week 8 and some more pictures!

My living room

me on the way

Week 8
This week was full of surprises; on Wednesday, we had to practice making malaria slides, so we had to prick our finger and make a thick blood smear and a thin one. I was sitting next to my future roommate and being a total wimp and not pricking my finger, when she pinned me down and did it for me. It didn’t even hurt. I bled a lot though, surprisingly. Some people didn’t bleed enough to make a good slide and I couldn’t stop bleeding! So, that was an interesting day. Thursday morning while sitting at breakfast, we had an earthquake! A few volunteers from the east coast and the south had never been in an earthquake before, so it was fun to be with them through it. The epicenter was in Cyangugu, my future home, and it was a 6.1. Here it was just a little bit of rocking, but I am interested to see how my house held up. Then, Thursday night during dinner, the electricity went out. During the day, I went to a clinic about an hours walk from where we stay to help out with the maternal and child health activities that are going on this week. We showed up at the clinic and the lady who runs the clinic, and apparently the only one who knew we were coming, wasn’t there yet; so we waited around until she came and then she told half of us to walk with a lady down the street (we ended up at a school) and she took two volunteers with her in the car to another school. We sat at the school for about an hour, cutting paper into small squares and making cotton balls and then I asked if we could help with anything else and she said no, so we left and went to one of our teachers houses for a fanta and to see her kids. While there, we got a call from the other two volunteers that they didn’t know where they were and the lady that drove them there took off and left them. So, they just started walking and we finished our fantas and went to the road to wait for them. After about 15 minutes of waiting we started walking in the opposite direction that we came hoping that it was the direction they were headed. We finally found them and walked back to the center together. We went to the orphanage where we will be doing our practical activities and spent some time with the kids and the house parents (nuns). Then came home and took a test on the technical trainings we received. After the test, it was one of the volunteer’s birthdays, so we went to a Chinese restaurant in town for dinner and made a betting pool on who did the worst on the test. If you have the lowest score, you win the pot. The food took almost 2 ½ hours to get to the table, and we had to call our director and let him know we were going to miss curfew (10pm). When we got back to the center, we had cupcakes with nutella frosting for him. It was a good day!
Friday was graduation at the National University of Rwanda where 9 of our teachers graduated. It was hot and long and boring, but afterwards I went to a few parties, which were somewhat fun. I am just upset that they were all at separate places, so I didn’t get to go to all of them. Two of our teachers had their party together at our director’s house and most of us went to that. The formalities here are crazy. There was a MC for the night and many speeches were made, all the while I was thinking this was going to be a fun celebration with a BBQ. I am learning a lot about Rwandan culture though through these interactions with my teachers. When you accept a gift, there is a formality to it in which the presenter gives a speech, then hands you the gift and while both of your hands are on the gift they sing a song, then you take the gift with both hands and set it back down on the table to be opened at another time. From the looks of it, you do not open gifts in front of people; you accept gratefully and open at another time. Kind of like a wedding in the US?
But the best part of this week was that I received my packages!!! I got a lot of magazines, so I can catch up on my smutty entertainment news (thanks auntie K and mom), I got new bath products which smell amazing, candy and protein bars! It was like Christmas, but so much better. We broke into our director’s office Thursday night after the cupcakes to receive our goods, because we cannot wait for such things, they’re too important. I got another amazing card from Cindy and a picture of my neighbor’s new baby! So, all in all, it was a good week.
Oh, and Saturday after a language session, we had a goodbye party with our resource families. I am still going to see them after the party (and did on Sunday), but it was the only time to have a formal goodbye. Two of the male volunteers played guitar and one sang a song (by Neutral Milk Hotel), and Meredith gave a speech in Kinyarwanda thanking the families. My mom didn’t show up until all the formalities were over and we were eating lunch, I was sitting at the orphan table when she came. She definitely is on Africa time.