English Training in Murama and Rukira

Murama and Rukira Sectors

Week number two of English training centre inspections today began a little late….only a few minutes because I got a surprise phone call from Aimey. It’s a good way to start the week and I arrived at the office in time to greet Francis, our new director. Of course, Francis was out and Frodauld was at a meeting and so Laurent helped me explain our plan to my new moto driver, Sim. Patrick will still drive me occasionally but I’ve been having difficulty reaching him and he’s had to cancel at the last minute before. So Sim and I head off toward Rurenge school. This is one of my favourite roads ( I have many) because it’s the road to Tanzania and today as we snaked along down toward the valley, the mist came upon us and the tempurature dropped. Both Sim and I had to wipe our visors often as we raced along through the fog. Once at the bottom of the valley we sped along until a dirt road (I’d never find my way through this country on my own) where Sim took a sharp left up the dirt road and out of the fog. We find ourselves in the right neighbourhood but at the Rurenge Catholique and we’re supposed to be at Rurenge Protestant. No matter! (as they say here…) we got directions and I arrived to an English lesson already in full swing. If I haven’t written his before, the start of the new school year has been postponed by a month so that all teachers in the country can receive English training. My job is to, with the help of Jason, inspect the sites to make sure they are running smoothly and that the teacher is teaching in a learner centred manner. Rurenge was a pleasure to visit and once I was done there I head over through Rukira sector to Gitwe school where they are a short a trainer and have squeezed everyone into one room. The trainer had to go to Kigali for a funeral and so the numbers in the class are now quite big but the trainer does a good job of adapting. This visit is shorter than expected because there is only one trainer so, after a debrief with the Head Master, Sim and I head back to Kibungo. I go the post office to mail a few things and then pop by to give a summary to Francis. We’ve agreed tomorrow that I’ll go out to Jarama, which is about an hour (I think) by motorcycle.

Part of why I came to Rwanda was for my own professional development. I knew I would grow and learn (how to use a kerosene stove, how to filter your water, how to kill spiders the size of Russia….) but I was also hoping to learn some new teaching tricks to take back to the classroom. Today I did! When I put kids in groups I usually give them each a role (Speaker, Recorder, Leader etc.). Today, one of the trainers used a role call a “Spy.” Their role is to go around and “spy” on the other groups to see what they are doing and make sure their own group is on task. Great idea! So, today was a pretty good day. The only bad things I can see so far (and no, it’s not that fact that my water and electricity aren’t working) is that I forgot to bring my camera to take pictures of the scenery.