My House at TTC

As promised, here is brief glimpse at my living conditions at the Teacher Training College in Kabarore, Rwanda. Please note that when the Peace Corps staff member dropped me off here, he “oo’d” and “ah’d” claiming that I had one of the nicest spaces of any Peace Corps Volunteer here in Rwanda. The dorm is new as of last year and I am the first to live in this space. Trust me, I am grateful.

My apartment is situated at one end of a dormitory. There are two separate “apartments” on each end of the girls’ dormitory with a large room in between where the girls live. Surprisingly, I hear very little through the walls, but given the sports complex (basketball court, volleyball court, and soccer field) is right outside my front door and the girls shower, lavatory and washing area are right outside my back door, there is plenty of commotion when school is not in session and on weekends. I am grateful that I have a fan and earplugs to tune things out. The students here are very respectful (there are always a few outliers), so they know that I need some privacy and space.

Let’s take a look at the front room. It is very large with high ceilings. There is a couch, sofa, and two armchairs. I rarely use any of them except to organize school papers. I have opened the curtains for you to see how bright it is, but I (like most Rwandans) keep the curtains drawn at all times. You will note the shoes leaning up against the wall so that the numerous crickets, spiders and other creepy crawlers do not make themselves at home there. It looks as if I have a LOT of shoes, which I do because I brought the wrong style of shoes for my role here in Rwanda. So I have purchased four pairs to “fit” more with the life of a teacher here.

On to the long hallway that leads to the back door. When I first arrived, I would wake up every morning and walk down the hallway to the kitchen battling spider webs the entire length of the room. I found myself waving my broom before me as I ventured through. There are fewer spider webs now, but it all depends on whether I have an infestation of crickets (one day last week I woke up to about 200 crickets here in the hallway) or other such anomalies. From what I understand, there is a swarm of billions of grasshoppers headed our way from Uganda/Tanzania. I do not look forward to that.

The first room on the right is my bedroom. I spend most of my time in this room. The view is fabulous and the Principal had a privacy fence put up for me so that I can leave the curtains open and enjoy the sunlight. There is a wooden unit for hanging clothes and a few small benches where I park computer equipment, exercise equipment, and other nightly needs. Note the mosquito net hanging over my bed. I am "religious" about sleeping under the net every night and tucking it in tightly. One of my favorite things to do in my bedroom is to put down my yoga mat next to the window and practice yoga daily. It is so very refreshing to look out the window when I move into Virabhadrasana II.

Moving on down the hallway, I am lucky to have an indoor bathroom. Well…..sort of lucky. I have no water coming into my house so I have a number of buckets that I use for flushing, bathing, brushing my teeth, etc. There is a huge tank outside my house to retrieve water, but the faucet is broken and the girls are not diligent about using alternative measures to conserve water so I am struggling to acquire water. The rainy season is nearly upon us; patience is needed. I have settled into a pattern and it is sufficient. Not ideal, but sufficient.

The last room in the house is the kitchen. In this picture, you will note that I have just done the dishes and have made a market run to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables. I filter all of the water that I drink and use a gas cooker for preparing meals. I do not have a refrigerator so I really need to pay attention to what I purchase so that I eat it before it goes bad. I love the view out the window so I purposely leave these curtains open.

Know that you are always welcome if you would like to pay a visit.

"The content of this website is mine alone and does not necessarily reflect the views of the U. S. Government, the Peace Corps, nor the Rwandan Government."