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justtryingtocarpediem · 8 years ago

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This will be my last blog post documenting the remainder of Pre-Service Training (PST). It is a blog post that is long overdue and I apologize for not posting this earlier but my schedule was incredibly busy! I remember a current volunteer telling us trainees that after week 5 of training the weeks of PST would start to fly by. That was no exaggeration! The remaining 5 weeks of training passed by in a blur and I have finally had the time to catch up. Unfortunately, this post would become a novel if I shared every detail that happened in the last half of PST so I will include some of the highlights.

Site Announcements and Mid-LPI:

During my mid-LPI, I was asked to compare Rwanda and California in Kinyarwanda. I tried to say that they are very similar because they are very pretty/scenic and have a lot of greenery. I wanted to say ��it’s the same” or in Kinyarwanda “nikimwe”. I later found out that during my language exam I instead kept saying to my examiner “nimwicare” or in English “sit down”. I did not realize I had made this mistake until later that evening when I remembered what I had said. I finally understood why the examiner kept giving me strange, confused looks as I repeatedly told her (with hand motions) “nimwicare, nimwicare, nimwicare”. Let’s just say that I will never mix up or forget the meaning of those two words again.

Site announcement day is a very memorable and special day, but also a completely nerve-wracking day in a Peace Corps Volunteer’s service. Almost every staff member attends this ceremony that almost feels like the Sorting Hat ritual that all Hogwart’s students go through minus the talking sorting hat of course. There are banners hung outside with the respective provinces of Rwanda and each trainee is called up to be placed into a province and given the name of their future site. Although we have no control over the placement process, it was still a very anxious day for many of us. One of the questions I got a lot from friends and family before I left for Peace Corps was where I would be living during my service. My response was always “I have no idea!”. All I knew was I would spend 10 weeks in a town called Rwamagana and after that I would be dropped off somewhere in a rural village in Rwanda to serve for 2 years. I am happy to announce that I was assigned to serve in the Eastern Province in Rwanda. I unfortunately cannot disclose my exact location on social media, but I can say that I am located in the North East of Rwanda close to Tanzania and Uganda. I will describe more about my site in the following post. In my site announcement packet, I was given two paragraphs of description, a map, and the names of the people who would be my supervisors/counterparts for the next 2 years. So not a lot of details but in a short amount of time we would soon piece together more information about our homes for the next 2 years.

Permagardening, Supervisor Conference, Site Visits, and Dandiya:

Gardening is hard work. Using a hoe was by far one of the hardest workouts I have ever had. Now it makes sense why there are no gyms here in Rwanda. All jokes aside though I had a great time learning how to build a permagarden. I know that I will be building several at my site to help combat malnutrition in my community. It is a great tool to have and I am thankful for all the technical training I have received so far from Peace Corps to help me in my work as a volunteer.

For 3 days, we met with our future supervisors during a conference where we discussed the goals of Peace Corps, our roles as Maternal and Child Health volunteers, and how we could work with our health centers to accomplish our mutual goals/visions. It was the first time we would meet someone from our respective health centers and have a chance to converse with them (in Kinyarwanda, of course). 98% of the time I could not understand a word of what my Titulaire (head of my health center) was saying to me, but he appeared to be enthusiastic about having me as a volunteer so I felt slightly relieved.

I remember when I interviewed for Peace Corps my interviewer described Peace Corps as an experience in which you dive in head first without knowing what you agreed to and you figure out what you signed up for once you are already in the midst of everything. Reflecting on my personal experiences so far in Peace Corps, I have to agree with him and say that is almost entirely too accurate. From getting on a plane to Rwanda and not knowing where I would be living for two years, or being dropped off with a host family barely knowing how to say hello in Kinyarwanda, I find myself constantly being thrown into unfamiliar surroundings or situations and having to learn how to embrace those uncomfortable, awkward, but most of the times rewarding experiences because I know that they are opportunities I may never have again.

The day following the supervisor conference, all 25 of us trainees embarked on a week long journey with our Titulaires to visit our future sites/health centers. I had heard from current/previous volunteers that site visit was a rough, awkward, and boring week because your language skills are not up to par, you are typically living with a random stranger, you are away from your cohort for the first time and alone in a village surrounded by unknown people and sites. During my site visit, I rode a motorcycle for the first time, ate a lot of ibitoke, repeated the phrase “simbizi”/ “I don’t know it” and “simbyumva”/ “I do not understand” several times to people, stayed in my future house by myself, shadowed the services at my health center, was given a Rwandan name by my counterpart (Mu Rwanda, nitwa Umutesi/ In Rwanda, my name is Umutesi), drank way more Fanta than I would have liked, met several of my co-workers but could not remember any of their names, showed up at a party that I did not even know it was a party until my counterpart made me dance, got asked every time by someone I met whether I had a husband or children, and successfully traveled back to my training site using Kinyarwanda and did not end up in Congo or Uganda.

After being gone a week from my cohort, it was wonderful to be reunited with them! We celebrated with a talent show. My friend and I taught dandiya to our cohort and I think they enjoyed it. I never thought I would be teaching dandiya in Rwanda of all places but then again there are so many things I never thought I would be doing, but since coming to this country that has changed.

Lunch with the U.S. Ambassador, Mashed Potatoes, Church, a Birthday Party, and final LPI:

It was a honorable and wonderful experience to meet and have lunch with the U.S. Ambassador to Rwanda, Erica Barks-Ruggles. Listening to her stories and hearing her words of encouragement definitely provided us with boost of energy needed to get us through the last few weeks of PST. She was incredibly knowledgeable and I was grateful for the opportunity to talk with her.

My host family as I have described in previous posts is the best host family ever. Of course, I may be biased but I am deeply convinced that I would not have made it through PST without their support. My host mama will always hold a special place in my heart. I discovered that she really likes mashed potatoes so I taught her how to make mashed potatoes and she was so excited! She made it several times after and would pile her plate sky high with mashed potatoes. I found it hilarious considering that every other food item she would barely eat 2 bites of, but ibirayi pile (mashed potatoes) would have her going back for second servings. Considering she taught me how to live like a Rwandan, speak like a Rwandan, and act like a Rwandan, I am so glad that I was able to teach her something. I also cooked an entire meal for my host family on the charcoal stove and they were blown away that I could cook.

The following weekend, I taught my LCF how to cook mashed potatoes and she taught me a traditional Rwandan dish called ubugati which is basically a dough that is made from cassava flour. You eat this sticky dough with a peanut sauce and I love it! I also went to church for the first time in Rwanda. My host family is Muslim so I never got to experience going to church here in Rwanda but I had heard from my peers that it was an interesting and sometimes overwhelming experience. Church here is nothing like America. Services last for hours. Sometimes up to 5 hours. There is a lot of singing and dancing and shouting; all of which I could always hear from my room every Sunday. Just to put things in perspective, one of my friends said she had never seen Rwandans get so excited about something and that she felt like they partied harder in church here than a nightclub in Vegas. I actually found Catholic church here to be relatively exciting and an overall good experience. I thankfully went with my LCF who helped translate and helped me figure out what was happening. After church, I was invited to attend a birthday party for a friend I had made while on my morning runs in Rwamagana. Because we had curfew, I could only attend for 30 minutes and I showed up at 6pm when she said the party began, but of course I forgot that I was in Rwanda and therefore if a party “starts” at 6pm that really means 7:30pm. So I was the only person at the party but it was still fun to meet her family and celebrate! #integration

In our last full week of PST, we had our final LPI exam and I am happy to say that I did not mix up any Kinyarwanda words and that I successfully passed my LPI. I surpassed the level I needed to swear-in as a Peace Corps Volunteer and was so relieved to know that I would soon get to become a PCV. We also had our final practicum to demonstrate how we would teach a health lesson. I had the topic of sanitation and hygienge: the importance of hand-washing. In less than a day I put together a 10-minute presentation all in Kinyarwanda. Looking back, it is amazing to think how much I have accomplished and learned in just under 10 weeks!

Household shopping, Saying Good-bye again/Host Family Farewell, Diarrhea, and Swear-In:

The final week of PST was a whirlwind. I made several trips to the market to try to bargain and purchase all the items I needed for my future house. It was exhausting even with the help of my LCF and I never realized how hard it would be to figure out exactly what I would need to survive in my house for the next two years. I had never lived alone or had a whole house to furnish before so the process was intimidating, but I gathered everything I could think of from mats, dishes, jerrycans, trunks, cleaning supplies, pots, and so many other items. On our last official day of PST, we had our host family farewell party! It was amazing to have my host mama and two brothers come to celebrate all that we had achieved in the past 10 weeks. There was of course a special dance performance by us trainees which left all the host families laughing hysterically as we stumbled clumsily through a Rwandan traditional dance. There was food and a lot of Fanta served. And at the end, we danced with all of our host families. My host brothers stole the spotlight for sure! They were the best dancers there! And even my host mama came to dance with me. It was a wonderful party but it reminded me that in a few days I would have to say good-bye to them. The day after we went to Kigali as a cohort to visit the Kigali Genocide Memorial. It was a sobering and difficult day, but I am glad I could pay my respects and learn more about the history.

Before I came to Rwanda, I had to say good-bye to my friends and family, which was one of the hardest things I have done, so to have to say good-bye again 10 weeks later to the host family that supported and took care of me while I was learning a new language and culture was very difficult. It was hard to pack up all of my belongings once again and be sent off to live by myself in a new area. PST was a wild ride and filled with many ups and downs. I vividly remember staring at the schedule for the next ten weeks given to us on the first day we arrived in Rwanda and feeling so overwhelmed and unsure if I could make it through. The first month or so I eagerly counted down the weeks we had left of training, but mid-way through I started to become familiar and comfortable with my surroundings and the people with me. Just when I had started to feel integrated and familiar with everything it was time to be thrown into a new environment, but it also meant the start of the larger part of this journey I started almost 3 months ago—the part where I finally become a Peace Corps Volunteer.

The morning we left our host families I woke up with intense stomach pains and nausea. Go figure! An hour later, I was vomiting and spent most of the time in the latrine. I will leave out the gross details because I’m sure you get the picture. We traveled to Kigali to stay in the same hotel we stayed in when we first arrived in Rwanda. It was a very surreal moment to be back at the place it all started, except this time I knew a lot more Kinyarwanda and had a much greater appreciation for Wi-Fi, hot showers, and western toilets. While battling what felt like never-ending diarrhea, I went shopping for last minute items in Kigali for my house, which was stressful and overwhelming. Experiencing Kigali was overwhelming in so many ways. To be back in a city that had actual shopping malls, supermarkets and American food was mind-blowing! I wish I could have enjoyed my time in Kigali more but I know there will be plenty of other opportunities to explore. I was pretty sick the day of the swear-in ceremony but I did not want to miss out on the chance to celebrate at the U.S. Ambassador’s house. We performed our dances which of course thrilled the audience of Rwandans and Americans, listened to several speeches given by the Country Director, U.S. Ambassador, and Ministry of Health, and finally took an oath given by the U.S. Ambassador to swear-in as official Peace Corps Volunteers. Although I was sick and not feeling well, I will never forget how proud and honored I felt while taking that oath. So, on August 16, 2017, I became a Peace Corps Rwanda Volunteer and have now joined the thousands of PCVs currently serving in various countries around the world. It is a great accomplishment that I know will come with several challenges, but I also know that the rewards will outweigh the obstacles I face. I will have the opportunity to create a meaningful and productive service here in Rwanda and effectively serve the people in my community.

The day after swear-in, we loaded our belongings into Peace Corps vehicles and were transported/installed at our new sites across the country. And this day, site installation day, is where I will begin for my next post! Until then, I hope everyone at home is doing well and I am sending lots of love from Rwanda! I miss everyone but I am doing great here in Rwanda! Thanks for reading and stay tuned for the next post!

Selfies with the U.S. Ambassador at our swear-in ceremony.

Swear-in day!

Host Family Farewell Party!

Pre-Service Training: The Home Stretch and a Farewell to PST This will be my last blog post documenting the remainder of Pre-Service Training (PST). It is a blog post that is long overdue and I apologize for not posting this earlier but my schedule was incredibly busy!

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justtryingtocarpediem · 8 years ago

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Week 4 of PST is officially done! Today, also marks 5 weeks since I left home which is the longest I have ever been gone from home before. This past week of training flew by because of July 4th and I have heard that the weeks to follow will start to pass by even faster.

I wanted to give you all a glimpse into what I do here and have you all join me on a typical day of my life here in Rwamagana:

I typically start my days pretty early around 5:30am and am out for a run around the town before the sun has even risen. Between the call to prayer from the mosque, the rooster my family has, and the clanking of pots and pans in my house, I am up very early. I have found that running earlier is better though because I tend to get stared at less and cause less of a commotion. I really enjoy my runs as a great way to start my morning. One aspect that I have been struggling with adjusting to is being constantly stared at. Everywhere I go and everything that I do is being watched by several people. On my runs, people will literally come out of their houses or shops to watch the umuzungu (white person) run by. It can be a little stressful to constantly have to smile and say Mwaramutse (good morning) to each person I pass every 5 seconds while trying not to trip on the rocky dirt roads. It definitely makes me miss the anonymity that I took for granted in America. However, I have enjoyed the kindness of the Rwandan people and am appreciative that they take the time to say hi to me and try to have a conversation with me. A couple days ago, I was almost finished with my run when a young girl who is 18 years old stopped me mid-run and started talking to me. She was incredibly sweet and held my hand the entire time. We talked for almost 30 minutes and I accompanied her to get milk. Although I had no idea where she was taking me, I felt so grateful for the connection I made with her. She led me into another family’s compound where I found a group of women sitting on the floor shucking corn. Shortly after, I was sat down and shown how to shuck corn and put to work All before 7am I had shucked corn, had a long conversation in almost entirely Kinyarwanda with a stranger, explored Rwamagana, and went for a run. The things that I describe here in Rwanda are experiences I never would have had the chance to be a part of in America. After going for a run, I return home to get ready for school. This consists of taking a bucket bath with the spiders who enjoy staring at me and scaring me half to death. The freezing cold water is something that I do not think I will be able to adjust to while in Rwanda, but I am starting to get more efficient with my bucket baths and I now know exactly how much water (more like how little) I need to take a bath. I typically study a little in the mornings while eating my breakfast which for the past 2 weeks has been an amandazi (doughnut) and amatunda (passionfruit) but I have been lucky to sometimes get fresh eggs but the majority of my diet is very carb heavy. After breakfast, I walk over to my LCF’s house where we have language training for 2-4 hours. There are total of 3 of us being taught by one LCF and I for the most part really enjoy language classes. My group is hilarious and we are always laughing! After language, we grab lunch either from the market, one of the local restaurants, or from shops on the side of the road. I try to eat mainly fruits and veggies for lunch since my breakfast and dinner tend to be starchy. After lunch, we usually have a mixture of technical sessions, medical sessions, and cross-cultural sessions. We have started a workout group called Team Komera (to be strong) and we workout after classes end from 5-6pm on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. It has been super fun to workout as a group and relieve some stress at the end of our long day filled with sessions. I return home and usually sit outside and help my host mom cook dinner. I am generally in charge of cutting the vegetables. My host mom has taught me a lot about cooking and I am glad that she lets me help with stuff so I will know how to take care of myself when I get to my site. My host brothers are in school for most of the day so it is usually just mama and I in the house together. I am amazed at how much school my host brothers have. They have classes that start at 6am and then they are home for a quick lunch and then go back to school until 5/6pm. They are home for a snack and then go to “coaching” which I think is tutoring until 8:30pm. They have even longer days than me! To think that I used to complain about middle school or high school being from 8am-3pm seems crazy now when I compare the school schedules of Rwanda to America. My host mom and I typically eat dinner together which is usually rice, beans, dry cabbage, ibitoke (green bananas which taste like potatoes), and some fruits. A lot of people in my cohort have been having a variety of problems with their host families, but I have been so fortunate to have such an amazing family. Aside from all the bugs and lizards I encounter, my host family has been so caring and wonderful to me. I honestly feel like I have the best host family. They have made me a part of their family and I love talking with my host mom and dad and brothers in Kinyarwanda about what I have learned or just asking them more about their lives while we eat dinner together. I will then work on my own homework or help my host brothers with their English homework. I have not had any electricity (and obviously no running water) for more than 2 weeks now. Not having electricity has come with quite a few challenges but I am starting to get used to doing homework under the candle light. This means that I go to bed relatively early because it gets so dark outside by 6:30pm. I am in bed by around 8:30/9pm and usually will chat with my family or listen to some music to wind down.

Last Saturday, I came home from language class in the morning to find my host mom killing one of our family’s chickens. I was so shocked and horrified that I stood petrified while my host mom plucked it’s feathers off and then motioned to me to help her pluck the feathers off. The rest of my host family could not stop laughing as they watched my face and saw how terrified I was that they had killed the chicken who had become one of the family right in front of my eyes. My host mom continued to try to get me to help prepare the chicken but I ran away to my room. She then proceeded to serve the chicken to me for lunch. I could barely look at it. I took one bite and spit it out. I am officially becoming a vegetarian here in Rwanda. I have not been able to eat any of the meat here because I find it revolting. As traumatic as it was to watch a chicken being killed, it was still an experience that will be funny to look back on and will always be a story I can share with people.

The language has been very challenging over the past couple weeks and Peace Corps has expected a lot from us. I read several blogs before coming to Peace Corps and I never imagined how hard PST was going to be. Some days it feels exhausting and never ending. The past couple weeks we have been responsible for putting together presentations spoken all in Kinyarwanda regarding nutrition to facilitate in front of a group of PCTs and LCFs. I had mine this past Thursday and it was a very nerve-wracking experience. It was a very rough day for me and I definitely felt disappointed by what happened but I picked myself up and am going to keep working as hard as I can to learn Kinyarwanda. In a little over a week, I will have my mid-LPI which I am super nervous for! It will determine how much more language I need to reach the Intermediate-Mid level. Although this past Thursday was a really rough day for me, I had one of the most memorable and best days I have had since coming to Peace Corps on Friday. We arrived at our training hub on Friday morning and we were given a list of local ingredients and told to break off into groups of 3-4 to prepare either a traditional Rwandan dish or American dish to share as a group. I decided to join the Italian meat sauce and pasta group because that was a dish that I used to love making with my own family/friends back home. I have never though made the sauce completely from scratch or cooked it all using a charcoal stove. I had so much fun though with my group! I found cooking to be so relaxing and it reminded me of the times when I would host Thanksgiving or Christmas parties with my family and we would spend hours slaving and then enjoy all the delicious foods. It was amazing what we could do with so little and to see how resourceful our group was! It also felt a little like being on the show Top Chef because there were so many groups and charcoal stoves going but I had the best time. I jumped around and saw what other groups were making and then I joined my LCF and helped cut a million leaves of dodo (which is like spinach) and thousands of tomatoes, onions, garlic, and bell peppers to make another traditional Rwandan dish. We made fried rice, ibitoke, a fruit crisp (mangos and pineapples with granola), southern fried chicken, grilled steak, beans, rice, ifriti (french fries), apple pie, Italian pasta with salami meat sauce, and probably a million other dishes I am forgetting. We all shoved our faces with food and it was so delicious! After relaxing for a little, a group of us played soccer and then relaxed some more with reading, coloring, and listening to music. It was a day like that which made me realize that the positive moments are worth so much more than the hard days. It makes me so much more appreciative of the good days. If there is one thing I have learned in Peace Corps is that the next two years will be filled with a roller coaster of highs and lows but the good moments will always outweigh the bad.

The weeks are starting to blur together. We have so many things that we do in one day that it can sometimes be overwhelming. I have really enjoyed though all the sessions we have had pertaining to our work that we will be doing once we get to our sites. It makes the stressful moments we have had in training all worth it when I remind myself of the purpose of why I am here. In a few days, we will have site announcements! I will find out where my permanent site will be for the next two years of my service. I am extremely excited and nervous. We also being permagardening lessons this week and will then have our mid-LPI language check the next week. Also, two weeks from now we will get to spend a week visiting our future sites! There are a lot of exciting things coming up and I cannot wait to continue sharing with all of you my adventures here in Rwanda. I will try my hardest to post before leaving to visit my new site but my time is really limited here. Please continue reaching out to me via WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, or Snapchat. I love hearing from everyone back home and I am so thankful to have everyone’s support. I also can receive letters or care packages now! Contact me or my mom if you would like my address! Sending lots of love from Rwamagana!

xoxo

So much dodo.

The sweet girl I met while out running.

More dodo!

Selfies while sitting poolside in Rwanda on 4th of July.

Happy 4th of July!

My LCF, Charlotte, and I cooking dodo.

All the food we cooked as a group.

More 4th of July shenanigans.

Pre-Service Training: Weeks 3 and 4 Week 4 of PST is officially done! Today, also marks 5 weeks since I left home which is the longest I have ever been gone from home before.

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justtryingtocarpediem · 8 years ago

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Hey everyone! Happy 4th of July! I cannot believe that a month ago on June 4th I was making teary goodbyes to my family and friends and meeting my cohort for the first time in Philadelphia. Here I am writing this post poolside at a fancy hotel in Rwamagana with my cohort as we celebrate the 4th of July! I am back with an update on life here in Rwamagana as I had promised in my last blog post. I have officially finished my third week of Pre-Service Training (PST) and I have been gone from home for 4 weeks. There has been so much that has happened over the past 4 weeks that it is honestly hard for me to believe all of those things happened in the span of a month. This blog post may be a little lengthy so I apologize ahead of time, but I promise it will include several intriguing stories.

As our bus left our posh hotel in Kigali, we left behind the amenities we were privileged to have for our entire lives and took entirely too much for granted. Our bus winded through the Rwandan countryside and gave me my first real glimpse of this beautiful country. Whoever said Rwanda is the Land of a Thousand Hills definitely made a low-ball estimate. The hills seemed endless and I was amazed by how green and colorful this country is. The scenery provided for a great distraction from the butterflies in my stomach. I was incredibly nervous to be officially starting our PST and meeting our host families. We arrived at the training hub in Rwamagana after an hour long bus ride. Rwamagana is located in the Eastern Province of Rwanda. I did not know a lot about the East or Rwamagana besides the fact that is was dry, hot, and dusty. We would be spending the next 9 weeks living with a host family in this town for our Pre-Service Training. I never had the chance to live with a host family while traveling abroad so I was excited to experience it, but also incredibly nervous to be spending a little over 2 months living with people I had never met. After unloading our bus with our copious amounts of luggage, we were quickly ushered into the training hub and seated on the opposite side of the room from our host families who were waiting for us. The host family matching ceremony began promptly and I was the second volunteer called. I was so nervous I almost did not remember my name, the two Kinyarwanda phrases I had learned earlier in the day, or how to greet my host family properly. I stood up and tried to quickly survey the room. At first, I could not find my family but my host mama appeared and embraced me in a typical Rwandan hug. She then firmly grasped my arm and lead me back to where she was sitting with her two sons. Ironically, before the host family ceremony had begun, I had been scanning the room and noticed my host family. Almost intuitively, I felt that they might be my host family and I was right! It was fun to watch the rest of my cohort be paired with their respective host families. At the end, we celebrated in true Rwandan fashion with Fantas and then began collecting our luggage, water filters, jerricans, shower buckets, and medical kits. We were loaded into Peace Corps vehicles with all our excessive items and host families and then driven to our new homes for the next ten weeks! I waved goodbye to my fellow Peace Corps trainees who I had spent the past week with and followed my host family into their compound.

Before going more into the details of my first weekend with my host family and the first two weeks of training, I want to give a brief description of my host family. In my host family there is Mama Dorocelle, Papa Kareem, and my two brothers Husseini (age 13) and Sharifu (age 10). Mama Dorocelle stays at home and takes care of everything in the house. I admire her a lot and am amazed by her strength. She has already taught me so much in the short time I have been here. She speaks a handful of English that I think she has acquired over the years of having Peace Corps volunteers live with their family. Papa Kareem works as an umushoferi (driver) and always is incredibly nice to me. He does not speak any English but whenever I see him he is always warm and happy. He is gone most of the times for work so he usually is only in the house a few days of the week. Initially, I was a little nervous to have two host brothers because I have never had a brother before but Husseini and Sharifu are honestly the most respectful and mature boys I have met. They are so much more well-behaved than the teenage boys back home. I am constantly in awe of how great they are to me! They are both in school and they enjoy studying, playing football (soccer), listening to music, watching movies, and dancing. I hope this brief little intro to my family will help give a better picture of them.

While dragging all of my belongings into their house on my first day, I definitely remember thinking to myself “Wow, I guess I am really doing this!” and “Wait, what the heck am I doing here? Is this really happening?”. Everything felt so strange. My surroundings, the smells, the people, the culture, the lifestyle, and so many more things left me feeling completely overwhelmed and out of my comfort zone. The first afternoon/evening with my host family was filled with lots of awkward silences, unknown foods, and unfamiliar habits. I tried my best to communicate in my broken Kinyarwanda with my host family and interact with them but I only knew about 10 phrases so it consisted of me playing charades trying to explain things but eventually giving up because my family had no idea what I was talking about. Within 30 minutes of me arriving, my host brothers were already asking for me to show them movies on my laptop. I am the 6th or 7th volunteer they have hosted so I guess they were expecting every volunteer to show up with a collection of movies. I only brought all the I Love Lucy DVDs with me and 2 movies (The Sound of Music and Father of the Bride). They didn’t seem too amused by I Love Lucy but they enjoyed Father of the Bride. My LCF (Language and Cultural Facilitator), Charlotte, stopped by my house in the evening to check in on me and see if I had any immediate concerns. I went out to the latrine around 8pm and I discovered 4 huge cockroaches each the size of my palm crawling all over the latrine. I was terrified and decided that I did not really need to use the bathroom. I excused myself pretty early after eating dinner and was in bed by 9pm. Finally, I was alone in my room and surrounded by unfamiliar things. I did not have any data on my phone yet so I could not use WhatsApp to communicate with my Peace Corps friends or my family back home, which made me feel incredibly isolated and homesick. I definitely am not shy to say that my first weekend/week at my host family’s was really rough. The next morning, Sunday, I tried to start fresh with my host family. I took my first bucket bath, which was not that bad. I definitely miss hot showers but I can get used to bucket baths. The cold water feels fine if you just came back from working out. I tried to spend as much time as I could with my host family that day by studying Kinyarwanda with my host brothers, playing football with them, and watching my host mom cook. However, by the evening I was definitely feeling alone and sad. Being disconnected from everyone and being thrown into a place filled with unfamiliar things was really hard for me to adjust to. The cockroaches in my latrine also threw me for a loop. Seeing 8 huge cockroaches crawling right where I needed to go to the bathroom made me feel even more awful. My LCF again stopped by my house on Sunday evening and I told her I was unable to buy data for my phone so she took me to get data and finally I was able to call back home. It was a tough conversation with my parents and sister but I am really glad for their support. If they had not been strong while I was at a weak point, then I really do not know if I could have stuck it out here in Rwanda. Just hearing their voices and being able to talk with them instantly made me feel better and gave me hope and strength to keep pushing forward. Y’all the cockroaches almost sent me packing!

On Monday, we began our first official day of PST here in Rwamagana with a debriefing of our first weekend with our host families. I was never so excited to see my fellow cohort on that day! It was a relief to hear about everyone else’s challenges with their host families and to know that I was not alone with my fear of cockroaches. We had a few introductory sessions followed by a tour around Rwamagana and then we had our first language session with our LCF, Charlotte, and I really enjoyed it! I am with one other person for our language class so I am glad to be in a smaller group and I am so far really impressed with how Peace Corps teaches languages. After language, I ran into another group of people in my cohort who were heading to the market to buy igitenge (fabric) that we have to wear for taking bucket baths. After, we went to Relax bar and passed by my house where some of my friends met my host mom who was so sweet to all of us and gave us fruits. Tuesday was again filled with a variety of sessions but I was really enjoying it. My throat started to feel a little sore on Tuesday afternoon and I was pretty convinced it was from all the dust and smoke from the charcoal stoves. On Wednesday, I woke up feeling like I had a sore throat or cold but then my stomach started to have issues. I ended up getting incredibly sick on Wednesday evening and on Thursday I had to be taken to Kigali due to GI issues. It was rough and it was definitely hard to be away from home while I was sick. I was thankfully feeling better by Friday morning and I was able to return to Rwamagana and join the rest of my training group. I spent the weekend recovering and getting over my cold. I also hand washed my clothes and mopped my floor/organized my room. Hand washing my clothes was honestly not as bad as I was expecting it to be. It took about 45 minutes to wash my two weeks of clothing, however, to be fair my host mom did help me, but it went a lot faster than I expected it to. I remember reading a lot of blogs before coming and reading how terrible hand washing is and how time-consuming it is but it was not that terrible. I’m sure though after two years it will get old. Overall, my first week in Rwamagana was filled with a lot of ups and downs but I got through it and pushed forward and I am so thankful now that I did.

My second week in Rwamagana was a lot better. The days are long because of all the language and training sessions we have. I finally was able to start going for short runs here in Rwamagana. The altitude, hills, and the dirt roads though have definitely made me feel super slow but I am thankful to be getting back into a workout routine. The lifestyle and culture have been hard for me to adjust to. There are so many little things that I never used to think about in America but here in Rwanda I have been forced to become cognizant and appreciative of the lifestyle I had back in the states. Aside from the enormous bugs that constantly seem to be attracted to me, there are other challenges like following the cultural norms or adjusting to the lack of electricity, limited water, or the constant stares from the local Rwandans. Back in the states, I always read articles or saw documentaries about the challenges third world countries face like sanitation and hygiene. It was not until I came to Rwanda and started living like a local Rwandan that I finally understood why sanitation and hygiene is so hard to implement here. There are a lot of days where I have to sparingly use my water and prioritize whether I should use the water for my drinking water filter or for my bucket baths. The electricity is not the most reliable here and on a typical day it will come on and turn off for 5 mins or 10 mins and then sometimes it will come back on and sometimes it will not. The lifestyle is a lot harder and simple things take a lot longer but it has definitely given me respect for the locals who live like this and are so resilient. I have a lot of admiration for my host mom and host family. I get along great with all of them and they have been incredibly kind to me. My host mom has taught me how to light and cook on the charcoal stove. Lighting the stove is quite a process! On my first try I could not even light the match, however, I finally have learned how to light the charcoal stove using just one match. I am really proud of myself and I am glad that I will not starve when I get to my site in August. On my second full weekend in Rwamagana, I met my host mom’s sisters and some of my host dad’s family as well because of Eid. My host family is Muslim so we celebrated Eid and I spent a lot of time interacting with our guests and helping cook for everyone. My host brothers are adorable and I love spending time with them. I help them with their English homework and they help me with my Kinyarwanda homework. They are really respectful and are good about giving me space when I need it. I am pretty much up by 5:30/6am every day because the call to prayer from the mosque starts at 4:30am and as soon as that ends the rooster that my family has starts almost immediately after. Then my family is up and moving about so it is pretty hard to fall back asleep after 4:30am because of all the noise but I go to bed pretty early by 9/10pm since the sun sets by 6:30pm and it is super dark. I am really trying though to enjoy every moment I have here in Rwanda and take in every experience. As frustrating as some points have been over the past couple weeks, there is always something amazing that happens makes me forget about whatever I was frustrated or worried by. Even on the day where I was sick and walking home from school feeling terrible, I ran into a group of school kids who swarmed around me and immediately all wanted to give me a hug. There are so many more amazing experiences that I have had while here in Rwanda that makes me feel so appreciative of the journey I am on. If you have made it to the end of this blog post then I am super surprised! Thanks for reading and I will definitely be back and posting about weeks 3 and 4 here in Rwamagana! Sending lots of love back home! Take lots of hot showers and eat yummy American for for me.

The baby chick is my favorite.

So many chickens.

More of my host family’s compound.

Our rooster.

Can you find the two boys in this picture?

Laundry day.

My host family’s house!

Football.

Playing volleyball.

African sunsets.

Our visit to a health center in Rwamagana.

The rooster was in my room.

Praying it won’t rain on laundry days.

Hussein (age 13)

My adorable host brothers.

Morning run views.

1st care package from my amazing family!

xoxo

Rwamagana and Pre-Service Training: Weeks 1 and 2 Hey everyone! Happy 4th of July! I cannot believe that a month ago on June 4th I was making teary goodbyes to my family and friends and meeting my cohort for the first time in Philadelphia.

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justtryingtocarpediem · 8 years ago

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Farewell, America! Hello, Rwanda! This is my first blog post from The Land of a Thousand Hills. I have officially been in this beautiful country for a little over 10 days and I already feel I have experienced more than I could ever put into words. I am a little behind with posting so this first post will be about our first three days in Kigali. My following posts will cover PST (Pre-Service Training) and life in Rwamagana.

In my last post, my cohort and I were headed to JFK International Airport to catch a series of flights to Rwanda. We arrived at JFK an hour before we were allowed to check-in so most of us just sat around and chatted. When it was finally our turn to check-in for our flight, we ran into some problems with carry-on baggage weight restrictions. I have never had to weigh my carry-on items for any flight (international or domestic), however, Brussels Airlines made our group weigh our carry-ons. Of course, almost all 25 of us were scrambling to unload weight from our carry-ons into our checked baggage. In retrospect, it was pretty funny to watch our whole group with our suitcases and belongings strewn across JFK Airport. People were putting miscellaneous items into others suitcases or throwing away items. It was stressful, but we managed and miraculously all 25 of us boarded the plane headed to Brussels. While waiting for our plane to depart New York, it finally hit me that I would not be on American soil for at least a year or maybe even longer. It was a very terrifying, but also thrilling moment to realize that I was finally starting my Peace Corps journey.

We survived the first leg of the journey to Brussels and arrived on Wednesday, June 7 around 7AM. We had a 3-hour layover and then began our second and longest leg of the journey to Entebbe, Uganda. Finally, we took our last flight from Uganda to Kigali, Rwanda and arrived around 9PM. You could feel the excitement and curiosity in the air from myself and my cohorts who have all dreamed of landing in Rwanda—the country we would be spending the next 27 months in and serving as Peace Corps Volunteers in. As we stepped off the plane, the first thing I noticed about Rwanda was that it smelled like a campfire or bonfire in the summer, which I would later learn is the smell of charcoal burning on the imbabura. All of our baggage arrived as well and we were eagerly greeted by Peace Corps staff outside the airport. We were transported 10 minutes away to a hotel where we had our first Rwandan dinner and then allowed to head to our rooms and finally sleep in a bed. I will talk more about Rwandan food later in a later post. I traveled over 28 hours from California to get to Rwanda so I was pretty exhausted on Wednesday evening and did not have that much trouble falling asleep despite the time difference. On Thursday, I took my first cold shower which was not terrible, but also not amazing. We started the day with several sessions including meeting the Peace Corps doctors who gave us lectures on malaria, how to set-up and use our water filters, and we met with our Peace Corps Rwanda Health Project Team for a brief introduction. We then were taken to Peace Corps Rwanda Headquarters which was only a five-minute drive from our hotel but it was also our first experience having a chance to see Kigali in daylight. While at headquarters, we filled out copious amounts of paperwork and were taken to get Rwanda SIM cards for our phones and then had our medical interviews with our PCMOs (Peace Corps Medical Officers) where I was given the rabies vaccine and my malaria prophylaxis. It was an incredibly taxing day and by the end I could not wait to crawl in bed. Friday was our last full day at the hotel and it was spent attending Safety and Security sessions, Homestay Orientations, and language classes. We were split off into groups of 6 and taught basic greetings in Kinyarwanda. Before coming to Rwanda, the aspect of Peace Corps that most intimidated me was learning the language. I would definitely say that languages are not my forte. I am not exaggerating when I say Kinyarwanda is a difficult language, but the language classes have so far been relatively fun and I seem to be grasping it fairly well. I hope it stays that way! On Friday evening, I had to repack all of my essential items into one suitcase that we would be allowed to bring with us to our host families. We are not really sure why PC makes trainees do this, but it is not as bad as it seems. The rest of our nonessentials were stored in our other bag and left at our training hub which we have access to everyday so it really was not a big deal and I was actually thankful to have less luggage to keep track of. I am really looking forward to the day when we finally move out to our individual sites so that I can hopefully not have to live out of a suitcase and spend hours packing/repacking. I took advantage of the hotel Wi-fi on Friday night after re-packing and was able to connect with my parents and friends back home because I was not sure what my connection would be like once I got to Rwamagana. Saturday was our last morning in Kigali where we continued with some language sessions and were given other last-minute information about the plans for the weekend before we ate lunch, loaded the bus, and departed for our training town, Rwamagana.

From what we saw of Kigali, it was beautiful! It was a bustling city filled with hills and greenery. I was shocked at how clean it was. We did not get to see the downtown area or the nicer area of Kigali where the President lives, so I am excited to go back after we finish PST to explore a little more. I have heard how wonderful Kigali is and how it can be a great retreat after spending long periods of time at your village so I am looking forward to using it as a reprieve from village life. My first impressions of Rwanda have been great so far and I am ecstatic to see what the future holds for me here in this amazing country.

This photo was captured by a fellow PCT, Chris Winans, who is an amazing photographer and got this shot as we were flying over Africa around sunset.

Finally arrived in Kigali!

First night in Kigali.

Hotel lyfe.

Cold showers but I’m not complaining.

Views of Kigali.

Sunset in Kigali.

Peace Corps Health 9!

Sending lots of love from Rwanda!

xoxo

Murabeho, America! Muraho, Rwanda! Farewell, America! Hello, Rwanda! This is my first blog post from The Land of a Thousand Hills.

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