Swearing-In and Vacation at the Lake House

Sadly, we have left Butare and Pre-Service Training (PST) behind and are now full-on PCVs. Most PCVs are thrilled to be out of staging, but because we were so spoiled and surrounded by muzungus, it is hard for many of us to move beyond the honeymoon phase. It is time to deal with the reality of being on our own in a foreign land, with new jobs to do in a language that we only kind of sort of know the very basics of.

The swearing-in ceremony, held at the ambassador’s house (the ambassador from the United States of America to Rwanda, not to be confused with the ambassador from Rwanda to the United States of America), was high-class all the way, from mini quiches to the US seal on the cutlery and china. All sorts of Rwandan dignitaries were there, including the Minister of Education, and all manner of Rwandan press. Later that night, we were on Rwandan television in all three language formats: English, French, and Kinyarwanda. In fact, when I was in Kigali I was trying to buy a part for our gas stove in a hardware store in Kinyarwanda and the guy asked me if I was one of the “ones who are trying to learn Kinyarwanda and the Rwandan culture” because he had seen us on TV. The program included a speech by one of our own in English, a much-practiced speech by two of our group in Kinyarwanda (part of which was aired on TV) , and speeches by the Ambassador and Country Director. Honestly, as a true Peace Corps volunteer, I found the most exciting part of it all was the good food: mini pizzas, homemade cookies, and freshly squeezed juice. This was all followed by the requisite group photo session, in which, despite the million and one pictures, we failed to take a picture in which we were all looking at the camera (see picture.)

To celebrate our new status as official Peace Corps volunteers, the Peace Corps Rwanda staff put together a nice little outing for us to Lake Muhazi, a lake in the Eastern province of Rwanda. The house and property on the lake are actually all owned by the US Embassy so we were accompanied by four of the ten US Marines that guard the Embassy. The Marines had a tiny little blow-up motor boat that they used to take people wakeboarding on the lake. Talk about a scene that doesn’t belong on a lake in the middle of Rwanda, especially when to get to the lake you have to drive by huge demobilization and reintegration centers. The rest of the day was spent drinking Primus on the shore and throwing around a football (turns out, even in Rwanda, it is handy to have two brothers that force you to learn such things.)