Bugarama

A couple of days ago I went to the hot springs in Bugarama, Cyangugu with Solange and one of her friends. Bugarama is very hot! Though I was on the border of Burundi and the DRC, I felt like I was in Tanzania. The water was really hot too; seriously, you could boil an egg. The springs themselves were large; in fact, one guy was swimming in one. It was a nice little park and much better than the hot springs in Gisenyi.

On another note, the conference we hosted earlier this month was a hit. The kids gave great performances and shared a wealth of information. Forgot my camera, so no pics.

I bought a modem the other day. I was getting sick of the internet cafes in town. The machines weren't the best and, on some days, the power would surge like every 10 minutes and reboot the computer. It was, therefore, very difficult for me work on anything for an extended period of time. Anyway, I got this modem so I can work from home now. The speed isn't great, but MTN, the service provider, is doing this promotion where you pay about $1.50 for roughly two days of unlimited internet connectivity. So far so good.

Banda

Things are going well. I am teaching Mondays and Tuesdays from 5pm-7pm at a community health organization. I am also teaching Wednesdays and Fridays from 2pm-5pm at Caritas, a Catholic organization that also does a lot of work for the Cyangugu area. I am teaching English and health; my students are all adults, which I enjoy.

Part of my position as PCVL in Rwanda is to visit volunteers in the Cyangugu area. Lately I have been making a weekly trek to a town called Mushaka to help a volunteer paint a 'World Map' at a school near her house. She is almost finished and it looks great. I'll post some pics when the project is complete. She also wants to paint a map of Rwanda and a map of the human body. These are all projects to help the students learn a bit more about themselves and the world around them.

This Saturday there is an HIV/AIDS conference that the education volunteers in the region are hosting. They have asked me to MC and give a presentation about the disease, how it harms people, how it is transmitted, and how it can be prevented. The conference will be all day and the audience will be about 60 secondary school (high school) students from four different schools. Each school is also doing a skit about HIV/AIDS education/prevention. I get to be a judge. It should be a great time. I'll get pics from that too, if possible.

I also made a visit to a village, located in Nyungwe Forest, called Banda last month. A couple of volunteers are stationed out there and they hosted or regional meeting last month. (Every month the volunteers in Cyangugu meet up for an afternoon, day, or weekend to exchange ideas and hang out.) The pics here are from Banda.