A Much Needed Break

We arrived at site in mid-December. School was set to begin January 9^th, giving me almost a month at site before any sort of routine could present itself. What’s a girl to do? Enjoy, that’s what. After three months straight of constantly running to different classes and training functions, fighting off some kind of mysterious illness, infection, or injury, I was able to actual recover. It was awesome and absolutely, 100% necessary. I was able to take the time to unpack, shop at the market for myself, cook for myself, go to sleep when my body needed it, eat when I needed to eat, all of it. These were vast differences from training. Don’t get me wrong, community based training was awesome and prepared me well for many cultural aspects, but being force-fed at weird hours, constant classes, not being able to sleep when you know you need it, and not being able to prepare food without the use of a liter of oil per day was exhausting! Moving to site gave me time to settle in and relax for a minute before school began and I am grateful for it.

Other than unpacking, which really doesn’t take long when you only bring a few bags with you, I got into a short, month long routine. I would clean the house, wash clothes almost daily so that my laundry pile never reached the clouds, I cooked, studied Kinyarwanda and chatted with the neighbor kids and mamas, read, and exercised (walks around the village, OR cheesy workout DVDs), and went to bed before I was a walking zombie or falling asleep in the living room- which happened regularly at my host-home. It was fantastic. For the first time in Rwanda, I was completely content and, above all, healthy. 

Arriving a month before school began was obviously great, but there was one more sobering thought: The thought of having to spend Christmas and New Year’s in a brand new village all alone. It may not have been so bad to go to a neighbor’s house for the holidays, but being at a boarding school, most of the teachers were not even in Kirinda for the break! Most were either in Kigali helping mark the national exams, or in their hometowns with family. I ended up deciding to get out for Christmas. It was not far, less than an hour from here, but I went to a friend’s house with some of the other new volunteers and we made the best out of our holiday away from home. It was great, actually! We all were able to hang out, relax, have a beer, play games, cook, and eat together. Christmas Burritos will have to become a new tradition, homemade tortillas and all. Although Christmas was great, it was my first Christmas away from home and quite different from orange sweet rolls, the menorah, the Christmas tree, and multiple holiday feasts at Mom and Dad’s!

I decided to spend New Year’s Eve at home, but last minute, I also decided that there was no reason I couldn’t host! So a few friends came by for the night, which turned into a few nights pretty quickly. Just like at home, I always enjoy hosting and it always makes me happy, so I had a great time cooking and sipping whiskey all weekend. Yep, just like New Year’s at home- minus the cute outfit, bars, New Year’s hats and crowns, fireworks, or champagne. Meh, there will be plenty more New Years to celebrate… given the apocalypse skips over its predicted 2012 date. Shoooooot.

Enter January 9^th and the beginning of school. But by then I was all settled in to my house and entering a new chapter of my adventure in Africa. Tales of ES Kirinda will just have to wait…