Tim Hartigan, Ph.D.

Language & Learning

I am waiting for Peace Corps to accept my early close of service date, moving it up from September 12 to late July. The reason I want to leave before one calendar year is up is that there will be absolutely nothing for me to do at school once the Year 1 and Year 2 students leave during the second week of July. My Zimbabwean colleagues return home on Friday, July 14. After that, the school will just have Year 3 students, who I don’t teach, and their Rwandan tutors preparing for their finals amid the construction site that is our school now. As I get ready to leave Rwanda, I want to slowly give some things away. My nearest PCV neighbor, Sandra, came into Kabarore for lunch today and I gave her my toaster. (I don’t think toast has really caught on in Rwanda, so she was the only one who would appreciate it.) My friend Denis, a Ugandan who teaches at a local high school, is one of the only people here who is the same size as me, so he will get a lot of the pants and shirts that can be worn to school. My furniture will be donated to TTC Kabarore for them to sell to raise money for a chicken coop. The goal is go home with leaving as much as possible here, but I hope to pick up a few Rwandan baskets to take home.