Amanda in the Land of A Thousand Hills: ladies, are you seeing me?

“Ladies are you seeing me?

Are you seeing what I’m having?

Now comment.”

Much has happened since my last blogtown, including some pretty funny English lines. They include the conversation above that Tressa and I had with a street vendor and these other gems:

“Those ladies are saying that you are somehow beautiful.”

“Is it the rainy season right now?” “Not, not.”

“Hey haw are you to day? With me am ok. I look you in television news see you good night.” (that was a text)

“You are welcome!” (as a welcome greeting. We get this daily. Drives me nuts.)

“Oh, how did you find the Indian restaurant?” (This one I said when I meant to say ‘how was the Indian restaurant?’ but adopted the Rwandan expression.)

“Yes, somehow they are liking cheese in Mukamira.”

"There are no mostiquos." (this is what Rwandans called mosquitoes. It's a mix of english and french)

I don’t mean to pick fun at anyone, this is the kind of stuff that makes my day every day.

We were sworn-in as Peace Corps Volunteers last weekend at the embassy. It was a nice ceremony with speeches in English, Kinya and French. My favorite part was when the ambassador asked all the old PCVs to stand up and about 1/3 of the crowd stood. My second favorite part was the cake. My third favorite part was seeing my friends and I all choked-up after we gave the oath. My fourth favorite part was probably when the ambassador warned that our good, warm work in Rwanda was going to raise the average global temperature above global warming predictions. Oh Copenhagen.

Fifth favorite moment was being on national television. Ikanzu keza!

Tressa and I took the chance to visit her site last week. We saw four gigantic volcanoes. My first ever! I was so happy. The north is spectacular, high in elevation and cool. I’m just tickled about my site placement. We’re back at our training site, on our own now and cooking up a storm. After a holly, jolly Christmas (I’m making eggnog!) we’ll be shipped off to our sites with our trunks packed with household goodies from Kigali. Want to know what treasures I have in mine? Dried coconut milk, lentils and spices galore. Olive oil. A gas stove. Life is comfy.