Telling stories since 2005
Despite the title, I want to reassure everyone that as of today, December 22nf I am still IN the Peace Corps, and have no immediate plans to leave. Although this could change at the whim of the US Government, I could be heading home via airplane at any given moment. Just know that as of…
1: # of x-rays taken 2: # of MRI’s taken [one of my head and one of my leg]; also number of instances I’ve been on med hold. 3: # of weeks I was on ibuprofen for the pain; 189 number of tablets actually taken during those three week. 0 number of times it helped….
I have officially been a Peace Corps Volunteer in Mbazi, Rwanda for an entire year! Honestly, the year has passed by faster than I could have ever imagined. But it hasn’t been without bumps along the way. I’ve suffered through extremely low self-confidence, I have dealt with unforeseen circumstances, I have survived parasites and a variety…
On the surface Mr Wendel actually has nothing to do with this post. However that is one of the first songs I remember hearing played on the radio, It’s all about poverty. In the US. Not some rural village in Rwanda. Wealthy When I worked my last shift at the hospital on June 2, 2018,…
Did I really just go to good ole ‘Murica? Only a few days back in Rwanda, and the entire trip back to South Carolina feels like a dream. I left Rwanda on a Saturday night and was in my own bed by Monday. Lucy and Molly inspected me with above normal curiosity… Maybe they know…
What is Umuganda? In Kinyarwanda, Umuganda roughly translates as ‘coming together to achieve a common goal’. It was originally started after Rwanda achieved independence in 1962. In the beginning, Umuganda was often called ‘umubyizi’ –and was a day set aside by friends and family to help each other. It officially became a government program in…
At home, I have a pile of foreign currency that I used to decorate my house. Some of the more colorful bills are framed; others are just in a jar, or more accurately, a glass block with the term ‘travel fund’ applied to it. It reminds me of places I’ve been, and I’m still just…
Another year has come and gone. I KNOW! How is that even possible? It seems like only yesterday I was packing my bags for Madagascar, and yet here we are. But Life, as life tends to do, happened, and my long awaited trip to Madagascar turned into a should I or shouldn’t I go to Rwanda. [Spoiler…
This is not the first year I haven’t been home for the Christmas holidays. As a registered nurse and before that a respiratory therapist, I’ve spent most of or at least part of nearly every Christmas in a hospital of some sort. Sometimes is was a children’s hospital where we got to ‘play Santa’ for…
In some ways, Rwanda reminds me a lot of the Southern United States… especially the rural South The food is pretty basic, but good cooks know how to jazz it up. People still believe in old wives tales [but here they are called something different]. Church still takes up a big part of your Sunday……