Arriving in Taba

On Saturday, my group left Kigali and traveled about 45 minutes out of the city to a Peace Corps hub site in the Southern Province of Rwanda. It’s surrounded by different villages where small groups of 2 or 3 volunteers will do their language training together. Each lives with a different host family, and then throughout the week we meet a few times to train with the bigger Peace Corps group at the hub. So first thing’s first, we pulled up to the hub and met our host families in a ceremony that included hugging and lots of communication via charades moves. Then all of the volunteers and host parents drank sodas together to celebrate. Perfect—I love soda! My host parents are Uwimana Emmanuel and Mukagahutu Bernadette, and their kids are Danielle (16), Simopiyer (14), and Garase (9). I headed back with my host Papa to their home in the village Taba and they showed me all of the equipment Peace Corps had dropped off—trunk, kerosene lamp, bucket and cup for bathing, mosquito net etc. and how to use them (more info to come on this later). 

I also met their cows and chickens and amused them by knowing how to say “Muraho, inka” or “Hello cows!” lol While waiting for dinner to cook, I hung out with the kids for a bit looking up at the stars and trying to figure out what to say and how to say it, since my host family doesn’t know a lick of English. When we eventually sat down to dinner, I realized that I was being treated as an honored guest—served meat, which I think is more of a special occasion thing here, drinking Sprite, and sampling some Rwandan delites. My Papa even turned on the radio so that I could listen to Rwandan President Paul Kagame giving a speech in English. To top it off he called each of the 3 other volunteers they hosted in the past so that I could talk to them on the phone for advice and support. Super thoughtful!

Saturday night was rough internally, as I was feeling a lot of mixed emotions from happiness to fear, sadness, homesickness, and general confusion. A LOT of confusion. I’d equate it either to being born all over again, or traveling to the moon. Basically I don’t know how to talk, eat, dress, or bathe. I have no idea where anything is. And I can’t figure out who I have already met and/or their names. It’s intense.

Sunday was much easier. In the morning I headed over to the local Presbyterian church with another volunteer, Bre, and a local dude that my host mom sent with us. The service was held outside with what seemed like a couple hundred Rwandans, and they put us in the front row right next to the pastor and choir members. They had 4 choirs for this 1 church alone! Understandably there was a lot of singing and dancing. At one point, Bre and I were asked to introduce ourselves and say where we’re from. Then they welcomed us with dancing and even had us join in. It was pretty amazing. A community member who spoke English did some translating for us, which helped tremendously.

After the service we explored the community a bit, greeting everyone we saw as children pointed and happily yelled ABAZUNGU! (white person) haha Rwandans are super friendly and everyone greeted us with enthusiasm and curiosity, welcoming us to their country. The few who spoke English even engaged us in some conversation, including a guy who runs half marathons and 5Ks around the world. During lunch at Bre’s house, we tried a fruit I’ve never had called “tree tomatoes” which are pretty tasty, and her host dad served me a Coca Cola, which I had been jonesing for hard. He speaks some English, so we were also able to ask him some questions about translating various phrases.

Her Papa directed us to the market where we engaged in a very confusing conversation with a lady about how to buy her pineapples. Luckily we were saved by an English-speaking guy nearby who heard us and ran over to our rescue. Then he probably walked away and had a good laugh. More info to come about toilets and electricity (or lack thereof) and all that jazz, but basically things are going well now that I have started to settle in a bit more!

Some neighborhood kids and my host sister Garace (she's the one holding the crying baby). Hilarious, because you basically see her joy at having me for a new "sister" juxtaposed with the terrified crying baby who freaks out every time he sees the crazy white lady. Then there is the random kid on my left giving me the most suspicious look I have ever seen. lol