look! Rwanda is beautiful.

 peace and friendship

 out my window

 Mama Sarah

 the crazy kids I hang out with at home

 my besties. they're my little cousins. the taller one's name is Emma. thank you, Jesus, for giving me an Emma.

my front door. come on over!

in Rwanda

Things I have learned being an umusitajyeri wa Peace Corps (or Peace Corps Trainee for English speakers) in Rwanda...

-Peace Corps is serious about cultural immersion.  Just barely more than 24 hours after arriving in country I got two hours of language training and was dropped off in a Rwandan home in which no one speaks English.  I was given a water filter, med kit, and mosquito net, and a “Mama Sarah.”  All of these things have proven to be wonderful.  

-Teaching an old dog new tricks is painful.  Would you like to try learning Kinyarwanda? Yeah, I didn’t think so.  I have found my brain and body very resistant to learning this language.  It’s difficult.  About once each hour this week I have heard myself saying, “why the hell am I doing this? my life was pretty good back when I lived in the English speaking world.”  I don’t speak French or Kinyarwanda... yet... but I will, oh, I surely will. Just you wait. 

-Rwanda is not Kenya.  But the similarities are beautiful and comforting.  I only wish we drank as much tea here as we did in Kenya.  And what little Kiswahili I have (more than I thought!) is giving me a little street cred and something to talk about with new Rwandan friends.  But Rwanda is not Kenya and I miss Nairobi.  If you're reading this from Nairobi, I miss YOU!

-I am a very happy vegetarian here in Rwanda.  That’s right, friends, I have gone green with my diet.  And Rwanda has welcomed me well.  No mysterious chicken parts, no greasy goat, no chewy beef... it’s all beans, rice, and veg for this girl.  And nobody’s asked me to eat meat at all. 

-Melatonin is my new best friend.  The older I get the worse jet-lag is.  And, like my Kenyan home-stay experiences, this one comes complete with blaring radio beginning at 4:30 a.m. and ending at 1:00 a.m.  Yep, that means, if my body would let me, I could sleep quietly for 3 and a half hours. But thanks to a donation of melatonin I got a full 7 hours last night! yea!! and thank you sweet new PC friend who packed a lot of vitamins. 

-Ndi umuzungu, sintwa umuzungu, nitwa Amanda. I am a white person, but my name is not white person.  Very useful phrase.  Now the whole neighborhood knows my name and that’s what they shout when they see me walking from miles away. 

-I will happily and gratefully take mephaquine for two years (unless I have another scary dream like last night).  Yes, I used to be that expat who lived comfortably in the city tat too high an elevation for mosquitos and bragged (only a little) about not taking it and not getting malaria when I went into those malaria areas.  But after the malaria lecture and reviewing PC policy (i’m such a rule follower and commitment holder) I am compliant.  The smart doctor with the French accent had nothing to do with it. ;)

This Peace Corps experience is going to be difficult and rewarding.  Challenging and natural.  Scary and familiar.  It will go by fast and the days are already passing so slowly.  I hope I can handle it.  

I’ve been in Rwanda for just more than a week now and it feels like I’ve been here forever.  I’m safe and sound and staying with the sweetest grandmother and three of her beautiful grandchildren.  We don’t talk a whole lot because right now all I can really say is “He has a dog,” “you have a cow,” “I want beans,” but I’m beginning to understand a lot of what they say.  I have a few verbs and a few nouns and am slowly uncovering this language puzzle.  There are also some great people here with me in my Peace Corps group.  I’m beginning to, yet again, make friends with some good people. 

I'll be doing training and a homestay for the next nine weeks before I move to my permanent work site. Hopefully in the cool mountains! :)

My internet connection is sketchy at best, as is the electricity, so the blogging I promised to do might be a little more sporadic than I hoped until I figure something out.  I have to space out my computer's battery life over the no-electricity-access days that I have so I'm not able to add any pictures this time.  Next week I'll get some up, I promise.  Thanks for reading whenever I can write!