May 15, 2009
Once again my placement has changed! I have spent the last night dreaming about Gitarama and reading “brucesrwanderings” online to find out as much as I could about southern Rwanda. I was soaking it all in. Today I got an email saying that the girl I was to replace as extended her stay another year. I guess I can’t blame her. It sounded like an amazing posting and it must be to extend your term. So, I was sent another posting for a town called Kibungo which is in East. The job is the same, the country is the same, the location is just different. From what I can tell (which is not much), it’s a bit more rural but still a town of 45,000 people. It seems to be at a lower altitude – which makes the risk of a malaria a bit higher. The job seems just as great and really, it’s still in Rwanda. I feel slightly disappointed for no reason other than I thought I would have “Gitarama” in my postal code. Honestly, Anna, that’s the reason? I know nothing about anything so what’s the difference!! I think my school is getting frustrated with the lack of firm plans but I keep trying to explain that this is volunteering in a developing nation where “firm plans” is sort of an oxymoron. So, I have yet to decide but I’m thinking it sounds great.
In other news, I passed my photography course. How could I not ? The test included the answer key! I felt guilty “cheating” so I marked myself honestly and got 80%. I just can’t do the conversions for ISO film and for f-stops / shutter speed exposure. I keep forgetting the jumps. My photographs were a hit in class, though. I went out on Thursday with my brother and had a heart to heart about happiness and life and all the wonderful things that people discuss over pints of beer. Actually, I celebrated the 40th anniversary of the Cesar with one. We met Aimey after and were planning to go out with Em, who is in town. But Em and Laurel ate too much to move so we postponed. So Pat, Aimey and I went to see Brent Tyler play at the pub and celebrated the Cesar some more! The packing continues. I sold my table and bookshelf to a doctor who has spent some time in Africa herself and fell in love with it. I had a second round of Hep B shots (still bruised from stupid Typhoid) and now I only have a few left. I’ve registered in my motorcycle course.
Lately I’ve really been enjoying my students. Teaching grade 9 in May and June has mixed emotions. We’re all totally tired of one another, struggling to stay focused until the final exam and ready to be done. On the other hand, they continue to mature and you can have sophisticated discussions with them. For example, I told them that while in Peru, I would be visiting Lake Titicaca. Yes, very mature. We were all laughing hysterically when the principal walked in! He was curious as to what the students were totally engaged about. I explained that we were talking about public versus private health care and how I have to pay for my travel vaccinations (private) but if I need my appendix out it won’t cost anything (public) when a student gave it away and explain we were actually talking about Peru and a great lake there. Today, when I asked them to recap the last lesson the ONLY thing they remembered was Titicaca. So, yes, the maturity abounds and I give into it. I swear, the longer I teach junior high the more immature I become!
So, that’s the update. I don’t have television, internet or a land line until I move at the end of the month so I’m writing this in Word and hope to just insert it into my blog. I think that’s how I’ll have to go about it while in Africa given that internet and electricity is unreliable……
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