Friday, June 12, 2009

Pictures

If you are interested in seeing pictures you can go to facebook.com and look me up. You have to have a facebook account or have a friend with one log in to check them out. I will try to post some pictures here soon though. There are some pictures there. Also, friends of mine have taken a bunch of great photos too so look for my Peace Corps friends.

Cultural Notes #4

1. On mens suit jackets they sew their tags on the outside of their sleeves near the wrist. I guess to show off the brand name hehe.
2. People go "tssst" if they want your attention. I was offended at first but learned its normal. However, is very confused with the American "psst" (I want to tell a secret). haha. So if you say pssst as if to tell a secret you actually attract the attention of EVERYONE in sight!

May Updates

This is the first post in a long time now so I will be brief. Everything is taking longer than I had expected. I'm still adjusting. Especially when it comes to work and my job description. I will discuss that later. However, I hiked to lake Muhazi one weekend. It's closer than I imagined. I got pooped on by a bird, played soccer, and taught the "head, shoulders, knees and toes" song to a crowd of 50 aged 3-70. Hilarious I tell you! Life is good. Saw lake Mugesera and a place called Shalom Village. Shalom village houses over 100 genocide orphans on its beautiful compound that has a school, fruit tree groves and murals on the walls.

Work was stagnant for a while but now its moving. In May I went from organization to organization and introduced myself and Peace Corps in Kinyarwanda. It felt good but soon enough I visited almost all the organizations in town (over 30). I will begin teaching English in less than two weeks. It's easy to find an audience here. Everyone wants to know English. I fear that the registration list will be close to the population of Kigabiro sector (the sector that I live in. Rwanda is broken down like so: Nation, province, district, sector, cell, village). However, I am working hard on beginning health activities for youths at the center. My organization AESD is a subcontractor with PSI (Population Services International). PSI is awesome. Look them up. I will be carrying out PSI goals through AESD. This is great news. I went to meetings in Kigali with PSI and other head organizations in the country and got a sense of commitment and I'm excited to get started.

Well, I'm trying to make this blog less boring. Stay tuned... we'll be right back after these messages.