Move (Again)

I moved again! Luckily this time it has not involved moving continent sub regions, countries, or even provinces. I just moved down the street.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I moved into a very nice, four-bedroom house, on the health center compound, with four Rwandan roommates and, for a month, another Peace Corps Volunteer. There were a lot of benefits to having company when I got home from work and not having to prepare my own meals, but the truth is that the situation was far from ideal for me for many reasons. The previous volunteer invited the roommates to live in the house for free, which, bottom line, made me very uncomfortable.    

View from my backyard

I have been told the first three months at site are the most challenging. I don’t yet have the rest of my service to compare it to, but I do really hope this is true.

Since arriving in Rwanda, I have had a lot of great moments, but also a lot of unforeseen challenges and frustrations, particularly as they related to my housing situation and the community’s perception of me as a simple clone/continuation of the previous volunteer (only she had perfect Kinyarwanda, I am reminded daily). All of this combined with the evacuation from Niger has, over the last few months, seriously made me doubt my abilities to work and live in Rwanda. 

But now I have a new house, and a new outlook on life! I live a little further away from the health center, in a much more modest house, without electricity, and with lots of wonderful neighbors, including at least a dozen children who run and scream every time they see me coming and are always ready to greet me with toothless smiles and big hugs. And with daily hugs from my five year old friend Valentine, where else in the world would I want to be?!