How to eat your way through a weekend

It’s Sunday night. I’ve just returned from a marvelous weekend in Kiramuruzi in the Eastern Province, where I spent a few glorious days with three of my dearest friends, talking, laughing, dancing, eating, and drinking. It was my first exposure to another PCV’s site, one far more rural than mine. And for all intents and purposes, much closer to the “Peace Corps Experience” I expected before coming here. It was interesting to notice the differences. As you head out of Kigali on the road to my site, you immediately begin ascending and descending, weaving your way through hills, which turn into mountains, which turn into volcanoes. But as you head East out of Kigali, the road levels out, the hills become scarcer, you can actually see miles and miles ahead of you. Physically, the East is flatter and hotter, with plantain trees stretching out all around, and I swear there were more stars and that they seemed even closer. Jessi’s site may be more rural, but her house is just as Muzungu as mine, bigger even, minus the fact that there is no running water inside the house and that I had to reacquaint myself with a pit latrine after a month of being spoiled by my western, flushing, indoor toilet. I loved her town. The people were friendly, though you could plainly see what a rare event it was having four white girls parade down the street in search of flour and sugar. It was much smaller than Musanze, but you could still find most things and apparently the Saturday market is amazing (though I missed this excursion after finding out that you should never mix benadryl and wine, oops). The children are the same. They still run out to meet you at the street and greet you in three different languages in the hope that you’ll stop, wave, and greet them in return. They still follow you straight to your gate, attempting to peer through it and over it, and in Jessi’s case, under it even, to see what exciting tasks the foreigners are undertaking (which unfortunately was usually just washing dishes, cooking, or sweeping…yes, exciting lives that we lead!).

One thing that has become clear about Peace Corps life, most things (from work events to weekend social gatherings) revolve around food. The majority of my life consists of thinking about food, talking about food, going to buy food, cooking food, eating food, do you get the idea? This weekend was no exception. And I must admit, we ate like queens. Dinners consisted of bread, REAL butter, cheese, and Smuckers jelly, or homemade mashed potatoes and chili, all accompanied by starbursts, gummy worms, and Kit Kats (much thanks to care packages) and of course lots of wine. Breakfasts included rolls dipped in butter, sugar and cinnamon or pancakes, all accompanied by starbursts, gummy worms, and Kit Kats (again,thanks!) and of course, again, lots of wine. And then there was one glorious lunch of honest to goodness Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. From America. And pineapple, lots of pineapple.

There was a huge mattress slumber party, and late night sing-alongs to Rent (including a full out recreation of Take Me or L-l-l-l-leave Me), Moulin Rouge and all things Disney. There was movie watching and file transferring (heck yeah, full seasons of gossip girl) and even a trash bonfire. All in all a magnificent weekend, and I know it’s these weekends that will get me through the bad days, and the bad weeks, ahead. But I feel so blessed to have found such hilarious, kind, and supportive friends here to share this experience with.

I must mention one other thing here. Despite having a fantastic weekend away, when I arrived back to Musanze tonight and to my house, it was the first time I truly felt that this was my home. The sights were familiar, the sounds were familiar, I knew where everything was and how everything worked. Three of my favorite children ran to cheerfully greet me at my gate and the cat greeted me even more cheerfully when I reached the front door. As I sit and write this, while munching on carrot sticks and heating water for a bucket bath, I’m just glad to be feeling more comfortable here finally, in this country, in this life.

So, as I reflect on this past weekend, I look forward to the week ahead, where I will be working mostly in Nyabihu district (did I mention that I’m actually working in two districts, Musanze and Nyabihu?) shadowing Bertin and Michee, the data management specialist. As data management is one of my preferred domains that Access works with, I’m excited to see what activities have already been conducted and in what way I can build off these and increase the skills and capacity of the health centers in this area. Yes, everyone, I’m still an Excel/numbers/graphs nerd, always have been, always will. I’m also anticipating a lot cooking experimentation this week, after stocking up on some much needed essentials in Kigali over the weekend. So wish me luck!! Until next time, here are some happy thoughts….


Things that made me happy this week:

- The day my computer finally recognized my iPod when I plugged it in, hence synchronizing my music for the first time since I arrived in Rwanda.
- The fantastically excited look on Carrot Lady’s face when I walked up to her in the market.
- All 100 children who stood against the fence of their school and simultaneously yelled “good morning” to me on my walk back from town.
- Putting up pictures of all of you on the wall in my room. Miss you, love you, always.
- Making plans to visit good friends in the Eastern Province.
- Visiting good friends in the Eastern Province and all the amazingness that followed.
- Discovering that, at last, my filtered water barely tastes like filtered water anymore. And that it is leaking far less than it originally was.
- Getting an email from a returned peace corps volunteer who served in Guatemala and is in Musanze for a summer internship, returning her email immediately, only to find out that we were in fact emailing each other from the exact same hotel.
- When I realized that the plastic crucifix my mother sent me glowed in the dark. Yep, just like St. Francis at the beginning of my Peace Corps journey.
- 3 words: Smuckers Grape Jelly
- Getting the “I’m for sure visiting you in July” email from my darling, Tiffany!!
- A fantastic package from my grandma, particularly the huge bottle of lotion and the 32-pack of Kit Kat bars (Grandma, you are the best!!)
- Successfully walking all the way to work without ANYONE calling me Muzungu (to my face at least). There’s no hope for the market or the bus station though, alas.
- Running into one of my favorite Kinyarwanda teachers at the bus station in Kigali and getting to speak Kinyafranglais for the majority of the winding trip back to Musanze.
- All of the persons and places involved in the ordering and delivering of my living room furniture. Couch, three chairs, coffee table and kitchen table, check. I even laughed out loud when 2 hours later I realized that one of the chair cushions is not the same material as the others. I like that it’s not perfect. It’s like Rwanda. It’s like me.