My Site



The view of my village from the nearby mountain.  On the left is the cathedral and on the right is my school.  In the background is Lake Kivu, and in the distance is the Democratic Republic of the Congo.



The cathedral and elementary school at my site.



My house is the one with the tin roof.  There are about 15 houses in the area.



My town center.  You can't get much here outside of the food staples (rice, beans, etc).  There is no electricity or running water here.



             After successfully completing pre-service training (see the blog posted on 11/13/10) and swearing in as a volunteer (see the blog posted on 01/25/11), every Peace Corps Volunteer leaves for their site.  Sites in the Peace Corps are generally very rural and in the direst need for volunteers.  My site is no exception.

I live in a village called Kinunu.  Kinunu lies in the Western Province of Rwanda in the district of Rutsiro (the districts are the American equivalent of states).  The Western Province is famous for bordering the gorgeous Lake Kivu and the biggest mountains in Rwanda.  To get to my site, you have to take a three hour bus ride from Kigali west to the town of Gisenyi.  From Gisenyi, you can either take a three hour grueling bus ride on a dirt road following by a twenty minute motorcycle ride to my site, or you can take a three hour boat ride on Lake Kivu followed by a forty minute walk up a mountain to my site.  Either way, it takes a while. 

The village is small, even by Peace Corps standards.  In a one hour walking radius, there are probably about 1,000 people.  I say one hour radius, because houses don’t really end and open areas begin, agrarian villages just basically melt together.  It’s difficult to say “We’re leaving Kinunu and entering the next village” because a) there is no distinguishing characteristics between villages and b) there are no “Welcome to Kinunu” or “You are now leaving Kinunu” signs at the edge of the village.

The village is beautiful, as it sits on Lake Kivu.  Kinunu has a large Catholic church, several small Protestant churches, two elementary schools, two middle schools, and two high schools. 

My house sits next to the town center (called the “ishusho”) where you can buy basic goods and staple foods (rice, potatoes, corn).  If I want to buy anything additional (pineapples, avocadoes) I have to wait for the market days of Wednesday and Saturday. 

For the next two years, Kinunu is my home.