Gisenyi -guest blog by Amy's Dad

Staying in fab tented lodge accommodation with all mod cons:

Had an interesting ride by moto-taxi to the old market in Gisenyi where the girls bought lots of fabrics. 

Visited a very interesting craft cooperative where we all bought bags and colourful things as presents. Now at a beautiful hotel on the lake/ beach where swimming is great. Just enjoyed excellent food and a bottle of sparkly. Now relaxing in the sun and preparing for a ziz. 

Back to our beautiful tented accommodation tonight and who knows what tomorrow will bring. 

Birthday gorillas - guest blog by my Mum

On Amy's birthday yesterday, we visited the Titus group of gorillas in Volcanoes National park. We were told afterwards that our trek should have been a medium one but ended up being long as we had to trek further in the end to find the group.

I could not believe how close we were allowed to be to them. We first met a mother with an 8 month baby, and then close behind a young blackback who literally pushed past Amy to go down the hillside. 

When he had settled we went to see him again and I was really looking into his eyes !!! The guide realised he was getting a little anxious so I had to break the stare - it was an amazing moment . 

(This is actually the silverback as we didn't get a shot of the blackback staring!).

Then we met another mother with a 13 month  baby who was as cheeky as anything and a real little showoff. He swung on the branches about three foot above our heads doing all sorts of tricks for us and then flung himself onto the ground as if he was diving  ! 

 We saw the main male Silverback ( Rano, son of Titus who is now the dominant male ) and he gave us some lovely yawns but no beating of the chest.

 He had two female gorillas lying by his side having a siesta. Finally we watched the same cheeky baby play fighting with another young female for a good ten minutes, then just as we were leaving , the adult female rushed over and literally slapped Amy on the leg. That is a sign they want to play !!! we then left the group, had our sandwiches and descended back to reality. 

A round trip of about 6 hours, so our very own Silverback (Amy's dad) enjoyed having a snooze when we got back and Amy and I had a glass of birthday wine! 

English Teachers in Action: Touch the Board

Here is an English teacher playing the game Touch the Board with her learners. She brought in real objects from home to make the game multi-sensory. The children, as you will see, loved it! Next time she is going to try to choose learners quickly so that even more can play within the five minute time period.

Working with English Teachers

The start to the new term has been extremely busy. Having identified 20 English teachers for P4 and P5 in my 12 focus schools, I trained them for two days on the use of Phonics and Comprehension activities in the classroom. The training went very well and the participants were  enthusiastic about the new methodologies. We spent time in classrooms so that the teachers could try out the activities, which gave them the opportunity to highlight any difficulties. I then spent the past 2 weeks visiting all my teachers in schools, where I observed them teaching a lesson and trying out the activities we had looked at together. The results were great and I was incredibly impressed with how quickly they had mastered the activities and how positive they seemed about using them every day in English lessons.

Mother Hen

Three times a year, new volunteers come to Rwanda, and two weeks ago we had our latest arrivals. This time round, I was asked to take the role of live-in volunteer, someone who helps out with logistics, co-facilitates training and is available to answer questions around the clock.

I thoroughly enjoyed my week as the 'house-mum'. I had 14 babies from the UK, Kenya, the Netherlands, Zimbabwe and the Philippines - 8 female and 6 male which was quite a balanced ratio compared to previous intakes (disproving my theory that few men have it in them to volunteer!).

For the training week, we stayed at Centre Christus Guesthouse in Kigali. Whilst we were there, the local monkeys came to join in our training! Other volunteers have been claiming their existence in Kigali for months and this is the first time I have seen them. Everything was fine until one of them chased me because I was holding food in my hand....Wasn't a good role model at that moment as I ran off screaming!!


During the week, I showed the volunteers around Kigali. We navigated the bus system (which is not my forte) and they braved the motos for the first time. We had a successful shopping trip at the Chinese supermarket T2000 where they bought all the essentials such as water bins, jerry cans, pots and pans and bedding. It was fun for me to think back to how apprehensive I was when I was in their position 9 months ago, and to realise how much I have learnt about living in Rwanda since then. On our whistle-stop tour we went to Kimironko market, visited a few local bars, attended the Kimisigara English club and had plenty of chances to practise speaking Kinyarwanda along the way. Here are the newbies dancing in Kinyarwanda:

 

Welcome Dinner:

 

Dancing along to Just Dance (shown on a projector!) in Kosmic bar:

 

 

At the weekend, all my babies flew the Kigali-nest and I was left feeling tired and sad - I'm sure this wasn't helped by the knowledge that I was returning to the Eastern Province where I had been reliably informed we had had no water for 3 days and were suffering from multiple-hour power cuts!

 I am happy to report that some of the newbies will be staying in Kigali and have offered me their spare room any time I am in town at the weekends (bonus!). I am also looking forward to having some of the others come to shadow me at work in the next few weeks, for some on-the-job training. I have already had to say goodbye to many volunteer-friends in Rwanda as their placements have come to an end..... all the more reason to cherish the opportunity to get to know the latest recruits to VSO Rwanda.

The rest of the weekend was spent celebrating Mary and Bebhinn's birthday at Jambo beach (in the East with the power cuts!). We enjoyed the beautiful sunset, chilling out by the campfire and finding a packet of matches and a candle on the doorstep of our guesthouse when we got home.

Christmas in Ghana

Instead of giving in to the temptation of going home for Christmas, I decided to explore Africa a bit more and headed West to Ghana.

The flight itself showed me just how big Africa is - Rwanda to Ghana is a 5 hour flight. When I landed, I felt as if I was on a totally different continent. Even though it was the evening, the air was hot and sticky - not like the cool evenings I am used to in Rwanda.

It was great to see the sea again, having been in a land-locked country for so long. I thoroughly enjoyed spending Christmas day on the beach, eating lobster and drinking pina colados and fresh coconut milk. My homesick-pang and desire for turkey quickly evaporated when the lobster turned up in front of me.

 

Another highlight of the trip included swimming under the beautiful waterfalls in Wli (Volta Region). After a 2 hour hike to reach the upper falls, a dip in the breathtakingly cold water was much needed. It was just a shame we couldn't swim again after hiking back down!

 

I also enjoyed visiting the castle at Cape Coast and found it very interesting to learn about the slave-trade. We visited the dungeons and went through the 'door of no return', which would have lead the slaves to their ships in the past.

Many hours in Accra were spent walking around Shoprite and Koala, two big supermarkets which have lots of western delights that Rwanda is lacking. I did my usual trick (similar to Sainsburys when I was at home last year) and walked up and down every aisle staring aimlessly at all the delights, not knowing where to start! Then I pulled myself together, treated myself to a diet coke and got to work. Having a few kg of luggage to spare, I happily stocked up on muesli, dried fruits, coconut milk, shampoo, cheddar cheese and pasta sauces - lots of little luxuries which I have already been enjoying in Kibungo.

So the trip was a huge success; I managed to relax, enjoy Christmas and explore another African country with some excellent company. However, the humidity, traffic and bad smells mean that I am happy to continue calling Rwanda my home. I somehow think I landed on my feet when I was posted to this little African country    :-)

 

It's December already

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!