I only have three weeks until I graduate from training and head off to my village to start working. It seems like the weeks have just flown by and I can hardly believe PST is almost over. This week, we actually have a project to complete. Our group of four trainees visited a health clinic and arranged to talk to one of the small groups that meets every week. This group is comprised of around 8-10 women who have malnourished children. We are going to give a health talk about nutrition, water sanitation, and hygiene. I should probably be planning some of it today instead of writing my blog but the day is too nice to be spending it on work.
This week, our training director decided to teach us how to cook Rwandan food so he divided us up into groups and sent us to the market with shopping lists. My group was in charge of buying cassava powder, salt, tomato concentrate and of course, five live chickens. I was in charge of the money so I was given 24,000 francs to carry around the market. I hid the money in several areas in case I was mugged and carried two purses to throw people off. Haha Thankfully, we also had two teachers with us to help when our bargaining skills slacked off. Before the trip, I was wondering how we were going to transport five chickens back to the center but fortunately, one of the trainees was raised on a chicken farm so she told us she would teach us how to carry them and kill them. When we finally got to the area where they sold chickens, we were immediately surrounded by abacuruzi (sellers) trying to sell their chickens and rabbits and by poor street children asking for jobs and money. It was a little overwhelming especially because I had a lot of cash on me and they were invading my personal space. Nevertheless, I surprised myself by bargaining very well for the chicken price. I actually got a very cheap price for each chicken and I was so proud of myself. I got the seller to go down from 5000 RWF to 2500 RWF for each chicken. And our trainee who was raised on the chicken farm inspected each chicken and taught us a few tricks about how to choose them (as if I am going to be buying live chickens for personal consumption in the future!) Anyway, it was all a very interesting experience and made me realize how spoiled I am to be living in the States. For one thing, meat is very expensive here. And I mean expensive. I’m going to convert the currency so you can get an idea. A kilo of beef costs $4 and a kilo is 2.2 pounds. One live chicken can cost up to 4000 RWF or $8!! And the per capital GDP is $250. Soooo, people don’t eat a lot of meat here. I think that many people have gardens, and the vegetables and fruit are cheap here.
The day after we bought our supplies at the market, we started cooking our food. And it was very difficult because we had to cook for 70 people and we had to use these ancient cooking techniques like charcoal grills and wood stoves. It took forever to peel and dice everything especially because the knives looked like they were taken from the caveman display at a museum. The most interesting part of all, however, had to be the chicken preparation. Those of you who buy your chicken already killed and nicely cleaned and frozen in the store are spoiled! First, we had to kill the chickens, then we had to defeather and degut them. And the killing was awful. The knives were so dull that when some of the volunteers tried to kill them, it took forever to cut off their scrawny little heads. At one point, one of the volunteers freaked out and the chicken got away with half of his head hanging off. Volunteers started screaming and running in all directions. Finally, one of the teachers caught the poor thing and finished him off. After we killed the chickens, we put them in boiling water to loosen their feathers. Then, we took them outside and started pulling the feathers off. I helped with this and was surprised at how easy it was to pluck the feathers. After the feathers were all off, I helped cut the chicken up and degut it. That was really interesting too but I kept messing up. I finally finished the chickens however after learning how to clean a gizzard and avoid certain unsavory body organs in the chicken’s inside.
The whole cooking process took about seven hours and the end result wasn’t really that pretty. But, we got an idea of how to cook food Rwandan style, which may lead many of us to hire cooks when we get to our site. As for me, I think I might hazard cooking for myself at first if I can find a way to get around the time constraints. My reasoning is that I personally prefer my style of cooking, and I am tired of finding bugs and rocks in my food.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
a house and a job
This last week, all of us were finally given our job assignments and locations! The big secret of where we are going to be for two years is finally over. After we found out where we were going to be living, we each traveled to our own site for a week to visit and meet co-workers, supervisors and other important people. Unfortunately, I was an exception because my house wasn’t quite ready so I hung out with another volunteer at her site for a couple of days. All in all, it was a very interesting and terrifying experience. To be honest, this past month has felt a little like summer camp with thirty-five twenty-somethings housed in a dormitory together studying during the day and playing volleyball and watching movies at night. And now, the real world hits us at last. Oh, are we actually here to do a job and live like Rwandans for two years?
Some volunteers were better prepared to handle reality than others but I think all of us were pretty surprised by our sites and jobs. Unfortunately for me, I also became sick during site visit so when I finally visited my site for an hour, I felt like crap during the whole visit and I did not expend much energy in investigating my town and meeting people. Still, when I think about it now, it is pretty exciting than I am going to be getting my own little town and health center to work with. I am very happy about the possibilities especially since there is so much work to do. I can hardly wait to jump in and start getting my hands dirty. I can’t wait till I know everybody in my town and I get trained and good at my job.
For those of you who are curious about my job, here are some excerpts from my lovely job description. I don’t know if I will actually be conducting all of these activities. I don’t want to replace someone’s job or do something above my capabilities. However, here it is:
I will be working in hygiene and sanitation activities. I will be monitoring utilization of mosquito nets; I will be helping in family planning activities. I will assist nurses in the vaccination program, the PMTCT program and the VCT program. (The PMTCT program seeks to prevent HIV transmission from mother to child and the VCT program stands for voluntary HIV counseling and testing) I will monitor children’s growth, help in the nutrition program, assist in activities related to prevention of common childhood diseases, conduct ‘behavior change activities’, and teach and assist clinic staff in technology and English.
As a side note, even though all of us are health volunteers, many of us will also be teaching English a large portion of our time. The reason being that the Rwandan government recently mandated a nationwide transition from French to English. The primary and secondary schools are especially affected by this because now all curricula are being taught in English rather than French. This becomes a problem when many of the teachers and most of the students don’t know any English. The Ministry of Education is running to keep up with this mandate and find English speaking teachers. Recently, they imported about twenty Ugandan teachers for the schools but that still fulfills only a small portion of the vast need for English teachers. The Peace Corps is actually going to help with this by sending in ESL (English as a Second Language) volunteers this October. It is very exciting and I hope a volunteer gets placed close to me. Rwanda is so small geographically that by next year, there will be many volunteers all over Rwanda and we will probably be close to each other. Right now, I am only 16 kilometers from the nearest volunteer and some volunteers are literally across the street from other volunteers.
Now, I know you want to know about my house and the amenities I will have. And no, I am not living in a grass hut. I have a very nice cement house complete with living room, outside kitchen, shower room and latrine. It’s got some prettying up to do but I am excited about the decoration possibilities. I have never had my own house before and now my first house is one in Africa. Who knew! Very cool and bragging rights when I get back to the U.S. Actually, I probably won’t have a house this big when I get back to the States. I will be lucky to get a two-bedroom apartment in the U.S. since I will be a poor grad student. Anyway, my house is very nice and I’m hoping to be able to do many things to it when I move in. Maybe, I’ll paint it a nice sea green color and make some cute curtains to match.
Some volunteers were better prepared to handle reality than others but I think all of us were pretty surprised by our sites and jobs. Unfortunately for me, I also became sick during site visit so when I finally visited my site for an hour, I felt like crap during the whole visit and I did not expend much energy in investigating my town and meeting people. Still, when I think about it now, it is pretty exciting than I am going to be getting my own little town and health center to work with. I am very happy about the possibilities especially since there is so much work to do. I can hardly wait to jump in and start getting my hands dirty. I can’t wait till I know everybody in my town and I get trained and good at my job.
For those of you who are curious about my job, here are some excerpts from my lovely job description. I don’t know if I will actually be conducting all of these activities. I don’t want to replace someone’s job or do something above my capabilities. However, here it is:
I will be working in hygiene and sanitation activities. I will be monitoring utilization of mosquito nets; I will be helping in family planning activities. I will assist nurses in the vaccination program, the PMTCT program and the VCT program. (The PMTCT program seeks to prevent HIV transmission from mother to child and the VCT program stands for voluntary HIV counseling and testing) I will monitor children’s growth, help in the nutrition program, assist in activities related to prevention of common childhood diseases, conduct ‘behavior change activities’, and teach and assist clinic staff in technology and English.
As a side note, even though all of us are health volunteers, many of us will also be teaching English a large portion of our time. The reason being that the Rwandan government recently mandated a nationwide transition from French to English. The primary and secondary schools are especially affected by this because now all curricula are being taught in English rather than French. This becomes a problem when many of the teachers and most of the students don’t know any English. The Ministry of Education is running to keep up with this mandate and find English speaking teachers. Recently, they imported about twenty Ugandan teachers for the schools but that still fulfills only a small portion of the vast need for English teachers. The Peace Corps is actually going to help with this by sending in ESL (English as a Second Language) volunteers this October. It is very exciting and I hope a volunteer gets placed close to me. Rwanda is so small geographically that by next year, there will be many volunteers all over Rwanda and we will probably be close to each other. Right now, I am only 16 kilometers from the nearest volunteer and some volunteers are literally across the street from other volunteers.
Now, I know you want to know about my house and the amenities I will have. And no, I am not living in a grass hut. I have a very nice cement house complete with living room, outside kitchen, shower room and latrine. It’s got some prettying up to do but I am excited about the decoration possibilities. I have never had my own house before and now my first house is one in Africa. Who knew! Very cool and bragging rights when I get back to the U.S. Actually, I probably won’t have a house this big when I get back to the States. I will be lucky to get a two-bedroom apartment in the U.S. since I will be a poor grad student. Anyway, my house is very nice and I’m hoping to be able to do many things to it when I move in. Maybe, I’ll paint it a nice sea green color and make some cute curtains to match.
Friday, March 6, 2009
Monkeys!!!
Sorry I haven’t written in a while, guys. So much has happened that I haven’t had much time to visit a computer lab and upload information. I will give you a few updates of the latest events.
Last weekend was pretty packed. Saturday morning, we all took an oral competency test in Kinyarwandan and I bombed it. After the test, I went and hid in my room for a while. Feeling better that afternoon, I went on a hike with two other volunteers through the forest by the university. It was fun but the trek was very hilly. I was gasping for air about half of the time and I was only walking. It made me realize how out of shape I am. In the United States, I never worked out and now that I am here, I am having to walk everywhere.
That night, the volunteers put on a talent show and dance at the local Chinese restaurant. I was so exhausted from the test that morning and the two-hour hike of death that I left before everyone else. Fortunately, I was able to see the whole talent show before I left. The acts included Rwandan traditional dancing, belly dancing and Spanish music, juggling, guitar playing and singing, and a little play. Needless to say, it was very entertaining. I loved it.
Of course, after a late night at a talent show, we all decided to visit Nwungwe National Park the next day. A few volunteers slept past their alarm clocks but most of us loaded up at around 8 in the morning and took the two-hour drive to visit the monkeys and hike the beautiful trails of Nwungwe. Nwungwe is in the south and is basically a huge jungle with Colobus monkeys, chimps, baboons, cats, and a few other animals. We chose to visit the Colobus monkeys (all 400 of them) and I tell you, it was one of the best experiences of my life. I am not exaggerating. The jungle was so amazingly beautiful and wild. Half of the time, I thought I was going to fall and break a leg but it was all worth it. Oh, was it worth it. Visiting animals in a zoo is one thing, but seeing them in their natural habitat is something completely different. Another element of the hike, which made it so enjoyable was that it was so freaking difficult. And we took the moderate trail! Okay, I know I am not a hiker or outdoorsy person but this trail was literally cut out of the jungle by a person with a machete in front of us. We all had walking sticks with us and I had to keep thrusting mine in the ground so I wouldn’t fall down the trail. It was so steep. At other times, I had to hold on to trees and random branches so I could keep my balance. The trail was so steep and hilly that, on the way back, I fell uphill! I got so much mud and random stuff on me. I had to grab on to trees that were nasty because they had this green algae stuff growing on them. I felt so adventurous; it was great. And when we finally arrived to where the Colobus monkeys lived, we got to see them swinging from branches to branches and playing with each other. The monkeys would make these incredible leaps between these super tall trees. And if they missed, they would grab the next branch on the way down. The trees were so tall and there was so much foliage underneath them that we didn’t even feel the rain that was coming down.
Once we came out of the jungle, we sat by the road and ate our bag lunches. One of the Colobus monkeys came out to investigate when he saw us all eating. He was not shy at all, and the guide had to keep scaring him to keep him away. He kept staring at our food and at one point, he ran toward one of the volunteers and tried to steal his sandwich he had left on the ground on top of his bag. It was so funny. I was able to get about two feet from him, and I just watched the little monkey while he ate leftover banana peels. He was so cute!
Unfortunately, we finally had to leave. I totally want to go back though and I would love to live near there too. Because we were so high up, we had an awesome view of Lake Kivu and we could even see the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) border. And the border was hundreds of miles away. It was amazing. I got some good pictures, but I could never capture it completely. Sometimes, you just have to see it in person.
Last weekend was pretty packed. Saturday morning, we all took an oral competency test in Kinyarwandan and I bombed it. After the test, I went and hid in my room for a while. Feeling better that afternoon, I went on a hike with two other volunteers through the forest by the university. It was fun but the trek was very hilly. I was gasping for air about half of the time and I was only walking. It made me realize how out of shape I am. In the United States, I never worked out and now that I am here, I am having to walk everywhere.
That night, the volunteers put on a talent show and dance at the local Chinese restaurant. I was so exhausted from the test that morning and the two-hour hike of death that I left before everyone else. Fortunately, I was able to see the whole talent show before I left. The acts included Rwandan traditional dancing, belly dancing and Spanish music, juggling, guitar playing and singing, and a little play. Needless to say, it was very entertaining. I loved it.
Of course, after a late night at a talent show, we all decided to visit Nwungwe National Park the next day. A few volunteers slept past their alarm clocks but most of us loaded up at around 8 in the morning and took the two-hour drive to visit the monkeys and hike the beautiful trails of Nwungwe. Nwungwe is in the south and is basically a huge jungle with Colobus monkeys, chimps, baboons, cats, and a few other animals. We chose to visit the Colobus monkeys (all 400 of them) and I tell you, it was one of the best experiences of my life. I am not exaggerating. The jungle was so amazingly beautiful and wild. Half of the time, I thought I was going to fall and break a leg but it was all worth it. Oh, was it worth it. Visiting animals in a zoo is one thing, but seeing them in their natural habitat is something completely different. Another element of the hike, which made it so enjoyable was that it was so freaking difficult. And we took the moderate trail! Okay, I know I am not a hiker or outdoorsy person but this trail was literally cut out of the jungle by a person with a machete in front of us. We all had walking sticks with us and I had to keep thrusting mine in the ground so I wouldn’t fall down the trail. It was so steep. At other times, I had to hold on to trees and random branches so I could keep my balance. The trail was so steep and hilly that, on the way back, I fell uphill! I got so much mud and random stuff on me. I had to grab on to trees that were nasty because they had this green algae stuff growing on them. I felt so adventurous; it was great. And when we finally arrived to where the Colobus monkeys lived, we got to see them swinging from branches to branches and playing with each other. The monkeys would make these incredible leaps between these super tall trees. And if they missed, they would grab the next branch on the way down. The trees were so tall and there was so much foliage underneath them that we didn’t even feel the rain that was coming down.
Once we came out of the jungle, we sat by the road and ate our bag lunches. One of the Colobus monkeys came out to investigate when he saw us all eating. He was not shy at all, and the guide had to keep scaring him to keep him away. He kept staring at our food and at one point, he ran toward one of the volunteers and tried to steal his sandwich he had left on the ground on top of his bag. It was so funny. I was able to get about two feet from him, and I just watched the little monkey while he ate leftover banana peels. He was so cute!
Unfortunately, we finally had to leave. I totally want to go back though and I would love to live near there too. Because we were so high up, we had an awesome view of Lake Kivu and we could even see the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) border. And the border was hundreds of miles away. It was amazing. I got some good pictures, but I could never capture it completely. Sometimes, you just have to see it in person.
About my job
I guess that, today, I will write about my job since I have been promising people information on it. Let me see, as you know, I am a health care volunteer currently in the middle of training, an intensive ten week period involving countless hours of language training and a little tech training thrown in. When I first received my job assignment, I thought I would only be working in HIV prevention. It turns out my job could be more than that. I will also be doing preventive work and education on malaria, water sanitation, other infectious diseases, family planning, nutrition, and anything else related to health. My specific job assignment will depend on the nonprofit organization I am paired up with. I could be doing any number of these health projects and many more. I will also have secondary projects. The Peace Corps director is pretty flexible about my secondary projects; I can basically do anything I want. For example, I could teach English to my co-workers or to schoolchildren. I could set up health clubs, afterschool activities or even summer camp for the kids in my village. I could teach computer skills to the villagers (yes, me teach computer skills!) or help with “income generating activities” for the women in the village. Anything, basically, it all will depend on what the villagers want me to help them with.
By the way, if you have noticed that my grammar and punctuation is getting worse in my letters and blogs, that’s because it is. Try typing on keyboards with letters in the wrong places and learning a whole freaking language in ten weeks. Yeah, my English is getting bad. I find myself simplifying it a lot to “caveman speech” to talk to the Rwandans because their English is somewhat basic.
Okay, back to my job. The other day, we visited the clinics in our province. The clinic I visited was a public one that is a five-minute walk from our center. They have a staff of 12 with six nurses. One of the nurses said that she was really busy but she gave us a tour of the facilities. She showed us around exam rooms and a vaccination room. They had a laboratory too with a technician and two microscopes. The waiting room had around twenty people sitting around with their babies strapped on their backs staring at us. Around the waiting people were all the medical files as well. I could just walk up and start looking at a patient’s file if I so inclined. I guess you don’t have to worry about getting sued here. I loved the posters on the wall too. The government is really trying to emphasize family planning so one of the posters showed a family with babies and children all over the place. They were skin and bones and the house was falling apart. There were broken pots on the ground with no food. To contrast, the poster showed another family with just two children. This family was healthy and had a beautiful home with a cow in the backyard. Another poster showed a family using a mosquito net at night to prevent the spread of malaria.
After the tour, our nurse answered our questions and explained to us the insurance system of Rwanda. I asked all the dumb questions like “Do mothers vaccinate their children regularly?’ “Do people use contraceptives on a regular basis?” “What are the most common diseases people get treated for?”, etc. If you are curious, the answers are yes, no, and malaria and respiratory infections. Let me tell you about the insurance system. It’s available to all Rwandans for a sum of 1000 RWF a year (less than two dollars). If you have insurance, clinic visits will cost you 250 RWF and that includes medicine. Family planning and contraceptives are free. Anteretroviral medication (for HIV/AIDS) is also free but it is only available in certain facilities because personnel have to be trained in how to administer the drugs and manage compliance, etc.
I love going to my tech classes because I like learning about the biology of the diseases and prevention. Many diseases could be prevented if people only had the right information. For example, diarrhea is the leading cause of death among children under five in Rwanda, but many parents think that diarrhea is just a normal course of childhood. They do not take easily preventable measures to combat diarrhea and many children die as a result. It is really sad.
By the way, if you have noticed that my grammar and punctuation is getting worse in my letters and blogs, that’s because it is. Try typing on keyboards with letters in the wrong places and learning a whole freaking language in ten weeks. Yeah, my English is getting bad. I find myself simplifying it a lot to “caveman speech” to talk to the Rwandans because their English is somewhat basic.
Okay, back to my job. The other day, we visited the clinics in our province. The clinic I visited was a public one that is a five-minute walk from our center. They have a staff of 12 with six nurses. One of the nurses said that she was really busy but she gave us a tour of the facilities. She showed us around exam rooms and a vaccination room. They had a laboratory too with a technician and two microscopes. The waiting room had around twenty people sitting around with their babies strapped on their backs staring at us. Around the waiting people were all the medical files as well. I could just walk up and start looking at a patient’s file if I so inclined. I guess you don’t have to worry about getting sued here. I loved the posters on the wall too. The government is really trying to emphasize family planning so one of the posters showed a family with babies and children all over the place. They were skin and bones and the house was falling apart. There were broken pots on the ground with no food. To contrast, the poster showed another family with just two children. This family was healthy and had a beautiful home with a cow in the backyard. Another poster showed a family using a mosquito net at night to prevent the spread of malaria.
After the tour, our nurse answered our questions and explained to us the insurance system of Rwanda. I asked all the dumb questions like “Do mothers vaccinate their children regularly?’ “Do people use contraceptives on a regular basis?” “What are the most common diseases people get treated for?”, etc. If you are curious, the answers are yes, no, and malaria and respiratory infections. Let me tell you about the insurance system. It’s available to all Rwandans for a sum of 1000 RWF a year (less than two dollars). If you have insurance, clinic visits will cost you 250 RWF and that includes medicine. Family planning and contraceptives are free. Anteretroviral medication (for HIV/AIDS) is also free but it is only available in certain facilities because personnel have to be trained in how to administer the drugs and manage compliance, etc.
I love going to my tech classes because I like learning about the biology of the diseases and prevention. Many diseases could be prevented if people only had the right information. For example, diarrhea is the leading cause of death among children under five in Rwanda, but many parents think that diarrhea is just a normal course of childhood. They do not take easily preventable measures to combat diarrhea and many children die as a result. It is really sad.
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