Frequently Asked Questions Part 2
Here is the second part of my Q and A. Its time to answer some of the tougher questions people have about my life here in Rwanda.
6) Is the Peace Corps just pushing American ideals on to unwanting countries?
I hear this as the biggest backlash against the Peace Corps and I remember my brother coming to me before I left saying some of his friends were discussing that I was going to force people to become more American. I understand where this is coming from, especially because I have seen some terrible development programs while being in Rwanda. I want to make it clear, no organization or volunteer is perfect and that includes Peace Corps. Do I sometimes wish my colleagues had more of an American worldview about things, yes, but that does not mean I am here to push any of those ideas onto my community. And yes, I am slightly biased since I am a Peace Corps volunteer, but I know not every volunteer is perfect and Peace Corps itself has many flaws.
Lets start with why Peace Corps is in Rwanda in the first place. The Rwandan government asked, Peace corps to be here. The Rwandan dictate the different programs Peace Corps runs in the country (in Rwanda that is infant/maternal health and English education programs). The Rwandan government also dictates (with the help of Peace Corps) which schools and health centers volunteers are placed in and when a school stops having volunteers (ideal after the 4th or 5th volunteer). Peace Corps volunteers are trained to respond to the needs of our communities and schools, so each volunteer helps organize different programs based on what our communities want. These are grassroots programs that look different in every school and with every volunteer. Our main goal it ensure that the programs we help organize are sustainable, so volunteers are a guide and help their communities gain resources they might not know are an option to them. Our job is not to force anyone to do something they don’t want, so sometimes a volunteer will only work on 1 project, while another volunteer will work on 5 different projects, it’s 100% based on your community and nothing else.
7) What do you actually do?
During the school year I teach a minimum of 30 periods in English. I mainly work in Grades 4 and 5, but I also help other teachers when needed. I spend a lot of my time in the teachers rooms with teachers asking questions about curriculum or language or just wanting to practice their English. I am also starting to work on a few other programs, that were sadly postponed this last term due to so many teachers being on maternity leave. We are excited to begin our new projects and I’ll let you about them when its the appropriate time. On the weekends or after school, I usually draw or watch movies with my neighbors, and there’s always something to clean and sometimes a party or something to celebrate or someone to visit. Below is my timetable from this past school year.
8) How do you stay culturally appropriate?
It’s important in my everyday life here to be as culturally appropriate as possible. First of all for my safety, but all to show my community that I am not different from them and that I respect their culture. One of the biggest things I do is be aware of my clothing and the way my community sees me present myself. This is also extremely important in Rwandan culture. My knees and shoulders are always covered. I clean my shoes regularly. I wear igitenge (fabric) clothing that I have had made in Rwanda. I run with a large t-shirt over my leggings. How I present myself outside of my house is extremely important in showing that I have respect for my community and the culture around me. Since I live alone, I get to live however I want in my house, which is amazing, but I also keep in mind cultural behaviors when people visit (you always serve tea of some kind of food), and I like to visit other community members, which I’m getting a lot more comfortable with as I gain more understanding of the culture.
9) How often do you travel around Rwanda or to other countries?
Since I am a teacher, I am only able to travel outside the country during school holidays. Right now it is the long holiday break until the beginning of January. While I won’t be leaving Rwanda I am traveling to visit friends in different parts of the country and excitedly waiting for my family to come at the end of December. During the school year, volunteers are able to spend 3 nights away from their community every month to take care of things that are not in their immediate community. This includes visiting a friend close by, or going to a near by town for banking or things that aren’t available near you. Personally this is necessary time for me to socialize with other people who understand what my life is like living in a very different community. In the next school year I’m planning to travel more outside of the country to fully experience everything around me.
10) What religions are common in Rwanda and how does this effect the culture?
There are 2 main religions in Rwanda; Christianity and Islam. In my community, Christianity is the main religion with most of my community being Catholic, since I live so close to the holy site where the Virgin Mary appeared. Read my earlier post A Walk In Village to hear more about this story. In many areas that majority muslim you will hear the call to prayer 5 times a day and see many mosques, while in my community you see many different churches of different denominations. Other religions are mainly, unheard of in Rwanda. While I never receive hate or inappropriate comments about my being Jewish, the majority of my community doesn’t understand what this actually means, or has never heard of the Jewish religion; many even believe I am Muslim. These religious views do dictate a lot of traditions and cultural norms in my community, making it extremely conservative, from a western view point. I quickly found that most Rwandans don’t care what denomination or religion you are, as long as you have a belief in God, atheism in mostly unheard of and not wildly understood.