We all spent the last week at our actual sites to meet our communities and village leaders before we actually get there in May. Everyone seemed very nervous to be by themselves for the first time and a little overwhelmed to be meeting and staying with their whole village for the first time. I, on the other hand, was not nervous because I was going to be staying with a current PCV along with 3 other trainees that are placed in Kigali as well. We were assigned different tasks, such as meet the head of your village, meet the Mayor, go to the health clinic ect, which was all impossible for everyone placed in Kigali, so for us, it was not such a scary situation.
We arrived in Kigali and met everyone in the organization (EDC) and in order to welcome us, we all went out to a happy hour (yes, one of the pluses of being in a city. I would like to see anyone in the rural villages try to go to a happy hour!) The president of the company made it clear that he was going to pay for our drinks, so I ordered a glass of wine. EVERYONE else ordered beer, so I felt very awkward sipping on my wine. Now I know to just order beer no matter what because they kept telling me that everyone drinks beer, and if you get invited for drinks with someone, the correct thing to do is to order beer, so I felt extremely awkward, but now I know! No wine! We were all very tired, so the volunteers left a little early to get some shut eye.
The next few days were filled with meeting organizations that we will be working with, talking with Melanie (a French lady who started EDC) about what we would like to be doing, and we sat in on a class that was teaching different Business and Finance Modules (things we will be eventually teaching.) A big plus about being in the city is the amount of English that is spoken (thank god.) Learning Kinyarwanda is still important, but for the most port, all our counterparts speak English really well, which makes everything so much easier.
One of the highlights from our Kigali trip was going to the Market. This Market was way bigger than the Market here in Nyanza. It is an outdoor market filled with venders selling everything from spices and flour to pots and pans, to shoes and souvenirs. We walked through the souvenir section and I noticed this drum that I kind of liked. So I picked it up to look at it, and immediately the seller came to me and started shouting 6,000! I put it down because a.) I didn’t really want a drum right now, and b.) 6,000 was pretty expensive- even though the exchange rate is 500:1. So I walked away because I really wasn’t interested, and he followed me around saying “sister, sister, how much how much?” I tried my best to ignore him and keep walking, but he was a relentless salesmen and so I finally turned to him and said 2,000 hoping he would scoff at me and walk away. He then lowered the price to 4,000 and I kept walking, and finally he said OK! 2,000. So just like that, I turned around and bought the drum. So for the rest of my visit, I had to awkwardly carry around my drum.
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