Greetings from Rwanda!

Hello Friends!

First, I want to say HAPPY FATHER'S DAY! To my Dad. He is the best Dad in the whole world, and the most incredible man I have ever met. I miss you, and I love you.

Second, I would like to formally apologize to everyone for falling off the grid this past month. Internet was harder to find then expected, and is very expensive to use. I am very sorry I have not been able to keep in contact as much as I would like.

Before I catch you all up on the past month I want to make a quick note. My hope for this blog is to share my experiences with anyone at home who is interested. That being said, if there is something that you want to know, or are curious about, please please please PLEASE post it! I would love to make this experience as interactive as possible. So if you have questions, concerns, or interests please let me know, and I will do my best to respond. If you are not comfortable posting on my blog feel free to email me at: cgibbons00@gmail.com. Thanks!

As I write this I am in Kigali about to head back to Kamonyi, where I am staying with a host family. This past week (5th week of Pre-Service Training) was site visit week. Site visits are when PCTs (Peace Corps  Trainee, thats me!) visit the site where we will be located for the next two years of our lives. This week was totally awesome and scary. I have never missed my host family, nor did I think that I would ever miss living in that house. My house at site is not ready yet, (they are building a new latrine and shower area for me), so I had to stay with an Education PCV (Peace Corps Volunteer). Markey was one of the most incredible people I have met. She has done so much with her service, and is truly a visionary. It was amazing to stay with her, but our sites are an hour walking distance from each other (this is considered close in Rwanda, and by Peace Corps standards). I am the first PCT at my site, most of the villagers haven't seen a white person ever. I made babies cry because they haven't ever seen anything like me. Experiencing this was truly uncomfortable, and a bit scary. Overall I have mixed feelings about my site, and how successful I will actually be. BUT, before I go more into this past week I want to go into what the last four weeks has been like.

I wrote this post on June 9, 2012:

Hello Everyone!

I have just finished my fourth week here in Rwanda and am about to start my fifth week. I’ve been here for a total of twenty-three days. This week is particularly exciting because I am meeting my supervisor on Monday (a.k.a. my boss), and traveling to where I’ll be living for the next two years. Thankfully we found out on Friday where will be headed, and overall (I think) I am very happy with the results. I am going to Nygatare, which is the North East region of Rwanda. It is very hot there, but I'd rather have hot then cold.

I will give more details about this later, but first I want to update everyone on what’s been going on for the past four weeks.

On May 10^th 2012 I arrived in Kigali, Rwanda. The plane ride was extremely long, and I am extremely unimpressed with American Airlines in general. After the first eight hour flight we stopped in Brussels to transfer and had about a two hour wait. Then took another eight hour flight to Kigali, Rwanda. We were met by our program directors and taken in cars to the Case (it's French pronunciation). Unfortunately it was around seven pm and the sun sets at six thirty, so we did not get to see much of Kigali. But fortunately we were the first training group to not have any missing luggage!! The Case is a Peace Corps owned building in Kigali where PCV (Peace Corps Volunteers) can stay if they are traveling through Kigali, or staying in Kigali for a couple of days. It’s basically a nice hostel with a bunch of rooms filled with bunk beds. There is one main living room when you first walk in. It has shelves and shelves of books for PCVs to share. It also has clothes, and other items PCV’s left that are for other PCV’s to take if they want. Overall it’s a pretty cool place. 

I spent the next two days fighting through jet lag while meeting the country director, our training managers, the doctors, and getting all of our shots. We also had a crash course in the native language, Kinyarwanda. One important fact about the Peace Corps is you rarely get a break. After a seventeen hour flight, Peace Corps wanted us up and ready for a meeting the next day at eight am. And things haven’t slowed down since then.  

On Saturday they picked us up, and we headed to Kamonyi, the district where we are all staying for PST (Pre Service Training). Side note: I am technically not into the Peace Corps yet. First I have to complete the training program of ten weeks. After I complete that I will (hopefully) be sworn in as a Peace Corps Volunteer on July 18^th 2012. I have completed four out of ten weeks to date.

So they picked us up from the Case, and we headed to Kamonyi (an hour away from Kigali). We arrived at the Hub to find all our host families waiting for us. (The Hub is the name of our training center. PCT’s meet there twice a week, Tuesday and Friday, for health volunteer training. The other three days of the week we have six hours of language class.) And the host family ceremony began.

It was very informal. The Host Family Coordinator read the name of the PCT and then the name of the host family. Both parties stood up, and there was clapping and hugging. Andre (the training manager) was ready at all moments with the camera, and took many pictures of this event.  It was very cute.

My Mama was dressed in a purple and yellow dress with matching head wrap and looked very fancy. We piled into the cars with our luggage, water filters, keroscene lamps, and LCF (language and culture facilitator, or a.k.a our language teacher). Thirty minutes later I was dropped off at my house, where I have been living for the past four weeks, and where I will be for the next six weeks. They left me there until Monday (it was Saturday afternoon) where we all met up for our first day of training. At that point I could say Hello (Muraho), How are you (Amakuru), Thank you (Murakose), Nimeza (I am good). It was an awkward day and a half. The good news: my host family is amazing. This is the third volunteer they've had and they understand how hard the experience can be. My family includes, Mama and Papa (they are both twenty nine), Mutoni (nine year old girl), Fabreze (four year old boy), and Prence (not sure of his age, he is a baby). They are extremely fun, and extremely respectful of personal space, which is extremely rare in this culture. There are also two cows, two goats, and a chicken who had baby chicks the week before I arrived. This is not fun.  

I am going to stop there, because this is getting far too long. More posts will be coming soon. Again if you have any questions please feel free too ask!