I want to post some videos and short stories of memorable
moments in my Peace Corps service in Rwanda. Hopefully it will be a good way of
summarizing my sixteen months in East Africa. I have seen been medically
separated from Peace Corps so I write you from the comforts of Grand Lake,
Colorado.
One day while catching a rickety old bus to my site, a small
girl of around 2 years joined me in the hot vehicle and began to nap. She was
pretty cute so I tolerated her sleeping behind my back while I leaned forward
to accommodate her. After about an hour of waiting, the bus left for Kirambo.
And about 20 minutes after this, someone finally looked over at this girl and
realized she belongs to no one in the bus. Screeeeech. Reverse. Let’s return
this little girl to wherever she came from.
***
I have dozens of hilarious memories that include Tressa.
Some are not blog appropriate but others, like the time she shook the hand of a
woman who had just wiped her baby’s butt with her hand, are perfect. Another
time, we walked into my village center together and Tressa exclaimed, “Oh no I
forgot to put on deodorant.” With a sigh, I replied, “So did the rest of the
population.” One of our last days together, some Rwandans on our bus looked at
us and said, “you are so two friends.” Why yes, we are.
***
I remember one hot, emotionally-low day in Kigali I was
riding a bus to the Peace Corps office. My apologies for bumping into people as
I boarded turned into small Kinyarwanda chit chat and a man immediately asked
if I was a Peace Corps volunteer. I was so surprised and flattered that he had
heard of us. He spoke of all the good things we are doing and commended us for
learning Kinyarwanda. As I got off the bus, several people shook my hand in
appreciation. It was incredibly touching.
***
I love the story of the man that came to my house right
after I moved in trying to sell a turtle. He presented a small piece of paper
with French writing and a price of 1,000,000 RWF. This equates to $2000. My
neighbor Alice and I just laughed and no transaction was made.
 |
| scars on Parliament |
 |
| drying corn and potatoes |
Oh the kids at my old site! They would go through my trash and wear labels and strings from packaging all over their bodies. They would use my outhouse and steal my light bulbs. They would give dance performances to visitors. After I taught them tic-tac-toe, they would start games on their own outside my door to lure me outside. In the last few months, they started screaming, “sit down!” outside my house when I didn’t respond to “good morning!”
***
The battle of the l’s and r’s. The funny examples of how
Rwandans switch the letters are endless. Recent ones include “Lude Boy by
Rihanna”, R Wayne (as in Lil’ Wayne) and the names Groliose and Leopord to mean
Gloriose and Leopold. I called that student Leopard for 2/3 of the school year.
***
I have stories and opinions about Peace Corps bureaucracy that would make you chuckle. My favorite? When Peace Corps took three of us to the wrong dentist and neither Peace Corps nor the dentist realized it until after we'd all had a teeth creaning and the dentist came running after us. All in all, Peace Corps administration has its obstacles like any organization and I will always highly recommend Peace Corps.
***
I have nice memories of animals in the bedroom. There were your
standard spiders, huge caterpillars, fleas and mice. Once, I awoke to an odd
sound above me. As I looked up, two fighting geckos fell onto my forehead. I
couldn’t help but squeal. Another time at site, I noticed lots of neighborhood
kids running around outside. I heard what sounded like a kid trying to open my
window. I jumped up, threw back the curtains and tumbled backwards in surprise
at the huge male baboon hanging from my window irons.
***
And last of all, the cultural differences. In an English
class, I taught my colleagues the recipe for tomato soup. “Sounds good,” they
all assured me, “but we cannot make this.”
“Because you are men?”
“No. You cannot put milk in soup.”
No comments:
Post a Comment