First two weeks at site

So I am writing this post by candlelight because although my house has electricity, it went out for no apparent reason last week and has not been fixed. (My village has it, only my compound has an issue. Typical.) This wouldn't be a big deal, because let's face it, I've been going to bed between 8:30 and 9 every night- except for the fact I bought a hot plate to cook. No electricity, no cooking. I also underestimated how much money I would need at site so the past few days have been somewhat stressful, trying to budget my money to make sure I had enough to get to my banking town. Thankfully my food situation was sorted out, after my neighbor realized I was living off PB & Js she invited me over for meals. Her name is Bernadette, she is 23 and a teacher at the secondary school near my house. She is awesome and we have been hanging out a lot. 

Most of my neighbors are young professionals who work at the school, a few work at the hospital or health center. They all speak English which is super helpful, although I make them speak to me in kinyarwanda (at least for a few min until I give up and ask for the translation haha). I'm part of a compound so all of our "houses" are connected into a row. We each have two rooms to ourselves. 

Work has been a little slow, I have been job shadowing some of my coworkers so have gotten to sit in on HIV/AIDS testing, prenatal exams, and family planning. It's been helpful to see what people do, but it's definitely hard for me to just sit and watch. After three months of training I'm ready to DO something, but that takes time. Right now I need to focus on learning the basics at my health center and improving my kinyarwanda. 

So site has been good for the most part. Not without it's challenges but I am lucky to have great neighbors and coworkers I get along with. It's a little weird living alone, I never have before and it's strange to have to depend on myself alone. (Finally got a charcoal stove today- cooked beans and rice and somehow managed to burn them both, mom would be proud of me following in her footsteps). But even when things go a little wrong, it just makes it that much more gratifying when you are able to work around it.  

For example, today I realized I had another jigger. In theory I'm supposed to go to Kigali to get the doctor to cut it out, but that just wasn't gonna happen. Got it out myself in with a swiss army knife and tweezers. Never would have thought I could do that, it did take me about an hour cause I had to give myself a few pep talks. Even though it wasn't a fun situation, I felt awesome afterwards that I was actually able to do it. 

So, lots of ups and downs. Fingers crossed for a productive work week!