Monday- Today we drove four hours to the Eastern Province of Rwanda. We will be interviewing "at risk" families in the communities that FH supports so that the organization can have a better idea of what their program should be focusing on. We have gotten really spoiled riding our nice big bus to school everyday, so we all groaned when we saw the small taxi that we would be riding in this week. (Picture a van that a little bit bigger than a mini-van, more box shaped, with four rows of seats in the back. It is impossible for anybody to be comfortable because the benches are so close together that only a child's knees wouldn't be squished up against the seat in front of her). These taxis bearably sit three to a row, but we had to fit four to a row. I was lucky and claimed a seat in the front row, which has more leg room. We stopped halfway to wait for the truck that was carrying our luggage to catch up. We got out and went to use somebody's latrine. When we got out, a big crowd gathered to look at us. One girl that was mentally ill came up to us and starting wailing and screaming at us. She grabbed at our belongings and was trying to take our stuff. Our driver kept pushing her back. It was a little bit scary, but also very sad.
We got to Matimba and went through the gate onto the compound for the TTC (teacher's training college). It was like pulling into a summer camp. There were big concrete buildings full of bunk beds, and a few classrooms. All of the students here are between the ages of 17-24. They crowded around to great us and then helped us bring our bags to our rooms. We are staying in a big concrete room full of other female Rwandan students. The girls that have bottom bunks gave them up for us and shared the top bunk this week. They helped us make our beds and folded our sheets in cool designs for us. They were friendly, but very shy, and I think nervous to use their English to talk to us. They kept asking how old I was and ten laughing when I said 20, because apparently I look 16. We went to use their latrine and I almost threw up. It smelled worse than any one I have used yet, and the hole in the ground was crawling with flies. I almost cried because I couldn't imagine using it for a whole week. I can deal with roughing it, but I can't handle having unsanitary and smelling latrines. Luckily we found out later that they had built brand new latrines with porcelain squatty potties (basically a porcelain bowl in the ground to squat over), and they were going to open it for us to use. I almost cried again with relief.
We went to a classroom and, Joseph, the head of discipline, told us all of the rules. We also talked about tomorrow and split into our interviewing groups. I am with Cassie and Tim, and our interpretor's name is Felix Safari. We went to the dining hall for dinner. It is a new compound, so right now the dining hall only has three tables and we were the only ones to eat in it. The students take their food back their dorms. Thankfully their cooks prepared us a different meal than what the students normally eat. We got sodas (I love Citrus Fanta). They made us rice, sweet potatoes, matooke, and some kind of sauce to put over it. It was pretty good. We were very hungry, because they didn't have dinner ready until 8:15. I got in bed at 9:30 and went to bed.
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