Week 1 at site!

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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 lot of time with the mothers that brought their babies in for weight checkups. Every morning  I had the opportunity to introduce myself to the group of mothers that were at the center for the day, and explain to them who I was and what I would be doing at the health center for the next 2 years. I assisted the nutritionists with weighing the babies and documenting weights and  vaccinations. On my first day my titulare asked me to prepare a short nutrition lesson for the next day, so on Tuesday I was able to give that lesson which was a lot of fun! The mothers seemed engaged, and even began asking me questions about a the difference in foods between Rwanda and America. (Who knew all the comparing questions from language class would come in handy!) They also asked if I would take them back to America with me lol. Another exciting activity I got to do during my first week was meet and talk to about 30 of the community health workers in my sector. There are 3 community health workers for each village, so 90 total that volunteer for my health center. They were all very welcoming and I'm looking forward to working with them as I begin my research in the next few weeks. I took the opportunity to ask them about what they usually come across as common health problems here (malaria, pneumonia, malnutrition, diarrhea). 

On Wednesday afternoon I went on a home visit with one of the lab technicians to a village that was about a 45 minute walk from the health center. Now I truly understand why this country is nicknamed the land of 1000 hills! Someone in the family had Malaria so we had to test the parents, and 8 children. This village was extremely poor and far from the health center, which makes it difficult for the people living here to get to the HC. We spent about an hour in the village doing RDTs and waiting for the results, before taking a moto ride back to the health center. 

I had mentioned before that I was originally bummed that I didn't have my own house (posh corps rwanda expectations lol) but my roommates are all great. The only slight problem is that because they're in their late 30s and I'm an unmarried woman in my 20s, they see me as a little girl that needs help with everything. They insist that someone goes with me to the stores that are 2 minutes away or to the market in the next sector or district. My roommates have their own umukoze who cooks all their meals and does all their cleaning. When I told them I wanted to cook my own dinners and clean my own things they weren't convinced I could do it on my own. After 2 days of doing my own cooking and traveling  to the market on my own and coming back in one piece, I think they're finally starting to realize that I'm an adult!

So far my first week at site has been great. I've met a lot of people that seem enthusiastic about me being here, and even willing to help me out with my kinyarwanda (of course in exchange for me teaching them English). Most importantly, I found someone who is going to sell me eggs everyday! 


Here are some photos from the swearing in ceremony: 




Until next time! 

Vanessa 

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