Week 10 - Swear In

Say hello to the twenty-one new health volunteers in Rwanda, Africa.

So I am now a Peace Corps Volunteer officially. I thought this day would never come. Literally. On Tuesday I said goodbye to my host family, and sat at the hub for many hours before boarding a bus to Kigali. I’d been sick since Friday, and with all the stress of my LPI and moving out, my condition worsened.

As I walked to a boutique to get bananas with my friend Christina, she said “Caitie, I don’t remember you sounding like this yesterday.” My voice had taken on a new life, and I sounded like the girl from The Exorcist. Again, not an exaggeration. My fellow Peace Corps colleagues were begging me to say lines from the movie. I also scared people when I spoke. 

Our doctor’s office is in Kigali, so when I arrived I stopped in at Dr. Laurent’s to see what’s up. Apparently I got some African virus similar to Bronchitis. He gave me some antibiotics, and said it is nothing to be worried about. Unfortunately the side effects of the antibiotics were drowsiness. So for Swear In, and most of my time in Kigali, I was fighting to stay awake.

Swear In was great, everything I expected and more. There were many speeches made, and of course, we all had to raise our right hands, and repeat at after the U.S. Ambassador (Swear In was at his house). And then we were sworn in. The highlight of all of it, of course, was the food. After eating, rice, beans, and plantains for ten weeks, there is nothing quite like eating mini pizzas and quiche. There was even cheese! And cake! And cookies! While sugar is extremely popular here, Rwandans only use it for tea. The reasons for all this are unknown.

Wednesday, and Thursday were spent setting up my smart card (debit card), and buying things for my new house. In small villages (like mine), most things aren’t readily available, so in Kigali you have to buy them to bring to site. Unfortunately, I was not very successful at this because I was on antibiotics that made me want to sleep twenty four seven.  

Friday I got in a car, with all my things, and with my good friend Rachel. Everyone is taken in pairs with the next closest PCV. Rachel is the closest one in my group to me. She lives about an hour away via motto ride, so we got dropped off together. I am extremely grateful that she is somewhat close to me. She is an awesome person to have around; I got very lucky with this arrangement.

I arrived at my site, extremely anxious to see my house. During training we go on a site visit, and live there for three or four days. I did not get to live in my house during site visit. I was told a number of different reasons why, but I recently discovered the truth. My house was infested with bats. This is common in my area, but I have inspected my house thoroughly, and fully believe the bats are gone.

My house is cute. It is a brick two-bedroom house. There is a front door and a back door. I only use the back entrance because there is a mudroom, and I like to leave my shoes there. I have a good-sized backyard for Rwanda standards, and twenty feet away there is a brand new latrine, and shower room. I am most excited about this. It smells of cement, and looks extremely clean. This is worlds away from what I was going to the bathroom in. My host family’s latrine was two logs, that you stood on and went to the bathroom in between them, enclosed in a hut made out of cow poop. There were also tennis ball sized spiders that usually made me too scared to go. I am using the second bedroom as a studio, which is lovely, and slowly but surely will turn it into a guest bedroom as well. Come visit me!  

From left to right: Claire, Justin, Me, Rachel. For Swear In we had traditional Rwandan clothes made, with the exception of Rachel, she is wearing a dress from America.