First Week at Site Pt III

Thursday

Today was the worse!  In the beginning, that is.  Before leaving my house I think killed about 10 (TEN!) cricket roaches, a few spiders, and some other unidentifiable little brown critters.  And on top of all of that, this mouse just won't quit!  I was beyond irritable and I didn't go to work in the best of moods.  The day progressively got better as I was shadowing the nurses that work in the lab of the health center.  We all talked and got some good laughs in and then I told them about my little bug infestation and mouse problem.  I didn't know the words for all of the critters, so I took a piece of paper and drew a picture of a mouse, a spider, some ants, and I made a terrible attempt to draw a cricket.   When I held up the piece of paper to reveal my work of art to the nurses, they all laughed hysterically and began to help me name all of the little 'pets' that were on the page.  Once the laughter ceased, I put on my serious face and told them how terrified I was of all the critters and they all immediately became empathetic (everyone is sooo sweet and sincere here).  During our lunch break, one of the nurses ended up coming home with me to knock down all of the spider webs and kill any bugs she could find.  She then asked where the mouse was, and when I pointed at the ceiling, she looked up and told me that she would get me some rat poisoning to handle little Ben.  Thank God she came to my rescue because I was definitely going crazy!

Friday

When I came home for my lunch break, I left my back door open (as usual) so that the nice outside breeze could cool down my house.  After fixing myself a quick pb&j sandwich for lunch, I ate it and then decided that I wanted to lay down for a quick nap before going back to work.  As soon as my head hit the pillow, I heard a loud noise in my hallway...not quite sure what that sound was, I hopped up from my bed, ran to the hallway and what did I see??  None other than a 

First Week at Site Pt II

Monday

Back on the job, bright and early, I went to the 7am staff meeting on time only for it to begin 30 minutes late.  I wasn't too thrilled at waking up at 5:30 to be on time to a late meeting, but I was still in good spirits throughout the meeting; we (the volunteers) had already been warned that nothing in Rwanda starts on time (I guess CP time is CP time for CP all over the world lol).

After the meeting, my counterpart and I walked into the HIV/AIDS building of the health center and he pointed ahead and said to me, "Go and talk to those people about AIDS."  As I wasn't sure exactly what I was supposed to say regarding AIDS, I gave him a funny look. I guess he read the look on my face because he changed his mind about having me start a random conversation with the people about AIDS and told me to come with him. He ended up giving me a rundown of the services of the health center instead and shared with me the mission statement and goals and strategies that the health center has had in effect since 2000.  Once he was finished briefing me on the services of the health center and stuffing my brain full of a bunch of random information, he proceeded to say, " You will be first."  I said, "What do you mean?"  He said, "Of all of the volunteers, you will be first.  You will know Kinyarwanda the best and you will know all of the Rwanda health services first."  I proceeded to say, "I don't need to be first, I just need to be good at what I do."  This isn't a competition for goodness sake!  You are giving me too much information at one time!  And he said, "To be good is to be first.  You will be first."  I just left the subject alone at this point.  I'm not sure who ingrained into his head that the volunteers were in a competition to see who could do the most the fastest, but I'm really going to need him to simmer down with all of that; this guy is stressing me out already.

Tuesday

I woke up at 5:30 again today only to be on time to the late meeting!  It was terribly hard getting out of the bed this morning so when I realized that the meeting was going to start just as late as it did yesterday, I thought to myself, I'm going to be late tomorrow too, just like everyone else.  I know this isn't the best way to deal with the situation, but I really hate waiting for no reason (patience is one of the many things I am hoping to attain during my time in Rwanda).

Once the day finally kick started, my counterpart took me on a tour of the entire facility.  The facility is made up of an HIV/AIDS building, a maternity building, and a main building which houses the check-in area,  pharmacy, immunization center, hospitalization rooms, etc.  Also on the health center grounds is a cook house for the families of the patients (if a patient must be hospitalized overnight, the patient's family is expected to come and cook for them), a police post (which is a blessing...it makes me feel so much safer), and  the house of the Titulaire (head of the health center).  For the rest of the day after the tour, I shadowed one of the nurses in the HIV/AIDS building and helped her count out and package ARV prescriptions for the HIV/AIDS patients.  After this, I worked in the lab for a while and got to help check blood samples for malaria parasites. 

Wed

So today, I kept my promise to myself and decided to be late to the 7am meeting that never starts at 7am.  Apparently I chose the wrong day to be late because

First Week at Site Pt I

My first week at site was both good and bad.  When I was dropped off, I was immediately filled with a feeling of emptiness, but I did my best to forget that I was all alone in Rwanda and began to organize and unpack some of my things almost as soon as the Peace Corps truck pulled away.  In  this short week (and some change) I have had some ups and downs, but I can say that it has ended on a good note (Thank God!)  I survived my first week in Rwanda alone and it feels sooo good!!  Here are the highlights of each day (split into three posts):

Friday

My counterpart (the person I will be working closely with at the health center) asked me--no, told me--that I would be leading a training on malaria today...on my VERY FIRST DAY!  I don't know where he might have gotten the idea that I was anywhere near fluent enough in the language to lead a training, but I quickly nipped that in the bud.  I told him that I was not able to do that yet as it was my first day and I needed to practice more language before I go talking to a room full of people.  He proceeded to say, "Why do you have fear?  You can do it."  I said, "I can help, but I cannot lead the workshop by myself.  My language is not good enough yet."  We agreed that I would 'help,' but once we got started, he ended up leaving me in the room alone to, yes, lead the workshop.  He just walked right on out!  I was a little bit irritated at the moment, but once it was over, I was proud of myself.  I guess I could do it...I just needed a little push!   

Once the work day ended I went back to my house, and again, I began to feel lonely.  My best friend must have had an inkling that something was wrong with me because no sooner than the loneliness became too much, my phone rang.  I answered the phone and from the other end came the sweet sound of my mommy's voice!  She always did have an impeccable mother's instinct...and it's still in tact...even all the way from America! I love you mom!

Saturday

Today I went shopping for some more things that I needed for my house.  Me and Isaiah, the guy who my supervisor assigned to help me get everything together, traveled 30 minutes to the market town to get a bucket, an umukoropesho (a squeegie used as a mop), some food so that I wouldn't starve throughout the week, and a mat so that I would have something to eat on at home (a lot of people in Rwanda eat their food on mats on the floor).  I was able to find most of the things I needed and once I was finished shopping, me and Isaiah went to the taxi stop so that we could get a ride back to our village.  We must have chosen a bad day to want to shop for big items because the only taxis available were motos and seeing how I had so much stuff, a moto was completely out of the question...or so I thought.  After waiting about 30 minutes for a car, Isaiah grew restless and said, "I think we will take a moto."  I just looked at him with a are-you-crazy face...I have a mop, a huge mat, a bucket, and a box of food and you really just suggested that we take a moto THIRTY MINUTES back to our village?? Apparently this look I gave him didn't get my point across because before I knew it, we were each on the back of a moto...me holding the mop at my side (just barely off the ground) and my driver holding my bucket (yes, and driving at the same time); and Isaiah was on his moto with my mat and the box of food strapped to the tiny space behind him.  And then we took off down the road for our 30 minute ride.  On the way back, my driver decided to

My Very First Meal in My Very First House

Who knew that my very first house (yes, mine) would be in Rwanda!! I have always wanted a cute little house to decorate and make fancy...and although I knew I would have my own living space here, I never would have guessed it would be a cute little duplex.  I expected a compound (one-level apartment) type thing, but I'm certainly not complaining.  On my second night here, I made my very first meal in Rwanda all by myself!  Go mee!!  The pots and pans here aren't the greatest, and without all of the fancy gadgets and gizmos that you would find in a modern American kitchen, the cooking process isn't the easiest, but I was still able to whip up a yummy meal in a little over an hour.  What was on the menu you ask??  Spaghetti!  Here are the ingredients I put together to create my pot of yumminess:

                        Spaghetti noodles

                        6 tomatoes (peeled and chopped)

                        1 onion (chopped)

                        ~1 tablespoon of oil

                        1 can of tomato paste

                        3/4 cup - 1 cup of water (I think)

                        Salt, pepper, oregano, and mixed seasoning (to taste)

                        Stale Bread :(

The process:  I started by boiling some water for my noodles...it took forever for the water to actually boil (as I figured it would); as the water was heating, I poured the oil into a pan.  Once the oil was hot, I added in the onions and tomatoes (just as my host mom always did for every meal) and let them cook a bit until they made a yummy sauce.  Next, I added in the tomato paste (which was no easy feat; I had to open the can with a knife).  Next I stirred to mix the paste in with the onion and tomatoes and then added in the water.  Next, I added the salt, pepper, oregano, and mixed seasoning until I thought it tasted just right!  I proceeded to let the sauce simmer while I cooked the spaghetti noodles; just before the noodles were finished, I mixed them in with the sauce and let them finish cooking with the sauce so that they could soak up some of the yummy flavor.  Once finished, I put my spaghetti in one of my cheap little bowls and complemented it with a piece of hard white bread.  The end result you ask?? Delicious! (Aside from the bread, that is).  I'm no stranger to the kitchen, but I'm definitely not used to having to make things from scratch (especially not with things like Ragu and Prego around in America).  I think I did a pretty darned good job for my first try and without a recipe, but then again, it was only spaghetti...how hard could it really have been, right??  We'll see how my next few meals go.  I'll be sure to keep you all updated on any mishaps and successes!

Love and Peace Corps,

Dametreea

P.S. I purchased a small two-eye hot plate before coming to site so that I wouldn't have to deal with the charcoal stoves that every woman here has mastered.  I placed the hot plate on a short bench inside my house and this was my 'stove'.  There are rolling power outages here and so I was lucky to have been able to complete my meal without the electricity going out.  I have a kerosene stove for backup, however I don't have any kerosene, and I don't exactly know how to use the kerosene stove just yet...let's hope I don't burn the house down when the time comes that I finally have to figure it out!

The Best Thing I Brought from America

After the last couple of posts, I think it's safe to say that the best thing I brought with me to Rwanda from the US is my extendable fly swatter! When I made the purchase, it was more out of impulse than necessity, but I do thank God for the impulse!  That thing has saved my life! Literally!  My nightly victories from my mini bug-battles would not have been possible if it weren't for this little square of plastic that is attached to a handle that extends to about two feet long!  I can finally say that I am going to bed feeling accomplished and can sleep peacefully.  There isn't a critter in sight and I'm feeling pretty darned good about it!  Go mee!!

Love and Peace Corps,

Dametreea

Certified Member of the Mickey Mouse Club

I just can't win.  I'm not quite sure if my mind is playing tricks on me or if I really do have a new little pet living in my house with me.  At night, if I'm really really quiet, I think I can hear the faint sound of little Ben squeaking and munching away on God knows what in my living room.  I never really know if the sounds are coming from inside or outside of my house since I am always too afraid to get up and go check, however, the small brown pellets that rest in the corners of my living room each morning tell me that the sounds are, indeed, coming from inside the house. 

I'm at a loss right now.  I already have a serious case of OCD so I'm not really sure what else I can do to rid myself of all these house guests.  I sweep and mop every single night after dinner...I make sure to never ever leave any dirty dishes sitting around (I wash dishes after each meal: breakfast, lunch, and dinner)...I double containers for food storage...the list goes on.  My house is beyond clean, and they somehow still manage to find their way back to me.  I guess it could be the fact that my back door is almost three inches off of the ground and it's not exactly difficult for things to make their way into the safety of my home.  I think next up on my list of things to try will be rat poisoning and any other poison that might kill the little insects that keep me company day in and day out.  Regular insecticides don't work...African insects are invincible in every sense of the word.

Love and Peace Corps,

Dametreea

P.S.  I have no objections  to critter care packages and secret remedies :) Please do share if you have any ideas or suggestions as to how I can win this seemingly infinite battle.

Spiders and Cricket Roaches

...and ants, and silver fish, and flies, and unidentifiable critters...and BATS!

I cannot say enough how sick and tired I am of going on bug killing sprees before I get ready to go to bed!  I wake up to critters, come home to critters, and it seems as if each night I've been cooking dinner...FOR CRITTERS!  It's like they know I'm afraid of them and they keep coming back just to mess with my psyche!  The spiders are...HUGE! They scale my walls each night in search of a meal, I'm assuming.  I've given up on trying to kill them all because for one, they move faster than the speed of light and I'm 100% uninterested in having one chase me around the house in an attempt to seek revenge on me for trying to kill it or its brother.  The cricket roaches... (yes, cricket roaches!) I don't know how or why a cricket and a roach would have ever thought that it was okay to mate, but these ginormous crickets with roach legs and the inability to jump very high or far are DISGUSTING!  I feel like as soon as I kill one, three more find their way into my house!  Every night, after killing about 6 or 7 of these little monsters, I finally give up and retreat to the safety of my mosquito net, making sure to tuck every loose piece of the net underneath my mattress so that I am not attacked in the middle of the night and awoken from my dreamless slumber. 

When I first moved in, I thought to myself, I can do this...it's not so bad.  But as the days and nights come and go...and the bugs only seem to be getting worse, I'm not so sure.  If it were only spiders and cricket roaches, it wouldn't be so bad. But to add to this living nightmare, I have an infestation of ants both inside and outside of my house.  And these are no ordinary ants.  They are super ants!  These HUMONGOUSLY SUPER SIZED ants (compared to the ants in America) can swim, they DO NOT sleep, and they DO NOT die!  I don't care how many times you step on these things or how many ways you try to squish them...they somehow still manage to squirm and run away with not much more than a hurt leg or broken antennae.  On top of these are silver fish, which just so happen to always find their way into my fresh veggies even though the veggies are kept in tupple ware and the tupple ware is in plastic containers.  This is a double barrier so can someone please tell me how in the heck these things are finding their way into my food??!

And now the flies...

Swear In

I'm officially a Peace Corps Volunteer!! Go mee!!

21 of us (we started training with 26) were officially sworn in as volunteers on July 18th and it felt soooo good!  The ceremony was held at the US Ambassador's mansion and it was a very nice ceremony.  It lasted about one hour with several speeches being made by the now, volunteers.  Two speeches were made in English, two in French, and one in Kinyarwanda--the latter speech was done by myself and Donovan, another volunteer.  All of the speeches went well, however mine and Donovan's speech was the most recognized since it was the one done in the language that everyone could actually understand.

Once the ceremony was over, we had some 'decent' food.  Small pizza rounds, sambusa (basically a triangle shaped taquito), quiche, carrot cake, chocolate cake, oatmeal cookies, chips and guacamole, vegetable rolls, and of course the refreshments list would not have been complete without Fanta and passion fruit juice! 

After standing around and trying to mingle in the language that we did our best to learn in 10 short weeks, we all took a million pictures and spoke to our families (the ones that were invited and actually came to the ceremony) for the last time.  My host mother was there in her fanciest all-white dress and we agreed that I would try to go back to visit her sometime in August.  I can't wait to see her again!! 

Of course, the night of swear-in was party time, so the volunteers split up into a few small groups and went out for a night on the town; some went to restaurants and others went to a club/lounge type place.  From the sounds of it, we all had a good time!  I would have guessed everything in Kigali would be closed by 10pm on a Wednesday night, but there were tons of places to go that were open late.  Kigali never ceases to amaze me; each time I go always ends up being better than the last :)

Love and Peace Corps,

Dametreea

Animal Cruelty

Bird Catching

Rwanda doesn't seem to be the best place for animals, as the people here really have no mercy on them.  To my knowledge, there are no laws pertaining to animal cruelty so any and everything that goes on here regarding them (whether good or bad) is perfectly okay.  I said all of that to say this: I have seen some sad, yet funny things go on here.  Sad because the animals here are literally tortured, yet funny because...well, just about everything is funny to me. 

A couple of days ago, I was in my room when I heard my sisters and host mother half screaming and half laughing.  I ran out of my room to see what all the commotion was about and when I got to the back door, I saw my host brother holding one of the cutest little red birds upside down by its two little feet!  The poor little guy was flapping its wings trying to get away and my host brother was shaking and poking at it while chasing my host mom and sisters around the backyard.  (I have no idea how he even caught that little bird, they move so quickly).  I ran to grab my camera so that I could capture the torturous moment, but the little guy had flown away before I was able to push the shutter button.  Oh well, I guess what matters is that he got away.

Goat Riding

There are goats all over the place here and each time I get even a little bit close to one, it panics and attempts to run away only to be stopped mid-stride and yanked back by the rope that is tied around its neck.  The little guys fear for their dear lives whenever anyone gets into close proximity because they are tortured by all of the village kids.  On too many occasions, I have seen some little kid kicking the goats, throwing rocks at them, and yes...trying to ride them as if they are horses.  The other day took the cake for me when I saw a little boy take a running start and jump onto the back of a goat.  The poor goat's little legs buckled and he and the little boy went tumbling to the ground.  I laughed hysterically, as it completely caught me off guard, but it was really sad...the goat could barely get back up :(

Hen Killing

Back at Step One

Here we go again.  Back at step one and saying goodbye.  I have grown a great fondness for my host family over the past two months and although I knew it was coming, this is still really tough.  Me and a few other volunteers who also got attached to their host families have agreed that this feels almost as bad as leaving our families back in America.  Last night my family and I sat together after dinner and exchanged our gifts to one another.  I wasn't expecting to receive anything from my family, but when I went into my room and brought out the gift that I had for my family, my host mother went into her room and came out with one for me. 

For the family gift, I wrote a really nice letter to everyone telling them how much I appreciate and love them for welcoming me into their home with open arms.  My host mother read the letter aloud, and when she got to the part where I said that even though I will be gone they will always be family to me, my sister shed a few tears and my mama just beamed with tears in her eyes.  After the letter, my mother took a good look at her gift, which was a hanging shadow box with the words, "Thank you" inside and a traditional pot with sticks inside.  They all absolutely loved it!  My host mama grabbed me tight and hugged me for what seemed like an eternity.  The gift from my host mom to me was a framed picture of Jesus on the cross.  She is very religious and she knows that I am too so this was a very suiting gift.  She gave me my first picture to hang in my new house!  Woot woot!

This morning was tough when the Peace Corps car came to pick me up with all of my stuff, but things went smoothly.  We all said our goodbyes, gave our last hugs, and then my host mama told me that

My Mama Writes My Mama a Letter

About a week ago, my host mother asked me if I write home to my mama in America and I told her yes.  She asked me this out of the blue and after I said yes, she didn't say anything else on the matter.  I was wondering why she wanted to know, but I didn't ask; I just left the situation alone.  Well, a couple of days ago, I found out why she wanted to know.  She knocked on my room door one afternoon and when I opened the door she handed me a half sheet of paper with neatly written words in a letter format.  In Kinyarwanda she said, "This is to your mama in America." (She wanted me to send the letter with the next letter that I write to my mom).  I smiled when she handed it to me and unintentionally began reading it.  She slid her hands over the top when she saw me and said, "No, this isn't for you."  I cracked up at that!  I didn't mean to start reading it, but I was curious as to what she was saying.  It was a really sweet letter, but I'm not going to tell what was in it because my mom reads these blogs and I don't want to ruin the surprise.  I will say, though, that my host mother had a lot of nice things to say.  I'm sure my mom will love it!

Love and Peace Corps,

Dametreea

P.S.  I don't know who did it or when, but the letter was written in perfect English.  I think my host mother wrote it out in Kinyarwanda then had someone translate it for her.  Regardless, the fact that she went through so much trouble to write my mother a letter in a language that she cannot even speak goes to show just how thoughtful she is!