On the side....

I have managed to keep myself busy with some small projects on the side from my main task of teaching at the Secondary School. I have started the process for an after school English Club for students who are interested in practicing their language skills outside of class in a less formal setting. I am teaching Nurses twice a week at the local hospital trying to form the beginning of an Adult Education Program. I also spend some of my free time at the Nursery School that was just started. The children and teachers from the various Primary schools also always invite me to visit and the children love to play with my hair and touch my skin. They sing songs for me and recite in unison “Good morning teacher I am fine thank you, how are you? I am fine thank you.” The children are really cute and instantly put me in a good mood. It’s hard to feel bad when you have 25 kids smiling at you begging to hold your hand. Although I am getting busy, the lack of electricity in my village still makes a 7:30 bedtime unavoidable.

My Birthday

When I mentioned to one of my teachers that my birthday was coming up he informed me that his was the same day. I told him that in America we celebrate birthdays by eating birthday cake. I told him that I would try to make him a birthday cake, without having an oven it would be somewhat difficult but I ended up putting a smaller pot with a cake batter inside a larger one and putting it over the fire creating a make shift oven and it turned out fairly decent.  We decided to have a joint celebration at my house. I got my hair braided by a local girls in my community then,  I invited a few teachers, some neighbors and some friends of mine from the community. My friend helped me cook a rice and meat mixture and we ate, drank and listened to music. I was surprised by the amount of people that came and was overjoyed by the kindness they showed me. My neighbors along with some of my friends bought me presents; clothes, food, and a woven basket. I was surprised by their generosity and kindness to buy me something when they have next to nothing. Everyone ended up dancing toward the end of the afternoon and fun was had by all. I think the most important thing that touched me about the day was the realization of the friends I have made in this small community and how many people have opened up and invited me into their lives and families.

Lake Kivu at sunset

In-Service Training

After the first trimester of school, we had IST (in-service training). Our training was held in Kibuye a town located in the west of Rwanda, on Lake Kivu. Kibuye was a charming small town overlooking the lake. During training we reflected on our first trimester teaching along with the first couple of months at site. We talked about problems and successes, dealing with isolation, cultural differences, stress, etc. We got to share lesson plans, discuss coping strategies and help congratulate each other on completing our first trimester of teaching and living on our own in our villages.  Some members from the Rwandan Ministry of Education came and we got to ask them questions about some of the problems that we observed at our schools.  The Ministry of Education also outlined some expectations they have for us.   We also had different seminars on teaching, peer support and an introduction into secondary projects. The last day of our training we got to take a boat to Amahoro Island (Peace Island) and spend some time relaxing in the sun next to the water.