Saturday, February 21, 2009

Picture #2


One of the huts for language lessons.

There are how many noun classes?!

Life continues here at the convent. We are currently on our third week, having been inundated with language classes and a sprinkling of technical health and cross-cultural training. The bulk of my time is spent in a small thatched hut, repeating words that contain more a’s, b’s, and u’s than I thought was humanly possible. The language seems at least somewhat straight forward until you learn, as we did today, that there are 16 noun classes, and all associated adjectives must be conjugated accordingly. Rumor has it that Kinyarwanda is one of the hardest languages in the world, second only to Mandarin. Like any language, the words of the language tell you what is important to the culture (like the Inuit and their numerous words for snow.) For example, when a baby is born in Kinyarwanda, one expresses “niyonkwe” (“I wish you to nurse well”) to the mother. This is meant not only for the baby’s health and nutrition, but also for the mother’s sake.

We will continue to spend the greatest proportion of our time focusing on language through the sixth week of pre-service training (PST), when we make our initial visits to our sites, because that will truly be the key to making a difference in the health of our communities, especially in the rural areas where they only speak Kinyarwanda. If you can’t communicate with someone, how are you going to tell them the importance of washing their hands or staying on the ARV regimen prescribed?

Outside of class, I have started visiting our resource families. Fortunately and unfortunately for me, several of my resource family members speak English very well. For the first few visits, this has been great because they have served as an important source of cross-cultural information, but my terrible pronunciation means that I definitely should be spending more time speaking Kinyarwanda with them. On Sunday, the family taught me the traditional Rwandan dance, though they claimed I looked more like I was driving a cow than imitating it. Here the dances are more than just dances, they are a means of communication: women dance as though to mimic a cow and men’s dance moves resemble the fighting of a battle.

I have also been exploring Butare through runs, hikes, and other excursions. Butare consists of one main paved road leading to the university, along which shops, internet cafes, and hotels serve as a backdrop for the hustle and bustle of the town. Just a turn off the paved main road, however, you come face to face with cows and herds of goats. Though we still get stares and the occasional “muzungu” (white person), life has become so routine that I often forget I have only been here a couple of weeks. Amazing how quickly we adapt!

I finally have a Rwandan cell phone, so if you don’t have the number and need it let me know.

Friday, February 6, 2009

Picture #1















The view on our drive from Kigali to Butare.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Umukorerabushake wa Peace Corps

Mwiriwe (greetings) from Butare! The title above means "Peace Corps volunteer," though I suppose I am only technically an "umustaygeri."

I safely arrived in Rwanda last Thursday and spent several days in Kigali (the capital of Rwanda) going through introductions and getting injected with shot after shot. Kigali appeared almost as a Western city transplanted into the heart of Africa, complete with (almost) everything you could ever want- from coffee shops to malls. No, no Starbucks and (amazingly enough) no McDonald's- thank goodness!

After several days in Kigali, we made the journey by bus to Butare, the second largest city in Rwanda. The infrastruture in Rwanda is phenomenol- erase any thoughts of the typical unpaved roads you envision when you think of Africa. However, Rwanda's name of "land of a thousand hills" really couldn't be any more accurate- you either seem to be going up a hill or back down it. Thus the roads too go up and down and wind around and back again. I went for my first run yesterday and I was exhausted after only 18 minutes, between the altitude and all the hills. So much for my endurance, although if I keep this up I could rock Boston by the time I get back!

Typically, Peace Corps volunteers stay with a host family during training, which is their first 10-12 weeks of service where they learn a language, the culture, and go through technical training. Because we are the first Peace Corps group back in Rwanda since 1994, however, we are staying in a convent and just visiting our "resource families" every week. We have been so pampered by the nuns- they feed us all our meals and even do our laundry. It is great, though, because we are all exhausted from all the Kinyarwanda lessons. Should be an interesting transition to living on our own, especially since I requested a rural site!

I hope to have a phone soon once the network straightens out- Rwanda just added a number to all their telephone numbers, so many of the phones people bought aren't working. In the meantime, please please please email me (or keep emailing me if you have already.) It really makes a world of difference to open my inbox and see all your emails.