Beauty is Everywhere in Rwanda
Beauty is everywhere in Rwanda…Here is a flower outside my door at Centre Christus in Kigali.
The Creation of a Taxpayer
Emmanuel is the friend of my landlord’s older son, so he hangs around the compound a lot. Teenagers in Rwanda are like teenagers in the US – they hang around a lot not doing anything productive – so I put Emmanuel to work cleaning for the princely sum of 1,000 RwF. He was happy to get the work. Here he is cleaning my bicycle which gets pretty dirty during rainy season.
Of course, anytime there is action going on or something needs to be investigated, our man Melvin is on the scene. Melvin was taking the bubbles that ran off from Emmanuel’s cleaning project and created shapes with them, asking me “What’s this?” about 10 times. Finally, he settled on giving himself a goatee with the bubbles.
Emmanuel speaks English well and aspires to be a teacher. His house does not have electricity, so I gave him a solar lantern for Christmas.
Fabric at the Kabarore Market
Kaborore holds market days on Tuesdays and Fridays. It’s an old-school outdoor market. Here’s a photo of the kitenge cloth. As rustic as this market is, the transaction that I made to buy this cloth was done mobile phone to mobile phone. Rwanda has the old and the new neatly mixed together.
Paying the Rent
Here is my rent receipt that my landlord, Jean Nepo Kamanzi, signed. 75k Rwandan francs per month (about $70) gets you a house with a kitchen, living room, bedroom and bathroom. Peace Corps picks up the cost of the house, I just have to pay for the electricity. It’s a good little place with tiled floors. Will give you a tour of the house sometime soon.
Visit to TTC Kabarore by the Zimbabwean Ambassador
One of the cool things about Peace Corps life is that no two days are ever the same and that there are surprises aplenty. On Sunday, our school was visited by Her Excellency Charity Manyeruke. She was in town to check out how the 11 Zimbabwean tutors were getting on. There was a nice welcoming ceremony, where the students lined up inside the school gate to welcome her in two rows. Ambassador Manyeruke gave a nice speech, and then she was presented with some gifts from the school. We all sat down to a very good lunch afterwards.
Biking to Work
Biking to school each day is a pleasure. There’s usually good weather and tons of people who want to wave or say “Mwaramutse” to me. It’s about 2 km from my house to the teacher training college. I get a little downhill start, then pedal uphill for about 1/2 mile (Rwanda is the land of 1,000 hills; I think they underestimate that number by factor of about 100), then coast for about the same to the entrance to the school, which is a dirt road that rises about 200 feet from main road to the school buildings. It’s a challenge getting up that hill and then there’s a little kick to the hill once I’m inside the school gate. The only thing that comes to mind as a comparison is the toboggan hill at Chestnut Ridge, but that’s a lot harder (and I could never bike up that). It’s a good morning workout.
Mass in French
Rwandans are really gifted at languages. In our staff room, the tutors switch easily between Kinyarwanda, Kiswahili, French and English. This talent for languages shows up in other places in the culture as well. Last Sunday I went to mass at Centre Christus, a Jesuit center in Kigali. The 8 a.m. mass was in French. The readings, songs and prayers were all in French. Pretty amazing!
A Belated Thanksgiving Celebration
Caught up with volunteer buds Penny (Malaria and Maternal Health) and Diane (Teacher Trainer) this weekend for a belated Thanksgiving at a nice hotel in Kigali. We had craft beer and more meat than I’ve eaten in the past month. It was nice to splurge and do something fun. The US-Netherlands game was on a couple of big screens in the bar as we ate dinner, too.
It’s Final Exam Time
Another thing in common…All around the world, students prepare for quizzes, tests and exams. Today the students at TTC Kabarore took their Integrated Computer Technology and Physical Education exams at the end of the first trimester. I invigilated (the Rwandans use the British term) these tests for the Year 2 students. They put in lots and lots of effort today and I wished them “amahirwe masa” (good luck).
Good Teaching and Learning
My colleague, Tutor Nadine, had her students create pieces of art and handicrafts using locally available materials. These students are making a mat with reeds, other students made art from clay that they collected about 1 km away from the school, and others used cardboard to create things such as purses and hats. This is very cleverly designed teaching and it showcases how talented our students are.
