It’s another night in the life of Patricia and it is time to write a blog. I must warn you that I have nothing really important to say tonight. I just haven’t written in a while so I thought I would give a little update. I’ve also promised myself that I would not write about food in today’s blog. It seems like every blog I write mentions food in one respect or another so I’m going to close that book and move on. Although I should mention that the market was especially well-stocked today and therefore I had a good meal tonight. Okay, moving on.
Well, it’s been seven months since I landed in Rwanda and four and a half months since I started living in the boonies, a.k.a. my site. I realized today that I only have a year and a half left of my service and that got me kinda thinking about what I’ve accomplished so far. Bad idea. I then had to buy myself a fanta and finish a whole package of cookies.
I guess you’re wondering what I am exactly doing here in Rwanda. I remember wondering myself what I would be doing when I started applying for the Peace Corps a year and a half ago. I would peruse the Peace Corps website meticulously, read all the stories, and waste hours on the web reading volunteer blogs. It was all a lot of fun and good material for daydreaming but it was also, to be honest, all kinda vague. I understand now why they were always so vague with their stories and blogs because that describes my life now. Vague, vague, vague. And random. That’s also a good word.
Let’s see. About my job. Yesterday, I distributed seed and farm equipment to a whole village. The week before, I saved a child’s life by rescuing him from a rushing river full of hungry crocodiles. Just before that, I had just finished work on a brand new house for a widow and her fifteen children. Now, I’m finalizing touches on a grant that will provide money for a brand new school for my town plus pay for the school fees for every single child. Oh, I almost forgot. Last month, I installed electricity and running water in my town. Yep, that’s my life now. Or at least my life in the movie version. You know how Hollywood writers embellish a little.
Uhm, yea. So, in reality, my volunteer job is in community health. I’m paired up with my sector’s clinic so I work there every day. I show up to work every day at 7 am and do random work the rest of the day to help the nurses with their jobs. I take temperatures and blood pressure. I weigh children and pregnant mothers and monitor their nutrition levels. I fill out forms for patients and fill syringes with vaccines. I also teach health topics sometimes to the patients in my baby kinyarwanda. Two days a week, I teach the staff English and I’ve started teaching them “the machine” or the computer as I like to call it. When there’s no work, I go over to the NGO’s office, bother them with requests for translations or ask to tag along on one of their community visits.
In all the empty space that’s between, I sit in a tiny office full of records, try to look busy on my computer, and wonder how I’m going to fill up the empty space the next day. I guess I can’t blame my co-workers. They don’t know or maybe don’t care how bored I am. Plus, they are blessed with working for the slowest clinic in the world. I think that we can have around twenty patients a day. Today, I saw five sitting on the bench outside the consultation room. In the afternoons, all the patients disappear and the nurses sit around till 5 pm doing nothing. Sometimes, I sit with them in the afternoon, watch the people walk by outside, and wonder about this clinic I work for, where the hardest workers are the janitors.
In all practicality, I’m my own boss. This would be good for some but not so much for me because my last few jobs and my whole school career trained me to be a very good robot. Unfortunately, this job requires me to be more like a computer with a good processor and access to Internet. Uhm, don’t know if that analogy worked. Anyway, my point is that I’m on unfamiliar territory and it’s been a little shaky. I’m not referring to teaching English or taking temps. What’s unfamiliar territory is having disease, hunger, and poverty staring me in the face every day when I teach English or take temps and knowing I should do something about it but not knowing exactly how to go around doing it. I do have a couple of ideas for projects and hopefully they will pan out. We'll see. It’s just month four and I’ve got twenty more months to figure things out. Maybe, I can still build that widow’s house or solve the hunger problem in my community. Probably not but why not dream. At least, I had a good dinner tonight.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Lists
Ways to tell you’re a Rwandan Peace Corps volunteer
1) You speak Kinyarwanda like a three-year-old.
2) Six months later, you’re wearing the same clothes you brought from the States even though they’re too big/small and are starting to disintegrate.
3) Unlike the other foreigners (with their big SUV’s and hired drivers), you ride around in the local minivans and public buses, covered in dust and packed more tightly than sardines.
4) Your diet consists of rice and beans and some more rice and beans.
5) When you gather in groups of two Peace Corps volunteers or more, your conversation centers around American food. And Mexican food, and Chinese food, etc.
6) You argue fiercely in the market over a few hundred francs (a few American cents) and get mad when they charge you the foreigner rate.
7) The children call you Muzungu k’uruhu, meaning you’re a foreigner by skin only, not by culture. Translation: you don’t dole out money.
8) You spend more money on the telephone and Internet than on food and other living allowances combined.
9) You develop gross conditions like worms, giardia, chiggers, and more diarrhea than you thought possible.
10) You have gotten your phone or camera or other valuable stolen, at least once, while you’ve been here.
11) You’re so poor that even the Rwandans tell you that you need new shoes. Unfortunately, you can’t afford to buy new shoes because you spent it on Internet and you walk around in shower flip-flops.
12) You’ve become an expert English teacher because everyone in Rwanda wants to learn English.
13) You haven’t trimmed or cut your hair in months because the only person who knows how to cut Muzungu hair is another muzungu.
14) You’re the first muzungu to show your village children a picture of themselves or speak to them in their native language. You may be the first white person they’ve seen.
15) You’re the expert Internet and communications specialist in your village, even though in the United States, your only specialties were Microsoft Word and Facebook.
16) You spend the equivalent of $6 on a banana split when you travel to the capital.
17) You're not insulted when another volunteer offers the remains of a food item to you, such as cookie crumbs or half-eaten cake. This is especially true if it's in a package from the States or if any part of it consists of chocolate.
18) You take toilet paper with you whenever you travel. And laundry soap.
Other random lists
Things I miss from the States, besides family and friends of course
1) Food
2) Vegging out in front of the T.V. Especially watching Criminal Minds, Jon Stewart, and Law and Order.
3) Convenience and speed. If I’m hungry, order take-out. If I need something, I can go to Wal-mart.
4) Being completely understood, at all times. At least language and culturally wise.
5) Always having family at home when I came home from work or school.
6) Having a job I’m really good at.
7) A long, hot shower
8) Having enough money to buy frivolous things.
9) My car
Perks of being a Peace Corps volunteer
1) Having a job that actually matters.
2) Developing all sorts of random skills, like latrine maintenance and bargaining.
3) Being the superstar of a village.
4) Learning a second and potentially a third language.
5) Being the most eligible bachelor or bachelorette in town (This may not be a perk for some)
6) Kids love you. (Well, most do. Some cry.)
7) Having a huge network of other volunteers in other countries to support you when you travel, need information, or a favor.
8) Good healthcare
9) Meeting awesome people you never would have met otherwise.
10) Changing your way of looking at life, rearranging priorities.
11) Learning to appreciate the small things in life, the small victories and gifts.
12) Learning to live on your own, gain independence and maturity.
13) Developing life-long friends.
14) Gaining a new culture.
1) You speak Kinyarwanda like a three-year-old.
2) Six months later, you’re wearing the same clothes you brought from the States even though they’re too big/small and are starting to disintegrate.
3) Unlike the other foreigners (with their big SUV’s and hired drivers), you ride around in the local minivans and public buses, covered in dust and packed more tightly than sardines.
4) Your diet consists of rice and beans and some more rice and beans.
5) When you gather in groups of two Peace Corps volunteers or more, your conversation centers around American food. And Mexican food, and Chinese food, etc.
6) You argue fiercely in the market over a few hundred francs (a few American cents) and get mad when they charge you the foreigner rate.
7) The children call you Muzungu k’uruhu, meaning you’re a foreigner by skin only, not by culture. Translation: you don’t dole out money.
8) You spend more money on the telephone and Internet than on food and other living allowances combined.
9) You develop gross conditions like worms, giardia, chiggers, and more diarrhea than you thought possible.
10) You have gotten your phone or camera or other valuable stolen, at least once, while you’ve been here.
11) You’re so poor that even the Rwandans tell you that you need new shoes. Unfortunately, you can’t afford to buy new shoes because you spent it on Internet and you walk around in shower flip-flops.
12) You’ve become an expert English teacher because everyone in Rwanda wants to learn English.
13) You haven’t trimmed or cut your hair in months because the only person who knows how to cut Muzungu hair is another muzungu.
14) You’re the first muzungu to show your village children a picture of themselves or speak to them in their native language. You may be the first white person they’ve seen.
15) You’re the expert Internet and communications specialist in your village, even though in the United States, your only specialties were Microsoft Word and Facebook.
16) You spend the equivalent of $6 on a banana split when you travel to the capital.
17) You're not insulted when another volunteer offers the remains of a food item to you, such as cookie crumbs or half-eaten cake. This is especially true if it's in a package from the States or if any part of it consists of chocolate.
18) You take toilet paper with you whenever you travel. And laundry soap.
Other random lists
Things I miss from the States, besides family and friends of course
1) Food
2) Vegging out in front of the T.V. Especially watching Criminal Minds, Jon Stewart, and Law and Order.
3) Convenience and speed. If I’m hungry, order take-out. If I need something, I can go to Wal-mart.
4) Being completely understood, at all times. At least language and culturally wise.
5) Always having family at home when I came home from work or school.
6) Having a job I’m really good at.
7) A long, hot shower
8) Having enough money to buy frivolous things.
9) My car
Perks of being a Peace Corps volunteer
1) Having a job that actually matters.
2) Developing all sorts of random skills, like latrine maintenance and bargaining.
3) Being the superstar of a village.
4) Learning a second and potentially a third language.
5) Being the most eligible bachelor or bachelorette in town (This may not be a perk for some)
6) Kids love you. (Well, most do. Some cry.)
7) Having a huge network of other volunteers in other countries to support you when you travel, need information, or a favor.
8) Good healthcare
9) Meeting awesome people you never would have met otherwise.
10) Changing your way of looking at life, rearranging priorities.
11) Learning to appreciate the small things in life, the small victories and gifts.
12) Learning to live on your own, gain independence and maturity.
13) Developing life-long friends.
14) Gaining a new culture.
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