GUTEKA- to cook!

I feel in one of my earlier blog entires I was a bit negative on the food issue. I would like to tell you the wonderful foods that have been derived from the ingredients we have been able to find in Rwanda. But first a little about Rwandan cooking. There are 5 standard dishes and thats it. Rwandans never branch out and try different concoctions, its always the same. Plantins (a cross between a potato and a bananna; Ibishyimbo na umuceri (rice and beans); mashed potatos; ifiritis (french fries); dodo (greens similar to spinish); carrots, peas and green beans; umugati (cassava flour bread, very bland, hearthy taste but not bad); especial (omlette). As americans though we discovered with a little effort that many american dishes can be made here. 1: Hmaburgers, i did little in the preperation of this but my house mates spent hours grinding the meat with a terrible meat grinder. Then the ground beef was formed into hot dog shaped burgers since that is the shape of the buns here and cooked over a coal fire. They were delicious. we added avocado and tomatoes and cheese to them. Then with the French fries i learned a cool new trick and that is to always double fri. The following weekend we made macaroni and cheese starting with a rue of butter and flour then adding cheese. It was also incredible the garlic was an amazing touch to that dish. It funny because I have a roommate who can find anything in this country. Snickers and kit kats have recently been discovered, not sure if they were specially ordered from Kigali because of the group of 36 muzungu's staying in the area or not. Anyway she saw a white man and followed him and what did she find, she found French baguettes. so now on numerous occasions we have had grilled cheese on real French baguettes. To make it a little better, avocado and tomatoes are a great touch. Guacamole is another favorite especially since we don't need to spend an hour prepping a fire in order to make it. Avocado's are huge here and you can get 1 for 10 cents. Interestingly enough guacamole is not a Rwandan dish and Rwandans don't really know about it. It is definitely popular with the peace corps volunteers though. So I think i can safely say I will not be wasting away of starvation any time soon. (of course packages with american food are definitely still wanted :)

Peace Corps Talent Show

Peace Corps Rwanda had a talent show for the trainiee’s a few weeks ago. It was just like being at summer camp again which was really fun. I found out there is lots of talent in our group. Sadly I have no talents for a talent show but that did not stop me from participating, and partially because it was required everuone be involved. So a few of my friends and I re-wrote a famous song, It’s Miley Cyrus’s Party in the U.S.A.
It goes like this:
Hopped of the Plane at KGL
With our chocos and our 80 pounds
Welcome to the land of a thousand hills
Not gonna fit in
I hopped on the volcano express for the first time
Looked to my right and i see the condom sign
This is all so crazy, i guess i’m not that lazy
My tommy’s turning and i’m feeling kinda homesick
Too much pressure and i’m nervous
Thats when the driver man turned up the radio
And the yawe song was on (X3)

Chourus
So i put my hands up their playing my song
And the butterflies fly away
Nodding my head like yego
Moving my hips like yego
So i put myhands up their playing my song and i know its gonna be ok
Yeah yeah there’s a party in Rwanda

Went to the blue bar the buy a primus
Everybody’s looking at me now
Like who’s the chick thats rockin crocs
She’s gotta be from outta town
Its not hard with my firends all around me
Everyday is like a peace corps party
All i see are bright fabrics
I guess we all got the memo
My tommy’s turning and i’m feeling kinda homesick
Too much pressure and i’m nervous
Thats when the driver man turned up the radio
And the yawe song was on (X3)
(Chorus)

I feel like hopping on a flight
Bakc to my hometown tonight
Mupemba stops me everytime
And the DJ plays my song and I feel alright

(mupemba is our training director here in Rwanda)

A Weekend in Paradise

Well this has been a great weekend in mini America (or as close as I’ll get in the next 2 years). We have been staying at a very nice hotel for 3 nights to have a health conference with all the organizations Peace Corps health group will be working with while in Rwanda. We are staying in a hotel with individual huts with a roommate. But we have hot showers and flushing toilets. It has a swimming pool and what’s even more amazing is that we were actually told there would be a pool and to bring our swim suits. The pool felt so amazing I have been swimming every day at every chance we get. (So about 3 times because there has not been a lot of down time until now). Many people left for their site visits this afternoon. Me and about 10 others leave tomorrow so we get to spend an extra night in this exquisite hotel with free wireless. This is why I have been able to upload pictures to my blog and to facebook. Our first day when we arrived in Kigali in February it did not seem like such a big, amazing city before. It was not a big deal, a city in Africa nothing like even the smaller cities in America. Now after spending only a month in the semirural city of nyanza, Kigali is this huge luxurious city in which we get seasoned food and can hear cars driving by at night. Definitely a different perspective. Also the first traffic lights I have seen in a month was when we drove back into Kigali. I never even noticed they were missing until I saw them and thought it was strange seeing them.
The point of the health conference was to learn about the organization we would be working with and see all the other organizations that others are working with. It was great getting to meet my counterpart and supervisors this weekend. I also got to learn a little bit about my organization. They work with rural communities to help make sustainable living for underprivileged families. They work with farmers to raise crops like corn and flour and fruits. They sell a famous health porridge around Africa called Sosoma which I got to even sample and it’s like a runny oatmeal without the oats. The company also helps craftsman to make, sell and market wood projects such as doors and beds and cabinets. I am the very first volunteer this organization has ever had. My role as of now is still a little unclear but I know I will be working in the community with the farmers and working in the office doing business plans and organizational things. I will be living about 45 minutes from Kigali in the district of Muhanga which is much bigger than Nyanza but only slightly smaller than Kigali. I will share about what i am doing here once I have gotten to see my site and spent time in my community and with my organization.
Thank You all for reading!

Umugonda (National Day of Service)

Rwanda is a truly amazing country. On Saturday we all woke up early to go to the monthly event called umuganda. This happens on the 4th Saturday of every month. Shops close and everyone works together on this national community service day. We went to go help one particular umudugodo (village) with cultivating land for Cassava plants. The mayor recommended we help them. It was an hour and a half hike through woods and over mountains and down hills, it was beautiful but of course I forgot my camera. Anyway we get there and we see over 2 hundred people hoeing the ground, the old fashioned way to turn the soil. We all had to take turns with the hoes because they were many more people than there where tools which seems to be a common problem. Anyway we worked for a few hours on this large area of land, then everyone sat down for some sort of meeting and role check I think,(it was all in Kinyarwanda). Umuganda is a mandatory event in the country and some community’s even fine people who do not attend. After the meeting the Rwandans all start chanting and then dancing and I realized that in Rwanda everything turns into a dance party. There is never down time because anytime people are waiting to do something they just start singing and dancing. Maybe if we all did the world would be a happier place. For lunch we got to eat umugati, which is a roll of bread dough that you dip into a sauce. I really like it but it takes some getting used to. The way one person refers to it here is the most earthy taste you can imagine, but in a good way.
Sunday it was off to Kigali. We are staying in a hotel with huts as rooms. Its really nice, we have hot water showers and flushing toilets and amazing food. We had French toast for breakfast which made me amazingly happy. Today we met our supervisors of the organizations we will be working with. And we also have free wireless internet, what more could a PCV ask for!

A day with an Umudosi

So I had my first dress made last week. It was quite an experience. I found out that my host mom owns a fabric shop so I felt a little obligated to buy fabric from her shop. She had a small selection compared to some other places but I found some I liked. I had a rough sketch of the dress I wanted made but I am not very good a drawing so I was nervous of how it would be interpreted. My host mom and the umudosi (tailor) do not speak any English whatsoever. Just trying to get the point across that I wanted to buy fabric for a dress was a challenge. Agreeing on a price was also quite funny. I would write down a price then she would write her price. We haggled for a bit Then we came to an agreement before the umudosi arrived. The umudosi was not pleased with the price and refused so I had to pay a little more. It was so confusing but in the end I thought we had it figured out. Then I stood there for a while thinking I needed to be measured but I had no idea how to say that in Kinyarwanda. So I just stood there, my host mom keep trying to talk to me but I can understand her very little. A common problem with learning a language is even if you do know what the words mean; understanding them from a local who speaks fast is hard. Our teachers are really good at enunciating and speaking slowly so we can understand but in the "real world" it’s a whole different story. Eventually my umudosi comes back into the room with a tape measure to do my measurements. I show her the length I want and how thick I want the straps by spacing my fingers out over my shoulders hoping she understands. I also try to show her how I want a band around my waist. Anyway, let’s just say things didn’t seem very clear and I had no idea how to get the point across so I just hoped. I did this all on Wednesday and they told me Friday to pick it up. Well I go to my mom’s shop on Friday and ask for my dress and she tells me in Kinyarwanda something that makes no sense to me. I have no idea where my umudosi is. I give up and try to find one of my friends who had a dress made by the dame person. A few hours later I found someone to show me where to go. It straight down a dirt road, I then had to turn right into a tin door which let me to an open corridor with multiple rooms on every side. I wander into each of them looking for someone familiar and don’t see any umudosi I recognize. I forgot what she looked like; I did not have her name. it was almost hopeless. I leave and head back home when some lady comes chasing after me. Apparently I was in the right place my umudosi was just on break or something. I try on my dress and its perfect. But is didn’t fit right. I had to show her where she needed to take in. Hoping she got it. She took some chalk and made some marks I gave the dress back she made alterations tried it on again, needed a little more she fixed it again and it fit perfectly and was exactly as I drew the dress and pictured it wanting to look. I am extremely happy with it and can’t wait to get a few more tailor made outfits in my time here. The fabric they sell is just beautiful and you’ll never find the same print twice. All in all it was a great experience and everyday the language gets a little bit better. buhro buhro we say. little by little. :)

Things I love about Africa (so far)

1. Bucket/solar showers
2. Cooking on a fire and making hamburgers and fries
3. Walking 6 miles a day (back and forth 1 mile each day 3X)
4. Pretending to be a washing machine when hand washing clothes
5. Shopping at the used clothing market
6. Tailor Made Dresses
7. Somosas and Tea
8. Kinyarwanda language...?
9. The beautiful thousands of hills
10. Dance parties before and after every event
11. 10:00am tea breaks
12. Kids running after you in the streets
13. Guacamole, Beans and Rice
14. Chickens that run under your table at restaurants (also i love 1 legged chickens)
15. The lake near my house

Site Placements!!

Well last night we got told out site placements. As I think most of you know we are in training in Nyanza for the first 3 months of service before we go and live on our own. my site is in Muhangu. I am really excited about it. It is 45 minutes from Kigali and an hour or so from where I am now Nyanza (which has the best market in the country so I'm glad to stay close by). I am going to be place with DUHAMIC ADRI as a health and community development volunteer. I am the only volunteer with this co-op so it is both exciting and nerve-recking. My job description seems to include anything and everything so I am excited for what I may be able to do. So far I know they are a local co-op, with a savings and lendings group and they sell nutritious porage like drinks to make money. That is all I've been told. I will go see the group and see my site next week and will update with more information as it comes. For now I am just excited to see what I'm going to be doing and where I will be living.

Info I found online at http://www.fdh.org/Rwanda-DUHAMIC-ADRI-Association.html

Duhamic-Adri, Association for Integrated rural development, was founded in 1979 with as mission to support rural community initiatives of self-development. Duhamic-Adri works particularly on conciousness raising among peasants around the mechanics of neglect and at offering services such as projects analysis, help in negotiations, training, support options...

The objectives are several :

Fight against the neglect of the rural community
Stimulate construction and merging of peasants groups and associations
Reinforce collective actions among peasant associations by starting up or motivating the launch of independent organisational structures such as inter-grouping.
Support of rural community initiatives in different development activities (agricultural production, processing and commercialisation, reforestation, craftsmanship, etc.)