Monkeys are my best friend...

Jarod here…it has been a while since we have updated so sorry if this gets pretty long. The last two weeks have been very busy. So, I guess the big news is we now know where we will be living for the next two years and we have also visited our site.

A few more details on our site…we are in the Nyamasheke district in the Western Province of Rwanda. Our village (Banda) is actually in Nyungwe Forest and it is absolutely beautiful there. Banda sits at the bottom of a picturesque valley surrounded by the rain forest to the North, East and South. To the west lies Lake Kivu but it is about a 5 hour hike. Sarah and I have discovered that we probably have the most remote site placement of all the volunteers. You may think, how can you be remote in a country that is no bigger than Maryland? Well, to get to our site you first take a 4 hour bus ride from Kigali (usually accompanied by many people loosing their lunch due to the windy roads). Our bus stop is actually the visitor’s center in Nyungwe Forest. From there you start walking and you continue 1-2 hours down, straight down the mountain. The scenery is absolutely beautiful. You can see Lake Kivu to the west at times and the forest canopy surrounding you like a blanket from the sun. Sarah and I also saw around 30 monkeys on our trip to and from our site. So, if anybody wants to visit the monkeys for free, come see us! Anyway, the easy part is getting down there. Coming back up the mountain is a different story. It takes around 3 hours to hike back up the mountain and at times you will be holding on to vines and roots to pull yourself up the very steep terrain. We will definitely be getting some great exercise for the next two years.

Anyway, I will give some information on Banda. Banda is a very rural, very poor village on the periphery of Nyungwe Forest. The basic source of income in Banda is (like most of the country) farming. There is no running water or electricity in Banda so once it hits around 6:30, there is not much to do except chill in your house (so please send any good reading material or movies). There are no banks, restaurants or post offices. It is actually a 3 hour hike and a 1 ½ hour bus ride to the nearest bank or restaurant. Also, Banda is one of the most densely populated communities in the country with over 500 people per square kilometer. Due to the high population density and lack of resources, Banda has many obstacles to overcome. Fortunately, Kageno our organization has started many good projects in Banda and the future is looking better. Even so, the newly built health clinic there is still understaffed and has limited recourses. Women still have to walk 6-7 hours to have a baby in the nearest health center. But, there are many great things happening in Banda and Sarah and I are happy to be a part of it. I know we are there for a purpose and we are excited to see what the next two years have in store.

In other news, Sarah and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary on Monday. It is crazy to think that it has already been 2 years…wonderful years. It is also crazy to think we will be spending our 3rd and 4th anniversary here as well. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to take her to Hawaii like last year. This time, I had a much fewer resources to work with. So, I took her to the lake (or large pond) and brought my guitar to play and sing and watch the sunset. Unfortunately, as I suspected, within 5 minutes of sitting down, there was a crowd of about 15 children surrounding us watching us like some kind of circus show. So what do I do…the only logical thing…start playing the only African song I know and ask them to dance. It was very interesting. After that, we made the long walk to the Nyanze Heritage Hotel. There we splurged on ham and cheese sandwiches and french fries…with ketchup all for about 3500 francs (7 or so US dollars which is very, very expensive here). That was a real delicacy for us and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Anyway, that is pretty much it…maybe we can travel somewhere next year.

Also, in closing I have to mention that this week, the 7th – 14th is Genocide Memorial week. 16 years ago one of the worst genocides of all times took place in this beautiful country. For the most part, everything shuts down for the week. People spend the week visiting the different memorial sites, attending community speeches and events about the genocide and spending time with friends and families. It is a very sad time of the year. I would encourage anyone who doesn’t know much about the events that happened in 94 to research it. There are a few documentaries and movies available as well. For the movie I would encourage Sometimes in April and a good documentary is Ghost of Rwanda. Other movies and documentaries are Hotel Rwanda and Shake Hands with the Devil. Also, there is a book called Left to Tell that I would recommend. It is the story of a lady who, along with 16 other women were hidden by a friend in a small house during the genocide. One of our fellow Peace Corps Volunteers will actually be living in that very house for the next two years of service. We all thought that was pretty cool! The owner of the house said that people would definitely be visiting frequently because of the history of the house.

Well, that is all for now. Sorry so long but there was much to talk about. Also the internet is terrible here and it is always hard to skype, upload a blog or even check our email. I hope everyone is still doing great back home and we hope to hear from you sometime soon. Also, if anyone wants to actually write a hand-written letter, there is just something special about receiving one of those so, don’t be a stranger. Be blessed!

The Rings