End of May

Sunday (May 23), I took the bus home to Mwezi and when I arrived, my host family was visiting, so I came in and said hello and scared the baby into a fit of crying and screaming, but he soon calmed down with some sweet, milky tea, which he slurped from his mom or dad’s spoon, it was really funny to watch! He kept looking at me and smiling and then the next minute would make a whine and look terrified. By the end of the visit, he was all smiles, but still wouldn’t let me hold him. He did give me a high five a few times though. And they brought us 6 eggs, 2 cabbages and a bunch of bananas! The eggs were bad though, which I found out while cracking them into the pan.
Monday, I went to the sector office to meet the co-op women, but they weren’t there! So, I went into the clinic and saw I had a box and took it home and opened it. It was from grandma and full of goodies!!! Walking in Mwezi is full of interesting smells, you get the good ones, like the smell of the eucalyptus trees on the road to the clinic or the smell of squashed guava that someone dropped and then there are the bad: the smell of grinding cassava root (it smells like puke), manure after the rain, people who just finished a hard day working in the field… Its always surprising what smell is going to hit your nose, sometimes you are nicely surprised and it makes your day.
Tuesday, I was the designated photographer again and tried to get people to let me take their photo for their work card and then Desire’s (the accountant who got married in January) wife came with their baby for vaccination and he asked me to take family photos.
Got kidnapped by the titulaire Wednesday morning into sitting in the hygiene meeting, taking pictures for him of the clinic, and walking with him to a meeting at the primary school, then I escaped and worked in PMTCT. The hygiene meeting was just a yelling match between the workers and the titulaire about how the clinic needs to look better and be cleaner and then one of them mentioned human waste that they found that morning. We went and looked at it and it literally was right behind the toilets, still on the concrete of the building! Someone walked past all the toilets and then squatted down next to the wall and relieved him or herself there. After seeing this, the titulaire went to the hospitalization and asked the people from last night who did it, no one came forward, and so he fined every one of them 200 francs for being dirty. I thought it a bit harsh, but also a little funny. The social affairs guy from the sector office came and took Emily and I out for a fanta at the restaurant and we had a hilarious conversation! I asked him about his baby and how he was and then realized I didn’t know his name, so I asked and Emily piqued ‘Homie’, so we both laughed and he asked us what homie meant, so I told him it meant friend and he said “yes, you will be his homie” and Emily told him that other children will be his homie and he disagreed by saying “No, children can be your homie”. I died laughing!
Went to the coop on Thursday and Friday Adam came to visit! We pretty much just hung out at the house, but I tried to take him over to the nun’s one evening, but only one was there. On Sunday, the nuns had visitors who were leaving in their car and they offered us a ride to Kigali, so we accepted. Didn’t realize that they were going to pack 9 people into the car and poor Adam had to squish up his legs the entire time and was in quite a bit of pain by the end of it. The driver also was ridiculously slow and we got passed by the buses!!!
Monday (May 31)I had my Mid-service training. Got there early and went swimming with people.