A little of this and that

I was on a roll there for a little while but have fallen behind on my blog posts. I'm not sure if that means I've gotten busier or that my life here has started to seem more routine, a little of both probably.

I have sort of fallen into a routine here which is nice and the days pass by quickly. Teaching is going well. The kids don't seem quite as intimidated by me and are more willing to talk and ask questions. I'm also beginning to learn some of there names which is really a much bigger deal then I would have thought. I gave one of my classes a quiz the other day and most did pretty well so hopefully that means they are actually learning something.

I've been here at site for almost a month now and to celebrate a bunch of us are going to Kigali (the capitol) to meet up, use wireless internet, sip iced lattes, eat American food and in the process spend a lot of money! Kigali is great because you are able to find many of the foods and luxuries we enjoy in America but it definitely comes at a price. Here in my village to eat a meal at a restaurant it cost about 600-1000 francs ($1.00-$1.50) but in Kigali it's pretty easy to spend 5,000-10,000 francs on one meal. It's worth it though for an occasional treat and I can't wait to relax and spend time with other PCV's. The best part of going to Kigali is that I will FINALLY get to pick up my mail. Some of it was sent in November and I still haven't gotten it so I'm dying to pick it up!

So nothing terribly exciting or noteworthy has happened in the past couple weeks but here are some of the highlights.

- Last Saturday was Umuganda, it is an event that occurs the last Saturday of each month. Everything closes and everyone in Rwanda is expected to participate in community service. People help build schools, repair roads, pick up trash etc. When I told a couple people in my village I wanted to help they laughed at me but I did convince one of my friends to let me tag along with her. The events are organized in each village and the current project was to build a house for a family. So we when we got to the site we helped by bringing mud bricks from an old building that had been torn down to the new one that would be built. The bricks were surprisingly heavy so my friend and I used a rice sack to carry one brick together, however most of the others were transferring bricks one at a time on their head. So while we, and most of the other women brought bricks the men mixed mud with their feet which was used to lay the bricks, a process just slightly different than in the US!

- Today I didn't make it to the market because a major rainstorm came through and when it was over everything was terribly muddy. A friend was visiting and I told her I had wanted to buy bananas and plantains. We were sitting outside my house which is on the road to the market so there were many people passing by with their items to sell so my friend began to flag down everyone walking by to see if they had any of the items I wanted. One woman had a huge bunch of plantains she was carrying on her head, she came over to where we were sitting and spun in a circle so we could see the quality of the bunch. I felt like I was in the dressing room with my mom or a friend who was modeling some item of clothing. It ended up that she wanted too much for them so she continued on. My friend then made a phone call and afterward she pointed to a bunch of trees near my house and said "how do those look?" At first I wasn't quite sure what she meant and then realized she was pointing and the bunch of plantains still hanging in the tree. She had called the owner of the trees and negotiated the price and on Monday she said I will be able to pick them up. Later a woman came by with bananas I was able to buy. So I managed to buy everything I needed from the market without even leaving my front yard.

- Today all over Rwanda local elections were held for village chief, secretary and other positions. I was out walking this morning and ran into a teacher from my school who was on her way to vote so I went along with her just to see what the process was. We went to a huge open field where there were 3 large groups of people gathering each representing a different village. People gathered around a few people talking who were apparently the candidates. After the spoke for a little while each positioned themselves in front of everyone a few feet apart. Everyone in the crowd then lined up behind the candidate they wanted to vote for. Once everyone was in a line there were a few voting officials that went through and counted each person. This was done for each open position and apparently continued all day long. I was told for other elections they do have private ballots but at the village level this is how they vote. An interesting process to say the least.

All my love!
Annie