Market Day

I'm pooped.  I just walked 30 minutes to the market and 30 minutes back with two HEAVY bags of groceries!  I was dreading having to go today--not because of the walk though.  I was apprehensive to go alone as the market is soooo very overwhelming.  I feel like a little ant on a picnic blanket full of food and surrounded by tons of people.  I never really know which direction to go in or what to buy next.  It seems like it would be a no-brainer right?? Wrong, going to the market isn't quite as easy as going to the grocery store.  You have to bargain for EVERYTHING to avoid being ripped off and you have to check EVERYTHING to make sure it isn't rotten or no longer edible.  Back in America, I was the worse at picking out good fresh fruits and veggies so here is another reason why I feel so helpless in the market.  How in the heck do I know when something is ripe??! 

When I left for the market, I think the kids had just gotten out of school (yep, on a Saturday).  As I was walking along, a couple kids came to join me (or follow me), and then two more...then four more...and before even 10 minutes could go by, there were about 15 little kids walking with me to the market; and I certainly didn't mind.  I always feel safer when I'm walking smack dab in the middle of a sea of young, friendly faces.  When I arrived at the market, the little kids kept walking down the road to their homes and then the stress came back.  I told myself get it together girl, the market isn't that bad.  I started walking toward the tomatoes to make my first purchase and before I made it there, I heard, "Keza!"  When I looked to my left, I saw an angel (thank God).  Yet another person the Lord sent down right on time.  It was one of the students from my village.  I walked over to speak to him and once we were finished greeting one another, instead of saying bye, he asked me what all was on my shopping list.  I thought, Yess!! I don't have to do this alone!  I went through my list with him and he guided me around the market and helped me pick out good, ripe fruits and veggies (yes I know, I should know how to pick out good food better than an 18 year old boy, but what can I say...back in America, I'm a frozen veggies kind of girl!)

Once we got everything on the list, I thanked my angel and began my 30 minute journey back home. Market day turned out to be a good day (:

Love and Peace Corps,

Dametreea

The Next Three Months (in a nutshell)

As it turns out, Peace Corps isn’t exactly what I expected...but then again, does anything ever turn out the way you want or expect it to?  Coming in, I expected to be trained in a specific area of health (ie. HIV/AIDS, nutrition, etc), however we (the volunteers) are trained on a very broad spectrum of things and are expected to kind of choose on our own which of those areas we would like to focus our work on.  We were trained (vaguely) in HIV/AIDS, nutrition/malnutrition, hygiene (body and home), family planning, and malaria.  When asked what I do or why I am here...it's always tough for me to give a solid answer.  For one, because I'm not sure which of these I will be working with and I don't want to say I'm going to work in a certain area and then later on, not actually work in that area.

In determining what exactly our "job" will be for the next two years, the volunteers are required to use the first three months at our sites to do a Community Health Assessment (CHA).  The CHA is basically a report that we will write at the end of our first three months, highlighting the things that we've found that do and don't work within the realm of healthcare within our communities.  We are expected to meet the important people (Chief, Chair of Social Affairs, etc) within the community during this time so that they can know who we are and why we are here, we are expected to survey the different programs that the community currently has that are doing well and the ones that need improvements, and we are to build strong, trusting relationships so that the people within the community will be willing to open up to us when it is time to find the information to be included in our final reports.  We will submit our reports at our in-service training in October and upon further evaluation of the report by both Peace Corps and ourselves, we will decide on what our major project will be...in other words, we will find out in October what our "job" will consist of for the next two years. 

This method of "work," I think, has it's pros and cons.  It would have been nice to have a little bit more structure to our training so that we would know more about a specific topic rather than a little bit about several topics.  I kind of feel like we as volunteers could be more productive with a more focused training period.  However, the fact that we are able to design our own projects based on our interests and the needs within the community can be seen as a good thing.  I think the volunteers will be much more committed to a project that they have a genuine interest in, rather than being trained in something that they were, more or less, forced to work on.  Also, the needs of each community are different.  For some, malaria is a major issue (like in my village), and for others the issue is malnutrition or poor family planning.  I can appreciate the CHA in that it allows us to take a close look at where we can be the most productive and what will be the most beneficial to the communities that we live in.  Although this experience is 180 degrees different from what I initially expected, it is still very fulfilling.  As with any other endeavor, it has its pros and its cons, but the pros are definitely outweighing the cons.

Love and Peace Corps,

Dametreea

New Address

I have an address!!! Yess!!!!

For any and everyone who has inquired about packages and where to send them, you can send them to this address:

Dametreea Carr, PCV
United States Peace Corps
BP 47
Rwamagana, Rwanda, Africa

Also, letters are very welcome...I have PLENTY of time on my hands to read them and write back (:

Thanks guys!! I love you mucho!!

Love and Peace Corps,
Dametreea

Pictures!! Finally!!

I have finally had the chance to post some pictures!  Blogger takes entirely too long to post photos so I have started to post a few of them on Facebook.  Below is a link to the album.  I made sure to make it public so that even if you aren't my friend on FB you'll still be able to see them.  I'll try to post a few each day, as it took about 2 hours just for me to post the 10 (or so) pictures that are in the album.  Bare with me ya'll, I'm slowly but surely figuring these technical issues out.  In the meantime, enjoy the photos and check back often.  I will do my best to load all of the photos that I have taken thus far by the end of this coming weekend.  Here's the link:

Photo Gallery via Facebook

Here is the URL in case the link doesn't work:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151140946226387.412108.609486386&type=3&l=cd4fe1d196

Love and Peace Corps,
Dametreea

P.S.  The link can also be found in the "Photo Gallery" tab.

No Lights, No Food

Poor little oh me, absolutely positively famished and not exactly friendly with the dark, tonight is a very sad night.  The electricity has been out all day and of course no electricity means no cooking.  I have a plug-in stove and a kerosene stove, however since I don't quite know how to work the kerosene stove, and after an hour of trying to figure it out, I gave up and am going to have to pray extra hard tonight that I don't starve to death in my sleep.  I can eat another PB n J, however that thought isn't appealing to me too much.  I'm sitting here trying to decide what in my house can be eaten cold and all I am coming up with is snack foods.  I have bananas, chips, bread, peanut butter, jelly, tuna, and a small box of snack foods from America.  Decisions, decisions...which of the previous will I have for dinner??  My vote is for none of the above, but since I have to eat something, I think I'll try out my very first peanut butter and banana sandwich.  I've heard my whole life that they are really good...and I can't think of a better time to test it out for myself!

Lord please, please, let the lights come back on tomorrow...a sista's gotta eat!  And anyone who knows me knows that I DO NOT skip meals...next to my mom and sister, food is practically my best friend! :)

Love and Peace Corps,

Dametreea

(Written 7/31/12 at 8:24p)