Queen V

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 wher...

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...