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

Jambo Beach

Last weekend, I visited Jambo beach with Hazel and Mary, two other VSO volunteers. I had been told that the 'beach', a grassy area next to Lake Muhazi (less than an hour from my house), was quite unimpressive compared to the beauty of Lake Kivu. However, we had a wonderfully relaxed weekend there and the sunset was the best I have seen in Africa so far. I am sure in years to come the area will be developed greatly and become a tourist haven but for most of the weekend, there were very few people there and we enjoyed the unspoilt paradise. On Saturday, some local kids entertained us by dancing whilst their family ate lunch in the restaurant. We enjoyed having a daytime boogie with them, much to the delight of the DJ. Even the kids here are incredible dancers and have a real feel for rhythm.

Kimisagara English Club performance

On Sunday I went to a wonderful concert at Kimisagara Youth Centre in Kigali.

 

When I first came to Rwanda, I visited Kimisagara English club which I mentioned in my blog during ICT. On that day, the youth club began planning a showcase for a group of young Scottish people who were coming on a cultural exchange visit. The concert took place on Sunday and I was able to attend to support them.   During their performance, I felt quite choked up. After seeing a group of very shy teenagers at the youth centre discussing in a circle what talents they had (which mainly involved listening to music but not performing!), the kids on stage looked entirely different. They were smiling, confident and incredibly good at performing traditional Rwandan dance combined with some modern moves too.

 

The Scottish group responded with an equally wonderful display - my favourite part was the young guy doing breakdancing in a kilt! And to finish off the event, Mashirika Performing Arts (a professional Rwandan group who had been working with the English club) contributed with some impressive Rwandan dancing, drumming, singing and even some Scottish dancing for good measure.

 

It was a lovely afternoon and my Scottish friend Julie was particularly impressed when the English Club stood up and joined in with the Scottish National Anthem, something they had learnt especially to surprise their Scottish visitors.

 

 

 

L3 Initiative

Last week in Kigali, I spent 3 days learning about the L3 initiative with EDC (Education Development Centre). L3 is a USAID funded project designed to support Language, Literacy and Learning in Rwanda. They have designed a set of materials, including audio lessons (transmitted via mobile phone SD cards), story books for teachers to read aloud and books that children can take home. At the moment, the materials are being trialled in 90 experimental schools. But it is hoped that if they make a positive impact, they will go nationwide next January.

Modelling a Kinyarwanda lesson

The training was very interesting. We got to participate in and observe some model lessons taught using the materials (I was even asked to take on the role of a P1 child in a Kinyarwanda lesson which was highly entertaining as I got into character and may have been a slightly naughty child, not helped by my lack of understanding most of the language!). We also had the chance to try out the monitoring tools and make suggestions for how they could be improved.

I can see numerous benefits to using this initiative in Rwanda. For example, many teachers here struggle with teaching English, something this initiative supports in a creative manner particularly through the use of audio lessons. As partners with USAID, I hope that VSO will continue to collaborate in this initiative and I am excited about my involvement in this. I have already offered to write some stories for the next set of materials and I might even get the chance to write or record some songs for them to use.