Halfway Done

Ok, so I'm halfway done with training, I can't believe it! Once again, so much to write, so little time to do it. I guess I'll try to be chronological...

So a few weekends ago, we went on a field trip to Muranbi, which is a huge memorial site where mass killings took place. It's also the site where the French soldiers were during operation Turquoise. There aren't any plaques or pictures, only bodies. On the one hand, I wish there was more to the memorial, but it makes it much more real and blatant without having the usual entertainment that museums have. It was hard seeing room after room of halfway decomposed bodies-- many of them still have hair and skin, they're well preserved. We were allowed to take pictures and I took a few, but I felt awkward and disrespectful doing it. Many of the bodies were maimed and many of them were babies. There was also a room full of just clothes. Really eerie to think about how recent all this is--I was 7 years old when this took place.

Well, it's not all depressing. The American ambassador to Rwanda came to our site and had lunch with us later that week. I got to sit next to him! He made it a point to greet every single volunteer and staff member, so by the time he was done with the rounds he didn't have much time left, but we did talk a little bit. He's a Columbia graduate, same school my mom went to. He said he used to be a lawyer but then met a bunch of diplomats and decided to switch careers. We didn't talk about anything deep or personal obviously.

I've been to my resource family's house about 5 times now, and yesterday I finally found their house without any help from neighbors! That's a good thing, considering the attention I get when I walk around aimlessly or wait in a given spot for more than a minute. One time when I went, I called up my resource mom and she said her kids would come meet me on the main road. The kids took a while, and within that time I had not only the 12+ kids who'd been following me for a good 15 minutes, but an entire crowd of (mostly) children surrounding me. I know it sounds cute, but it's also uncomfortable. I know little Kinyarwanda, they know only a few words in English and French, so eventually we run out of things to say to each other and it's just me in the middle of a bunch of kids staring at you and watching your every move. For some reason, its very common for kids to say "give me your money"--maybe because they think it's funny, maybe cause they assume I'm rich and should give them something, maybe both. Anywho, I'm really liking my resource mom. She had a guest over last time I was there, who invited me to a wedding on Saturday (my birthday). Hopefully there'll be cake :P. She taught me a few dance steps, I think I did ok. I'm excited for this weekend!

Oh, and I know my placement and job-- I'm going to be teaching English at an elementary school "somewhere" near Kigali. As a secondary project, I'll be working with women who make clothes for people with HIV and AIDS. I said during my interview that I wanted an urban area, and was very flexible jobwise. Most people here don't want to teach English, they want to do something health related, so I don't mind helping them out. I hope I do a good job. Even if it's not a very unusual job, I like that there will be a set schedule and structure already. I'm not very good at organizing my time. I'm also glad I'll be working with kids. I'm spending all of next week (monday through sunday) at my site, so if I don't respond to your e-mails I apologize. ooooo, soooo excited to see where I'll be working and living!

Last weekend we went to the national park. I don't remember the name. The drive was long but the park is gorgeous. We got to see two different kinds of monkeys. There wasn't really a "trail" to take---basically, along with 2 guides, all 25 or so of us walked downhill through a forest. Since so many people come through there, i'm surprised a trail hasn't naturally been blazed by all the walking that's been done there. It's really hard to figure out where to walk, as you squeeze between treas and get your face scratched by the brush. It was definately difficult, but rewarding. It's ironic, because we spent so much time and effort to see the monkeys, yet there weren't that many of them and they were very high up the tree (I couldn't even capture any on my camera), yet as soon as we got on the main road and sat down for lunch, a monkey came out of the forest! It had no fear, it got really close to us and tried to grab a fellow volunteer's sandwich. So, just fyi, if you want to see a monkey, all you have to do is take your food out of your bag.

I'm not doing so well language wise. We had a test last week where random people in the community sit you down and ask you questions. I had no idea that my voice was going to be recorded, so I kinda freaked out when the interviewer took out a huge tape recorder. The guy was nice but I barely understood a word he said-- I felt like such a fool meeting his questions with blank stares. I tried, but I know I did badly. We're taking another test this week, so hopefully I'll do a lot better this time. I know that it's my fault-- I've been spending my free time watching episodes of Reno 911 that I burned from a fellow volunteer instead of practicing my Kinyarwanda.

We've also been given tours of hospitals, an orphanage, and an HIV counseling facility. I liked the orphanage a lot-- the kids are just adorable. One of the nuns who worked there chose me to hold the baby, I was so happy! It made me realize how much I really do want to work with kids, so I'm glad I'll get to work with both kids and adults at my site. I definately want to revisit the orphanage.

I'm sure there's more to say, but right now that's all I can think of. As always, I miss all you guys!