Queen V

Happy 6 months Peace Corps Rwanda! (And exactly 2 years since college graduation, yikes!)  These past few weeks at site have been a lot calmer from day to day after getting back from training and BE camp, especially since I'm done with my CNA research. I still spend my mornings helping out in the nutrition center and my afternoons planning projects, meeting with leaders, walking around my community, drinking tea, watching TV shows, or attempting (and mostly failing) to do various 30 day workout challenges. At the end of November and right before Worlds AIDS Day my health center had its annual HIV/AIDS afternoon to bring together HIV/AIDS positive and negative children, and the children of health center staff. Two teachers from a nearby sector, 2 nurses, and I taught about HIV/AIDS using lessons, games, stories, and a video. The kids were given fanta and bread, and then tshirts at the end of the lesson in addition to prizes for answering questions correctly. This program was a great

Lake Kivu On Halloween weekend I met up with some other health 6 volunteers for a fun and relaxing weekend in Kibuye, right on lake Kivu on the western border. We all managed to find costumes at the market in our attempt to celebrate Halloween in Rwanda. I found this amazing Allen Iverson jersey so I decided to rep Philly (for once)! My favorite part of the trip was when we took a boat out to an island to swim for the day. I definitely treated that weekend like it was spring break 2014!  Weekend  on Lake Kivu Kigali After 3 nights in Kibuye we all traveled to Kigali and met up with the rest of our group for our week-long IST (In Service Training). We stayed at a hotel in Kimironko (near Kigali's main market) and were provided with free accommodation  and meals for the week! This training consisted of sessions by PC staff and other PCVs on different topics and projects we may want to get involved in over the next 2 years. Although the sessions seemed to drag on at times, IST was ove

Hello team! I've mentioned the CNA in pretty much every post, so I'll refrain from explaining it here, but I am finally finished with my research after taking procrastination to a whole new level! For those that are interested in reading my report (maybe 3 of you?!) I'll post the link below. But komera (be strong) y'all, it's 20 pages. https://docs.google.com/file/d/0Bx_MOBLcdCzoc1VYMHhqNkVpZXM/edit?usp=docslist_api   I will be leaving my village for the next two weeks for a few different reasons. I'll be spending Halloween weekend at Lake Kivu, to hang out with some other health 6 PCVs before spending the week in Kigali for our IST (in service training). After this training in which I hope to be equipped with the tools and knowledge to start incorporating long term projects into my community (well...I can only hope...) I will be spending the following week helping my fellow southern volunteers lead a boys camp in Muhanga district.  It shall be an eventful next

It's been awhile since my last post, but I just wanted to quickly update you all on the past few weeks here in Rwanda! Our country director, Jen, challenged my PC health 6 group to stay at our sites for the first 8 weeks without leaving except for PC meetings or emergencies. For doing this we are invited to thanksgiving dinner at her house in Kigali! I managed to stick to this, and only left my site for meetings, so I'm envisioning turkey and mashed potatoes in the near future! My past few weeks at site have been very busy, thanks to finally getting in a lot of my CNA interview home visits and other activities with my health center. My main problem/ pretty much only issue at work is coordinating home visits with community health workers, since they're volunteers as well they often don't have the time to accompany me to visit families or are unable to keep their "appointments" with me. Because of this I have been doing the majority of my home visits alone which

Every day I am  surprised or caught off guard by things I never thought about because it's the "norm" in America. I may be in a situation where how I react or respond to something seems strange or even inappropriate to everyone around me, while at the same time the reactions of others seem "weird" to me. So basically, a day in the life of a PCV in Rwanda!  A few weeks ago I was chatting with some of the women at the health center who come in for their babies weight checkups and they started asking me a bit about America. This one woman asked me if American mothers carry their babies on their back. I told her that in general they didn't, they used strollers. Because strollers are unheard of here (maybe in the city but definitely not in the villages) I showed them a photo of it on my phone. The women proceeded to say the kinyarwandan equivalent  of  "Omg!"and laugh at the photos of babies in strollers. It was interesting to see their reactions and ex

On Sunday August 24th I finally moved to my site in the southern province, where I will be living for the next 2 years! My group, health 6, had spent the weekend before in Kigali where we had our official swearing in as volunteers ceremony at the U.S Ambassador to Rwanda's home (Donald Koran). My fellow PCV Melissa and I were lucky enough to be accompanied by Peace Corps Rwanda country director, Jen to our sites! After a 3 hour ride from Kigali, I was dropped off at site late Sunday morning, I was welcomed by  some of my roommates. As I mentioned in a previous post I live on my health centers compound in a house with 2 nurses and the nutritionist. After meeting with my titulare that afternoon, we decided that I would spend my mornings assisting in the nutrition center/ attending any community health worker meetings for the upcoming week, and spend my afternoons either in the community doing home visits, or in the nutrition center. In my first few days at work I was able to spend a

We just completed week 9 here in Rwanda, with only 1.5 weeks with our host families before we move to our permanent sites! Although training has been a lot more challenging lately with more hours of language and additional activities to complete for training, I can't believe summers almost over and we are ready for our service to officially start! The craziest part is that I am probably now better at kinyarwanda which I've studied for 2 months then Spanish which I studied for 10 years!  It's pretty crazy how the class structure we are put through and of course being in country with host families significantly speeds up how quickly we are able to learn a language. I'm hoping to be comfortable enough in the language so I can also learn French and Swahili during my time here! We take our final language exam in a week from Monday where we are expected to be at the intermediate mid level.  Many people back home have asked me specifically what I will be doing at my  health ce

This past week,  I traveled to Gikonko sector in the Gisagara district in the southern province for site visit! This is where I'l be moving to in August after swear in, and living for the next 2 years. My site supervisor/ titulare is a German Doctor that has been living in Rwanda since 1995. She is the doctor/ head of Gikonko Health Center.  She was extremely helpful and enthusiastic about me being there which made my trip very exciting. She is fluent in  English (as well as Kinyarwanda, German, and French) which will definitely make my transition to site a lot easier!  On tuesday night she drove us from the supervisor conference in Rwamagana to Gikonko, which ended up being about 4 hours since we stopped in Kigali for health center supplies and groceries on the way. Gikonko is about a 25 minute drive from the main road, so as soon as we turned off the road we went down a very bumpy dirt road to the health center compound. I was able to stay at the house where I'll be l

This week we found out our site placements, so where we will be moving to after we are officially sworn in as volunteers at the end of August! I'll be living in the Southern Province near the Burundi border in the Gisagara district  in a sector called Gikonko. I'll be working at the Gikonko Health Center and my primary job assignment will be to create programs to teach children and pregnant mothers life skills. Additionally my assignment focuses on assisting the community with hygiene, HIV/AIDS, and malaria. I'll be living in a village called Rugarama.  I am less than 3 hours away from Kigali- a 2 hour bus ride to Butare and then about a 45 minute moto ride to my village from Butare. Butare is the closest big town to me. This is where I'll be going to get the foods/ supplies that I can't find in my sector. Rumor has it that Butare has the best (and 1 of only 2)  Chinese food and ice cream places in the country! Although I was at first apprehensive about being

Ayo! Here is a list to summarize the past 2 weeks/ things I'm looking forward to, in no particular order: 1. I am obsessed with the pineapples in this country. They also cost like $0.30 which is amazing. 2. I've learned that no matter what shoes you wear your feet WILL be covered in dust by the end of the day 3. My host mom is on CP time- she took me to umuganda (the day of community service) fashionably late aka after the work was done 4. Our mid LPI (conversational test for the first language level training) is on Saturday. we need to be at intermediate low level to pass it. Wish me luck! 5. My love for avocados has grown immensely. You can get one for like the equivalent of $0.15!!!!!!!  6. I said this last post and I'll say it again. I really really miss washing machines. 7. We find out our site placements this week!!!  8. I spent a solid hour listening to Rihanna songs with my 12 year old host sister the other day.. Is that integrating? 9. I've noticed that a bunch

It's crazy to think that I have only been in Rwanda for two weeks, which feels like a month! My second week here in Rwamagana can be described in short by two things- soccer ( or I should say football/ umupira) and the market (musoko) . Everyday after training this week I spent most of the evening watching soccer-or listening to it on the radio  when the powers out-and only understanding the occasional phrase " GOALLLL" in the midst of the commentating. It's very exciting watching games in a country (or really continent) in which soccer is the most popular sport. It also helps with integrating with my host family who is  always watching the games. I've learned  that a lot of the people that come to my house to watch the games are rooting for the African teams. They also say they are rooting for the US although I think that's bc I'm just in the room lol.  If I'm not in training or watching soccer I'm probably at the market. I'm pretty sure I wen

Muraho!   I finally got the chance to write my first blogpost since starting my Peace Corps Service in Rwanda! We arrived last Thursday June 5th after 2 flights and 15 hours of flying. My group (health 6) consists of 23 people for around the U.S. and we'll all be working in the area of health once we are sworn into service . We spent our first two nights in Kigali (the capital) staying at a hostel before moving to our training site in Rwamagana District on Saturday, which is just an hour east of Kigali. We will be living in Rwamagana until we leave for our permant sites around the country in August. The Peace Corps staff set up a welcoming ceremony for us to meet our host families on our third day in country. My host mom was the family member at the ceremony, and after I met her we walked back to her home, which is just about a 7 minute walk from our training building. The time leading up to meeting my host family was very nerve-wracking, but I really enjoy my family and being

Monday April 7th, 2014 marked the 20th anniversary of the genocide in Rwanda that took place across 100 days in 1994, taking around 800,000 lives.  I wanted to take the time to write about the genocide in Rwanda not from an informational perspective of what happened, but from a positive perspective that I hope can serve to restore your faith in humanity. I especially wanted to write this because whenever I first tell people that I will be moving to Rwanda for Peace Corps service, the  response often goes something like - 'Is Rwanda safe? What about the genocide?' Many people (like myself) are surprised to hear that Rwanda is currently one of the safest countries in Africa when looking at crime, killings, and general safety.  I was informed by both my Dad and my uncle-two people that both know a good amount about the continent- to inform me that Rwanda is currently one of the safest countries in Africa. I of course did some research of my own  to find that in 2012 the Global

It recently just hit me that I will be leaving Chapel Hill in 2 months before moving to Rwanda in June.  I've known that I was leaving since October, but now that I finally started finishing up  all the logistical things like medical appointments and vaccinations it is becoming more real than ever before.  I told my boss  that I would be leaving Duke for the Peace Corps about a month ago which was difficult but such a relief. These last few months in the states are going to be exciting as my departure date approaches but also very sad as it's getting closer to when I have to say  goodbye to my family and friends. I've lived in Chapel Hill for  almost 5 years- the longest  I've ever lived in one place. Although I don't consider it to be where I'm from it's definitely the place I call home. I've gotten so used to my life here which in one way is nice and comforting but on the other hand has made me eager for change,  adventure, and a new experience.  Unt

This week I did something I thought I never would give in to- a cleanse. My coworkers and I have been  motivating each other to lose weight (working for a weight loss study may have been an influence!), so one of my coworkers suggested we do this cleanse to jumpstart this process. I have never been who has believed in drastic or strict diets (hence my previous post on obesity research and avoiding drastic changes for weight loss) but I became convinced that this would be a good way to start making healthier choices- ah yes, I didn't 'practice what I preach,' per say. I decided that trying out a cleanse would be a new way for me to challenge my body and to show myself that  I  can avoid unnecessary foods and additives as well as to clear out my body. Because this cleanse came with weight loss in just a week  I know that it will be a challenge to maintain it afterwards. In doing this cleanse I hoped to work on self control and prove to myself that I can make healthy choices.

As you probably already know, obesity is a huge health problem here in the U.S-more than a third of adults are obese- meaning they have a BMI of over 30 and 20% more body fat than normal. (A normal BMI is 18.5-24.9).  My main duties as a research assistant are to recruit, screen, enroll, and assess participants for a weight loss study. We recruit patients from health centers who meet certain criteria, the main one being that they have a BMI that falls in the 30-45 (obese) range. There are many people that view obesity as a problem of laziness or a lack of self control in diet and exercise. To be honest in the past I have had those same thoughts. However I have learned- especially from interacting with many people dealing with obesity- that other factors such as the social determinants of health greatly influence obesity so we shouldn't be so quick to judge. To a certain extent we as individuals can control what we eat, how much we eat, and how active we are. However many differ

Thought I would use my sick day off work for something useful so here it goes! Macklemore  & Ryan Lewis won best rap album, rap song, and rap performance at the 2014 Grammys. There are many people both famous and in the general public that don't think they should have won all or some of these categories- just do a quick google search or twitter search and you'll see all the backlash. I have listened to all of the albums  nominated for rap album multiple times, and have seen all of these artists live in concert (Jay-Z, Yeezy, and Drake before their  latest albums). Are Macklemore and Ryan Lewis a talented hip hop duo?- Yes. But is The Heist as good of an album or better than Good Kid Maad City or Yeezus?- No. Although I  really enjoyed Drake's 'Nothing was the Same' I do see how it  beat that album out, and The Heist was arguably better than Magna Carta Holy Grail (Although Jay-Z is  one of my favorite  hip-hop artists I am not a huge fan of that album).  Aga