Guest blog by Jesso

Today we joined in umuganda; the community work that Rwandans do the last Saturday of every month. The idea is that every family sends at least one person to join in the Project that the community is working on. Today we were preparing the ground ready for a new road to be built. Lucy and I headed down with a couple of other people armed with a rake, hoe and a couple of shovels. 

There were nearly 100 people there, of all ages helping to move earth. My favourites were the women with the most gorgeous babies strapped to their backs, who worked so hard I was a little embarrassed at the fact sweat was flying off my face and I did only a fraction of what they did. (Although they were impressed enough with my work to say that if I was a Rwandan girl they would find me a good boy to be my husband- very chuffed!!) The air was full of chatter as people gossiped about what was going on and it was amazing how much got done with so many people helping. 

As the work finished, there was a bit of a sing song, and then a village meeting. Totally amazing- both the male and female co-ordinators, their equivalent of town councillors, gave short speeches on current issues. These were translated for us. They spoke about how it is important to talk about family issues every day and said if any family had problems they couldn't resolve the coordinators would help them find solutions. And even more impressive, about how to limit the spread of HIV through family planning. 

A wonderful way to help bring the community together and we felt very privileged to be part. Although I have a feeling I'm going to ache from head to toe tomorrow!!! 

VSO Education Conference

I was struck by some of the facts that were presented to us by DFID at the VSO Annual Education Conference last week. Whilst they highlight the progress that is being made in Rwanda, they also demonstrate the difficult situation that we continue to work in. Here are some facts I wanted to share:

1. In 2008 the average ratio of pupils to teachers in a Rwandan classroom was 67:1. Now it has dropped to 62:1. However, this is still twice the size of many English classes, and the teachers in Primary school see this number of pupils twice a day due to the double shift system.

2.  In 2008 52.5% of pupils finished P6 (equivalent of Year 6 in the UK) at the correct age. This year, 72.7% of pupils managed to do this which is a great rise. However, we are still losing 27.3% of pupils as they drop out of school, repeat school years or start school at a later age.

3. 93.5% of teachers in Rwanda register as A1 or A2 on the CEFR scale of English proficiency. To put this into perspective, having no English knowledge is registered as A0 and fluent English is given a C. Quite a scary thought considering teachers are expected to use English as the language of instruction in P4 onwards.

Food for thought any way!

I'm still here!

Many people warned me before I went away, that I would be a keen blogger to begin with but it wouldn't last long.....and sure enough I seem to have become lazy with my blog updates. Life has been hectic recently with school visits, a festival in Kigali, the VSO education conference, numerous  meetings and even a Rwandan graduation in Kibungo. I am now eagerly awaiting Jess' arrival on Wednesday, which will bring about more great adventures (and blog posts, I promise). In the meantime, here are a few snaps from my recent shenanigans:

Si nitwa muzungu - Something I say every day!



Elie, my Kinyarwanda teacher's graduation celebration



 

 

 Reggae, folk, rap, salsa - we had it all at Rwanda's only annual music festival, Kigali Up. Two days of music, craft stalls, good food and excellent company. Felt like I could have been at a festival anywhere in the world!

 

Tea Party

It is a public holiday in Rwanda today although, as is typically the case here, this was not made official until yesterday. To celebrate the long weekend, I held an afternoon tea party at my house for VSO volunteers. As many of you know, I also held an afternoon tea in England before coming here, to fundraise for VSO so I thought it would complete the circle nicely to hold one here to celebrate being in Rwanda.

The tea was a huge success. All of my guests brought something for the spread and we enjoyed some real treats (I've never seen adults get so excited about fresh cream!). I also managed to cook scones in a homemade oven on my charcoal stove and they tasted like the real thing (quite pleased with myself!) but obviously not quite as good as Granny's!

Here are some highlights from the party including playing twister on a rice sack and posing behind the wacky portrait rice sack a la Brighton pier:

Scones cooking in my homemade oven over charcoal