Rwanda 2013-2015: The First Few Days!!

I was going to do a whole post about staging… but then I realized how short it would be… so it is now staging and the first few days :)

It’s so crazy to meet everyone I have stocked on Facebook :) but so far everyone seems super awesome!! I can’t wait to get to know them all much better!! I didn’t really take any pictures because we were all just sitting around in a room listening all day… it was good info and I see why it’s important but it was a little long!!

Last meal in the states was at a cute little diner just down from the hotel and I got a burger and fries and a milkshake!!! There were about 8 of us that decided to go from the group while the rest went into Philly and did a little partying at a nicer place!!! The diner was perfect and now I get to try to sleep one last time in America!!!!! I’ll let you know more when we land!!!

The First Week!!

Well we made it!! We all got to Rwanda and had major jet lag :( There were some health and language classes but I don’t really remember much of what happened because I was so out of it!! We stayed in the Peace Corps Office in Kigali for I think about 2 and half days. Then we went to Kamonyi where we will be staying for the next 10 weeks of training!! Meeting my host mom was pretty intense and awesome all at the same time!!! We were all sitting there looking at all the host families on the other half of the room and just wondering which would be ours!!! When they called my name I couldn’t help but start to cry!! This was basically the moment I had been waiting for a very long time!! It hit me hard that I was in Africa and meeting a lady I would get to spend the next 10 weeks with!! It was awesome and completely devastating all at once!!! Here she was in her beautiful African dress and I couldn’t say a word to her :/ I found out she was a teacher which makes sense because we read the program probably a dozen times and she said it was my homework to learn those words by tomorrow :) well that didn’t happen… but I thought it was awesome!!!

We finally got home and there was food ready for us to eat!! I thought we would eat together but she basically just watched me… not my favorite but it happens. Then she showed my around the house and all their animals!!! And then THE HOLE… it caught me a little by surprise because it was the first one I have seen and known I would be using every day to go to the bathroom. Kind of scary but I think its already getting better!!!! I went to my room and was there for a time till my sisters got home from school and I wanted to meet them!!! Since I could not talk to them… I decided to try to bond by dancing a little to the music playing on a radio. That went really well and we basically had a dance party for about an hour right there while all the neighbors watched!!! I told them I was tired (which I was because I still had bad jet lag) and went to my room till they called me awkwardly out for dinner… the food here is pretty good!!!

Sunday was interesting but I am glad I got to share it with Darcy (another volunteer that lives closest to me!!). The morning was interesting because I didn’t know exactly how to bathe or ask for water… I ended up taking a very cold cold cold bucket bath that left me feeling still dirty and not looking forward to the next morning. After my mom communicated to me somehow (I don’t know how we communicated at all those first few days) that I was going to church with Darcy I waited for them to come and pick me up!! It was such a relief to see Darcy and to be going to church!!! Except church was nothing like I expected… hahahaha!!! It was outside and they made us sit in the very front almost right by the main priest dude 8-| Then at some random point they had us introduce ourselves… let’s just say that did not go over very well. But the choirs and music were awesome!!! There was a point where they wanted us to dance with the kids and that was awesome!!! Again it was a moment when I couldn’t hold back the tears… this was something only read about in books or watched on TV and I was doing it!!! How awesome!!! I couldn’t help but feel blessed to have this opportunity!!! Church lasted I think over 3 hours… so that was a long time to have no idea what was going on. But there was a guy trying to translate for us… it was… interesting :) hahahaha

Monday was a little better of a day because I got hot water for my bucket bath!!! And we all got to go to the Peace Corps Hub about a half hour walk away!!! The walk was interesting since everyone was calling out abazungu (spelling might not be correct) and trying to greet us and talk and stuff and we only know a couple words… it was a long walk!! But the hub was nice!! There was lots of English spoken and we got to hear from the doctors and we got shots and we got lots of other training!!

The rest of the week basically went like Monday other then we also had a few language days which were super confusing but it’s good to get started on it!!!!

Here are some pictures of my house and room and living space!!! And of course I couldn’t forget the hole :)