Pre-Trip Low-Down

Welcome to my Rwanda Peace Corps blog!

This will be the main way to keep track of my adventures while I am gone. If you email me with personal questions or comments, I will try and get back to those as well, but most of the newsy-ness will be posted here.

I have taken a page from my friend Kevin who is currently in Panama and will start with an FAQ section.

FAQS

1. Where are you going?

I will be serving in Rwanda (see map on right hand side). Rwanda is a landlocked country, bordered by Uganda to the North, Tanzania to the East, Burundi to the South, and the Congo to the West. We will be staying away from the Congo... As one of my friends has stated " I didn't realize how small Rwanda was until I saw it on a shower curtain map!" Rwanda is, in fact, smaller in land area than Maryland. That's pretty small.

Weather - The high altitude of Rwanda provides the country with a tropical highland climate - this means an average daily temperature range of less than 4° F. Temperatures vary considerably from region to region because of the variations in altitude. At Kigali, on the central plateau, the average temperature is 70° F . So, logic says I will exists between 60 - 80° year-round, +/- 4° seasonally.

A long rainy season lasts from February to May and a short one from November through December. Rainfall is heaviest in the southwest and lightest in the east. At Gisovu, in the west, near Kibuye, annual rainfall averages 160 cm (63 in); at Gabiro, in the northeast, 78 cm (31 in); and at Butare, in the south, 115 cm (45 in).

No, I don't actually know where these places are yet...

I will receive ~3 months of intensive language, technical and cultural training near Kigali, the capital, with the other volunteers. We may be with host families, or we may be set up in a mass housing arrangement. During this time, I will most likely visit my placement site - which will probably be in a remote, rural area/village. But I won't know where it is, or what my housing will be until I get there.



2. When are you going?

I leave Oct 5 for Philadelphia for two days of "staging" (briefing on PC, logistics, and vaccinations) and then we depart for Rwanda with a stop over in Brussels. This means getting pumped full of shots, and then going on two 8-hour flights. joy. =)



3. What language do they speak?

I will be learning the local language of Kinyarwandan. The current Official European language is French (which I am hoping I will be able to brush up on and pick up more of while I am there). However, the government of Rwanda is trying to join the East African Countries Coalition, and in order to do so, they must be able to state English is an Official language. Therefore, I will be teaching 6-9th grade aged students ESL.



4. How long will you be there?

Peace Corps service is 27 months (3 months of training and two years of service). There are options to extend service for an additional year or more. I will probably not take that extra year...



5. What will you be doing?

My official assignment is "Teaching English as a Second Language”.

The government of Rwanda (GoR) is actively looking to the future, and it has requested the assistance of Peace Corps Volunteers to help carry out its Vision 2020 and decentralization plan, which strongly focuses on community development, health, and HIV/AIDS.

An initial group of 35 Volunteers will collaborate with other United States government partners to develop the capacity of local health centers and community based organizations to plan, coordinate, and deliver HIV/AIDS services. Volunteers will work with a variety of partners, including Rwandan administrative authorities, international organizations, and other private sector partners at the district, sector, and cell levels to carry out their development plans to strengthen their efforts in HIV education, prevention, and care activities. Volunteers will also work with partners to build the capacity of HIV/AIDS-focused nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), community-based organizations (CBOs), faith-based organizations (FBOs), and other associations by providing assistance in the areas of strategic planning, monitoring and evaluation, and project development. The long-term objective of the work undertaken by Volunteers is that people and families living with AIDS will have increased access to prevention, care, and treatment services, and that the care they have access to is comprehensive and provided by a strengthened network of governmental and civil service providers.

Now, I have no idea what that all means, but it sounds like a lot of work. And it’ll keep me busy when school isn’t in session. =)



6. What will your living conditions be like?

As stated in the first question I will most likely be placed in a rural community. Transportation will be limited but PC does provide volunteers with mountain bikes and helmets. I will most likely not have electricity, cell phone, internet, and running water in my "house" . I will have to shop and cook for myself. I will be able to travel to the capital or nearby "major city" to use internet cafes to update this blog and answer e-mail. This will be on a limited basis, but I’m hoping for every other week – once a month.



7. How do you contact me?

My mailing address, for training only, will be as follows:

Charissa Knighton
Peace Corps Trainee
P.O. Box 5657
Kigali, Rwanda


I will update later on where to send things as we progress.

Some advice from the country director:

"We recommend that packages be sent in padded envelopes if possible, as boxes tend to be taxed more frequently. Custom fees can be quite expensive. For lightweight but important items (e.g. airline tickets), several services, such as DHL, FedEx, TNT, and UPS operate in Rwanda. These services however, are very expensive, and can cost as much as $70 for a letter."


The mailing address is only good for my first three months of training. (Oct 8 – Dec 12th). I will let you know what my more permanent address for the next two years of service will be as soon as I know. The primary e-mail I will use is CTKnighton@gmail.com.

Letters, e-mails, and packages are welcome and much appreciated!! I really want to stay connected to everyone to the best of my abilities (thus, letters are probably better).



8. Why are you doing this?

Many of you have heard varying levels of detail regarding this. Since you are reading this, I am going to assume that you are genuinely interested and will give the full story.
**edited**  this is Mostly the whole story.  insignificant to me, but potentially problematic details have been ommitted.  no worries - you're not missing anything, I promise.  =)

When I (finally) completed school in the spring of 2008, I realized many things I had planned for and counted on my life had flipped around. I was no longer in the relationship I thought I would be, and my student teaching experience was so atrocious, I highly considered a career change.
When I went home on spring break, I was joking with my dad about applying to certain agencies, and he replied “I think you would be good in that field. You memorize easily and see patterns in everything, these are very good qualities for an analyst”. … really dad? Don’t you know a hoax when you hear one? In any case, now I felt obliged to look into what I would need to get into that kind of program. Surprise – I had all the abilities, and none of the qualifications. I started looking at office management classes that would get me in on the ground floor, and I could maneuver around from there.

I didn’t want to get too stuck on one idea in case it didn’t pan out, so I talked to a few people we knew in different services. I looked at teaching overseas on military bases, I looked at FBI (same deal – office management, ground floor), and finally, someone suggested that if I really wanted to work in government, I should look at the Peace Corps. This would get me passed most of the screenings, and provide international and career training that would be very appealing to many other branches of service.

The more I looked into the Peace Corps and what I would possibly doing, the more it fit my life. I have traveled many places around the world, but I would love to see so many more! I love helping people (all people!) with the concept of ‘see a need, fill a need’. I do enjoy teaching; I was just frustrated with the politics and gossip in the school I trained in. I love helping people find solutions to any problem.

Even though this is a long commitment, and I will miss you all very much! I feel that this is an opportunity to go have an adventure and change the world and grow up in the process. I truly feel that God opened doors that led me in this direction and I am excited to see what He has to teach me while I’m there.



9. Who else is going?

This is the first unit of Peace Corps Volunteers (PCV) to go into Rwanda since 1993. There are 35 of us going, and many have connected already over Facebook. I will meet them in Philadelphia on Oct 6th for “Staging”, which really means paperwork and shots before throwing us onto the plane. We will all train together for the 3 months, but will be placed separately on our sites.

10. What have you been up to this summer?

My family moved to Colorado Springs, so, of course, I followed. I made a new bffffff (how many f’s do we add now? Anybody cool enough to know?) anyway, love Carrie. =) and I looked for an interim job since I didn’t know when I was leaving. For those of you who haven’t heard, I spent my summer at Aeropostale. Yes, the trendy clothing store for tweens and bros. Fortunately, I got to work in the back in the “Merchandise Flow” position. This means I got to open boxes, arranged clothes in the stock room, and organize papers. I loved it. =D In the mean time, I got involved with a great small group and met quite a few people who were getting ready to go off on adventures as well.

Finally, in case you haven’t heard, or seen my facebook profile picture, I also met Sean. Sean has been a God-send and a great supporter of mine. I will miss him very much.



11. Do you get to go home?

PCVs (Peace Corps Volunteers) get about 2 days a month off. You can save those days and take longer vacations. If you want to go home you need to pay your own way.

That said, DAD won’t let me come home. The theory is I should travel around Africa and Europe during my time off. My other friends who have been in the PC said they didn’t go home either, so I dunno, we’ll see what happens. This could be my chance to get to Paris. =D



12. Are you paid?

We are paid at the standard of living of those in Rwanda which is sufficient for food and transport.

13. How do you get funding for projects?

PC, other government agencies, and non-government organizations provide funding for small projects. Your community is also required to raise a percentage of a project.

14. What do you think you will most miss?

New music, people, seasons, easy food. If I think of anything else, I’ll let you know. =)



Thanks for reading! I’m sure the others will be more reasonably sized, but I thought I’d get a good start on this.

Please share the link to this blog with anyone you think would be interested, but didn’t get it.