Friday, January 29, 2010

from jeff. other new entry below also.


special guest blogging by maggie’s boyfriend, jeff…just wanted to give everyone a visitor’s perspective aside from the joint blog maggie and I both wrote…some of the biggest questions/concerns I had about Rwanda were regarding maggie’s safety…in my short time here I’ve seen many rwandans go out of their way to help maggie…whether it was getting on the correct bus or getting items at the market, or even getting to the market…as long as maggie is smart and follows simple common sense things like not being out late at night by herself, or out drunk late at night (just like in the US), all indications are that she will be fine…maybe I should knock on wood, but I think maggie will be just as safe in Rwanda as she would in the US…especially as she becomes more well known in the community…

all and all I think maggie will do great in Rwanda and I’m excited that her schooling is starting soon so she can get to work and get even more involved in the community…I think she will do a great job and although it will definitely not be an easy adjustment she can certainly do it (she can always use our phone calls also) ..

as for Rwanda…maggie has been blessed with a beautiful site (with electricity and running water/I found out today there are some volunteers with neither who don’t have nearly the view or luxuries that maggie has….when I initially heard maggie was going to Rwanda this wasn’t the terrain or the climate I had envisioned…geography class was so long ago…I figured the equator would be hot and dry…but that isn’t even close..it rained many of the days I was here in short strong bursts…this rain keeps the countryside green, and the weather nice…some days were hot..but not nearly what I was expecting (ie. Palm spring hot)…maybe that season will come, but it didn’t while I was here…


the people were nice as well…as I mentioned, many people helped us out, and not once did I feel like they were trying to take advantage of us..maybe it had to do with the fact that we didn’t spend too much time in the “touristy” places (mainly Kigali)..but I did appreciate that fact regardless…I also enjoyed the “hustle” displayed by many of the people of Rwanda…of course all countries have beggers, but most people that I watched were hard at work….and doing hard work as well…it was refreshing to see and actually made me want to go out there and work with them..i hope to be able to participate in some form when I get to Albania as one of my secondary projects…I really haven’t done much manual labor and think it’s about time I started to do a little bit just to get the feeling…

its so cliché, but being here really helps put things in perspective…the people here deserve so much more than they’re getting, and I think that is part of what draws people to organizations like the peace corps…it’s clear to see that there isn’t a thing I deserve more than any of these hard working rwandans so it’s feels almost like a responsibility that we help out in any way that we can after seeing what a huge head start we’ve had in terms of possibilities… 

jeffff!

Jeff and I are writing this blog together…YAY! After 37 hours of travel, Jeff made it to my site, Bumba, Rutsiro Disrict, Western Province, Rwanda. When we were waiting for a bus to my site there was a crowd of about 25 people (mostly kids) crowded around me, Jeff and all our bags. It was funny and awkward at the same time and I had Rainy’s care package that I got in Kigali so I gave the kids some tootsie roll pops. What a mistake. They all started fighting over them and some guy tried to pass them out in an orderly fashion but it was mayhem. Jeff gave away his sunglasses from India and 2 kids almost fought over them with one picking up a rock to throw. It was an eventful wait.



Even though I didn’t do the long trip like Jeff, I couldn’t sleep Jeff’s first night and with his jetlag also, we were up at 4 am starting the day boiling water for drinking and just doing household chores. Once the jetlag and afternoon naps subsided, we began to venture out and see some of Rwanda. We went to Kibuye for a night and hung out with 10 other volunteers at the house where I spent New Years. It was nice to have wireless internet and show Jeff the lake up close, but sleeping there was horrible. There was a hole in the mosquito net and I was freaking out the entire night. On our first leg home from Kibuye we packed into a van with 20 other people for a 30 minute ride. When I say packed, they really jam you in there. These vans are the size of VW campers. During this ride our driver hit a goat but he was able to run away. No one else even flinched! Ha!

After a few trips around my site and other cities in Rwanda, Jeff realized that being a Peace Corps Volunteer is much more challenging than he anticipated with the crowds, language barriers, and cultural differences and decided I earned a few more care packages before he leaves for Albania! WIN! But he also decided I hadn’t spent enough time studying the local language and I got a scolding and needless to say, the last few days we have been dorkin it up with our language flashcards. I passed the language test he gave me! J Oh yea, we are both taking Mefloquine for malaria and it can cause crazy dreams and weird stuff and one night Jeff woke up yelling, “Where the fuck am I? What the fuck? Where am I?”. Yea. No lie I was a little bit nervous.


Fresh food was a little scarce for a few days as we went to town last week and bought eggs, bread, and carrots and then went out of town. On our way back to my site we had anticipated being able to get something to cover us until market day but all the stores were closed. Now I know not to try and shop on Saturdays! So Saturday and Sunday was pretty limited with food and we pretty much just ate care package goods like beef jerkey, macaroni and cheese, premium crackers with peanut butter, Pringles, peanut m &ms, and bananas. I know, really good diet. Today we walked to town and the market and it seemed to take forrrrrrever. It was hot today also and it was market day so there were hella people out. My favorite. NOT. A 16 year old chatted us up and walked with us all the way to the market and helped us navigate through the veggies and the herd of 30 kids following us. We bought Patrick Rwanda’s version of donuts and milk to say thanks and we also got some. OMG is all I have to say about the milk. I have tried it once but the guy poured us this huge mug and it is so gnarly. It’s really chunky and not cold and I watched Jeff try to drink it and his lips and hand were shaking. Seriously nasty. Last time I checked you weren’t supposed to chew your milk. I gave the milk to the next customer that came in. Jeff says,” I think I’m coming down with something. Some African virus and I’ll be out of commission for like 3 weeks.” He is fine though. His thoughts so far are that I have a nice setup, nice neighbors, and a nice view. We actually filmed a video for everyone at home of my site and Jeff turned it into Rwanda Cribs and it’s awesome! He’s going to upload it to facebook or youtube so make sure to peep it.



On Wednesday we went to the genocide memorial in Murambi which is about 3 hours away from me. It took us 6 and a half hours to get there so as soon as we were finished we had to turn back. I wanted to show JeffNyanza also, but there wasn’t enough time. Murambi is the memorial I wrote about before where there are bodies there still preserved in lime. It is super shocking to see and something hard to put into words. 50,000 people were killed there in 2 weeks and to see some of it still is just crazy. And when we were driving back we saw prisoners, most from the genocide, walking on the roads or working in the fields. Weird.

Yesterday we came into Kigali to have some good food and meet up with some people before Jeff’s departure tomorrow. We had to wait for the bus for an hour and a half and like usual, we had a little crowd around us, mostly kids and teens. I can understand enough to chat with them and hang. Anyway, so one starts making these fighting gestures and stances and is alluding to the fact that Jeff must do karate because of his arm muscles. They were even looking at his knuckles for battle wounds. It was hilarious. Then 2 others were showing off their arm muscles also and Jeff decided he was still in first place! Way to shatter dreams!! Then the topic of a foot race came up and the kid said let’s go but Jeff pussed out. He didn’t want to create a scene which I understand, but it would have been amazing! The kid was banking on winning Jeff’s shoes. Haha.


So we get to Kigali after a long morning, walk to St. Paul’s with all our stuff in the blistering heat, get a room, get some waters, and walk up to the mini buses to get a ride towards Peace Corps. These are the same vans as before, where they smash 20 people in. Jeff sat behind me and it was already hot compounded with other hot bodies. Gross.A teenager gets on and sits next to me and closes the window! In my head I’m like COME ON! What the hell is this kid thinking?! So we leave and the kid has his head down in his lap with the window closed. It’s obvious he doesn’t feel well but I’m still dwelling on the closed window and how I am sweating. He begins puking in his book bag and I make it known the window needs to be opened. A different guy reached over and opened it thank god. So he’s sitting with his puke bag and I feel something drip on my foot. I turn to Jeff and tell him oh my god something is on my foot. I tried telling myself it was sweat from my knee or something but I knew it wasn’t. I guess the kid took notice because he looked at his bag and there was orange throw up dripping through it. FML. We got off at Peace Corps and yep, I had orange puke on my heel. Jeff said I did such a good job of not freaking out. Good job me! 

Not much else to write...Jeff encountered one of the big spiders at my house but it wasn't as big as the others. He tried to kill it with his sandal and I told him watch out they jump and sure enough the spider jumps and Jeff lost him! I don't know what I was thinking trying to let him be the hero. He also tried to catch numerous lizards and on one occasion it ran up the wall and then Jeff jumped at it and then the lizard fell down and Jeff got scurred. It was good stuff. Sad he's leaving tomorrow but it's been awesome. 

Saturday, January 16, 2010

happy happy happppppppppy!!!

     So my birthday was on Tuesday. 25. OLD LADY. On Monday I got on the bus heading to Kigali where 21 other volunteers were headed so we could all hang out. I knew my ride wasn’t going to be enjoyable or relaxing, but must they all be absolutely unpleasant?? When I got on there was no room about 9 people ago, so of course they’re going to fit me in also. I sit in between 2 men on my left and a man and woman on my right. My backpack was in my lap also. Randomly, the old man to my left who smelled of booze at 8:15 am had a white hat on. The man in front of me also had a white hat. And the guy to my right? Well of course, he had a white hat too. Is this important? Not at all. I just found it silly. Let’s see. So I my left ass was on a seat lower than my right ass and my spine was like sideways and definitely in pain. There was a baby crying and fussing the ENTIRE 2 hour ride to the point where I just wanna be like “can I hold your baby please?!”. About 2 rows back someone was throwing up and it started to smell and thankfully, even with cold weather people opened the windows. Then there was someone who kept coughing up crazy amounts of phlegm for what would have been the fattest loogie, but no, they swallow it instead so the whole bus gets to keep hearing chunks of snot in their throat. Sooo nasty and since I had to listen to it, you get to read it. When we were 30 minutes from Kigali I seriously thought I might freak out because my knee was in so much pain but I couldn’t move it anywhere. On top of all the madness, our driver must have been the slowest driver in history. I felt like he was just enjoying cruising so slooooowly.

     Didn’t do much that first day in town. 5 of us went to Peace Corps HQ to use the free wireless and get packages. I had one from my mama and one from Singapore and both were full of goodies! Dark chocolate covered pomegranate seeds from Trader Joes=amazing. Got some more drink mixes, obs, food and my favorite vball shoes from high school! Natasha, if you’re reading this, my mom sent my Nike’s with the poofy baby blue laces!! We knew Monday night was trivia night at Sun and Moon, a pizza place where a lot of white people go. About 10 of us went and our 2 Peace Corps teams got the lowest scores! Haha. The environment was pretty annoying and most of the people there were expat douche bags. I was happy to leave.
    
Tuesday about 10 of us went to breakfast which is just not a good idea in Rwanda. I’m not sure if I ever mention this, but restaurants are pretty ridiculous. It’s like you should definitely eat a snack before you go to the meal because after you order it’s at least going to take an hour. It’s brutal. And even then you are lucky if your food is right or ever shows up. One girl waited and waited and her breakfast bun never came. Sad. Then I did a little shopping and had a beer with some people at St. Paul’s, the place we stay. Mandy, my roommate in Philadelphia at staging gave me a pair of seashell leggings she found at her local market. She got a pair for Christmas and we decided it best if we wore them to dinner that night. If you haven’t seen the pictures, check facebook. I’m also wearing a tie-dye shirt and a crown that says ‘princess’. It was a pretty good look. We had Indian food for dinner and although it was expensive, it was soooooo good. Seriously, it was up to Par with food I had in India. Delish!


Wednesday I headed back to site with Megan and Austin and we got a ride in the Peace Corps car! YES! Super clutch because I had bought a few things and got 2 packages so a bus ride would have been a mess. Megan just received some her luggage from Mauritania and they were delivering our bikes so we swooped a ride. They also gave us a moto helmet which is seriously the most obnoxious thing you have ever seen. I need to take a picture. I put it on when Megan and Austin came over yesterday and I felt like Buzz Aldrin about to go to space. It’s ridic.

Today I just cleaned up a bit, hung some more picture frames and am prepping for a short trip to Kigali tomorrow. I am staying the night and picking up jeff Monday morning!!!!! I can’t even sleep I am so excited!!!!!!

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

new address

ok, so I have a new address! Let's hope it works. I posted it on the left side but here it is again:

Maggie Fogarty
Peace Corps Volunteer
BP 15
Kibuye, Rwanda

I am a bit sad as the nearest post office is 2.5 hours away. I was sending letters pretty frequently before, but now, not so much. I learned again today that getting out of my site isn't exactly easy. I tried to get on the 10 am bus this morning so i went to the road and was there by 930. the first bus came by at 1030, covered in Ludacris stickers and just drove by because it was full. COOL. Next bus comes 25 minutes later, also full. So, I didn't make it off the mountain today. I walked to town to get minutes but almost every boutique is closed and I realized I didn't really know where I was going. I walked back home with no minutes, and got Ernest my neighbor to take me back to town, further in where most the stores were closed and we finally found some credit! WHEw. We took the shortcut home which is straight up hill and I was sweating profusely and panting. Really awesome. 

my house at the top!

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

words.

     Well look at this! Another blog! So I have just been hanging out at my house, slowly unpacking. I’m not doing it all at once because I need activities to keep me busy! 2 nights ago there was a wedding in the room attached to my house. I was the weird girl watching from behind the curtains. It was loud. Oh yea so my house! There are double doors I use as an entrance and those go to the sitting room. This room is where I eat and stare at walls too. The walls are brick so there are no pictures or anything. I just zone. I have a little cupboard with my food and dishes and there are pictures taped on. To the right there is a hallway with a western toilet and douche to the left and a western toilet and douche to the right. The bathroom on the right also has a door to the outside and at the end of the hall there is a door out too. To the left of the sitting room is this really tiny room that has a single bed in it and a mosquito net I put up, ya know, in case someone visits! Connected to that room is my bedroom with my nice full bed and princess mosquito net with Mickey Mouse sheets that don’t fit. I have some clothes hanging on a nail in the wall and a cupboard shelf thing for clothes and toiletries. There is a door to the outside in my room but I closed it off because really, how many doors do I need?! Outside I have a room that should be used as a kitchen but right now it just has my bags and boxes. I don’t have any furniture for that room and I don’t want to leave my food on the floor so I’m just waiting. My walls are all turquoise, besides the brick ones, and the doors are all blue. The windowsills are painted green and I have the butt ugliest curtains. It’s pretty great! One of my bathroom windows won’t close and the most obnoxious spiders have been coming in. Honestly, they are HUGE. They could be small frogs. For real. Of course they scare the shit out of me so I have to hunt them till they’re dead. Its great. They jump too. The other night I moved a bucket to get one and there was a lizard chillin too. I’m like really?!


     Yesterday I had a date to go to the market with a Rwandan who works at the school where I will be teaching. We planned to meet at 9 so she showed up at 945, just as a man who is going to put screens in for me came to measure. We were all on the road by 1045 and literally walked 40 minutes uphill and got to the center of town I guess it is. Or maybe the district center? Seriously, it is BEAUTIFUL where I live. I have taken a few pictures and will upload when I can. There isn’t a cyber anywhere near me and it’s expensive to do it from my own modem. But anyway, the view is breathtaking. It is SOOOOOO green it’s really unfathomable. And I am on top of a mountain so I overlook a lot of land. And the lake! So we walk to the center where I’m told I can buy whatever I need. I just wanted to get some bread, flour, bananas, eggs, screen, nails and a hammer. Nobody had much of anything! It was super frustrating and I left with screen, eggs, and nails. I am told Mondays and Fridays are market days so maybe it was just bad timing? I’m not sure but it was definitely an experience. Watching The Hangover made things better. Today was nice but maybe it was because I spent the day with myself and didn’t leave my yard. Haha. I had breakfast, did emails, hung all these really cute pictures on my wall with my nails and a lock. You should see me on this chair beating nails into my turquoise walls with a small metal lock I bought for my trunk. The pictures look nice though so that’s exciting. It was pretty sunny so I sat outside for awhile (with sunscreen!) and then had lunch, and have been reading The Tipping Point. I was visited by 2 dogs, which is super rare considering I have seen like 3 dogs total in Rwanda. One could be related to my dad's dog Sydney but he is super skinny and has a bunch of thorns in him. A girl came along too, also skinny but may have recently given birth...I did see a puppy running around the other day. Now it’s raining and I’m writing. Tomorrow I have to wait on the road for that never coming bus to go to Rubengera. A friend is meeting me and she’s in Kigali so she is bringing me yogurt and cheese! VICTORY! Still have a leaky water filter with a bucket of brown water though. Eeek. Saving that till I absolutely have to take care of it. Jeff arrives in 13 days! WEEEOOOOOWWW! ☺

Sunday, January 3, 2010

happppppy new year!

Yea, yea it’s been forever. I’ve been doing stuff. Let’s see, I passed my language, medical, cross culture, safety and security, and tech tests so I was able to swear in! We went to Kigali for 5 days right before Christmas and swore in at the ambassador’s house. Ceremony was mellow and we had lots of food after and watched dancing.


The time in Kigali was nice because it’s a big city so there are lots of good restaurants and places to shop, but it’s pretty expensive, especially with the living allowance we are on. I got a coffee that I couldn’t pass up and it was $8! Sometimes you have to splurge! The first day in Kigali I got a package from my mom from Nov. 13 but still haven’t received one from Oct. 28. Guess the mail isn’t as reliable as we thought. The day we left Kigali I got a package from Singapore filled with Oreos and mac n cheese and goodness! After I write this I am going to make some of that goodness. J

We got our moving allowance so we got to do hella shopping which was fun and a nightmare at the same time. There were 35 of us all buying similar items from 3 major stores. We had to buy everything from dishes and food to bedding and appliances. Sure was a nightmare dragging all of my crap back to where we were staying in the city. Peace Corps rented trucks to take all our stuff back to Nyanza where we would spend Christmas and then leave to site. The 2 hour ride back to Nyanza seemed especially long because I had some beers before and almost peed my pants on the bus. Oh life.

Christmas was fun. It was different without family and friends, but still enjoyable with new friends. Everyone came over to the kitchen house in the morning and started cooking brunch made up of macaroni and cheese, eggs, no bake cookies, hash browns, fruit salad, eggnog and hot chocolate. It was good stuff! One of my housemates, Nicole, really wanted a chicken for Christmas and she didn’t get one from her secret santa. On Christmas morning I heard lots of racket and Katy had snatched a chicken from outside and given it to her in bed. Nicole was thrilled! Some of us felt bad however, because the chicken definitely belonged to someone and its not like people around here have a ton to spare. So we let Santa go. The next night I was making grilled cheese and could barely see because the lights were out so I swung open the curtains all obnoxiously and almost shit myself. There was Santa in the window, more than 24 hours after he had been set free. I let the other girls swing open the curtain also and there was lots of flapping and screaming all around. The few days around Christmas were spent packing, hanging out with everyone before leaving, and watching 4 seasons of Sex and the City. Bethel left to site before I could watch the other 2 but it was fun considering I had never seen an episode before.



People started moving to their sites on Monday the 28th. I moved on the 30th with Megan and Ian. Our driver Verdaste, and our APCD Rukundo could not believe how much stuff I had. Seriously, it was pretty ridiculous. There is a picture Rainy posted of me with 2 bags and I will post this one. I saved most of the food I had received in care packages for when I moved knowing it would be a rough first week. Thankfully I saved as the market is a 40 minute walk away. Well, that’s what I’ve been told. They pointed somewhere up the mountain. I plan on venturing out tomorrow and it needs to happen as yesterday I ate peanut m & ms (thanks rain) and Pringles, and today I had macaroni and cheese with Cajun powder. Haha. I spent a long time setting up my water filter and its just leaking all over the place. I put a towel I bought under it and a bucket on the floor and now my bucket is filled with brown water. Guess I bought a cheap towel. What a mess. Gives me something to do tomorrow!




So I got here Wednesday and was greeted by all sorts of people and they made us “especials” which are omelettes with French fries. I’m a pretty big fan and they have them at most restaurants. Oh yea, the ride here is BRUTAL. I am literally on top of a mountain that is reachable by unpaved road with a bunch of rocks and potholes. It’s about an hour ride up and I got a bit carsick. The trip to and from may be just enough reason to keep me at site more! After a bunch of awkward greetings and staring at each other, I walked with my school director and his assistant to the school I will be teaching at. It’s a boarding school and it’s about 15 minutes away. On Thursday morning I went out to the main road to catch the bus Megan was on and head to Kibuye for New Years. I got to the road at 8:20. I stood waiting in the hot sun with flies swarming and at 9:50 Megan and the bus finally arrived. About 20 minutes down the hill we got a flat tire, of course, but the man with the Lakers sweatshirt fixed it. We made it to Rubengera where we needed to get on another bus to Kibuye. And when I say bus, I mean Volkswagon type van that they load with 20 people at least. We waited another hour as buses don’t leave until they fill up. We made it to Kibuye where 2 other volunteers are living in a house on the lake. Their place is ridiculous. It came fully furnished with deep freezer even and has WIFI! Uhh, last time I checked a ton of people in the US don’t have wireless. We made chili and spent New Years there and I left in the morning to get back to site.


I was anxious to unpack! I thought waiting for my first bus ride was annoying but on my second bus a drunk guy with 6 fingers on one hand and none on the other kept harassing me. Literally, rubbing his stub on me and putting it in my lap and saying stuff in Kinyarwanda. Even other people on the bus were telling him to stop. I put my ipod on trying to ignore him but after 30 minutes of waiting and being prodded at my ipod died and I got off and took another bus.

Getting back to site was nice but living here is obviously going to take some getting used to. The first day I didn’t have running water for awhile, yesterday I didn’t have electricity most of the day and it’s lonely! I have never lived on my own before! My house is attached to a room where people knit and such and just last night there was a wedding there! Being the new girl in town and a muzungu, people have been showing up to my door and its super awkward like when I’m in bed still. Also kids come wandering in just to stare and yesterday I was asked for my sandals by a girl who was barefoot. So, I had a gate built. Problem solved for now.I was going to write more but Jeff said no one will read it if it’s too long. Sorry guys. I’ll do better at keeping up.