Slapped...in the Face...AGAIN!

The day after I returned from training, I went to work and not even one hour went by before I was slapped in my face...TWICE!  After the initial shock and getting over my bruised ego and hurt feelings, I thought to myself, man, you guys really must have missed me.  I absolutely positively love the affection and the fact that my coworkers like me so much, but isn't there a less aggressive, less painful way for them to show their feelings??  A slap in the face doesn't exactly make me feel warm and fuzzy inside.  And it's not just a tap to the cheek either...it's more like a...here, see for yourself.  Hold your hand up next to your face and then make contact with your cheek with the same force that you would if you were clapping your hands...and then push your head to the side.  If you did it how it's done to me here, you probably bruised your own ego a bit and here is where I welcome you to my world  :-P

I've said on several occasions that I don't like that "kind" gesture, but I guess it's just something that I'm going to have to get used to.  When someone gets really excited telling a story, they slap you; if you do something or have something really cool, they slap you; if you've been gone for a while and come back, they slap you...I guess if I were to compare the gesture to something in America, it would be the little shoulder shove that ladies give each other when they are telling a story or someone cracks a small joke...kind of like the "girl-shut-up" shove.  It's a playful shove, and I guess the slap is supposed to be the same thing...except in my eyes, it's not all that "playful."

I didn't mention this in the last post, but when I first arrived back to my house after training, I noticed a bunch of HUGE

Back to Reality

Back to Reality

I have so many stories to share that I don't know where to begin!  I guess I'll start with the ten day training that myself and the other PCVs attended almost two weeks ago.  The training was held in northern Rwanda in a district called Musanze and ohhhmygeeee it was sooo very beautiul!!! (Musanze is a touristy type spot; this is where the volcanoes, gorillas, and tons of other beautiful sights are located).  In case you're wondering, no I didn't get to see the gorillas, but I will definitely be going next year with my family when they come to visit!! Yayy mee!!!

PC put us in a fancy hotel with hot water and tons of good food!! It even had a swimming pool! I'm sure I don't have to tell you that I over-indulged in the food and probably over-did it with the HOT showers (you have no idea how good it felt to be able to take a HOT shower with RUNNING water).  For the bulk of the time, we were in meetings alllll day long and once we were finally able to take a break and explore the town, we all seemed to get culture shocked all over again.  I must say, it was tough being around familiar faces all day, every day, for ten days and then having to come back to our sites by ourselves.  A few volunteers had warned us that after being gone for longer than a week, you kind of have to reintegrate yourself back in, and I now know that they weren't lying.  It's not so much reintegrating though, it's more getting used to the standard of living again; back to bucket baths and cooking for two hours before you can eat...back to the critters and staring at the strange spot on the wall for what seems like hours because you have nothing better to do...lol (that last one is a half truth, I don't do it all the time, but I have caught myself staring off into space on more than one occasion). 

Anywho,

Let the Fun Begin!!

It has been much too long since my last post; boy how time flies when you're having fun!  I've been super duper busy typing up a community health report, not to mention I just got back to my village from a 10-day in service training!  With that being said, please bare with me as I slowly, but surely type up all of my new, fun and exciting experiences.  In the meantime, I am making a tab titled CHA where you can view the extremely LONG report that I had to submit a couple of weeks ago.  It's basically a compilation of all the research I have been doing for the last three months on my community.  The purpose of this document is to give the volunteers a solid idea of what types of things we can do to help our communities.  From this, we are supposed to come up with and implement a project (or two...or three...or more) that will be sustainable and beneficial to the people in our village communities.  I have listed out the biggest health problems and have listed a few potential projects to go along with them.  I would really like it if you took a look at the document and helped me brainstorm some ideas for sustainable projects.  I have a few ideas, but 21 heads (the followers of this blog) are better than one!!  Once I decide on a project, I'll FINALLY have a concrete job to do! YAYY!!! Ready, set, let the fun begin!!

Love and Peace Corps,

Dametreea

P.S.  Thank you ahead of time for your help and suggestions!! You guys are the best!

Ignorance

I went to visit my neighbor (who is the sweetest woman ever) on Wednesday and she asked me to come to church with her on Friday.  I told her, "I'm Christian."  Then she said, "That's okay, it's just to visit."  I asked her when and where the church was and she told me that she goes on Fridays.  "I work on Fridays," I told her and then she said, "We can go during your lunch."  Great, I'm cornered.  I have the hardest time telling people no, so I obliged and told her that I would come to her house as soon as I got off of work for lunch.  I'm strong in my faith as a Christian so I figured it wouldn't be too big of a problem; also, I'm not perfectly fluent in Kinyarwanda just yet so I probably wouldn't have been able to understand what was being said anyway.  I agreed to go more for integration purposes than to be converted to Muslim and I assumed this wouldn't be a problem...that is...until I asked two of my coworkers for their advice.

After the staff meeting on Thursday morning, I walked into the office that I share with two of my coworkers and popped my big question.  "My neighbor asked me to go to church with her on Friday, but she's Muslim.  I'm not sure if it's appropriate for me to go or not.  What do you think?"  Little did I know, I opened up a huge can of worms with this question and should have stuck with just asking my mom and sister in America for their opinions.  One of my (very outspoken) coworkers, who happens to speak English rather well, lit into me immediately.  Here is a blurb of what he said: "Why would you want to go to church with them?  Muslims are dirty! Do not be their friends!  Do not go to their mosque!  Do not eat the food they give you!  They are different.  They do not have hygiene.  When they use the bathroom, they wipe with their right hand and will make you sick."  As he said all of this, I couldn't help but to notice

More Randomness

I'm a Boss

One of my coworkers wore his good hat to work today (which happens to be a forest green cowboy hat) and asked me to help him take a photo for his FB profile picture...I obliged and helped him, and when we were all finished and his profile picture was updated, he displayed a proud smile and said very confidently, "I'm a boss."  I laughed. I will forever wonder where they learn these things.

Racist

The last thing I would have ever expected to be called in Rwanda is racist.  I was showing one of my coworkers some of the photos in my phone and when we were finished he said, "I think you are racist."  I told him I wasn't and asked why he would think so.  He said, "You are lying.  You are racist because you only have black people in your phone."  I didn't quite know how to respond, but I did my best to defend myself and tell him that most of the photos are of my family and they are all black...as I am.  Everyone here has a hard time believing that I come from a black family since my skin is so light; so they think I'm a white person who doesn't like whites.  Imagine that.

Out of Gas