love actually is all around...

Merry Christmas everyone!  I hope you all enjoyed time with those you love! 
My Christmas was definitely different than past years but we all made the most of it. The festivities began Christmas Eve with a white elephant gift exchange.  This place is a gold mine for gag gifts so it was quite entertaining.  Then we had our talent show and let me tell you this wasn't just your average talent show.  I was blown away by my fellow trainees, there is some real talent in this group.  There were multiple songs beautifully sung, a story told by a trainee (who is a professional storyteller) and her husband about the secret to a lasting relationship (they've been married 42 years) and a rendition of the 12 days of Christmas which was rewritten to be the 12 days of model school.  It was all absolutely amazing and my cheeks ached the rest of the night from smiling so much!  I participated with my house and the boys who live near us.  We did a song called Crayola Doesn't Make a Color.  It's pretty much the cutest song ever mostly because I think of my nephews and niece everytime I hear it.  I recommend checking it out, you'll love it too!  My essential role was to keep the beat using my fanta bottle and a knife and then I chimed in during the chorus.  My roommates are quite talented so it turned out well and was a lot of fun!  The night then turned into one big dance party!  We had a blast but I think the Rwandans watching us the whole night were even more entertained!  When I thought the day couldn't have gotten any better I watched my family open their Christmas presents via Skype.  It was truly the best Chrsitmas present ever and there were lots of tears but lots of smiles and laughter too!  It was a magical night! 
Christmas was much more low-key.  We did a little baking in the morning and had delicious lunch of chili and cornbread.  Some very generous trainees donated their recipes and spices from America to the cause and fed all of us! It was definitely one of the best meals I've had since I got here!  Then I spent the rest of the day in a food coma watching movies, it was just like home!  We were able to clear out one of the classrooms and put about 12 matresses on the floor and projected the movies onto the wall. We all brought pillows and blankets and lounged around, it was fabulous!  Best of all we got to watch Love Actually which is not only the best Christmas movie but definitely one of all time favorites!  All in all it truly was a wonderful Christmas.  
Now we just have about a week and a half before we all scatter across the country to our respective sites. On January 3rd we will swear in as volunteers in Kigali, between the 4th and the 7th (I go on the 5th) the Peace Corps will deliver each of us and all of our things to our sites and on January 10th school begins.  I am really looking forward to teaching.  It has always been something I wanted to do and I'm so grateful for the opportunity.  I'm absolutely terrified though as well and know the first trimester will be a complete mess but with timehopefully it will all fall into place!  I'll take any advice from any of the teachers out there though! 
Other news since my last post:

• We went to a national park here in Rwanda a week ago, after a 3 hour ride there we hiked for about and hour and half when it began to down pour and then hail!  Who knew it could hail in Africa!  Then we got on the bus soaked through for a 3 hour ride home.  I wore my hiking boots and when I got home I was able to wring out the water from my socks.  It was ridiculous, however the scenery was beautiful and we saw 2 monkeys so it was worth it.

• We learned to bake here in Rwanda with basically a dutch oven over our charcoal stove.  We tested it last weekend and made pumpkin chocolate chip bread, it was heaven!  It baked perfectly and didn't even burn a bit!  There were 6 of us sharing it and we didn't even bother to cut it we just dug right in with our forks!  The fact that it is possible to bake here is a comfort and I can't wait to experimenting with it.  My roommate (who's site is close to mine) and I have already made plans for weekends filled with baking! 

• I had clothes made for the first time!  Here everyone has many of their clothes custom made by a tailor, you just buy the fabric and tell them what you want.  In Nyanza there is a tailor that is well known to all the PCV's to be the best around so we have all been overwhelming her with orders.  I had a dress and a wrap skirt made, they both fit prefectly and look great.  The total cost, approximately $13!  Seriously!

There isn't much else going on otherwise.  This next week we will all be busy studying our Kinyarwanda, on Thursday we will be tested on our proficieny and could potential not be sworn in if we are not at an intermediate-low level.  Keep your fingers crossed I won't get a one way ticket back to MN. 
All my love!
Annie

More pictures

I'm spenidng my day at the PC center working on lesson plans for next week  I figures I would take advantage of the free wifi and post some more pics!  Enjoy!

One of our many cooking adventures in our backyard (and my fabulous roommates!)

The view from the PC center

Dancing at the wedding

The view from the back of my house

A couple pictures finally!

Here's one from one of the weddings I attended

Here is one of the classrooms I will teach in, it will hold 50-60 students

This is my house (so far) the middle door is mine.  They are building a fence around it for more privacy

This is a view of the lake that is about a 1 hour walk from my house

Long over due...

I’m alive!  Thankfully my lack of communication does not mean I have died or am gravely ill but that things have been insanely busy here lately. 

I’ll start at the beginning. 

About 3 weeks ago now I had my site visit.  It was quite an extraordinary feat of coordination that all 68 of us were sent to all ends of the country, managed to find someone who knew we even existed and then made it back again in one piece.  The purpose of the site visit was to explore where we will be living and meet our co-workers and other important people of the community.  The biggest thing I got out of the week was some motivation to keep going.  Training is getting long and grueling, like my sister says, “it’s Peace Corps boot camp” and I needed to see a light at the end of the tunnel.  Site visit was just that.  I was able to see my school which is a boarding school and there are about 260 students in levels S1-S3 which is about the equivalent of 8^th, 9^th and 10^th grade. I was told that I will be teaching S2 Biology which is exactly what I want.  I’m fearful it’s a little too good to be true and that when I get to site in January they will surprise me with chemistry or physics classes.  Keep your fingers crossed this doesn’t happen!

My site is about 1 hour east of Kigali.  I took 2 buses to get there and then had a 15 minute moto ride to get to get to my village.  Let me just paint a picture; by moto mean dirt bike and I’m riding on the back to my village through an area where it is likely many people have never even seen a white person.  I have my large backpacking backpack and best of all the Peace Corps issued helmet.  This is not the ordinary motorcycle helmets the Rwandans wear, no this is a shiny, black and white dirt biking helmet complete with a jaw protector and a visor which rammed into the driver’s helmet every time we hit a bump.  Needless to say I was quite a spectacle.  The only comforting thought was that at the same time there were 67 other muzungus all over Rwanda having the exact same experience. 

I was in my village for 5 days and was hosted by the head teacher of the school.  The school has some dorm rooms for teachers that live far from school to stay in so that is where I stayed.  It was a nice place but I gained a new appreciation for the luxury I am currently living in.  Thankful I didn’t find cockroaches in my luggage as other volunteers did but I didn’t have to listen to the bats in my ceiling all night long.  Normally I would have freaked out but each night I climbed into bed and tucked my mosquito net under the mattress as tight as I could and slept like a baby.  It was fabulous!

The area my village is in is quite populated making it difficult to tell where one ends and another begins and there are people everywhere.  But the large population means more resources.  Directly behind my school there is a large Catholic Church and convent where the nuns run a small orphanage where I can hopefully become involved.  One of the best things about the village is the health center that is about a 5 minute walk from my house.  I was able to get a tour and was quite impressed with the programs they already have in place such as vaccinations, family planning, pre-natal care, malnutrition clinic, etc.  I met the director and he seemed interested in me helping out there so I’m really looking forward to that. 

Side Note:  There is a Partners in Health (Paul Farmer’s organization), health center about an hour away from me.  Check out the book Mountains Beyond Mountains if you haven’t heard of him.

My house is still under construction.  I will be living in a compound of sorts with my headmaster and another teacher.  I will have my own entrance and bathroom (latrine).  They are currently building a wall in my room so I have 2 separate rooms and fence outside for some privacy. The house is directly next to the school so I won’t have far to walk each day.  I will have electricity (thank god!) but no running water which really isn’t a big deal.  I think it will be great and I’m already thinking about the furniture I need and how I can decorate!

All in all is was a great visit and I’m really excited about my site.  Since I even began thinking about the Peace Corps I’ve been picturing what my site might look like and now that I know it is so wonderful to picture myself in a real place and think of all the possibilities.  It all seems real now. 

After we got back from site we immediately began planning Thanksgiving.  We are normally served 3 meals a day at the center but for Thanksgiving we decided to cook a traditional dinner ourselves (about 100 people).  The menu included Turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, gravy, and apple crisp for dessert.  Not too complicated, I’m sure most of our mother’s have done it before, however; we had to make this meal without a stove or oven.  I was put in charge of team mashed potatoes and we began peeling all 45kg (95lbs) the day before then cooked them all on charcoal stoves. The Turkeys (11 of them) were wrapped in foil and buried with charcoal and left to roast for 12 hours.  Miraculously they cooked and were actually quite tasty.  It was a Thanksgiving unlike any other but we had fun and enjoyed a good meal nonetheless. 

Last Sunday I attended not one but two weddings with my resource mother.  I knew we were going to one but with my limited Kinyarwanda and her complete lack of English after the 1^st wedding, I unknowingly agreed to go to another.  It was a long day but a great one.  The best part was that my resource mother insisted I wear a traditional Rwandan dress.  It is basically a one shoulder, flowy, draped dress, it’s simple but very pretty.  When we arrived at the wedding and I walked the tent the other guests already there literally applauded because they were so excited to see me in my dress.   It was just slightly awkward.  

Needless to say Rwandan weddings are drastically different than traditional American weddings, it was also a Muslim wedding so that was a new experience as well.  All the guests were seated outside under a tent, there were seats from the bride and groom and the wedding party in the middle.  I really don’t know what exactly was happening most of the time because no one there spoke English to explain it to me but there was some exchanging on gifts and money so I assume that was the dowry then nearly everyone there gave a long speech which I have discovered is a common occurrence at organized events.  They exchanged vows and rings and then they handed out plates of food to everyone and we sat right where we were and ate our food. Then we left, there was no reception to greet the bride and groom, dance or anything.  The second wedding was basically the same but far more entertaining as there was lots of traditional dancing a singing during the ceremony.  I absolutely love the traditional Rwandan dance.  The art, music or dance of Rwanda is not something we see here on a regular basis so I forget about that aspect of the culture then every time I do experience it, it reminds me of the rich history and culture of the country.  It is the stereotypical idea of Africa that I had in my head before I came here and seeing it reminds me that I really am in Africa.  It moves me every time.

 Now my days are dedicated to model school which is basically student teaching.  The students are currently on break so Peace Corps gathers all the local kids and invites them to come to school 5 days a week from 8-12pm.  This is completely voluntary but we have about 600 kids that come because they can stay home and work or go to school. (this would never happen in the states!)  So I am teaching Biology 4 days a week to kids that range in age from 12 to about 16.  The first week went well but was definitely eye opening.  It is not only challenging to try and teach biology and keep the kids engaged but English is a 2^nd and often 3^rd language for most kids so simplifying the language so they understand is difficult but they also have a very difficult time understanding out accent so blank stares mean can mean they don’t understand the info, the language, or simply how I am speaking.  It’s not easy but model school is an invaluable experience and I have learned so much already in just 4 days of teaching.

Other than that I’m continuing to adapt my new Rwandan life.  Today (Sunday) is my day off.  Sundays have never been as sweet as they are here. We run all week long so I keep a list of things to do on Sunday and I love when the day comes and I can just cross them all (or most of them) off.  It reminds me of days at home.  This morning we made a breakfast of toast, scrambled and hard boiled eggs, and bananas.  We had planned to make French toast but when I went to crack the eggs I had bought were actually hard boiled so we modified our meal but it was great.  Next on my list is to wash some clothes, clean my room, write some letters, study Kinyarwanda with my resource brother, make lesson plans and paint my toes.  Tonight we are making grilled cheese for dinner and watching a movie. With the sun shining outside and some good music playing it makes for a truly fabulous Sunday! 

All my love from Rwanda!

p.s. I will post some pictures soon, I promise!