Despite schools breaking up for Christmas back in October, I have been surprisingly busy for the past six weeks. Since finishing my holiday training, which I wrote about in my last blog, I have been working in Kigali. As part of the ALOA project, VSO had to produce a research report on the data collection we did back in September. I have been working in the office with our Monitoring and Evaluation Manager and with one of the Education Programme Managers to help them write this report. It has been a while since I have used my brain to write something academic but I really enjoyed getting stuck into it - reading studies from other countries, writing literature reviews, analysing data, editing and proof-reading etc etc. The end product is a 15,000 word report which will be published online soon for all to read. Once again this demonstrates the opportunities you can get as a volunteer - helping to write national research papers is not something I expected to be doing in Rwanda but it is certainly something I would do again.
Having finished my work on the report on Tuesday, I then went straight to a 3 day resource development workshop which I organised for VSO volunteers in Kigali. Everyone brought a resource they had made in their district and then we spent 3 days copying each other's resources. Whilst working, we listened to Christmas songs and Rwandan music to keep the spirits high. It was a welcome change to spend time with lots of volunteers and to do some colouring in as opposed to report writing (we teachers love a bit of colouring in!).
In the past week I have been looking for signs that Christmas has come to Rwanda. It is very strange not to be needing a coat or hat as Christmas approaches this year. Especially having spent Christmas last year working in the French Alps. So, to my delight, yesterday I discovered that the shopping centre in town has Christmas trees, Santa figures, supermarket workers wearing Santa hats and shops playing Christmas music. (Photos courtesy of Michelle).
The rain continues to fall here in Rwanda. I often feel like I am playing rain roulette when I look at the sky and try to decide whether I can get a moto to my destination before the skies open. This week the odds were against me and I had two downpours mid-journey. But, when it's not raining, there is glorious sunshine so I can't complain too much. Although secretly I would like a bit of snow to remind me that it is December!
This week's silly mistake: Putting soap on your hands before checking if there is running water. You would have thought that after 8 months I might have learnt this already- doh!
