Last 2 Weeks of Training!

I'm two weeks away from becoming an 'official' Peace Corps Volunteer. And I've hit somewhat of a plateau in terms of language, cultural adjustment, host family integration...you name it. I no longer have the high that was post-site visit. I can communicate in kinyarwanda on a just-above-basic level and can understand what I need to (most of the time). Essentially, I'm at cruising altitude. BUT now is truly NOT the time to become complacent; I have my official LPI a week from Saturday and I have a workshop to present (in KINYARWANDA) on Wednesday to PC and next Tuesday to secondary school students. SO, my laziness is ILL-timed to say the least. So I'm working on finding some motivation and trying to put together a game-plan for when I get back to site.
BUT on the bright side, I really am more and more comfortable with my host family everyday. I've reached the point where even though I'll worry that what I'm doing is weird, at the wrong time or otherwise bizarre...I'll still do it and trust that my family will laugh and point me in the right direction or tell me to do something differently. At least now I'm willing to take the chance and not paralyzed into inaction. I think it also might stem a bit from the little time I have left living with them. They've learned enough about me to expect and understand some things, and everything else I just don't really care about.
I had a very amusing time this weekend at umuganda -the Rwandan, once-monthly community work day. We were working on clearing a site to build houses for genocide widows. It was a very interesting and exhausting experience. Once we arrived, we took our ever-useful hoes, machetes, and shovels and set about hacking at stumps that were in the way of the house construction. Most of the time, we were in fact, the main attraction. It was very amusing, apparently, to watch the abazungus sweat and dig in the dirt. Just as we were about to leave, everyone else was just arriving and setting to work. This was interesting because it was supposed to start at 7 and we arrived around 8:15 and I was concerned that we were really late....most people arrived between 9 and 10.
Then, on the same day, after the most wonderful cold bucket bath, we headed off to the big city of Kigali to work on banking stuff and buy some host family gifts.
After being the only person in our group for whom a debit/atm DIDN'T exist, I decided to cut my losses and just go enjoy pizza and some shopping at Nakumatt (the supermarket/ superstore).
Needless to say, by the end of the day I was falling asleep in my plate at our late dinner.(almost literally, it would be a very amusing site had it been recorded)
And on to the next week! This week is not looking too exciting, just prepping for our workshops and more language. I just have to figure out EXACTLY what I need to learn and study this week in language to be better prepared for the Language Proficiency Interrogation. We'll see how that goes...in kinyarwanda tuzareba- "We will see."

Post Script: This is pretty much just rambling, so if you have any specific questions or curiosities about Rwanda and my life, just ask in comments or on the f-book.

1 month!

So, I've been here going on a month now...
and I've now had many moments where I've thought, "Yeah, i could live here for 2 years" and those have been very exciting! I'm back from visiting my site where I'll be living in a month, for the next two years! It was an interesting visit and I got such luxuries as riding in a car on the way there and electricity and sometimes running water! It was indeed an epic moment! And I saw my future living situation, a neat little boarding house on the top of a hill with my own little room and a common kitchen and bathrooms. It was quite a moment after having my sometimes-functioning toilet in my guest quarters, to be excited to see a pit latrine at my future residence. A hole never fails!!
But I'm excited to start my project working with the kiddies! I'm not real sure WHAT I'll be doing and I'm sure I'll be creating a lot of it from the ground up! this will be a challenge...and an opportunity! more on this to come!
Must go study for our LPI (Language Proficiency ....Interrogation?) Not sure what the 'I' stands for, but interrogation is pretty accurate from my prospective! We shall see, wish me LUCK!