Merry Thanksgiving and Happy Christmas!

For any of you who have ever lived abroad, you know that food becomes an obsession after a while. In any lengthy conversation with other foreigners here, conversation inexorably turns to food -- where to find specialty foods in Kigali (like, say, pringles), tweaked recipes for making comfort food with things you can get at the market, or hypothetical "you just got off the plane in Nashville: which Mexican restaurant would you go to, and WHAT WOULD YOU ORDER?" This made planning for Thanksgiving a very big process. A letdown on this crucial day could make us keenly feel every moment of the 10 months we've been away, and a success could soothe us with the gentle embrace of the food coma.

I went to celebrate Thanksgiving in Kigali with the other – almost all the other – volunteers. Ahmed had managed for find, buy, kill, and transport a turkey down from the mountains, Tom made a dead ringer for cranberry sauce with pineapple and lemon rind, and Meredith and co. made more mashed potatoes than I have ever seen at one time. I think we were all a little shocked once it was on the table – an honest-to-God Thanksgiving dinner, cooked mainly by Thanksgiving amateurs. I have never been in charge of more than the vegetable tray, and this year I pulled off green bean casserole, cake, and gravy. Every single thing was made from scratch, and was amazing by any standard (even grandma would be proud of Tom’s stuffing). Moreover, we were all so thankful to be together, speaking English and cooking in frantic solidarity, thankful for our surrogate family and for every bite of food. Honestly, the blues over not spending the holidays with family didn’t set in until Friday morning.

I got to involve my parents a little, though. I asked for a cake recipe from mom, and dad sent me a scanned page out of her cookbook, with the recipe circled and with notes in her handwriting. It’s called Mexican wedding cake in the book, but I call it my Rwandan Thanksgiving Cake.
Mix together:
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp baking soda
About 2 ½ cups chopped pineapple or a 20 oz can of crushed pineapple
1 cup nuts (mom uses walnuts, I used macadamia)

Pour into greased 13x9” pan and bake at 350 for about 40 minutes
The recipe called for cream cheese icing, and being unable to find cream cheese for less than $8 a package here, I changed it up with:
1 stick butter, ¼ cup orange juice, and enough powdered sugar to make it the right consistency.

This was made in a borrowed oven, one that only had 2 settings: on and off. So yeah, I burnt the top of the cake. But I did manage to pick off the worst parts, and when I yelled "who wants burnt cake pieces with leftover icing," no one was complaining, and they disappeared quickly.





On Saturday, we head out on our Christmas adventure, and I hope it will be as good as Thanksgiving.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Books for Peace

Last week Tom and I helped with some Peace Corps training. It happened to be in Nyanza, which was the home of the last kings of Rwanda. We got a chance to visit the museum and the homes of the two last kings – one traditional Rwandan, and one Belgian-built palace. It was great to see, and while we were there, we decided to buy an amazing coffee table book of Rwandan history. Not only was it beautiful, it was trilingual, with side-by-side French, English, and Kinyarwanda.



Buying the book wasn’t an easy decision, since it cost about a third of my monthly Peace Corps stipend, but I love it, from its detailed descriptions of goat entrail divination and banana leaf raincoats, to its complete non-coverage of the war. While that can seem like an oversight, it’s great to have something that validates the fact that Rwandan history and culture did not begin and end in 1994. We happily added it to the stack of books on our coffee table—books that we use for learning Kinyarwanda, like a Kinyarwanda comic book and our phrase books, but that we also like sharing with guests, who will look at them for hours. Rwandans are hungry to learn English, since the government switched from French to English as the official language really abruptly in January of 2009 (our Kinyarwanda-English dictionary will be in tatters soon). Moreover, people have just not had access to books in Kinyarwanda, aside from bibles and hymnals.

While I was prepared for Rwanda to be poor, I was not prepared for the level of “book poverty.” Books here are scarce and expensive. I can probably count on my hand-- maybe even one hand-- the number of bookstores in the country, and while there is a library project in the capital, it has yet to open. Because I grew up in a rural area, I compare my experience to that or rural kids here all the time. For instance, I loved the public library. Tiffin had a wonderful one, and it was where I gained my interest in a broader world. In junior high, when I went to school across the street, I went there almost every day. In recent hypothetical baby name conversations with Tom, my request for girl’s name is both the name of my favorite author and my children’s librarian. I am that kind of person. When I saw a Rwandan coworker rapt, flipping through my bosses’ kids’ copy of Pat the Bunny, for the first time,* it made me want to hijack a bookmobile and bring it here.

Rwanda is dependent on the knowledge and skills of its people to survive. Farming is already incredibly intense here, there is little in the way of mineral wealth, its hope lies with its people, and there are a lot. This is the most population dense country in Africa, after all. Some of the skills they need to compete in a global economy are language and computer skills. These are things that a library can provide. But libraries and books, and, importantly, programs that promote and optimize the use of libraries and books, can promote a love of learning, as well as just providing a source of joy. For this reason, I am really excited about an initiative started by Peace Corps volunteers, the Books for Peace Project. 14 volunteers, 14 different communities, are working with Books for Africa to deliver a cargo container of books and computers to their villages, scattered across the country. Communities agree raise a certain amount themselves, for example, by hiring a librarian, and building a space for books to be kept and used. Because there is community ownership of the project, and a volunteer dedicated to the project, they will avoid some of the problems I have seen, where there are books, but no interest in them, or no access to them. Books are expensive and irreplaceable here, I understand, but it was so sad to see a collection of books, lovingly donated by an American, sitting pristine and untouched, locked in the cabinet in the school headmaster’s office.

These resources are going to help add to the educational experience of poor rural kids, as well as urban street kids, and provide resources for staff at health centers. The program has raised a considerable amount of money, but has over $7,000 to go. I hope you’ll visit their site and consider contributing (you can also contact the point person listed there for more information).

As I switched sites, I am not involved in this round, but plan to be involved in participate in the next, and try to bring a little booklove to my new home. I’ll keep anyone who’s interested updated here.

*The realization that they had probably also never read The Velveteen Rabbit was devastating.

Rainy season is the new fall

It’s time for my second rainy season in Rwanda (there are 2 each year, the first starting around April). This one is not as intense as the first, and I don’t know if it’s because of where I’m living, an unusual year, normal variation, etc. Still, I don’t leave the house without a raincoat wadded up in my bag. I live in a big, open valley and when there’s a storm, I can literally see it coming a mile away. The lightning looks pretty spectacular, too.

Another nice thing about the timing of the rainy season is that it’s cooler, matching up nicely with the weather back home. It’s definitely not “November in Ohio” cold here right now, but it was nice to be a little cold at night and to have a Halloween bonfire. The temperature doesn’t vary all that much in Rwanda, and having a little bit of a season change is helping my body comprehend that I’ve really been gone almost a year, missing half of winter, and all of spring, summer, and fall at home. This is the longest I’ve ever been out of the US.

The cooler weather makes me want to make comfort food all the time. My organization feeds all of its staff three meals a day, which is great, but I miss getting to cook all the time, and one the weekend, I almost always make macaroni and cheese. It somehow seems especially good when it rains.

To make it:

Make most of a bag of curly pasta.

While that cooks, grate a couple of handfuls of gouda (the only cheese you can get in Rwanda, and God bless whatever Belgians or whoever introduced it).
In a saucepan, combine 4 tbs of butter or blue band or butter. I’ve also used oil. Melt the butter, then stir in 4 tbs. of flour. If you don’t have measuring spoons, don’t sweat it. The idea is to use equal amounts. Stir or whisk them together for a few minutes, being careful that they don’t burn. Add one cup of milk and stir until the sauce thickens. Then stir in your cheese, until it melts. If it gets all stringy and weird, just keep stirring until it’s a smooth consistency (add more milk if it seems too thick). At this point, you could theoretically add the noodles, and it would be great. However, I like to start adding a bunch of condiments to try to fake what it would be like with sharp cheddar. This usually involves about 3 spoonfuls of mustard, some Worcestershire sauce, a few squirts of hot sauce (not urusenda), and a bunch of black pepper, just because. When I like it, it’s done.

I'm trying to find a new housing situation, something less secluded and more like a normal Peace Corps setup. Hopefully I'll have more to post soon.

I had a hard time waking up this morning. I was tired, I had a cold shower to look forward to, and a long day ahead. But, I opened my front door, and a metallic purple bird flew into the path in front of my house and chirped at me. Then another, which seemed like a good omen for the day. Then, after shower and breakfast, I walked to work and saw mongooses-- a big, social business of mongooses. Some scampered behind a bush when I walked by, but a lot of them just stayed where they were, and watched me with faint interest. Sort of like my cat. It was awesome.

I'm at my site after half a weekend in Kigali, and half at my husband's site. Kigali is expensive, especially if you want to eat something different from simple Rwandan food, food that's very good, but pretty repetitive. By the weekend I'm craving something else, but if I eat out the way I want to at restaurants in Kigali, I spend as much as I would in DC. It was nice to go back home, spend time in the kitchen with Tom, and make Indian food, which we did on Sunday night. Daal, chapati, and green pepper curry.

3 coves of garlic, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
1" of ginger, chopped
1 tsp cumin seeds

4 green peppers, cut into 3/4" squares or so
8 med tomatoes -- skins removed and roughly chopped

1 tbs ground coriander
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/8-1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
salt to taste.

heat a few tsps of oil in a frying pan. Add cumin seeds and fry, let them sizzle for a few seconds, then add ginger and onion. Fry until onion browns at the edges. Add garlic and saute for a few seconds. Add peppers and stir fry for 4-5 minutes. Then add tomatoes and the spices, and some salt. Stir, bring to a simmer, cover, and cook until the peppers are a nice soft-but-not-too-soft consistency. salt to taste and serve with rice or chapati. It gets even better the next day.

It’s been hard to figure out how to write about my new job. I’m working for Inshuti Mu Buzima, a complete public health dream job. I like what I do, the committed people I work with, and the incredibly, implausible beautiful spot where I’m now located. Tom and I are now living in separate towns, which is not ideal, but very doable thus far—we’re only about 40 minutes apart, and have managed to see each other every weekend.

Last week I got a fantastic package of letters from a third grade classroom in Ohio, through the Coverdell Worldwise Schools Program. I had an awesome time responding to them, and can’t wait for the next ones. I hope I have at least sent a bunch of boys running to wikipedia to learn about the black mamba. It also feels weird to write things like, “yes, there are lions and elephants here” (I’m really close to a game park).

One of my favorite things about the letters was how incredibly familiar the kids’ point of reference is. Tom read the letters first, and was just waiting for me to get to the letter that asked me if I liked Bob Evans, of if they have “cricks” in Rwanda (do people say crick instead of “creek” anywhere else but Ohio?). And while writing, “yes, I like chicken mcnuggets, but, no, they don’t have McDonald’s in Rwanda,” is funny, it also gets to what excites me about this exchange. In a lot of ways, I have no idea how I got here. I know why I made different decisions at different points in my life, but how I got from a farm in Ohio (a home that I’m proud of) to a village in Rwanda pursuing a career in global health still feels a little like a fluke, and the fact that I’m getting to do exactly what I want feels like a fantastic stroke of like, despite all the work I’ve put in. If I can make kids aware that people lack basic necessities of life like water, adequate sanitation, decent housing, or that kids like them suffer from diseases that can be prevented by something as simple as a mosquito net, that’s good. If I can convince them that they can do something about that, or make them question injustice and inequality, that’s pretty good too. Even if I get someone to want to travel, I’m happy.

Women and kids waiting on vaccination day

Almost July

So, it’s been a while since I posted. Didn’t have internet for a while, lots of things going on, and there we are. Now that internet is back up and I have a lazy Sunday afternoon in front of me, I’m ready to catch up.

Work. We had our groundbreaking ceremony for our clinic, and it went really well. Still lots of hurdles before we can really start construction, but the word is getting out about the project. We had over a thousand people from the community show up at our ceremony, to watch the singing and dancing, and probably to watch the muzungus as well (muzungu being the word for “foreigner,” or “white person,” that is shouted at my on a daily basis.) I’m hoping to get some community health education programs going between now and when the clinic opens next year.

Teaching. I’m teaching 2 English classes, one to a group of about 12 second graders at the local orphanage, one with a group of scholarship students at the local university. Somehow, the class at the orphanage is going much better (they are no longer afraid of me). If any of you teachers out there have ideas on ways to teach English with no books or notebooks, I am all ears. I’ve been trying to teach body parts, and was focusing on facial features last week. First of all, the kids could not pronounce face. It was frace, with a rolled “r”. I cannot for the life of me figure this out. Also, to start the lesson, I drew a quick cartoon-ish face on the blackboard, and all the kids yelled out “Muzungu! Muzungu!” like they were playing pictionary, I’ve never thought about my completely rudimentary drawings having a race, but apparently they do.

Making. In my spare time, I’ve decided to learn how to crochet. I am not good at, and the only yarn you can get here is gross, crunchy acrylic stuff that is also really fine, so it takes forever. Still, the project is coming along, and it’s good to keep in my bag for things like bus rides and hour-long waits at the bank. It’s a secret, though.

Food. We’ve had a series of houseguests – people from our organization in the US, Humanity for Children. It was great having them, but the cooking slowed down, since it’s hard to cook for a big group every night. Now that it’s just Tom, me, and our new roommate, who will be here for the next year, I’m cooking a lot again. I made brownies in my fake stovetop oven (I melted the bottom out of one pan, so I need to rethink this, but they were still amazing). I also bought milk for the first time. I’ve been using powdered milk for everything, since it’s easy and it keeps. Yesterday brought my Nalgene to one of the neighborgood shops, and they filled it up with milk they had sitting on the counter. I took it home, boiled it, and then made ricotta out of it. It tastes really good, and I have plans to make ravioli. However, while I was letting it rest for a while, my roommate walked into the living room and casually asked, “so, whatcha making in there?” referring to the creepy-looking pan of curled milk on the stove. “Uh, I’m making cheese,” I responded, for the first time in my life.

The other interesting thing about having guests is that they're much less self-conscious about taking pictures here than I am. So when I'm already with a group of people taking pictures and attacting lots of attention anyway, I join in. As a result, I've added to my "cows of the world" photo collection. Here you go, Dad!

Sunday surprise

So, this flew into my yard today. I have seen this bird at a zoo before, and never expected to see it anywhere else. I sat on the ground for a long time taking pictures and just enjoying the weirdness of it. It made my whole day seem better.



So did these. I don't miss having an oven very often, except when I want dessert. This is what I have been making instead.

Crepes with Passion Fruit Sauce

Crepes:

I've been trying out different recipes and this is the one I have liked best.

Make the crepe batter
4 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/3 cups milk (or that much water and about 3 spoonfuls of Nido)
2 tablespoons butter, melted (or margarine)
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Whisk together eggs, milk, melted butter, flour sugar and salt until it's smooth. You can let it rest while you make the sauce.
2. Heat a medium-sized skillet (nonstick if you have it) over medium heat. Grease pan with a small amount of margarine or oil. Spoon about 1/4 cup of crepe batter into the hot pan, tilting the pan so that bottom surface is evenly coated. Cook over medium heat, 1 to 2 minutes on a side, or until golden brown.

Passion Fruit Sauce

Put into a blender:
12 passion fruits (cut in half, scoop out seeds and pulp)
1 orange -- juiced with seeds removed.
a few spoonfuls of sugar and about 2oz of water

Puree in a food processor for 20 seconds, dump it into a pan and boil for about 2 minutes. Taste and adjust with more sugar or some honey. Strain through a sieve, stirring and mashing around with a ladle or wooden spoon.

It doesn't make a lot, but it's concentrated, so a little goes a long way. We've had it on pancakes, too, and it was great.

Another week

When they say this is the rainy season, they are not joking. It's pouring down rain now, even though it was sunny and hot this morning. Tom and I went to visit a nearby school to meet the members of its anti-AIDS club. It was a 45 minute uphill walk, with pretty views across the valley to our own town on the opposite hill. We walked past tidy mud brick houses with little gardens that looked like the pages of a fairy-tale, minus the banana trees and sorghum fields on either side. We spoke to lots of kids in kinyarwanda, saying what our names were, asking them theirs, and saying, no, we aren't going to give you money. I shook lots of little hands, like I do every day, which is probably why I have conjunctivitis right now. Oh well.

So, we got to our secondary school, which is on top of the hill. Like lots of places in Rwanda, I find it almost impossibly beautiful. Most of the time, when I comment on how pretty a place is, people seem bemused by it, like, "this? you think this is pretty? why?" Anyway, when we got to the school, we found that the club had actually started earlier than we thought, and the peer educator was already at the front of the packed classroom (all the benches were more than full with over 60 kids), nonchalantly holding a hand-carved wooden penis model, which he occasionally knocked against a desk like a gavel when the kids were getting too loud.

I was surprised at how much I could follow of the conversation in Kinyarwanda. They were talking about the reproductive system, why girls have their period, the difference between sperm and semen, and they even asked me directly if girls could have erections. It sort of warmed my heart, especially when they followed all this information with practical talk about how to prevent HIV, teen pregnancy, and other unpleasant things. I'm used to hearing about the ABCs of HIV prevention -- abstinence, be faithful, and use condoms, and often hear about condoms falling off the radar. However, today I learned that in this club, they talk about abstinence, faithfulness, condom use, and education. I'm excited to visit again next week.

Things haven't been completely smooth this week. I still don't have a lot of definition in my job, and I haven't been able to meet a lot of the people I need to. It can be really hard to be here, to know there is so much work to be done, and not be able to get started. Luckily, next week is looking busier than the last, and I'm excited.

Anyone who knows me and/or Tom knows that we're kind of food-oriented people. We really like Rwandan food -- ubugari, isombe, ibishyimbo, etc., but since getting to site, we've been cooking a lot, and probably more creatively than we have in a long time. I came to Rwanda prepared to make a lot of Indian food, since I knew that you can make a curry out of anything on any kind of stove, as long as you have some spices. So, since I was particularly happy with lunch today, I thought I would share some recipes.

First off, I should say that the produce here is amazing. All of you locavores spending lots of money at organic farmers markets, eat your heart out. That's our only option, and it's cheap as hell. Butter? That will be almost $10 a pound, and you can only get it in Kigali, the capital. Processed foods? A tiny can of "pressed cheddar" is too much for my peace corps stipend. But buckets of tomatoes, green beans, beets, carrots, onions, and more are cheap and great. The sweetest pineapple you've ever had costs 100 Rwandan francs-- the same price as one egg (and you can get almost six for the equivalent of a dollar). One vegetable that I've really wanted to like were the little eggplants. I mean, I love eggplant, and they look really good, but they are the most bitter I've ever had. I kept trying them at restaurants or at our training center, and was always completely disappointed. But at the market, they're incredibly cheap. Tom and I decided to experiment with them by trying to make Indian pickle- the really spicy, really sour condiment you can get at Indian buffets, thinking that maybe it would cut the bitterness. What we ended up with was not pickle, but was really, really good. Still bitter, but in a very doable way.

Recipe:
Cut a bunch of little eggplants (we bought a little plastic bucketful. Maybe a kilo or so?) cut into 1/4” x 1” strips
1/2 cup vegetable oil (this was according to a recipe we adapted, and I'll probably try it with half as much oil next time and see what happens.)
1 tsp salt, or more to taste
4 inch chunk of fresh ginger, minced into paste (we can get this in our local market, not sure about elsewhere, and I think it could work without it.
1/2 bulb (8 cloves) garlic, minced into paste

Spices:
2 tsp mustard powder, or more to taste
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp hot red chili powder or more to taste
1 tsp ground cumin seeds
I have all of these, and know you can get them relatively inexpensively in Kigali, but I also think that it would be worth trying them with the little packets of curry powder you can buy in most markets.

1 TB sugar
3/4 cup vinegar (the stuff we can get here is called "imitation table vinegar," which sounds bad, but works fine.)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Heat the oil in a skillet and fry the garlic & ginger till golden brown, then remove from heat.
2. Add eggplant, salt mustard powder, turmeric, red chilli powder, and cumin into the ginger and garlic. Cook for 5 minutes until the eggplant just starts to collapse (kind of al dente).
3. In a separate pan dissolve the sugar in vinegar by heating on a low heat, then remove.
4. Add the sugar and vinegar mixture to the eggplant mixture and simmer for about one minute more, then remove.

That’s it. To go with it, we also made lentils, which I like as an alternative to the beans we have a lot (and instead of the meat I can’t bring myself to buy, because I bring myself to go into the butcher shop, or to buy and kill an animal myself. Yet.) I can’t get lentils here, but bags of them are fairly cheap in Kigali.

I like to use this simple recipe from Madhur Jarrfey’s book, “Indian Cooking”

4 Tbs Vegetable oil (can get away with less oil)
½ tsp whole cumin seeds (again, I think it could be interesting to experiment with curry powder, but I haven’t tried it yet)
4 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped (the garlic is so mild here, you could use even more)
1 medium onion, peeled and chopped
1 c. lentils (any kind – I’ve used red (masoor) lentils and moong dal), washed and drained
3 cups water
1 tsp. salt
¼ tsp of cayenne (or to taste)

Heat the oil over a flame (medium, if you have control over that kind of thing). When it’s hot, add the cumin seeds, and a few seconds later, the garlic. Stir, and when the garlic turns brown, add the onion. Stir and fry until the onion pieces brown at the edges. Add the lentils and water and bring to a boil. Cover the pan, turn heat to low, and simmer for an hour or until the lentils are tender (check after 45 minutes or so). Add salt and cayenne, stir, and simmer for another 5 minutes.

So, to finish things off, we made chapattis. Chapatis are wonderful. I love them. They’re basically wheat tortillas, so I’ve been making tacos with them and eating them with guacamole as well as with Indian food. A bonus is that in India, they’re made with whole-wheat flour. I eat a lot of starches here in Rwanda (just like everyone else), but I’ve had a hard time finding whole grains. However, in Kigali, it wasn’t hard to find the kind of whole wheat flour made specifically for chapatti, called atta, plus it was even cheaper than the regular refined flour, which itself is not expensive. Anyway, they’re great. Again from Madhur Jaffrey:

Mix 2 ½ cups atta or regular flour and about ¾ cup of water. That’s it. Add some salt if you want.

When it comes together as a soft dough, knead for 6-8 minutes. I stretch the ball of dough out with the heel of my hand, fold it back on itself, give the ball a quarter turn, and repeat. After about 6 minutes it will be smooth. Put it in a bowl covered with a damp cloth for half an hour.

When you’re ready, put a frying pan on the stove (cast iron is good, if you have it) on a medium low flame (again, if you can control that kind of thing). Knead the dough a few times, then divide it into 15 little balls. Flour your work surface (it takes a good bit of flour to roll them out, so while I use whole wheat flour to make the dough, I use regular flour at this stage to conserve the stuff I can’t get at my local market). Roll a ball in flour, press down to make a patty, then roll it out. If you have a rolling pin, great, but if not, a Nalgene bottle works too. Dust it flour frequently while roll it out into a 5 ½ inch circle. Pat it between your hands to shake off the extra flour, and then slap it onto your hot pan. Cook it until it looks done on the bottom, then flip it over (this takes less than a minute). Now, when I flip mine over, they puff up with steam like little balloons. The traditional Indian way of making these is that after you cook the second side, you put the chapatti directly on hot charcoal and then flip it over, which also puffs it up. Madhur Jaffrey says that she flips the chapatti over with her hand, but when I tried that, I got a really painful steam burn on my finger. You have been warned.

As you finish them, stack them in a bowl lined with a dishtowel to keep them warm. They’re best right away, but can last a day or two in a ziplock bag (otherwise they dry out by the second day).

OK, I’m done nerding out. Comment if you try any of these, or if you have any suggestions!

So, I'm now in my new home in Eastern Rwanda. It's a great post, not a big city, but not so rural that I can't find food outside of market days. One of the weirdest things about living here is that there is a Chinese medical mission that provides doctors for the local hospital. They've been doing this a long time, and as a result, everyone thinks I am Chinese. Yesterday, I was walking down the street, and a kid starting yelling out the window of his classroom, "muzungu! umuchinois! ni hao! ni hao!" Kids say ni hao to Tom and I ALL THE TIME. And when I mention how weird this is to one of my Engilsh speaking Rwandan friends, they said, "well, I can see how you seem Chinese. You have dark hair, you like to take walks." This did not illuminate things for me. Also, it has been amusing me that frequently when telling people that Tom is my husband, they look confused, and ask if we're brother and sister, because we look alike. Which is something that has never been said about us before.

I mean, do you see it?

My first blog from Rwanda

Hi all,

I'm finishing up my last week of training here in Rwanda. Next week I'll be sworn is at a volunteer, and then I move to my new home for the next two years.

The rainy season has started in earnest, and through the windows of the computer lab, I can see the storm clouds rolling in. I can already hear thunder, so I'll keep this short before the power goes. Things are good and I'm excited and nervous about starting my new job. More soon. Send mail, send e-mails.

Malea