2010.10.10: Devin Johnson began working in Rwanda in February, assigned to a health and community development program and paired with a health center in a rural area near the Uganda border
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2010.10.10: Devin Johnson began working in Rwanda in February, assigned to a health and community development program and paired with a health center in a rural area near the Uganda border
Devin Johnson began working in Rwanda in February, assigned to a health and community development program and paired with a health center in a rural area near the Uganda border
Rwandans are an incredible people, but every aspect of daily life is affected by their terrifying past. By no means have all wounds healed. Rwandans remain stricken by material poverty. The two problems are very much intertwined. Occasionally and unexpectedly, people will share their unfathomable stories. Being in Rwanda is like being a celebrity. People constantly want to talk to me, children follow me everywhere, and people with camera phones take pictures of me. Everyone is eager to have me as a visitor. It's literally entirely because I'm white. White means power, money, and prestige. I'm trying to forget that truth and form relationships with integrity. I want to turn them into relationships that stand independent of my whiteness. I live with three Rwandan girls my age, who also work at the health center. I'm happy to say I've already accomplished that with my roommates. They're no longer impressed with me. We speak a Bantu language called Kinyarwanda. Living with them has been an immense help in cultural integration. Learning the language is essential to making meaningful relationships.
Devin Johnson began working in Rwanda in February, assigned to a health and community development program and paired with a health center in a rural area near the Uganda border
War, material poverty belies richness of spirit in Rwanda
Ormond Beach woman charts course as Peace Corps volunteer in Africa
By AUDREY PARENTE, Staff Writer
send an email to audrey.parente@news-jrnl.com
October 10, 2010 12:05 AM
Caption: Devin Johnson of Ormond Beach is shown with children she is serving in the community while in the Peace Corps in Rwanda. Devin Johnson
In a rural northern province of Rwanda, where "genocide: never again" is painted on almost every cement block, wood, or mud brick business, including milk bars, bakeries, and tailors, Devin Johnson of Ormond Beach is serving in the Peace Corps.
Johnson, 23, a 2005 Seabreeze High School graduate and a 2009 graduate of Sewanee: The University of the South, said there's an overwhelming sense that the people of Rwanda will endure whatever it takes to maintain peace after a violent history of genocide. At college commencement, Johnson, an English major, was winner of the Tennessee Williams Award for Creative Writing.
Her work at a local health center, serving a population of 17,000, deals with issues from helping locals overcome alcoholism, to raising money for basic pit latrines in a mud-brick and stone building with a sheet metal roof.
Johnson is the daughter of Kathy Maloney Johnson of Ormond Beach and Marc Johnson of Daytona Beach. Her brother, Colin Johnson of Ormond Beach, is a senior at Florida State University.
We recently chatted with Devin Johnson via e-mail about her Peace Corps service.
What is your job in the Peace Corps?
I began working in Rwanda in February, assigned to a health and community development program and paired with a health center in a rural area near the Uganda border. Peace Corps has a bulky superstructure that attempts to wrangle the vast and sprawling scope of work with a set of principles.
For any volunteer, anywhere in the world, there are three tenets: contribute to the development of the host country requesting services; teach host country nationals about American culture; and teach Americans about the culture of the country where you serve.
What is your assignment?
My work at the health center on a daily basis is fairly in concrete. I do anything from registering patients, to working the insurance office, to visiting patients, to sitting in on community health worker meetings. I doubt that my daily job will ever have a strict schedule. I got a latrine project in motion by applying for grant money.
Alcoholism is a common problem, and I am in the nascent stages of planning a kind of Rwandan version of Alcoholics Anonymous. My health center director is very interested in getting a delegation of doctors, dentists or other health professionals from the states to come visit the health center.
What does the Peace Corps mean to you?
Peace Corps is a kind of open-ended program, perfect for someone with indistinct designs on (the) future. I didn't know what to do with myself after college. None of those ambiguities has been resolved, but two years of my life have been partitioned, so at least time is concrete.
What things of interest have happened?
Once a month, all Rwandans participate in community service called Umuganda, in which all citizens work on a village-assigned community interest project such as building a house for an underprivileged member, or cleaning public roads. In school, children sing rollicking and joyful songs proclaiming adamantly that genocide will never happen again.
As I sit and write this, it's a Sunday morning, and I can hear people praying in the Pentecostal church that my house shares a wall with. They are dancing and singing with religious fervor that I personally have never experienced. There are both ethnic groups in one house, praying together, literally screaming in prayer.
How have you been received by the people?
Being in Rwanda is like being a celebrity. People constantly want to talk to me, children follow me everywhere, and people with camera phones take pictures of me. Everyone is eager to have me as a visitor. It's literally entirely because I'm white. White means power, money, and prestige. I'm trying to forget that truth and form relationships with integrity. I want to turn them into relationships that stand independent of my whiteness.
I live with three Rwandan girls my age, who also work at the health center. I'm happy to say I've already accomplished that with my roommates. They're no longer impressed with me. We speak a Bantu language called Kinyarwanda.
Living with them has been an immense help in cultural integration. Learning the language is essential to making meaningful relationships.
Given the history of violence, what is the atmosphere there?
Rwandans are an incredible people, but every aspect of daily life is affected by their terrifying past. By no means have all wounds healed. Rwandans remain stricken by material poverty. The two problems are very much intertwined. Occasionally and unexpectedly, people will share their unfathomable stories.
What are your goals?
Whatever role I fill, culturally or sociologically, I won't be changing anything, I'll be filling a role. But these two years could change everything for me.
And, if I can do anything that will relieve a bit of the stress of material poverty, that will be enough to justify the huge impact this experience is having on my life.
Devin Johnson said she would appreciate snail mail at Devin Johnson BP 36, Byumba Rwanda, or e-mail at devinmjohnson@gmail.com. Visit her Peace Corps project webpage: http://appropriateprojects.com/node/318
Links to Related Topics (Tags):
Headlines: October, 2010; Peace Corps Rwanda; Directory of Rwanda RPCVs; Messages and Announcements for Rwanda RPCVs; Refugees
When this story was posted in November 2010, this was on the front page of PCOL:
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This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Rwanda; Refugees
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