Site Visit

What didn’t happen to me when I went to site:
I did not have to give a speech in Kinyarwanda to 500 people in the pitch black with just a flashlight shinning on me, I did not have my cell phone stolen in the market, I did not get swarmed by 1500 children at a school and then have rocks thrown at me for my attention, and I did not get lost. That is only beginning of some of the stories that were shared by other volunteers when we all returned.

During site visit I stayed with an amazing family, Mama Alice runs a store in Byumba and her husband is a pharmacist, they have 3 children, 5 ½, 3 ½, 1 ½, and one more on the way. They were amazingly welcoming and extremely excited to have me stay in their home. I had my own bedroom with electricity and running water in my own bathroom! In Rwanda it is common to have an umucozi. Umucozi’s are houseboys or girls, they cook and clean for you. Every night they polished my shoes, and by polished I mean wiped the mud off my $12 ballet flats I brought with me from Target. Pretty normal so far, the different part, the praying. Rwanda is very very religious and there was a lot of praying and questioning me of my religion. We prayed before we ate, before we ever drank anything, and we read the bible every night before bed. Sometimes there was singing involved with bible reading. Overall they were an absolutely amazing family, I may be living in a house right next door to them, which would be nice.

As far as what I will be doing. I am working with the local Pentecostal Church of Rwanda that is under a US funded program, which I mentioned in an earlier blog post. I have two counterparts; Moses and Sophia, there are similar to bosses in a way. Moses is the Head of Development for my district and Sophie works with OVC (orphans and venerable children). Which brings me to my next story. I go with Moses one day to visit a rural community in the north that I will be working with. We stop to meet anyone and everyone along the way, heads of communities, different schools, we talk to a few people walking on the street, children, adults, different organizations, finally after many stops we get to one school that the church is involved with. There are about 30 children, all between the ages of 8 and 15, super excited to see me. They dance for me and are overwhelmed to see a Muzungu! So my counterpart, Moses, and I ask them some questions. What do you want to be when you grow up, same as in America, a police man, a mayor, the president, in the army, a pastor, a teacher etc. Then we ask them what they think the biggest problems they have are, and these kids are the poorest of the poor, they tell me they need more sponsors from America so they can go to school (yes, that $19 a month to sponsor a child on the commercials, that makes it to Africa and makes all the difference in a child’s life), they need shoes, they need money to cut their hair, the list goes on and on. Then after some more small talk my counterpart tells me and the kids that it is time for us to go. NO NO NO, they want me to tell them a story, well I don’t remember any children’s stories, I need to make sure I am more prepared next time, and I didn’t know any Obama stories, they asked for those as well so I told them more about myself and that I have a sister. They then asked if she can come and stay with them, you hear that Mia, they offered you a place to stay, it may be a mud hut with nothing in it and no water source in the town and no food and no land to farm on, but they want you! So I tell them she may visit and if she does ill bring her but no promises. So now we explain it is time for me to go again. NO NO NO, they want me to sing them a song. Well, I’m not prepared for this either, so I sing them the ABC’s. For someone that is thinking of teaching as a career path I better get better at this. So they stare at me in awe as a I sing to them and then they smile and jump up and down and as this is going on this one little boy who was quiet the entire time pushes his way through the crowd up to the front, and he looks at me with his big innocent child eyes and tells me, in Kiyarwanda which I don’t understand as he speaks because of my limited vocab, and tells me that it is great that I came and that they got to sing and dance, but he still is hungry, he still doesn’t have any money, I didn’t solve any of his problems, and his family is still going to go to bed without dinner, again! WOW! Yeah, he is right, so I have my work cut out for me.

Overall site visit was great- nothing too major to report on. Ill be in the district capital of Gicumbi which is nice because I have easy access to a bus to Kigali, which is a little over an hour away, the market is open everyday, and the store my host mother owns that I mentioned earlier, has a fridge with yogurt and cold juice, and, drum roll, a freezer with ice cream, ill have to try it to believe it. There are schools that I can hopefully work with in some way, easy access to a bank, and possibly a post office. And I might be mistaken but I think another volunteer is within 30 minutes of me. I saw three potential houses but not sure how that is going to pan out. The chances of me having a yard are looking bleak but I am trying to stay positive about it, I'm just hoping for my own home so I have a little privacy and I'm not on a compound.

Entry on genocide memorial week to come soon-the reason that I have not been on the internet/responded to any emails.