the beginning

2/23/10
Well the first day of staging is over and things are off to a good start. Staging was full of many ice breakers and talking about of anxieties and ambitions and going over rules and such. We also got to finally turn in all the paperwork that we were given to fill out with our invitation.
So far it seems I do have the most luggage which always seems to happen to me even though last night I weeded out so many clothes and little extras that I knew I would not need.(110 pounds, limit 100 but no charge!)Packing was quite a challenge, since its 2 years + some!
Saying goodbye to nick was very hard. What can you say knowing you won't see each other for 2 years. How can you possibly say goodbye to the man you want to marry. I know i just have to, if I decided not to join I would spend the rest of my life wondering what my life would have been like had I joined.
Staging (an event for peace corps volunteers in the US before they leave for their country) was 6 hours long and talked about our thoughts about leaving and aspirations and worries in joining the Peace Corps. It was long and boring but necessary and good for getting to know each other. Afterwards I joined three others and we went out for sushi as our last dinner in America. The next morning we all walked to get our shots together though I didn’t actually need any, and then we headed off on the bus fro 3 hours to JFK. Then the long two, 8 hour flights to Brussels and then to Kigali.
Upon arrival in Kigali, it was pouring rain. And I was so tired and so exhausted i could not really take it all in. We stayed in a nunnery in Kigali for 3 days, mostly spending those days getting shots and filling out paperwork.

3/3/10
Yesterday started our first official day of “classes.” Language, health, safelty and tech (skills trainging). This is what will be occurring all day, everyday from now until May 8th, our ceremony for becoming official Peace Corps volunteers. I also forgot to mention that we had a beautiful 2 hour drive from Kigali to Nyanza and saw a whole lot of the countryside. The hills and tree’s and farmlands, kids running and screaming Muzungu, which means white person. We stopped on a rock with the myth that the king sent is 2 best men out to find the best punishment. They each came back with 2 different, terrible ways to die. Because they thought these horrible things for their own race they were sentenced to the punishment they thought of. The rock we were at was heated with fire until extremely hot and then have the man stretched across it until he burned to death. Lots of locals came by since we are such a huge group of Americans, many have never seen so many white people before.
Here in Nyanza the volunteers are split up into 4 houses. I live about 30 minutes from where we eat and take classes. Everyone except one house lives about that far in different directions. It’s a great walk though. Its nice to see the neighborhood and the view. It’s a great temperature here. Around 80 degrees sometimes hotter but not too hot. Today is especially perfect, slightly cloudy, and breezy outside. It is rainy season, so it rains pretty much every day for an hour or two very hard, but then its over and the sun is back out.
Yesterday I met with my host family. Although I am not living with them I am suppose to meet with them for about 3 hours a week to practice language. It was very frustrating because we could not understand each other at all. We sat together and looked at my workbook and she helped me with the words in Kinyarwanda and I helped here with the words in English. Dinner last night was the best we have had all week, beans, rice and fresh guacamole!!
The rest of the night was spent practicing Kinyarwanda eating cookie with peanut butter and sour patch kids later.
Marabutse!

Culture Notes:
- Women have no modesty when breastfeeding
- Always carry raincoat and flashlight
- Kids call you muzugue constantly- (white person)
- Kids laugh when you try to speak kinyarwanada
- The electricity is completely unrealiable
- Fanta = 250F (50C) Internet = 200F (40C) per hour CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP!!
- The malaria pills are only 70% effective...
- Moto’s do not stop for pedestrians
- Chicken and bananas can go together
- Kinyarwanda words can be spelled the same way but mean lots of different things
- Valuables should be locked in trunks, locked in rooms, locked by another door leading to the rooms from the living room, the house locked, and the gate locked with a 24 hour guard!
- Three meals are eaten between 8:00 and 12:00. Breakfast, tea, and lunch. And dinner at 7:00.