Year 2

So Paris…where do I begin, I honestly don’t think there could have ever been a better time in my life for such a trip.  It satisfied all the things I was missing and was in desperate need of; beauty, creativity, diversity, anonymity, incredible food, wonderful friends and conversation, and best of all, I was in Paris!  Once I had booked the trip I was all about Paris, anytime I was in Kigali with decent internet all I did was research, read blogs, look at pictures, anything I could get my hands on.  And when I was stuck in a 3 hour long meetings, celebrations, or church, my mind wondered to one destination, Paris.  Just thinking about and planning this trip pulled me out of a mid- service slump.  All the buildup made me a little nervous I might be disappointed, but it was quite the opposite and proved to be better than I could have even imagined. 

I got lost in Paris, both literally and figuratively.  Some of the best days in Paris were spent wondering around the narrow streets of the Marais or Montmarte, getting lost, orientate myself, then getting lost again, and finally ending up in a completely different neighborhood from where I had started or intended to go.   The streets are an endless maze with something new around every corner that I could never resist exploring. 

I let myself get lost too and seemed to find myself again in a whole new way.  In Rwanda and especially in my village I am extremely conspicuous.  I am spotted a mile away, I know this because often I am walking down the road and will hear distant calls of my name, I cannot see the source or even what directions it is coming from but someone has spotted me.   Even at night I seem to glow in the dark.  I am stared at, hollered at, and demand of most days.  I constantly feel that what I do (or don’t do) is scrutinized, which leaves me analyzing and calculating every move I make.  “What will they think if I do that?”  “How will if look if I do that?” are the questions I am constantly asking myself.  It’s exhausting.  In Paris I could leave all that behind; no one noticed me, no one yelled “muzungu” at me, no one even looked my direction.  I was completely anonymous.   I don’t think I’ve ever felt so free in my entire life.  I had no obligations, no expectations and no one judging.  I felt more like myself than I have in a very long time.  I needed to be reminded of the things I enjoy and give myself permission to enjoy them without feeling guilty or like I had to explain myself.  I was able to exist and just be without feeling like I was under living under a microscope.  All this combined with the good friends and the beauty of Paris made for the trip of a lifetime.

Some of the highlights included: 

•  Museums. Musee  d’Orsay, Rodin and the Museum of Nature and Hunting (random but great!) 
•  Our friend Ju.  Theresa connected with him through another friend and we met up our second night in Paris.  Ju has lived in the city his entire life and was more than happy to share the city he knows and loves.  He took us to unexpected places and gave us lots of insight into the history and culture of Paris. 
• The illegal catacombs guided by Ju.  Read about it here   http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/02/paris-underground/shea-text (no bones for us, just a castle, art, and water up to our thighs)
• FOOD!  Chocolate croissants, fresh baguettes, cheese (especially goat cheese!), crepes, wine, and champagne and basically everything else I put in my mouth!
• Christmas!  We spent Christmas day wondering around the city, by the Louve, the Tuileries, and then down Champs Elysees through the Christmas market and finally to the Eiffel Tower.
• Christmas presents!  My AMAZING family sent an entire suitcase full of presents to my friend Theresa to bring along for me.  So when Christmas day arrived I had lots of gifts to open and not only were they from my family but also my friends.  My sister (best sister EVER!) sent a message to several of my close friends telling them she would be sending a package for me to have for Christmas so many of them sent things to my sister which she included in the package to Theresa.  Turns out I have the kindest, most thoughtful and generous friends ever!  (Which I already knew, of course!)  It was so amazing to know that everyone was thinking of me and worked so hard to make my Christmas so incredibly special! 

I arrived back in Rwanda just in time to celebrate New Year’s with other volunteers who had also returned from their own holiday trips.  After that we had our Mid-Service Conference with all the Education Group 2 volunteers.  It was a nice transition back into life here to spend some time with everyone.  I made it back to my site just in time to begin the new school year.  Now we are about to begin week 3 and so far things have been going quite well.  I am all about fresh starts and that’s exactly how this year feels.  I have 1 full year of experience, I’m coming back from a great holiday break and vacation, and I’m starting my final year of Peace Corps.  All of these things leave me feeling more confident and motivated to get things done and make it a great year.  

I felt amazing for my 2 weeks in Paris and thankfully, some of those feelings have carried back into my life in Rwanda.  The trip reminded me that I can be myself here too and in order to stay happy and motivated I need to find a balance between assimilating to this culture and maintaining my own sense of self.  So far it’s worked; I’m feeling much more confident, less guilty and not so stressed out about what others may be thinking.  This has made coming back so much easier and I really feel excited about the year to come.  It also helps that I have some exciting things to look forward to.

Coming up first in just 3 weeks, my parents will be here in Rwanda.  That’s right, my parents, who have lived in small town New Prague, Minnesota for their entire lives are coming to Africa!  I am so excited and proud of them, I honestly think there coming here to visit is a bigger deal than me coming to live here for 2 years.  The fact that they are willing to fly half way across the world to come and see where I live, meet the people who have become my family here and experience the way I live, means so much to me!  We’ve been talking about it for ages but now that it’s here it’s sort of hard to believe.  I feel like I have two worlds, my world here in Africa and my world back home in America, and to picture my parents here in Africa is so strange because in my head it seems impossible that these two worlds can coexist.  It will be a good experience for all of us.  I can’t wait for them to come though and I think everyone in my village is just as excited.  Along with my parents will come some much needed school supplies.  They have been collected by the teachers at St. Wenceslaus where my mom works and will be donated to my school.  I am so excited to have some decorations and extra supplies available to the students, who are lucky if they even have a ruler to use.  Thank you to the kind and generous teachers at St. Wence, your donations will be put to good use!

I have some exciting projects on board as well.  I am planning to work with some students to paint a mural of the world on the wall in our library.  The funding for this project has been donated by a group of my mom’s friends who I am also very grateful to!  My girls club will hopefully have a good start this year as 2 of my students attended GLOW camp in November and will help me with the organization.  I just attended an orientation for the Judges English Training Program, in which I and other Peace Corps volunteers will be teaching English to the employees of the Rwandan Ministry of Justice.  This will include accountants, court clerks, judges, and even a few Supreme Court justices.  It’s a new program I happy to be a part of, organized by Peace Corps volunteers and is greatly supported by the Rwandan Government.  I also was also visited by a fellow Minnesotan last week who runs an organization here in Rwanda called Water for Life.  His organization works to provide clean water throughout Rwanda by building rainwater catchment tanks.  It sounds as though we will be working together to build such a system at my school.  It isn’t definite yet but my fingers are crossed so that it all works out.  I’ll keep you updated. 

So all that along with some other little projects and teaching I’m keeping plenty busy, which is how I like things.  I hope you all enjoyed the holidays and that the New Year is off to a good start. 

All my love,

Annie