"Adventure is worthwhile." -Amelia Earhart

Muraho! Amakuru? Ni meza. Nkaba ndi umukorerabushake wa Peace Corps. Ntuye muri aka karere ka Nyanza. Murakoze, murabeho! (One official day of Kinyarwanda lessons and I’ve gotten this down: “Hello! How are you? I’m fine. I am a Peace Corps Volunteer. I live in Nyanza district. Thank you, goodbye!” Not bad, eh?)

At dinner tonight (while full of rice, beans, GUACAMOLE, and tree tomatoes) a few of us realized we have been Peace Corps Trainees for a week, though it feels as though I’ve already been in Rwanda for months. But I figure the one week mark deserves my first blog entry. And a quick dip into my secret chocolate stash while I type (ok, not so secret anymore considering I live with 9 other people). After a whirlwind “staging” in Philadelphia and 16 hours on flights, we arrived in Kigali, the capital, on Thursday evening. We stayed in Kigali through Sunday and our days were filled with meetings, paperwork, immunizations, food (seriously, Mom don’t worry, Peace Corps has been feeding us about every 2 hours!), and being stared at like we were the most fascinating things Rwandans had every laid eyes on. And our nights were filled with falling asleep to the pouring rain of the beginning of rainy season and adjusting to the side effects of Mefloquine, the antimalaria drugs we’re on (not too many crazy dream s yet, but apparently the more drugs I put into my body, the weirder they can get!).

On Saturday afternoon we visited the Kigali Genocide Memorial Center, an experience which I am honestly still processing. It was incredibly moving and brought up many emotions and questions I didn’t realize I would feel and think about this soon into my time here. We are living and working in a country that only 16 years ago was in utter chaos; yet if you look around today it’s impossible not to see why Rwanda is fast becoming a development gem, with incredible steps being taken to improve their economic, education and health systems. The country is indescribably beautiful and clean and the people we have met have been kind, generous and determined. I often find myself forgetting the tragic events that occurred here, but then I will suddenly see someone in the market with only one leg or a scar across their face, snapping me back into reality.

On Sunday we drove 2ish hours south from Kigali to Nyanza where we will be spending the next 10 weeks in Pre-Service Training (PST). The 36 other trainees and I are split among 4 houses where we share living space with 3 Rwandan Peace Corps staff members who act as cultural and language facilitators. My house (fondly called “Tech House” after I presume the technical sessions we’ll be participating in) is a 20-25 minute walk from the training center where we eat and have classes. We have electricity (though as the rainy season kicks in it may become a bit less reliable) and running water in one of our two bathrooms. But I’m becoming familiar with all things “African” including bucket baths and pit latrines. Luckily, my health is great so far and I seem to be successfully making the change from bottled water to boiled/filtered water.

Last night was a momentous occasion as we were introduced to our resource families! They are resource families as opposed to host families; Rwandans are extremely private people and the program is still very new, so they’ve been unable to secure overnight homestays for us. But we are still expected to spend at least 4 hours a week with our resource families, practicing our Kinyarwanda and experiencing Rwandan culture firsthand. My resource mom’s name is Jeanne and her and her husband, Alexis, have 4 children ranging from age 2 to 10. I’ve only met Jeanne, but will meet the rest of her family tomorrow hopefully! Jeanne doesn’t speak English and neither of us know enough French to communicate much of anything ,so our first interaction (while unforgettable and joyous) played out in hand signals, broken French/English, picture drawing and some translating from other host moms. I’m extremely excited for the time I will spend with her and her family, learning about this beautiful culture and language.

We officially began Kinyarwanda lessons today and my head is already spinning with unfamiliar words, phrases and sounds. With only 24 letters in the alphabet (they did away with those pesky Q’s and X’s), letter combinations that are pronounced nothing like the letters they contain, 16 different noun classes, as well as the longest words and sentences I’ve ever seen, the next 10 weeks are promising to be nothing short of stressful and frustrating. But if you ever get the opportunity to hear Kinyarwanda spoken (*insert plug for “you should really come visit me!”) take advantage of it, as it is truly a beautifully complex language.

Ok, I apologize for the rambling, but there’s just so much to share! I’ll leave you with “Story Time: Rwanda Style” and then (hopefully) some pictures from Kigali and Nyanza.

Story Time: Rwanda Style –
1) Donny Strong does not in fact exist. The current Rwanda Peace Corps volunteers created a fake facebook account to prank us. Too bad, though, I was REALLY looking forward to discovering why a gun –toting, skoal chewing, “African gobbly gook” hater, crazy conservative from Orrville, Ohio would ever want to join Peace Corps.

2)The last minute pregnancy tests I heard about also turned out to be a lie. Though the Yellow Fever vaccine wasn’t pleasant. Neither were rabies or typhoid for that matter.

3)In Kigali we stayed at a Catholic-run facility, so I wasn’t surprised to see a crucifix on the wall above my bed. I was surprised, however, when we turned the lights off and discovered that Jesus was glowing in the dark. Rockstar.

4)Goat is actually pretty good (but does not taste like chicken, fyi), I now know what “fresh milk” really tastes like, and Rwandans have actually discovered even more ways to serve potatoes than Americans.

5)If you greet a child on the street by saying Good Evening (“mwiriwe” in Kinyarwanda) don’t be surprised when they say “Good Morning” in English back to you.

6)Before I left DC I was able to meet a girl who I’d be doing Peace Corps with. We had a great evening and it was nice to see a familiar face in Philly. Well, it must have been fate because we ended up being not only housemates, but roommates, as well as in the same Kinyarwanda lesson group. Crazy how things work out huh?
Until next time, enjoy the photos!!