I'm just getting home from our group
technical and cross cultural training and I'm feeling A LOT of bit uneasy. The workshops today went well today, as did
our site interviews. They already have
our permanent sites picked out for us, however they still did our interviews
today. I would assume it's to peg how
miserable we either will or won't be when we find out the conditions of our new
homes. They called each of us into an
office, one by one, where they asked us questions like: how is Pre-Service
Training going so far? How are things
with your home stay family? How are you
doing in general? And then they
proceeded to ask the question that all of us trainees have been waiting for:
what would you like your permanent site to be like? Now, knowing that they already have our sites
picked out, I feel like the answer is more for their humor than anything; but I
rolled out my long list anyway and told them what my ideal site would look
like. Before I began, I said, "I'm
expecting the worse, but hoping for the best.
I know that we won't have everything that we want, but here is what my
ideal site would look like." Then I
listed everything out as such:
#1 Electricity: If I don't have
anything else, I would really REALLY like to have electricity. They could put me in a hole with a light
switch and I think I would be perfectly okay.
For one, it really is a hassle to not be able to charge our phones,
especially knowing that Peace Corps expects that they will ALWAYS be able to
access us via cell phone. This is one
hassle that I do not want to have to figure out on my own. Also, to have the peace of mind of having a
light to turn on when I hear something or get a little afraid is priceless. It is no fun to think you hear a mouse
scurrying by or feel something that could potentially be VERY BIG crawling up
your arm in the dark, then having to fumble and jump around looking for a
flashlight...fumbling to find the darn flashlight and jumping around to get
whatever might be on you off of you ASAP!
#2 Water: It's already a given that I
won't have running water in my house. No
one here really does. However, it would
be wonderful if the water was within a 5-10 minute walk from my new home. Those jerry cans are humungous and VERY heavy
when they are full...It's not a must, but like I said, it would be nice.
#3 Latrine and Shower Area: This one is definitely big on my list, but is also
definitely very unlikely. Many of the
houses here are located within compounds, which is like a bunch of little
houses all connected in one long strip that share a latrine, shower area, and
in many cases, a kitchen area. I AM NOT
down for this as I have heard one too many horror stories of creepers peeking
in at you while you attempt to take a number two or take your bucket bath in
private. I am extremely wary of this
compound situation, but I guess it will be the test of my flexibility. I will just have to figure out how to cope
and simply make it work.
#4 Site Mate: I hear that it can be both a good and bad thing to
have a site mate, but I definitely think I want one. It can be bad if you are site mates with
someone who is a bit rowdy and would give you as well as all other Americans in
the general area a bad name, but it can be good in that you will have someone
nearby to vent to and visit when everything gets to be too much. We don't know how near or far our site mates
would be, but they could be anywhere from in the same village as us to about a
1 or 2 hour walk away. I think a 30
minute walk would be ideal, but I would certainly take 2 hours over nothing if
that's what I was stuck with.
#5 Location: I'm pretty open as far as location goes. The only thing is I don't want to be at the
center of the village, which they said won't be a problem because they try to
avoid that altogether anyway. The center
of my village right now is where the market is, it's where many of the people
hang out, and there are always people just standing around staring, waiting to see what you will (or wont) buy and how much
money you will (or wont) spend. It's
really creepy. I feel a lot less safe
and even a bit intimidated by the people when I am at the center alone, hence
my reason for not wanting my house to be there.
It's just a little too busy for my liking.
#6 Weather: The weather here is near perfect so this one was
easy. I am almost smack dab in the
middle of Rwanda right now and the weather has been in the 60s and 70s. It's nice during the day, and a little chilly
at night. I know it gets a little colder
in the west and a lot warmer in the east, so my only preference for weather was
simply to not be placed where it will get colder than what it is here. I would like the weather I'm in now or
anything warmer. They did tell us that
most of us will be placed on the eastern side of Rwanda so I don't think
weather will end up being an issue for me.
If I can take Arizona heat, this will be a cake walk. It doesn't get over 100 degrees...I think the
average for a hot day is 90 (don't quote me on that).
So after the interview, I'm feeling
great and all is well! Until they tell
us that many of us will have...HOUSE MATES!
Now I wouldn't be so unhappy about this if the house mate was going to
be another volunteer, but it's not. The
Rwanda Ministry of Health is expected to provide our housing and because
housing is hard to come by and they need to cut back on money where they can,
some of us will be staying with our Rwandan co-workers. Now that I'm typing it up, it doesn't sound
so bad, and maybe I'm just being bratty, but I have heard so many horror
stories of volunteers here being housed with their Rwandan counterparts. I have never been good at roommates and I'm
sure it's because I am very passive aggressive and I don't deal well with
conflict. In the case that I am one of
the lucky volunteers who ends up with a housemate, I guess this is just the
Lord testing me and working to create a change in me for the better. Being passive aggressive isn't always the
best thing and I can't go through my entire life trying to avoid
conflict--that's a part of life, and it's going to happen. I'm trying to see this as an opportunity for
growth, but I'm having a hard time swallowing things just yet...I guess I will
have to wait and see how it all pans out.
Now here is the icing on the cake and I
promise my novel of a posting will come to a quick end. We are going on site visits next week. Meaning, on Thursday and Friday of next week,
we will all be splitting up to go and see the place that we will call our home
for the next two years after training.
This is how it will work (I think here is where you will see why I am
panicking): on Monday and Tuesday, we
will all be together at the PC Hostel in Kigali. On Wed, our Tutelaire (supervisor) will come
to pick us up and take us (alone) to our site.
We will either stay in our site house for the next two days or stay some
place that the Tutelaire has pre-arranged for us (and that can be with a host
family, by ourselves, or any other place else that the Tutelaire might think we'll be safe). As for food and water for these two days, the
PC has left it completely up to the Tutelaire for what we will eat, where we
will fetch water, etc. So in short, we
have no idea if we will have food or water for these two days...the PC is
assuming yes, but we really have no idea.
We're finally at the kicker: once our two-day visit at out sites is
over, we each (alone) have to find our way back to the training site. Did you get that?? FIND
OUR WAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This means that when we get picked up from the
hostel by our Tutelaire, we are expected to pay close attention to the route
that we take to get to our site....AND REMEMBER! First off, they tell us all these horror
stories about volunteers who get into bad cabs, and get into accidents, and get
harrassed on busses, and then they tell us that this is how we will need to get
back to Kamonyi (the training site). The
Tutelaire may or may not bring us back (it is totally up to them) and in the
case that they don't, we are expected to figure things out for ourselves. Our sites can be several hours away from
Kamonyi and if it begins to get dark while we are traveling back, we are
expected to spend the night in Kigali (where exactly, I don't know) and then
continue our journey in the morning. I
am doing my best to not be afraid...all I can think is God has not given me the spirit of fear, but of love, power, and a
sound mind. I know that the Lord has
kept me this far and that He did not bring me this far to leave me. I just hope and pray that I make it back to
Kamonyi safe and sound...with minimal problems...and that PC gets together a
better plan of action before its time to leave next week!
Love and (I'm not feeling) Peace Corps
(right now),
Dametreea
(Written on 6/5/12 at 5:42p)
(Written on 6/5/12 at 5:42p)
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