Rwandan Host Family

Unlike in most Peace Corps countries, Peace Corps Volunteers in Rwanda do not live with host families during Pre-Service Training. We’re told the reason for this is that Rwandans are much more closed off to Westerners than most people in Africa, because the world’s lack of response during the genocide created distrust and a feeling of betrayal among Rwandans, not surprisingly.

I was disappointed when I found out I wouldn’t be living with a host family, though sharing a house with other Trainees has been a treat. And, we all have host families that we visit a few times per week, which has been very helpful in beginning to understand familial relationships and daily life here.

My host mom is 33 and works as a secretary at the Ministry of Justice office in Nyanza. My host dad used to work as a vendor and volunteer as an elections coordinator, but he was recently promoted and is now working full-time for the government. Rwanda is having a Presidential election in August, and my host dad is evidently responsible for ensuring that everybody in this area is registered to vote and has an official identity card. My host parents have two sons, aged five (Carson) and nine (Cady), who are adorable! I don’t see Cady very often, as he doesn’t come home from school until around 6:30pm, but Carson is usually there when I come over, though I don’t think he’s quite sure what to make of the mzungu.

The family has a houseboy who works for them, which is extremely common, nearly universal, here. (This is also the norm in Senegal, but I’ve never heard of a boy doing this job there, so I was surprised to find that houseboys are as common as housegirls here.) As in my host family, the umukozi often lives with the family they work for, and their responsibilities include cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, babysitting, running errands, and doing whatever else the family asks. In Nyanza, an umukozi normanlly makes 10,000 Rwandan francs (about $17) per month, in addition to food and lodging. The boy who works for my family is 16 and is trying to earn enough money working as an umukozi this year to go back to school next year. He was evidently walking through the neighborhood, knocking on doors, looking for work, and it turned out that my host family’s previous houseboy had just left, so they hired him!

When I visit my host family, I normally practice some Kinyarwanda and then have more substantial discussions in French. They insist on feeding me almost every time I come over, usually tea or coffee with samosas, eggs, or bread. One Saturday afternoon, I was at the house during lunch and had my first taste of ubugali (similar to fufu). It’s essentially unleavened bread dough made out of cassava flour, milk, and water, and is used to scoop up meat or vegetables. Ubugali is extremely popular among Rwandans, but I haven’t quite developed a taste for it yet…it reminds me a lot of what hay might taste like…

Because my host parents work more consistent 9-5 jobs than the average Rwandan, I haven’t had the opportunity to spend as much time with the family as I’d like to. The experiences I’ve had with them, though, have been great. My host mom is super friendly, my host dad loves helping me learn Kinyarwanda, and the kids are so cute!