Quick update, still working off the same laptop charge from before I arrived here, so this will be quite brief so I can try and squeeze one more post out of this battery...After that I'll try and figure something out.
I’m at my site, it’s Day 10 (I think), and I’m starting to adjust to life here, even though I haven’t started actually teaching yet, or have my housing situation resolved.
I will begin teaching in a few weeks time, until then I’ve been hanging out in the teacher’s room at school, observing a few lessons by other teachers, and talking with some students. You can imagine they are amazingly fascinated by my presence.
Housing still in flux, and the original plan of me moving into the room on the school compound is being scrapped, for various reasons, particularly the latrine issue. Bottom line is that Peace Corps will not approve that living situation because there are various things which make it different from the original “plan” for the needed renovations.
The new plan is finding a suitable house in the local area, which I’ll be attempting to do over the next few days, but so far I’ve had very little luck with. So yes, I’m still in a glorious state of limbo that is a source of never ending frustration. However, the Peace Corps’ insistence that I must find a house, and not the room in the school compound I was going to have does seem quite positive, since hopefully, at some time I’ll have a house with neighbors and not isolated in a room by the school. I remain very cautiously optimistic…
Anyway, it’s been raining a lot here, which I don’t mind, but rain in my village shuts down transport in and out of the area because it’s all dirt roads and the road just turns to mud which cannot be driven through.
It looks like Kigali will be my best bet for a PO Box, hopefully I’ll accomplish that in the next few weeks. As you might imagine, I’m rather hesitant to leave my site at all until I resolve a permanent housing situation, but I’ll give an update once I do get a PO Box…I mean, of course I want people to be able to send me stuff! I’ve burned through a crazy amount of the candy that arrived when I was in Kigali for swearing in…But I have been running in the morning usually and brushing my teeth frequently...
Funny side note about running, everyone refers to it as “isporo”, which makes me laugh because in my head I’m thinking “Yes, I’m going sporting”…
Anyway, I’ll try a
Friday, January 14, 2011
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Hey
It’s been a little while, mainly due to a lack of connectivity and electricity. As it stands I still haven’t worked out if/how I’ll be charging my laptop, and thus this post will be quite brief and I’m not sure how many will be following it in the near future, but hopefully I’ll work that part out.
I’m at my site and I start teaching tomorrow. It’s been an interesting week, though not incredibly eventful on a grand scale. A lot of meeting people, trying to remember names, being followed by children, being called muzungu (of course), being laughed at, being asked to teach everyone and their mother’s mother’s mother English, being told I speak really good Kinyarwanda, or on the flip side that I don’t understand anything (which is often true), being asked why I’m here, where I live, how “I find the climate”, how I find the people, and being forced to consume more sodas than I can ever recall in recent times. I even opted for tonic water the other day just because I knew I wouldn’t drink it as fast. But you know the only thing worse than a bottle of tonic water? Two bottles of tonic water. And what’s worse than two bottles of tonic water? Two bottles of tonic water followed by a grape Fanta. I say this all in jest though, I’m more than happy to hang out and socialize, get to know people and whatnot, even if it rots my teeth a bit.
The main event has been my housing situation which is still unresolved, and I’m currently staying with my headmaster until the latrine/fence situation is addressed. I’m hopeful that within a week or so that aspect of things will get sorted out, as I’m quite eager to get space for myself and actually be able to unpack my things (especially since I have a lot of crap!).
I’m starting to get to know some people though, and I’ve been running almost every day in the morning, which has greatly helped me map out the surrounding area. It’s really quite beautiful and I enjoy the calmness which surrounds me here. It’s interesting because while it feels like you are in the middle of nowhere, there is always a bunch of houses right nearby, whereas in the States you wouldn’t expect to find any people at all in such an area.
It has poured rain like no other today, almost a frightening amount. Rain here also means no commuting in our out, because it’s all dirt roads and then get very muddy to the point where you can’t drive on them (unless you a F-350 or something). I enjoy the sound of the rain though, the loud thundering crashes on the tin roofs here. I’m going to miss it during the dry season which is fast approaching.
Anyway, I’d write more but like I said, I’m trying to make this charge of battery last as long as possible. In the meantime I hope everyone is well and hopefully I’ll be able to write more sometime soon.
I’m at my site and I start teaching tomorrow. It’s been an interesting week, though not incredibly eventful on a grand scale. A lot of meeting people, trying to remember names, being followed by children, being called muzungu (of course), being laughed at, being asked to teach everyone and their mother’s mother’s mother English, being told I speak really good Kinyarwanda, or on the flip side that I don’t understand anything (which is often true), being asked why I’m here, where I live, how “I find the climate”, how I find the people, and being forced to consume more sodas than I can ever recall in recent times. I even opted for tonic water the other day just because I knew I wouldn’t drink it as fast. But you know the only thing worse than a bottle of tonic water? Two bottles of tonic water. And what’s worse than two bottles of tonic water? Two bottles of tonic water followed by a grape Fanta. I say this all in jest though, I’m more than happy to hang out and socialize, get to know people and whatnot, even if it rots my teeth a bit.
The main event has been my housing situation which is still unresolved, and I’m currently staying with my headmaster until the latrine/fence situation is addressed. I’m hopeful that within a week or so that aspect of things will get sorted out, as I’m quite eager to get space for myself and actually be able to unpack my things (especially since I have a lot of crap!).
I’m starting to get to know some people though, and I’ve been running almost every day in the morning, which has greatly helped me map out the surrounding area. It’s really quite beautiful and I enjoy the calmness which surrounds me here. It’s interesting because while it feels like you are in the middle of nowhere, there is always a bunch of houses right nearby, whereas in the States you wouldn’t expect to find any people at all in such an area.
It has poured rain like no other today, almost a frightening amount. Rain here also means no commuting in our out, because it’s all dirt roads and then get very muddy to the point where you can’t drive on them (unless you a F-350 or something). I enjoy the sound of the rain though, the loud thundering crashes on the tin roofs here. I’m going to miss it during the dry season which is fast approaching.
Anyway, I’d write more but like I said, I’m trying to make this charge of battery last as long as possible. In the meantime I hope everyone is well and hopefully I’ll be able to write more sometime soon.
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?)
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?)
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