Rwanda 2013-2015: March 2014

Thursday, March 27, 2014

Christmas!!

First Christmas without my family... pretty strange :/ but thanks to Ariel and Jackson I was not alone the whole day!!

I was staying in Kigali at the Austin's house again while they were gone visiting America!! It was the kindest thing they have done to let me stay while they were not there!!!

Ariel and I stayed there for a couple days and enjoyed cooking American tasting food and swimming :)

Christmas day we slept in till pretty late and then woke up and watched How The Grinch Stole Christmas!! Half way through we got the ice cream and brownies left over from the night before and enjoyed them while watching the movie!! We played cards for a while and finally got hungry!! We made egg, avocado, cucumber, tomato sandwiches :) So delicious!!!

After eating way too much I fell asleep again and Ariel cleaned up the kitchen!!! Not sure how I slept through that... but it was amazingly kind of her to help!!!

Eventually Ariel had to leave to hangout with her counterparts family... I was sad and not sure what I would do the rest of the day :/ but I knew she needed to go and figured I would come up with something to do!!

I ended up watching a few movies and listening to music and just relaxing!! It was actually super great!! And then around 7 or 8 that night Jackson showed up!!!

I guess I have not talked about Jackson much... Sorry!!!

Jackson is my boyfriend :) He is Rwandan and just came back from serving his mission in South Africa! I have had lots of friends return from missions and I knew how hard it was readjusting to regular life... sooooo I tried to hangout with him anytime I was in Kigali!! It didn't take long and he asked me to be his girlfriend!!

I guess for those that dont know more details I will just share a little more about Jackson and our relationships!!!

The very first time I met Jackson was at a welcome back celebration party thing with all three branches combined!! I introduced myself and realized he spoke great English :) Then after the party I was helping clean the church to get ready for Sunday and Jackson joined in!! He even offered to carry buckets of water that I was already carrying!!! No other Rwandan man had ever offered to help me do anything... so I immediately thought Jackson was a gentlemen!!! After cleaning the church we were talking and he offered to walk me home... Say what?? Its at least a 30 minute walk in the other direction then he was going... I told him no but he said he would anyway!!! Hahahaha we talked and laughed the whole time!! It was amazing to have an instant friend!!! Plus he was not like all the other Rwandan men that expect me to marry them after I say hi :/ so I enjoyed his company very much!!!

We talked casually at church and then didnt talk again till the following Sunday. He asked for my number and we hung out a couple times and the day we went to his village he asked me to be his girlfriend!! I of course said yes :)

He is seriously the sweetest guy and I am so happy to have a friend like this in Rwanda!!!

We hung out over Christmas and talked more over that couple weeks since I had time to be in Kigali!! I think thats all for now!!

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Thanksgiving!!!

One of the best Thanksgivings I have had in a while!! I got to take off early from my village and head to Kigali Thursday morning. I got to the Austins house around 10am and spent almost the whole day in the kitchen washing dishes, peeling apples and carrots and smelling delicious food :) Sis. Austin was the best and I cant thank her enough for letting me help!!

It was great to relax in a nice home doing things that felt normal to me! I love Rwanda and the culture but its not my culture so it was good to have a little break and feel like I belonged for a day!!

That evening there were some other Americans that the Austins invited over for dinner and they were awesome!! Two of the ladies were RPCVs and it was fun to compare little stories and experiences :) It was great to sit around a huge table, speaking English, sharing awesome American tasting food!!

After dinner I helped wash more dishes (I'm learning the Austin's kitchen pretty well!!) and then slept like a rock!! The following day I didn't have plans but was able to sleep in and hangout at the Austin's house all day!!! Andrew (the 9 year old) had some kind of stomach probably and we spent the whole day watching movies, playing cards and trying to get him to eat!! haha... it was a fantastic waste of a day :)

Saturday was a bit more normal because I went to the church and taught English and then a couple piano lessons!!! Then Sunday was playing piano and helping in Primary!!!

The Austin's are seriously the best people and so kind to open their home to me!! They are always willing to have me and help me in any way they can!! I feel like part of the family now :)

Sorry there are not pictures from this weekend... I had my hands full with doing dishes ;)

Two Weeks In Kibuye :)

Got to spend two weeks in Kibuye!!! Super fun and super beautiful!! Rwanda is a great palce :)

The first week was spent at the Bethany Hotel for our PCV IST (Peace Corps Volunteer In Service Training). The hotel is right on the lake and everything was so beautiful!!

This was the first time all of my group was together since going to site a couple months ago and it was awesome to see everyone :) And it was fun to speak in English as fast as we wanted and to share stories from our different sites!! Many good laughs and lots of good food!!!

This is the 19 of us that are still going strong!! Good work fellow PCVs :)

This was a training so most of the time we were in a large classroom just listening and watching power point. We learned about all kinds of stuff like grants, secondary projects, the health structure in Rwanda and how we can work with it and so many more things!! We had a few hands on activities that were pretty fun... We pressed soy milk from soy beans and got to go on a boat ride to one of the islands out a little ways!! I guess the boat ride was not super relevant to my PC service... but it was a blast :)