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

I hate the internet here!

Hey friends! How are you? I hope life is well back in the states. We’re doing well. Sorry I haven’t written in a while. It’s so dang hard to use the internet here. It doesn’t work enough for us to get on our emails or facebook anymore…it stinks. In the beginning we were able to Skype pretty well but now…not so much! I’m sorry but we’ll figure something better out once we get to site. I’ve thought about getting a modem that we could use in the village…but it’s 20,000 RF per month for the cheapest one (40,000 RF for the best one) and that’s a lot here…and even then-we would have to hike up the mountain part way to use it…so don’t get your hopes up. It’s part of the experience huh??

A lot has been happening here. Of course there is the language. Always the language. It’s so stinking hard-but I’m sure trying. I’m hoping I’ll get it in about 2 years?? This week has been pretty taxing on us, it’s the genocide week. We have NO worries in comparison to the Rwandans on this subject but it’s hard to watch everything that happens. They have marches, speeches, and commemorating ceremonies that we attended. It’s just hard. Thankfully we’ve had lots of down time this week. We’ve gotten out of class everyday at 12 and had the rest of the day free which has been so wonderful. I needed that break. Going to class 6 days a week from 7-8 everyday is hard. We have breakfast at 7 and then dinner at 7 so we’re together pretty much all day. The trainee’s are wonderful and I’ve loved getting to know all of them but this week has been so nice to sit in my room and watch FRIENDS!! That’s right…friends. Trena brought all 10 seasons and so so so graciously allowed us to borrow those and I’ve watched the heck out of them this week.

Speaking of trainee’s… today Ali announced she would be going home. I totally cried. It’s crazy how close you can become to people in 7 weeks. I definitely wasn’t the closest person to her but I love her! She’s so happy and fun. I don’t think I’ve seen her down one time since we’ve gotten here.  She just decided it was not for her. I really liked her. Hopefully we’ll be able to stay in touch once we return! It’s so hard to see your friends leaving. You get to know these people and you just expect to see them when you visit their town or a lot during the two years-but then you find out they’re leaving and it just sucks! Statistically 1/3 of our group will leave before the 2 years are up and we’ve already lost 2 of the 37. It’s sad to think more will leave…

In other news, I am SOOO ready for a package. We got a package last Sunday night and it was the best thing ever…but now we’re ready for more. I miss American food so much that I can’t stand it. I miss dr pepper! I would give my left arm for a dr pepper which you all know is a big deal b/c I am left handed!! I have lost weight!! I’m down to 135 and still going. Yay. I am very happy about that because I’m also gaining muscle again. I played soccer yesterday with some kids for about 2 hours. Every muscle in my body aches today. But by golly I’m losing weight…not gaining it! This is good.

What is going on in the states? What the news? I can’t load articles. Julie…if you want to email me copied/pasted articles about relevant news I would love that. Anyone really can email me ANYTHING you want…I just knew Julie likes doing stuff like that. Just try not to send links because they don’t load. For some reason Gmail loads so much faster than anything else. So maybe? I need information. How’s work going? How’s school going? How are the kids doing? How are marriages going? Yes, I’m speaking to all of you. Every friend I have that reads this…please email me! I miss emails and information about my friends. I don’t want to lose touch with you guys. You all know my email address. Facebook doesn’t always work so if you email me on that…I probably won’t be able to check it for a while.

We swear-in 23 days from today. (4-12-09-10). I can NOT believe we’ve been here 7 weeks. It just doesn’t seem possible. Time is FLYING! I can’t imagine what the 2 years are going to be like. I’m nervous. I don’t know what this is going to be like and people going home make it so much scarier! Just pray for us. Please. We are in love with it here and it still feels so surreal that we live in Africa but hopefully we will never get to that point where we’re overwhelmed and want to leave.

I love you ALL! I miss you ALL! And I want to hear from you ALL!!  Please write, email, call…anything you can. We would love it.

Sarah

Pictures!

We're in Kigali for a couple of days so we have great internet so here's just a couple of pictures! It's gorgeous. Everywhere you go!  Also...if you want to see more...go to our facebook.

Also, we found out our organization...here's the link.

www.kageno.org

Bring on the rainforest!

Hello again everyone! I hope you all are having a wonderful day. Oh and this is Papa Ring speaking by the way. So another week has passed by (so very fast) and things are still going great. It is hard to believe we have already been here for over a month.

Big news this week…we got our site placement. So, we now know where we will be living for the next two years. Sarah and I are really excited about our placement. I don’t think I am supposed to say exactly where we will be living but it is supposed to be pretty much in Nyungwe Forest National Park which is a beautiful rain forest. So I thought I would throw a few interesting facts in about the forest.

“Nyungwe National Forest is one of the most ancient forests in East and Central Africa and dates back to before the Ice Age. With a pre-historic atmosphere it is incredibly rich in bio-diversity. The forest supports over 250 different types of trees and shrubs and a vast range of flowering plants, amongst which are over 100 species of orchid and giant lobelia. Nyungwe also harbours 13 species of primates, these include chimpanzees and the handsome L’Hoest’s monkey with his flowering skirt and other species of monkeys. Several large mammals inhabit the forest including leopards, golden cats and bush pigs amongst others.” There are many more interesting facts about this magical forest. You can Google it if you want to know more.

Anyway, our future home is also only 5 or so miles from lake Kivu and we are situated pretty high in mountains where the temperature should be just perfect and the nights should be nice and cool.

We still do not know a whole bunch about the organization we are working with but I believe we will be doing various health education projects and community activities along with many other activities. We will be visiting our future home and community in a few days and we will see what our living conditions will be like and will also meet our counterparts, future co-workers and other community leaders. We are very excited! Stay tuned for new updates in a week or so.

I also realized I haven’t mentioned anything about our training staff and Peace Corps country leaders yet. I just want everyone back home to know that they are all amazing. We couldn’t have asked for a better staff. Our language instructors are more than patient with us as we struggle to learn this crazy difficult language. They shower us with Fantas often so don’t worry; I am getting a coke every now and then. They are fun to hang out with and make sure that we are always safe. Overall, they are altogether wonderful.

I would also like to give a few shout-outs to friends and family back home. To mom and dad (both sets)…We love you guys and as you already know we are being taken care of. To Phil, you need to start planning a visit sometime in the future. Just know you will have to overcome your biggest phobia…you can do it. Dustin, there had better be an extremely impressive man trip planned for when we get back home (you got two years). To Seth and Landon, I feel confident that my 68 will hold up for the next two years so I am not too worried about that. To Mark, I will do my best to implement an extreme flag football league here…might be a little tough though as I do not yet speak the language and Rwandans only know football as soccer. Mamaw and Papaw, just know we are safe and sound. Sarah and I feel just as safe if not safer here than at home. To the rest of my friends and family, we miss you all and hope life is treating you well. We will talk to you soon!

The Rings

Let’s go Men!

3-21-10

Jarod here…so what’s new? Language…still tough, Rwanda…still beautiful, training…still intense but good, food…well…Anyway, I don’t
think I mentioned this before but out of the 36 people in our Health
group, only 5 are men. FIVE!!! Come on guys. So, needless to say I
had to bump up the testosterone level a few notches to just above
Johnny Bravo level. However, I quickly realized I may have overdone
it a little and that I reached the pinnacle of masculinity when a kid
called me Chuck Norris the other day. Not really but seriously…five.

I know I have mentioned it before but the landscape here is beautiful.
Every time we take a trip it gets better and better. Today, on the
way to the rainforest the hills were crazy beautiful. It amazes me
how every hillside, valley, mountainside is used to plant or grow
something. There is no hill to steep or mountain to remote. There
are hundreds of plots (squares) of different crops littering the
hillsides. It’s crazy. Every hill looks like a hand made blanket
sewn together with every patch a different shade of green…absolutely
beautiful.

In other news…saw a few monkeys at the rainforest. They were cute.
However, I got the impression they weren’t as excited to see us as we
them. Oh well…no worries. Also, I may have said it before but life
here is simple. Days consists of the bare necessities…you know the
simple bare necessities…forget about your worries and your strife.
Anyway, people work to eat to live. Kids push wheels with sticks,
kick around soccer balls they made from banana leaves…those kinds of
things. Everything else is just not important and really doesn’t seem
to exist…especially in the rural areas. There is not a day that goes
by that I am not amazed at what these talented women can carry on
their heads. It is not uncommon to see a women (or man) carrying a
kitchen table on their head. And, I have heard stories of them
carrying much, much more.

Oh, I learned something new at church today. So, I noticed last time
at church they were auctioning things off towards the end of service.
I finally discovered what this “auctioning” is. So, in Rwanda (like
many other African countries) many people have little or no money.
But, they do have other things like milk, beans or rice. So, the
people who do not have money to give in the offering will bring what
they do have and it will be auctioned off in church and the money will
go towards the offering. So, nobody is left out. What is even cooler
is that when people buy these goods, they will pay 3 to 5 times what
they are worth because it is going to the church. It is really cool
to see how the community comes together to help each other out.

So, overall the mood is good, life is great and I got a beautiful wife
to share it all with. Read her blog for more news. I hope everyone
is doing well back home. As you know we miss you all very much. And
if you miss us…well…just send chocolate. Love you guys!!!