Photo Blog: Gikonko, Kigali, Rwamagana, Akagera, Uganda

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Muraho! I spent the past 4 weeks split between time at site working on some projects and activities, followed by a family vacation with my Mom and two sisters in Rwanda and Uganda!  Here are the highlights in photos:
WASH Village Chief Meeting- June 10: My 3 WASH facilitators, Vestine, Venuste, and Ally orienting the 9 village chiefs to create hygiene clubs in their respective villages.
Kids Club, Nutrition Day- June 13: My monthly kids club met to learn about nutrition and how to make a healthy plate, followed by a sports day and a hat giveaway, courtesy of my Titulare!


Library Project-June 19: 10 boxes of donated books from the book drive were shipped from Philadelphia. Thanks to my family for the organization and shipping!

Library Project-June 23: Health Posters (Malaria, HIV, Hand Washing) courtesy of Peace Corps are finally up!



 
WASH Village Training- June 22-26: These 63 people make up the 9 village Community Health/Hygiene Club leadership teams that are now trained to teach the WASH hygiene lessons to community members in their villages. These two weeks I've been away, the WASH leadership teams have been working on conducting the Ministry of Health baseline surveys in their villages. The lessons will be starting next week, so all should be flowing smoothly by then (fingers crossed!)
Family Vacation-June 27, Kigali: Reunited with my mom and sisters!
  
 Rwamagana Bound:  Heading to the Eastern Province for the weekend to visit my host family and Akagera National Park


Rwamagana Host Family Reunion-June 28: Family photo with mom,sisters (minus Miranda who was taking the pic!) host family, and the new trainee!
Akagera National Park- June 29: Zebra siting during our safari! Forever bitter about going to Akagera ONE DAY before the lions arrived :(
Kigali Genocide Memorial Visit, July 2: Visiting the Genocide Memorial Center in Kigali. I truly admire the strength of Rwanda and its people.


Lake Bunyonyi Uganda, July 3: View of Lake Bunyonyi in Uganda from our island getaway
 
 
Lake Bunyonyi Uganda, July 4: Our home/geodome for the weekend /the closest I'm ever getting to sleeping in a tent!

 
Lake Bunyonyi Uganda, July 5: Selfie with the diva!

 
Kigali, July 7: Saying goodbye to my mukuru wanjye (big sister).

 

It was wonderful getting to see my mom and sisters but unfortunately it'll be a year before I see my family again (when I finish service next July) since I won't be going back to America until then. I am in Kigali through the weekend for the Malaria committee meeting and a library project training, before I'll finally be back to my site. I'll have just 2 weeks before I head back to Rwamagana to help train the new health volunteers, followed by two weeks in Muhanga for the South regions' GLOW and BE camps. I'll be bringing 5 boys and 5 girls from my villages' boarding school, which I'm very excited about. Shout out to my friend/ former tutor (yup I gave up on the language tutoring...)/ awesome teacher Diane for helping me out with that process!
 
 
 
Until next time,
Vanessa
 
 
 
 
 

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