Volleyball!

Monday, I helped out in the pharmacy, counting pills and putting them into baggies (they don’t have pill bottles here, just baggies) with the nun and this one guy came in to get some medication to treat syphilis. Well, the nun was furious and started yelling at him in Kinyarwanda and I couldn’t understand enough to figure out why she was so angry. When he left, she told us that he had 4 wives and didn’t bring any of them to get treated. She threatened not to treat him until he brought his wives in and held on to his meds for a little while. She yelled at him a second time and then gave him his medication. That evening, I taught phone vocab, one of which was “off the hook”, I tried my best to explain the slang meaning of this phrase, but failed miserably. I thought it was so funny and was giggling every time I read that phrase, so I thought it would be only fair of me to explain why I was laughing, but it just doesn’t translate.
I went into Kamembe on Tuesday because we were flat broke. I went to the bank which only took 10 minutes, which is unheard of in Rwanda (we’ve been known to wait 4 hours before), so I was pretty stoked about that. I then went to the market and bought some peas and carrots, which are unavailable in my village (I’m gonna teach the importance of variety in ones diet) and then sat around. One of the other volunteers in Nyamasheke said she was coming into Kamembe that day also, so I texted her to see when she was going to arrive and found out that she hadn’t left yet, so I decided to make the trek down to the AIDS Relief office to see if I or em had any mail. I was walking down the hill and decided I better ask someone if this was the correct hill, so I turned around and asked this guy who said yes, this was the right way, but heres a short cut. My goodness that short cut was STEEEEEEEP. We went traversing down this vertical muddy footpath first through houses and then through the forest. It was the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen. I am flabbergasted that I did not slip and fall. I finally made it to the office after about 25 minutes and went to the post with one of the staff to see if there was any mail. I got a box, Emily got an envelope and Tricia got a box. It was a good day. While I was waiting for the other volunteer to come (she was going to give me a ride back up the hill because now I had a large envelope and box to carry along with my moto helmet and backpack), I opened my box and read some Newsweek. That lasted about an hour, then I got on the computer and checked my email, played some solitaire and played with this electronic dictionary that has French, English, German and Spanish. Then I made some tea and sat outside looking at the lake and Congo for a while and then after about 3 hours of just sitting at the office getting in the way, I asked if the driver could take me up the hill. He was on lunch, but could take me when he got back. I finally made it to the top of the hill around 2:30 or so and went to the taxi stand to get a taxi back to the town on the road. The taxis don’t leave until they are full, and since my town isn’t very popular there was only one other person in the taxi when I asked, so I decided to eat something first. Ordering food in Rwanda always takes a long time, but this I know. It took about an hour to get my food and pay and then I had to sit in the taxi another half hour until it filled up before we could go, so I didn’t get moving until 4pm. It took an hour to get to my town because of all the stops we made along the way, so the moto driver was trying to beat the sun on the way back and my goodness my legs are sooore from gripping onto the bike.
Wednesday, I helped pass out mosquito nets to the people in the sector who cannot afford one. It was madness and I thought of a million different ways to increase the productivity of the day. I taught English later in the day and after went to play volleyball at the primary school. It had rained that day, so there were huge mud puddles on the court and my arms and hands were a different color by the end of it. I played with boys and girls and teachers, so it was a good mix and really fun. A lot of people on their way home stopped to watch the abazungu play (to pluralize people in Kinyarwanda, you change the prefix instead of adding an s on the end, so umuzungu, becomes abazungu when theres more than one).
Thursday, emily talked me into staying home to make chapati for lunch (it takes a long time), so I did some laundry, taught english to the one nun, fixed the clothing line and read. it rained around 1 and then again at 3. it finally stopped around 3:45, so we were late going to teach, but it doesnt matter because they're always late coming in. during the night, there was an electrical storm in which one flash was so bright i thought something exploded and then the thunder was so loud that it stopped my heart and my whole body got goosebumps for about 10 minutes. I have never been so scared of thunder before in my life. I cannot explain how loud and scary it was. I was shaking and covered in goosebumps and on the verge of tears. i feel silly saying that, but this was like nothing i have ever heard before and the flash was so bright and scary, it just added to the terror. I'm okay now, but my goodness that was scary!!!