AHHHH I can definitely get used to weekends here! Saturday went like this: sleep in until 10 A.M., go into town with Paci, try to fix the wifi, have a delicious lunch, watch beautiful Rwandans soaking up the sun as they amble about on the streets, go to market to buy eggs, take a forty-minute walk home. Something very funny happened during lunch to Paci and I: the waiter took our order, and we waited for twenty minutes just for the waiter to come back and say, “I’m sorry, we don’t actually have goat today. Or beef.” They were embarrassed to say what they didn’t have; Paci and I laughed and instead ordered simbaza, a set of crunchy tiny fish. Something funny also happened on the way home! I was walking far too quickly for Paci, who kept saying, “ahh slow down, we don’t walk fast here.” And he told me that Rwandans don’t walk fast so they can save energy. When people live 8km or further from their home, that made a lot of sense to me! Cathy laughed at my gullibility later and said it’s just because no one wants to reach their destination and instead would rather enjoy the walk and gorgeous scenery. Chatting with their friends, enjoying the day.
Also, Rwandans have such a neat tradition on the last Saturday of every month. Everyone will come out of their homes and actually clean the streets and clean up their yards and their neighbor’s, too! It’s a way of light cleaning that really goes a long way. It’s definitely observed: businesses and restaurants won’t open up until 2:00 P.M. on Saturday because everyone’s outside their properties cleaning.
Sunday was also a blessing! The VP of PREFER, Aimble, came to Cathy’s house along with his Korean friend Kim, who is on a two-year contract in Rwanda similar to the Peace Corps. It was refreshing for Peter to be able to speak Korean to somebody and engage in the cultural familiarities. We sat outside, talking, learning about everyone’s different lifestyles in Kigali, enjoying the sunshine, exchanging emails, and made tenuous plans to head out to Kigali in a week or two! We might head up to a volcano this weekend, which will be so incredible. Cathy also showed us her plans for a vocational school for adults at PREFER, which would help adults learn and sell their skills for building things, fixing plumbing, these type of practical things for this rural village. Otherwise, this weekend was all about catching up on sleep, trying to stay on top of allergies, planning out our lessons for the week for the preschoolers and the sixth graders, and just enjoying a break as people do here!
hugsomebody 