The best part of Zanzibar (besides the snorkeling which was breath-taking) was getting out of Rwanda. At first it was refreshing to just be somewhere new and different. However, by the end of the trip I was tired of being a tourist and even more tired of not being able to communicate AT ALL because although they are neighboring countries, Kinyarwanda and Kiswahili have a few words in common but not nearly enough to get through a short conversation. Getting home to Rwanda was something I was excited about and renewed my motivation.
Another helpful "refresher" was our recent Behavior Change Conference. Now, one thing you need to know about Peace Corps is that they LOVE conferences and meetings. It seems like I am heading off to a meeting every two weeks and a conference every two months. So when I hear about yet another one, my level of excitement is significantly nonexistant. Sometimes they are helpful and sometimes I feel like I just want them to email me the power point presentations and call it a day. But I digress. This conference was a great opportunity because my supervisor and the head of the community health workers both were able to attend with me. At first I was very skeptical because both of these men tend to be very busy and don't speak much English so I was preparing myself for an extremely akward week. However I soon discovered my supervisor knows more English than he previously let on, and even though we daydreamed through a couple sessions, for the most part we learned a lot from the conference.
The ground-breaking moment for our supervisor- PCV relationship was when communication was brought up and he turned to me in the middle of the session and whispered, "I bad communicate, I am sorry." It was a great opportunity for us to talk about my lack of direction at work due to the fact he is too busy and forgets to tell me about things and I get intimidated and am afraid to ask. Although I don't think this breakthrough will mean I will suddenly have piles of significant and meaningful work, it definitely was a step in the right direction and I will make an effort be more persistant in the future about asking what I can do to be more helpful at the health center.
