My site was not ready for me when I went to visit it last
week. There is a family living in the house where I am supposed to be.
Supposedly they will move out before I get there. Awkward. So last week I
stayed with an Education PCV named Markey.
Markey is amazing and has a blog of her own. Here is the link: http://markeysblog.wordpress.com
She doesn’t post as often as she should, but has done some
amazing work in her year and a half of being here.
Before we went off to site we had our site announcements.
Site announcements include handing us a sheet of paper with a description, and
pointing the place out on a map. This is the description that I got, with my
own added notations:
Site: Cyabayaga
District: Nygatare
Site Description:
About 10 km
from Nyagatare town (20 minutes via Motorcycle), in warm climate; a female
education PCV in about 3 km (she is much farther, this is Markey); The site is
being connected to electricity (thank you Jesus); and has enough rain water
(big tanks); tap water irregular; new toilet and shower to be built for PCV
(again thank you Jesus).
This is the actually experience that I had:
I did not
get to see my house. It looks good from the outside, but there is a family
living there until I move in, and they were not comfortable with me going in.
It’s a two bedroom with a good amount of space (come visit me!). The latrine was being built when I was there,
and it looks good. I live next to my health center so there is plenty of water
around because, health centers need water. (A health center in Rwanda is basically
a hospital. The only services they don’t provide are major surgeries. They will
stitch you up, remove body organs that aren’t necessary, treat moderately sick
people, deliver babies, and hand out medications. So having running water is
very important.)
While I was at site I wrote a list of Pro’s and Con’s about
the whole thing and want to share them with you:
Let’s start with the pros:
- - I have an awesome site mate (Markey).
- - I had a wonderful time all week at my health
center (seems like a good place to work).
- - Health Center Staff seem awesome (most of them
anyway).
- - I get to explore a new territory of Rwanda.
- - Getting my own house!
- - I have water, and electricity is coming soon!
- - Markey and her counter part are checking on
everything to make sure it is good when I arrive. This is an extreme luxury
that the majority of PCTs don’t get.
- - I am only twenty minutes via moto (that is what
everyone calls motorcycles) from Nygatare.
- - Nygatare seems like a cool place.
- - There seems to be a lot of work to do at Heath
Center (this is what I wanted, I did not want to join PC just to sit in an
office for two years).
Now for the cons:
- - I live in the desert. It legitimately looks like
a Clint Eastwood film.
- - It is not as beautiful as where I live now.
- - I didn’t get to see the inside of my house/did
not get to check if it is up to Peace Corps safety requirement standards.
- - My village is extremely poor. More so than my
host family, and more so than Kamonyi. This scares me a bit.
- - Am I going to be able to integrate with the
community? They have never seen a white person before. It was a bit
overwhelming for both parities.
- - The community is very small. Most people at my
Health Center commute from Nygatare.
- - I have to make another adjustment into a new
community, where I don’t know anyone and know one knows me.
If you have any more questions you know where to find me. Peace
and Blessings.
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