Win Some, Lose Some

Last week was a whirlwind. I traveled with the other volunteers to the capital, Kigali, where we stayed at a hotel and met our respective site supervisors. After a couple of days of volunteer/supervisor training, we separated and left to tour our individual sites. First, the pros.

Kigali seems like a cool place. We stayed at a nice hotel with a delicious buffet and copious amounts of coffee—I had like 3 cups a day and it was amazing. The hotel was located right across from the national soccer stadium where a big concert was taking place, so we had a chance to go over and hear some Rwandan jams. There were a lot of foreign folks there, and because we were in the big city no kids were pointing and yelling at us. The stores in Kigali also offer a lot of different items that are harder to get out in the villages. I purchased some peanut butter and Pringles for myself, and some chocolate for my host family. Then one evening we went out to dinner for a fellow volunteer’s birthday and had some legit Italian pizza that was a real treat. And the actual Peace Corps training content was great too.

The drive out to my site was long (about 8 hours), but it was a very interesting trip. We drove through cities, small villages, and a refugee camp of about 20,000 people from the Democratic Republic of Congo. We passed hills with lush farms, bright green tea plantations, rice paddies, and a local juice company. There was even a sort of rest stop where you can buy popcorn, sodas, candy, and all sorts of other goodies. Closer to my site, we spent an hour driving through the windy road of Nyungwe National Park where we saw some small monkeys hanging out near the edge of the forest. Much of the road between the park and my home is newly paved, only about 9 months old, so that that was a cool and welcome discovery. My site, in the district of Nyamasheke and village of Gikuyu, is right next to Lake Kivu on the far Eastern border of the country; so I have a beautiful view.

Me pointing to the general area of where my site is located.

Lake Kivu

My supervisor, Emmanuel, attended the training with me and accompanied me back to Nyamasheke. Emmanuel is a nurse at the health center and was super welcoming and excited to work with me. At the health center, people were enthusiastic about having a Peace Corps volunteer, which was a relief, and a number of them spoke English. People seemed pleased at the little amount of Kinyarwanda I’ve learned, and were happy to hear a foreigner speak their language. I learned that the health center has some specific expectations for the areas they want me to work in, which are community education in nutrition and hygiene, and assisting their staff to learn English. Good to have some understanding in advance of the types of projects I might be able to initiate.

Now for the cons. Upon completing our long journey from Kigali to Nyamasheke, my supervisor took me to a local restaurant. The waitress brought out a pitcher of hot water with some soap for hand washing, which lulled me into a false sense of hygiene security. So when they presented a platter of lettuce and tomatoes cut into the shape of roses, I stupidly ignored the Peace Corps’ advice not to eat uncooked veggies (because they may be improperly washed and harboring bacteria). I paid the price, and spent about 30 hours in the bathroom with fluids coming out of one end or the other. Luckily I was staying in a temporary guest room that had a flushing toilet. Plus the Peace Corps doctor was great about checking in and making sure I took the proper meds from my first aid kit. That being said, it was a rough day and I felt pretty depressed that I missed out on time I could have spent exploring my site. The next day, I was brought back to the same restaurant twice for additional meals, and discovered that the latrines there were pretty disgusting. To make matters worse I saw a dead mouse lying near the dish washing area. So yeahhhhh….not surprised about the food poisoning in retrospect. Lesson learned, kids.

Another moment of questionable sanitation standards occurred when I purchased a water bottle from a local market, drank from it, and then realized the bottle had a large crack that had be sealed with a piece of scotch tape. Not cool. Basically that means I drank water that could have been contaminated, all because some store owner wanted to save a few cents rather than throw out a damaged water bottle. My supervisor was super pissed by this and actually spent over an hour trying to shame the shopkeeper, calling the health center to report the issue, and determining how to alert the local authorities. It was intense, but I appreciated his follow-up.

Unrelated con—there were a few awkward moments of people asking me about my marital status and religion. This was uncomfortable, but apparently a very normal Rwandan conversation topic with strangers. Once a woman turns 21 here she’s expected to start looking for a husband; and if she doesn’t have one by 30 it’s bad news. I think maybe this is different in parts of the country where you find lots of young, progressive, university-educated people. Some of the locals who inquired as to why I do not have a husband were satisfied at my response that I just want to travel, work, and learn at the moment. When that didn’t work, I tried the excuse that an American husband would not be keen on my leaving the country for over 2 years. And when that excuse did not work, I just accepted their puzzled or judgmental looks and changed the subject.

My final pro/con falls in both categories. I took a tour of my future house and had some super mixed feelings. Pros: it has electricity, is close to a water spigot, and has neighbors living close by in the same compound, which is great for security. Cons: it’s hella small with only 1 door and 2 windows. More like a shed than a house. My latrine and shower room are both wicked dark. And the neighbors seemed upset that the last volunteer wanted so much personal space. They were actually trying to get assurances from me that I would bond with them and invite them into my shed for visits. It was a lot to take in to say the least. And the trip back to my training site was also plagued by extreme motion sickness, so that put a bit of a damper on the visit as well.

In conclusion the last week had its ups and downs. It was interesting to hear about their site visits. Some people described their joy at being out in the middle of nowhere on high mountains or in deep valleys without running water or electricity. Others were excited to be close to the city with hot showers and power. On the opposite end of the spectrum, two people felt quite unwelcome in their health centers, and one actually ended up getting an immediate site change because it was determined that the community didn’t want a volunteer after all. So I feel like, for the moment, I’m just relieved to be assigned to an enthusiastic health center, and I guess I’ll form some more solid opinions when I move back permanently in September. For the moment, I’m just happy to be back at the training site with some time to reflect on my experience and make a game plan.

Some Scenes Around Town

This week I thought I’d post some photos to give you an idea of what it looks like in these here parts. On Sunday I’m headed to Kigali for a few days to meet the person who will be my on-site Rwandan counterpart in my permanent village. Then on Wednesday, I’ll travel with him or her out to my future site, where I’ll stay for the rest of the week to get the lay of the land, check out my living accommodations, visit the health center where I'll work, and figure out what types of items I will need to bring with me to site (pots and pans etc.) Also, in case you’re wondering, it took an absurdly long time to upload these photos (like 3 hours maybe), so in the future I’ll probably only be doing a few photos per post at most. Nice to be able to share the view once in a while though!

The front view of my host family's house. I think all of the homes in this area of made of mud brick and maybe concrete. Ours looks a bit fancier than some others I've seen that have plainer looking exteriors.

Went adventuring through some farmland across from my house and stumbled across this scenic vista.

Four days a week Bre (in the blue shirt) and I have our own private language classes with Liliose (in red). We also happen to own matching sandals. lol You can see the door to our classroom in the background.

A peek inside the classroom where the two of us learn Kinyarwanda.

This goat lives outside our classroom. He's pretty chill. He hangs out in the shade of some clothes drying on a tree; and he eats trash with his goat buddy (not pictured).Keep up the good work, guy.

Twice a week, Bre and I walk 30 minutes to the Peace Corps training "hub" where we meet with the larger group of 18 other trainees to learn about the Rwandan Health Care system, various health issues we may work on at site, personal safety, cultural expectations etc.

The view on our walk home from class at the hub. Not bad! That's all for now folks. Will let you know how this trip to Kigali/site visit turns out. 

The Foods of My Umudugudu (Village)

There is not a day that passes when I do not miss McDonald's and Taco Bell, but I have to say that the food in Rwanda is pretty damn good. Typically a meal might include tea, bread, rice, beans, potatoes, macaroni if your chef is feeling adventurous, plantains or bananas, and maybe eggs. There is usually a sauce made out of veggies (like mashed cassava leaves), meat (which has a broth-like consistency), or peanuts. As far as fruits are concerned I’ve had pineapples that taste way fresher than anything in the states. You don’t have to even take the core out! In the capital you can get passion fruit, mangoes, and something called tree tomatoes, which are all quite tasty. And for veggies I’ve had cabbage, corn, avocados that are 3 times the size of the U.S. kind, and onions.

As part of our Peace Corps training they gave us some info on what to expect for foods available in the local markets depending on what region of the country we’re placed in. Although I wouldn’t want to be limited in my food choices forever, I have to say that it’s pretty baller to think that we’re mostly just eating whatever grows around us and is in season. My host family farms corn, sorghum, beans, sweet potatoes, bananas, sugar cane, peanuts, and soy.

The cooking process is hardcore. My host family has a wood-burning stove built into their enclosed/outdoor kitchen, and a small charcoal stove as well. Getting either one hot is no easy task. I’ve actually sat in awe watching while Mama hacks apart a big tree limb with an axe to throw in the wood stove, and then lights it with a bit of hay, 1 match, and some fanning motions. Pretty impressive stuff. It gets very smoky in the “kitchen” though, and there isn’t really any space to cut anything because they don’t have counters, let alone a cutting board. I think they mostly just chop ingredients right into the pot. And they still have all their fingers!

Inside my host family's kitchen

Wednesday my Peace Corps training assignment was to cook an American dish for the family. In the afternoon, I went with my language instructor, Liliose, to the weekly market and bought garlic, onions, green peppers, tomatoes, tomato paste, corn, and spaghetti. After class I explained to Mama that I was going to cook them some “macaroni and isosi (sauce).” So they gave me a knife and a couple of bowls and 7 people watched intently as the weirdo American fumbled to cut some vegetables. I’m sure it was a good show. To keep expectations low, and since I have never previously made spaghetti sauce using only tomato paste, salt, and water, I repeatedly stated in Kinyarwanda that I was a bad cook and that no one in America likes to eat my food. Haha! Luckily no one died after consuming my ad-hoc American meal. They even seemed to like it, which was a relief.

Some other interesting factoids: Rwandans just don’t have snack attacks. If you go into a local shop the only options you’re really going to see in the light snack realm are a few different bread options, maybe one type of fruit, or some candies that look like Jolly Ranchers but taste like cough drops. You can also buy these packages of plain cookies called biscuits, but if I eat more than 3 at a time I tend to get sick. Oh and there’s also one shop that has a popcorn machine they fire up once in a while, but apparently this is a novelty. I’ve heard there are restaurants galore in Kigali and some other big cities, and that you can purchase all sorts of goodies like chocolate and peanut butter, but just not here on the village level. What I wouldn’t do for a bag of Cheetos right now!

Even stranger than not snacking (by American standards), is the fact that people rarely eat on the street. I’ve heard this is taboo because in Rwandan culture they share everything. So if you’re eating a banana, it would not be out of line for a stranger to come up to you and ask you for a piece of it. And you’d be like, “Oh sure, here you go dude, I wasn’t going to eat this WHOLE banana anyway.” And if a woman is carrying a jug of water on her head, any random person walking by can be like, “Hey there, I’m thirsty,” and she will have her child run home to fetch a cup that she can then fill with water and give to this no-name passerby. In America, if you walked up to someone on the street and asked them for some of their food or beverage you’d likely get a solid “eff off” in response. Just goes to show how generous Rwandans can be.

Ok, one last thought on food: in case you’re wondering, the major meats of choice I’ve seen thus far are goat and cow. On Thursday I ate what I believe to have been some BBQ skewered goat liver called “brochette”—a bit chewy but not terrible. For chicken, as far as I know you to need to buy that clucker and slaughter it yourself—which isn’t really on my bucket list. I think meat is fairly expensive, so I was confused when my family served it to me every night my first week. Then through some miming and extensive use of a translation dictionary, I was able to figure out that my Papa is actually an owner of the local butchery cooperative. Super cool! So I’ll enjoy the beef for now, as I probably will be too grossed out at my own village by the lack of meat refrigeration to buy some on my own. On that note I will leave you, my dear American friends, to your delicious fast food and “never ending salad and bread sticks.” Bon appetite!

SPECIAL ALERT!: After writing this post I was informed that a local store carries chocolate bars called “Gotcha: Big Taste!” I immediately purchased 2 and was elated to find that they are basically Kit Kat bars covered in some other mysterious crunchy goodness. Imma need to buy about 50 more of these, stat.