Disclaimer

All of the content, links, images, and opinions expressed herein are mine alone and do not reflect the position of the United States Government or the Peace Corps.

Saturday, January 1, 2011

2011? Well Just How the Hell Was That Allowed to Happen So Fast?

Rwanda, 2011. Which is more bizarre, that I’m in Rwanda, or that now I’ll spend 2 months crossing out 2010 after I screw up writing the date wrong?

I won’t dwell on the fact that it’s New Years Day, that it was nice yet bittersweet to talk with Ashley and my family as they celebrated New Years Eve in good ol’ NoHo Massachusetts. If I was there, I’d be mocking the whole thing; New Years in Northampton, how crazzzzyyy…But instead I find myself somewhat envious, wishing I could video tape and laugh at the “interesting”people who live in Northampton, and watch the “incredible” ball drop.

Anyway, as I said, I won’t dwell too much on such things, just a few thoughts…

Things are winding down, everyone is scrambling to buy things before moving in, and the whole thing has become somewhat surreal (as if it wasn’t in the first place). And the good news is that all 67 of us left here made the cut to be allowed to swear on Monday in Kigali, a really good statistic considering the number we started with.

But life is soon to change drastically, in ways I can’t even begin to fathom at this point. Yesterday I went to Butare with a bunch of other volunteers to go buy things we’ll need when we move in. All throughout the process I’ve found myself wondering “hm, will I need ____”. And then thinking, “do you really need to buy all this crap?”. Didn’t I come here to live like people do here? At the same time, we’re given a very generous moving in allowance, and this together with our monthly per diem has left me with more money then I think I feel comfortable having.

In other news, I’m trying to soak up the comforts here in Nyanza before heading to site on Tuesday (did I mention I’m being dropped off on Tuesday?). But before that, there’s a nice bus trip to Kigali tomorrow and then swearing in on Monday. And then guess what? Back here on Monday afternoon/evening, and then I’m off to my site first thing Tuesday morning. Gosh it’s nice to have such a nice buffer for my turn around time…

Continuing on, today was one of those days that made realize why I wanted to join the Peace Corps in the first place. It wasn’t necessarily all great, and in fact some parts were the total opposite, but it just involved so many unexpected and ridiculous events. First, I bought a mattress which was rolled up for me so I could carry it on my head back to the training center, and then the amazingness that was our big resource family get together at the other Far Side house. It went quite well, with the very notable exception of having to shoo away hungry neighborhood kids who had climbed the wall (it’s too low to really be called climbing but we’ll leave that aside) in order to get some food from other neighborhood kids we had invited (mainly ones that live next door to the girls house). Chasing out kids just because they’re hungry and want some food really sucks, but as was pointed out to me, with only food enough to feed a few of them and not all, allowing a bunch of them to come in could potentially start the same kind of rioting/fighting over food which occurs during big food aid disbursements in hunger relief efforts. This may have been the low point of the day if not for the difficult conversation I had earlier with our housekeeper Jack about some past events which I won’t delve into.

Anyway, the events with our resource families were overall quite hilarious and enjoyable. A massive amount of photos were taken, and there were many gifts exchanged (some just too amazing to even try and describe), and the food was excellent – props to Caitlyn for spearheading the whole thing and the girls overall for doing most of the work including of course hosting the whole thing.

I’d add more, but tomorrow is an early day off to Kigali. My next post will likely be as a volunteer and no longer a trainee (I’m hoping ha). Happy 2011 to all! (Can’t you feel my excitement and optimism oozing through the computer screen?)

No comments:

Post a Comment