it's a Two-FER

and fer the last 2 weeks!
July 8th-So we have a little thing, amongst some of us volunteers, that we call Humpty Dumpty Days. They are days where you fall apart and can't get back together again. They were decreasing for a period, but with the upcoming exams, language proficiency interrogation, and Swearing-In ceremony, they are coming with increasing frequency. They are largely amusing for us, and in general, for those around us. (Any one not suffering from a Humpty-Dumpty day initially often suffers a contact Humpty-Dumpty day.) AND our poor, dear LCFs (Language & Cross-Cultural Facilitators) suffer the brunt of the madness that ensues with any Humpty-Dumpty days. Many hilarious and useless conversations have been the result of those. They should be addressed in the Pre-Service Training we receive and how to recover from them (it's just like dealing with Dementors. chocolate is required)


July 19th-It's official! I'm a volunteer! it happened and I can proudly say I passed "with flying colors" and nice comments. I survived my French speech at Swear-In with few blunders and got really excited about everything in the moment. I'm not gonna lie, the cheesy lines about adventure and development totally still appeal to me. Surviving everything and getting good feedback was obviously very encouraging after the demoralization that is mandatory in this adjustment process. I'm not even gonna lie, I'm proud of my "Advanced" status on the Language Proficiency Interrogation. I studied my butt off, i love when that's worth it. But now the real test...

I'm at site! Fivel, the cat that serendipitously wandered into the Peace Corps office one week before swear-in, and I are very happy out East. I would be lying if I said I was comfortable...but I'm gonna get there. I have to accept that it will be hard again to go to shops, with the stares and 50 children in tow. It will be hard sometimes, to go out of my room and force myself to have awkward conversations with the people in my compound. I will likely suffer some actual, physical burns as a result of my not-up-to-code kerosene cooking stove. But on the bright side, I've already been doing it for almost 3 months somewhere else, and while a new place presents all new challenges, I know I'm capable of conquering them! Also, if all else fails, I know I can live off grilled peanut butter sandwiches and pineapple! AND this time, my kinyarwanda is MOSTLY functional! i can hang.

Luckily, on the other side of things, what I was most scared of...finding purpose and usefulness, has been less difficult than anticipated. I still only manage a few hours of actual work a day, but that's part of the job desciption...figuring out your job. This is significantly more difficult than having one handed to you, but then you can also considering everything an accomplishment! I have established that I'll be 'working' at the pre-school next door with the nuns (they mentioned helping w/ drawing and clay time...i'm gonna try to slip some hygiene English songs), I'm working on a connection with setting a Camp GLOW and Camp BE (PC int'l. projects for helping with confidence-building, communications skills and the like for dev. purposes), and trying to establish something for the organization I was ostensibly sent here to help create. BUT on the bright side of this all, I'm helping at a small Conference thing for the youths of the area and I get to do some community analysis with them which will hopefully be a jumping-off point and I've talked to my supervisor about getting in touch with the director of a home for street children and plan on getting back in touch with the directors of locals schools so I can work on forming English clubs there! This will happen! Even amidst all the scrutiny that I have constantly, including the girl that is currently just standing outside the window, watching me work....make THAT conversation, and within moments they multiply and now there are 8 kids out the window...at 4:30 PM saying "Good morning! How are you?" followed by my neighbor slash fellow-compound-dweller and the kinyarwanda "what-do-you-know-that-I-can-point-at" Quiz begins...just another day.