Mr. Melvin Makes Spaghetti
My neighbor Manzi is curious about everything. He wanted to try cooking spaghetti and eating it with chopsticks. Pretty good for a first try!
Fixing my Bike
Shortly after I bought my bike, my colleague Emmanuel brought me to the place in Kabarore where I should get it repaired if need be. This place is by the market and is just a bunch of guys who fix bikes hanging around an open area. I got a flat the other day so I walked my bike over to them. My Kinyarwanda language skills aren’t good but I showed this guy the flat tire and he knew what to do. He expertly fixed the flat and pulled out a thin piece of wire about 3/4″ long from the tire, which was causing the slow leak. The total cost for this was 50 cents.
More Mr. Melvin
Regular readers of this blog want more of the adventures of my landlord’s son, Manzi, aka ‘Melvin.’ Last Saturday, I bought a toaster in Kigali. No one seems to have a toaster in this rural area of Rwanda and Melvin was very intrigued by it. He wanted to know how it worked and checked out all aspects of it. He made toast and slathered it with chocolate spread. When I made toast for myself, the fire detector that Peace Corps gave me went off. Melvin ran around with his hands over his ears. When he came over the next day to make toast, he asked me why didn’t the alarm say, “Fire! Fire!” again. (It was because I move the toaster from my kitchen to my living room.)
Single Use Plastic
I was surprised to hear recently that only 5% of what we put in our recycling bins in the US is actually recycled. It’s very hard to break my habit of buying products packaged in single-use plastic, but I’m trying. Rwanda is wise to have banned plastic bags. There is no trash pickup in rural Rwanda, so my plastic garbage is, sad to say, burned by my landlord’s son.
Rwandan Shoe Culutre
Rwanda has many dirt roads, but amazingly Rwandans have the cleanest shoes of any group of people I have xever met. When in Rome…Here is a picture of my shoelaces about to get handwashed. I scrub my shoes about once a week here.
Playing “Who Am I?”
Students, especially future teachers, need time at the front of class to gain confidence in communicating and leading a class. Today the Year 1 (10th grade) students played “Who Am I?” After I modeled the game for them, they made it their own and did a nice job with it. Some used the game as an opportunity to tease their classmates as teenagers do. After a game, I ask, “Will you use this with your students?” Hopefully the TTC students are learning English from me but also games, songs and activities to use in their future classrooms.
Celebrating World Teachers’ Day
World Teachers’ Day is on October 5. (Who knew?) For whatever reason, Rwanda postponed their celebration of this important day until today. There were about 500 primary and secondary teachers from Gatsibo gathered to hear speeches from local government officials. After the speeches, food and drink were made available to the teachers and everyone hung out with their friends and colleagues. One great thing about this event was seeing so many of the former students from TTC Kabarore coming up to hug or shake the hands of their former teachers. The first photo is me hanging out with my colleagues and the second one is other teachers doing the same in front of a tent decorated with the colors of the Rwandan flag.
Umuganda
On the last Saturday of each month, Rwandans commit to a morning’s worth of community service followed by a meeting to discuss what is happening in the community. It’s called ‘umuganda’ and is 
a wonderful idea. Today, we planted fruit trees on the campus of TTC Kabarore. Here is Principal Gilbert, Dr. Felix (the leader of the Zimbabwean teachers) and me planting either a mango or avocado sapling.
Test Taking at TTC Kabarore
It’s been a while since I proctored (invigilated) an assessment. Here are the Year 2 students taking a test that Tutor Emmanuel and I created. There were 59 students taking this test and most sat three to a desk!
It’s a bird…
Occasionally, I look up and see a big bird (or a couple) circling high above the school. My colleagues said that they are eagles. Our school is very near Akagera National Park.
