Chapter 6: In which Roberta is stabbed and Chris Doesn't help

We had three days in Kigali before our swearing-in ceremony in which we were able to purchase any items we would need in our new house and explore the city. We were each given about $400 by the Peace Corps in order to furnish our house with. All the furniture volunteers have must be made by local carpenters since there are no real furniture stores, and this can get pretty expensive. We managed to save a hefty chunk of change due to the fact that we each got the move-in allowance and all the furniture we purchased would be shared between us.

The night before our ceremony, at around midnight, I got up to use the bathroom. I was on the top bunk and as I climbed down the ladder my foot accidentally stepped on a book which was on Chris' pillow (a biography of John Adams), and my foot slipped off the book and down into a box of items which we had purchased that day; it included knives. I screamed for help, no one moved. Everyone in the room was in a deep slumber. I kept yelling and screaming, “There is a hanger through my foot!! Someone help me!!!” At that point I was still half asleep myself and the only metal thing that I could think of that might have been able to puncture my foot was an old rusty hanger from the market that the salesman let me have with a dress that I bought earlier that day. It felt like ages before someone actually helped me.

Scott ran over and informed me that it wasn't a hanger and that a steak knife had gone through my foot and was still dangling from it. He quickly pulled it out and he and Ashley lowered me to the floor. Ciara rubbed my hair and called me “baby girl,” Caitlin forced a delicious blue lollipop into my mouth, Amanda told me a story from her past about her cousin and a golf cart, and Aaron finally woke up. All this time I had been asking desperately for Chris, people had been running around looking for him. Where was he???

About 10 minutes (or more) after the knife initially went through my foot, my dear husband casually strolled in to see what the commotion was all about. After letting him assess the situation, me on the floor, the room covered in blood, and 30 people crowding around the scene, I asked him in my delirium “Where were you?? I needed you and you weren't here”. “I don't want to tell you,” he responded. It was soon revealed that he was taking advantage of the western toilets, while playing Jetpack Joyride on his phone, while listening to The Decemberists with his headphones in. About an hour later, the doctor arrived an tended to my wound.

Well, I ended up at Swear-in the next day with my foot bandaged and with a cane. I was very upset because I couldn't participate in the traditional dance, but at least I got some good pictures of Chris and the boys dancing. It has been about a month since my accident, and I am walking fine and don't even have to wear a bandage. My toe hurts if I put too much pressure on it in certain areas, but other than my scar I think I am healing just fine.

We moved into our new house in mid-December. As you may have read in our previous blogs, we are located in a town called Kirambo in the Burera District in northern Rwanda close to the Ugandan border. We have two buildings, one has two bedrooms and a living room, the other has the kitchen, shower room and latrine. Unfortunately, we do not have running water so no showers or toilet for us; however, we do have a spigot of water next to our home so we don't have to fetch water. We live inside a gated compound that has two other houses besides ours. Next to our house is a pen where cows are kept. We live right next to the school which is very convenient, but the market, church, and other stores are a 30 min walk into town.

Chris and I decided that we would like to host Christmas this year because we love the holiday and knew that people, being far away from their families, would probably enjoy being with others rather than alone. We bought a tiny artificial tree in Kigali along with some decorations and made our house as Christmasy as we could. Eight other volunteers arrived at our home on the 23^rd of December. We squished them all into our spare room and thankfully, everyone fit. On the 24^th, we all pitched in and made a delicious breakfast and watched a few Christmas movies. We spent our evening cooking and celebrating with each other. I was very pleased to find out that there is a hotel/ranch in Uganda where a person can ride an ostrich. I have wanted to ride an Ostrich ever since I was little and watched Disney's version of “The Swiss Family Robinson” in which Ernst rides one in a race. I am trying to convince Chris to take me Uganda for our 3^rd wedding anniversary in August so I can ride one.

Christmas day was very fun! Chris and I had some wrapped presents that were sent to us from his parents so we had some real gifts to open. I gave Chris some “James Bond” novels and he gave me a skirt, earrings, chocolate. Chris and I secretly prepared stockings for all of our guests which had chalk for school, some candies, stickers, and a crossword puzzle. Everyone was happy they had a little something to open. Afterword, we had a white elephant gift exchange and then walked into town for a Christmas dinner of rabbit and chicken.

Most of our guests left the next day, but we all met up again in Nyrangarama for New Year's Eve. Nyrangarama is the site of another volunteer who lives about a 40 min car ride away. Her site is actually a bus stop/motel owned by Rwandan entrepreneur Sina Gerard. He has created many products from bottled water to wine to hot sauce. Well, Mr. Gerard happens to be the founder of the school where our friend works at and he invited our whole group to bring in the New Year with him and all his employees in a very large hall he has on his premises. At the party, there was traditional dancing (Chris got called up to dance in front of everyone at one point), speeches, and a televised broadcast of President Kagame at midnight followed by a feast that ended at 2 am.

Things settled down, and on January 6^th the new school year officially began. Most of the students, and some of the teachers, didn't show up. I will normally teach 14 hours a week but I only taught five the first week. Our headmaster is very excited to have us here, we are the first volunteers from Peace Corps in this district. He and the academic master of our school are making all teachers meetings in English and creating mandatory English training for teachers every week after school. I think this is great!!! They have also requested that I get a hymnal from America and that Chris and I teach them English parts of mass and songs so they can present an English mass to the public within this year. I believe Chris and I are very lucky to be stationed here because we have heard that some volunteers have headmasters that are not too eager to change or collaborate with them.

Some ideas we have for secondary projects that will will start later this year after we are comfortable teaching are to help get an English mass at the Catholic Church we attend, to start a Debate Club that will challenge the schools of our fellow volunteers in the north, to introduce a competitive Ultimate Frisbee league, to start a Board Game Club, start a cooperative bakery, or help with the already established Environmental Club. We have many ideas, what we will do really depends on the wants and needs of our community and what we will have the capability to do with our limited resources.