Queen V

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:...

A lot has happened here in Rwanda since my last post. If you've seen any of my Facebook activity, you may have some idea of why I can truly say that April has been the most challenging month for me and many of my fellow PCVs, since the beginning of service. A friend and fellow health 6 volunteer, David, passed away last month while on vacation. He left behind an innovative project to bring water bleach dispensers to his community to improve water sanitation.  Fortunately, PC Rwanda will be continuing his project through his memorial fund, which you can donate to here, any support is truly appreciated. This past month I also had a few friends and fellow volunteers end their service early for different reasons, so my cohort became a lot smaller in a matter of weeks. Despite all that happened, I was lucky enough to have my Dad in town for part of this difficult period. He had a business trip to Nairobi which is just an hour flight from Kigali, so he was able to visit ...

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, I...

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...

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 b...

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...

After over a year of waiting filled with both excitement and frustration among many other feelings, I finally found out in October that I got invited to be a Peace Corps Community Health Volunteer in Rwanda, departing in June!  I'll be abroad from  June 2014 to August 2016. Now that I am less than 5 months away from my departure date I am getting more excited (and nervous) about leaving. So many medical and logistical things to get done in the next few months, but luckily current and returned volunteers have been very helpful in advising those of us departing in the next few months. When I received my placement call in October I was given the choice between Uganda and Rwanda. I have an Aunt and Uncle that live in Kenya and have worked in both of those countries, so from their advice and my parents' insight I decided that Rwanda was the best fit for me, especially for my specific job interests. I'll be working at a health center (location TBD during training in the first 3...