Training, market, soccer repeat!

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 went about 4 times this I week! It's nice bc it's always near one of the lunch spots so we have time to go during our lunch break. I mentioned in my previous post that you can pretty much buy all your essentials here. I always just like to go and see what fabrics are there and to communicate more with the sellers: try out my bargaining skills lol. The woman who made my pants out of the fabric Ipurchased (immaculate) did an amazing job with them so I definitely will go back to her if I have anything else made while in training! 

Here's a picture of them: 

I spent 7000 rwf for the fabric and getting them made, which is about $10! There are now women tailors (abadozi) that recognize me and say hello- it's  nice seeing familiar faces in the market! 

As my fellow volunteers know, I often get approached to translate for them in the market , or once I say 'Muraho' or 'amakuru' (hello how are you) to someone as I'm walking down a street people will think I'm Rwandan/ fluent in kinyarwanda and start speaking to me really quickly until I have the chance to tell them I only know a bit and just started learning the language.  Although this first made me uncomfortable and a bit anxious to be in that situation I am now able to look at it as a positive thing in that I am maybe fitting in with the community. Pretty much everyone in my group has experienced some reaction from the community about their race- the Caucasian volunteers often get called "umuzungu" which translates to foreigner but is used to refer to white foreigners, and there are other black volunteers  who are mistaken for being Rwandan or from other places that they don't identify with. One of the things we discussed as a group is that we can't all take these reactions personally bc we are attempting to immerse ourselves in another culture that is unfamiliar with us physically and culturally.

What's comforting is that it's great that for all us volunteers when people hear we are learning the language and are making the effort to speak it to the locals they are    often impressed bc they don't expect that from foreigners in most settings. 

 

Until next time!

Vanessa