On November 17th I left Rwanda for the first time since arriving in June 2017 and headed home to surprise my family for Thanksgiving and some pre-Christmas festivities. With a little help from my elves my parents and siblings had no idea I was coming and seeing the reactions when I greeted them was the best present I could've asked for. It really was an amazing way to kick off the holiday season.
I got to see my best friend from college Kristin and show her around Seattle and my old stomping grounds. And of course she got to share the most cherished moment of me having my first Starbucks coffee in a year and a half... Yes it is a big deal.
I had a classic Sjolund Thanksgiving which never fail to disappoint. Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday. Not just because of all the food but because it's a tradition that even as we've changed a lot over the years our classic celebration hasn't really. Moving far away from my friends and family for 2 years always brings in a small fear that everyone and everything will continue to change and move forward without you which is natural because nothing is stagnant but to have at least one thing that can feel the same was the perfect thing to come back to. And on top of it all Will survived his first football game (forcing me to play my first as well) which was awesome to share with him.
Along with Thanksgiving festivities (and a lot of day after Thanksgiving sandwiches) I also go to be a part of some of the pre-Christmas festivities like decorating the house some Christmas shopping and picking out a tree.
It was everything I could've asked for in those 3 weeks and it made me realize that when the time comes I'll be ready to come back but for now I have 8 more months to keep doing what I'm doing here in Rwanda and despite the stressful travel back I'm so happy to be back in my village. Everyone is so happy to see me and happy I'm back which just makes me even happier and motivated to be here.
Thanks Grandma, Kristin, and Will for making this trip home possible! And thank you everyone for all the support and love whether you're near or far I dont know what I'd do without you all. I wish you all the merriest Christmas and an amazing New Year. <3
As many of you may have seen via Facebook or Instagram I finally have successfully completed my Prepex (Non-Surgical Male Circumcision) Project and my first project as a Peace Corps Rwanda Volunteer!!!! To say I'm excited is an understatement. After over a year I can proudly say that 3 Health Center nurses and 2 Hospital level nurses have been trained and certified to do Prepex.
This may not be my primary project but I'm so proud to have brought this resource to a community that did not have a lot of education about HIV prevention. I have been asked by different Local Leaders throughout my time here to educate them about HIV prevention and treatment and have been told by my Health Center that they get asked about this a lot too. I am so happy to have brought Prepex to a more accessible location for my fellow citizens of Muyongwe.
One of the big things I learned from this is that 2 years is not a lot of time. Going into a work environment like this where I pretty much had free reign over what my projects could look like (I'm hoping it'll be projectS) I thought I was going to be able to do so many things, make tangible change etc. You quickly learn that yes you'll do a lot of things but they most likely won't be tangible. However they will be even more meaningful. Everyday when I get up and go to work I try to be there 110% and yes some days are much harder than others. Sometimes this results in me working in the pharmacy all morning, packing pills into little baggies, sometimes it involves me working in the pharmacy, weighing babies, writing reports, running in between them all and then doing community visits in the afternoon, or sometimes it's more of a hybrid. Overall I'm either put to work or I put myself to work because that's truly what makes me happy. However, there are plenty of days where I look at what I'm doing and wonder if it's worth it, or if what I am doing is enough. The majority of the time, whether you're a PCV like me or even at any job, you aren't celebrating big accomplishments everyday, I wish it worked that way too, but what I've realized lately is it's those days where everything seems to go wrong, or the days you work 16 hrs instead of 9, or the days it hasn't stopped raining for 24 hours straight and you haven't had electricity during that same time that you take steps towards those achievements and impacting the lives of those around you. Maybe you've heard this time and time again but it's something to remember and something I've really been trying to focus on lately.
Like I said 2 years is not a lot of time but what is a long time is the time after you leave whether it's a job, college, an organization. If you work as hard as you can and put everything you have into something the effects after you leave or after many years will most likely surprise you. Just the other day I was scrolling through Facebook and I saw a post from a girl I went to college with. She was posting pictures of the Residence Hall Association (RHA) conference they had just attended and that they won 2 awards! For three years of my college career I spent an ungodly number of hours working on RHA related things. It was a roller coaster of highs and lows and when I left I wondered if all the work I put in (literally blood sweat and tears
) was worth it. We may have never won an award while I was there but looking back at where the organization was when I joined and where it is now 2 1/2 years after leaving I know that my work wasn't for nothing.
All in all whether you're a PCV like me, a lost college student or even someone who has there life together and a career try to remember that everyday you should show up 100%, work hard, and work with passion because on the days you get to say "Look at what I/We accomplished!" you'll be so happy you never stopped believin.
Happy October Everyone! I hope you all are enjoying my favorite time of the year back in the states. Oh the many dreams I've had about pumpkin spiced everything and really cute fall outfits... but I think the last couple of weeks have been worth not being able to jump in a pile of leaves for one more year.
At the beginning of this month we had a week or to of rainy season and with the first rain I was excited because it felt like fall, however even though it physically felt like fall (the chilly weather, having to wear a sweater at all times, grayish skies all day) I couldn't do the things I really like doing during fall and that just put me in a funk. So after those days of looking at recipes I couldn't make, outfits I couldn't wear, etc it started to get sunny again. No this isn't super great because it's supposed to be rain season and they really need the water to grow crops (stay tuned for a possible post of the effects of climate change that you may not see) but for my mood and overall mental health the sun has been great. The vitamin D is in good supply I can do laundry, and I've had a lot of opportunities lately to just hang out with friends in my village and really see those relationships grow.
Last weekend consisted of a shopping trip in the nearby ton with my best friend here and a day long cooking lesson/hang out sesh with the girl who takes care of the garden at my house. This is my friend Emiliene. She is my best friend, go to person at site. She has an 8 month old son who is so adorable and is one of the few babies who actually likes me here. Since she was at a training in Musanze (google this it's one of the bigger towns in Rwanda and home to the famous volcanoes and gorillas) I went to meet her there after work on Friday for a big market shopping day. It was so fun! We perused the clothes, shoes, bags. Bought baby clothes and fruit we can't get in our village, and we just hung out. It was an amazing day of socializing outside of the bubble of my village and feeling so normal and happy with my friend.
Following that amazing day, on Sunday the girl who takes care of my garden came over and brought all the supplies to make isombe. Isombe is a traditional Rwandan dish made of extremely mashed casava leaves, peanut flour, oil, peppers, onions, garlic and some other small ingredients. Here I tried to capture the mashing of the leaves. but I basically had to use my giant mortar and pestal to smash the leaves for an hour or more, I definitely lost track of time but my arms can attest that it was a long time. So after cooking this for a while it is basically the consistency of a thick thick sauce. You can eat it with rice, potatoes, and if you get really Rwandan you eat it with ubugali. Ubugali is a spongy bread made from just casava flour and water. You can usually buy the flour at a shop but she brought the dried casava root itself and I, again using my giant mortar and pestal, ground the dried roots into flour. That was even harder but when else will I be able to say I made flour directly from scratch?? To continue the process of making the bread you just combine boiling water with the flour to get the right thick spongy consistency. When it was all done we ate and had tea and chatted about other Rwandan food, American food etc. It was super fun and a lot of work, sorry for the lack of pictures but it definitely was an all hands on deck kind of day. We even ate it with our hands, which is practical and leaves less dishes but whoever said that eating with your hands can be sexy I really do not agree...
Oh! I also showed her peanut butter for the first time so I'm planning to show her how to make it. they have peanuts and they use peanut flour but it's only in big towns that you see peanut butter so I'm excited to show her one of my favorite things.
So, on top of having an awesome social life and loving the people I live with here I've also been killing it at work recently (not to brag but it's been great.) As I've mentioned in most of my recent blogs I've been working on bring Prepex (A non-surgical male circumcision procedure that is free.) to my health center. So after jumping through hoops and making sure we have everything in place according to the Ministry of Health, etc next Thursday and Friday 4 of my nurses will officially be trained in the procedure meaning we don't have to bring the nurses from the District Hospital ($$) anymore. On top of them getting trained we already have over 550 men registered for the needed vaccinations and on the list to get an appointment to be circumcised. It's overwhelmingly more successful than I ever though possible and I'm so excited to see it actually happening. Again, the benefit of circumcision is 1. it helps prevent female to male transmission of HIV up to 60% and 2. in areas with less resources it helps with hygiene maintenance to help prevent other infections or STIs.
I just have to say lately I've been really happy with my work and my home life and a lot of it has to do with really focusing on being present here in the moment. There is always a lot to think about: the future, things I miss from home, things I can't get here, missing people, etc but I've really found that staying focused on no more than a week or two ahead can really change your daily mindset. So as I continue to do that I encourage you all to take a look at the things in your life that you may miss out on because you're looking 2-3 months or even years ahead. It might surprise you.
<3
I've been working on my cooking skills: Here is some taco soup I made!
KOMERA is a word in Kinyarwanda that translates to "to be strong" or "be strong". It is a common greeting passing by people on the street or used to encourage someone and it's probably on of my favorite phrases so far. Being a Peace Corps Volunteer for the past 17 months (has it really been that long?!?!) I've definitely uncovered some of my own strengths and many many weaknesses on which I try to improve upon everyday. What I want to shed a little light on today is something that was definitely a strength before I came to Rwanda and ended up being my biggest weakness for the first year.
I'm an athlete through and through. Whether it was playing soccer at 6 years old, competing in national cheer competitions (and winning), playing 3 seasons of high school sports or going to the gym 1-2 hours a day in college, physical activity has been my outlet for my overly competitive side and my stress. Before I left, my Dad encouraged me to continue to be physically active here in Rwanda. He didn't want to see me lose the love I have for working out because it's such a big part of who I am. I think back to this conversation pretty much every time I start to plan a workout or think of how much I don't want to do a workout. However, as most things as a PCV, it was a lot easier said than done.
For the first whole year here I struggled with having so many new stressors in my life, and this new environment where I had to figure out how to relieve that stress without being able to escape to a gym with my headphones blasting and lift a ton, or without being able to go for a run without attention being drawn to me at a time where I really wanted to escape. I fell into this pit where even though most things were going really well, loving my site, integrating into the community, starting projects successfully, I didn't feel like myself. To the outside world I was still labeled as someone who stayed fit and worked out consistently, and every time I would hear a comment about it I would smile and nod but feel incredibly guilty. I tried to set goals, complete different video based programs, and change my eating habits. With every new thing I tried it never felt beneficial mentally or physically. I was more stressed out, I wasn't seeing any physical improvement, and then to make myself feel better I would eat amandazi (fried dough) or jars of peanut butter...thus making myself feel even worse.
I had known there was going to be a half marathon taking place in May and it was something I had wanted to do since I had gotten here. It would be my first half marathon ever, and to do it here in Rwanda would be even cooler. So being fed up with my inability to form a consistent exercise habit for almost a year at that point, I signed up thinking it would force me to train and get back on the right track. I ran a few times leading up to the half but between the rainy season being perfectly timed and me really not being a fan of running and getting unwanted attention almost everyday, I'd say I maybe ran a total of 10 times and did a few Insanity workouts leading up to it. So, when it came down to it I could either run it without having trained, or not run it. Me, being the competitive and unforgiving person I am to myself, chose the former. I knew on a deeper level inside myself that I could do it and that I needed to do it to pull myself out of this mindset that was holding me back in every other aspect of my life. Feeling self conscious, guilty and like a phony was not how I wanted to continue feeling throughout the rest of my service or even the rest of my life. So I ran the Kigali Peace Half Marathon. Not only did I finish but I finished in 2 hrs and 26 min. Most people start their new workout journey towards half marathons, and I apparently start there.
Went for a run by the lake after a late night with the Girls in Gisenyi...
Since then I kicked my butt into gear and put on my creative PCV thinking cap and worked hard to find a solution to my problem. I started looking at what I liked and didn't like in the methods I had tried before, I experimented with different times of the day, read a lot of blogs and articles trying to get some different perspectives on exercise and diet that allow for wiggle room and also push you enough to sweat and get those endorphins pumping, and rediscovered how much I love exercise and working out. For the past 4 months I've kept up my consistency, made improvements larger than any I made in a year, and have learned to let myself have a little wiggle room because LIFE HAPPENS. I've been focusing on a lot of circuit training, short intense workouts and eating enough. The Blogger I really like talks a lot about moderation both in exercise and eating. Now, a lot of people wouldn't call the amount I workout (or at least talk/think about it) moderate, but for me it is and before when I wasn't working out as intensely I tried to cut out carbs and eat less to make up for it but it just me less energetic, craving more, and hangry ALL the time. So, moderation has become something I've taken a loving to and something that works for me right now.
Even when in town for the weekend I'm now trying to eat moderately instead of binging on all the things I miss in the village. <3
Finally, because I know you are sick of listening to me, I've not only been coming up with my own workouts and workout routines but I've also been creating some for some fellow volunteers. I've discovered how much I love coming up with workouts, talking about fitness and physical health, and how there are so many ways I can use this passion in the future (I have a laundry list of paths my life could take after this one). I actually just completed a training called Grassroots Soccer, a curriculum that uses soccer to teach about HIV and Malaria to adolescents. Stay tuned for updates on this amazing program!
Chantal my GRS Counterpart!
I'm happy to say that I've definitely overcome the most unexpected challenge thus far in my service, I don't expect it to be the last but I think the way I tackle future challenges will definitely be influenced by this one.
If you ever want to talk about exercise, fitness, workouts etc let me know!! Also this is the first time I'm really going a bit deeper than the day to day things happening over here but it's quite liberating and I hope you all appreciate my authenticity.
I know the saying "home is where your heart is" is a little cheesy...but I've always loved all things cheesy. This past week I really felt the truth in this statement. You're probably thinking that it's been a year, this should feel like my home no problem but simply moving from one place to another back in America is a completely different experience than moving into a completely new country with a completely different culture. But like I said, this week i really felt this sense of home more than I have in a while.
It's very common towards the middle of your service to have a sort of "mid service slump" and mine came in the form of a bit of homesickness mixed in with a not so positive view on my work here so far. Projects move slow, they don't go as planned, and sometimes I question the value of me being here. So after mid service conference about 2 weeks ago I was ready to be rid of this feeling and ready to tackle year 2 and that's exactly what I did last week.
We have recently gotten nutrition services at my health center, something most health centers already have so I've been working with my counterpart to get those up and running smoothly. The program is meant to bring malnurouished children to the health center, measure their weight, height, and middle upper arm circumference (MUAC) track their progress over time, educate their parents on how to help their children to grow and finally distribute milk to help supplement some nutrients, fat, and protein into their diets that they may not get at home.
This past week my counterpart and I went to a nearby school to educate about HIV prevention and male circumcision, as we are in the midst of our Prepex campaign.This was then followed by us celebrating that he got paid that day with brochettes and cold beverages and me teaching him the term "pay day".
And finally the big wrap up to my crazy busy yet surprisingly energizing week was attending the baptism of my best friend's umukozi (person who works in their house, cleaning, cooking, helping with the baby but is basically a part of the family). Her name is Valentine and she is so sweet and I think we bond well over the fact that neither of talk that much. So, after planning the after party all week with my friend Emiliene, on Saturday we went to the nearby town for the big church service.It started with the baptism of about 30 people followed by a four hour service of singing and preaching.After we headed back for the after party where we are great food, drank fanta and banana juice, and sang and danced until the sun went down.
I just wanted to share with you all the great week I had and share the fact that not too long ago the craziness and the busy-ness was exhausting and felt like work but now its something I thrive in and look forward to. Not that there aren't daily challenges, they just seem a lot less noticeable on a daily basis.
Thanks for reading my ramblings, it's the only way for you to get the closest glimpse into this crazy amazing life of mine!
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!
This past Saturday marked one year of me being in Rwanda. I can't believe how fast a year has gone by!! It feels like yesterday that I was graduating college, saying goodbye to the people that I love and boarding a plane with a bunch of people I barely knew to start this crazy journey of my Peace Corps Service.
In trying to think of how to sum up a roller coaster of a year I was inspired by a fellow PCV's instagram post quoting the song from RENT, "Seasons of Love" hence the title "How Do You Measure a Year?". Thinking about the things that occupied my mind before I left, there is a pretty big difference now. Many stayed the same, but looking at this list, never in a million years did I think this would be my life...
I measure my first year in Rwanda in...
Cups of Coffee (Because that will never change...)
Conversations where I don't understand anything yet somehow appear to.
Bucket baths (not as many as you would think...)
Scrstches on my knuckles from handwashing all of my clothes
Pills counted and placed in baggies
Insanity Workouts "successfully" completed
Jars of Peanut Butter consumed (generally straight from the jar)
Care packages filled with my favorite things
Weeks filled with only mac n cheese as my diet because I don't feel like cooking
Books
Movies
Naps
Solo Dance PArties
Sunburns (yet not as many as I eexpected)
Dropped Phone Calls
Phone Calls consisting of "Hello?" for at least 10 min
Gardens built
Speeches in Kinyarwanda
Attempts to bargain at the market
Much needed burritos in Kigali
Downpours
Successful and Failed cooking experiments
Successful charcoal stove lightings
Cold meals because I'm too lazy to light my charcoal stove
Avocados
Nights kept awake by my mouse roommate
Spiders residing in my house
mosquito bites
Hikes (Complete with amazing views!!)
Fantas with village friends
Photos
Emails
Whatsapp messages
Slips in the mud
Lessons Learned
Friendships Made
This year truly has been one of the most amazing years of my life and I still have one more left! I can't wait to see what year 2 holds for me and I hope I have enough time to get everything done that I want to. They always say that "Peace Corps is the hardest job you'll ever love" and I can attest to that 100%.
Before I finish and get back to work I just want to say thank you to everyone who has supported me through this journey and I love all of you! <3
I've been wanting to write a post about spending the month of April in my village for a while now. It's about a week into May and I've had some time to really reflect on my experience, the experiences I've heard from other Peace Corps Volunteers, and what I have heard from Rwandas both in my community and Peace Corps Staff.
As many of you msy know this year marked 22 years since the start of the genocide that occured in 1994 here in Rwanda. I'm not going to try to be a history teacher and talk about that aspect of things today but I encourage you all to educate yourselves from many different sources on not only to topic the genocide but all of Rwandan history. What I plan to share with you is what I witnesses personally in my community and how my thoughts have bee ninfluenced by me own experiences.
Starting on April 7th is the week of Remembrance. I was invited to the opening ceremony where I sat and listened to many prayers, accounts, and instruction as to how the rest of the week would take place. It was a little difficult understanding a lot of what was said but with the help of my counterpart, I got the main point of everything. When I first was asked to sit in front with the local leaders and officials I was very uncomfortable. I felt like I didn't have a right to be sitting in front of all of them as an outsider with no way of understanding, knowing how they felt, or what they went through. However, after the ceremony the Sector Social Affairs Officer, who has always been so supportive of me being there and the work I plan to do, personal came and genuinely thanked me for attending and told me how much it meant to him that I was there. This started to erase that idea that I had no right to be there and instead started letting in the thought that they really wanted me to be a part of their community.
As I walked home from where the ceremony had taken place with my counterpart he kept stopping to greet almost everyone we passed which meant I would then greet them all too. What the most amazing thing that happened was the majority of the people actually knew my name! I think I had to tell maybe one or two people but other than that I was "Erika" to them. I wasn't just another white person or another American, I was Erika, a member of the Muyongwe community. After this realization and talking with other people I realized that, yes, in this particular situation I was the ultimate outsider. There is no integration strategy to be a part of or even start understanding the community in relation to the genocide. However, they invited me to be a part of this and they saw me as a community member and it really made me feel lucky to be there and happy to be there to support them even if it was simply by just being.
Moving forward through this week and the entire month of April, I really noticed one big theme in my community, and again this is just my account of what iwitnessed, but it was Unity. In general my community is pretty quiet, and has their routine each day. During this time as they had village meetings each day to dialogue about the past, present, and future and other memorial events I saw groups of people coming together that I didn't normally see, I saw the girl who helps me take care of my yard, my landlord and his son coming together to help fix up the outside of my house and build a garden after some heavy rains, I saw more people in the market during the week than I normally did as they passed there on their way home. It was just an incredible thing to see.
Now, I want you all to know that all parts of Rwanda were affected differently by the genocide and have different ways of remembering during this time. Also, I did not attend the daily village dialogues out of personal preference but some volunteers do. There are so many different perspectives and lenses to look at 1994 and this present process of moving forward through. I am looking at both with the perspective of an outisder and as someone new to the community who is open and striving to learn more everyday. It is inspiring to me to see the progress made here in these past 22 years not only in a development sense but in a sense of growing together as a community and a nation.
We had a pannel of Rwandan PEace Corps staff talk about their experiences before, during, and after 1994 at the conference I attended this past week and I realized that the best way to learn about history is to hear the experiences of someone who has lived it. I know it's not possible to do all of the time but I am so thankful to have this opportunity, to have this new lense to look at not only the people of Rwanda through but people throughout the world through. This lense is the desire to learn about world through multiple perspectives.
Thank you for reading this reflection, I know it's a bit long but I truly believe it's important to take the time and think about all of this. I really encourage you all to join me in reading more about what happened here in 1994 and to support Rwanda as they remember and move forward.
Here is a video we watched at this past conference I attended and I think it fits well into this post. Please watch it and think about what she's saying. Feel free to comment your thoughts I fixed the comment settings finally.
Hello everyone! I apologize for the hiatus I think finally after being here for 10 months I've gotten the when and where I can get decent internet down... as well as the patience to wait for the slow connection. I could write this post like a general update of what I've been up to, and I will but I want to speak to something I recently felt and someone put into actual words. Being a Peace Corps Volunteer versus Feeling like a Peace Corps Volunteer.
As of this Monday I will have been an official PCV for 8 months!! It feels crazy that the year mark is right around the corner. This past week two of the nurses at my health center, our data manager and myself went into one of the cells in our area and did HIV testing for the mothers who attend the malnutrition screenings each month. This event was organized and made possible truly by one of our Community Health Workers. Ever since I have arrived he is always motivated to improve the health in his community and is always working to help individual families or large numbers of population like this event.
The CHW consolidated what is normally 6 screening sites into two in order to make the HIV testing possible for the most amount of people. Our first site was at the Cell office which is a one room building with benches and chairs and then a side office. At that site alone we tested about 60 people, mainly mothers of children under 5 but also some community members who wandered in.
My two nurses testing mothers for HIV
One nurse and myself walked about 20 minutes up the hillside to reach the second site. We were guided by another CHW to her local shop and she took us to this back room where we set up shop. It was here in this back room where the nurse was struggling to find enough light to draw blood that I had this moment where I really felt like a Peace Corps Volunteer. It was exhilarating taking all the supplies to draw the blood of over 100 people up to the remote villages to test them for HIV and it made me realize that this is what I'm here to do. Get out in the village and bring them the resources that are already available but maybe not right in their backyard or maybe they haven't been motivated or educated enough to know how to get them.
I know you're probably wondering why it has taken me so long to have this feeling and here's why I think. These past 10 months have been a period where I'm trying to find my bearings, where I fit in, what the community wants from me and what I can actually give them. I've gone out into the community with my counterpart plenty of times, I've even spoken in Kinyarwanda a number of times introducing myself and attempting to help do some education, but I still wasn't confident in my ability to make a difference. I was labeled a PCV, that's how I introduce myself etc. but I was stuck in this "new kid on the block" feeling and I think I finally feel like a true PCV, integrated, confident, and on the path to making a difference in my community.
Visiting a CHW in the Village.
Lately I have been doing the usual things work-wise. Every weekday I help in the pharmacy in the mornings after a short education session and return in the afternoon to help with reports or just hang out with the staff. I have also been planning for all of the projects I have coming up in the next few months starting the very first week of May. Here is what I have planned!
Permagarden Training for all of my Community Health Workers: I am doing a training like I did with my group of pregnant women but the goal is to train the CHWs so that they can then go out and train the community. We're going to be building gardens at the village malnutrition sites first in order to help with cooking demonstrations and o actually show mothers what is possible,
WASH Training: This is my hygiene project that myself and some other health volunteers will be doing. The training consists of 2 weeks, one in Kigali to train the trainers and one in my village to train the committees of the hygiene clubs that will be formed in 6 villages. I have been planning and talking about this project for months and I'm excited for it to finally get started!
My friends new baby!
Prepex: Prepex is a non surgical male circumcision procedure that was developed for countries with limited resources. This procedure is free for all patients and is a method to help prevent the transmission of HIV. Circumcision has been shown to help prevent HIV transmission and this procedure makes that possible for even more men than before. Me along with the HIV committee I am a part of are organizing a campaign for the end of June. This campaign will consist of trained nurses coming from my district hospital to perform the procedure on men at my Health Center for a week. I am also hoping to get my nurses trained in the procedure so it will always be available in my area. I'm really excited by this and the local officials are just as excited which makes me feel like it's something they truly find valuable.
This is what I have going on so far in terms of work but that's only half of my life. The other half consists of baby naming ceremonies, baptismal ceremonies, random baby ceremonies where I didn't even know it was a ceremony until the speeches started. There are also my band of neighborhood kids who visit me daily. These kids even locked other kids out of my compound and told them that I was their "umuzungu" and I had to go and open the gate before we had a true Mean Girls situation on our hands. I've really come to love my community more than I ever would have expected.
My friend and her husband and the new baby at the baby naming ceremony where I got to help name the baby :)
They found my books and wanted to read... that also included magazines
Laundry Day! A day like this is rare in rainy season.
With that being said, I actually have a lot more to share including introducing some of my close friends and co workers and some other really amazing experiences with you all and now that I've figured this internet thing out I plan to post if not weekly every other week. I love you and miss you all and stay tuned because I'm not going anywhere! :) Turi Kumwe (We are together)
Hello everyone! I am
so sorry for the length between this post and my last. That was over a month ago I believe. All I can say is that in some ways realizing
it’s been about a month feels about right but there are definitely days it
feels like it’s been way to short of a time to be February already. On the 4th of this month it will
have been 8 months since I arrived in Rwanda and on the 18th it will
be 6 months since being an official volunteer.
Time really flies by but even with time seeming to fly by patience is
something I’ve been truly learning throughout most of this experience and
recently I’ve found that, even though it’s (most of the time) really difficult
for me to just go with the flow of things it pays off in the end.
In the past month or so and especially these past two weeks
I’ve finally felt like a wall has been falling down from between myself and the
greater community around me. It
generally takes me a bit of time to be able to open up to people and here in Rwanda
it can sometimes be hard to get to know people as well so putting us two
together has been a bit of a challenge.
But recently I’ve been playing soccer almost every day after work with
the kids who live nearby, my counterpart at work has decided that 2016 will be
the year I learn Kinyarwanda so everyone at the health center is trying to
speak with me in Kinyarwanda more which has already made me feel a lot more
included and integrated (as we like to say in PC). Finally, I’ve sort of found
my niche in the community, the boutiques I always go to, people know me by name
in the community for the most part, and things are starting to really feel just
like everyday life rather than completely foreign and intimidating. It’s an interesting and great feeling. That’s just an insight into the less tangible
part of the experience.
In terms of work and
PC life a lot has actually been going on over here. I could go on for a long time about
everything that I’ve been doing this past month or so but that would probably
turn out to be way too long of a post so I’ll give you the highlights!
Since
my last post…
·I spent Christmas at Lake Kivu (the biggest lake
in Rwanda) with an amazing group of friends.
oOur hostel ended up being under renovation
giving us the whole place to ourselves.
That’s what we get for trying to save money… but it was great it was our
very own “home base”.
oI never thought lounging at the lake and eating
at super cute cafes was going to be part of my 2 year Peace Corps experience…
but apparently it is!
oI hope you can tell from the pictures how great
this Christmas was! And it was even better going and picking up my Christmas
care packages from the post office a couple weeks later and getting to have a
second Christmas!
·I wrote a grant for a hygiene and sanitation
project.
oI think I’ve mentioned this before but along
with 15 other volunteers I am working on a project called WASH. This project consists of the creation of
hygiene clubs in the villages. The
purpose is to create a means of education around hygiene and changing the
behavior of the community to improve hygiene in a way that is sustainable after
I leave. In order to do this project we
each had to write a small grant requesting money to cover costs for 2 different
trainings and the basic materials to get the project up and running. This consisted of hours and hours at the
Peace Corps office in Kigali going over budgets and goals and indicators etc.
in order to form a well written grant that will hopefully be approved in the
coming months. It was a lot of time and
effort but also a lot of fun with other volunteers and a great experience in
grant writing. I’m looking forward to
actually getting things started here in my community!
·I held a Permagarden Training for my group of
pregnant mothers.
oLast week I had our amazing PC staff member
Modeste come and help me to put on a training for my First 1000 Days
Association about a type of kitchen garden that is climate smart and is meant
to provide a plentiful amount and variety of vegetables for the family to eat
each day. With Modeste being Rwandan and
able to speak Kinyarwanda fluently and being a agriculture and food security
specialist he was much more of a fit to actually lead the training. It was great seeing the women engaged and
open to the different approach to a kitchen garden than they are used to. One thing I learned was that, even though
these women are incredibly strong, it’s not necessarily a great idea to have
pregnant women doing a decent amount of manual labor in a short amount of
time. But the garden got built and I’m
looking forward to all the food that will grow!
·I started helping test for HIV as we increase
our HIV services here.
oWe recently got approval from the ministry of
Health to provide ARVs and counseling for HIV positive patients. So now we are trying to increase our number
of community members who are tested.
With our limited staff number I got to learn how to do the rapid HIV
test. Even though it’s a simple test
getting to work in the lab felt at home and I really love being able to give
people their negative results and see the happiness on their face!
·I learned I will NEVER Go into Dentistry.
oWhen working on increasing our number of people
tested for HIV we decided to test all the people being treated for dental
problems (we have a really large number of patients everyday). One day somehow instead of just working on
HIV testing I ended up filling out the register for the patients coming in for
tooth extractions, which meant I had to sit through a large number of tooth
extractions. They give shots of
lidocaine to help numb the pain but you know it’s not completely numb…I’ll
spare you all the details but even being an EMT and someone who is not bothered
by blood or vomit etc sitting there for hours was an awful experience!
Whew! That was a
lot to write and I bet a lot to read but I really love being able to share as
much as I can with all of you. Sorry for the lack of pictures... The internet isn't allowing it but I wanted to send this out any way.
It truly
has been an amazing experience so far and there is so much that is impossible
to share that I wish I could. So if
there is anything in particular you want to hear more about let me know and I
can dedicate some posts to more specific topics!
Miss you all and I hope 2016 has started out well for
everyone!
