So, this is the first blog Im writing as a 23 year old-- yes i know, its a corny thing to say but im easily entertained. Anywho, my birthday was a lot of fun. I started out by going to a wedding, which actually turned out to be the dowry ceremony. In Rwanda, an engagement comes in several parts. I dont know all the details, but there is always a dowry ceremony some time before the actual wedding. From the time I arrived there with the woman who invited me to the end of the ceremony took about 2 and a half hours. It was held outside in someones front yard. There were about 100 people there, so sizable but not big by Rwandan standards. In Rwanda, you dont need a formal invitation to attend a wedding, people are generally ok with just someone walking by and joining at the last minute out of curiousity. I didnt get cake, but they did serve Fanta (like they do everywhere). The way the dowry ceremony is set up is that the family (and friends?) of the bride sit together on one side and the family and friends of the groom sit on the other. Both are separate from the audience. The two groups take turns talking to the other, presumably telling stories or wishes of good luck. My kinyarwanda is not good enough yet to say for sure. There were two sets of dancers, the first were young men and the second were women. They danced in the traditional Rwandan style, which I really want to learn-- its beautiful. After the two dance sequences, the "groomsmen" and "bridesmaids" walk in with the bride and groom. I was surprised to see a white guy and an asian in the groom's party. The woman who brought me to the wedding told me that the groom is from Kenya, so maybe theres some relation to that? Im assuming Kenya has more expatriots and is more multicultural/multiethnic than Rwanda, but thats just a guess. Hopeuflly nothing Im saying is offensive, its always a risk anytime race or ethnicity is mentioned. Anyway, the bridesmen and groomsmen all drink jugs full of milk which I correctly assumed symbolize fertility. Two cows were presented as the dowry for the bride, and after some time, groomsmen and bridesmaids leave, ending the ceremony. Quite an interesting and enjoyable experience.
It was easy to put something together for my bday that evening since Im still in training with all the other PCVs, and it was on a Saturday night, when we all eat out anyway (the nunnery doesnt provide food on Saturday). So we all went out to dinner and I had a few beers. Other stuff happened, but well, this is a public blog so I'll keep that information to myself ;).
Im really going to miss everyone here, its hard to believe I have less than a month before I swear in as an official PCV. Last week was spent at my future site. I got to see my house-- yes, Im 23 and I have my own house! I've never even lived alone before so this should be ineresting. I could get used to having a whole bunch of space to myself. My house isnt furnished yet, and the construction workers (or whatever they are) are still putting the finishing touches on it, so I didnt stay in my house during my visit. But it's super cute. It's painted turquoise on the outside, with a front and back yard. So I have a few little trees to admire from my window, running water, an actual toilet (that flushes!), electricity and a real shower-- not a faucet! I took pictures but due to the speed of internet here (which I always complain about) it would take me over an hour to upload a single photo, so unfortunately I probably wont be able to show anything on here :(
I stayed with a pastor's family. Turns out Ill be working for him (I dont know if im allowed to name the organisation im working for, so for now I just wont say). He seems like a fairly decent man. He speaks French and some English. He's well traveled and fairly well known; he's going on his second trip to America soon. My future house, the pastor's house, his church, and the organisation's building are all right next to each other, which is both good and bad. Its good because it means that I can easily go back and forth, if i have a question or if I need something. I do think I might start to feel a little claustraphobic, especially since Ive come to realize that this culture doesnt really consider privacy, at least not the way we do in America. This is also a very conservative society, so if I have a visitor, especially a male visitor, I might turn into the talk of the neighborhood, and be judged. It's already odd to many people here that a little white American girl is going to be living in a house all by herself, since no one lives alone in Rwanda. You either live with your family or your spouse, which i guess is the same thing.Ill have to figure out how to respect Rwandan culture while still living my life. Maybe its immature, but Im used to my freedom, and I definately think my respect of the culture will have to be compromised in order for me to be happy, thats just the way it is.
I had a meeting with the pastor and two of the women I will be working with. The two woemen barely speak any English, so it was pretty much just the pasor and I engaging in conversation. The building He works in has three rooms from what I could tell. A large office, a meeting room lined with benches, and a room full of sowing machines where women make clothes, mostly school uniforms. Even after my meeting with the pastor, Im still not sure where exactly I fit into this equation. I know that he wants me to teach English to the adults who work there, and to conduct these lessons in the meeting room. He also wants me to help sell women's handbags and handmade cards. Im not clear on what the money for these items would be used for, and until I do Im not very pleased about this part of the job description. Ive never really liked customer service/sales, and I know that people here generally look at whites/Americans, and assume that we have money or connections to big money. They're not completely wrong with their assumptions about Americans and American culture, but most people here take it to a rediculous extreme--I'll explain more about that later.
Im not sure what the pastor wants me to do with the women who sow sweaters, but generally it seems like he wants to use my knowlege of English to get grant money and interpret documents his organization recieves. He said that he only wants me working about 3 or 4 days at the school, which saddens me because I would rather spend the majority of my time teaching. I dont want to be a teacher as a career choice when I get back to the U.S., but what I like about teaching is that its something established. There's a set schedule that everyone's familiar with, and the objectives are clear. I wouldnt have to do much organizing, just setting up lesson plans and developing a teaching style based on what my students need. I already started teaching while I was there, which surprised the the other PCVs since it seems like most of us only toured our town and (possible) workplaces. I think Im pretty lucky. I like the principle of my school, hes a nice (and attractive) 30 year old. He speaks French and fairly good English, even though he doesnt think so. The school is about a 20 minute walk from my future house, and its what i would call a middle school and high school combined. The school is small, and fortunately, so are the classes. I dont think there are 5 different classes, and none of them exceed 25 students. I thought I would just be teaching English, but Im apparently teaching computer science as well, which is what I taught while I was there. Im a little uncomfortable teaching computer skills--Im pretty ignorant when it comes to technology. When I told my friend Shaun in the U.S. that id be teaching computer classes, she laughed and said "they must be desperate". Yeah, they kind of are. The school has two computers, one of which works and, due to the frequent power outages, only works if the generator works. I could go into more detail about teaching--its going to be difficult but i actually really liked it. Instead, you can ask me personally. If youre reading this blog, you have my e-mail.
That Friday night I met up with some other PCVs in Kigali, which was A LOT of fun. We talked about our different experiences, and ate American style food which we greatly miss. Rwandan food is good, but its also fairly unhealthy and very repetative. We met up at Nakumatt, which is a large 24 hour Target/Ralphs type store inside a mall. I hate to admit it, but I almost jumped up and down for joy when I went inside that place. I could spend hours just admiring the alchohol section alone-- not that its huge, but huge by Rwandan standards. Its definately a hotspot for the "abazungus" (whites/foreigners) to go. It made me realize how materialistic I am, but so what? It was nice to have choices, and products Im familiar with. I bought shaving cream and an ice cream sandwich, I was on cloud 9. Its hard to find ice cream, especially ice cream that actually tastes like ice cream here. I spent the night in Kigali then took a 20 minute cab ride back to my site. I was then almost immediately whisked off to a huge wedding reception, or rather, the dowry ceremony (once again). This one was HUGE-- much larger than the one i went to before. It was held, oddly enought, inside a school auditorium. There were maybe 1,000 or more people in the audience, I have no idea how they managed to have enough food to feed us all at the end of it, but Im so happy they did since it lasted about 4 hours! It was fun comparing this ceremony to the previous one. It was fairly similar-- still the two groups from each side, still the wedding party of groomsmen and bridesmaids with the drinking of milke. However, since this ceremony was held indoors and in an urban area, there were no cows presented. Instead, there was a fairly comical episode of a man walking up onstage wearing black and white poka dots to represent a cow. While he spoke, the recording of a cow mooing would periodically be played. I have no idea what he said, but the audience cracked up a lot.
Well, thats a huge blog entry. Bravo if you made it this far, and sorry for talking your ear off. Once again, I want to reiterate that I'm happy here and I made the right choice in joining Peace Corps.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Thursday, March 5, 2009
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!
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!
Thursday, February 26, 2009
In country!
Hey all! I realize I’ve been procrastinating when it comes to writing this blog. Due to the speed of internet here, I usually just check my e-mail and Facebook and neglect everything else. Therefore, I’ll do my best to squeeze in 3 weeks worth of information in one entry. Just the highlights, no boring stuff.
As a Peace Corps volunteer, there are certain regulations I have to abide by concerning what I post online. I can’t state my exact location or the exact location of other volunteers for safety reasons. I also can’t express my political views. I’m not very good at censuring myself, but I’ll do my best.
First off, I’m so happy to be here in Rwanda. More and more, I feel like this is the place I need to be right now. The country is so picturesque—hills galore and lots of greenery. I have pretty much only seen Kigali and Butare and not much else, so maybe I’m jumping the gun. The weather is really nice (at least it has been for the last month). I’m told that we’re in the dry season until March, but it still rains fairly often. I actually really like the rain, and even though it rains very hard here, it never rains for very long. The heat hasn’t been unbearable, certainly nothing like Southern India last summer!
Right now, I’m in the middle of week 4 of training, so my training is almost halfway over. In a week and a half, we’ll get to know where our sites will be for the next 2 years! I’m so excited, I keep wondering where I’ll be, if I’ll be in a very rural area or somewhere like Kigali, and what kind of job I’ll have. So far, all I know is that I will be doing something health related, and it will include HIV/AIDS education and prevention. Our living situation during training is much more comfortable than I anticipated. While most Peace Corps volunteers stay with local families, we are all together (all 34 of us) in a nunnery. Most of us have individual rooms. Our teachers have rooms here too. I’ll admit that initially, I wasn’t jumping for joy at the idea of living at a nunnery, but it’s nothing like I expected. The rules aren’t too strict, we have a curfew and we can’t have guests, which really isn’t a big deal at all. I’m also really happy that we have electricity, internet at a price, and toilets that (usually) work. I was anticipating latrines, which I don’t like but can learn to get used to. After all, that might be what I have once I get to my permanent site.
Basically the focus of training is language, language, language. Monday through Saturday, we have at least 2 hours straight of language class, and we can have up to 6 hours. Our classes are divided into groups of 3-4, and we’re taught in these cute little huts spread outside throughout the nunnery. Sometimes looking at the gardens and the colorful birds can be distracting, and we have had to relocate a few times due to the rain, but I like having class outside, it makes me feel more at ease. We have 12 teachers that constantly rotate. We’ve gotten to know our teachers fairly well, since we pretty much spend all day with them. We eat with them, play volleyball, and even go to their family birthdays. They’re basically our friends/teachers, they’re here to help us in all aspects of learning Rwandan culture. I’m definitely having trouble learning Kinyarwanda—it’s not a romance language so I pretty much have to memorize each word individually instead of relating it to Latin roots.
We’re given three meals a day here, as well as a snack in the morning which usually consists of coffee, tea, and some kind of sweet cake-like substance. We really are spoiled here. On top of language, we also have “tech training”, which focuses on our roles here in Rwanda. We often have guest speakers. We have had people from the embassy to talk about security, professors lecture about Rwandan history, and doctors to talk about the medical situation and the government’s role in health. I’ve met some really amazing people, and learned so much. When people hear about Rwanda, it seems like all they think about is the genocide of 1994. Of course it’s important and relevant to know about it, especially since it happened so recently. In just one month I’ve seen how it has affected so many aspects of people’s lives here. On top of two discussions we had with survivors of the genocide, I’ve also seen how the genocide or “war” as many of them call it—sneaks its way into conversations. Someone will talk about a picture or a book or something they once owned, but got lost during the genocide. I’m wary to ask about people’s families, because I know that most people have lost family members. An event of such magnitude simply can’t be ignored, and it does distinguish Rwanda from other countries, but I feel like I have a responsibility to show my friends and family that there is so much more to Rwanda than the violence which took place. That’s one of the main reasons for my maintaining this blog, on top of the fact that I need to write for my own personal sanity, and of course, to let the people I care about know what I’m up to. I’ll do my best to call on birthdays, but international calls are very expensive. Unlike the U.S., there are no cell phone plans, you buy a card that has a pin number, and by dialing that pin number on my cell, I get a certain amount of minutes. They come in groups of 1,500 RWF (Rwandan Franks) and 2,500, and they never seem to last more than maybe 15 minutes. Like I said, internet is slower than death here, so it takes time and money that I don’t always have to use it. I figure by writing this, I can let everyone know what’s going on so I don’t have to always send individual e-mails. As another volunteer here says, “such is life”. Feel free to leave a comment, I’d love to know what you guys think! Love you, hugs and kisses to you all!
As a Peace Corps volunteer, there are certain regulations I have to abide by concerning what I post online. I can’t state my exact location or the exact location of other volunteers for safety reasons. I also can’t express my political views. I’m not very good at censuring myself, but I’ll do my best.
First off, I’m so happy to be here in Rwanda. More and more, I feel like this is the place I need to be right now. The country is so picturesque—hills galore and lots of greenery. I have pretty much only seen Kigali and Butare and not much else, so maybe I’m jumping the gun. The weather is really nice (at least it has been for the last month). I’m told that we’re in the dry season until March, but it still rains fairly often. I actually really like the rain, and even though it rains very hard here, it never rains for very long. The heat hasn’t been unbearable, certainly nothing like Southern India last summer!
Right now, I’m in the middle of week 4 of training, so my training is almost halfway over. In a week and a half, we’ll get to know where our sites will be for the next 2 years! I’m so excited, I keep wondering where I’ll be, if I’ll be in a very rural area or somewhere like Kigali, and what kind of job I’ll have. So far, all I know is that I will be doing something health related, and it will include HIV/AIDS education and prevention. Our living situation during training is much more comfortable than I anticipated. While most Peace Corps volunteers stay with local families, we are all together (all 34 of us) in a nunnery. Most of us have individual rooms. Our teachers have rooms here too. I’ll admit that initially, I wasn’t jumping for joy at the idea of living at a nunnery, but it’s nothing like I expected. The rules aren’t too strict, we have a curfew and we can’t have guests, which really isn’t a big deal at all. I’m also really happy that we have electricity, internet at a price, and toilets that (usually) work. I was anticipating latrines, which I don’t like but can learn to get used to. After all, that might be what I have once I get to my permanent site.
Basically the focus of training is language, language, language. Monday through Saturday, we have at least 2 hours straight of language class, and we can have up to 6 hours. Our classes are divided into groups of 3-4, and we’re taught in these cute little huts spread outside throughout the nunnery. Sometimes looking at the gardens and the colorful birds can be distracting, and we have had to relocate a few times due to the rain, but I like having class outside, it makes me feel more at ease. We have 12 teachers that constantly rotate. We’ve gotten to know our teachers fairly well, since we pretty much spend all day with them. We eat with them, play volleyball, and even go to their family birthdays. They’re basically our friends/teachers, they’re here to help us in all aspects of learning Rwandan culture. I’m definitely having trouble learning Kinyarwanda—it’s not a romance language so I pretty much have to memorize each word individually instead of relating it to Latin roots.
We’re given three meals a day here, as well as a snack in the morning which usually consists of coffee, tea, and some kind of sweet cake-like substance. We really are spoiled here. On top of language, we also have “tech training”, which focuses on our roles here in Rwanda. We often have guest speakers. We have had people from the embassy to talk about security, professors lecture about Rwandan history, and doctors to talk about the medical situation and the government’s role in health. I’ve met some really amazing people, and learned so much. When people hear about Rwanda, it seems like all they think about is the genocide of 1994. Of course it’s important and relevant to know about it, especially since it happened so recently. In just one month I’ve seen how it has affected so many aspects of people’s lives here. On top of two discussions we had with survivors of the genocide, I’ve also seen how the genocide or “war” as many of them call it—sneaks its way into conversations. Someone will talk about a picture or a book or something they once owned, but got lost during the genocide. I’m wary to ask about people’s families, because I know that most people have lost family members. An event of such magnitude simply can’t be ignored, and it does distinguish Rwanda from other countries, but I feel like I have a responsibility to show my friends and family that there is so much more to Rwanda than the violence which took place. That’s one of the main reasons for my maintaining this blog, on top of the fact that I need to write for my own personal sanity, and of course, to let the people I care about know what I’m up to. I’ll do my best to call on birthdays, but international calls are very expensive. Unlike the U.S., there are no cell phone plans, you buy a card that has a pin number, and by dialing that pin number on my cell, I get a certain amount of minutes. They come in groups of 1,500 RWF (Rwandan Franks) and 2,500, and they never seem to last more than maybe 15 minutes. Like I said, internet is slower than death here, so it takes time and money that I don’t always have to use it. I figure by writing this, I can let everyone know what’s going on so I don’t have to always send individual e-mails. As another volunteer here says, “such is life”. Feel free to leave a comment, I’d love to know what you guys think! Love you, hugs and kisses to you all!
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Only two weeks left
So in two weeks, I will be leaving San Diego for two years--crazy. It still hasn't sunk in. Sometimes I get a lil freaked out, sometimes I'm really happy. I'm really excited that I'll be part of the first group to go to Rwanda since 1993.
My going-away party was yesterday. It was fun, and I was happy to see so many people that I haven't talked to in a while. My dad remarked how funny it was that most people there were my parent's age, but I reminded him that most of my friends from college and high school now live far away. I was appreciative of my friends who drove down from Orange County and Riverside (you know who you are, and thanks :).
So many people have encouraged me to put up a blog, so I'm doing it! I hope I'll be able to keep it up. I don't know how often I'll have internet access in Rwanda. Hopefully I'll have electricity, but I know that's no guarantee. I haven't kept a diary since elementary school, and even then I didn't show my entires to anyone. I saw it as a place to vent and talk about things I could never talk about out loud, so this blog thing will be a totally new experience for me. Even though I can be loud and crass at times, I really am a pretty private person. I'm just hoping that nothing I say here will hurt anyone's feelings or divulge too much information.
I wonder who will end up reading my blog. I'm planning on posting it to my facebook, and then giving it to my family as well. Ironically (but expectedly) the person whose attention I crave the most pretty much ignores me. I have tried to get a hold of this person, but I can't keep contacting them to the point of humiliation. I'm very sentimental, it's hard for me to let go. Goodbye for now, I'll write more soon.
My going-away party was yesterday. It was fun, and I was happy to see so many people that I haven't talked to in a while. My dad remarked how funny it was that most people there were my parent's age, but I reminded him that most of my friends from college and high school now live far away. I was appreciative of my friends who drove down from Orange County and Riverside (you know who you are, and thanks :).
So many people have encouraged me to put up a blog, so I'm doing it! I hope I'll be able to keep it up. I don't know how often I'll have internet access in Rwanda. Hopefully I'll have electricity, but I know that's no guarantee. I haven't kept a diary since elementary school, and even then I didn't show my entires to anyone. I saw it as a place to vent and talk about things I could never talk about out loud, so this blog thing will be a totally new experience for me. Even though I can be loud and crass at times, I really am a pretty private person. I'm just hoping that nothing I say here will hurt anyone's feelings or divulge too much information.
I wonder who will end up reading my blog. I'm planning on posting it to my facebook, and then giving it to my family as well. Ironically (but expectedly) the person whose attention I crave the most pretty much ignores me. I have tried to get a hold of this person, but I can't keep contacting them to the point of humiliation. I'm very sentimental, it's hard for me to let go. Goodbye for now, I'll write more soon.
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