In which Thor’s Hammer descends…

So, we have a squeegee on a long handle that we use to clean up after our “showers” (aka bucket baths) and in general for the floor. 

My shower:

It is known in our house as “Thor’s Hammer” because we regularly use it to crush cockroaches to death. Around here, it’s pretty common to hear “Who has Thor’s Hammer?!!” just before bed as we all take a survey of our rooms for bugs, spiders and cockroaches. We do a lot of smiting with our ‘hammer’ around here. I think the latest score is somewhere in the double digits now, at the very least: Muzungu’s 15, Cockroaches: 0.

Thor’s Hammer:

Late this afternoon, we received a delivery from someone in our area office with some kitchen stuff. It was like Christmas around here – mugs, a kettle, tea, a shelf, some water and so on. Slowly, slowly (buhoro, buhoro) we are building our “kitchen”. No stove in sight, but we are getting closer, step by step. Also yesterday we started to make plans for our weekend off and Kigali was definitely the main idea. At this point we would do pretty much anything for a hot shower and some internet that moves faster than glacial pace.

The training has been going well, lots of participation and some tweaking on our end to make it better. We are working well as a team and our strengths really seem to complement each other. I will say that as I type this on Wednesday night at 10:30 pm I am extremely tired. It’s been a long couple of weeks with orientation in Canada, travelling here, meeting the Rwanda team, visiting schools, and prep & lesson planning for the training right up until the actual training. And all this week we have been training all day and preparing for the next day all night. I miss my usual Rwanda bedtime of 8:30! I still haven’t gotten around to that yet on this trip. Electricity and a busy schedule are keeping me on a more Canadian schedule. We all agree that round 2 of training next week will be a lot easier and have way less prep time.

The teachers are a lot of fun and great to work with. We laugh a lot and now that they are more used to us and our speaking styles, they are opening up and answering more. Some of our energizers and demo games for the classroom have been a big hit. I taught a couple of songs the other day to three groups in a row and by the end I thought I would have ‘Head & Shoulders’ in my head forever. I'm also pretty sure that the tune I taught them was slightly off... I'm now envisioning generations of Rwandan children learning the wrong tune from their teachers after this week. You're welcome, Rwanda. You're welcome.

The other day I went to use the latrine at our training site and when I walked up there was a small calf drinking from the soapy water bucket at the hand-washing station outside. He just looked at me and eventually wandered off, but I sure wish I had a picture of him staring at me, standing next to the bucket.

Most nights when we come home there are random people running around the property. Well, they seem random to us because we didn't really know why they were here at first, but a pattern is starting to emerge. There is "our" nun who is around most of the day and talks to me in kinyarwanda all the time, with one or two English words thrown in. Sometimes she has helpers or visitors as well. There are a few people she knows who bring our daily ration of water in jerrycans on a bicycle. There is Jean-Pierre our guard at night, and an assortment, or really a team of people who alternate bringing us meals every day (until we have a functioning kitchen). They are all associated with Aimee, a businesswoman in our village who sends over 3 meals a day by bicycle for us. We are definitely embracing potatoes of every kind around here. She's a pretty good cook and we're just happy to have food showing up, even if we eat lunch at 12 and dinner at 8:00. We are really operating on a different clock over here. 

We've done a little exploring but not too much as we tend to prioritize work in these first few weeks. We have heard to stay away from the lake as there are crocodiles and hippos, especially when the rains begin again. Most of the hippos are elsewhere apparently, enjoying some swamp nearby. We did have a little rain last night, which was so great as our area is very, very dry and water is limited for everyone. It washed some of the red dust from the trees and definitely cooled things off a bit for today.

We heard from the education officer for this sector the other day, that he has heard around the village that we are always working, working, working in our house. It's true, but entertaining to hear about it from someone who doesn't even live in this village. I guess the bush telegraph is still in good working order and we do have quite the posse running around here in a day. I've said it before and I'll say it again... there are no secrets for muzungus in Rwanda! The local people (and children especially) enjoy watching us through our hedge or (often wide open in the daytime) front gate. I saw one older man who was peering through a gap in our hedge, moving around and leaning way over to try and see into our yard. I was 'invisible' behind some sheer curtains and when I surprised him by calling out "mwiriwe!" (good afternoon) loudly, he jumped, answered quickly and took off. I'll admit, it was pretty funny.

Well the mosquitoes are buzzing around my head in spite of the rather superior Canadian bug-spray I have on, so… time to climb under the net for another night.

Day 1 of Training...

Day one of our first round of teacher training: Complete!

After weeks of prep and planning, we launched our training today with the first group of 36 teachers. We started out walking to the wrong building in our village – turns out they had found a better location “up above the parish” (where we thought we were!) but eventually we found our way and got started.

It was a slow beginning with most teachers unused to being taught by native English speakers (and in our participatory style) but the day ended up being really great. There were the usual first day issues but also a lot of laughter and fun and they really enjoyed the activities we designed. We have some real characters in our class who made us laugh a lot today. In particular, we did a group project where they presented posters they had drawn that represented Rwanda. One teacher was explaining the items on her group’s poster and pointed to some banana trees they had drawn, saying: “In Rwanda, we grow bananas. If you eat a lot of bananas, you will get fat!” which was punctuated by giving her hips a little shake and pointing her finger at the class. We all cracked up laughing and clapping for her.

They also really enjoyed another activity we did which was basically a form of musical chairs; there was a lot of competition and good times were had by all. We had a delicious lunch and ended up teaching a few more words over lunch (toothpick, earrings). We finished up the day and walked home to throw ourselves down for a few minutes before we started taking care of our business for the following day. Speaking of which, I really need to sign off and go over my sections for teaching tomorrow!

Love, as always, from Rwanda.

PS – I will try to post some pics later on!

Goat Invasion!

We had a 4-goat yard invasion today. We were working on lesson plans like we always are, when we started hearing noises from the yard... We ran outside to see what was going on and found the goats were eating everything in sight. No one was around and the gate was closed. Goat Houdinis?!? How did they get in? 

We briefly debated whether it was a game - stealthily insert goats and see what the muzungus will do? Intentional - were they our lawnmowers/fertilizers? What happens if we chase them out the gate and they get run-over? 

Decisions, decisions.
 
We ended up chasing one away from a small tree in our garden (after we noticed he ate half of it). A little later 'our' nun/landlord Sister Beatrice came in and gave us a look like, 'what are these goats doing here?! I leave you Mzungus alone for 5 minutes....' -- and she chased them off with a stick out the front gate. 

End of adventure for today!

Greetings from Eastern Rwanda!

The news around here is: we moved to our house in the community, we have internet as of right now, and I have found out the specific school where I will be mentoring teachers over the next few months.

As for the internet, I just set it up tonight: slow and steady definitely wins the race over here. It has been busy and very hot and dry as we are in the midst of the dry season. All the roads are very dusty and every plant within sight is coated in red dust. Yesterday we moved out to our house in the community - it was not exactly as predicted, but we are doing just fine so far and our front porch looks out over a lake. I have a picture but will have to load it later, perhaps in the city with faster internet.

We went to visit the three schools today and met some of the teachers. They are currently marking exams but the largest school mysteriously still had oodles of children running around. They were happy to greet us and practice their English (as well as calling us mzungu, mzungu of course) and we had some quick meetings with the teachers. We happened to have a driver this time as there were 6 or so of us running around together, and by the time we left, all the dust on the car had been converted to handprints and smears. The kids do love cars, but the driver was standing guard to make sure no real damage ensued.

Next week we start our intensive teacher training, and we plan to spend as much of this week as possible writing lesson plans and prepping and practising for Monday. We will also do a mini-lesson session with some of the local education advisors and organization staff to try out our content later on this week. Today we also decided which schools each of us will be placed at for the ongoing mentoring, post-training. I'm going to be at a school about 5 km away. I think I'll be taking a motorcycle taxi to work, which I always enjoy, so no worries there – it keeps that adrenaline flowing!!

To wrap up this post, I’ve got the score so far on bugs vs. humans in our new home…
 
Cockroaches: 0 (including Ned, our first pet), Mzungus: 2

The battle continues.

Rwanda... Take III

I am writing this from the Chez Lando hotel in Kigali, Rwanda, a beautiful place (with wifi!) that I had previously only driven by. Here is a shot from my walk to breakfast:

It's our last day here in Kigali as we head out in a few hours to our project site, where the three of us will be teaching ESL strategies and skills to approximately 75 primary school teachers over the next 3 months. It's been a pretty busy schedule, with orientation/training/planning in Canada, travelling here and now getting to know our Rwandan counterparts as we continue our (marathon!) planning sessions. I'm looking forward to getting settled in our home and finally unpacking a little... and doing some much needed laundry. 

Yesterday I met up with Joseph and Grace for lunch...

...

...and it was so great to catch up with them and fill each other in on our lives. I plan to visit their family and the orphanage on one of my days off as soon as I can. A small number of children remain at the orphanage so I look forward to hugging them all and saying hello. 

I ran into my old friend "Mama Africa" (Arlene) of Hope Made Real in the outdoor walkway of the hotel. She was here to pick up a visitor and I was just heading out to the office here. I think it was a divine moment of connection as our ride was delayed and she was just there for a minute. I had spoken to her on the phone recently and planned to go out and visit her in the coming weeks but it was even better to get a big hug in the hallway! 

I also went to the Nakumatt (sort of a Kenyan walmart here in Kigali) and guess what?? My points card had finally arrived in store. Last year I had applied for the card so I could earn points to spend in the store, and was told "a few weeks" but still didn't have it after 3 months. On a whim, I thought I'd check in and... there it was! I laughed when they pulled it out -- so funny!

It does feel like coming home to be back in Rwanda. I find myself slipping back into Kinyarwanda and local ways very easily, but some things are different this time around. This time, I find myself searching the faces of passing school children for "my" kids from the orphanage. I caught myself doing it, hoping, I suppose, to see the ones who have been released.

Another change is being here with a big, international organization. Hence the hotel we stayed in upon our arrival, the driver taking us to the office for meetings, and all kinds of support and planning that I'm adjusting to. It's equal parts great and surreal all at the same time. I'm also here as part of a team of 3 this time, which is turning out to be pretty awesome.

Stay tuned for more updates!