The Village Experience (with Sister)

Here are more stories from our fun in the Rwanda sun! Enjoy (:

Fetching Water

I must say, my sis did pretty darn good at adapting to village life in just two short days.  She's certainly no veteran (like me), but she did great!!  Of course the critters took their toll on her, but she was a natural (almost) at bucket bathing and using the latrine.  She even managed to fetch her own water! Usually, one of the health center workers helps me fetch water since the jerry cans are so heavy, but this time they decided to just watch and laugh...and I must admit, I laughed too!  My sister is the "stronger" one out of the two of us (seeing how she works out on a regular basis and I NEVER do) so I expected her to be able to fetch water like she's been doing it every day all her life.  I couldn't have been more wrong!  Here I am with a small jerry can in my left hand and a large one in my right, walking along to the house without a hitch...and then there was my sister...several feet behind me, holding ONE jerry can with TWO hands, hobbling along with water all over her skirt!  We couldn't stop laughing the entire time, which wasn't helping at all, because with every burst of giggles, she ended up with more and more water on her and less in the jerry can.  The entire time, my coworkers were watching in the distance, laughing almost as hard as we were.  That's alright though; in the end, we did it!  Even if the jerry can wasn't full when we made it back to the house (:

Gifts

Once we were all done fetching (or spilling) water, my sis and I went back to my house to sort through the gifts that she brought for my coworkers and my village friends.  She brought everything from necklaces and nail polish (for the ladies) and t-shirts and key chains (for the men).  Oh, and I can't forget the candy, which is always a hit!  There's just something about American candy that can get any Rwandan man or woman to smile bright!  For the kids she brought candy and some little squishy basketballs (which, too, were a hit). 

In regard to the gifts for my coworkers, we had each person close their eyes and reach into a bag...whatever they pulled out would be their gift and if they didn't like it, they could put it back and try once more.  Everyone was a lot more picky than I had expected.  Usually when someone gets me a gift, whether I like it or not, I always smile and make like it's the best thing in the world (after all, a gift is from someone's heart and I don't have the heart to tell them when I don't like it).  This certainly was not the case with my coworkers.  Some of them traded three or four times and a couple still didn't seem too satisfied.  All of the men seemed please with what they got, but the women...well I guess women are women everywhere lol picky picky picky!  At the end of the day, everyone ended up with something they liked, so I guess all was well!

Note to self: Next time, bring snacks and edibles for gifts...you can never go wrong with food!

Market...AT NIGHT!

This one particular story got me into a bit of trouble.  Of course, when my sister got back to the states she told my mom that I go to the market at night and its very scary and dangerous and...we almost died!  That last part alone was enough to get me yelled at all the way from America.

Okay we didn't really almost die, but we had a close call.  It all started at around 5pm when we had finished fetching water, sorting through gifts, and visiting with a couple of nurses.  It had begun to get late so I told my sister that we needed to get going to the market; its only open on Wednesdays and Saturdays and if we didn't get food that day, then we wouldn't have any for the two days that she was here.  We left my house at around 5:15 and as we began our 40 minute trek, we passed quite a few people (women in particular) who were looking at us like, You're going to the market...AT NIGHT??  In our defense, it wasn't dark out quite yet (we had a good 45 minutes before the sun would start to set), so I figured we could walk there, quickly grab what we needed, and then take a moto back.  It would be quick and easy and we would make it back just before the sun went into its hiding place behind the mountains.

The first part of the plan went rather well--we walked to the market, got our food, and just as it began to get dark, we left to find a moto.  But of course no plan is perfect.  When we got to the moto "stop," it was completely empty.  No motos, just people (mostly drunk men) walking and sitting around waiting for nothing in particular to happen.  That's when we saw it out of the corner of our eyes.  A glass bottle flying through the air, from a bar, right for our heads!  Okay, so maybe I'm exaggerating a bit.  The bottle landed about one foot from us, but I'm pretty sure it was directed at us.  (I could be wrong, but we were the only two walking in that particular spot and I don't see any other reason why someone would send a random bottle flying through the air).   

So here we were; in the dark, 40 minutes from my house, and walking away from a broken bottle (that I'm sure was meant for us).  Finally, we found a moto and I asked him in Kinyarwanda, "How much to Kibondo?"  He replied, "800 per person."  My response, "No that's too much!" Then my sister jumped in, "What are you doing?  It's dark outside.  We just need to go!  You don't have time to be bargaining!"   I chuckled a little at the fact that we were just "assaulted" in the dark and here I am trying to bargain for a moto ride home.  Long story short, the guy ended up settling on 800 for both of us and we made our merry way home.  Safe and sound, THANK GOD!

FYI: I never go to the market that late so don't go worrying yourselves over my safety...that was a one-time thing, I promise.  Although I did find that the food is cheaper at night since the vendors want to get rid of everything before they leave...

Love and Peace Corps,
Dametreea