Cheers to Year 2!

So today, I'm sitting on my back steps reminiscing about the fact that exactly one year ago I moved into this house and began my adventure here at my site (Muyongwe).  It's been a crazy year and has gone by faster than I ever thought possible, and looking at the calendar, I already know that this year will go by even quicker! 

As usual I'm a bit inconsistent with the posts here...or maybe 2 months in inconsistent but let me just say, these probably have been the busiest 2 months so far! So let the details commence!

First, in late June/early July I was visited by my amazing boyfriend Will! It was a great visit getting to show off this amazing country and my amazing village.
We hung out with my counterpart, who absolutely loved having a guy to hangout with for a change.

We made smores, I let him spoil me by doing the chores, and we hiked a volcano.
It was amazing!

Next, our next health group has arrived!! Health 8 started their training just like my group and I did a year ago. So since I'm such and experienced and knowledgeable volunteer (read: I know a few more words in kinyarwanda...) I got to help out for a week during their training. This group of now volunteers is incredible and I greatly appreciated them at least pretending like they needed my advice on volunteer life. I'm so excited to keep getting to know them and work with them over this next year!

Directly after I finished having a deja vu week with Health 8, my cousin Caitlin came to visit me!! It was really fun talking about this with fellow volunteers as the conversation always included the fact that we hadn't seen eachother in 10 years followed by their very confused look and comment on how this was an odd reunion. But it was the most perfect reunionI showed her all the glories of Peace Corps living, we bonded over our hate for cooking, our love of Friends and soooo much more. It definitely didn't feel like it had been 10 years since we saw eachother and we vowed that it would never be that long again! Oh, and we helped build a house! 

Directly after I reluctantly dropped her off at the airport I headed to GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) Camp! Our Northern region hosted this camp for secondary school aged girls. In summary it was a week spent with about 60 teenage girls. Exhausting, yes, but rewarding, incredible, inspiring, and eye-opening are the words that more completely describe this week. We taught a mixture of lessons more self confidence, goal setting, HIV prevention, and so many more. These lessons were then followed by fun activities like crafts, zumba, and making banana bread. I have to say my favorite part had to have been the self doubt bonfire where everyone wrote down something that someone or themselves had told them they weren't able to do for any reason and then we burned them in the fire. Many girls even shared their most vulnerable stories. It was an evening I will carry with me each day. I loved seeing the girls grow as the week went on, it truly was a magical week.

Since then I've been back at my site and back to work. We're working on our male circumcision campaign right now, our hygiene clubs are up and running so I'm visiting 1 or 2 or sometimes 3 each week, and we are getting our nutrition program up and running! Yes, its been as busy as it sounds, but no matter how tired (and cranky at times) I get, I never stop loving it here and loving my community. 

Well, now you're all caught up with me! I'll keep trying to post more often. But you know how it is life gets a little crazy now and then... Love and miss you all!

~Erika <3