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 

CHICKEN!  In my hallway!! In my house!! My instant reflex was to run and say, "Get out!" as if the little guy could understand me.  After my short outburst, I laughed at myself as I'm sure if someone could have seen me I would have looked just as foolish as I felt.  I then walked towards my door (slowly) and moved my hands in a sweeping motion to shoo the chicken out.  It listened, thank God, and went running out the door.

Saturday

Laundry day and market day!  And boy were both of these tasks DIFFICULT without my host mom being here to help me!  I never realized how much I depended on her during my stay in her house...she definitely spoiled me rotten and now I have to try to figure things out on my own.  My laundry took absolutely FOREVER and washing sheets in a tiny little bucket with minimal water is certainly no easy feat.  After about 4 hours, I finally finished up my laundry and attempted to clean my house before going to the market.

The market was a completely different challenge in itself.  I had never really been shopping in the market before so I was pretty much looking lost the entire time.  There was so much stuff and so many people and I just didn't know where to begin.  One of the nurses from the health center just happened to be up at the market at the same time that I was and she must have noticed this poor little American in distress.  She came over and asked me for my shopping list,  took me around to purchase all of the items I needed, and bargained for me to ensure that I didn't get over charged.  I am sooo very happy she just happened to be there...I'm not sure how I would have managed without her.

Sunday

One of the nurses from the health center invited me to go to church with her today and this was by far the best service I have been to in Rwanda thus far .  When I introduced myself in front of the church and stated that I was from America, they proceeded to repeat every bit of 'Kinyarwanda' that I spoke and translated it back into Kinyarwanda (I guess my pronunciation wasn't good enough for them).  After this, they chose someone who speaks English well to sit next to me and translate for me through the entire service, and although I appreciated their efforts to help me understand, this turned out to be a complete disaster.  I had this man sitting next to me, whispering in my ear with his smelly breath every three seconds and poking and pushing at me each time he was getting ready to translate something new.  I was sooo very irritated by the time church was over, but on the brighter side, at least I was able to understand the sermon and get a good word! 

At the beginning of the service, the church sang worship songs and noticing that I wasn't able to pick up on the lyrics, the nurse I was with said them slowly so that I could catch on and sing along with everyone else.  Once she realized I caught on, she went back to worshiping and left me to enjoy the rest of the service.

The most shocking part of the service was when a family went up to the pulpit and began to have...a booty shaking contest??  A woman started the entire thing off when she ran up there, grabbed someone's scarf and tied it around her waist.  She then proceeded to do the tick to the beat of the drum, slow wind her way down to the ground, and then turn around and shake her rump for the congregation (Or for Jesus, I'm not quite sure).  After a couple of minutes of having the spotlight all to herself, a heavy set woman hopped onto the pulpit, tied her scarf around her waist and began to shake it in the same fashion that the other woman was.  And then 3 of the men who were in the pulpit took off their suit jackets, tied them around their waists and followed suit with the ladies.  I was very confused and quite taken aback by all of the

'dirty dancing' (by American standards), but these people were really just praising the Lord in their own way (I think).  I'm not sure I would ever be able to muster up the courage to move my body that way in church, but the congregation and the pastor appeared to be enjoying it...once they were all finished dipping it low and bringing it back up to the top, the 'talented' dancers received a standing ovation.  The entire time that all of this was going on, my jaw was dropped in unbelief...I couldn't bring myself to believe that this was okay...in church!

Love and Peace Corps,
Dametreea