A day in the life of a PCV in Rwanda

May 25th
Today definitely deserves a blog entry that is for sure. So today is Monday, I’m back from the workshop I had in Butare last week finally ready to spend a few weeks at site and not at workshops or meetings in Kigali. I wake up bright and early ready to go to the office in Muhanga for the first time since I moved in. So I walk to the office to find no one there and it’s closed and locked. It figures, so what do I do now. I could call my supervisor who is at work in Kigali or I could just enjoy a day in town getting to know the area and meeting neighbors so that is just what I did. I decide my goals today will be to make French toast and to buy another kitchen towel. I bought 3 towels on Saturday but 2 were stolen off my fence while they were drying. I was very disappointed in my neighbors and now I don’t trust to leave anything to dry outside. I did leave them overnight which I probably should not have done but luckily it was just towels and not clothes. So anyway I go to the market to buy another towel. I check all the vendors prices and go back to the first guy who I got down to what I thought was 400 FRW. My Kinyarwanda is still not the greatest. I gave him 1000 expecting change and he asks me for 100 more and gives me 500. I’m very confused but wanting to move on so I give up take the loss and move on. It’s time to look at fabric; fabric is a very handy thing to have here it can be used as a rug, curtains, apron and towel. So I need more of it. I found some I like buy it and when I turn around a man is standing there that I do not recognize telling me I owe more money. I then realize it’s the guy who sold me the towel and I’m like “No, the sale is over I don’t owe any more”. And he keeps standing there speaking to me in Kinyarwanda. I’m like great this happened to someone else once so I was a little worried. As it turns out he was trying to find me because I paid too much and he wanted to give me the rest of my change. He hunted me down, 10 minutes after I left to tell me I paid too much. This just made my day and restored my faith in the Rwandan people. Though someone stole 2 towels someone else hunts me down because I paid too much.
I also have made friends with the hardware store man. He sold me a lock for my front door the other day and while I was there I wanted nails to hang things around my house. Since I wanted so few he just gave them too me which was incredibly nice. It defiantly insured I would be going to him for all my hardware needs and not some other shop.
Anyway off to make French toast. I’ve realized it really helps your spirits to have 1 or 2 small goals everyday rather than making week or month goals, it makes you feel like you’ve accomplished something everyday rather than feeling useless which is how I feel a lot of the time here.