I have a regular visitor these days. He comes to my house every morning to wake me up with his strong voice. He storms through the fence to my door. He calls for me. He plans his day to be sure that he is one I wake up to every day.

I look at him, morning, noon, and night, with hungry, longing eyes. I wonder if I will be able to stop myself. He is so well built, so strong, so… big. Someday, I think to myself, I will have him.

He is lucky I am such a good neighbor and stop myself from taking him right then and there in the garden. Self-control. But, with every passing day, I want him more and more. For dinner. Damn, that is one tasty lookin’ cock.

And now, for your enjoyment, a haiku:Cock-a-doodle-doo!Wakes me up early. Daily.I want to eat him.

And another:You look delicious.Feathers: A messy problem.Death will have to wait.

One more:Fried, roasted, grilled, baked,With mashed potatoes, veggies,Maybe tomorrow.

In all honesty, I hate that rooster. He really does come over to wake me up every morning. Even on weekends. He walks around my garden area like he owns it and I’m sure he’ll try to eat my lil sprouts once they grow. And he’s quite a lil slut, as far as chickens go (I’m assuming). All the time, using my back yard as a place to attack those poor lil hens. I throw rocks, I throw dirt, and he returns. Every. Damn. Day.

I have never killed an animal (OK, one squirrel, but I’m pretty sure he was suicidal and I was only a victim to his well-planned demise in front of my car). I had the chance on Thanksgiving, but happily took over the gutting station, rather than the becoming an actual head-chopper-offer. This rooster is testing my patience. I could just write a usual blog post about this, but with a cock for material, I had to make a little fun of it.

Don’t worry! I’ll keep y’all posted on this foul’s fate… (oh, come on, I can't kill my neighbors rooster!)

Hey readers! Thought I fell off a cliff? Or fell into a volcano? Or disappeared into the mist? Well, imaginations be damned, I am just fine. Though, it has been a while! I guess I should fill you in on the break we just had here in good ol’ ‘Wanda.

I think I left off at becoming a librarian. Yup, that’s been cool, but during the break, there weren’t even students to help or entertain, so the majority of April was spent at home. April is the break between first and second term and the break lasts a full four weeks, only one of which was spent marking exams and turning in grades. April is also the beginning of the rainy season that usually lasts until the end of May (or so I’ve been told). The first week, maybe two, were not rainy at all. In fact, I was doing daily rain dances with hopes of filling my water filter or being able to wash my stinky clothes. Well, it took an extra week or two, but those rain gods saw my mad rain dance capabilities and let me have it. It was like the scene in Forrest Gump when our beloved hero talks about the rain in Vietnam: We had little misty rain, a lot of big fat rain, rain coming down sideways, and rain of just about every other type. My basins and buckets have been full for a month.

So this rain, was great. Then it wasn’t. I quickly remembered how klutzy I am when the ground is not firm beneath me, and it only took about 10 steps from my front door to realize this. Dirt roads and paths + buckets of rain = Gil even more graceless than usual the usual tripping and spilling (tell me, how was I EVER in dance for so many years?!). Most of break was not only spent in my village, but the vast majority was spent in my house, far away from the slippery mud roads. Every time I did leave, there was a constant slew of, “Sorry, sorry, sorry!” (this is what they yell when I stumble, slip, trip, or drop something) from people watching me attempt to find footing on the roads. Oh, and a lot of staring at the crazy white girl walking in the rain- shocker. So yes, home was the safest, warmest, driest place to be for the month.

Do you know what staying inside the same house does to a girl after that long? It makes me stir crazy. I watched a lot of movies. I cooked a lot of rice and beans/ other dry storage goods. I cleaned my house with all that rain water a lot. I took a lot of bucket baths to make use of all that water. And I may have gone a weeeeee bit mad. I tried to make this better by having a girlfriend come stay with me for a couple of days. It was great! She was able to make it from her site, but arrived soaked to the bone and had to piggy-back a man across a small river, but she made it! Yaaaay! Sanity!

We lucked out, the next day was sunny! We thought it would be a good idea to go to town, get some food, pick up a care-package of American munchies waiting at the post office, and come back home. Nice day, right? Well, as happens in Rwanda, none of this went according to plan. As we made it down my hill (yes, I call it MY hill) to catch the bus, we quickly realized no bus would be passing. The river on the south side of the hill had swelled so much from the rains that the road was not passable by car. Once again, my friend hopped on the back or a Rwandan man, as did I. For a month, this was the only way in or out of my village in either direction. Laugh it up. I wish I had pictures.

The rest of that day didn’t quite work out either. Many hiccups. A story in its own. We did not get our Ameri-foods or a day in town. We got sunburns, a broken motorcycle taxi, a long walk, and very, very drunk. It was quite warranted, if you ask me.

OK, so back to break. A week after our attempted day out was a scheduled In-Service Training, known in the biz as IST. This is for our entire Peace Corps group (there are 35 of us) to meet for a week and share challenges, successes, and learn about various side projects. It was a lot of information- a lot, but such a good time seeing everyone! Our group is pretty great- I love those fools. And we got to stay at a nice hotel on beautiful Lake Kivu. They had breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, and dinner for us every day. I think I gained all the weight back that I was so happy about losing. They also had beds with pillows. PILLOWS! There were Western toilets (the kinds with seats and flushing contraptions… that worked). Best of all, there were showers. Hot showers. Beautiful showers (not really, they were shower heads over a small basin/drain, no tub, no shower walls or door, no shower curtain- but that sure as hell beats a cup and bucket full of water!). So yeah, that just about sums up IST. Back to the village.

I was thrown back into real life after a week of prepared meals, comfy beds, and did I mention?, showers. It was also back to teaching this week. Quite honestly, this left me crashing hard. It got me down: I came home to a house that had flooded from the rain when I was gone, and it was still a muddy mess, and back to hard work just taking care of myself. Oh, and we got flu shots, so I had all sorts of flu symptoms to make me more pathetic. Then what happened? Klutz Gil pulled through and I fell flat on my front-side onto cement and part of a pile of rocks. I was a bloody, scratched up, bruised up mess. After a day of teaching, followed by a Rwandan holiday (and no school), I didn’t even make it to school the other 2 days of my classes. I stayed in my bed, sick and pouting. It was one of those lowest of the low couple of days. I just wanted to be back to a life of pillows and showers.

Don’t worry, I didn’t wallow much longer. The weekend came and we got a day of sunshine. I found myself a hoe to borrow and sprinted to my overgrown, weedy, mess of a garden. For the last few weekends in a row now, my entire days are spent cleaning the house, then working in the garden for hours on end (until it gets dark, or until the rain is just too much). In just a few weekends, it has gone from awful to turned, turned again, weeded, weeded again, turned again, ugly tree torn down, and the garden space is now fertilized and planted. That’s right, if any bit of dad’s green thumb was inherited by me, I just may have myself a salad one of these days. Gardening has quickly become my meditation, my peace of mind, and my favorite hobby. The mamas love it, too. At first, they thought I was ridiculous, asking for a hoe to use myself. Now they invite me to take their lovely cow shit for fertilizing, they teach me how to turn the ground like Rwandan pros (ummm, this is no different, but they assure me I am doing it wrong and like to show me the right way), and they tell me to bring them veggies once they’ve grown. I like their company, so it’s a deal.

School is also in full swing. Classes are off to a great start, and I have realized how much happier I am working than I am having nothing to do in town during break (remember, this is a boarding school- so during break most of my students were out of town doing big things in Kigali. They think it is HI-larious that I stayed in the village during break). Things are back to normal, things are good. Well, the roads are even more washed out than before- not even piggy-back can get me through, but MOST things are back to normal. Phew.

Rwandan meetings are long. Really, really, really, really,realllllllllllllllly painfully long. Everyone feels it necessary to makespeeches. Everyone feels it necessary to respond to those speeches with evenlonger impromptu speeches. Then yelling. Then those speeches are followed bymore speeches. And a lot more yelling. The other day, we had a meeting in theteacher’s room that started at lunch. Usually, there is a lunch break from12:30-2:00, then classes continue from 2:00-4:30. Our 12:30 meeting lasteduntil 8pm. Without a break. Who cares that classes should be going? There’s ameeting in which we MUST discuss how we will discuss how to create thepass/fail criteria in the next meeting! I wish I was joking. I can’t make thisstuff up.

All of the 7+ hour meeting was held in Kinyarwanda andFrench. My Kinyarwanda skills, quite frankly, suck. I have tried gettingtutors, all of which tell me that I already know Kinyarwanda. No, I know thegreetings, how to get everything I need at the market, and how to get fromplace to place. I do NOT know conversational or “meeting” Kinyarwanda.Apparently, this (market/transportation) is all anyone thinks I need. In astaff meeting, I understand virtually nothing other than negotiating prices/costsof things and course names. Needless to say, the meeting gives me a lot of timeto doodle.

My headmaster was nice enough to appoint me a teacher totranslate general ideas to me. I got updates every 45 minutes or so, until mytranslator mysteriously disappeared for over an hour. Frankly, I didn’t think Ihad missed anything in that hour. I moved toward another teacher who speaksexcellent English and had him translate. Nope, I hadn’t missed anything. And hewouldn’t tell me of the next topic for another hour. At one point, I wentoutside just to get some air and stretch. I walked home, ate a snack, had adance party with a neighbor kiddo on the way back to the school, and returnedto my seat before the next topic of conversation came up. Another teacher wenthome and changed clothes. He returned wearing dress pants, a matching suitjacket, and teal flip-flops. These are the things I take away from themeetings.

It was now 6:30 and things seemed to be wrapping up(?).Maybe it was all of the sugar from the Fantas they were providing, maybe it wasme just wanting to be able to contribute SOMETHING, but I raised my hand andoffered my services as librarian. Our school has a lot of books, mostly text,but a shelf of old novels too. We have all of these resources, and no one tohelp students access them. The library is locked at all times, and students donot have textbooks- these are the only ones. On the spot, I somehow signedmyself up for library hours four days a week from 4:30-8:30 and occasionally onweekends for library/English events. To my surprise, I received applause fromthe teaching staff and was given a librarian title. Yada, yada, yada, meetingcomes to a close an hour later.

The next day, I arrived to the school with signs in hand,advertising library open study hours. The headmaster and other teachers thoughtmy array of colorful pens was outrageous. I posted small signs on most of thedoors on campus. On Monday, the library was open. Day 1 started slow and Ithought I would be lucky if three students came through the door. By the end ofthe night, there were over 30 students flipping through books. Day 2 was evenmore successful. Right away, students came in to study. Many students checkedout books, and I brought in a table full of magazines for them to flip throughin the library. Only downfall was that we ran out of chairs (things could beworse!). Day 3: Another packed library.

In the last few days, we have gone from no library hours to12+ hours per week, signs and study tips hanging throughout the library, frompaper records to an electronic library checkout database, and full support frommany of the other teachers who come in to see how it’s working out on a dailybasis.

It has been less than a week and, already, so much has changed. Icannot wait for this project to expand. I am hoping to organize the books inthe library- the text books are neat, but the rest is a bit of a disaster rightnow. I want to slowly label and sort all of the novels (an idea that mycounterpart thinks is pretty ridiculous, but I have 2 years! Why not?!). I wantto organize themed composition competitions. I want to have monthly English film nightsand group discussion. I want to work on grant funding for more books. I wantthe students to be involved in the library and for THEM to want things for the library. I want to make it welcoming forstudents, rather than just a room of textbooks. I want to break just 1 student ofcopying information from text to assignment and actually have them research andwrite something (even “self-portraits” in my creative performance class werecopied/traced from other drawings… that, or I have a set of sextuplets who alsodraw themselves in exactly the same position). I want a lot, and I know it’snot all going to happen, but attempting it is going to be a trip. Wish me luck!

Oh, and we never did figure out how we will go aboutdiscussing pass/fail criteria (because planning for planning is so necessary?).In fact, I’m not sure what was actually decided upon in that meeting.

Shameless begging time: Until I figure out grant funding, if you have any old books (i/e textbooks that you can’t sell because they’ve released 20 new editions since youtook your class last semester; novels; young adult books; children’s books;ANYTHING!), wholesome family DVDs/ movies on a flash, or magazines to donate(they LOVE magazines… as do I), please feel free to send them my way! USPS hada “media mail” way to send books and magazines at a discounted rate in thepast, I am not sure if it is still going- I am seeing conflicting informationon the internet and it is too slow for me to continue searching right now- butplease check if you think you can help! From what I understand, if it isstill available it is much less expensive than standard shipping. My studentsand I thank you in advance and promise to keep you updated.

I taught my General Paper course the other day, the topicwas on human rights. For the discussion, I had students walk to different areasof the classroom if they ALWAYS agreed with the statement, SOMETIMES agreed, orNEVER agreed. The rules are that there are no wrong answers, as long as you areable to back up your opinion with reasoning. I never give my own point of view,I only facilitate- any reasoning skills are better than none, even if Idisagree (and if I say that I agree with something, all students think it’s theonly right answer since I’m the teacher… no matter how many times I explainotherwise). Once students made it to their spots, I asked students to defendtheir beliefs, giving me their reasons. Of course, being the instigator I am, Iplayed devil’s advocate and would challenge everything they said, even if I wasin full agreement. Some students would slowly shuffle to another belief whenconfronted; others held their ground. It led to some good discussion and a fewdebates. We briefly discussed if killing another person was wrong, if forcingsomeone to work was wrong, if a person should be able to say whatever s/hewants, etc. They didn't seem to have much to say about those topics, even whenI asked follow up questions.

When the statement, “A person should be able to marry whomever s/he wants tomarry,” came up, debates intensified a bit. Most students thought that yes, aperson should marry whomever. I challenged this with, “Anyone?”

“Yes, teacher.”

“What if s/he wants to marry someone of the same sex?” Just to see what wouldhappen. I figured nothing, and that they would move to the next topic.

The students laughed and ran to the SOMETIMES agree area. I did not think I wasgoing to get them to discuss this after the outburst of laughter. One of theboys in the SOMETIMES section shouted, “Teacher, two people of the same sexcannot create life! It is not possible for them to marry!”

“Teacher, it is not possible,” is a common response from many students, despitethe information I give them. More things seem to be impossible than possiblehere if it is a new idea.

To this, the only boy holding his ground in the ALWAYS agree area instantlyretorted that maybe this would solve problems in Rwanda. “Two people of thesame sex cannot create life, and they need a family. They will adopt all of theorphans! The orphans will have homes. It is a better life. Also, it will solvethe problem of overpopulation and family planning. It will solve many problem.”

“But the bible says it is wrong.” Boy in the back yelled.

Silence again. I asked the students if all people always follow the bible, justto stir the pot. Next week's topic: Faith, Tolerance, Acceptance, and Conscience.

“Freedom of religion,” the second boy said, “It is a right. For some people, maybeit [what the bible says] is no problem.”

At this, I saw heads nodding in agreement. They continuedfor a bit, respectfully listening to each other’s points and quickly pointingout counterarguments. The bell rang. My students wanted to continue; I had togive a make-up quiz to some other students, otherwise, I would have continuedlistening to them until they were out of things to say. I think I can count onone hand how many times I have wished the bell hadn’t rang, but this wasdefinitely one of those times. My students were catching onto the fact thatthere was more than one “possible” side to this debate. And they were enjoying itand doing so well!

This day was a good day, an excellent day, without a doubt, the best teachingday to date (even though I did very little, other than facilitate), and thefact that I wasn’t the only one who thought it was important made it better. Sincethen, the students request debates all the time. Just thought I'd share my good day story with you. I hope itis a little bit inspiring. Remember on the truly “terrible, horrible, no good,very bad days” (thank you, Alexander), there will be one of these amazing dayswhere you can almost see the cartoon “idea” light bulbs turning on over otherpeople’s heads. Light bulbs make up for a whole term sprinkled with bad dayswhen you are certain that the only English students understand is, “Give memoney.” …And those days happen. There are plenty of frustrating moments,hours, days, and weeks, but these rare moments make up for all of them.

*If you have not seen the movie “Despicable Me,” do yourselfa favor and watch it. Why? a) It is HI-larious. b) The soundtrack is badass.And c) Reading the title of this entry will become complete with SteveCarrell’s voice-over.

I taught my General Paper course the other day, the topicwas on human rights. For the discussion, I had students walk to different areasof the classroom if they ALWAYS agreed with the statement, SOMETIMES agreed, orNEVER agreed. The rules are that there are no wrong answers, as long as you areable to back up your opinion with reasoning. I never give my own point of view,I only facilitate- any reasoning skills are better than none, even if Idisagree (and if I say that I agree with something, all students think it’s theonly right answer since I’m the teacher… no matter how many times I explainotherwise). Once students made it to their spots, I asked students to defendtheir beliefs, giving me their reasons. Of course, being the instigator I am, Iplayed devil’s advocate and would challenge everything they said, even if I wasin full agreement. Some students would slowly shuffle to another belief whenconfronted; others held their ground. It led to some good discussion and a fewdebates. We briefly discussed if killing another person was wrong, if forcingsomeone to work was wrong, if a person should be able to say whatever s/hewants, etc. They didn't seem to have much to say about those topics, even whenI asked follow up questions.

When the statement, “A person should be able to marry whomever s/he wants tomarry,” came up, debates intensified a bit. Most students thought that yes, aperson should marry whomever. I challenged this with, “Anyone?”

“Yes, teacher.”

“What if s/he wants to marry someone of the same sex?” Just to see what wouldhappen. I figured nothing, and that they would move to the next topic.

The students laughed and ran to the SOMETIMES agree area. I did not think I wasgoing to get them to discuss this after the outburst of laughter. One of theboys in the SOMETIMES section shouted, “Teacher, two people of the same sexcannot create life! It is not possible for them to marry!”

“Teacher, it is not possible,” is a common response from many students, despitethe information I give them. More things seem to be impossible than possible hereif it is a new idea.

To this, the only boy holding his ground in the ALWAYS agree area instantlyretorted that maybe this would solve problems in Rwanda. “Two people of thesame sex cannot create life, and they need a family. They will adopt all of theorphans! The orphans will have homes. It is a better life. Also, it will solvethe problem of overpopulation and family planning. It will solve many problem.”

“But the bible says it is wrong.” Boy in the back yelled.

Silence again. I asked the students if all people always follow the bible, justto stir the pot. The next week's lesson plan was to beon Faith, Tolerance, Acceptance, and Conscience.

“Freedom of religion,” the second boy said, “It is a right. For some people,maybe it [what the bible says] is no problem.”

At this, I saw heads nodding in agreement. They continuedfor a bit, respectfully listening to one another’s points and quickly pointingout counterarguments. The bell rang. My students wanted to continue; I had togive a make-up quiz to some other students, otherwise, I would have continuedlistening to them until they were out of things to say. I think I can count onone hand how many times I have wished the bell hadn’t rang, but this wasdefinitely one of those times. My students were catching onto the fact thatthere was more than one “possible” side to this debate. And they were enjoying itand doing so well!

This day was a good day, an excellent day, without a doubt, the best teachingday to date (even though I did very little, other than facilitate), and thefact that I wasn’t the only one who thought it was important made it better. Sincethen, the students request debates all the time.

Just thought I'd share my good day story with you. I hope itis a little bit inspiring. Remember on the truly “terrible, horrible, no good,very bad days” (thank you, Alexander), that there will also be one of these amazing dayswhere you can almost see the cartoon “idea” light bulbs turning on over otherpeople’s heads. Light bulbs make up for a whole term sprinkled with bad dayswhen you are certain that the only English students know is, “Give memoney.” ...And there are those days. Yes, there are plenty of frustrating moments, hours, days, and weeks,but these rare moments make up for all of them.

*If you have not seen the movie “Despicable Me,” do yourselfa favor and watch it. Why? a) It is HI-larious. b) The soundtrack is badass. And c) Reading the title of this entry will become complete with Steve Carrell’svoiceover.

The title says it all, this week has, in fact, been mostexcellent. The week prior was not, so it came at a nice time. Here it goes:

Over the weekend, I was able to make it to Gitarama to seeif I happened to have an early birthday care-package waiting for me. Afternearly having to jump the post office desk to look for myself, the clerkbrought me a GIANT box from my sis, bro-in-law, and Gracie-pants. WOOHOO! MissClerk disappeared quickly. As I stared with great wonder at the giant box, shedropped another right on top of it. Then another. I quickly realized, I mayhave a bit of an ikipazo (problem) on my hands… These were not shoeboxes. Theywere not big boot boxes, not even flat rate boxes! These were big ol’ things.After being spoiled rotten by friends and family, I was spoiled again by a newfriend here in Rwanda. This passerby in the post office spotted me and insistedon helping me back to town. We would figure the rest out once we got there. Shehelped me schlep everything to the bus, in exchange for all of the candy Ishoved in her purse when she wasn’t looking (she insisted on helping me fornothing... I insisted otherwise). She works for a co-op in Gitarama and Icannot wait to go back to visit the business!

SO, I made it to the bus. Now what? Well, the bus breaks inmy friend’s village, so I figured I’d work it all out over a beer (and Americangoodies!) with him. Success! A delicious meal and icy COLD brew later, I leftwith 2 of my 3 boxes on a motorcycle and trustingly left the remaining box in myfriends’ hands. Let’s hope that was a wise choice- I won’t actually know tilthis coming weekend. Anyway, I made it home with more than half of the goods.And goods they are. Holy! Moly! I have amazing friends and family. I sat on myliving room floor eating mac & cheese for dinner, candy for dessert,drinking Crystal-Light, while watching an American DVD, putting on WAAAAAAAAAYtoo much good smelling lotion, and wearing bright red lipstick and new mascara.While wearing my sweats. I’m all class.

Next day, a friend of mine who lives 2 hours from me cameover for the night. Little did she know, she would be helping me with thebirthday extravaganza! And wouldn’t ya know it, we fashioned a Peace Corps oven-my first time baking here- and baked a cake (thanks Heather!!), then pamperedourselves with all sorts of lotions and scrubs and soaps. Ahhhhhh, to smellgood again. One afternoon was nice, so we spent the day with one of the otherteachers at my school, educating him on all things Hollywood via US Weekly andLife & Style magazines. My friend ended up getting stranded here an extranight since transportation virtually shuts down when you’re 2 hours from apaved road and it’s raining cats and dogs. It was nice having her stuck here.Movie marathons galore!

The weekend came to an end, as I figured was the same for mystretch of awesome days. WRONG. Woohoo! Awesomeness rounding-out and following theweekend:

*It rained, so I had lots of water that I didn’t have to haul up a big ol’hill.

*I did my laundry BEFORE it was a dire situation.

*My class that was being little shits pulled it together and totally wowed mewith the last day of presentations.

*“Back to the Future” finished downloading. YES.*I had a human rights discussion in one of my classes thatbrought a tear to my eye. It was amazing. Blog entry may be necessary toexplain the whole situation. Ihangane.

*Unforgettable moments in class occurred back to back: 1) While playing 20questions one of the questions was, “Are you an erection?” And I was the onlyone giggling, but say “Sex,” and the rest of the class FLIPS OUT; 2) My student’salternative energy presentation included a portion on obtaining energy from “thebull shit,” evoking no response from the other students, but making me have topull myself together as not to interrupt his presentation.

*I successfully opened the school library! (Another entry on this soon tocome!)

*My face and feet are cleaner and softer than they have been in 6 months…possibly longer- thanks, sis!

*My lil sis sent me my earrings from home, so I’ve been glamming it up andfeelin’ extra feisty because of it.

*It’s almost Thursday and I still have a cupboard full of sweets from backhome!

*To celebrate moving into upper-20s age (eew.), I’ll be meeting with friendsthis weekend for a real pedicure and festive spirits.

Let the good times roll. I just hope they keep rollin’ likethis.

K, done bragging for today. And here are some more of thesebecause there weren’t quite enough to express my week: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Break is over. School is starting.

All through training, we had many seminars and personalexperiences regarding the concept of time in Rwanda.

“It’s elastic,” they said.“If something begins at 10, do not expect people until noon,”they warned. “School will have a start date, but do not expect yourstudents until at least a week later,” they continued.

Not at ES Kirinda!

I’m happy to report, the students were ready to go, mostwith pens in hand on day 1 of class. The teachers were not all there. Theteachers are the ones who show up to their classes late. But, for the mostpart, the students were ready to roll! Luckily, after almost a month ofR&R, so was I.

I jumped right into teaching. Well, I got to ease in alittle: In Rwanda, senior 1 and senior 4 students wait until they have theresults from the National Exams before returning to the next year and nextlevel. Hold up, background: Students take these exams as primary 6 and senior 3students- November and December are like summer break before going into thenext grade, and they can’t go into the next grade without passing these exams.Exams will be a whole other blog entry, in and of themselves. Oye. Anyway, senior1 and 4 students don’t arrive until February. My schedule, upon arrival ofsenior 1 and 4 would look like this, but would start without them:

Creative Performance; levels senior 1-3 (5 hours per week total split between 5separate classes)

General Paper; levels senior 4 and 5 (4 hours a week to 2 classes)

English; levels senior 5 and 6 (4 hours a week to 2 classes)

I should say, ages are hard to determine in classes sinceparents seem to enter and take students out of classes whenever they feel necessary(reasons for both vary greatly), but the gist is that s1 is the equivalent of 7thgrade, on to senior 6 being equal to high school senior level. This issecondary school, there is also p1-6, being primary school. In secondaryschool, students easily range from 12-mid 20s in just about any class. It’sconfusing, to say the least, but, we make it work.

So yes, 15 hours may not seem like much, but when you arewriting lesson plans for all different classes at all different levels and youhave never stepped foot in a classroom before, it’s work. It’s a lot of work.Also, classrooms here are not like classrooms in the states. There are lightsin my classroom, but I don’t think they work. I don’t really care about them,lights are pretty much unnecessary during the day. There are old blackboardsand there is chalk. There are no overheads, no projectors, no markers, no whitepaper, no scissors, no glue sticks, no crayons, no paints, no pencils, and noTVs. There are no bookshelves, no easels, no textbooks, no PA systems forannouncements. There is chalk, and there are chalkboards. And classes are not aridiculous size if they are pushing 30 students, not unless you are talkingridiculously small. My classes range from 40-60 students. Whoa. Holy intro toteaching, Batman. Although the classrooms are much different than the US, theyaren’t all bad, think: No cell phones to deal with, no ipods distracting kids,no game systems. It’s just challenging in very ways and resources that areeasily taken for granted- especially when it comes to classes like CreativePerformance. My creativity is going to be tested, big-time. But, so far, sogood!

Students’ abilities range even more drastically than theirages. There are s1 students who understand me just fine, and some who don’tcatch a word. It’s the same way in all of the other levels, with (hopefully) afew more understanding English a little bit more in each level. I’m stillfiguring out if there’s a method of how a student passes into the next level,but for now, I’ll just keep teaching as best I can. Lots of group work, lots ofpeer-reviewing so that the students are able to help one another, and lots ofjust hoping that something I teach will stick. It’s challenging, no doubt, butI love it. I’ve realized I really, really like teaching- even the tough days.There are always a few students that get it, want to know more, and askquestions that make my day. There are also students that don’t give a shit andprefer naps over group work. It’s not that unlike high school in America! I’lldo what I can.

Now, it is February and I’ve just completed my first week ofa full schedule. To sum it up, it’s busy.

I like being busy.

We arrived at site in mid-December. School was set to beginJanuary 9th, giving me almost a month at site before any sort ofroutine could present itself. What’s a girl to do? Enjoy, that’s what. Afterthree months straight of constantly running to different classes and trainingfunctions, fighting off some kind of mysterious illness, infection, or injury,I was able to actual recover. It was awesome and absolutely, 100% necessary. Iwas able to take the time to unpack, shop at the market for myself, cook formyself, go to sleep when my body needed it, eat when I needed to eat, all of it.These were vast differences from training. Don’t get me wrong, community basedtraining was awesome and prepared me well for many cultural aspects, but beingforce-fed at weird hours, constant classes, not being able to sleep when youknow you need it, and not being able to prepare food without the use of a literof oil per day was exhausting! Moving to site gave me time to settle in andrelax for a minute before school began and I am grateful for it.

Other than unpacking, which really doesn’t take long whenyou only bring a few bags with you, I got into a short, month long routine. Iwould clean the house, wash clothes almost daily so that my laundry pile neverreached the clouds, I cooked, studied Kinyarwanda and chatted with the neighborkids and mamas, read, and exercised (walks around the village, OR cheesyworkout DVDs), and went to bed before I was a walking zombie or falling asleepin the living room- which happened regularly at my host-home. It was fantastic.For the first time in Rwanda, I was completely content and, above all, healthy.

Arriving a month before school began was obviously great,but there was one more sobering thought: The thought of having to spendChristmas and New Year’s in a brand new village all alone. It may not have beenso bad to go to a neighbor’s house for the holidays, but being at a boardingschool, most of the teachers were not even in Kirinda for the break! Most wereeither in Kigali helping mark the national exams, or in their hometowns withfamily. I ended up deciding to get out for Christmas. It was not far, less thanan hour from here, but I went to a friend’s house with some of the other newvolunteers and we made the best out of our holiday away from home. It wasgreat, actually! We all were able to hang out, relax, have a beer, play games,cook, and eat together. Christmas Burritos will have to become a new tradition,homemade tortillas and all. Although Christmas was great, it was my firstChristmas away from home and quite different from orange sweet rolls, the menorah,the Christmas tree, and multiple holiday feasts at Mom and Dad’s!

I decided to spend New Year’s Eve at home, but last minute,I also decided that there was no reason I couldn’t host! So a few friends cameby for the night, which turned into a few nights pretty quickly. Just like athome, I always enjoy hosting and it always makes me happy, so I had a greattime cooking and sipping whiskey all weekend. Yep, just like New Year’s at home-minus the cute outfit, bars, New Year’s hats and crowns, fireworks, orchampagne. Meh, there will be plenty more New Years to celebrate… given the apocalypseskips over its predicted 2012 date. Shoooooot.

Enter January 9th and the beginning of school. Butby then I was all settled in to my house and entering a new chapter of myadventure in Africa. Tales of ES Kirinda will just have to wait…

Our swear-in ceremony was much like graduation. After whatseemed like forever in training, we were finished with the ceremony quickly andit was on to volunteer status. The ceremony was lovely; it was at the ambassador’sresidence in Kigali and there were news reporters, a few NGO workers, somehost-family representatives, and many of the previous volunteers who had helpedduring our training. We were all excited and loved getting a little dressed upfor such a graduation-like event. If you’re interested, here’s a little presswe received here in Rwanda: New Peace Corps Volunteers Sworn-in

After 3 days of celebrating and playing in Kigali, eatingfood that wasn’t rice or beans with tomato/oil/water “sauce,” and goingdancing- yes, dancing(!), I awoke early Sunday morning to load up a car and betaken 3 hours west. My site is in Kirinda in the Karongi District, which is inthe Western Province. On a map, it’s most likely invisible, but it’s in themiddle of two larger towns, Gitarama and Kibuye, not far from the river thatruns between the two. Good luck searching.

Kirinda is a nice village. It’s quiet, small, and absolutelybeautiful. My home is at the top of the hill, so the view is spectacular,especially on a clear day. Kirinda is about 2 hours from the nearest pavedroad, so I’m out there a bit, but I like it a lot. Although I am farther awayfrom things like real restaurants, banks, or post offices, it’s got it’s perks!I am only a minute walk from the school, so that’s extra convenient on days Isleep a little past my alarm. I live behind a hospital and health center, andthe village shops are only 5 minutes from my house where I can get thenecessities. There is a market twice a week that is set up about 10 minutesfrom me, so it’s only a quick walk to all sorts of fresh produce and goods.

My house is, well, it’s pretty much awesome. It’s far largerthan necessary, but that just makes it even more OK for you to come and visit.I have a grassed front yard, which is rare by my account of Rwanda, and a bigbean garden in the back yard. Lucky for me, I was asking a neighbor when Ishould start my own garden on the side of my house, and she told me to just usethe bean area since the harvest was finished. Woohoo! GIANT garden is on theway… as soon as the rainy season starts up again. Anyway, back to the house. Ido not have running water, but I DO have electricity, which is a luxury that Idon’t take for granted. It’s really, really nice. I have a living area, 2 bigbedrooms, and 1 huge bedroom that is used as my indoor kitchen, instead. I havea more traditional Rwandan kitchen outside, but I opt to use a hot plate insidemost of the time. For things that take a long time to cook (beans, sauces), I gowith the charcoal stove outside.

Although my initial idea of housing in the Peace Corps wasremoved from just about everything around, my house is part of teacher-housingand I have neighbors on 2 sides of me. There are kids in my area, so they havebecome my buds, we draw, color, and dance around on a regular basis, and theydon’t seem to mind my crappy excuse for Kinyarwanda. I’m still waiting for thislanguage to click. The neighbor mamas have all been very nice, too. Theyoccasionally check on me to make sure I’m surviving, but they don’t baby me orthink I’m completely helpless, which is appreciated. They seem to get a kickout of my American-isms though. Like hanging things on my walls- I have photoseverywhere and all visitors come over just to check them out, laugh, andgo. They also seem to get laughs out ofall the coloring things I have around for the kids (and myself), that I don’tdrink my tea with milk and a ton of sugar, that I actually like when theneighbor dogs come by to visit, and that I always have a bag of coffee on mykitchen table. These things are a riot.

So, welcome to Kirinda! I can’t say too much, since themajority of entries will be all about this place! Plenty more stories to comefrom…

OH! Wildlife update: There are a lot of goats here. Andchickens! But the chickens don’t have a vendetta against me as the Karamachickens did AND they don’t shit all over my yard. I kind of like these ones. Who knew?

If all has worked according to plan, even without facebook you should now be able to access my photo albums via the links provided on the right side of the page. There should be a heading ("Photos," original, right?) and album titles listed under. They are set up as links.

Hope it works! I'll get this blog up and running...

Whoa, my bad. Yes, I straightdisappeared for a while according to this blog. I guess it’s time to fill in myplethora of loyal fans and readers (yes, Mom and maybe 3 others, all of you!)all about the happenings of the past few months. My writing hiatus had nothingto do with being attacked by lions or making friends with gorillas, I’m sorryto say, so don’t get your hopes up too much for these stories. Everyday lifejust got away with me! So, here’s what you’ve missed in the next few entries. Also, I’d liketo add pictures, I really would, but I just can’t see doing it for facebook ANDthe blog, and the facebook uploader is more user-friendly, so facebook wins. Ifyou are not on facebook (come on already; even Syd has a facebook page now) andwould like a link to see the photos, I think it’s possible! Just let me knowand I’ll email the info to you…

Also, I recently watched the movie “Julie& Julia,” the one about the girl who blogs her way through Julia Child’s cookbook. It made me want followers and comments and fans and book deals and movies starring MerylStreep! OK, not all that stuff, but if you are a follower or just like stumbling onto myblog, feel free to leave comments telling me what it is that you actually wantto read. Anyway, I think it was watching this movie- and Mom’s recurringrequests- that made me open this page up and start typing again.

(Side note: Watching that movie while in the Peace Corps just may qualify astorture, especially a self-proclaimed foodie and girl that just loves to cook.Gourmet French cuisine in every scene? Martinis? Red wine? Butchers that don’tdisplay meat on the ground and covered in flies? Fellow volunteers, don't do it unless you’ve mentallyprepared yourself.)

Here we go…

It is December 5th, and the 10-day countdownuntil Swear-in is upon us. What does it all mean? What’s the big deal? Will itmean anything different? Well, since you asked…

The swear in ceremony marks the point when a Peace Corpstrainee becomes a volunteer. The bar mitzvah, the graduation, the quinceanera- therite of passage to volunteer status. As I overheard another trainee tellingsomeone on the phone the other day, “I’m more excited for swear in than I wasfor graduation.” Yup, that about sums it up, and it was infinitely moredifficult than any school I had to get through to graduate. Three months doesnot seem like a long time, but I’m pretty amazed at the amount of stuff packedinto them. Language, culture, language, meeting people, security, health, and techsessions, teaching for 4 weeks, more language, phew!

So yes, swear in is a big deal and I cannot wait! Although Iwill miss my host parents, brothers, and sisters, I’m really looking forward to livingback out on my own and doing my own thing. I’m a big fan of living alone, andalthough I’ll undoubtedly have some lonely days, I’m looking forward to havingmy own schedule, my own music, privacy, and maybe even a dinner party or two.Woohoo! Back to being able to cook (this privilege was recently revoked when myhost mom and sis decided that my bites were not from insects, but from thesmoke from cooking, rather), wake up when I want, go to sleep when I want, anddance around my house like an idiot/brushing up on my pirouettes. Yay!

Swear in will take place on the 15th of Decemberat the US Ambassador’s house in Kigali. It should be pretty fancy schmancy (we already got a crash course in etiquette, a.k.a. "Don't eat all the hors d'oeuvres in 10 seconds," lesson), so I justleft a bunch of fabric and a couple designs with a local seamstress in hopesthat she can make me a fun dress to wear for the occasion. Fingers are crossed-I’ve certainly never drawn out sketches for clothing, so we’ll see! After theceremony, we’re all taken to site over the course of 3 days. Lucky me! I get togo on day 3, so I have a few days to play in Kigali with the other volunteerswaiting to be taken to their new homes! A last 72-hours to pack in lots of funtime with the people I’ve become good friends with over the past 3 monthsshould be a pretty awesome kick off to a new chapter…

Happy belated Thanksgiving, everyone! I missed my friendsand family dearly this first big holiday away, but I can honestly say that itwas a pretty awesome Thanksgiving. Lucky for me, I got to talk to a bunch offriends the night before Thanksgiving while they were bringing in the beginningof the holiday season, talked to my cousin (albeit horrible delays), and talkedto the fam on both my Thanksgiving, as well as theirs. Although I wasn’t thereto partake in eating and drinking too much, it was good to be somewhat presentvia phone for a bit.

Thanksgiving in Rwanda started off great, with eight liveturkeys arriving at our “hub” school before their big day. On Wednesday, a fewbrave souls/trainees took charge and sliced the heads right off of those birds(after a quick tutorial, of course). Wings flapped, blood squirted, killerswere made. I couldn’t miss it, so of course I was right there taking photos andcheering on the guys doing all the dirty work. After the deed was done (x 8),it was on to plucking and gutting stations. Yep, had my hands in each of those processes!Yikes. Sidenote: Turkeys stink. Real bad. Freshness is obviously not a factor.

After learning more about turkey anatomy than I ever thoughtI would know (ummm, yeah, the gizzards and good guts are not neatly packagedinside the turkey like those Butterballs back home- who knew?!), I called it anight and headed back to town for a few hours of sleep. Upon returning to thehub, a small group of trainees had already filled a pit in the dirt withcharcoal, wrapped up the birds, and covered them with more charcoal and dirt tohave them slow cook all day. Remember, no, “Set it & Forget it,” bird here,no ovens, and no stoves- just a hell of a lot of charcoal and individualcharcoal burner thingies. I led Team Mashed Taters and spiced them up with allsorts of rosemary, garlic, and butter. Not bad, if I do say so myself! Afterpotatoes, I helped with a few of the other sides, but the day was pretty much awaiting game for the gang, as always on Thanksgiving!

The turkeys were dug up from their pit around 5pm and wewere sitting and eating, nearly 60 of us (trainees, teachers, and staff), anhour or so later.

SUCCESS.

No really, and I was skeptical! Thanksgiving, Rwanda-style,included turkey, mashed potatoes, homemade gravy with all the icky bits,stuffing, mac & cheese, green bean casserole, pumpkin bread, and a cookie.I think we definitely surprised ourselves pulling it all together.

Each one of use had a lot to be thankful for this holiday,and not just a meal made with ingredients varying from rice, beans, andpotatoes. I’m most thankful for having such an awesome group of new friends tospend the holiday with, and for all of the support I have back home. Being awayfor holidays is tough, but with all your words of kindness and support, it’sdoable. Love and miss you all!! Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Alright, how 'bout something a little lighter after the blog about being a snotty, bitten, coughing, puffy disaster- shall we?

A list of little things that make me laugh, smile, or just scratch my head. I'm a big fan of making lists:

The fact that I used to help prepare dinner every night, but Mama and sis have recently started believing that my bites are not, in fact, bites at all. They are most definitely a reaction from the smoke from the wood fire. There will be no more helping, despite my efforts to cook. I must be across the house, as far from the fire as humanly possible. I am not a small girl, yet they seem to think I am withering away to nothing. The diet here consists of white rice, potatoes, fried potatoes, sweet potatoes, plantains, beans, and an oil based sauce. I am not withering anywhere quick.SUGAR. I put a lot of sugar in my tea, a tablespoon-ish. Why so much? Because my family thinks I am insane if I put in any less. My family members typically stir in 3 HEAPING spoons per cup of tea. I get glares and pointing if I don't go a little crazy with it. There are goats everywhere I look, and not a crumble of feta cheese in sight. This is not on the right list, this actually makes me sad, not happy! But, it's funny, so it's somehow on here.Goats. Everywhere. People own goats and tie them to random weeds all around the village. The goats could easily eat the weed they are tied to and be free, but they just spend the day walking in circles around the weed, eating all the other weeds and grass. Goats part III. Baby goats! If they don't make you crack a smile, I don't know what will. OK, enough about goats."You're getting so fat!" is a compliment, and used even if you haven't gained weight.Hanging clothing out to dry after washing them.... as it is raining (hey, it's better than letting them sit in a wet pile inside!).Evil chickens in the latrine/washroom. Even though I despise them, I still get a chuckle out of it... then Mama and Papa laugh at me... then I laugh at them imitating me. It is always funny.I watched a man side a house this morning. He did this by getting the dirt wet, mixing it into thick mud, then flinging said mud onto the front of the mud bricks of the house.Drinking Fanta Citron means you're a "bad girl," while drinking Fanta Orange clearly means you are a virgin. Duh.Gusura= to visit, but Gusura= to fart. Tonal languages make for interesting conversations about who I visited during the day. How often I am told I am wrong when people ask if we have something in America. Example: Rwandan: Do you have shoes like this in America? Me: Yes, I have a pair. Rwandan: HA! No, you don't!!! (Laughing hysterically). Example 2: Rwandan: Do you cook in America? Me: Yes, all the time. I like to cook. Rwandan: No, you don't (laughing). Me: Yes, I do. My dad likes to cook, too. Rwandan: NO! You're father does NOT cook. You lie! At first, this bothered me a bit- as it goes for everything, not just gender role differences- but now it just makes me laugh. Sometimes I go with it.The kiddos on the way to Kinyarwanda class. They are my favorite in our training village. It has taken 2 months, but now, I walk by to all of them running up, yelling my Kinyarwanda name, Gir-a-maaaa-taaaaaaa!, and giving me great bug hugs. It makes every morning pretty awesome.The fact that my Kinyarwanda name is Giramata. It means to have milk to share with all; milk being wealth, not as in boobs full of milk. Anyway, it's a good, fun name and instantly makes new acquaintances laugh when I introduce myself.In talking about males and females, or about the fact that I am an American GIRL, means people sometimes gesturing a lot around my boob-age (this is specifically funny to me when it's old people gesturing). It reminds me of my auntie and cousins. Miss you guys!Finally, Mama. I love this woman. Although my comprehension (ummm, and actual speaking of) Kinyarwanda is AWFUL, she makes me laugh all the time. She does impressions of Rwandan vs. American women for me, in Kinyarwanda, with charades. These usually start up every night after dinner when I do not eat "enough" food. It usually has something to do with me being a skinny American girl, but that if I want to learn Rwandan culture, I have to eat more. A lot more. Specifically cooked plantains (ibitoki), as this is what I need to eat in order for my ass to get big and stick out, like the Rwandan women.Charades usually goes from walking quickly and being svelte like an American woman, to being slow and sticking her butt out, to represent how the Rwandan women walk. This never fails to be amusing to me. Someday, I will take video of her doing this all through the living room, so that I can always watch it and laugh hysterically after a tough day.OK, I think that's enough for now! By the way, this blog is not culturally insensitive or me talking shit- it's stuff I openly laugh about with my family, teachers, and community. There's a lot of laughing when comparing all of this.

It sucks being sick. What else has the power to turn a grownadult into a snotty, gross, crusty, infantile being? Not much. I knew that injoining the Peace Corps, I was setting myself up for bug bites and stomachflus, but jeeeeeeeeeeze, it’s only been 10 weeks! So this here may be my, “Woeis me,” training blog. It is not meant to sound pitiful, it is not meant tomake mom worry, I’m not looking for, “Awwwww, poor Gilly!” comments and callsat all- SERIOUSLY- don’t leave them!, I'm not trying to bitch, moan, and whine- it ends on a positive note!, it’s more or less just for me to lookback on and to simply share just what this experience has included, both upsAND downs. It’s actually oddly funny to me, too. I mean, really, can this muchcrap really be thrown at one volunteer all the time? It’s to the point of me thinkingit’s pretty comedic, like when slapstick comedians just keep falling, runninginto things, getting hit by random pies, etc- Three Stooges-esque, but I’m theonly Stooge! I’m kind of banking on thefact that all of this is hitting me now, so for a good while of service, Ishould be in the clear! Right? Right???

Here we go:1. Bedbugs- This was the first challenge that Ifaced in coming here. Round 1 itched and was annoying, but nothing bad enoughto get me riled up, just super irked.2. Stomach stuff- Recurring and expected. No big.It hasn’t gotten too bad (knock on wood)!3. Second degree- I guess the walk from the marketwas not as shaded as I thought. My bad. This burn was surprisingly one of theleast painful I’ve had, but I have covered myself in SPF ever since- I don’twant all those wrinkles!4. Bedbugs- Round 2. Die bitches. I believe this iswhen I waged war on them, as noted in a previous blog post. WentAfrican-insecticide wild. This round of bites also resulted in a strepinfection of some bites, likely due to a weakened immune system from the otherbites, environmental changes, and a little thing called stress (? What??).5. Girlie issues- I’ll spare you all the awesomedeets.6. Migraines- Associated with issue #5. Sweet! nauseaand pain. Ongoing and not awesome.7. Mystery skin bubbles- WTF?! This is my favorite.I got to go to Kigali for a couple days while the doctor checked these guys outand sent the inner-goooo to the lab (Kigali = SKYPE with Ty & sis, coffee,showers, and flush toilets. And the bubbles weren’t super painful, so yes, thisis the best of the best weird health related things!). Anyway, test resultscame back as nothing. Just dime-size diameter blistery looking bubbles on mylegs without reason. No reason is better than infection, but seriously, I likeanswers. 8. Bedbugs- Round 3. This time we mean business. Again,everything was washed, this time in boiling water- all but the clothes I waswearing. And my room was sprayed with US-approved insecticide (thank youUSAID!). The next day I watched a bedbug stroll across my laptop screen while Iwas typing up lesson plans. Ahhhhhhhhhh!9. Mosquito buffet- Sent from my home to our Hub infirmaryto escape the dreaded bedbugs for the few days before they could spray. Hub didnot have mosquito nets. Hub had mosquitoes. I woke up so swollen that I couldn’teven SEE the individual bites, as they were all puffed together on my arms,back, and all over my face. For the love. This wasn’t great for the immunesystem, either. On a more positive note, I was sure to get the infirmary fully stocked with nets!1 0 Killer cough from outer space- It’s icky.

And last but not least, I had a NIGHT TERROR! Not just anightmare. I may be somewhat well known for my …err…. Interesting noises that Imake in my sleep, but last night takes the cake! I remember a noise coming fromoutside my window, which usually happens when an animal or wind shakes theattached clothes wire that is wrapped around the bars outside my window. Iremember the noise (however, I don’t know if it was real or dreamed up!). Thenext thing I knew, I woke up standing in my room, screaming at the window,sweating, shaking, and reaching to flip on the light switch. Weirdest thing I’veever knowingly done while snoozin’. Itcould be an adverse effect of the antimalarial I am on; however, I haven’t hadany other crazy reactions. If it happens again, I’ll ask the docs aboutswitching it up. So weird!

So there you have it, a 10-week, 10+ item ridicu-list of allof the things I’ve made it through! I’ve decided to take notes from the persistent little bedbug, and follow his lead, meaning I’m still truckin’along! Thanks for the motivation, lil guy, I needed it… Sorry I squashed you tosmithereens.

Haha, no, I’m not.

Hello again, friends, fam, and strangers. It’s been over amonth! Sorry. And thank you, Pam, for reminding me to get writing. Things havebeen BUSY for us trainees out here. Lots to catch up on! Today’s topic: ModelSchool.

What is it and why is it taking up all of Gil’s preciousblog writing time? Why on Earth are dirty Peace Corps hippies teaching studentsthe art of modeling? Why has there been no mention of wild, African animalstampedes?! These are fair questions.

To start, model school is a month long mock-class practicewe have teaching Rwandan students in secondary school. All of our students wererecruited just before school was let out for the equivalent of summer vacation(late October-mid January; transition to the next school year). These studentscome to class Monday through Friday from 8am-11am and give us a chance to seewhat real classes are like. We each teach around 1 ½ hours per day and switchclasses to a different grade level every Monday, allowing us to see whereSecondary grades 1, 2, and 3 are.

Classes are a little bigger than US schools- my currentclass has just over 60 students! Yes, 60+ hormonal, pre-teen, middle schoolaged kiddos. Hell? The idea sounded awful to me, but it’s working, and I evenlike it. A lot. Who knew? Rwandan students have their days, but it is NOTHINGlike my middle school- these kids are relatively angelic (even when they’rewild).

Other than classes being pretty huge, the classroom set upis a little different, as well. Classes are usually columns of desks that wouldprobably seat 2 American students, but Rwandan students prefer to squeeze 3 to4 per desk, even when the other desks are empty. Oh well, at least they’rethere! Also, there is no electricity, so there are no lights, smart-boards,laptops, desktops, copy machines for worksheets, clocks, overheads, or whiteboards- just good ol-fashioned blackboards, chalk, and big, open windows. Backto basics, but it works! There are also no textbooks or workbooks for students(I haven’t seen them for teachers, either, for that matter). They copy allnotes written on the board into copybooks and use that as their text.

Students seem pretty excited to learn English from Englishspeakers, but the change in classroom culture is tough for them. In Rwanda, we’velearned that students are used to a teacher centered learning approach, inwhich the teacher stands and lectures; students copy. We were told that it’sentirely possible for a student to go all through primary and secondary schoolwithout talking. Sometimes teachers will ask questions, but many students wouldrather not answer for fear of being wrong. “Mistakes are OK!” and “Questionsare good!” are things we regularly say that are definitely new concepts to alot of the students.

Students in each grade are all different ages here, I’dguess anywhere between 10 and 25. Given the history of the country, it’sunderstandable and no one really asks. Many students were pulled out of schoolwhen things got bad here, some families left the country, some came back andenrolled back in school later on. Things were, and still may be, a littledisheveled, but the government lets citizens get back into school wherever theyleft off, so that’s a step in the right direction. It’s going to be a challengemaking lessons interesting to both kids and adults! Always interesting.

So there you have it: Model school is full of children andvolunteers, not runways or supermodels. Though being the white girl walkingdown the path to the school may be grabbing just as much attention as asupermodel strut… In the end, I’m probably learning far more than the studentsI stand in front of every morning. Cheesy, but absolutely true. I’m lovingevery minute of model school, even the loud, unruly ones. I hope that teachingat site is as positive an experience! Wish me luck- less than a month oftraining to go!

Oh, and the unmentioned animal stampedes? The closest thingI’ve seen occurred on the day when a veterinarian was in town and all of thevillagers walked their cows to town… There were a lot of cows. I will call it astampede- it sounds cooler. Finally, a full update of creatures I have seen(since this seems to be a common thing I am asked):CowsGoats. A lot of goats.RabbitsWild turkeysGeckosChickensAll sorts of birdsA snake- it was cut in half and still slithering… bothhalvesFrogsRatsMiceLots of Insects & Spiders

Not what you were expecting? Ihangane, my friend, ihangane(be patient).

As you may have read, my fam got a TV last week! Cool right?My room is next to the living room, so I can always hear whatever music videosare playing while I study. Today I had a breakthrough in Rwandan culture andfound myself humming along to gospel songs that have become a staple at home,and even tapping my feet to some DreamBoys (Rwandan super-pop boy band). Another cross-culture moment occurred on a particularlyboring Tuesday afternoon. Mama and Papa were working, my oldest little sisterwas MIA for the day, and I was home chillin with my 3 sibs (ages 12, 14, and17) and a few of their friends for a few hours. After a while of studying andtrying to talk to each other a bit in the few words of Kinyarwanda that I know,I decided to bust out the laptop for some itunage. After finding some goodstuff that I thought they may have/should have heard of, we rocked out andended up having a dance party in my room for a while. This will definitely behappening on more of a regular basis from now on. Even though my fam has neverheard of Disney or Wizard of Oz (yeah, just try to explain THOSE Halloweenpicture), or any of the other films I’ve listed, we have a mutual love forShakira, Beyonce, Justin Timberlake, Lady Gaga, Jay-Z, and some other artiststhat are big here in Rwanda. We even had an Akon sing-a-long session whilepeeling potatoes the other night. The language may be different, but music hasthe ability to transcend language barriers, which is pretty awesome when you’rein the middle of Rwanda.Kung fu. Not what I think of when I hear, “Rwanda,” but it’sjust another culture surprise! Maybe it’s actually just a family thing and notso much a cultural thing, I haven’t decided, but my lil bros are all about someKung Fu films. When it’s not gospel music videos, old biblical fims starring adubbed over super young Angela Lansbury, or the Rwandan equivalent oftelenovelas (and equally as awesome!), it’s all about the Kung Fu. Tonight?Shaolin Soccer. Usually the films are more serious, but this one was crackingme up, despite me not catching any of the script. Slapstick kung fu? Who knew.In other cultural breakthrough news: I recently experiencedeating all sorts of meat that would not normally cross my dinner plateincluding goat and rabbit- and those are just the ones that I know of- butwon’t go into great detail as to interesting cuts of meat for fear that I willlose one or all of my few followers! Moral of the story: I’m all for trying newthings, but as I have found out, there are some things/organs I just can’tstomach. I guess I am no Andrew Zimmermersomethingerother (the Bizarre Foodsguy), but I tried. Then I tried another bite of something to wash down thefirst mystery meat. Fail. Miserable fail.Speaking of failing, I heard my new favorite words to liveby this morning that I will leave you with before I sign off for the evening:Try and fail, but do not fail to try. Simple advice, but so important. I washaving a rough morning and these wise words came to me at just the right time.I love it when things like that fall into place just when you need them to.

Yep, this Peace Corps trainee has waged a war- on my latestarch nemesis. This latest foe has taken the place of the latrine chickens on the top of the chart of things that hate me in Rwanda and has set up camp in my mattress. Bed bugs. Gross, right? I was really chillabout them for a while, I mean as much as I could be. I joined the Peace Corps and pretty muchexpected more than a couple of bug bites, but after counting (and marking themwith pen, as not to double count any of them) all 149 of them over the weekend,and I have woken up with more every day, I would say I’m up to approximately200- is wish that were an exaggeration- and have just about hit my personallimit. I think over half of the trainees in my sector are with me on theinfestation, but somehow none of our fams have been attacked! I think it’s thesmell of leftover cheeseburgers, thai food, and pizza in our blood from pre-departurebinges that makes us so irresistible, but that’s just my opinion. Shoot, thesmell of any of those things are pretty irresistible to me, too! Mmmmmmm, crapfooooooood. So I wash my sheets, I bleach mop my floors 3-4 times perweek, I soaped the floor, I bleached the bed frame, I washed all of my clothes,to no avail. This morning, I bleached and fumigated with some funky smelling aerosol:That better kill the lil’ shits. If not, someone please send a gallon ofBenedryl anti-itch my way (please & thanks!). It’s on, bedbugs. It’s on.Other than sharing my bed with my unwanted lil’ friends,things are good! Site announcements are shared tomorrow, and then next week I’llhead to wherever my future site may be for a sneak peek around the town andschool in which I’ll be working. Woohoo! I’ll certainly be updating with more infoonce I know a little more! Added plus: Being away all week may cause my bedbugs to move on… or at least give them time to breathe in the sweet smell ofthe fumes! Double win for Gilly this week.Got a bed bug remedy? Ways to get rid of them? Ways to stopthe itching? All tips are welcome.

.... and a blog entry that's not WAY too long!

Hello all, it’s been a bit since my last update, but therehasn’t been too much worthy of bloggage. Until now, that is. Papa F came hometoday with… get this… wait for it… suspense is building… A TELEVISION! What?!It is nothing like the ones back home, it is a 14” that is far deeper than thescreen size, but it is a TV and the cause for much excitement around thehomestead! We set up a DVD player with the new addition, and it came with 3burned DVDs (sweet!): A possible kung-fu film that is dubbed in Kinyarwanda (Ithink. It was turned off in the first few minutes), a burned version of the newKarate Kid film (the one with Jayden Smith, but no one knows who his pops ishere) that is also dubbed in Kinyarwanda (once again, I think?! They turned itoff within the first minute), and an awesome DVD of local Rwandan gospel choirssinging their hearts out (this one is subtitled in English, so I am urged tosing along in English). Already, the gospel choir music videos/DVD is mostpopular by a landslide- the fam is currently singing along on the other side ofthe wall. I was happy to be able to help set everything up for them, but nowit’s about study time. First assessment language simulation is Saturday. Ugh.

Oh damn… my poor fam. As I am writing this the power just went out. Lucky for me, my laptopis charged up and going strong, but the fam was so enjoying their newentertainment! I guess that is the best reminder ever that I am in AFRICA.Maybe it’ll be back in 10 minutes, maybe tomorrow night. Who knows? Time to study by flash/candlelight!

***Added just a few minutes after power went out: Power isback! Fam is stoked!! Gospel songs are blastin' and all is well in the houseonce again. At least until the next outage :)

So I know I once said it is sunny at some point every day,but today is my first day of proof. I have gotten my first equatorial sunburnwhile living in Rwanda, and it only took 2 weeks! Only?! I know, those of youwho know me somewhat well know that me going 2 weeks without burning isactually a huge surprise- but I’m usually in class or better slathered insunscreen during the sunny hours of the day. Of course I put lotion with alittle SPF on, but I was no ready for the hour long walk home from the markettoday (we were supposed to have a ride, and we did have one on the way to themarket, but we walked back). Thank goodness for all of the after-sun lotion andaloe vera gel that I packed.

The market was crazy busy. They are open for business everySaturday and offer everything from used cell phones, to shoes, to clothing, tobeautiful fabrics- which I plan on slowly purchasing tons of, to soaps andother toiletries, to fresh veggies (what we’ve got to choose from: avocados,giant avocados, tomatoes, peppers, chili peppers, more avocados, tree tomatoes,onions, garlic, carrots, avocados, cabbage), root vegetables (English potatoes,sweet potatoes, yams, some other mystery root), white rice, beans, spices, andsome fruit (bananas, plantains, limes, more bananas, avocado- which maytechnically be a fruit, as are tomatoes-, and more bananas)- though not as muchfruit as I was hoping for. Better luck next time in finding my perfectpineapple, and I guess mango and papaya season is still to come. Anyway, that’sthe rundown of what’s available in my area.

Oh the avocados, did I mention them? Everyone sells them andthey are all over the sides of roads after falling from the trees. They’veprobably been brought up in every post, as they are around all of the time.These are not your run of the mill avocados, either. These things areHUMONGOUS. Don’t believe me? Check out the sweet pic that will have hopefullyloaded correctly, it’s nearly as big as my head… Flavor? Rich, creamy anddelicious- way better than any avocado stateside. Send me your favorite avocadorecipe so that I can test it out- they are delicious and super inexpensive;even a poor PC trainee can chow down on them! Recipes that use any of the listedavailable ingredients are appreciated! I’m always on the lookout for new stuffto make: Rice and beans are getting a little repetitive, but soon enough I’llbe cooking my own menu. Actually, I think I’m cooking for the fam this week!Send suggestions. Peace Corps is telling us to make something other thanguacamole JDamn, I could eat bowls full of it.

I made it out of the market with some awesome fabric to havea skirt made out of from one of the local tailors. The market is awesome andalthough there’s tons of veggies, fruit, soap, plastic sandals, fried goodiesthat looked a little too suspicious to try on trip #1, and some clothing up forgrabs, being American makes me an easy target for people who think Iautomatically have a ton of money. My bargaining skills are definitely going toget a workout over the next bit of time!

The walk home was full of hills, which is no surprise herein the oh-so-appropriately-named Land of a Thousand Hills. It was really nice.The weather was beautiful, not a cloud in the sky until 30 minutes after I madeit home (perfect!), the landscapes were incredible, I greeted lots of new faces.We’re always running around for training, but we are usually driven to the faraway stops- it was really great to be able to walk such a gorgeous trek. Toobad the sunshine does not love me like I love it.

Moral of the story (that I deserted for market-descriptiontangents- whoops.): Wear sunscreen. A red muzungu may draw even more attentionthan the usual white, if that is possible.

Oh, I changed the name of this’here blog recently. Irealized that I was doing all of my writing at night and as I looked beyond thecomputer screen for a moment, this title just seemed a bit more fitting. I figure today’s entry will be all about my Rwandan routineand some initial thoughts of the beauty of this country. I come from theNorthwest where rolling hills, mountains, and green landscapes are nothing new,but the ones here are far different, and they are exquisite.

AM Routine

In the morning, I wake up to somewhat sunny skies as the sun rises- who knewI’d be a morning person? I regularly wake up before my alarm, around 5:45,sweep my room, sweep the front porch, “mop” my room (hands, knees, towel, bleach-water,it’s mopping without the mop!), then head out to the washroom for my bucketbath. Although this was an adjustment in comparison to the shower in Brussles,it was not that hard to get used to. Lucky for me, I’ve been spoiled withheated water most days, though even when it’s not hot, it’s never icy cold. Fora while I was entering the washroom in my pajamas, and leaving it in a changeof clothes. I quickly realized that wasn’t the norm: My family was asking me ifI was bathing every day, despite the fact that I would come out clean and withwet hair. Once I switched the routine to entering and coming out in a sarong orother big fabric thing, questions regarding my hygiene ceased. Gotta lovefiguring out cultural differences! Another is that I wash my hair all of thetime- the fact that it was wet every morning and always in a different stylesent my sisters reeling into giggles one day until they explained that that wasnot the norm here. After a week of them laughing at my wet hair mornings andoccasionally playing with my ponytail or combing it at night, I think they’refinally used to my crazy morning hair and ever-changing hair styles.

Anyway, after bucket bathing, I change for classes and havebreakfast with my sister. We have icyayi (pronounced ee-chai: hot tea with awhole lotta raw sugar- I love it when we throw a sprig of rosemary in the potof water while it’s steeping), some kind of white bread- either baked or friedlike a donut, but without the glaze or any other sweetener, and sometimes we’llhave banana, avocado, or fried eggs with a little onion.

After I finish my tea,it’s off to class! It’s not a long walk, but being one of about 10 white folksliving in our little sector draws a little bit of attention. I greet everyone Ipass in very beginner-level Kinyarwanda, so the walk always takes a minute or10 more J Ican’t say much to anyone at this point, but a simple, “Hello, how are you?”usually works- sometimes going as far as saying where I’m going, where I’mcoming from, or what I’m doing, but that’s about it so far.

Enter language class. Groooooooaaaaaaaaaan. Although I wasvery excited to learn a language, Kinyarwanda will likely be the end of mysanity. Study, study, study. It’s frustrating- more so than any other class Ihave ever taken, but hooray for little successes! I can now greet someone, tellthem my name, ask theirs, introduce a friend, ask how someone is doing, askwhat someone does, find out where they are going/coming from, purchase smallitems, and we are starting to learn how to barter with vendors- that’s gonnatake some work though. Although not nearly enough of what we go over is beingretained, I’m still truckin’ along. Two days a week our language classes areshort and we meet with the entire group at our main hub. These days are nice- Ilike seeing the whole group- it’s full of some pretty amazing people who havealready helped me get through some rough moments. Hub days are good for thesoul and a nice break from language, for sure! We also get a beautiful 20minute drive in to and from Hub, complete with plenty of bus DJing and dancingfrom our seats: Mashups, Wiz, The Weeknd- it’s all there and I love it!

Afternoon

Lunch is at a local bar/restaurant. Our teachers worked out some deal where wego in on language class days and they have a meal prepared for us for a setprice. Lunches and dinners are almost always some sort of version of whiterice, black beans, cabbage or green beans, some kind of sauce, boiled or friedpotatoes, and banana or avocado. Although repetitive, it’s damn good. We triedto track down some brown or wild rice today to no avail. Sometime soon, I wantto be able to cook something, American style, with readily availableingredients. We go to the city tomorrow, so maybe I’ll see ingredients forsomething there. I miss cooking, though I think this cooking over a wood fireis going to be a little different! Please send any easy 1-pot recipes my way!

After lunch it’s back to language, cross-culture, ortech-classes (where we learn about teaching). The second half of the dayusually flies by for me, then it’s back home. Usually by this point, the sunstarts to disappear, like clockwork as we get done with classes, and the skiesflood with rain, thunder, and lighting. I love it. Every day, I love it! Mysister thinks I’m crazy when I stare out at the rain, but a good storm is hardto beat. It also means things kind of stop and I get some good study or readinghours in (it’s mostly studying). It’s nice not having all of the distractionsas I would back home. Internet is limited, so I don’t just have it up to passtime, in fact, even this entry, like all will be, are written offline, thencopied, pasted, and posted. I study or write a blog entry or email to sendlater on, then go out to help prepare dinner.

PM

So I’m home by dark, usually. Dark is early here. We’re very near the equator,so sunlight is just about from 6am to 6pm, 7:00 looks like 11pm and throws meoff every day. Anyway, after a bit of study time, either with the fam or bymyself, I help prepare dinner for the evening. Oh how spoiled we are back home!I will never take a potato peeler or cutting surface for granted again, letalone a stove or any kind of indoor kitchen. I love it though! Cooking alwayshelps me feel better, so the longer process has its benefits.

Dinners are very similar, if not identical to lunches, andover a wood burning fire this can take a while. So far, it’s my job to peelpotatoes, wash dishes, snap ends off of green beans, and slice veggies.Luckily, the knives are dull, because there are no cutting spaces- just handsand occasionally on a plate (once). Oh, sidenote! Add flexible, lightweightcutting boards to my wishlist for once I’m on my own J Dinner is served around 8:30,then off to bed! I usually sit for a minute with the fam and go over basicvocab or play cards/learn numbers with them for a bit beforehand, but bed isearly compared to life back home. No watching Conan, no going out for latenight happy hour, just bed. I fall asleep by 10:30 most nights.

Nights here are very comfortable. I have never needed morethan a sheet on top of me, and the sound of rain usually puts me to sleep in notime. Dry nights are ipod nights, as I’m not used to sounds in Africa yet, butI usually have no trouble sleeping. As of right now, I am getting into aroutine of coming to bed, writing a blog entry under the safety of my mosquitonet, chillin to a little Rodrigo y Gabriella (my go-to albums so far), andgoing to bed. I’m exhausted!

I hope this answered some of the questions I’ve been askedabout what I actually do during the day. Want specifics? ASK! I have NO IDEAhow to do this blog thing, this one seemed lengthy. Just ask and I’ll try torespond ASAP.

Whoa, sorry about that: It’s been since Philly since my lastentry! Well, a lot has happened during the past couple of weeks. Time for anoverdue update.

I believe I last left off at my sorrow for not investing inKleenex stock. I wish I could say that all turned around once Staging started,but it did not. The first two weeks coming to, and entering Rwanda were roughto say the very least, but I’m happy to report that good ol’ Gil is pullingthrough and turning around! The first two weeks were full of homesickness:Northwest-sick, Family-sick, broken-heart-sick, and all aroundwhat-the-hell-am-I-doing!-I’m-in-the-middle-of-f’ing-Africa-sick. No doubt, Istill get bouts of each of these, as I expect to for the next 27 months, but asa wise PCV told me, it may not ever go away, but it does get easier (thanks,Jen!), and it already has.

We left Philly for Rwanda on 9/14, after a day oforientation. Our flight was moved, delayed, we were brought the wrong plane, wehad mechanical issues, were delayed again, and finally left the US later thatnight. Wouldn’t ya know it, we then missed our connection in Brussles and werestuck there for an extra night JNot a bad way to start. Although I would have loved to see Brussles, I was in aself-pharmaceutically induced coma to deal with the long flights, so I spentthe day in a king size bed in the most mod-Euro room ever! Seriously, I willpost pictures at some time, but since my roommate for the night and I were thelast in our group to check in, we ended up with the king-room, rather thandoubles, complete with clear glass bathroom and bad-ass shower. The showeralone deserves a blog entry, but that would be a little ridiculous. Anyway,from anywhere in the room one can check out the clear, cylindrical shower andanyone in it. There were also all sorts of shower heads + 3 jets coming out ofthe wall. Only downfall was that the door to it didn’t actually latch…Nonetheless, it was quite a last shower before Africa though! One that I’llprobably dream about regularly, too. I didn’t spend all day comatose or in theshower, I eventually got myself a lovely Hoegarden (or 3) with the othertrainees. Seriously though, what hotel in Brussles doesn’t serve BelgiumWaffles? The Sheraton, that’s which one. Damn. Guess I’ll just have to go backanother time.

We DID eventually make it to Kigali. We landed on Friday,9/16, were bussed from the hotel to a volunteer-type of hostel for PCTs andPCVs. We had two nights there and days were full of orientation, administrativestuff, health and safety sessions, shots, shots, shots (not the kind that makeyour belly warm- the kind that make your arm bleed), going to Kigali for anhour to set up phones- that’s right! I have a phone!-, and seeing a very littlebit of beautiful Rwandan scenery. After a whirlwind paperwork and signing ourlives away, we were off in no time to the district of Kaymoni. We had anotherorientation session, met our teachers of the next 12-weeks, and were off againto be dropped off with our host families.

As we made it up the bumpy road toward my new home for thenext few months, I without a doubt had a stomach full of butterflies. I metPapa outside and was greeted with a hug and greeting I probably did notunderstand. I rolled my giant duffle in to my new room and went back out. Mostof the fam was gone, but my sister was home, so my intro to Rwandan culture wassitting on the front porch with her and her friends, learning how to take aweave out of a girl’s hair. Two weaves, a lot of hair pulling, and countlessbraids later, I am fairly certain I can successfully take on the challenge,though I’d rather not for a while. Although it was awkward, knowing NOKinyarwanda and hanging out with a couple of 20-somethings, girls will be girlsaround the world and playing with hair was just example 1 of this.

Eventually, the rest of the family made it home thatevening. I live in a home with my Papa, Mama, 2 sisters, 3 brothers, and one8-month old baby (my sister’s son- so I guess my new nephew!). Unlike home, Rwandansdo not consider their pets fam, as I will most likely be eating them or alreadyhave, but there are also goats and chickens around the house. There was arabbit, but he has disappeared. I’m choosing not to ask into the issue… Thechickens will get their own post eventually, as I am pretty sure they have itout for me- if not their own post, they will at least be recurring characters.Damn chickens...

So there you have it! I made it to my new home for the nextthree months! I like it here, despite the chickens. Every moment that I have ahard time, I walk outside and see how beautiful it is, and have strength topush onward. I’ll post pictures soon so you can kind of know what I’m talkingabout, but the pictures will not do it justice, I’m sure.

‘til next post…

Goodbyes are hard. Really, really, really hard. I won't elaborate too much, mostly because I really hate tears and how puffy crying makes my eyes, but sometimes you just need to let them pour out of you, I guess. Last week, was one of those weeks.

I have no less that amazing people in my life that constantly inspire me. Over the past months they have showed so much love and support that it made it hard to leave. I only hope I could be so supportive for these people in anything and everything they do. Although it makes it hard to say farewell (though only for now!), I couldn't have gotten this far on this journey without their help. It certainly sounds super cheesy, but it's true. That being said, all of the tears were "Happysad" tears, as my sister used to call them. Lots of feelings: A lot of those tears were probably just an explosion of every emotion from happy, to excited, to scared, to sad to leave people, to nervous, thrilled, and everything else under the sun. Dad asked me what I was feeling the night before I left and I had no words. None. Just a lump in my throat and a racing pulse.

And although 27 months is a long time to think about now, it's really not in the grand scheme of things, and most importantly, I'm coming back!!! Mom made it very clear that she will make sure of it, even if it means she has to get on a plane to Africa and pick me up herself! Oh, of course I will miss my friends and fam like crazy, but in the mean time, set up your Skype accounts and get ready to use them... assuming I have internet... and occasional electricity, and start planning your dream trip to east Africa! I'd be happy to have a house guest and I hear people are interested in some animals or something around here ;) Not your deal? How about Zanzibar?

Sending plenty of hugs, kisses (and the occasional tear)!

Hello to my blog-eriffic followers (yes! All 2 of you!),

After many, many, many a tough, teary goodbye this week, I am now in Philadelphia for staging, then off to the airport for the big adventure tomorrow! Staging consisted of an afternoon full of information about Peace Corps expectations for us, our expectations of what's to come, anxieties, aspirations, figuring out how tomorrow will run, and plenty of ice breakers, including a lovely skit in which I got to play a drunk girl irresponsibly partying with pirate friends. So far, Peace Corps is right up my alley, right?

Although staging was over 5 hours of information, it was pretty broad; we'll have to wait for the Rwanda-specific information once pre-service training (PST) begins. That will be later this week! Tomorrow we will be busing over to JFK and flying from New York to Brussels (over 8 hours), layover- just enough time for a Belgium beer or 2, then off to Kigali, Rwanda (over 7 hours later), followed by a bus ride to the volunteer hostel where we will stay until Sunday (I think), when we will meet our host families of the next three months! PHEW! As you can imagine, I am trying to tie up all loose ends over here, create decent iPod playlists, and update the kindle as much as possible for the LONG day of travel that awaits.

Oh, here's something cool: I lost my cell phone when we got to Philly last night. That's not the cool part. That's coming. Wait for it.... suspense building..... OK, it's probably not that cool to you. Anyway, the awesome airport shuttle driver found the phone and went through my missed calls (it was probably obnoxiously ringing under the seat, sorry driver-man!) found mom's number, called mom, tracked me down at the hotel, and told me he'd drop it off for me in the morning before we leave (at least, I hope he makes it before we leave!). Made my day! It's not a fancy smart phone or anything expensive, but little things like that put a big smile on my face. I am also taking it as a good omen for what is to come. That may be silly, but I'm welcoming any good fortune.

Speaking of phones, although I will have one that should work internationally, I will not have an actual plan until I am able to go to Kigali and set up a Rwandan calling plan. I probably won't have internet access either. All of this could take a few weeks, so don't worry if you don't hear from me! I'll be in training and safe as a kitten, busy with language, culture, safety, history, medical, and curriculum trainings for a good while. I will update you as soon as I have communication up and running!

As for now, it's time to call it a night, we've got a long day ahead of us.

So many people have been shocked at the application process for the Peace Corps, thinking, "Oh sweet! A volunteer? We'll take 'em!" Well, it was not quite that simple. I'm glad I logged when anything & everything happened, otherwise I am sure I would never be able to remember half of this stuff. I'm also posting this because even though I know every applicant's timeline looks different, it was so nice to be able to look at other application experiences. I hope this blog is able to help another applicant out there!

Here's my detailed (if not a little tooooo detailed) account of the hoops, hurdles, hills, and health inspections I've gone through to get from application to invitation. Keep in mind, everyone's timeline and circumstances are a little different, this is just mine. Oh, and I didn't use spell check, and only sometimes used proper grammar and sentence structure (as noted in the non-legal disclaimer to the right)- these are just notes. Anyway, here it is, raw and a little messy:

Date Description 3/1/2010 Research, research, research Peace Corps EVERYTHING 4/21/2010 Grad school seminar- Decide I really want to apply for Peace Corps 4/22/2010 Activated Peace Corps application process. Back burner. 6/29/2010 Resume complete 7/6/2010 Essay 1 complete 7/8/2010 Requested recommendations- Thank you, Sara, Sara, & Denise!!! 7/12/2010 Essay 2 complete 7/12/2010 Online application submitted 7/15/2010 All 3 recommendations submitted (separate from online application) 7/15/2010 Receive background check materials to send complete and return 7/19/2010 Financial obligation statement complete 7/19/2010 Clark and WSU transcripts requested 7/21/2010 Clark County Courthouse for fingerprinting 7/22/2010 Application & background check materials submitted (incl. transcripts, financial info) 7/26/2010 Call and email from recruiter: Interview 8/27/2010 8/27/2010 Interview at PSU 8/28/2010 Peace Corps RPCV event at Portland Library 9/15/2010 Nomination! Sub-Saharan Africa, Early July, 2011 9/16/2010 Legal Statement requested by recruiter- Filled out and sent back 9/20/2010 Medical Kit sent to me 10/2/2010 HIV/AIDS/BBP Course at Red Cross 10/4/2010 Dentist Appt 1- cleaning 10/6/2010 Doc Appt 1 10/11/2010 Doc Appt 2- Physical, TB shot placed, labs. Find out varicella: equivocal, no Hep A series- sched. more labs/shots 10/13/2010 Doc Appt 3- TB results, varicella 1, and other lab work. Find out no Type 1 polio antibody- sched. shot 10/14/2010 Dentist Appt 2- cleaning & cavities filled 10/21/2010 Start tutoring ELL/ESL 4 hours/week 11/10/2010 Doc Appt 4- Varicella 2 & Polio vaccinations 11/15/2010 Medical Packet scanned & sent to headquarters without dental 11/24/2010 Complete Medical Kit received 1/5/2011 Dentist Appt 3- Wisdom tooth extraction attempt #1- Canceled while in chair 1/24/2011 Dentist Appt 4- wisdom tooth consultation w/ new oral surgeon 2/3/2011 Dentist Appt 5- Teeth come out! 2/7/2011 Dentist Appt 6- Back to dentist- Dry socket 2/11/2011 Dentist Appt 7- Dry socket check, all good 2/20/2011 Medical Clearance received 2/22/2011 Personal Statement & Alcohol/Drug Questionnaire requested, filled out, and submitted 2/25/2011 Legal Clearance received 2/25/2011 Dentist Appt 8- Post-Op appt, all good- packet sent in 2/28 3/12/2011 Dental Clearance received 4/20/2011 Placement officer's assistant requests updated resume for review 4/20/2011 Updated resume submitted- response states I should hear from placement officer in 4-6 weeks 5/9/2011 In response to above, she also let me know that: Due to a variety of reasons you will not be considered for the original program to which I was nominated due to timing, open slots, and current budget concerns. New nomination: Anywhere, July-Sept. Possibly later. Eek. 5/31/2011 Make decision to stop application process if I do not hear anything in next few months or if assignment is after 1/1/2012 6/1/2011 Final interview with placement officer (Stephanie). All goes well! Officially qualified and she will be actively searching out a placement for me. Should know in next 2 weeks…. 6/6/2011 Email from Stephanie- I have been sent an official invitation! September, 2011; Sub-Saharan Africa; Teaching English. Big Blue Packet in the mail with more details on assignment. 6/13/2011 Big Blue Packet arrives: Country: Rwanda. Job Title: English or ICT or Teacher Trainer. Orientation: Sept. 13-14. Pre-Service Training in Rwanda: Sept. 15-Dec. 7. Dates of Service: Dec. 8, 2011- Dec. 7, 2013. Stay up all night researching everything Rwanda. 6/14/2011 Invitation Accepted via email. 6/22/2011 Second updated resume and Aspiration Statement sent to Rwanda Education desk 6/23/2011 Passport documents/ application sent to DC- will get new passport during staging

Phew!