A Welcome from Kansana

One of the highlights of my parents' visit was our trip to Kansana GS School. Jean de Dieu, the Head Teacher,  had planned a wonderful welcome for my parents. All of the students gathered on the grass, ready to greet them with singing, dancing, marching and a prayer recital. Speeches were made and my parents were overwhelmed. Photos do not really do justice to the spectacle produced by the school but it was a very proud moment for me.

Jean de Dieu showing my parents the school library

 

My parents with my focus teacher, Diogene

 



Senior students performing Inhore traditional dancing



Maternelle reciting a prayer in English

 

Sharing tea in the Head Master's Office

Akagera National Park - Guest blog by Mum

Last weekend, we visited Akagera which is only 1 hour from Amy's home in Kibungo, provided you are not in an ancient land cruiser with a defective fan belt !! 5 hours later, we were rescued by the kind manager of Ruzizi Tented Lodge and were whisked into paradise. 

Despite the delayed start to our safari, we were able to take a boat ride early evening to see the hippos and the birds. It was a magical trip. 

We had a League of Nations dinner at the Lodge that night (delicious food) and somehow, quite by chance, the Europeans grouped themselves at one end of the table with the Americans at the other. A restful night was had by Jem and I, but Aimes was plagued by a hippo grazing next to her tent and woken by a mongoose scurrying by!

After an amazing breakfast at sunrise, we met our intrepid land cruiser and travelled to the plains at the top of the park, where we saw zebra, giraffes, water buffalo, crocodiles, hippos, warthogs, impala and baboons. 

On the journey home, we stopped off at Amy's favourite watering hole, Jambo beach. 

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.