Greetings from Kigali

(As a note, I predrafted this last night on my laptop and transferred it via flash drive, so it's not 100% up to date but pretty much).

Friday 10/22/10

Greetings to everyone from Rwanda! I regret that I did not have the chance to post anything sooner, but things have been quite busy as you might imagine, and internet connectivity scarce. And just as a note, this entry may be a little dated when I actually post it, as I’m writing it on my laptop on this Friday night, and I’ll save it to a flash drive and post it when I get to an internet café.

Just as a brief rundown, I’ll start with things since arriving here in Rwanda…

The flight and everything was problem free, and we arrived in Kigali and were immediately met by Peace Corps Rwanda staff. After a decent though not overly long wait to get through customs, we got our baggage (none of it get lost, I good omen I’m thinking for the rest of my time here), and then loaded up the baggage on one truck, and the 71 of us then squeezed into three small-medium buses.

After a 40min bus ride, all crammed in on buses (though they were pretty nice Toyotas), driving up and down through the hills of Kigali, we arrived at the Centre we are staying at (don’t recall the name, sorry). And let me just say that Rwanda is beautiful, a truly amazing sight. All I’ve seen so far is Kigali, but the hills are amazing, it is extremely green and the red clay in the soil really adds to the incredible beauty of the hillsides. I’ll do my best to start getting some pictures up here when I can.

Today (Friday) was a really long day, filled with information sessions about safety and security, money and banking info, cultural customs and norms, some languages basics (mainly greetings), and of course, the fun part, a medical information session. This sessions was accompanied by medical consults and of course some fun shots which took place spread out throughout the rest of the day. I received a shot for meningitis and rabies, but I still have to get shots for tD and typhoid (at least I think those are the two I still need).

The food has been excellent, although we have eaten every single meal at the Centre we are staying at. I think they have been trying to ease our adjustment to the local cuisine, though tonight I had my first taste of goat since arriving in Rwanda. Other than that it has been a mix of things including: rice, potatoes, beans, soup (some sort of veggie soup), cassava, plantains, salad, chicken, and today we had some awesome breaded and fried fish during a tea break in the morning. I’ve also realized that I may end up drinking a lot of soda here, because that’s basically what is served with every meal. Though no need to worry, they have supplied us with tons of water in our rooms for now, and today we got a nice look at what our water filters look like and how to put them together…They basically look like big Lipton iced tea taps you would see next to a fountain soda machine.

We were also given our extensive medical kits today, which contain everything from lip balm and insect repellent to cipro and some other intense pill in case you actually get malaria. Did I forget to mention that we were started on mefloquin when we arrived on Thursday? I’m not sure if it was from being over tired or the mefloquin, but last night I dreamt of being chased and by rats, and then I woke up with my hand near my mouth, apparently trying to expel a large insect which in my dreams had somehow managed to fly and get stuck in the inside corner of my mouth. If that’s as frightening as the dreams get, I think I can handle it.

Sleeping under a mosquito net is an interesting experience. In some ways it feels charming, as if I’m sleeping within the confines of some very elegant fabric which is supposed to comfort me. But then I actually look at the net in the morning, and then I think about the fact that it’s main purpose is to prevent me from getting dangerously ill from mosquito bites. It gets less charming very quickly after that….

Tomorrow (Saturday) we will be visiting the Gosenzi (sp?) Genocide Memorial. It’s obviously an incredibly sad thing to go see, but I’m still very interested and I’m sure it’s an important thing to take in during the early part of my time in Rwanda.

I have not had an incredible amount of interaction with Rwandans beyond those employed here by the Peace Corps. That said, the staff here, mostly Rwandan nationals, has all been incredibly nice and welcoming. Many of them are the ones responsible for teaching us Kinyarwanda and helping us to adjust to this new culture, they are called “LCFs” (Language and Cross Cultural Facilitators). Once we get to Nyanza and are assigned to our respective houses for the next eleven weeks, we will be living with at least one LCF in each house, an attempt to help reinforce our language learning since we are not living with host families as PCVs (Peace Corps Volunteers) do in most countries.

I haven’t been here long at all, but in some ways it feels like weeks. I can’t explain why, and it certainly doesn’t imply anything negative at all, it’s just the way it feels. I expect it’s the jetlag and lack of legitimate sleep, coupled with all the various different sessions and such we’ve been sitting through….I’m eager to get to Nyanza and begin actual training, but I know once I do it’s going to be one long eleven week blur (but we do get one day off a week…). For now that’s all, I wish everyone the best…..