Outstanding American Food Collage

Recently I visited the Peace Corps office to have an infected finger treated by the doc. That night while staying at the office dorm and shooting the breeze with some other volunteers, I spotted a photo of mouth watering beef and veggies in Us Weekly that just looked so right. Unfortunately, it only took me a moment to realize I was salivating at an advertisement for dog food. It was then that my PCV cohorts Geoff, Kayla, Tim and I decided to scour all of the copies of trashy American magazines we could find lying around to create an epic collage of delicious longed-for treats. I would call this my greatest accomplishment in Rwanda thus far. You'll notice we included the dog food ad on the top left directly under the hot dog. 

A shot of Kayla next to the collage for scale:

Things have been kind of rough out here lately, trying to figure out my place and feeling extremely homesick/depressed. Add to that the oddness of being the constant center of attention including stares, calls of umuzungu etc., plus the obvious lack of creature comforts and, as this post points out... FOOD! Sometimes I actually envision myself just getting on a plane out of here. Not sure if that's the normal jitters 4 months in or if this is maybe a wrong fit. But a decision like that involves a whole different set of concerns--feeling like a failure, disappointing myself, family and friends, and so many other complicated emotions. I have a training coming up next week and am hoping that will help me to get my head straight. As they say in Kinyarwanda, tuzareba (we shall see).

MTV Cribs: Peace Corps Edition

Today I’m going to take you on a tour of my Rwandan mansion, or as I like to call it—the tool shed. When I first checked out this house on my site visit I was terrified. It was very small by American standards, the inside hadn’t been painted and there were coal stove smoke stains on the walls. When I moved in, I was happy to see that the place had been brightened up with yellow paint, but I initially had no furniture other than 2 plastic chairs. Over the last couple of months I’ve tried to make it feel more like home, but it’s a work in progress. So first off to clarify, I do not live with a roommate or host family, but there are neighbors next door who I eat with occasionally. I have electricity, though sometimes when it rains the power cuts out. And I don’t have indoor plumbing of any kind, but there is an outdoor spigot nearby where I can fetch water. I have phone and 3G Internet access, but the latter can be slow and choppy so watching streaming video doesn't really work. Also, a couple of people have pointed out that my town does not exist on some maps, so below you can see the Google map images indicating with a blue dot where my house is—in the SW, directly on Lake Kivu. 

Well, here you have the exterior. The boundary of my house stops at the metal fence on the right, though it shares an interior wall with another house. I put up a clothes line in the front with blue twine and I have a mango tree, which should be neat when it’s in season.

Inside you can see some of the furniture I had made by a local carpenter—a big cabinet where I keep food, cooking supplies, books, etc., and a table. I love my world map—many thanks to my friend Brian for the gift!

On the right I have some photos and post cards from home, then on the far left you can see my Peace Corps-issued water filter as well as a handy dish drying thingy I picked up in Kigali.

In the corner next to the door is a “wet station” of sorts where I hang towels and keep the water jugs and basins that I use for washing clothes and dishes.

The bedroom is pretty basic. I keep the mosquito net up all the time which feels like being in a fort. My favorite thing in this house is the floor mat because it’s the only place I can walk in Rwanda barefoot. Literally all floors here are concrete and it’s not like you can really Swiffer them so even when clean, the floor is actually quite dirty. And if you don’t wear shoes outside you can easily get jiggers, the African version of chiggers, which I hear are no fun and have to be cut out of your foot by the PC Medical Officer.

Next we have the bathroom and shower area. I only use the 2 doors on the far right.

The latrine is pretty basic. It’s your classic squat and squirt situation.

The shower is just a room where you bring your bucket. I keep the mop in there so I can remove the water when I’m finished.

Then I have this odd unconnected room which has some wood-burning stoves (in the center of the photo) that I never use. I just use it as storage for my bike, rain boots, and cleaning supplies. When my hot plate was broken I cooked on the coal stove in here.

Next up, the good ‘ole water spigot.

And finally the communal trash area. Basically just a patch of soil between some banana trees. Werd.

So I know it’s not exactly glamorous, but this is my home for the time being and it’s grown on me. I miss America constantly and the days are mostly long and boring right now, so having a private place to come and chill is a nice luxury. Also, while writing this post I had a good laugh thinking about all the times back in Boston when I went searching for apartments, demanding on-site laundry facilities and a dishwasher. Luckily it doesn’t get too cold or unbearably hot here because heating and cooling systems of any kind... yeah they don't exist. Lol It’s a change of pace to say the least, but I consider myself lucky since some volunteers don't have electricity, a water spigot, or even a paved road with regular transportation!

Abe "Lincorn," Evil Mastermind?

I want to start off by sharing one of the most ridonk things I have seen in this country (aside from a poster of American rap moguls wherein a photo of 50 Cent was labeled 50%. This is basically a horror movie DVD cover called “Illuminati 4: The Antichrist,” and it features photos of Justin Bieber, Hitler, the Pope, and Abraham “Lincorn,” which I’d like to point out is actually George Washington. Or maybe GW's evil twin? Aside from Hitler, I’m not sure who the good and bad guys are in this scenario. 

Strange DVD covers aside, I've made a bit of progress recently. First off, I attended an event in Kamembe last month (a bigger town about 90 minutes away) led by some other Peace Corps Volunteers. I pretty much just observed since they planned this activity prior to my arrival here. Local high school students presented pre-prepared skits about HIV/AIDS and heard lessons about prevention/stigmas etc. Many of the skits involved songs and I realized just how many young aspiring hip hop stars there are in Rwanda. lol Another volunteer who is working for an NGO in my district has a supervisor living in Kamembe and we stayed with his family during our visit. These folks had a huge home with indoor plumbing, satellite television, and even a lawn—just goes to show how different Rwandan circumstances are (though on the other hand they don’t have hot water and cook on a wood stove). This family was so great—we got a tour of the city, delicious home-cooked meals, interesting conversation, and a chance to watch the Style Network. On that note, I did not know that Tia and Tamara Mowry have their own reality show, but watching it in a developing country made me realize why some foreigners hate America.

From Kamembe I took a 7-hour bus ride to Kigali to run errands with another PCV. This was a great excuse to visit a random hole-in-the-wall restaurant called Lil’ Vegas where you can play slot machines and indulge in American-style chicken fingers and onion rings while watching Beyoncé music videos. The return trip to my site featured more music videos, but this time they were Rwandan, and playing on a bus TV screen. Yes, I was on a ginormous bus with a TV screen! Not sure when they bad boys were rolled out, but I am hoping I’m lucky enough to hop on one again the next time I have to travel to the city. Visiting Kigali is a strange experience because it’s like a vacation from village life, but everything is crazy expensive when you’re on a Peace Corps budget. I felt spoiled to stay in a hotel room with running water, but then ended up with about a dozen mysterious insect bites in my sleep. And in some ways Kigali feels safer than the village because you can walk around at night (which I never do at site), but I was also hyper on-guard in crowded areas like the bus station due to recent grenade attacks. So it’s definitely a place to visit once in a while when you need a dose of semi-anonymity and western food, but it’s not going to be a frequent occurrence for me. That being said, I did purchase a new hot plate which I am pretty excited about, so it was a worthwhile trip overall.

When I got back, I toured Kibogura Hospital, which is located about a 20-minute drive from me, and was surprised to find out that it’s a really large, well-equipped facility with foreigners passing through pretty frequently. I even met an American woman who will be living in Nyamasheke for at least the next year and had some really good insights to share about her experience so far. 

I then met a Ugandan woman who is mentoring teachers at the local school on how to instruct in English and adopt a student-centered vs. teacher-centered teaching approach. This mentoring program was implemented by the Rwandan government after they switched from a French-speaking to English-speaking education system back in 2009. Rwanda is moving forward pretty ambitiously with a program called Vision 2020 and education seems to be a big part of making this country an international player. The teacher I met is a great resource and it looks like we’re going to pair up to start some student clubs in January. She then introduced me to a woman from Zimbabwe working with Volunteers Serving Abroad who, prior to my arrival, partnered with EDC (the company I worked at prior to Peace Corps, which also has an office in Rwanda) to start a library nearby. The library is supposed to become mobile and visit neighboring communities including my town, so I'm planning to get on board with that project and see how I can help. 

In other news, last weekend I assisted with a malaria prevention event at another PCV's secondary school. The activity I was assigned to help with involved students making a "dream banner" with words and photos describing their goals—then placing the banner under a mosquito net to demonstrate how protecting yourself from malaria can protect your dreams. I’m happy to have some activities like this on the agenda because I've been doing a lot of watching and not a lot of doing recently. Feeling guilty about having too much down time to play Candy Crush and watch Always Sunny in Philadelphia, I've made a concerted effort to try to explore the area more and work on the Peace Corps Community Needs Report I'm required to complete. Part of this assessment included checking on the current status of an animal husbandry project started by the previous volunteer at my site. It looks to be doing well at the moment, and I am trying to get a meeting set up to discuss how to start breeding the pigs she distributed.

And finally, just a completely unrelated big-picture note, there was recently a parliamentary election which resulted in the number of seats held by women increasing from 56 to 64%. Way to go ladies—exciting times for Rwanda!