First Week at Site

Well, I’ve been in Nyagatare for just over a week now, so here are some first impressions and a look at what I’ve been doing.

As I mentioned before, my assigned organization is the Presbyterian Church of Rwanda. Here in Nyagatare, the church has three employees who do community development work – one in charge of health projects, one in charge of education-related projects, and one (who is officially my supervisor) in charge of cooperatives and business development. (In the complicated world of development aid, it’s sometimes kind of hard to know what exactly is going on. But, from what I can tell, the church’s education and business work is partially under a nation-wide USAID project, and the health projects are under Population Services International, a well-known NGO based in the U.S.) Anyway, I’ll be working with those three employees, as well as the church’s pastor.

Unfortunately, my house was not ready when I arrived last week. So, for the time being, I’m staying at the church’s guesthouse. But, I did get to see the house! Like many other Volunteers’ houses, it’s much bigger than I need. It has three bedrooms, along with a sitting room, a storage room, and (believe it or not!) an indoor bathroom (though I’m under the impression the water doesn’t actually run, so I’ll probably be getting most of my water from the communal spigot in my area). The kitchen building, along with a shower room and latrine, is out back. My favorite thing about the house is that the yard is filled with plants, flowers, and vegetable gardens! I really wanted to garden here, and, since I have no idea what I’m doing, I’m thrilled that I won’t have to start from scratch! Also, like many houses in Rwanda, mine is completely fenced in – I hate how things feel so closed and walled off in many parts of this country, but most Rwandans seem to think you’re only safe with a fence/gate surrounding your house. Anyway, staying at the guesthouse and having the opportunity to hang here has allowed me to meet with a lot of people, which has been great, but I’m anxious to move into my house and get settled!

Most of my time since I arrived in Nyagatare has been spent getting to know the town and making visits to other sectors (the administrative equivalent of counties, I guess, only much smaller). One day last week, we had some visitors, a couple from Switzerland, who were representing a church in Lausanne that has a partnership with the Presbyterian Church of Rwanda. I went along when my supervisor took them to visit a church and cooperative in a rural part of Gatsibo (the district south of here). We looked at their crops (evidently they were good – maybe someday I’ll be able to tell!) and talked to them about their women’s empowerment projects and income-generating activities.

Another day, I went to a very rural part of my district with one of my co-workers, the head of health projects, for a training session. He led the session, which was for half of that sector’s community health workers. (Every umudugudu– the smallest administrative division, which can essentially be a neighborhood in urban areas or a village in rural areas) – has at least three elected community health workers, including one male, one female, and another who focuses on maternal and child health. These workers are volunteers, and their main responsibilities are to treat very basic health problems and to conduct community-based health education programs. This idea of having health workers in ever area appears to be a really great idea, and it seems like more countries should adopt it.) Anyway, the training was on “Behavior Change Communication and Social Marketing,” a fancy term for health education and outreach. Basically, it was about how the community health workers can educate their people in their umudugudu about malaria prevention, HIV prevention, and water sanitation. The entire meeting took place in Kinyarwanda, which made it a difficult but very useful listening exercise!

Another recent outing was with Cecile, an agronomist from Rwanda’s Ministry of Agriculture, who regularly comes to Nyagatare for work. I met her while she was staying at the church’s guesthouse, and we quickly became friends. She invited me to accompany her on her inspections, so I tagged along and we went all over the district, inspecting crops and meeting with farmers.

When I’m not busy with other things, I spend most of my free time walking around town, greeting people, talking to anyone who’s interested in talking to me, and trying to become a familiar sight to people in my community. It’s been really great to meet people, and I’ve had some interesting conversations and gotten to practice a lot of Kinyarwanda and use some French. The day I arrived in Nyagatare, I was walking through town when a girl came up to me and said, “Hi. How are you? I’m Angela. What’s your name? I saw you, and you’re the only white person I’ve ever seen here, and I really like your pants, so I knew I had to talk to you.” (As a side note, I was wearing jeans, as was she, so I’m not sure why that was so interesting.) Anyway, she was extremely friendly, and we got along right away. It turns out she’s a student at the technical university here, so she took me back to the student-housing building she lives in and introduced me to her friends. We spent the rest of the afternoon chatting and getting to know each other, using (since some of the students are from Rwanda, but many are from Uganda or the DRC) a mix of Kinyarwanda, English, and French.

Since my primary responsibility as a Volunteer these first couple months is to integrate, get to know people, and assess my community, all this counts as me doing my job! It’s like taking three cups of tea.

Week in Kigali

Before leaving for site on May 11th, we spent a glorious week in Kigali. Here’s a slightly belated re-cap.

The first purpose of our time in Kigali was the Swearing-In ceremony, during which we officially became Volunteers. The ceremony was at the American Ambassador’s (Stuart Symington) house, which is beautiful. Also in attendance were a handful of current Volunteers, several Returned Peace Corps Volunteers who now live in Rwanda, representatives from some of Peace Corps’ partner organizations here, and some other officials from the Rwandan government and the Peace Corps. The ceremony consisted of speeches from the Ambassador, the Peace Corps Country Director, a woman (!) from Rwanda’s Ministry of Health, and some Volunteers. At swearing-in ceremonies in Rwanda, a few Volunteers give speeches - some in English, some in French, and some in Kinyarwanda. My good friend, Nora, and I gave the one in French, in which we basically thanked the many people who have helped us up to this point and reminded everybody that we’re here to serve where and how we have the opportunity to (something I need to keep reminding myself!). The ceremony ended with the oath – we raised our right hands and swore to protect, defend, and support the Constitution of the United States, etc. Following the ceremony was a reception featuring fantastic food, including cake!

The ceremony was covered pretty heavily in national media. An article and color photo appeared in the following day’s issue of the New Times, one of Rwanda’s primary newspapers. The ceremony was also on TV, and when I say I’m American or that I’m with the Peace Corps, people frequently say that they saw us on TV. Because of the Volunteers who spoke in Kinyarwanda, people also often say, “Oh! You are with Peace Corps – you speak Kinyarwanda! I saw you on TV!”

During the few days following the ceremony, we went all over Kigali, shopping for items for our houses. The best places to shop here include the main market, the two muzungu supermarkets (Nakumatt, a Kenyan chain, and Simba) and other stores known mainly by the nationality of the people who own them or the products they sell – the German store, the Indian store, the Chinese store, etc. I purchased the basics – plastic buckets and basins, laundry soap, pots, dishes, silverware, a frying pan, a kerosene stove, sponges, plus peanut butter, Nutella, and spices – and figured I can easily make do until my next trip into Kigali.

The other highlight of the week in Kigali was sampling some of the many great restaurants the city has to offer. There’s Heaven, which is run by the wife of the director of Access, one of our partner organizations – happy hour there is buy one, get one free, including draught Müutzig (draught beers are a rarity here)! Shokola (Kinyarwanda spelling of chocolat – though I’m not really sure why the restaurant is called that), serves amazing Middle Eastern food (I had vegetable couscous, and, after trading bites of each other’s meals, everyone agreed it was the best dish!) on a veranda and in individual cabanas. Unfortunately, my friend Kelly discovered part of a red fingernail in her ice cream (I’m not kidding) – yet the restaurant was so amazing, I still recommend it, and I’m sure she does, too. There’s also Zaffron, an Indian restaurant (East Africa is known for having great Indian food because there’s such a big Indian population in most countries in the region), which has a similarly great atmosphere. That night is the only time I’ve ever had Indian food I really loved – paneer tikka masala, Indian cheese with vegetables, and garlic naan. I also tried Ethiopian food for the first time, at Lalibela (a restaurant named for Ethiopia’s Churches of Lalibela). Lalibela has a similar outdoors setting, and the special that night was a buffet featuring all the staples of Ethiopian cuisine, so I got to try all the essentials, including injera and tibs. Plus, Lalibela is located at the One Love Club hotel, and part of the proceeds from the hotel and restaurant go to an NGO that supports disabled Rwandans. Bourbon Café is another key muzungu establishment in Kigali – it’s a coffee shop/restaurant that serves all manner of coffee and tea drinks, smoothies, pastries, salads, and sandwiches. Plus, you get free wireless with a purchase! (Interestingly, the people who own the two Bourbon Café's in Kigali are in the process of opening up two more locations – New York City and Washington, DC!) All these restaurants are extremely expensive by local standards, but quite cheap by American standards. Most of my meals cost 4,000-6,000 Rwandan francs (about $7-$10.50) for meals that would probably cost $20 in the U.S. Okay, I’m done rambling about all the great and exotic restaurants in Kigali. I don’t know if they’re really as good as I’m making them out to be, or if they just seemed really exciting after weeks on end of Rwandan food, but I think maybe Kigali really does have an underrated dining scene!

I Got a Package!

A couple days ago, I got my first package since arriving in Rwanda – I can’t describe how incredibly exciting it is to get mail here!

The box, from my mom, contained such prized goodies as magazines, lotion, tea, Clif bars, M&Ms, gum, and scented hand sanitizer. Three of my housemates got packages on the same day – the group of us pouring over English-language magazines and sharing coveted American food were like kids on Christmas morning!!

Practice Project

Part of Pre-Serving Training involves doing a practice project with a local facility or organization. I did mine with another Trainee at a pottery cooperative outside Nyanza. The co-op is really cool – it employs locals who make traditional pottery and relies primarily on natural resources that come from the surrounding area. And, the pottery they make is really nice.

During our first visit to the cooperative, we talked to three of the employees and learned about the work they do and how their organization is structured. We also talked to them about their problems – the main one being a lack of customers. In fact, they said sometimes a week or more passes without any customers coming – which is really a shame, considering that the pottery is beautiful, unique, and reasonably-priced, plus you can watch the potters at work and see where their materials are extracted. So, our project was to work with them on ways to attract more customers.

After brainstorming and doing some research, we returned to the co-op to give a presentation on marketing and advertising. We focused on creating more and better signs and working more with hotels to sell the pottery and travel agencies to have their tour groups make a stop at the co-op. We did our speeches entirely in Kinyarwanda, which was a little rough, but people seemed to understand us for the most part, so I considered it a success!

The co-op’s employees seemed receptive to our ideas, but it’s hard to know if they’ll actually put any of them to use. All the current Volunteers have told us it’s sometimes really difficult to motivate people to change how they do things or to try something new. Regardless, though, it was great practice and a really interesting experience. Plus, I bought an awesome mug and candleholder for about $2.50 each!

Some samples of the pottery:

Sunsets and Children

Two of my favorite things about Rwanda have to be the sunsets and the children. On good days, the sunsets are so beautiful and the children so adorable I can hardly believe it.

A few days ago, I went to my host family’s house, and, not surprisingly, my host parents weren’t there at the time I was supposed to come. So, I spent an hour or so in the front yard, playing with my two host brothers and some other umudugudu (village/neighborhood) kids – some of them were friends of my host brothers, but I think some of them just stopped because they were intrigued by the muzungu! I had a chance to use a lot of Kinyarwanda, which was great, and the kids loved showing off their English. The most impressive was one 12-year-old girl who stopped by and told me her name and age, where she was coming from, where she was going, where she lives, and what she studies in school. The Rwandan government changed the official language from French to English last year, but the peoples’ actual transition to English is happening buhoro buhoro (slowly slowly). Regardless, kids are always very excited to shout, “Good morning!” (often in the afternoon), “How are you?” and, “I’m fine!” (responding, “I’m good” doesn’t seem to mean anything here) to any muzungus who pass by.

As we hung out in the front yard, chatting in English and Kinyarwanda, tossing around a rubber tennis ball (the “Kinyarwanda” word for which is evidently tennis), and waving “Mwiriwe!” to people who passed by on foot or bike, I noticed the incredible view from the front of my host family’s house. They live on a hillside overlooking a valley full of banana trees, and all you can see past that are more hills in the distance. Since I was there around 6pm, the sun started to go down, and the site of the sunset as a backdrop to the valley and the hills behind it was breathtaking.

It’s the everyday experiences, the small accomplishments, the random interactions, and the simple joys that make you truly happy to be here.

Sunset view from our house in Nyanza:

Icyunamo Cya Jenoside – Genocide Memorial Week

From April 7^th to April 14^th each year, Rwanda remembers the genocide, which officially began on April 7, 1994. I won’t go into detail about the genocide, so please click here for more information.

April 7^th is a national holiday in Rwanda – everything is closed, nobody works, and ceremonies are held throughout the country. (As a side note, Peace Corps’ entire support staff in Nyanza had to work all day and miss the memorial events – it was not okay.) For the next five days, people work in the mornings and attend events in the afternoon, and the last day is a full holiday again.

On the first day of memorial week, we Trainees attended the events that took place in Nyanza. In the morning, basically everybody in Nyanza met on the edge of town and walked through town together behind a big purple banner. The walk through town ended at Nyanza’s genocide memorial, where everybody congregated and some laid flowers.

It was at the memorial that the traumatisms began. During genocide-related events, it is not unusual for people to suddenly begin wailing, screaming, even thrashing about, and eventually need to be carried out. That happened to several people at the memorial.

Next, the whole crowd moved to Nyanza’s small stadium (which seems to be the main gathering place for public events here) for the rest of the morning. Several government officials gave speeches (all in Kinyarwanda). Then, we waited until President Kagame’s speech came on the radio and was projected over the loudspeakers (I’m under the impression that it was played publicly in basically every town in Rwanda). Kagame spoke in both Kinyarwanda and English, and the English speech was fiery and intriguing – read about it here. Kagame’s speech was the last planned event, and the rest of the afternoon was a holiday.

Throughout the ceremony at the stadium, there were several more traumatisms. From time to time, people would also suddenly get up and sprint away from the crowd. Maybe to avoid a traumatism? I’m not really sure. It was quite shocking to us, but people seemed to find it fairly normal.

We also attended the memorial events on April 14^th, the last day of memorial week. It similarly began with a massive march through town, which ended this time at the lake on the edge of Nyanza. The crowd sat on the hillside and listened to various speakers, mostly government officials. The speeches were all in Kinyarwanda again, but I was fortunate to be sitting near a Peace Corps staff member who provided some translation. The gist of the speeches was that this should never happen again, people should live together peacefully, and everybody should help those who were affected by the genocide.

It has been a really difficult week for most people in Rwanda, but I think it’s important that Rwandans take this time to talk openly about the past and to focus on peace and reconciliation.

My Site!

Two weeks ago, we got our site assignments, and we visited our sites last week. My site is (drumroll, please)… Nyagatare, in northeast Rwanda! Nyagatare is Rwanda’s largest district by area and the most sparsely populated (an appropriate site for a Montana girl, I think!). According to the guidebook, the town of Nyagatare has about 9,000 people. My partner organization is EPR, the Presbyterian Church of Rwanda, which has an office in town and conducts various education, health, business, and community development projects in town and throughout the district. My direct supervisor, Néhémié, is the manager of the community development programs, though I expect I’ll be working with the health and education managers as well. My assignment falls under the umbrella of a USAID-funded project called Higa Ubeho (Be Determined and Live), which is being coordinated by CHF International and implemented by about 20 organizations throughout Rwanda. The project offers holistic support for people affected by HIV/AIDS by providing access to healthcare and education and implementing nutrition, agriculture, savings, income generation, gender mainstreaming, and prevention activities.

We Trainees and all of our supervisors went to Kigali for two days last week to meet each other and participate in a Peace Corps-sponsored conference about our assignments and our expectations of one another. On Tuesday afternoon, I left with Néhémié to visit my site. The town of Nyagatare is about a three-hour bus ride from Kigali and is very close to Rwanda’s borders with both Uganda and Tanzania. My closest Peace Corps neighbor will be a current Volunteer, also named Jen, who lives about 30 kilometers (a 40-minute moto ride) away. She’ll finish her service when I’m about halfway through mine.

Though it’s not quite what I had in mind or what I would have chosen, I liked Nyagatare a lot and my visit went great. The town is somewhat spread out, making it feel more rural, which I love. It has a market on Thursdays, several little shops similar to the ones here in Nyanza, a post office, and an Internet café. There are also a few bars and restaurants, as well as a store that had a big case of alcohol and such luxuries as Pringles and Snickers. To keep in line with both cultural norms and local standards, though, I will probably be mostly avoiding all of that.

During my few days in Nyagatare, I walked all over town and met about a zillion people, all of whom were extremely friendly and incredibly excited about my (very limited) Kinyarwanda. We went to the mayor’s office, a secondary school, the health center, and the market. We also took a moto out to visit some cooperative members and a family in a nearby village, which was the highlight of my visit. Moto trips are always fun, the countryside was beautiful, and the people were wonderful.

Anyway, that was my first taste of Nyagatare. Now, I’m back in Nyanza for five more weeks of training, until I head to Nyagatare permanently!