wondering, yes, we finally did family photos.  Mom and I did them as a surprise/gift for Dad before I left in October, and then Dad and Greg had some done as well.  And then the actual family photo…minus the daughter in Rwanda but it’s okay because instead they brought Cleo…our cat. Let your imaginations run wild and I’m sure Mom would love to show that picture off.

Also, all of these were sent in mailing envelopes between Feb 8-Feb 11.  Last time we checked the mail was March 11th.  Granted, they could’ve come the next week but just remember, time is very variable in Rwanda.  If I could find the receipts…I would tell you how long the took but, go figure, I can’t find them and think I left them at the Post so I’ll try and do better next time.  Also, price depends on weight, the varied from about $4-11.  There you have it, thank you very much again to all.  I have 2 letters waiting for me in Kigali…I’ll pick those up before IST and that’s probably when I’ll check the mail again too.

Murakoze cyane!! (Thank you very much!)

Trimester, Finished

So, I am sitting here at an internet cafe in Gitarama, enjoying their free internet and the fact that….IT’S BREAK!  I had the joy of proctoring/monitoring exams 2 weeks ago for the entire week and then spent last weekend grading all my exams.  That totals over 200 exams of messy student hand writing.  That also means more entertaining notes…so here are some tidbits that I remember because I forgot the paper where I had written them all down!

When asked “What country is the teacher from?” (supposed to be an automatic point question) I got quite a few unintelligible answers, but I also got these…
-“Teacher, you are from America. Calorine, you are from America!”
-“The teacher is from Rwanda. The teacher is from America.”
-“Yes.”
-“The teacher is from South America”
and my personal favorite: “The Teacher is from Ameliqwa”

I wish I was from “Ameliqwa” that just sounds cool.  But yes, and then when asked “What is peristalsis?” [the movement of food in the esophagus/small intestine” I got:
-“Peristalsis is Calorine” and
-“Peristalsis is Barack Obama.”

Now, because in Kinyarwanda there is no pronunciation difference between “r” and “l” those letters tend to get confused. So words like “rice” and “lice” are pronounced exactly the same.  Thus, my name tends to get spelled “Calorine/Kaloline…etc” different mutations of the sort.  Oh well.

And, of course, my students left me notes again.  Here are some good ones:
-“Very difficult!!”
-“Thank you teacher!  but some was difficult”
-“Oh my God Yawe, help me!!!”
-“Very easy!!!”
-“Thank you so much teacher, you write easy questions and easy test, so thank you!!!”
-“Thank you teacher!  But you write difficult questions”

And then, after they had finished their Biology exam I had students running up to me going “It was very difficult!!” and “It was very easy!!!” so there was a pretty good balance.  Then, like I said, I had the pleasure of grading all said exams.  It could have been a lot worse…I only had about a 50% fail rate for the classes overall…which is pretty good considering Physics had a 100% fail rate…ohlala.

In other news…I’ve started running with one of the village residents, Twa.  Which is basically a love/hate relationship.  It’s good because I’m running, in the land of many hills and getting a good workout.  The bad, he makes me wake up a 5:30am to run, hills suck to put it blatantly and Twa can run forever…he will never stop.  So we’re going on week 2 of running and now I’m able to scale roughly 4 of the 1000 hills of Rwanda.  I think it’ll be a good goal to say by the end of this I can run the Boston Marathon/Bay to Breakers or some other ridiculous race in the states.  Which means I am hopefully successfully combating the Rwandan diet of starch, starch starch.  It’s also a really good way to entertain the villagers.  They are so amused that I’m going out for “siporo” [sport] and usually just cheer me on and tell me “Komera” [be strong].  So yeah, I’m still an amusement to my town, which I guess is good.

I have not checked the mail yet…but I will later today, so do not worry.  And then, I will let everyone know how long things took, who I received packages from and all that good stuff.  Let’s just say I hope there are some good goodies waiting for me!

And now it is officially break.  I’ve got 3 weeks off until the next trimester begins.  So today I am in Gitarama, will possibly stay the night with my host sisters but I’m not sure, it’s still up in the air.  Otherwise, I’m planning on hanging out  in my village for most of break.  Might wander into Buhanda/Gitwe for a day or two to visit with one of the Health PCVs who lives out there.  I think it’s now an acceptable time to become a good neighbor and start to visit the PCVs that actually live pretty close.  And then in the last week of break I’ll be enjoying a nice week in Kibuye for training with all the other Group 2 Ed PCVs.  That will be fun and nice and am totally stoked for that.

Other than that, just going day by day at site. The rainy season has begun…which means rain, at least once a day.  Most days I have enough sun to charge my phone but if not, it’s okay.  I apparently have some sort of “executive” status so I get to charge my phone in the village Executive Secretary’s office which has bigger and more powerful solar panels.  That’s nice, because now either way I don’t have to pay to charge my phone…which is good, because even in Rwanda I’m cheap and don’t like to spend money.  And that about wraps it up here, I’m going to go meet up with Gelsey, Brittany and hopefully Jed for lunch in town and then we’ll see what’s going on in the Post box and then who knows what the day will bring!

Package Note

As per Linny's request....the package I have received from Bev and Ron was sent in a USPS Flat Rate box.  It cost roughly $60 to send, left the US on Feb 8th and came to Gitarama, Rwanda on Feb 22nd.  Everything inside the box was declared on the customs list.  Even if you do this, I would also recommend including a note with a list of what you put in the box...you never know when something might go missing.  Again, fellow PCVs have told me this is the quickest a package will arrive.  They are all sent by airmail now, but it never hurts to write "Par Avion/Air Mail" on the box.  My mom is the expert on sending mailing envelopes...but I'm pretty sure the deal is exactly the same, just different price wise.  Hope that helps...I'm going to stop wasting my battery but I'm planning on checking the box again in a couple weekends...we'll see what goodies await!

Thank you ahead of time to everyone who has been awesome and sent me something!

2 Months In

So here I am, two months at site.  Things are feeling pretty good, teaching is, teaching.  Getting around (out of site) is easier but still a pain in the butt, so doesn’t happen that often.  I think the highlight of the past week was springing a Pop Quiz on my students.  Here’s some of the lovely reactions to me saying “Put your notebooks away, take out a clean piece of paper, we are having a quiz”:

-Students: No!
Me: Yes!
Students: NOO!
Me: This quiz is happening whether you want it to or not, put your notes away.”
Students: Teacher…this is not okay

-Students: Teacher, we are not ready!
Me: I know, that is why you are getting a quiz.  To see if you study when I don’t tell you to.
Students: But we do not! You will give us a quiz Monday, we will do well!
Me: No, I will give you a quiz now and we will see how you do.

-One of my students just looks at me and goes…
Student: I will take a zero.
Me: Claude, I know you will have at least one correct answer because you know one answer very well.
Student: No…I will take a zero.

And sometimes my students leave me notes at the end of their homework, tests, quizzes, etc.  Here’s a few from that quiz

“Teacher, I love you so so much, you teaching us very very good.”
”Good Luck Teacher.”
”God loves you to be with me Teacher.” (Not really sure what it means…)

And my personal favorite, written at the bottom of one of the quizzes:
”Sinzi, God help me.” [English Translation: I don’t know, God Help me]

Hahaha, nuggets like that make the grading a little less painful.  Because they still bombed, but ahhh such is life.

The end of the term is coming up…and that means I get to write a final. Or rather, 2 finals.  My S2 final should be fine, we’ve covered plenty but my S1 final…having a hard time figuring out what’s going to be on it.  Mainly because since I’ve gotten my S1 class…we’ve learned one, maybe 2 things.  They really, really know what a characteristic is, and they know the characteristics of living things.  That’s about all the material we’ve covered.  How do I write a final worth 50% of the trimester grade on just those 2 things?!  I have no idea, but like everything else here, I’ll figure it out.

Okay, so good news.  I checked the mail…and there was a package for me!  So, thank you very much to Ron and Bev Jackowitz for their wonderful care package.  And for all of you out there wondering, this round took about 2.5 weeks to get to Rwanda.  After talking to other PCVs who have been here longer, that’s about the quickest it will ever take.  So still plan on it taking a while to get to me.  But, the first package made it to Rwanda safe, sound and I look at it and am like a little kid in a candy shop.

Also have decided that’s it’s coming up on that time to subject my town (and myself) to the debacle of me running.  The whole Rwandan starch based diet, no matter how hard I combat it, having everyone trying to fatten me up, etc. is just not being kind to my body.  And it’s not like I’m horribly lazy, I walk everywhere it’s just I don’t think that’s enough.  So, once the trimester is done and I don’t have to be at school at 7:30 each morning, going out and finding a good running route to make sure that I come back to the States looking relatively the same.

We’ve got out IST training at the end of April, it’ll be in the lakeside town of Kibuye.  This will be the first time our entire Education group has been together since training.  It’ll be really nice to see everyone, swap stories and see how site has been going.  Plus, we get to be on Lake Kivu and explore around there!  So that’s a little vacation to look forward to during my upcoming break.

I think that’s about it for now, I probably won’t update for about a month since I’m not planning on leaving site until IST.  So, don’t get antsy, just be patient.  Think of it this way, the less often I update…the more stories I have when I do!

And here’s Africa…

Many people have been complaining that I haven’t updated my blog in a while…apologies but remember, 1) I’m in Africa and 2) I don’t have electricity at my site.  So, I will only update my blog when I leave my site.  And I haven’t left my site in 3 weeks because, well, I like my site and I like to spend time in my village and hang out with them on the weekends.  And honestly, that’s what I’m here for.  To become part of my village, not just be a visitor for two years, but to be a resident.  And my neighbors, they are convinced that after one year I will automatically be Rwandan and can then vote in the elections (it’s to difficult to explain that’s not quite how it works…).

But what has been going on since my last blog…so I gave my students their midterm.  And when I told them about their midterm, a couple of my classes cheered.  I’m still not sure why they cheered, but they were very excited to be taking a test.  Then they took the test.  And I got to grade it.  Now, I wrote it knowing what parts should really give them difficulty and would challenge their little minds.  But, I did not anticipate the train-wreck that actually happened.  When I was grading and saw a grade of 5/6 out of 15…I was happy.  Yes, it was a disaster.  But, it was a learning experience, for them and me.  They realized that I’m really going to work them hard and they need to know the material better than just memorizing a table.  me, I learned that I really need to write tests earlier, reread them, edit them, fix the English and make sure that my students understand what to do.  The problem came in that they didn’t understand what I wanted them to do, and then they didn’t ask a questions!  Ahh, buhoro buhoro, bazimenya (slowly by slowly, they will learn it).

Another fun, and by fun not really, but not surprising even was the switching of my classes…halfway through the trimester.  Now, instead of 5 S2 Biology classes, we’ve condensed them into 4 classes so that they could make another S1 level class because there were too many students.  So I have 4, S2 level classes with about 40-45 students each and now my S1 level class…with over 50 students.  That’s a LOT of kids, a lot of names, and a lot of patience.  It wouldn’t be so bad, but it’s just a tad frustrating to do this in the middle of the trimester, switch teachers/classes and then I have to pick up where another teacher left off (and by pick up, I unfortunately mean start over).  So, fun times in the Rwandan School System.  But such is life, I just bit my tongue and smiled at my headmaster as he told me that ‘No, it’s really easy to make a new class and here’s how…” [mind you, that wasn’t my question]. So yeah.

This weekend, I went to Nyanza to visit my resource family, which was very nice.  It was nice to get back and visit Mugandamore and stop by Nyanza to pick up some things that I needed.  Then Saturday, another quick trip up to Gitarama because my headmaster was getting married!  So, I made my appearance at the wedding.  But, now back to reality and to umudugudu wanjye (my village) for another fun filled week of teaching.  It’s crazy to believe that the 1st trimester ends at the end of March, then I have language training March 31/April 1 and then all of us Education Group 2 volunteers have another training for a week during the break before 2nd trimester.  Time flies but stands still, it’s very strange.

That’s all for now, hope everyone back in the US is welcoming spring and that things are finally starting to thaw out!

Hot Shower? What’s that?

So here I am…sitting in my room at the hostel at 6:45am and I’ve been up since 5:45am because that’s when the birds start chirping and the sun begins to shine.  And well…at site, that’s when you get up because when you have no electricity you tend to be awake when the sun is up and asleep when the sun is down.  I’ve had the luxury of using Western Style bathrooms since yesterday afternoon (which is always a treat) and, big news, I just got to a) take a shower and b) take a hot shower.  Yeah…that’s crazy.  I had no idea there was hot, running water in this country but lo’ and behold, the hostel has it.
For those of you wondering, this weekend I am in Kigali doing my monthly banking/visit to PC office/refill on medical stuff/buy necessary stuff that you can’t get at my site/etc.  I figure I’ll do this once a month and it’ll serve those necessary purposes but also as a nice little escape and glimpse of reality for a brief period each month.  Which I think everyone needs…and you don’t quite realize how much sometimes you just want to hang out and be a muzungu until you find yourself doing and go “it is SO NICE to wear Western clothes, speak English and have a good, relaxing time with other westerner's”  yeah, this is going to be quite the two years.  As mentioned, I picked up all the mail and packages waiting for me that were sent to the Peace Corps mailbox…I think I have everything so now all mail should go to the PO Box posted in one of the other posts.
Let’s see, what has been new at site.  Oh, so my students received their very 1st homework assignment from me on the topic of nutrition.  They were to write a full days meals (so, 3 meals) that fulfill the food pyramid and then write me 6 sentences on why nutrition is important and how they can stay healthy.  So, those were all due this past week and I spend a grueling 2 nights correcting all, roughly, 200 of them (5 classes, around 35-40 students each….yeahhh).  The good news, some students got it!  They really REALLY got it!  The bad news…roughly a third of each of my classes copied the homework from someone else.  Thus, they received a big, fat zero.  And when they got their homework back….let’s just say they might not love the white, American teacher as much anymore.  But I swear, I will break them of this cheating/copying habit.  They will do individual work otherwise, tough nookie, you get a zero.  Fixing the system…one small, very small, step at a time.  And, I think one student out of all of them actually answered the how part of the homework…critical thinking, we’re working on it.  I see glimmer of hope in my students every week which is good.  They’re learning slow but that’s expected since I’m teaching all in English and well…it’s their 3rd language.  But they’re learning…I think.  We’re scheduled for a midterm either at the end of this week or beginning of next week so we’ll see how much they actually get it.  And we’ll see how much they really cheat when the teacher’s in the room
Finally, here are some pictures of my home…keep in mind I now have a bedframe, but that’s all the new furniture.  But, I am planning on more furniture…eventually.  Just gotta go with the “Rwanda time” and Ihangane (Be patient).  So, that’s what I’m doing.  Also, now have a girl who comes and helps me Mon-Thurs from 2pm-6pm.  She cleans the house, does the laundry/dishes, fetches water (so now I don’t have to!), heats up water for my Thermos (hot bucket baths and no more heating up water in the morning!) and she cooks dinner…only dinner.  She’s only been working a week, but seems like a good girl so far.  I have to remember that I’m still really new in my community, and even though I feel completely safe and secure and like I can trust people…current PCVs keep reminding me…just keep your guard up.  It really takes a year to build relationships, but good that you’re integrating.  But yes, pictures of home…here you go:

My Room (big bed totally worth it) which now has a bedframe

My Main Room…with the lone desk and water filter

My back courtyard, to the right is the kitchen/shower/latrine

And that’s all for now, til’ next time!

Packages and Cards Picked Up!

Finally got to the Peace Corps office and was welcomed with a plethora of mail!  So thank you:

Alicia- for the awesome, plastic chicken.
Uncle David/Aunt Judy- for the 2 nice, thick books and mind teasers
Aunt Linda- for the peanut butter pretzels!!!! and shirt
And thank you for all the letters and cards from brother dear, Aunt Val/Uncle Chris and fam, Linda Fox and Aunt Lynn/Zach

In Kigali for the night so a longer blog post will follow!

Send Me Presents!

Okay, it’s official, I have a PO Box so now everyone can send me goodies from America and any other Western country.  Ready, here’s my address for the next 2 years:

Caroline Lloyd
P.O. Box 144
Gitarama, Rwanda

That’s it, so now all of you who are checking this and bugging me about getting an address have no more excuses.  Start sending stuff…now.

And also, here is a starter wishlist of things to send me from the western world. Enjoy!

Food/Drink:
-Powdered drink stuff (ie Crystal Light, etc…)
-dehydrated (powdered) cheese so I can make yummy mac & cheese
-…Mac&Cheese
-Hot Chocolate Packets
-Green Tea
-American Candy/sweets
-Trail Mix (Costco/BJs)
-Dried Fruit(especially dried mango!)
-Granola bars
-raisins
-couscous (flavored)
-quinoa
-spices are always welcome
-instant soup mixes
-dried (real) sweet potatoes [they just aren’t the same here]
-ketchup [they have weird imitation here that’s more like tomato paste]
-Cliff Bars/Luna bars
-snacky foods in general
-gum/mints [the gum here lasts for a grand total of 15 seconds]
-And anything else you think I might like…

Other Stuff:
-Travel Toothbrush case
-Foot Lotion
-Nail Polish [fun colors]
-Fun eyeliner colors for when I feel like being a muzungu
-Pumis stone
-Books/magazines to read
-Colored pencils
-a real blackboard eraser, or two…(mom or teachers…)
-nail brush
-small cheap trinkets for the kids/prizes for my students
-And anything else you think I might like…

And there you have it, my address and the starts of a wishlist.  Ready, set, send me packages! (Keep in mind it takes like 3 months at least to get here for USA, don’t know about Australia though…)

Hello World!

Well hello world!  I am finally giving this a quick update due to the demand of a certain person who shall not be named (Jack).  I am now at site in Rwanda and have been here for about 3.5 weeks, one month on Tuesday!  It’s hard to believe it’s been almost one month.  I remember during training one PCV told us, “the days will be excruciatingly long, but the time will fly by…” I think she’s right.  I do apologize for not updating sooner, but there have been a couple factors playing into that:

1. I moved to site…it takes some getting used to!

2. Site does not have electricity…blogging takes a back burner, sorry.

3. I’ve started teaching which means even though I work only 15 hours a week, I’m still lesson planning and trying to figure out how to actually teach these students something!

Also, many of you probably received an email from my mom (the wonderful woman that she is) telling you to not send me any mail because I need to open up my own PO Box.  For those of you who have already sent stuff, no worries I’ll still get it but don’t send anything else.  Hopefully within the next 2 weeks I will get back to Kigali with a couple other PCVs in my area and we are planning on opening up a PO Box.  When that happens I will let everyone know what my new address is because I expect everyone to send me treats and goodies from the States…which I’ll make a wishlist for eventually but other things take precedence right now!

Okay so, update on my life right now.  These first 3 weeks have been quite the rollercoaster of emotions, which all of the aunts and uncles that are RPCVs told me it would be.  So at least I was expecting it…kind of.  But moving to a new home in general is hard, add in an extreme language barrier, not knowing the bus schedules, trying to figure out the market, lighting a charcoal stove, etc etc etc yeah, it’s a little overwhelming and I have no shame in admitting that when I talked to Mom and Dad the 1st weekend after arriving, there were tears.  And guess what, they’re not the last tears.  This is going to be the hardest job I’ll ever love.  And I already love it, so that’s good.  There are days when I question my decision or when I just want to go to Santana Row with Heather and grab a salad, go people watching with Erikka, have a cuddle session with Beth Elyse or hang out with my amazing EMT girls.  But then a day like market day happens.  And market day is just a bundle of happiness because my town has never, and when I say never, I mean NEVER had a muzungu living with them before.  Yeah, they’ve had NGO’s but they’re different.  Now market day, everyone comes out to sell their foods, goods, etc. and when the town muzungu comes out, oh my, what a spectacle I make of myself.  Luckily now they’re starting to get used to me but they just get so excited to see me it’s hard not to turn my frown upside-down.  I’ll always come back home in a good mood, guaranteed.  They also just love that I’m actually trying to speak Kinyarwanda…granted when they start going off in fast Kinyarwanda I just give them a puzzled look, when then they burst out laughing because I don’t think they’ve ever seen someone who makes faces like I do (we can thank mother dearest for that inheritance).

Other good news, I think I’ve finally, kind of figured out the bus/transportation schedule.  Which is good, because that means I can now get to the PC Office to pick up the packages waiting for me there (hope there’s nothing perishable in them…) and can get around to visit people…eventually.  But to be quite honest, it’s difficult and lengthy to get off of my hill.  So I probably won’t be doing it that often…maybe like, once a month.  Which is really all I need to check mail, charge my computer and check stuff at the PC Office and get a small taste of civilization.  Which was quite overwhelming when I went to Kigali the other day.  You don’t realize how used to small town living you’ve gotten until you walk into a Western coffee shop (Bourbon coffee..amazing!) and get horribly overwhelmed.  Or, then proceed to go to the restroom and get slightly confused for about 5 seconds because there’s a Western toilet and running water…yeah, that happened.

So slowly by slowly I’m getting adjusted and figuring this out.  The town residents I’m getting to know and they’re getting to know me.  School is, going and is a challenge, but things are good.  I miss everyone in the States but not even for a second would I think about coming home, I’m in this for the next 2 years, with all the good and bad that comes with it.

That’s all for now, hope that satisfies all of you who have been bugging Mom to tell me to update.  Hopefully I’ll figure out a more normal schedule to update and post pictures, but give me some time and slack…I’m in Africa. Mwirirwe! (Til next time)