So, I'm back in Rwanda. I've been back for about 16 days and already a number of things have happened.
Let's start with the light stuff. As part of my service I am working on earning a TEFL Certificate (Teaching English as Foreign Language) through a combination of classroom teaching and online assignments, offered by the Peace Corps and the Center for Applied Linguistics. This certificate would not necessarily boost my Tennessee teaching credentials since I already have my ESL teaching license for Tennessee, but it would help if I ever wanted to teach out of the state. Because I was gone so long with my ankle injury, I must now do "supplemental work" to earn my certificate, despite already having TEFL qualifications, despite keeping on top of all of the other requirements, and despite being medically cleared over a month before Peace Corps managed to facilitate my return. It's a small thing in light of everything, but it's still something to consider.
Now the heavier stuff. It was about 8:30 PM last Tuesday when I decided to work out. I like to work out at night so I can just bathe and go to bed. After working out, I unlocked my back door to use the bathroom, then go to my kitchen and start heating up my bucket bath water. I wander back and forth from my room to the kitchen while my water is heating. When I reenter my room with my heated water, I notice my back door is open, though I certainly closed it. I ignore it (in hindsight a bad idea) since I know my outer gate is locked and I have a ten foot wall surrounding my house/yard/bathroom area. I get ready and go take my bucket bath, which lasted maybe 3-5 minutes. When I come back in, I notice my laptop and both of my phones (my iPhone and a smaller Rwandan phone I used for calls) are missing.
I immediately get dressed and go wake the nuns I live with, who then contact the police and Peace Corps, since I have no way to do so. The police come and go from my house for the next few days, while I arrange ways to get a new phone and laptop, since I have little hope that mine will be returned (a sentiment that has proven true so far). I am spending the weekend in the capital as I got a cheap laptop from an ex-pat and I am using the superior Kigali wifi to set everything back up.
The biggest thing to me is this had to have been an inside job. Someone, perhaps someone working in the church compound, has to have been watching me and memorizing my habits and schedules in order to plan this. They had to know exactly how to get over my very high wall. In all likelihood, there was probably someone hiding in my house while I undressed to go take a bucket bath. It could have been a lot worse, though I am still very upset about my things being taken and the invasion of my privacy. I'm paranoid about locking my door even to go to the bathroom, and I'm afraid to go to the bathroom or to bathe after dark.
So far, this country has not been kind to me and I'm just trying to make it until December.
