This past weekend marked exactly one year since we each packed a bike, an aluminum chest, and personal belongings onto a pickup truck and each headed to their assigned site. It's amazing to see most of us had survived the experience and now we're into the count down.
A year ago when I arrived at my site I was received by my counterpart and resource family' walked into a house that needed scrubbing floor to ceiling, had to kick the old tenants of spiders and rats out' and in the process settle in. A year later today, I have a better command of the language, I rule the streets and hills of my umudugudu (village, made many friends, turned a house into home, and worked on many projects to improve the living conditions and knowledge of my neighbors and colleagues.
It's sad to think that there will be a day that we'll all have to leave. In my constant thoughts about leaving, when the tide is high and the waves are crushing (which happens often), I find sadness and a sense of longing for this place.
Things I got to enjoy about my site include:
- kids calling my name 'Nsabimana' and running behind me on my walk to work
- strapping my hiking shoes on and going out hiking in the various mountain trails and valleys just out my backyard
- the pleasure of seeing some of my recommendations implemented at the health center
- the agony of having the opposite be the case
- 2-hour road trips in the Rwandan country side on dirt roads on visits to health centers
- having conversations with friends and neighbors around a bowl of M&Ms; where M&Ms is the subject of conversation
- the look on people's face when I speak Kinyarwanda
The next few months should be interesting especially that now after being here a year, people are realizing that I'm one of them and are open and more accepting.
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