Kwishima

Rwandans love their verbs, and seem to have a verb for everything, but one of my personal favorites is kwishima, which is the verb for “to be happy”. None, ndishimye chanye. (Today, I am very happy)

Happy (belated) St. Patty’s Day! It’s kind of amazing to think where I’ve been the last few St. Patrick’s days. This year I spent the holiday in Nyanza and Butare, enjoying a milkshake that was actually just cold milk (but still exciting and delicious) and pizza which miraculously tasted like pizza. Last year I was in Delhi with Sam, trying to explain why the holiday is so exciting and why you need to wear green. The year before that, I was in New Orleans drinking margaritas on Bourbon Street, even though I had strep throat and tonsillitis. All three have been fantastically amazing experiences, and I’m so lucky to be able to share it with such great friends. And now that I think of it, there are really a hundred little things every day make me so happy. Here are just a few of them;

1. The hundreds of butterflies that like to fly around Nyanza en masse
2. Waking up to the sound of the rain hitting our tin roof
3. The sun tattoo that AJ drew on my foot
4. The genuine smiles that the old women here give you when you’re trying to speak Kinyarwanda
5. The gorgeous view of the countryside that you get when you walk up into the hills
6. How clear the sky is after it rains
7. The millions of stars that come out every night
8. Hearing “good morning” from the neighborhood kids every night as we walk back from dinner
9. Reading on our front porch
10. Sunday afternoon yoga

And a hundred other things that make me so glad to be here.

A couple days ago, my housemates and I went to Blue Bar to get away from everyone for a while, and decided we should give everyone a superlative, just like in high school. I was voted most likely to fall down all 1000 hills in Rwanda. Kind of depressing, but it’s probably true. So far I’ve fallen down one major hill and the steep bank leading into the market, and tripped over almost everything else, but aside from the scraped toe, there are no major injuries. Good job me. Saturday, however, we are visiting a national park to hike around and see the animals, so there is lots of potential for falling. (wish me luck) This is not to say that all my moments have been clumsy. Yesterday Jenny and I were talking about handstands and headstands and she said that she can sometimes do a pretty good yoga headstand. I was a bit skeptical about my ability to do it, especially when she said that if you’re doing it right, your feet just float up; well, imagine my surprise when I did a marvelous headstand! Score!

Yesterday we went to an ISLG (internal saving and lending group) meeting, which some people hated, but I thought was pretty interesting. A number of community members will get together every week or two and give some set amount of money that they put into a communal savings box. This type of community saving usually only takes place in very poor and rural areas, where people don’t have access to banking or other social services. The group we visited put 200 Rwf per person every two weeks (not quite 50 cents) in the savings fund and 50 Rwf in the social fund. Those community members can then borrow that money for whatever purpose (medical expenses, school supplies, buying a goat, etc.) and then must repay it three months later with 5% interest. The group also grows carrots, beans and onions that they sell in the market and put the money into savings. At the end of the year, the group either decides to divide up the money between all the members, or to keep it in their account to continue building on the next year.

International Women’s Day and Butare

Last Monday was International Women’s Day, a holiday that goes largely unnoticed in the States, but that Rwandans apparently celebrate. In the morning we were invited to the soccer stadium for a women’s day presentation. We got there sometime around 9, which of course was hours too early. There was a (high school?) group there that sang and danced the entire time while we waited to start. Eventually they pulled all of us down onto the field to dance with them- it was a riot! None of us knew the songs or the dances, but we danced along just the same. One of the things they do is sing a song and form a chain bridge where you clap hands with the person across from you while other people run under. Between their group and ours it took a while to run through the whole thing. I’m sure we looked hilarious, but everyone had a good time with it.

When the presentations finally started there were a number of Rwandan dance groups. No one has actually explained the dance to me here, but before I left one of the fellows told me that in Rwanda they do cow dances where you are supposed to dance like a cow. Having never seen that before, I imagined sometime like lumbering around like a slow cow, which turns out to not be even remotely correct. Your arms are supposed to be the horns but they move them more like a slow hula dance. I have no idea what’s going on with the feet, but both the men and women wear bells around their ankles that jingle while they dance. The men jump around much more while they dance, but it looks much more graceful than how I’m describing it. I’m not sure yet, but it seems like the men and women always dance separately, and least while doing traditional dance.

There were also a number of presenters that talked about women in Rwanda, but it was all in Kinyarwanda so none of us had any idea what was going on. It was later explained that one of the women who was presenting was an elected leader of her umudugudu (neighborhood) explaining her experiences as one of the first women in politics. She told us that when she was first elected, her husband didn’t want her to have that position of power, so he would beat her and her children, especially on International Women’s Day, so she couldn’t participate in community activities. Eventually she took the children and left him, which is very uncommon in Rwanda, but she struggled to support her children. Later she got help so she could divorce her husband so she could get assistance from the government in raising her children. She talked to the girls watching about how women can work hard and be equal with men, and how they have the same power that men do. Even hearing the story secondhand was inspiring, and I was glad to have been there.

That night Amy, Arielle, Trude and I did another International Women’s Day presentation/celebration for our group, which was nearly a disaster to put together. Arielle and I went at lunch to get some statistics of women around the world, but the internet was barely functional and it took our whole lunch period to find something passable. I ended up finding an editorial on International Women’s Day in Rwanda and pulled statistics from DHS. I was still nervous that the event would be a flop, but it turned out to be great. I read the editorial, Trude and Amy read stats and Arielle facilitated a short discussion of women around the world. Then we got the LCFs (language and cultural facilitators- kind of our counselors at camp peace corps) to do some Rwandan dancing with us. Mup, the trainee coordinator, had arranged for there to be beer and drinks for everyone, which was a good thing. We danced together until curfew (yes I have a curfew, and it’s 10 pm). The dancing was hilarious, especially Felicien who can dance like I’ve never seen anyone dance. He moves his legs slowly with no discernable rhythm, and definitely not with the music, but then his whole top half does a completely different dance, kind of like a slow matrix looking thing but one that’s in no way coordinated with the legs. Amy seems to have mastered the Felicien dance, which was great.

I woke up early Tuesday morning with some wicked bowel action and made no less than 8 trips back to the squatty potty throughout the morning. I meant skip breakfast and be just a bit late to class (hoping that I would be able to control myself by then), but then when I was leaving found out that my gate key doesn’t work and I was locked in our house. I tried to decide if I should jump the fence to the side (the front wall is much too high) but was worried I would end up being locked into the neighbor’s yard, which would be even worse. I ended up deciding to text Amy and Sally, hoping that one of them could come get me during their break. This of course, took up the rest of my phone minutes, so if they didn’t get the message I would have no way to get a hold of anyone and would need to sit there until someone came home. Fortunately Sally answered the phone and said she would come get me. While I was hanging out, Mup came over to check on me and bring me some hot water for tea and bread, honey and peanut butter (oh Mupy Mup is so good to us!). He told me that I should just stay at home and drink tea and had me call Andrea (our medical officer) who told me I would be fine and just stay hydrated.

I had mostly recovered by that afternoon and went back to class- although apparently I missed the attractive CDC doctor explaining HIV in the Rwandan context, which probably would have been useful. I also missed session one of family relationships explanation. Talk about complicated. Your aunts and uncles are called different things on each side but the sister of your mother is your mother and the brother of your father is your father. So their kids are not your cousins, but your siblings. Your older sister is your mukuru, your younger sister is your marumuna and your brother is your masaza, but only if you’re a girl. If you’re a boy, then your sister is your mushiki and your older brother is your mukuru and your younger brother is your masaza. The children of one of your siblings of the same gender (brother if you’re a boy or sister if you’re a girl) are your children and the words for “niece” and “nephew” only refer to whether the children belong to your sister or your brother, not their gender. And just to make things a little more complicated, most of these name change if you’re not talking about your own family, but someone else’s family. It took me most of the rest of the week to figure that one out.

Saturday morning we had our first language “test”. We went around to three stations where we 1) bargained for objects found in the market 2) identified common objects and 3) introduced ourselves and our family. It went pretty well and I think everyone generally did fine. But you don’t get a grade here, so it was more of a chance for you and your teachers to see how you’re doing. Later that morning we went to Butare to one of the historical museums, which was interesting, and then into town for lunch. We asked our LCF Gilbert where we should go eat that would have good food and be cheap; he suggested a place that had a Rwandan buffet, but it’s the same food that we eat every day, so we opted for Chinese food. It was mostly a disaster. It usually takes a long time for us to get food, but there weren’t many people in the restaurant and the LCFs explained that we only had an hour. So we waited, and waited, and waited. We had to meet back up with the group at 1, so at 12:30 we started asking where our food was. At 12:45 they brought out the bill for the food we hadn’t received yet, but it was much higher and for different food that we had ordered. We brought this up to the waitress who said oh, I’ll go get your food started then. Well crap. We had no time, so we said no, don’t bring any food, we’ll pay for the one plate that was brought out (which was the wrong thing) and the plate of french fries we got. Me, Sonya and Amy all shared the plate of fried noodles with veggies and beef and Gilbert gave us some of his french fries. When we were finally leaving, they brought out all the food for the other table, which had been there even longer than us. We ended up leaving, and they mowed down whatever food they could eat in 10 minutes and caught up later. What a mess.

That afternoon we went to the genocide memorial, which was extremely difficult to see and will need to be saved for another post.

Saturday night we went to one of the local restaurants for dinner where I ordered umureti and chapatti, which is kind of like French toast made with chapatti. Only by the time they got to my order, they had run out of chapatti, so I just got eggs. Basically, my eating yesterday was a huge fail, but at least I didn’t spend very much money.

This morning I went for another run with Amy and this time instead of going around the lake we kept going up the huge hill. The hill was crazy steep and it was hard to even walk up, but the scenery was gorgeous. There was one point where you can see the whole valley below you, and can see all the way back into town. It’s hard to judge distances, especially when you’re just walking up, but we had gone out at least a few miles so you could see really far. It was glorious! I’ll need to go back sometime and take pictures so you can see.

I suppose that’s it for now, I hope everyone is doing well and I love you all!!

one week in

Friday I went to my resource family’s house for the first time. My host mom, Mama Queen, is 36, is going back to university for restaurant management and has two adorable little girls who are 6 and 3. The older girl will sometimes answer questions that I ask her, and speaks a little French and a little English. The younger girl I haven’t heard speak yet, but she sits in my lap sometimes, which is adorable. Mama Queen is fluent in French, which made things much easier for me than many of the other volunteers who have families who speak only Kinyarwanda. Unfortunately for me, I haven’t practiced French in ages, so I’m a bit rusty, and combined with the Rwandan French accent, we still have a hard time understanding each other sometimes (which is kind of sad and makes me feel like a fail in three languages). My host dad works for Rwandatel, which is one of the phone companies in Rwanda. I haven’t met him yet, but Mama Queen did give me a bright orange Rwandatel t-shirt and hat. While I was there, Mama Queen told me that she was also host mom to Brandon, one of the current education volunteers, and called him so I could talk to him (awkward?). He told me that Mama Queen is the best and that if I want to bring people over, or eat dinner with her, or have a beer with her (women are sometimes discouraged from drinking), that I’m more than welcome. This is very encouraging!

Friday night we went to Blue Bar (not actually the name, but that’s what we call it since no one knows what the name is, and the bar is blue) where maybe 20 of us squeezed into a tiny gazebo together. We had a good time, but I’m sure we were annoying the other people with how loud we were. Many Rwandans when you talk to them will speak at just over a whisper. A lot of times it’s hard to even hear what they’re saying, much less understand.

After a week of classes, we had our first free day on Sunday (we have classes Monday-Saturday). The free time is nice, but it also means we’re not fed. They feed us enough during the week to not need to eat at all, but instead we went to Heritage Hotel Saturday night to get pizza. It was interesting. Imagine bread dough with a bunch of random vegetables (maybe carrots, eggplant and peppers) with some not-quite cheese and an egg on top, and you have yourself some Rwandan vegetarian pizza. It also took over two hours from the time we ordered to when we got our food- we’re definitely on Africa time. One of the girls got sick so we went back to the house early to watch Center Stage and have some starburst (feel free to send some when you get the chance)- it was a good night.

Yesterday morning I went for a run with Amy. We ran to the lake that’s kinda by my house, then walked around the lake and ran back. The lake is really murky- even right by shore where it’s only a couple inches deep you still can’t see the bottom. When I got back I took a cold shower (all showers here are cold), but because I was so hot and sweaty it felt great. A group from one of the other houses walked by our house to go to the lake in the afternoon so we walked back with them. Since Amy and I had just been there, we sat on the bridge while the others walked around the lake. It was nice, and a big group of kids came over to stand by us. We still can’t say very much, but hopefully it will get better, and it’s been encouraging talking to current volunteers. One of the girls is nearly fluent, even though she’s only been here since September. While I don’t expect that to happen quite so quickly, it’ll be good to be able to have basic conversations with people.

That’s it for now, have a wonderful week!

Amashyo

This is a greeting commonly used by older adults talking to younger people. It means that they wish them to have many cows. The proper response is amashyongore, which means there should be many female cows among them to reproduce. While the concept of wishing people many cows is pretty foreign, the good-natured wishing of health and prosperity is not. No one has actually wished me to have many cows yet (although I’m staying hopeful), but everyone has been incredibly friendly and welcoming, and I am so glad to be here.

We flew into Kigali airport on Thursday night, drove to St. Francis, which is a former nunnery which has since been converted into a hotel/nunnery, complete with glow-in-the-dark Jesus in each room. I’m not sure what I was expecting in Kigali, but it was not correct. Kigali is a huge sprawling city, with paved roads- most of better quality than those back home- and landscaping. There are shopping malls and neon signs (granted, not many) and almost everyone we met spoke French or English.

We went to the Peace Corps office a couple of times where we met with current volunteers and got all our shots. Our mail will all be sent there, and they have Internet; unfortunately, now that I’m in Nyanza, we won’t be back for a while. One of the nights we went to the PC Director John Reddy’s house. He had delicious appetizers and drinks for us, and we were able to meet some of the current health and education volunteers. It was one of the most informative sessions I have had since applying to Peace Corps. It was great to hear other volunteers’ experiences and what they thought about their sites. The consensus: electricity is a great thing; you can get by without running water.

On Sunday we drove to Nyanza, but already I could almost swear it’s been weeks. Nyanza, and all of Rwanda, is absolutely gorgeous. Everything is incredibly green and people grow avocados, bananas, corn and eggplant in their front yards. There are tiny little goats that line the road to eat grass. Every day as we walk from our house in Nyanza to the main building for classes kids run up and shout “muzungo, muzungo!” (white person, white person!). We say hello to them in kinyarwanda and after a moment of shock they start spouting off kinyarwanda phrases. (This is the point where I look sad and say that I don’t understand). Some of the kids speak English and French, so we’ll talk to them a bit longer. The adults are a bit more reserved, but lots of people will say hello as we walk past. Rwanda recently changed the official language from French to English; so many people want to practice their English with us. They also laugh as we try to practice our kinyarwanda phrases with them.

We started kinyarwanda classes yesterday- intense. I thought it would be like other language classes, starting out with colors or numbers, but was shocked with the amount we covered. For example; mwaramutse! nitwa Jessi, ndi umuyamerika, ndi umunyeshuri i’kinyarwanda, nkaba ndi umukorerabushake wa peace corps, means good morning! My name is Jessi, I’m American, I’m a kinyarwanda student, I work as a volunteer for Peace Corps. Very useful stuff when everyone looks at you like you’re an alien. Along with the language classes, we’re also starting medical classes, safety and security, and technical classes this week. Monday we had interviews to talk about goals and expectations during service, basic medical information, and preferences for our site placement. Basically there are two types of placements, capacity building and CBO/FBOs. The capacity-building volunteers will work for health clinics and hospitals teaching computer skills, reporting, monitoring and evaluation, etc. The other type is working with community-based or faith-based organizations to do health programs or income-generating activities. We were also given the chance to voice our preference for urban vs. rural and how important it is to have running water and/or electricity. However, like Biba said, this is just a wish list, so it’s impossible to know how many of our preferences we’ll actually get. Better to keep an open mind when we start visiting sites in a few weeks.

We also went into town and visited the market yesterday morning with the language and cultural facilitators (LCF). They sell tons of second hand clothing and shoes, food, electronics, toiletries, anything you can think of in a huge open-air market. Mostly the people just stare at us and whisper something about muzungus, but it’s not like many other countries where people will rush up to you to get you to buy something or hassle you for money. It was much more relaxed than I thought, which was nice. There’s also fairly cheap internet in town, so at least during training I should have access (it’s just the time to go that is more of an issue).

My house is about 20 minutes down a clay road from the kitchen house, which is where we eat and have classes. At tech house, where I live, there are 8 students and 3 LCFs in 6 rooms. I share with Amy, which is nice since we’d already met in DC before coming here. We have two bathrooms, but only one of them has running water, and unfortunately it’s the one coming off the boys room. So mostly the girls take bucket baths in the other bathroom. The toilet doesn’t flush so we dump water in the bowl to push things through. Number two only happens in the squatty potty outside. I never thought I would be so grateful for the experience in India, but the practice has definitely come in handy- I gave advice to some of the other girls.

Tonight we had rice and beans and guacamole for dinner- definitely one of the best meals so far, it was delicious. We eat a lot of potatoes (usually as french fries), carrots, and goat meat (kinda tough, but not nearly so strange as it sounds). Breakfast is almost always bread and crazy salty eggs and lots of coffee (thank goodness). We eat pretty much every two hours, so whenever it’s longer, everyone gets hungry- probably not the greatest thing to get used to, but the food is delicious so we all dig in.

I suppose that’s it for now. I’m loving Rwanda and will get some photos uploaded asap so you can all see what I’m talking about. I also bought a cell phone, if anyone has an international calling plan and feels like talking- just let me know if you’d like the number!

I love you and miss you all!!