Prior to coming to Rwanda, I had passion fruit as part of smoothies or other drinks, but I had never actually seen a passion fruit. Voila! They are one of the main fruits here. They are a little bigger than a golf ball. They are quite tasty – just bite or cut one open and eat the pulp and seeds. Delicious!
Well, what to my wondrous eyes should appear while walking through the Kabarore outdoor market today but a jackfruit. This is the only one I’ve seen in Rwanda, so I bought it for $2. I’ll bring it to work tomorrow and we’ll have it during our tea break.
OK, this might sound like I’m complaining, but it’s cold in Rwanda! The day was rainy and overcast and the temps tonight will dip to 14C or 57F. I was chilly as I rode home from school on my bike. It’s not uncommon now to see people in US-style winter jackets.
(NR 24 is the national road that runs through Kabarore. Sometimes my iPhone will display ‘Kabarore’ and sometimes ‘NR 24.’)
He’s kind of hard to see, but the man in the yellow shirt is a plumber. A couple of plumbers were doing work on a sewer pipe in the compound where I live today. They were hard at work before I left for mass before 7 a.m. They are down about 20 feet, which seems incredibly deep for a sewer pipe. I actually have no idea where the pipe leads as I don’t see a wastewater treatment plant in Kabarore.
No posts this week because I was in the isolation unit at Peace Corps after having tested positive for Covid last Sunday. Peace Corps sent a driver to pick me up on Monday morning and the kept me sequestered as per CDC guidelines for 5 five days. I will have to wear a mask for an additional 5 days. It was a very mild case and I’m fine.
The isolation unit is nicknamed “the Covid jail,” but it’s pretty nice. I ordered out, mostly Indian, each day. I had the space all to myself and finished Karen Blixen’s ‘Out of Africa.’ Still, it’s getting towards the end of the semester and I felt guilty about being away from school, but there was no way around what the Peace Corps doctors order you to do.
Peace Corps is pretty rigorous about having volunteers self-test weekly for Covid. I did so today and I tested positive for the first time since the pandemic began. I had been feeling like I had a cold all week, but I assumed that was from getting caught in the rain a couple of times. I guess the bivalent booster Peace Corps gave me less than two weeks ago didn’t help much.
One thing that is universal in education is professional development. Yesterday we received an excellent training on ‘School-Based Mental Health and Adolescent Sexual & Reproductive Health for School Staff’ by Mukantwali Bienvenue of the Gathsibo district educational office. Ms. Bienvenue discussed the issues that Rwandan youth are facing, such as depression and teenage pregnancy. No doubt the youth of every country are dealing with these same issues. Always good to received professional development trainings to keep us sharp and raise awareness.
It is amazing to me to see what people carry on their heads in Rwanda. When in Rome…
Here’s one way that Peace Corps has changed in the 30+ years since I was a volunteer in Thailand. Liliose, the Kinyarwanda teacher, came to visit me at site the other day. She is the third PC admin to visit me in the 7 weeks I’ve been at site. In comparison, in Thailand I only received one visit by my program director in two years. One reason it’s easier to visit volunteers in Rwanda is that there are so few of us (less than 20) and the country is relatively small, where every volunteer can be reached from Kigali in a day.
The teaching is easy and going well here. We absorbed 11 instructors from Zimbabwe so my teaching load is minimal. I’m pitching in in other ways, though. On Thursday as we were leaving school, one of the tutors (they use the British term) told me that I and two Rwandan tutors had to accompany the students to a 5-school debate competition on Saturday (yesterday). The debate was in English. On short notice, these smart and hard-working kids pulled it together and won the competition. So proud of them!
