High and Hilarious Moments at Site

• Greeting all of the Mamas on the street in Kinyarwanda and listening to them whisper (not so quietly of course), in Kinyarwanda, “She knows Kinyarwanda!”
• Walking home after a long day of teaching and shopping at the market with a crowd of 20 children fighting to hold my hands and play with my hair.
• Eric, my one year old neighbor, dancing while we sing “do, do, do, do”.
• The early morning and late night knocking on my gate by students and primary students wanting to greet me and practice their English.
• Meeting another volunteer that lives about 40 minutes away by foot! Though I won’t see her too often, it’s good to know another American is close by if I need a break.
• Opening my latrine door and seeing a HUGE toad sitting there. I got my mop and shoved it down the hole. I swear, if I am using the latrine and that thing some-how hops its way out, I will not be very happy.
• Shopping at the market and being swarmed by people wanting to hear me negotiate in Kinyarwanda.
• Learning how to light a kerosene lamp – do I need to say anything more about me, Sarah Doyle, trying to learn?
• Being rushed by 20 goats on their way home. Yeah, I quickly jumped off the ground and stood on the steps.
• Starting to teach. There is a serious need for English improvement at my school and the kids and teachers are very eager to learn, which makes it easier and more enjoyable to teach them.
• Constantly being fed by my neighbors. After 3 months of rice and beans, I’ve decided to go with more raw vegetables and avocado/tomato/cheese sandwiches. But because I never cook hot food (and my neighbors know everything I do), they think I don’t eat. I will say though, I appreciate the fries the other day.
• Getting free celery from the lady I buy carrots, tomatoes, and peppers from because I speak Kinyarwanda and I’m teaching the children English.
• Getting used to showering in a cement room with a hole in the corner. After I shower and the floor is covered in soapy water, I have to mop it into the hole so it drains outside.
• I should probably invest in a hammer…I’ve hammered every nail into the wall with a rock.
• Feeding two kids peanut butter and jelly sandwiches…they ate it with a fork like it was dessert.
• Walking down the street in my igitenge wrap (just a big piece of local fabric that you wrap like a towel and wear as a skirt) to buy a kilo of sugar (I don’t know what I will do with that much sugar, but it was only 700 francs!). It was 6 pm and everyone was lining up to get their water for the night and boy did I get some stares, but everyone seemed to love it. I think I talked to more people and more people approached me first than any other time I’ve walked down the street.
• Trying to explain, in Kinyarwanda, to little children at 3 pm that it is no longer “good morning,” but rather “good afternoon.” A few kids have caught on, which I’m hoping will spread to the others.
• So far I love my site and the people. Everyone said that Rwandans would be very conservative at first in our communities, but I guess I've been lucky. Of course there are some people who are hesitant and will only exchange a simple greeting, but my neighbors and a few families have been more than kind to me and have made it so much easier to go out into the community each day.

New Address!

Hi Everyone,

Now that I am at site, I have gotten a mail box with the other volunteers in the area. There are many problems with the mail system between Rwanda and the US right now, but as far as we can tell we can receive mail, but cannot send anything home. Hopefully I will have more news on the situation soon so that I can start writing during my free time!

My address is:
Sarah Doyle
BP 28
Nyamata, Rwanda

Please write to me or send packages (the flat rate ship packages seem to be the best way to send stuff). Receiving a letter or a card really makes my day!

If you are wondering what to send me:
-powdered anything that just requires water, especially the drink mixes.
-mac and cheese
-pasta sauce and parmesan cheese (i miss italian food)
 -granola bars or cliff bars
-candy!
-magazines
-interesting newspaper or journal articles
-pictures! I desperately need more pictures of home

Goodbye Life as a PCT, Hello Life as a PCV

Looking at the positives, I’m officially a Peace Corps Volunteer, but sadly that means I have to leave behind my comfortable worry-free life as a Peace Corps Trainee when I was guaranteed three meals and two tea breaks everyday. I am currently at my site in Rango after a whirlwind week and a half of tests, interviews, speech-writing, travel, and amazing eating and shopping in Kigali. The transition process started about three weeks ago when I was asked to give the French speech at the swearing-in ceremony with a fellow trainee, Jed Augustine (a fellow crane member from Model School). In true Sarah form, we found plenty of other things to do besides writing our speech and had the final draft done three days before swearing in. So what took up our time? Well, we had to score intermediate-low on our final Kinyarwanda language exam, so I spent a lot of time studying. We had Christmas and New Years, which we all managed to make the best of. On Christmas Eve we had a White Elephant gift exchange and spent the night dancing at a local hotel. On Christmas day we covered a classroom floor with mattresses, set up a projector and speakers, and spent the day watching movies. The week leading up to New Years was filled with tests. I scored Intermediate-high on my Kinyarwanda test and managed to pass tests for medical, PC policies, safety and security, tech, and cross culture. During this high-stress week, we also found out when we would be leaving for site. I was set to leave straight from Kigali after swearing-in with 4 others, while the rest of our group went back to Nyanza to celebrate. As most of you know, I am not a girl who travels light, so on top of studying and interviewing, I had to pack up my life into a trunk and 2 suitcases (I did it!). New Years Eve was plagued with the usual debauchery, but we also spent the afternoon saying goodbye to our amazing LCFs who helped us conquer everything Rwandan over the last 11 weeks; we all owe them so much and cannot thank them enough for all of their help and patience. On New Years Day, well…I woke up eventually and by the time I got my bearings, it was time to go back to sleep. On the 2^nd, we all headed to Kigali to prepare for swearing-in and do some intense shopping to get ready for site installations.

            After hearing so much about this land of wonder, Kigali sure didn’t disappoint. I got a sugar-free vanilla latte (yes, that’s right) at Bourbon Café, my new favorite place. It felt like I was back in a Starbucks or local coffee shop. I bought pots, buckets, kerosene stoves, silverware, floor mats, staple foods, powder soap to wash my clothes (by hand), a blanket, and so much more. I’m happy that my site is not Kigali because it is not the real Rwanda, but I am happy to know that it is there and when I need some Indian food or a latte (or money to pay for those things), I can take a 2 hour bus trip to get it. After a day of madness and gorging on comfort food, I spent the night practicing my speech and preparing for the goodbyes to come.

Monday the 3^rd – the day of swearing-in – was a very American morning. It started with the girls running around straightening their hair and doing their makeup, while the boys sat around in their suits trying to tie their ties. Mup was supposed to come with the buses at 8:30 so we could get some breakfast before the ceremony, but in true Rwandan form, the buses showed up at 9:30 with the ceremony starting at 10. We rolled up to the American Embassy around 9:50, where the Fulbright scholars (who joined us for training about halfway through) came to inform us that we were supposed to be at the Ambassador’s residence, not at the Embassy. So, back on the buses we went and arrived at his house with about 5 minutes to spare (but of course nothing starts on time in Rwanda). I would say around 10:15 the ceremony got underway with speeches from the Peace Corps Director, a representative from the Ministry of Education, the American Ambassador to Rwanda, the Rwandan Minister of Health, and then us PCTs. English went first, then French, and finally Kinyarwanda. All of the speeches went very well and drew many bouts of laughter and applause from the audience as well as our colleagues. Finally, we swore in, taking an oath that was surprisingly hard to remember sentence by sentence (so many big words!) and then ran off for pictures and some amazing American food. Eventually, we had to pull ourselves away from the comforts of the Ambassador’s residence and head to the Peace Corps office for another reception with Rwandan food – a little bit of a let down after we ate a ton of American food. After taking care of some house keeping issues, we said goodbye to the staff and went to town for one last shopping spree. We then piled back onto the buses with all of our purchases and headed back to the training compound where I had to say my goodbyes to the sixty volunteers heading back to Nyanza. We have all become so close over the last three months that it is hard to imagine how we are going to go three months without seeing each other, but luckily it is not Niger, as our Director and Medical Officer like to remind us (they both just transferred from there), and none of us are getting deathly ill, we have a decent climate, and we can easily communicate with one another. So, off the sixty volunteers went to Nyanza, while the five of us prepared for our journey to site the next morning.

The trucks and Gordie came to the training compound at 8 am on the 4^th. We loaded up all of our stuff and then headed on our way. Allison was the first to be dropped off, second was me, and then went Thais, Katie, and Gordon. So last week during my evaluation interview, I asked one question: “Is my house ready?” I received the response, “Yes, of course!” Yeah, definitely not the case, which is fine because I love living with my headmaster and his wife, but boy did that short response a week ago set me up for a letdown upon my arrival. My headmaster said that they were doing some “painting” and I would be able to move in the next morning. So, we all went to visit the house, and well “painting” meant cementing, fixing the electrical, filling in a latrine, cleaning another latrine, sanding, building a wall, installing 2 new doors, and painting. So that was Tuesday and it is now 10 PM on Thursday and I am still at the Headmaster’s house. Maybe tomorrow I’ll move? Wenda…I love my site and today I was introduced to part of the community at a choral celebration for the opening of the newly renovated church, which was a very nice ceremony, but I am ready to unpack all of my things and settle in (and learn how to light a kerosene stove) before school starts on Monday.

My next task in my new community is to integrate – so easy to say and not so easy to do. In America, I’m a relatively shy person, but here that doesn’t fly. I have to go out and meet as many people as possible over the next few weeks and gradually become a part of the community. I need to make friends and earn the respect of my colleagues and elders in the community. I need to prove that I am not just a girl (I’m not considered a woman because I am not married and have no children), but a girl that has skills and is willing to share them with the community. I am ready to learn as much as I can about the culture. Today I was scolded by two older women for crossing my legs. I’m still not sure why, but in looking around it looked like only men crossed their legs while the women just kept their knees together. I don’t know really, but I went with it. The next month will be especially hard, but if I put in the time, I think it will also be extremely rewarding. I am excited to start teaching, coaching soccer (did I mention I’m starting/coaching a girls team?), teaching the teachers English, and organizing a library. The next two years will be difficult, but I can already tell they will be amazing and rewarding. I really look forward to sharing the good, the bad, the funny, and the sad – the ups and downs as a PCV in Rwanda – with you all.

Model School

            This week marks the third and final week of model school for the Crane Group (we have animal names for our teaching groups). I have been working with a group of four other trainees since we arrived in Rwanda. We have been lesson, trimester, and classroom management planning for the last 8 weeks and have finally struck a rhythm in our teaching methodology. Though I did teach a little bit at my site, it has been completely different writing lesson plans every night and successfully implementing creative teaching methodologies that are focused around the students and not me. It is easy to stand in front of a group of forty students for fifty minutes and talk, but it is a whole different ball game to get all the students, despite their English proficiency, engaged and involved in contextualized activities.

            Model school has been extremely exciting and a lot of fun, but I will be excited to not have to write lesson plans this weekend or hear “Teacha, Teacha” yelled at me in class for a few weeks. Yes, I know I will be teaching for the next two years, but it will be so different. I will have the same students everyday (at model school different students seem to show up every day) and will be able to establish solid routines, transitions, and expectations. Rwandan students do this snapping hand raise that is more annoying than anything I’ve ever experienced in a classroom, except for when they start yelling “Teacha, please Teacha” on top of the snapping when trying to get me to call on them. I have put an end to it in most of my model school classes and will definitely let my students in Rango know that snapping and yelling “Teacha” will not go over well with me. Not only is it annoying, but it also disrupts the other students who are still thinking through their answers. As most of the volunteers have said, waiting a solid 5-10 seconds before calling on a student is great because it gives as many students as possible time to reach a conclusion and participate without the background noise of snapping and yelling from the stronger students..

            During model school, I have been teaching S1 and S2, which is the equivalent of 7^th and 8^th grade in the U.S. I am shocked every day by their intelligent thoughts that with a little more English could be perfected into some very strong and moving thoughts about social issues and life in Rwanda. I am also amazed by their ability to recite grammatical rules like it’s nobody’s business; half the time I have no idea what they are talking about (I know I need to brush up on my English grammar). The age range is pretty big in my classes (students are anywhere between 13 and 17), which is typical for Rwanda. The government has expanded from 6 years of free basic education, to nine, and starting next year to twelve years of free basic education, so people who were not able to pay school fees in the past are registering to go back to school and receive the free education that they now have a right to.

            Model school has been great for practicing some teaching techniques and activities that I wasn’t sure were possible in a Rwandan classroom with so many students. I have successfully done community mapping by having students draw in chalk on the classroom floor (they thought it was pretty cool), information gardens outside, small group work, a lot of pair work, and some successful individual writing assignments. Some of the classes are stronger than others, but it has been exciting to see the changes that have taken place over the last three weeks. The more interesting the topic, the more engaged the students and the more exciting and fun it is for me to teach. The challenge will be to maintain a high level of engagement everyday, but that’s all part of the fun. I’m looking forward to getting a head start on lesson planning for the year after seeing so many great lessons during model school. I can’t wait to have my own students to work with and be able to see the progress they make throughout each trimester and each year as a whole.

Trimming Grass with Hoes - The Umuganda Experience

Umuganda is a monthly mandatory day of service for every resident of Rwanda over the age of 18. Seeing as we all fit the requirements, one Saturday every month we all go out into the community and work with them on a designated project. We have experienced two umugandas so far and our third will be this Saturday. Both times, we have worked on digging drainage ditches on the side of the main road by our training center and using the dirt to fill in the holes that washout during the rain storms. The community provides us with the necessary tools: hoes, shovels, and machete-like weed-whacker things. My tool of choice is the hoe; I have tried them all, but have settled on the hoe as a good stress-reliever and a much better upper body workout. The downside – BLISTERS. The machete weed-whacker thing is a lot of fun cause you just swing it back and forth across your body (like a golf club) and it cuts the grass, but I’m really worried that one day I will accidentally let go and cause some serious damage to someone or something, so until I perfect the technique, I’m sticking with the hoe. The shovel is just boring, so I’m not even going to explain why I don’t like it.

            So umuganda round two was the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Thinking that we were going to do a new and exciting project, we were a little disappointed when we were sent back to the same ditches we had dug the previous month to maintain them and continue further down the road to the dairy factory. After successfully hoeing our way down the road and making some high quality ditches, we were sent up to our old ditches to trim the grass with hoes. How do you do that you might ask? Well, it is a technique that requires a light touch and precision or else you will dig up the dirt and make the ditch deeper than it needs to be. So yes, I spent about an hour lightly scraping the ditch with my hoe in order to trim the grass. It was certainly a let down after throwing the hoe up over my head and doing some serious damage when it came down, such a short while before.

            But in all seriousness, umuganda is an inspiring day. Everyone in the community, rich and poor, comes out to work for about four hours one Saturday morning a month. The government offices decide what project each umudugudu will work on so that all of the community needs are met. Again, all people over the age of 18 are required to serve and I have heard that community members will come looking for you if you do not show up. But really, who would want to miss it? You get to spend time socializing with community members and working hard on something that will benefit the whole community. Granted, we haven’t been building schools or houses for the poor like a lot of Rwandans do as projects, but if we didn’t maintain those ditches, our main dirt road would flood and washout, affecting many of the houses in the area. I will definitely continue with umuganda once I get to my site; I believe that it is hugely important for integration and getting to know my fellow community members, but come this Saturday, I sincerely hope I am not digging anymore ditches – my hands need a break.

Thanksgiving Rwandan Style

After much harassment from my mother, I have written one very long blog post, which I will post under separate titles that address all the different things I’ve been up to. Thanksgiving was a great success. The turkeys went in the pit around 8 am and were covered in charcoal and banana leaves. Team stuffing pulled through with me as the “chemist”, mixing all of the ingredients until it was just right. We started peeling and cutting around 12:30 with a team of five, which gradually increased until we were a well oiled machine of about 10. We had peelers, bread dryers, fire starters, broth makers and mixers. We cooked on three small charcoal stoves, which made the process a bit more tedious than if we had a nice gas stove and oven, but we managed. A great highlight from team stuffing: A Peace Corps car was supposed to come pickup the huge vat of stuffing at 6 and we were going to get a glass of wine before dinner, but it was never sent, so Joel got fed up and with a sudden burst of testosterone and adrenaline through the pot of stuffing for 100 people on his shoulder and went flying up the road to center. Meanwhile, Nelson, the only other man there was already to help, so he went running off after Joel. Us girls just stood on the side of the road watching Joel disappear up the hill with Nelson hovering around him in case he dropped the pot. It was pretty priceless.

Around 6 pm all the food was ready and we sat down to an amazing meal of turkey, mashed potato, mashed sweet potato, stuffing, green been casserole (with fried onions of course), substitute cranberry sauce (artificial plum jam), apple cider, apple crisp, and cookies. It was amazing to sit down to a meal with sixty-eight other Americans who had spent the entire day working tirelessly together in order to guarantee that our first Thanksgiving was a success. Before dessert, two trainees presented the history of Thanksgiving in English and Kinyarwanda to our Rwandan teachers, since it was the first Thanksgiving for many of them. To show them how thankful we are, we presented them with a huge banner that we all wrote personal notes on. Peace Corps was kind enough to extend our curfew until 11 (crazy, huh?) so we could go out and relax. We had a brief dancer party, complete with Miley Cyrus’ Party in the USA, and then headed into town. Friday morning was not pleasant for anyone – too much turkey and that extra hour of socializing did us all in.

Site Visit in Rango

As usual, I apologize for the delay in posting about site assignments and everything; I was incredibly busy preparing for the trip and then I got to my site and found out that there is no internet available within an hour of my school. This will be the last post in which I apologize for taking forever to write; otherwise I will be apologizing for the next two years. So what is this “site” I keep talking about? A Peace Corps site is the village in which a volunteer works during their service. My site is in Rango (the umudugudu, or village), Mareba sector (like counties in the US), Bugesera District (kind of like states), Eastern Province (regions). I am a one hour bus ride south of Kigali and then another hour moto ride southwest off the main road to Rango.

            Rango is a small village with no more than five stores (all of which sell the same things – sugar, soap, flour, and phone credit), two churches, and many small mud brick houses that have been plastered in cement. The market is in the sector next to Mareba, Ruhuha (about a 30-40 minute walk from my house in Rango), on Tuesdays and Fridays. The market is huge; it is the market that the big hotels and restaurants in Kigali come to buy animals, vegetables, and fruits for the week. Ruhuha is also where the police headquarters is. Though Ruhuha is bigger than Rango and you can find the most basic goods there, I have to travel an hour to the main town, Nyamata, for things like internet, mail, cheese (very important), plastic buckets and cooking supplies, and quite possibly toilet paper (I didn’t see any while I was in Rango or Ruhuha). To go to the bank, I have to travel into Kigali, which is another one hour bus ride from Nyamata, which is just such a long and annoying trip in mini-buses that are meant for 15 people, but actually squeeze about 23 adults, many children, and everyone’s belongings in. I’ll probably make that trip once a month and spend the vast majority of my free time in Rango.

            So what did my week in Rango look like? I left Monday morning at seven for Kigali with two other girls that are in Bugasera District and an LCF who would help get us to our sites. It was about a two hour trip from Nyanza in a nice sized bus to Kigali. Once in Kigali we squeezed into a mini-bus and annoyed all the other passengers with our huge hiking backpacks, purses, and motorcycle helmets (yes, Peace Corps gave us all flashy helmets that help us stand out even more than we already do). I was lucky enough to sit in the back row, which almost went out the back of the bus when we hit a speed bump too fast and the trunk door flew open (we had to hold onto the row in front of us as ours went backwards). Once we regrouped, we continued onwards to Nyamata where we dropped off Thais and Allison. From there I jumped on a moto after putting on my flashy helmet and headed to Rango to meet my headmaster. My LCF said it would take only ten minutes to get to my school, which was unfortunately 10 Rwandan minutes, which works out to be about an hour in American time. Please just picture me on the back of a moto with a 50 pound backpack, a purse, and a HUGE silver helmet – I looked ridiculous. Every time we went up a hill I thought I was going to go backwards off the bike; my abs and hip flexors were working overtime to keep me on that bike. We eventually made it to G.S. Rango, which will be my school for the next two years.

            My headmaster was there to meet me and we went to his house, where I spent the week with him and his wife. They were both so kind and ready to share their culture with me; it really made the week the best one I have had here in Rwanda and probably one of the best cultural exchanges I have ever been a part of. Monday afternoon we went to visit another teacher and his family and then that night, after dinner, my headmaster and I sat down to make a schedule for the week, which is when he decided to throw a curveball at me; he wanted me to teach English throughout the week. I have limited teaching experience and only three weeks of Tech training under my belt, so to say the least I was a little overwhelmed. Luckily, Tuesday is a market day so I got out of teaching then, but I did end up agreeing to teach an hour on Wednesday and two hours on Thursday to an S3 (the equivalent of 9^th grade in the US) class. They were already having a couple hours of math and science every day and the headmaster thought it would be a great idea to throw in some English, so with my six hours of experience in lesson planning, I threw together two lesson plans.

            Tuesday morning I woke up with the cow next door and started my day by introducing myself to the students and staff at school and then heading to Ruhuha to meet with the Police Commander and then on to the market. At the market I bought two live chickens and a lot of fruits and vegetables. Because I’m not allowed to jump on a bike taxi without a helmet, I walked home while my headmaster’s wife road a bike with all of our purchases. After lunch, I had the chance to visit my future home, which is in the compound of the largest church in town. For now, I will only say that there is great potential in this house that has yet to be realized (hopefully it will be by January). It is a three room house with an outdoor kitchen/shower building and a squat latrine. There is no running water (the water source is about 15 minutes away) and right now there is no electricity, though I have been told that I will have it by January. From the house I went to meet with the umudugudu leader, who will be an important contact to have in the community if I ever have any problems or concerns. He was very nice and I am looking forward to working alongside him over the next two years.

            The rest of the week was kind of uneventful. On Wednesday I taught for an hour and then explored the community by myself for a few hours. During my walk I was mobbed wherever I went and received many wedding proposals (this is extremely common for young American girls). I stood my ground and was able to escape many awkward conversations and got to meet some great women and girls. I visited two homes; the first was home to a young woman with a new baby (who was so happy to see me, she peed all over my dress), and the second was home to the family of a 17 year old girl who had shown me around. They were so nice and had many questions, which were asked and responded to in kinyafranglish (Kinyarwanda, French, and English). From there, I went home and in the afternoon I went with the headmasters wife to get prices for furniture. Thursday, I taught two hours about how to give a presentation and public speaking. Between classes I was able to observe two other classes to see how Rwandan teachers conduct their classes, which I found to be very interesting. I had the rest of the day free and just hung out at home and helped cook meals. Thursday night I went out with the headmaster and his wife for brochettes (meat on a stick) and potatoes. I was SO full by the time we finished, but of course dinner was waiting for us as soon as we got home. In true Rwandan fashion, I pretended to be hungry and forced down two plates of food (it seems to be an insult if you don’t take more food). With a very full stomach, I sat through the nightly prayer session and then was more than happy to head off to bed.

            Friday was a day of travel back to Nyanza after a morning full of food. We ate breakfast at 8 and then the headmaster’s wife decided she wanted to make ubugali (AKA fufu, cassava bread – a very gummy mass of cassava flour mixed with water), so at 9:30 we made ubugali and soup and by 10 we were eating lunch. I got back around 3 PM and immediately left for the local restaurant to catch up with everyone and do an informal debrief on our week’s adventures. Everyone had such different experiences so it was exciting to hear about the challenges and successes at our individual sites.

            Now, after five days back in Nyanza, we are back to the usual grind. We start model school next week and will be teaching four classes a week for the next three weeks, so we have a lot of prep work to do before (three week plan, weekly plans, class management plans, and individual lesson plans). On top of that, language is being kicked up a notch and we are working towards more immersion work. With six weeks to go in training, we had our mid-PST assessment and were able to give feedback to Peace Corps, which was received positively and acted upon immediately.

            Last thing to talk about – THANKSGIVING! What might a group of 68 Americans living in rural Rwanda be doing for this food-heavy holiday? Cooking turkeys, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, gravy, pumpkin pie, apple cider, and apple crisp, of course. The turkeys were brought in from Kigali and will be cooked in a 5’x 7’ pit with charcoal and everything else will be cooked over charcoal. The local staff will not be helping, so it will be up to the 30 person Thanksgiving team and sub-teams (I’m on Team Stuffing!) to pull this off and cook a Thanksgiving meal for about 120 people. I will definitely let you know how it goes; I’m sure there will be plenty of amazing stories to share.

            I will conclude the post now with high and hilarious points from my week at site:

High and Hilarious Points of the Week

- a chicken flying up the wall then at my face after Thais tried to scare it away.

- a 4 month old baby peeing on me while I was chatting with her mom.

- learning how to prepare a chicken (yes, I killed it, plucked it, and then chopped it up for dinner)

- being told I’m hungry and then fed every time I yawned

- walking home without tripping thanks to the full moon

- successfully teaching three hours of English and living to tell about it

- having French to back up my limited Kinyarwanda; so few people spoke English, while most educated Rwandans also speak French in addition to Kinyarwanda.

- walking around Nyanza and talking to random Rwandans about their lives for language class

- getting WIFI at the training center, so I don't have to pay for internet anymore

- going a solid 5 days without a single bug bite (possibly a new record)

Stay tuned for Thanksgiving shenanigans…