Peace Corps Rwanda

Swearing in

August 22, 2021 Peace Corps

 

On Tuesday August 14, 2018 despite any reservations anyone may or may not have had, I, along with 22 others was sworn in as a Peace Corps volunteer in Rwanda representing cohort Health 10.

Swearing in day

I wore a fancy dress. I even put on make-up. We danced on live TV. I listened to speeches given by my fellow trainees/volunteers. And another one by the Charge d’Affairs. And still more speeches by the Country Director, the Program Manager, the director of Training, a Ministry of Health official, and a tuitulaire. Some speeches were in English; some were in Kinyarwanda. Around noon, after starting nearly an hour behind schedule, I stood, raised my right hand, and swore to protect the constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic.

It’s the same oath everyone who works for the government takes including the US Military. I felt a momentary surge of patriotic pride. After becoming an official volunteer, we munched on snacks and Fanta, and mingled with the people there. All in all, it was one of the happier days since arriving in Rwanda.

All good things must come to an end, and around 1:30 we were escorted to immigration to get our Rwandan ID cards made. These cards mark our official residency status and in theory gives up Rwandan citizen status especially at places that charge a higher price for foreign tourists [Rwandan national parks, I’m looking at you].

Spending the day with Immigration

On Tuesday evening, after the ceremony and after immigration, nearly everyone went out for drinking and dancing. I know myself well enough to know that would have been a mistake on my part, so I spent a quiet evening at home—home, one again, being our Catholic nunnery.

Before anyone starts to feel sorry for me for ‘missing out’ on anything, having the nunnery to myself was pretty awesome. I had unlimited food and drink [I think I had 5 fantas and at least 2 plates of food], I was able to take a hot shower that lasted longer than 5 minutes [seriously, only my second since leaving America. The first one being at the PC infirmary a mere two weeks prior]. Without any competing devices, I was able to use the internet to my hearts’ content, download books to my Kindle, movies to my hard drive, and even video chat on WhatsApp. I had a perfectly enjoyable evening doing the things I love with the people I love,. Bonus points for no hangover the next day!

Thanks to a Catholic holiday, we had a free day on Wednesday saving the actual moving until Thursday. Most stores thankfully not Catholic and were open for business. I’m not a huge shopper, but I did enjoy hanging out at the bookstore with the rooftop bar, getting my gas stove and a few other home goods, and going to the grocery store getting some food favorites in preparation for my first weekend alone.

Final good-byes

Thursday morning involved moving all the stuff that had been stored in a room up to the parking lot. From there things were divided into smaller groups. Finally things were loaded in a moving truck. I was surprised as anyone when everything was loaded, and two volunteers’ stuff for two years fit in one Toyota pick-up truck. Good byes were said; tears were shed, and off we went [I admit to remaining mostly stoic until one of my Northern friends hugged me and had tears in her eyes. Then my eyes did the same]. With bananas and bread in hand [who can eat breakfast at an emotional time like this] plus a couple bottles of water, my fellow volunteer and I set off to the South.

I see my orange backpack in the mix of PCV stuff

I still can’t believe nothing fell off the truck while we were moving. This is two volunteers’ things.

We dropped her off first, and I was a little envious of her site. A proper house with a small front porch, right in town, with neighbors for visiting. Her HC happened to be a 15 minute or so walk which is just about perfect.  [I can hear the babies being vaccinated from inside my house].

Somewhere between her site an mine

After she was ‘installed’, we bumped along back roads for about an hour until we reached Nyanza. The dirt roads once again turned to pavement. Another 30-45 minutes later, we pulled up to my house. We unloaded things and tested the gas stove [it worked!], and suddenly I was alone. Truly alone for the first time in quite some time.

You’re on your own, kid

I had planned for this eventuality, had ample international phone credit and data, and set about to making my first meal in my ‘new home.’ [It was delicious].  I unpacked a few things, hung some wall decor, made my bed [pulling out my quilt for the first time], and listened to some tunes.  Later on, I called some friends. Past experiences have taught me that I don’t make the best decisions when I’m either hungry, angry, lonely, or tired, and on my first night here, I was two of the four.

On Friday, I made my way down to the city, to get a few more food items, went to the bank, met some current volunteers, had some Chinese food, and start to figure out how all this works.

I am in a small village in rural Rwanda. The old way of completing tasks is no longer an option.

This is my new normal.

 

 

Umuganda, you say? What the heck is that?

July 26, 2021 Featured Post Peace Corps

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 1974. The last Saturday of the month is umuganda day and lasts from about 8am until 1p. Officially.

History of Umuganada

Initially, Umuganda did not go over well with Rwandans. Rwandans considered it forced labor, but due to its significant achievements in erosion control and infrastructure improvement – especially building projects– people came to like it and participated in it voluntarily. The 1994 Rwandan genocide disrupted the spirit and practice of Umuganda. It was re- introduced in 1998 as part of reunification efforts. Often times Umuganda projects are still the way community projects are completed.

Who participates in Umuganda?

On Umuganda day, the Rwandan government encourages Rwandans and others [*ahem Peace Corps Volunteers*] to participate. Rwanda requires citizens between 18 and 65 to participate [unless medically compromised or pregnant]. Participation by those above 65 years and below 18 year is optional. To *encourage* participation, public transportation is stopped, restaurants are closed until noon, and most market stalls are closed. [Woe to the PCV who is not in his/her community because getting there is a bitch, and Thanks Peace Corps Rwanda Staff for scheduling almost all our training sessions to end on the Saturday morning of Umuganda which makes getting back to site before dark a real challenge.]

Additionally, Umuganda also serves as a forum for leaders at each level of government to inform citizens about important news and announcements. Community members are also able to discuss any problems the community is facing and propose solutions. So it’s easy to see how umuganda can last all day.

Benefits of Umuganda

Rwanda is the cleanest country in Africa. Rwanda first banned plastic bags in 2008 in an effort to limits the amount of roadside trash. Incredibly, one can be jailed for using plastic bags. [This knowledge did not stop me from smuggling in nearly 250 ZipLoc bags of varying sizes. I know, I’m a rebel.]

The tourist sections of the country are incredibly clean as umuganda projects are often about cleaning up the roads; however, in the non-tourists areas, rural areas, or ‘real Rwanda’, trash is still a problem mainly because there is no centralized collection. People burn their trash or throw it in the latrine. I’ve personally taken trash from my home (especially plastic bottles) and threw it away when in cities where public trash cans were sometimes available. I don’t know that this is the best solution, but living so close to a larger city, it’s an option for me. I really don’t like burning plastics.

Economically, Umuganda adds a lot back into the local economy. Since 2007, labor associated with Umuganda contributed more than US $60 million to the country’s development. Some reports estimate more. Like a lot of things in Rwanda, umuganda sounds good in theory but often translates poorly in practice. Sometimes too many people show up for one project; sometime not enough people show up. In the poorer areas, people often refuse to show up especially during harvests because time is literally money. Some people see the value of education. Some are too poor to pay school fees, and therefore don’t want to waste time on a school.

It’s difficult to enforce umuganda laws if one simply stays home. However, the government imposes a fine of 5000RWF if one misses Umuganda duty. Here’s a link from NPR about a story they ran in July 2018 about umuganda. Here’s a clip showing Rwanda’s president participating in Umuganda.

“I’m bored” and other Peace Corps thoughts

November 18, 2018 Peace Corps

As a kid, rule #1 was to never say ‘I’m bored” around adults. Inevitably, that would lead to the assigning of some chore that I REALLY did not want to do. As a fairly inventive kid, I was rarely bored. I read., built things and explored. I wrote stories and drew pictures. Sometimes, I talked to my friends on an actual telephone. In the house.. Anything to not tell the adults “I’m bored'”

In that regards, Peace Corps Volunteers are like kids and Peace Corps Staff are like adults. Boredom lives in the Peace Corps and everyone knows it, but no one says it. Peace Corps Volunteers around the world are in charge of their own schedule. For Peace Corps Rwanda Health, our schedule should mirror our counterpart, but at minimum, we should ‘work’ 20 hours/week. But what if your assigned counterpart has fled the country and works zero hours? Or the other one shows up 5 hours late because of ummm ‘excessive alcohol consumption’? Or you show up to the health center at 7a as you are told to do for a meeting, and sit on a hard wooden bench for an hour and no one shows up to said meeting.. What happens then?
There’s no time clock to clock in and out and in theory, PCVs should create schedules with their counterparts. But in my case, with no actual counterpart, what’s a PCV to do? 20 hours a week is approximately 11.9% of a week. How do I fill the other 88%.? I wonder around the ikigonderabuzima and look for friendly faces. Sometimes I end up in pharmacy and count pills and fill prescriptions [oooh pharmacy tech, I know how to do this job]. Other times I end up in maternity and see babies [oooh NICU nurse, I know how to do this job]. Sometimes I end up in an educational lecture [oooh, topic educator, I can do this too–just not in kinya]. Yet, other times I help unload deliveries [ooooh, inventory specialist, I can do that too]. Sometimes, and lately this has been my favorite thing to do, I peruse daily ledgers to see why people are coming to the health center [actual community health] and tally the number of cases of each admission. Then I sort by gender and age range. [oooh. beginning epidemiology]. I love doing this task mostly because it doesn’t require me speaking to people and I since government documents are in Kinyarwanda, Kiswahili, French, and English, I get exposure to all 4 languages. Sometimes I bring my radio and listen to Rwanda radio and spend literally 8 hours in my office without seeing another soul. [I know, bad volunteer. We are supposed to be out meeting and greeting and gaining fluency in our language[s],] I’m very productive with the ledgers and can categorize large volumes of info into readable reports. Sometimes I weigh babies. [I can practice numbers in French and Kenya! and get tongue-tied over Rwandan names]. There is freedom to do literally anything.
Some PCVs bury themselves in their projects; some spend two years doing nothing. Some use weekends to travel around the country they are in; while others are “site rats” and barely leave their site. [This is 100% not me It’s my goal to visit everyone in my cohort’s site at least once. I don’t think the PC director would approve of that goal, but I’m going for more Rwanda integration than ‘site integration’]
Be Present. Just Be Present. That’s a feat that most Westerners cannot accomplish.–especially Americans. Peace Corps is the perfect opportunity for volunteers to release themselves from the American mindset of always being occupied or productive in a fast-paced society. I’ve gained an appreciation for unstructured time with family, friends and neighbors, hours of uninterrupted reading time (34 books and counting in 6 months)  But here  I am finding ways to keep myself entertained [yay for only child experience] , and these past 6 months are changing me and clarifying the future version of myself. Whether I like it or not, it’s changing me, and that is something powerful. I’m growing so much more aware of who I am, where I am, what I can give, and where I’m going.
sometimes people show up SEVERAL hours after the scheduled meeting time
Here’s some things I do when I’m bored (I mean really bored) at site.
  • Go on a walk
  • Listen to music and stare at the wall
  • Play with #notmycat and her babies
  • Play solitaire
  • Play banana grams by myself
  • Look up words in my Kinyarwanda/French/English dictionary and try to learn 2 languages at the same time
  • Look up “cost of living in Washington, DC” Or Washington state. Or London. Or Canada. Fall down the rabbit hole of ‘where can RNs work internationally’
  • Look up qualifications to work for MSF
  • Begin to lear Arabic despite not knowing anything about Arabic nor having anyone to speak Arabic with.
  • Speak with my neighbor in German because my German is much better than my Kinyarwanda or French
  • Make up entirely non-plausible stories in my head about living in Rwanda and speaking more German than any of the 4 official languages of the country.
  • Daydream about going on safari.
  • Read, read, read, and read some more
  • Study for the GRE
  • Make some tea
  • Do some yoga
  • Write a blog post
  • Plot revenge
  • Take a bucket bath inside my house and use the excess water to ‘mop’ the floor
  • Watch pirated movies
  • Take a three hour nap
  • Stay up until 3 am because that’s the only time I can hear myself think
  • Sort out my photos
  • Write letters to friends
  • Teach myself how to photoshop on pirated software
  • Journal, journal, journal
  • Put on a face mask
  • Plan a trip to Uganda, Kenya, and/or Tanzania
  • Plan a trip to Zimbabwe/Zambia
  • Make plans to live abroad permanently including how and where
  • Check on my bucket garden
  • Chop vegetables
  • Make grocery aka market lists
  • look up new recipes that can be made with village supplies
  • practice suturing my fake arm
  • read more books
  • listen to music
  • try to remember how to solve math problems
  • investigate taking the foreign service exam
  • WhatsAPP other PCVs

Remember why I’m here  and how joyful this whole experience is despite the ample free time!

From Trainee to Volunteer 5: Home wasn’t built in a day

September 30, 2018 Hideaway Peace Corps

This is the last post in my series From Trainee to Volunteer relating the trials and tribulations transitioning from Peace Corps’ Trainee to Peace Corps’ Volunteer [See the others here: Swearing In, Site, Goals, and Expectations]

Mbazi, Rwanda

[now that I’m no longer an active PCV I can disclose my exact location of my Rwanda home]

The first time I cried during Peace Corps service was Monday during site visit.  We arrived on Saturday, and that Saturday morning was last meal. The health center ‘lost’ the keys to the side rooms. I had no toilet. Or kitchen. PC headquarters didn’t offer any assistance. I only used the HC toilet and didn’t bathe for the entire week. [Yeah, by Friday, I was pretty disgusted by myself].

I brought snacks—peanuts, eggs, chips, a couple of bananas and 8L of water smuggled out of St Agnes. I didn’t realize that these snacks would be my only food for three days. I went to work that Monday morning in a state of shock. I came back at lunch, went in the room that is now the kitchen, sat on the floor and cried. Big, giant ugly tears. I was hungry. I didn’t know where anything was to even get food.

Other volunteers were staying with host families and current volunteers. I was in a two room house with no electricity. [Let me clarify that the house has electricity; I just had no way to access it during site visit]. I called my friend and said ‘I have to get out of here now’. To his credit, he didn’t say ‘just tell me when to pick you up.’ He probed around for the cause of my mini-mental breakdown. We created a plan for getting me food which would lead to a better head space. One that was more equipped to deal with the challenges of serving in the Peace Corps.

Mbazi–part 2

All this to say that it was not love at first sight at my site. I arrived late in the afternoon on Thursday and the first thing I did was set up a basic kitchen.  We’d missed lunch and St. Cristus’ breakfast was not nearly as complete as the St. Agnes’ breakfast. I knew that the last thing I wanted was to have another meltdown due to lack of food. I still did not know where anything was. I had pots and pans and a special bag of food I’d gotten in Kigali in preparation for making my first meal.

First Peace Corps’ meal at site

Making a home

Later on a full belly, I set about unpacking and settling in. I hung my US Flag, SC flag, US map and UT flag on the walls.  I hung two large ikitenge fabrics on the walls. I made my bed then sat on the couch and opened up my first care package [from me]. While eating a Heath Bar [that amazingly didn’t melt] and reading going away cards/letters, I formulated a plan to turn the two rooms on the corner into something of a home.

‘Murica, the great state of South Carolina, and the University of Tennessee make up the wall decor in my living room

My bedroom has these amazing brown curtains that have hung in every place I’ve lived since 2009. My bed has two pillows [from home], a nice weight quilt [from Target] and a fuzzy blanket [from T-2000]. Next to the bed, my large duffel bag now serves as an end table. I keep all my electronic cords here since it’s near the outlet and I use electronics in bed anyway. [I know…I know…bad sleep hygiene].

The large green bucket has many uses but most of the time it serves as my dirty clothes container. I have a small trash can that I put trash in. On the floor I have my small rug [purchased in Rwamagana] that allows me to walk around barefoot. The accordion wall hanger, an over the door hanger and about 15 nails make this room ‘homey’. Lastly I’ve hung a few photos up on one side of over my bed, and cards, notes, and motivational sayings on the other side.

I had a local carpenter make a table that I sit my two metal chests on. [The smaller chest contains socks, underwear, tank tops, ect and the larger one tops and pants.

Bicycle delivery of two tables costing approximately $20 each; also you can see the health center where I work in the back ground.

My living room is more generic with the sofa, two chairs, and coffee tables all belonging to the landlord. In this room, I just moved the furniture to a different location than where the previous volunteer had it. I hung up the flags, added some glow in the dark stars, another accordion wall hanger, and a hook for my moto helmet. I have a small stool and two basins by the front door for no other reason than I don’t know where else to put them and that space looks empty.

The curtains hanging over the two windows and front door I made myself from a panel of ikitenge fabric I’d bought because I liked it, but had no idea what to do with it. I also like that it’s black, and although not black-out does a decent job of keeping it dark. I keep the windows open nearly 24/7 [I know…. I know… bad example for preventing malaria], and most of the time the breeze coming in keeps it pretty cool in here.

The latrine is your basic squatty potty, but instead of just having a hole directly underneath, this one has a concrete step and is built at an angle.  So I have to pour water in after I use it to ensure the products end up in the intended destination. I have to ‘flush’ my latrine.

I’m most impressed with my little shower room. I still don’t shower every day [for example, I’m not getting naked outside when it’s cold out], but this room makes is a lot nicer when I do. I keep all my supplies together so it’s a ‘just add water’ situation when I do shower. It still smells like shit but what can you expect when it’s located next to the cow stalls and has ‘open-air ventilation.’

The kitchen

Finally on the tour of my little house on the corner is the kitchen. I spend more daylight hours in this room than any other, and not because I’m in there cooking all the time. Twenty five nails in the wall have made this kitchen a home. I have a place for the pots and pans, the hand towels, the oven mitts, coffee mugs, and kitchen utensils.

gas stove and water

One table, courtesy of the health center, holds my gas stove, PC-issued water filter, and a dish drain. I had a table similar to the one in my bedroom made and keep it in the kitchen. I use this one for food prep and dry goods storage. The 4 tier plastic shelf holds fruits and vegetables as well as plates and plastic storage. 

Food storage and prep area

The chair in the corner was relocated from the house. I moved it from the bedroom to the kitchen. It gives me a place to sit ‘outside’ but still inside. I also have a small stool and two basins that are put into use when I’m doing dishes or laundry.  My favorite pieces are the two shelves I made from scrap wood.  I’ve got one hanging in the kitchen as a spice rack of sorts, and the other in the shower room holding toiletries.

Spice rack, pot storage, and dish towels

I still miss my little house in the country, and the two kitties that live there, but over the last month, taking the time to make this a little space a little more like me, makes it easier to be away from my ‘real’ home.

 

From Trainee to Volunteer 4: Expectations and living under pressure

September 23, 2018 Peace Corps

This is the 4th post in the series From Trainee to Volunteer [See the others here:  Swearing in, Site, and Goals]. This one is all about expectations. During PST and even before, Peace Corps tell its trainees not to have expectations because whatever expectations you may have  [good or bad] will not be met. Come into service with a blank slate so to speak, and you’ll have a chance to mitigate disappointments.

BUT…

Back home, my jobs had clear expectations, and there was an accepted ways of doing things. Be at work on time [call if you are going to be late], take care of assigned patients/customers, don’t be a smart ass, and don’t kill anyone. You know, the basics. How exactly said job was accomplished was generally left to me, and as long as I didn’t break any rules [or laws for that matter], I was generally left alone to do said job, and ask for help when needed.

Peace Corps jobs are a little different. 

One month in and I still haven’t met the boss. I don’t know who he is. We met once at the supervisor conference we had in training. I still don’t have a schedule or any semblance of a schedule. I don’t know when ‘work’ starts. I’ve shown up at 7am and have been late and shown up at 8a and been early. I still don’t know what I am supposed to be doing or how to do it. Oh yes, I have my site goals, but without support and honestly without a plan those are just ideas. 

My assigned counterpart doesn’t show up to work a lot of the time which leaves me to either sit in the office, go home, or just find something to do. I’ve been ‘finding something to do’, but when I mentioned this to PC HQ, I was told to ‘not be so flexible’. It’s damn near impossible to co-create, co-teach, co-plan, co-present, co-anything when the person you are supposed to be co-ing is unreliable [PC’s new mantra is Co-co-co… We should never be doing any projects on our own; every project needs to have a counterpart… something about fostering sustainability and having local-level buy-in so when I leave, the project continues on…]

Integration

During the first three months, the focus is on ‘integration’. Integration includes meeting neighbors, establishing a house, getting comfortable in said home, learning more Kinyarwanda, basically allowing the community to ‘see me.’ Peace Corps describes my job as to be seen.  And for an introvert like me, being seen is hard. Talking to strangers in a language I don’t have full mastery of is hard. Meeting and greeting people is hard.

Just out for a stroll…looking to meet people

I set little goals for myself each day. Some days it’s ‘go to the AM meeting at the health center. [Even though there’s a 99% chance that I won’t understand most of what is said and isn’t applicable to me]. Walk across the street and talk to my neighbor for 3-5 minutes [this is cheating because we talk in German most of the time]. Go to the market and buy some things. [I now have an egg guy and a tomato lady that seem nice and don’t try to rip me off]. Talk to the HC staff. Sit outside [weather permitting] and cook, or wash dishes or do laundry…

It doesn’t seem like much, but some days it’s exhausting. Usually on Saturdays I don’t leave my house. [I love Saturdays]. I do laundry, cook, and fetch water, but I don’t often leave the front gates. Previous and current volunteers tell me that going slowly in the first few months are the best approach. Show up, be available, and be friendly. If I can do that, I will have a successful service.

From Trainee to Volunteer 3: Peace Corps Goals

September 9, 2018 Peace Corps

PC | Rwanda is trying something new with our cohort of Health volunteers [He10] called site goals. In theory, PC and Health center staff work together to create site goals prior to a volunteer’s arrival.  Once again, in theory, this gives the volunteer a little more direction on where the PCV should be focusing his/her time.  Site goals are developed to be completed over a period of 6+ years using 3 volunteers total.  Volunteer 1[He10] is the plan/lay ground work person. Volunteer 2 [He12] is the carry out the plan person and volunteer 3 [He14] is the wrap up person. In theory, after 6 years the site will ‘graduate’ and no longer need a PCV.

Like I said, all this is great in theory, but putting it in practice is another beast entirely.  For example, I am the forth volunteer at my site. In theory my site should have ‘graduated’ already. People here are somewhat used to having a volunteer around doing various projects. They are used to telling a PCV what they’d like to have. Then the PCV working on it either by education, tangible building projects, or receiving a grant. Site goals create some issues with that.

Site Goals

For example, my site goals include reducing childhood malnutrition to 0%. The second goal is to increase women delivering babies at the health center from 15% to 50%. However, villagers have different goals. When interviewed both the staff and some of the inhabitants of the villages, said that bad hygiene practices/lack access to clean water is a more pressing issue than women having babies at home. Health center workers report malaria is a bigger an issue than women having babies at home.

It’s hard enough to convince people that have limited access to water that washing hands is important let alone to convince a women in labor to walk up to 2 hours to the health center to give birth, stay for about 24 hours, and then walk back 2 hours post-partum while carrying a newborn. If I were in their place, I wouldn’t do it. So nutrition, hygiene, and malaria are what I’ll be working on. He12 and He14 can tackle the women giving birth at the HC issue.

So, while PC has their goals, I have mine, and they have absolutely nothing to do with PC’s site goals. I’ve identified 5 goals I’d like to work on in the next two years, and to be honest, they’d be the same goals I’d work on back in America.  Instead of NEW YEAR’S resolutions, think more along the lines of NEW LIFE resolutions.

Goal 1

  • Lose weight.  Lack of motivation to exercise combined with unhealthy eating practices [I really don’t enjoy cooking and eating meals on the go] and schedules all over the place [should I eat a full meal at midnight?  Or what about breakfast at 8am even though I’ve just worked 12+ hours] has led to an unhealthy weight gain. Add that to the 50 pounds I gained while on high dose steroids for six months, and you have a chunky Michelle. I’ve already lost about 10kg in the 3.5 months I’ve been here. I just need to keep it up and keep it going.
    • Goal 1.2: Commit to an exercise program that will be possible to maintain whether I’m in my village, my country house, or traveling back and forth to work/school every day. Right now, that’s yoga, and while I’m still finding it difficult to make it a daily habit, I am finding it easier to start back when I miss a couple of days. #progressnotprefection.

I can no longer wear those pants without them literally falling off, and that shirt has room enough in it for a small animal.

Goal 2

  • Learn to cook. Well. While I can cook, and have no doubt that I can cook well enough not to starve, with [extremely] limited options for dining out, I need to learn to cook a variety of things with very limited ingredients. Learning not to rely on quick cook foods, frozen dinners, and snacks is like rewiring my brain. And since my primary goal here is nutrition, I should be [at least] a better example. To that end, one of my fellow PCVs is teaching me how to cook all sorts of interesting things… all from scratch… all from common ingredients that we find in the market.  We meet periodically to buy fresh ingredients from the market and whip up something delicious while watching a movie. These recipes are featured in posts called Cooking in the Corps.

    a pot of beans anyone? As a native to the southeastern US, this is considered comfort food. Also easily attainable I Rwanda.

    Goal 3

  • Apply to NP school. I’ve only found one school that advertises the degree I want [dual FNP/PMHNP], but it is possible to combine programs at other school to get the same program offered at the one school. To this end, I am taking the GRE at home in February. Some schools require it; others don’t, but it will be easier to take it in the US versus trying to schedule it in Rwanda. At present I have a list of five [with two others in reserve that only offer the FNP portion so I’d have to apply to a different school to do a post-masters PMH] schools I plan to apply to [I can’t afford any more on a Peace Corps’ budget]  They are as follows [in no particular order]: UTHSC [the only school I’ve found that offers the dual program], UT-Knoxville [the only school on the list that offers a Coverdell scholarship], USC [they have both degree programs; they don’t have the dual degree as an option], Frontier Nursing University, Eastern Kentucky University [both have both options available; neither have a dual program], and the two schools in reserve are both South Carolina schools that only offer the FNP degree [meaning I’d have to go to a second school for the PMH degree] Clemson University and Francis Marion University. My goal is to start no later than Spring Term 2021.

Goal 4

  • Learn photoshop.  I have a copy of Photoshop Elements downloaded on my computer. I barely know how to do much more than crop. I’ve got nearly 50000 photos on my hard drive that need editing so I’ve got a lot of material on which to practice.
    • Sub-goal 2: Edit and organize said photos
    • Sub-goal 3: Re-design the blog and ensure every post has at least one photo in it.

Goal 5

  • Strengthen relationships. This one is kind of esoteric. However,  there are 2 [very important] outliers, the people important in my life today are people I’ve met in the last five years. These are the people I call when I’m down. People I WhatsApp with regularly. And the people who send me mail and care packages. These are the people I draw strength from when I think about quitting; and the people I don’t want to disappoint. This also applies to PC friendships too. I’ve identified a couple of others who have a similar outlook on Peace Corps service and life. We contact each other weekly/daily about how life is going at site, what’s coming up, just life in general. Facebook and other social media apps make keeping in contact with others a whole lot easier than it was say 1998… I don’t think I would have survived PC circa late 90’s/early 00’s when technology was available, but oh so hard to access… especially in the developing world.

The best co workers on the planet

My favorite children at their favorite place

New friends are awesome too

Learning a language that will never be used again

August 12, 2018 Featured Post Peace Corps

One week later…

On our second day in Rwanda, our group of 24 trainees was split into six groups, and I sat beside three other trainees watched our Language and Cultural Facilitators, act out a short dialogue.

They stood a few feet apart, facing away from each other, then turned around and began to walk slowly with their heads down, as if they were walking along a street. Then they make eye contact with each other and one, and upon doing so, one of them breaks into a wide smile and exclaimed “Muraho!” to his freind. On cue, after hearing this, the other also grinned and returned the word.

“Muraho!”

The dialogue then came to a quick end. Upon ending, each of our language teachers looked at our group inquisitively. “Iki ni iki?”. They continued to stare at us, in silence, waiting for someone to respond.

I stared right back not knowing what a ichie or a nichie was. I’m a little unusual in the fact that silence does not bother me. I can sit comfortably in a room full of people and never say a word. I attribute that to my psych background.

Our teachers, still smiling, said nothing but went back and repeated the little sketch, beat for beat. After saying Muraho! to each other again, they repeated their question: “Iki ni iki?”. The lightbulb then managed to click in someone’s [read: not my] mind. “Oh! They are just asking us what Muraho means. 

Someone [read: not me] said “It means hello!”. We all nodded with recognition.  Oh, so this is how language class in Peace Corps was going to go. I am so fucked…   

“Yego!”, they said laughing.

As they continued, some of the smaller and more basic words were written down on flip chart paper [I never knew I could hate an object so incredibly much, but I’ve come to despise flip-chart paper], with their English definitions so we could reference them consistently.

  • Yego means yes.
  • Oya means no.
  • Iki means what.
  • Murabyumva means, do you understand?
  • Iki ni iki means, what is it/this?

On this first day, our little group buzzed with excitement. The teachers continued to act out small dialogues in lieu of telling us the words by didactic translation. They waved to each other and walked away, saying to each other “Mwirirgwe!”

Someone [again, read: not me]  blurted out ‘goodbye?’ and correct guesses would be rewarded with an enthusiastic “Yego!” and wrong guesses earned a soft and disappointing “Oya…”. 

“Amakuru?” means, how are you? We figured out slowly.

“Ni meza” means, I’m good.

“Wowe?” means, and yourself?

tiny Rwandan bananas; sometimes used to supplement breakfast
banana–a universal word in the Western hemisphere… In Rwanda it’s umuneke

 

One. Month. Later.

I have Double Language today. Double Language. Four straight hours. No snacks. Can’t I just get food poisoning for the day?

On a random morning about one month in, I thought this to myself as I walk to language class. The thought rattles around my mind with every step down the road.  DoubleLanguage. DoubleLanguage.

No matter how many times I’ve mentioned that I’d prefer both fruit AND eggs for breakfast, I rarely get both. Some days it’s one or the other, and thankfully not all that often, it’s neither. Today, it just a piece of stale bread. Walking to my language teacher’s class, I kept thinking ‘no snacks today because double language…I need snacks because the stale sweet bread I got for breakfast just isn’t cutting it.‘

In the one short month I have been here, I have lost nearly 15 pounds and I have learned one thing: I need protein in order to function. And I need lots of protein to function optimally. And my Rwandan diet, has been lacking protein  at almost every meal. As a result, I feel sluggish most of the time and randomly emotional. As every American knows, BREAKFAST is the most important meal of the day and why Rwandans think one piece of bread and tea is a proper breakfast is beyond me. 

But here I am. 

On the day with double language, my breakfast is stale sweet bread. And water. Prisoners get better food than this.

But like the semi time-conscious American I am, I arrive for DoubleLanguage right at 7:45am.

OK 7:50

I am here because the schedule says to be, and despite my proclivities for being a free-spirit and not planning anything, one thing I am not is late. At least not in Rwanda. Additionally, Peace Corps emphasizes in our training sessions to ‘Respect Time‘; however, none of my classmates nor the teacher are here. So I sit, in a plastic chair and nibble on my stale sweet bread, and drink my water… 

Best to fuel up, I mumble to no one in particular.

By 8:00, my other classmates have arrived and my teacher begins asking questions. All in Kinyarwanda, of course.

The teacher asks ‘What did you eat for breakfast?’

I fumble, my brain searching for the right words.  Oh…past tense… we haven’t learned that yet. Kurya… the verb for to eat… How do you conjugate it again?  

M-fee-tay ke-ke na a-ma-zi….I sputter out and produce said cake and water as evidence that I do in fact HAVE cake and water…not that I was avoiding the question

And this is how every language class goes. We are asked questions. I translate what I think I hear from Kinyarwanda into English in my mind. Then I think of what vocabulary I actually have in order to answer the question, and do I have the ability to conjugate that verb correctly? Once I run through this scenario in my mind, I compose the sentence in Kinyarwanda and then sputter out an answer that could come from a 2-year old child.

Gusa?  My teacher asks. 

She wants me to expand on that phrase. Make it a sentence or preferably a paragraph. 

“Donna-ni-way can-di da-shon-jay”, I answer, with a smirk. I am tired and I am hungry. All day every day, I am tired and hungry. One question down, four hours to go. Class has just begun, and it’s another two hours until there’s a break long enough to get snacks.

I could really go for a fruit salad right about now

Challenges

Not unsurprisingly, learning Kinyarwanda is considerably different from anything I’ve ever tried to learn in my life. I’ve always considered myself ‘decent’ at learning languages. I’m semi-fluent in Spanish and have safely navigated around using Portuguese, French, Romanian, German, and Russian in addition to English and Spanish. But Kinyarwanda is different… just listening to it makes my head spin. I’m six weeks in and I am still very much at an elementary level. I don’t need an exam to tell me that.

My host family has had 8 previous volunteers so they are used to speaking slowly and enunciating words properly and switching to French when I answer their questions with blank stares. Learning a language by immersion is exhausting. It takes a significant amount of mental energy, commitment, and time; and these three things are required every single day. After a long language session, I am exhausted…even more so than days requiring physical labor.

When I hear Kinyarwanda, I have a hard time understanding it. My language progress checks with my teachers also reflect this fact. [Mid LPI result on July 7, I scored Novice-Mid. Final PST LPI on August 7, I’m up to an Intermediate-Low, but don’t worry, we’ll be tested again in three months where I’m sure I’ll have the exact same level, because this language does.not.make.any.sense to me].

Speaking the language is also difficult, although I would argue it is not quite as difficult as listening. This is in large part because as a native English speaker the sentence structures, particularly of questions, are almost entirely backwards. In Kinyarwanda, question words almost always go at the end of sentences.

For instance, “Ukora iki”, means, what do you do?; but literally translates to “You do what?”. It is like that for just about everything. You are here why? This is what? The market is where? In addition to putting question words at the end, adjectives go after nouns; this is similar to Spanish. But when you put these two elements together, it forces your brain into cryptic problem solving mode anytime you have to say a sentence with any more than 5 words.

When I think to myself a moderately detailed sentence like, “What do your American friends like to do?”, my head spins. The question word goes to the end, there are plural words, there are possessive words, there is one adjective. It all goes completely out of what we would consider “order”: Inshuti wawe muri Amerika bakunda gukora iki?  That translates literally to: Friends yours in America they like to do what? It’s a difficult puzzle to solve each and every time. Don’t forget to blend Gukora and Iki … or they’ll know you are not native Rwandan.

The words for things, and the lack of words for thing captures stark differences between American and Rwandan culture. There is no word for “Please”. You can just tell people to do things, and it’s not considered rude. At all. As evidenced by all the people coming up to me saying ‘Give me money.’ No please. Just declaring. And I will always think that it is rude. Cultural differences be damned.

Some of my favorite words to say are:

  • “Umudugudu” which means village. Oo-moo-doo-goo-doo.
  • ‘Abakoreabushake‘ which means volunteers. A-ba-co-re-ra-bu-sha-che.  
  • ‘Ikigonderaubuzima’ which means health center post. Ichie-gon-der-a-u-bu-zima.
  • ‘Nka Kibazo’ which means no problem, don’t worry about it… Naa che-ba-zo.
  • ‘Tugende’ which is “Let’s go” too-gen-de

I’ve got two years, right?