About Time....

I wrote the post below a few days ago, but due to failed attempts to get a strong enough connection to the internet, I’m not posting it until now…If I had more time I’d add more recent updates, but since I do not have such time right now, I’m just going to add one bit of news, which is that I will indeed find out my permanent site placement sometime tonight, and next week I will be visiting it…Also, I’m seriously considering investing in a USB modem here, pending that I confirm I’ll have signal at my site. If that is the case, I should be able to make more regular postings on here…But I’ll wait on saying whether that will happen for sure or not…

[Start Previously Written Post]

So it’s been a while since I’ve posted, I apologize for that but the internet speed here has made it nearly impossible to do anything but check basic gmail. If I ever get a decent connection I’ll post some of the pictures I’ve taken, but for now just getting this up is a major accomplishment.

I’m not quite sure where to begin, it’s probably impossible to relate every minor detail or event, so I’ll just try to offer a few snippets on certain events and then I’ll offer a bullet point list of my observations/experiences/etc…

Overall things are good, training includes very long days filled with language sessions, tech training (training us to be teachers), safety and security sessions, and cross cultural sessions. In a typical training day so far, I get up sometime around 5:20 and 5:30, and drag myself into the bathroom for a bucket bath. Now quite conveniently, about a week ago we got an electrical kettle. Now, your first thought might be that we would use said kettle for water for tea or coffee. Not so. Instead, we use it to heat up a pot of water, and then pour that into the cold water we use for a bucket bath. The result? A mildly warm bucket bath which isn’t unpleasant at all. It’s quite a luxury, and I won’t have such a device at my site unless I purchase one myself (which I may or may not elect to do, based on the price).

Anyway, after bathing and getting ready, usually the bus comes and picks us up around 6:45a. The fact that our house gets a bus is not typical, it’s only because we are one of the 2 houses which live a one hour walk from the training center (which we still have to walk at times, but not usually). The six of us in our house, which includes myself, 3 other trainees – my roommate Jed, Charles, and Shawn – and the two LCFs (language and cross cultural facilitators) Valence and Jean Pierre then pile into a 12/13 person seater minibus along with the four girls and two LCFs from the other house nearby.
8am is usually language class, then a 10am tea/snack break, and then either more language or a cross culture or safety and security session, it just depends. Lunch is from 12-2p, served at the center. On some days I walk into town and try and use the internet (the operative word there is “try” ha). At 2pm we often have a tech session, but some days it’s a cross culture or safety and security session…

We are usually done around 5pm with everything, and depending on the day we may have dinner at the center, or with our resource families. Wednesdays and Fridays are usually reserved for dinner with your resource family, and Saturday and Sunday are days we are on our own for dinner (cooking or a restaurant).

My resource family is very nice, and their house is about a ten minute walk from where I live. My resource family mother has six sons, though a couple of them are older so only a few of them live with her. They are extremely nice and warm and welcoming, and I am constantly given more food than I believe my stomach can hold, though for fear of offending them, I eat everything I’m given. The cups of hot milk and tea after dinner often send me over the top. And even though my Kinyarwanda is still extremely basic (to say the least), one of the sons speaks good English, so between that and my mispronunciations and pantomimes, we can usually communicate fairly effectively. And I have been allowed to help with the cooking, though up to this point that has only really consisted of slicing a few things and being in charge of stirring something in a put.
A little bit about my neighborhood…

So as I said, I live about as far as possible from the training center in Nyanza. That said, my neighborhood is very nice and welcoming. There is a small market like a couple hundred feet from our front door, which will prove increasingly convenient as I learn better how to barter and buy things (everything in outdoor markets here requires bartering, and even more so since I’m a muzungu and thus automatically presumed to be rich beyond anything). The neighborhood is predominantly Muslim, and there is a rather nice mosque about a 5min walk from my house. Every time I go outside, there are children saying hi, shaking our hands, and speaking in Kinyarwanda or trying to speak in English (which is usually always “good morning”, no matter what time of day). We are just about the most interesting/weird/strange thing to move into this umudugudu (village) in quite a long time, if not ever, so it isn’t surprising. But the adults in the neighborhood are just as nice as the kids, and I think slowly starting to get used to our presence…
Okay, so now, I’m just going to offer some bullet point snapshots of some interesting things and observations I’ve made since being here.
- Nearly all soda comes in glass bottles, which are all recycled and rebottled (they are always faded, evidence of their reuse). This, along with the ban on plastic bags in the country gives you an idea of some of the environmental prudence here.
- Running and exercise is pretty common here, and on my few morning runs so far, I’ve come across numerous other people running. I’d say the main downside is being passed by a truck which typically emits a black plume of exhaust that I am forced to try and hold my breath while running through, or just inhale the aromatic fumes…
- I recently bought a towel! After two weeks of using a small quick dry camp towel I brought with me (which does not wrap all the way around my waste), I bought a normal size towel in the market for 2500 RWF (Rwandan Francs), which is about five dollars (I’m pretty sure I overpaid a little, but it’s a good towel).
- I don’t like to generalize at all, but I will say that Rwandans are incredibly clean people, and they make every effort to keep themselves and the things they own as clean as possible. People sweep the dirt in the front and sides of their houses every single day, their clothing is kept clean and unwrinkled, and as a man, keeping your shoes shined as a big thing.
- The repetitive and almost never changing cycle of sunrise and sunset here may start to get mundane after a while, especially because I thrive on the variance of weather and day lengths…On the upside, the lack of lights and the elevation make the night sky here amazing on clear evenings (sometimes cloud cover is an issue).
- Towards the end of this week I will find out my final site placement, and next week I will go visit it. I’m both excited and nervous, but one way or the other I’ll soon know where my home will be for the next two years…
I don’t expect my observations offer a thorough reflection of my life here, but hopefully it gives some insight. If I ever get an internet connection capable of allowing picture uploads I’ll put some up, but for now my admittedly sparse descriptions will have to suffice.
Anyway, I hope everyone is doing well and I love getting emails even if I don’t have the time/connection speed to respond right now (what I’ve been doing is downloading them onto my laptop to read at night and then trying to write a response). I’ll try to write again soon….And “supposedly” I find out my final site placement this Thursday, so when I do learn something I’ll try to let everyone know…

- Dylan