Friday, April 17, 2009

luxury and deprivation

I have been trying to write a blog for weeks but every time I start, I get the worst writer’s block. I need to write though because so much has happened in the last two weeks and I feel it is my duty to report on those events. Right now, I’m sitting in another volunteer’s room watching her pack. We both leave two days from now to head to our villages and start work. I don’t really know how to handle this reality so I’m trying not to think too much about it because if I do, I will just fret and worry.

Last week was our last week in Butare. We took our final language and tech tests and had our last interviews with our training director. Somehow, I managed a score of “advanced” on my language test even though I am nowhere near that level. I also signed my name on a piece of paper stating I passed my training and agreed to be a Peace Corps volunteer. It was so surreal and I can’t believe training is finally over. It seems like it took forever yet it doesn’t seem like three months has already passed. To be honest, I don’t even think of my life in the United States anymore. The first month I was here in Rwanda, I missed home like crazy. I especially missed material things like television, pizza, Mexican food, my bed, hot showers, and driving my car. Now, those things aren’t that important anymore. I have finally become accustomed to some aspects of my new life: bucket showers, washing my own clothes, bargaining with storekeepers, trying to follow conversations in three different languages, and waiting for hours for something that would take minutes in the United States. Although all of these experiences have prepared me for life in Rwanda, I know I will experience even more culture shock once I go to my village. Until now, I have only lived in town, in a convent, and had everything prepared for me. Once I move to my village, I will have to start a new job besides learning how to live like a true villager. Well, maybe not a true villager because I will be a lot better off. Still, I want to learn how to cook on charcoal and wood and carry a jug of water on my head.

This week, we left Butare for good and headed to Kigali. We have spent a week here so far and it has been incredible. After living in Southern Rwanda for three months, Kigali seems like New York City. On Wednesday, we had our graduation ceremony at the ambassador’s house and were sworn as Peace Corps volunteers. Many former volunteers came to see us graduate (actually forty-something former Peace Corps volunteers are here working in NGO’s) and some officials from the Rwandan government came as well. Two volunteers gave speeches in Kinyarwandan and wowed the crowd. After the ceremony, we all attacked the hors d’oeuvres and coffee and explored the ambassador’s ginormous house.

Thursday was simply one of the best days I have had in Rwanda! We all loaded up in buses and traveled to Lake Morhaze for a barbecue, games and wakeboarding. The embassy has a house beside the lake and we took possession of it for a day. While our director and other staff barbecued shish kabobs, I played volleyball and soccer with the Peace Corps staff. Our balls kept falling in the lake water and we were so afraid to wade in and retrieve them because there might be schistosomiasis in the water. We finally recruited a couple of kids who were in the water to swim out and fetch the balls for us. Four off-duty Marines from the embassy came with us, much to the girls’ delight, and they brought a couple of blow-up boats. They had this board, and they taught us to how to wake board. It was amazing! It’s kind of like water skiing yet you are on your knees on a board. I couldn’t resist. I went out in the schisto water and had my first experience in wakeboarding. Awesome, awesome, awesome! Of course, I was a wakeboard retard at first and I fell off the board, let’s see, about three or four times. When you are on the wakeboard, you start off on your stomach and you have to pull yourself up on your knees while the boat is moving. I was only able to get up once without falling, then the boat speeded up and I fell off again. After I got back on dry land, I stuffed my face and played football, soccer and volleyball with the staff and other volunteers. That was followed by random dancing to Bob Marley and African singers. All day long, I kept thinking that I cannot really be in the Peace Corps. This is simply too much fun and we are so spoiled. The day was perfect, absolutely perfect.

After we returned, a group of us decided to go to a salsa club for some dancing. I don’t have a clue how to salsa dance but I tagged along anyway. Once we got there, it was like muzungoville. It freaked me out a little. I was also taken aback by the dancers because they were so freaking good. I felt like I was watching a scene in Dirty Dancing: Havana nights. With nothing to lose except my pride, I jumped onto the dance floor and “salsa danced.” The night went without too many incidents until around midnight when I got paired up with a salsa teacher. After seeing how much I sucked, he took me aside and taught me the basic steps, right there on the dance floor in front of everybody. I was too grateful to be too embarrassed but I wondered if he did that to every bad salsa dancer he came across.

After Thursday’s wakeboarding and dancing, I spent today shopping for my house and recovering from strained muscles. And it was really confusing and stressful. The Peace Corps staff rented a couple of buses and they have four cars so they have been randomly carting all 32 of us around town. It has been a logistical nightmare because there are so many of us going to different places at different times and they really didn’t set up concrete schedule or timed routes. Basically, groups of us call the drivers to take us places and come fetch us after we buy boxes of household goods. Today, I just played it by ear and caught rides whenever they were going somewhere. Somehow, I managed to visit two stores, buy loads of crap, and still be picked up by the buses without having to call them. It was seriously a case of being in the right places at the right times.

Shopping has also been stressful because 1) I’ve never shopped for a whole house before. I basically need everything besides a bed frame and a kitchen table. 2) They have only given us a little bit of money to settle in, which means I have to budget, I can’t buy cute stuff, and I have to do without many things. This is fine. I mean, I am a Peace Corps volunteer after all. The only problem is that I don’t really know how to buy things on so little money. And there is also the issue of pride. Should I buy the really ugly blanket or the nice comforter? Should I buy all matching dishes and silverware or do I buy the cheap metal and plastic dishes from China that have the cats and weird English phrases on them. I do still have half of my settling allowance left so I think I am doing better than some other volunteers but I still have to buy a mattress, a gas tank and some furniture. I guess I can do without furniture the first month. At least, I have a bed frame.

Okay, I’m going to end by telling you about my first experience in a shopping mall in Africa. I have lived in Rwanda for three months and I had heard about this “shopping mall and Target-like store” in Kigali but I didn’t really believe it. Having never seen this mythical store, I had contented myself by shopping at the open-air markets and the little sketchy stores in Butare. Today, however, I finally got to visit it. It was so weird. Everything the other volunteers said about it was true! It actually looked like a Target/Sears. It had the cash registers and aisles with the little signs saying what was on each aisle. I probably looked like an idiot just wandering around the aisles with an expression of pure delight on my face. At first, I was too afraid to buy anything. I just explored the aisles and stared at the refrigerators, gym equipment, and flat screen televisions. They even had Ramen noodles although it was about a dollar each instead of 16 cents. There were so many options, I didn’t know where to start. I had gotten used to only having one or two choices and then bargaining for that one item until I got a good price. And the item normally looked like it came from a Goodwill store or a used clothes box from the States. Now, I had options! And to make it better, the workers were actually helpful unlike the workers at Walmart who try to run away from you whenever you have a question. One of them put together my gas grill for me and answered all my questions about gas prices and cooking options. He then took me to the hardware section and got the other pieces I needed for the grill.

The best part, however, had to be the Bourbon coffee shop. I walked in and just stared for five minutes at the sign listing the options. They had all the fancy coffee drinks and little sweets that Starbucks has. I laughed out loud and exclaimed, “This is just like Starbucks!” to the barista. The barista laughed and prepared a fancy coffee drink with little swirls and designs in the coffee, complete with porcelain cup and little sugar cookie. With a smug look, he presented the drink and asked, “Does Starbucks make coffee like this?” Impressed, I ordered a café mocha and chocolate cake complete with whip cream and cherries. Although the bill was the equivalent of five restaurant buffets, you must believe me when I say that I enjoyed every bite of that chocolate cake, and the café mocha was better than Starbucks coffee!

Thursday, April 2, 2009

I finally posted pictures!!!




I finally found an internet connection fast enough to load some pictures but these were the only ones I had on me at the time. I will try to upload more pictures soon. The picture on the right is a picture of my classroom where I learn Kinyarwanda.