In Service Training

The second half of October was a busy time for me (finally!) as I was busy attending our In-Service Training in Musanze. Musanze is beautiful city located in the north of Rwanda. From the balcony of our hotel we could see the breathtaking Virunga Volcanoes, which form the border between Rwanda, the DRC, and Uganda. They are also the home to the famous Silverback Mountain Gorillas, which is the main tourism draw in Rwanda (although a permit is currently running at $750 which means I probably won’t be seeing gorillas anytime soon).

The weekend before our training started some of us met up in Kigali to do a little shopping, drink some cold beers, and just catch up. Unfortunately for us, a group of Education volunteers working on a TESOL project in the city we also planning on crashing at the Case de Pasage (fancy French name for the shitty Peace Corps Hostel in Kigali). By the time Darren and I arrived there were no beds left, which means we ended up spending the night on the floor. It was pretty uncomfortable and Darren managed to leave with 111 mosquito bites (he counted). I think I got 3 but I probably complained just as much. Early Sunday morning we decided to get out of Kigali and visit our friend Amanda, who lives about 30 minutes away from Musanze. The bus ride up north was both beautiful and terrible. The scenery truly is breathtaking. I realize I’ve already used that word in this post, but I really can’t think of any other way to describe it. The farther north you go, the greener everything becomes and the steeper it gets. Unfortunately for those with weak stomachs (me), the ride is horrible. The bus goes around and around and definitely does not do it slowly. Luckily, one of my comrades was packing some motion sickness medicine so I managed to survive the journey. Once we finally arrived in Musanze, it was late and we began looking for a moto driver to take all five of us to Amanda’s house.

On the road to Amanda's house.

Now, if I thought the bus ride was bad, the moto ride was 100 times worse. Because of the heavy rain in the northern part of the country the roads wash out very easily, and a short motorcycle ride can turn into a treacherous journey. One of our friends fell off; another one lost some of her belonging during the bumpy ride. Once we finally reach Amanda’s house my legs we shaking so hard I could barely stand. That night we cooked some soup and gathered around her small living room (she has a beautiful house!) telling stories and reminiscing over our past three months at site. The next morning we made a plan to go on a short hike to see a waterfall nearby. Amanda’s village could hardly handle the group of abazungu making their way around town and we managed to say mwaramutse {good morning} to hundreds of people. 

Trying to dodge the mud.

We began walking through some of the fields that lead to the waterfall and tried our best to avoid the muddy paths, but it was no use, by the end of our trip all of our shoes were caked in mud. We were getting a little lost but stumbled upon a small abatwa village where they were making pots out of clay and firing them in a giant bonfire. After some quick words and unclear directions, the women ended up ordering one of the young boys to accompany us to find the isumo {waterfall}. We soon had a parade of about twenty kids following us, and it seemed to grow larger and larger in each town that we passed through. We finally reached the elusive falls and were treated to beautiful views of the Virunga Volcanoes.

Making pots to sell at the market.

 After returning home to finish our breakfast we got back on some motos to make our way to the hotel. The moto ride was just as bad the second time around, the only difference is that I got to walk my shaken up body to my luxurious hotel room. Okay, it wasn’t that luxurious, but seeing as I’ve been living in the boons for the past six months it seemed like heaven on earth. Spring mattresses! Hot showers! Breakfast, lunch, and dinner! No banana mash!

Although the hotel was nice, the training itself, unfortunately, wasn’t all that great. For weeks some of us Health 4 volunteers had been working with the staff to make our In-Service training more in tune with our needs and wants but it seems they didn’t take too much of our constructive criticism to heart and a lot of the training proved to be a wasted effort. Despite that, there were a few bright moments. We have a new Director of Programming and Training and he seems really optimistic about making Rwanda an ideal post (a fancy term to mean a good Peace Corps country to serve in). I have always believed that if Peace Corps invested a little bit more into the program here, Rwanda is set up to be one of the best posts in East Africa, so I was happy to hear him talk about this. At the end of our weeklong training, we had an additional three days to discuss Behavior Change and Project Design/Management. Our counterparts joined us for these last few days and I think this proved to be one of the most successful components of the training as it gave us an opportunity to get all of us on the same page about what we can do as volunteers in our community.

Virunga Volanoes.

 Once the training was over I took the long journey home, which basically involved driving from one end of Rwanda to the other. It was exhausting and what’s worse is that when we arrived home we could see that the road leading to my village was washed out due to three days of nonstop rain. Last night, after contemplating what to eat for dinner a lady showed up at our door selling fish from the river by our house. Considering she was selling them for about 75¢ a pop we quickly bought a bunch and I went about cleaning and preparing the fish for dinner. It was a nice alternative goat meat (the only real meat you can get to eat here) and as long as the rainy season continues I think we are going to be treating ourselves to many more fish dinners.

IST proved to be the reboot I was hoping for and that I desperately needed. The week before I left I was feeling a little depressed about everything and I think ten days away from site in a fun city was exactly what I needed. I feel reenergized about what I am here to do and am happy that the counterparts who joined me at the training are now excited about working with me on various projects. Time will tell about whether or not their enthusiasm persists, but for right now I’m going to be idealistic about it all. After all, isn’t that why you join Peace Corps?

Halloween Party. Seeing as I already have a scar on my head,
I was Harry Potter.