Wedding Confusion

On Sunday, I attended a wedding and got to see my host mom!! Go mee!!  She really is the sweetest lady ever.  She gave me the biggest hug and her brightest smile when she saw me and I greeted her with just the same.  Two other volunteers traveled to the wedding with me...and yes, making my way to the wedding was yet another adventure, but at least I didn't have to go it alone this time.

When the three of us finally found a bus that was going to Kamonyi (a town a little less than one hour away), we had to sit on that bus for 1 hour before it finally took off.  The buses here will not bust a single move if they are not full.  One empty seat means no travel, so it's always best to look for a bus that's almost full (that's if you want to be on time to your appointment/destination).  Anyway, when we finally got going at 10:00am (which was when the wedding was supposed to start) I immediately noticed that our bus wasn't in the best condition.  It was putt-putting very loudly and I was almost certain we wouldn't make it to the wedding...this thing sounded like it was going to break down and blow up at any minute.  Much to my surprise, the bus never broke down (nor did it blow up) however me and the other two volunteers did encounter another problem.  Justin's host dad (the wedding was to be hosted at his house) called us to see how close we were because he realized that we were running a little late.  When Justin hung up the phone, he looked at me and the third volunteer and said, "The wedding is over.  Our families are on their way to Kigali."  I was totally confused as we were leaving Kigali to go to the wedding and the wedding wasn't supposed to start until 10am.  By this time it was about 10:30 and there was no way in the world a Rwandan wedding was over in just 30 minutes.  We didn't know what to do.  We debated getting off of the bus where we were (even though we were already halfway to Kamonyi), but in the end we decided to just continue on our way and hope that Justin misunderstood his dad about the wedding being over and the entire wedding party leaving for Kigali. 

When we arrived to the wedding, we

An Interesting Bus Ride

An Interesting Ride

Here we go!! Yet another adventure into the big city.  My host mother invited me to a wedding near her house on Sunday so I'm going to spend the weekend in Kigali at the Peace Corps Hostel and then make my way out to see her on Sunday.  I already knew I was in for a weekend of fun and adventure, but I had no idea the fun would start already!  Of course I can always count on my bus ride into the city to be interesting.  Not only did I get lost again (kind of), but I also enjoyed my fancy ride on the fancy bus with a few fancy roaches who, too, wanted to get to the big city for a weekend adventure of their own.

At one of the stops, a little boy (maybe 12 or 13 years old) hopped onto the bus and started speaking a whole bunch of gibberish really, really fast.  Everyone just stared at him, and I was a little startled as I didn't know what he was doing or what he wanted.  There are A LOT of strange people that do A LOT of strange things here so I wasn't quite sure what his deal was.  It sounded like he was either casting a spell on us or like he was saying, how much wood would a wood chuck chuck if a wood chuck could chuck wood in Kinyarwanda.  When he was finished everyone on the bus started laughing and clapping and giving the little boy the loose change from their pockets.  My immediate assumption was that he was a comedian or something and this was his hustle.  I asked the guy who was riding next to me what the kid was talking about and he said that he was just telling everyone the news.  I guess this is how everyone gets up on their current events in Rwanda...sure beats reading a newspaper.

And now the roaches.

Butterflies

I saw the coolest thing when I got home today!  There have been caterpillars and cocoons all over the outside of my house lately and I arrived home just in time to see two beautiful butterflies bust out of their shells to go out and explore the wonders of Rwanda in their newly transformed bodies.  I had never seen a butterfly actually come out of its cocoon so I kind of just stared in amazement.  Seeing this made me think about the way I've been feeling lately.  I am supposed to be going out into the community doing some intentional relationship building so that when it comes time to gather information for my 3-month report, the people will be willing to participate.  However I have been spending much of my time in the health center rather than out in the community.  I've kind of built a comfort zone around the health center and now I've sort of gotten stuck in my box and I'm a little bit afraid to throw myself out there.  I guess part of my growth from this Peace Corps journey will be me learning to come out of my shell and to not be afraid to step outside of the box for fear of what people may think of me.  I'm certain that in due time, like those butterflies, I will come out of my shell so that I can do all of the great things that the Lord sent me here to do.  I can't live my life in fear...and I certainly can't spend two years in Rwanda with fear at the forefront of my thoughts...it will only hinder my actions.  I can do all things in Christ.  All things.  And I will. 

Love and Peace Corps,

Dametreea

The Case of the Missing Clothes

And just when I thought Rwanda could do no wrong...

I woke up this morning, did my laundry, cleaned my house, and did a whole bunch of other "house keeping" type business that I have gotten into the habit of doing every Saturday.  Only today, I was rushing a little bit to get everything done since me and one of the other volunteers decided we would meet up in the town that is between our two villages.  I also needed to go to the market and run a few errands so I wanted to leave my house with plenty of time to get everything done and make it home before dark.  So I called my moto driver (who after today, probably won't be my driver anymore) and he came to pick me up to take me into town.  Before I left, I decided I would leave my clothes outside to dry so that once I got back from town I could put them away.  Good idea right??...wrong!  No sooner than I got into town (which is 30 minutes away from my house), a felt one drop, then two...and then a dozen drops of rain!  NOOOOO!!!! was all I could think as I pondered at making another 30 minute trip and paying again so that I could go home just to take my clothes inside so that they wouldn't be soaked by this rain that came from absolutely nowhere.  I decided against coming back home and thought to myself, oh well, it's just water...they'll dry eventually. 

Once all of my errands were completed and me and the volunteer were ready to head back to our respective homes, we said our goodbyes and I went on my merry little way.  When I got home, the first thing I went to do was check on my clothes that were hanging on the line in the backyard.  (Or SHOULD HAVE BEEN hanging on the line).  As soon as I opened my back door, I noticed all of my towels, shirts, and socks were M.I.S.S.I.N.G!  The raggedy clothes were still hanging there so I just knew something fishy was going on.  Ohemgee!! Where are my friggin clothes??!  I panicked a little bit, wondering where on Earth they could have been.  People in Rwanda don't steal...right??

Bleach

If it did this to my mouth in just one week, I wonder what the long term effects are of drinking bleach EVERY DAY!  Peace Corps has us pour a little bit of bleach into our water before we filter it to kind of give us double security against parasites and microbes that may be in the water here.  We are to put 1 to 2 drops per liter, but seeing how they don't supply us with any pipets (sorry, it's the scientist in me) to get a perfect measurement, we kind of have to just eyeball it and hope we put in the right amount.  This last time, I think I put a little bit too much bleach in the water.  One day when I woke up last week, I noticed my mouth felt a little raw and I didn't know why.  My gums felt a little swollen and were a bit sore.  I didn't know what it was so I figured it must had been something I ate the previous day or maybe something crawled in my mouth and bit me in my sleep (a little far-fetched I know, but it is possible).  Not knowing what it was, I ignored it, thinking it would go away as the day progressed.  But after I brushed my teeth it only got worse.  Thinking that maybe the soreness  had something to do with my toothbrush, I threw my toothbrush away and got a new one.  When the same thing happened again the next day, I assumed I was using a defective floss and considered throwing that away too.  Next up, I thought it was the toothpaste...then, maybe the seasonings I had been using in my food.  After using all new products for my daily and nightly brushing routine, only for the soreness to worsen and my gums to turn strangely red and begin to bleed a little bit, I finally discovered that maybe, just maybe, it was the bleach and water solution that I had been drinking and rinsing my mouth with after brushing my teeth.  When I thought hard about it, I realized that my mouth always seemed to burn the most after rinsing.  So I decided to rinse with regular water and yep...just as I thought...no pain.  So...it was definitely the bleach.