Mwaramutse!
We have arrived in Kibungo (pronounced “Chibungo”) and settled in to our new digs. Our bedroom is cozy, but the rest of the house is pretty spacious. There are definitely some things we will have to get used to, but overall our space is comfortable. Kibungo is a relatively small town situated on the side of a mountain. It is the city center for the district (kind of like a state from what I have gathered), so it is have most of the main amenities you would expect from a city: a bus stop, post office, hospital, university, several churches and schools, and a large market every Wednesday and Sunday. There is one main road that runs through town, and then smaller walking trails that go down the mountain into the valley or a little further up the mountain. Our house is about a 5 minute walk down the road from the main shopping district in town. Five minutes further is the district hospital where Drew will spend his mornings, across the street is the town health center where Drew will spend his afternoons, and about 20 minutes walk back through town is the primary school and orphanage where I will spend most of my time – more on all that a little later though.
In our house there is a large yard surrounded by a fence and a gate. There is a vegetable/herb garden out back that was put in by the Peace Corps volunteers, Tom and Malea who have been living here since January ’09. There are 2 large avocado trees out front that appear to be loaded down with avocados. The house is about the size of our house in Tucson with a large open front room/dining room, a small kitchen with large pantry, and three small bedrooms and 1 bathroom.
The kitchen has 2 water filtration systems so we are able to have good water readily available. There is also a 2 burner gas stove and a small refrigerator. Drew and I will be doing our grocery shopping tomorrow at the market, so we will be able to cook. We will be eating as vegetarians while we are here (as do most of the Rwandans, since meat is expensive and hard to come by). We also learned today that if you purchase a chicken, turkey, or goat, it will arrive at your house still alive and ready to be slaughtered...definitely not going to happen while I am here.
In the bathroom, the hot water heater is built into the wall above the tub, and is plugged in 10-15 minutes before your shower to heat the water. It only works though if there is water pressure and electricity available which luckily is 75-80% of the time, though not always at the same time. Just in case there is no water or electricity available, there are large buckets of water ready to be warmed over the gas stove for light washing. They do not have stand up showers here, nor do they have tub stoppers for a full bath, which definitely makes showering and washing hair pretty difficult, but there is running water in the sink and toilet though so going to the bathroom and washing up is a pretty easy task.
Like I said earlier, our bedroom is cozy but accommodates us well. We have a fairly large wardrobe that holds all of our clothes easily, and a “large” double bed that holds me well and Drew fairly well (his feet only hang off a little). Sleeping under mosquito netting definitely feels exotic but has taken some getting used to. It is also really necessary this time of year, as Rwanda has just begun its rainy season and the mosquitoes are out in full force at night.
So, things around the house are definitely a little different but certainly comfortable and will make for a nice living situation over the next month. Today, in town, we were able to meet with the hospital director for the district, and he showed Drew some of the ropes of the pediatric ward, so he will be getting started there tomorrow morning. We also went by the primary school where I will be working with elementary-aged kids who are on break for the next 4 weeks, but are excited enough to have a white American English teacher that they are willing to come hang out at school every morning anyway. In the afternoons, I will be hanging out at the orphanage with the younger kids (5 and under) playing and “teaching English” as well. I was only there briefly today, but already I can see that the kids at the orphanage especially will be heartbreakers, so sweet and loving and excited! We will definitely be giving better updates about our job situations once we have been here a little longer. We are definitely anxious to get started tomorrow and see how things go.
One of the biggest challenges so far has been the language barrier. Many Rwandans speak kinyarwanda as their first language (a Bantu language similar to Swahili), and French as their second language (since it was the official language of the country until 2008), and are only now learning English as their third or even fourth language (behind Swahili), now that it is the official language. Many of the young children are better at speaking English than the adults, and many of the adults are definitely learning, but overall it is difficult to communicate beyond basic wants or needs. Drew will fortunately have an interpreter with him that speaks French, English, and kinyarwanda which will hopefully make life a little easier at the hospital, and I will try to learn a few key phrases in kinyarwanda for classroom management and sing and dance for the rest ( a universal language for most children right?) J
We do have a phone here, as well as a modem for the laptop that are both pay as you go. We haven’t quite figured out how expensive it is to use the phone to call home, but we will certainly try to continue updating here and e-mailing as much as we can, and f you want to try to call, we can message you our phone number. All in all, we are doing well, and have had a positive experience so far. We are still a little anxious and hesitant about some things which may get worse before it gets better, but we are both pretty sure we will have a good experience overall.
Murabeho!
No comments:
Post a Comment