What will you be doing four weeks from today? Me? I’ll be somewhere flying over Saskatchewan (which, with risk of offending a few of you, is the only way I ever plan on seeing Saskatchewan). I’m going home for a few weeks and it doesn’t even seem real. I’m happy to be doing it, though. I can test the waters of my Canadian life (and by waters I refer to warm water that comes out of a tap. I’ve heard that happens there…) without really needing to get back into things. I’ve almost hit the half way point of this little journey and when I looked in the mirror today, I realize that I’ve changed.  My hair is almost at my shoulder blades! Now, I know that when people said I would change, they didn’t have that in mind. But I sort of took it to be symbolic. It just seemed to happen over night. Where was I? When did I go from “just above the shoulder” to this? When did I blink? Why didn’t I notice? Now that it’s been six months, I suppose it’s all down hill. And I suppose that I’ll be noticing more and more how I have changed without even noticing. Mmmm…

Muddy Wednesday

I woke this morning to rain pounding on my tin roof. I laid in bed wondering at what point I would have to decide to cancel the morning's workshop. I gave myself until 7am. At ten to seven, it stopped (more or less) and I decided that I would give it a try. Patrick picked me up and hour later and we headed out. The drive to Zaza is normally about 40 minutes. Today, it took an hour. The roads were wet and muddy and the motorbike had difficulty navigating its way through. Patrick is a really good driver but often he had to creep along so that we did slip.

We came upon this truck, which fell into some construction that they were doing. I

Here is its back wheel. When we drove past four hours later it was still stuck. to get past the truck on the other side, they had laid some plywood down. I walked across and Patrick slowly walked the bike across.

So much mud stuck to the bottom of my shoes that I would step and my shoes would stay behind.

On our way back (in the POURING RAIN) we came upon more construction and had to wait (in the POURING RAIN) until this guy moved out of the way. There are two seasons in Rwanda - dry season and construction...mwa ha ha!!!

A Tuesday in Kibungo

Nothing out of the ordinary on the agenda today and, quite frankly, I like it that way. I awoke to my view obscured by thick fog and caught a moto to Kibungo School. I arrived to a well prepared head master and staff and had a great meeting with him. I first observed Rose’s math lesson. It was a simple lesson on word problems and converting measurements. She taught the class (and by extension, me) an easy way to remember the conversion. Put the units (km, dam, m, etc) into a “place value”chart. Genius! So, I learned something to bring back to Canada. I spent the rest of the morning with Pascal, who is a beginning teacher. I watch a lesson two weeks ago and – with 60 level 2 children – his classroom management left something to be desired. However, two weeks later and he has made huge improvements. We then managed to go to the nearby football pitch where I helped out Team #2 and – after calling Mzungu!, the kids started to use my name. Our team lost though….

 

I headed over the St. Joseph’s for lunch and there I am, waiting for the mélange to be served, reading my book (Sideways by Rex Pickett) and who walks in by Dominique! He’s a volleyball coach around here – and on the national level. I haven’t seen him in forever and his timing was perfect because I have a bag to give him from Tina. We chatted a little and he headed off. I finished my lunch and realized that I’d forgotten my wallet! I asked if I could come back later and pay (and Jeremy kindly lent me the money) and of course, they said yes. It’s Kibungo, after all – the friendliest little town in Rwanda.

 

The afternoon meant group workshops at the school and so we finished up rice sack resource building with the Days of the Week. Rose – miles ahead – prepared some more math visuals. She doesn’t know this yet, but I hope to ask her to come to the Teacher Training Centre in May to show the students her work. We began English Club afterwards and half way through, Moses (from Moderne) walks in. The staff all new him and were surprised that I did too. He was a teacher there last year but teachers get paid so little in Rwanda, he makes more money working at the restaurant.

 

On the walk home, I stopped in at the district office to say “hi” to Jeremy and Dominique walks in again. Twice in one day…. He invited me down to watch the volleyball team practice and I met some visitors there that are in Rwanda for a year from Brazil. They are working with Rwandan Volleyball Association. Volleyball is HUGE in this country. It was totally unexpected when I arrived. Anyway, Paulo and his crew are here to develop the national team and then develop youth and sport activities. I’ve got his number and hope to get to a game or two if I’m Kigali.

 

Finally, I headed home and as I walked along the ridge toward my house I looked north east toward the valley. It was clear for the first time in a while (no  fog, no rain, no smoke) and it almost didn’t look real. For a moment it felt very Truman Show – ish and that if I walk far enough, there will be a door outside. It was just perfect.

 

I arrived home and read in the light until it was too dark to. I began dinner – just as the electricity clicked on – and then took a hot bucket shower. I’m spoiled here….I haven’t taken a cold shower since I discovered the beauty of a bucket shower. Ahhh….. Of course, I used up the last of the water I had (Julie was here to do laundry) but, just as I did the water also came back on. I filled up 2 large buckets and 2 large jerry cans and thought how nice it will be in May, when Amy comes and in July, when Aimey comes (yes, try to keep that straight!) when I don’t have to fill up jerry cans alone!!!

Here's the best news - I should be getting a new mattress from VSO tomorrow to get rid of the bed bugs, once and for all!!! (I hope)

Book Nerd in Rwanda

After another long and great week, I was looking forward to a mzungu filled weekend. A large VSO contingent would be descending on Kibungo for the weekend for a day trip on Saturday to Akagera National Park (like Rwanda’s answer to the Serengeti or like the Masa Mara’s little brother). I had opted out of the trip for two reasons. One: I have already been. Two: I am planning for a safari in the summer in Kenya or Tanzania. But I was excited that my friends were coming for a visit AND I’d have a relaxing day of reading, blogging and general being in Kibungo.

 

Friday morning I slept in and when I woke up there was no electricity. No problem it’s probably just gone off. It will be on when everyone gets here. You know, as I’ve said, we have no power or water during the day now. It usually comes on around 5:30 or 6pm with the water following shortly thereafter. It might sound like an inconvenience but the truth is, because it’s predictable you can find reliability in that predictability. It’s not so bad if you plan for it.  Anyway, I made coffee on my kerosene stove which, I believe, to be a bigger threat to my safety than malaria because I should not operate heavy (or basic) equipment without caffeine

 

The day was good and I got ready to meet the girls at the bus for 6pm. At 5:30pm, on cue, the lights came on and….10 seconds later, promptly shut off. Damn! And just as I was plugging in my computer - which had exactly 11 minutes of battery life when I turned it on. Then it came on again – phew! – and off again. And then it didn’t come back on. And either did the water. Okay – no problem – four people in my house with no power or water and a few jerry cans filled. Nte kibazo! While I waited for the bus to pull up the sky opened and the rain came down and down and down and after the girls got off the bus we huddled under the gas station shelter until it abated – which it never did. Eventually we went to the store attached to the gas station (which I often frequent) and the guys there served us beer and peanuts and brochettes. It wasn’t so bad!

 

The next day the water and power were still off but the gang headed out at 5:30 and I spent the rest of the day reading, napping and one 4 km walk to the post office (only to find parcels for other people and none for me – stop here to pity me for just a moment. Okay? Okay.) At 5:30pm I got a text saying that they would all have dinner in the park (just as well, because cooking and eating the dark is never fun). I rushed up to the district office to plug in my phone and charge my computer. I got there are realized I’d left my back door wide open so I had to come back home. I made some eggs in the dark and then raced up to grabbed my phone from the office just in time to get Karen calling to tell me they were on their way. On my way home, past the romp-way (round about) all of a sudden all the lights in the town went out. And then back on and when I arrived home I was so happy to see that my light was on too. It was a miracle!!! I don’t mind having no power but when I’m hosting friends – and when my computer is dead – I realize that I don’t adapt well to some things here. They just annoy me. So when I saw the lights my heart lifted and I realized it made me so happy that I should write about book about getting light. Then I realized that Genesis already covered that and I suppose it’s a much bigger deal when God says “Let there be light” and the whole world gets it than when Electrogas makes the same statement.

 

The gang arrived shortly after and we stayed up chatting. I was happy to hear that their weather was good and they saw an elephant which is so rare in Akagera!. Well done. Today is Sunday I had a nice lunch with Karen and Jeremy and finished my third book of the weekend. Yes folks. I finished THREE books this weekend. That’s what happens when there’s no power, I guess. Here they are (in case you’re interested):

 

Friday: I finished Handle with Care by Jodi Picoult. Honestly, I picked this book up at the program office in Kigali one day when I had arrived for one night but realized I had to stay two nights in the city and didn’t bring my book with me. It is a typical Jodi Picoult formulaic piece of crap. Some family comes up against some crisis that is so controversial and the lawyers get involved and blaze a trail for this medical drama. And just when you think you’ve figured it out and there are 12 pages left, the main character dies. Okay, so this was good in My Sister’s Keeper – when it was the first book of her’s I read. But it gets old really fast but the fact that I predicted that the main character would die didn’t exactly make the book less enjoyable. See – I think that was impossible. And yet, I still read it. But then again, I’ve been addicted to season 1 of Gossip Girl. I guess my standards are sinking about as quickly as Titanic (which, by the way, as a movie I would classify with Jodi Picoult novels).

 

Saturday: After my long walk to the post office, I curled up on my couch with Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller. I think I’d started watching this movie on the plane to Peru but found it strange and boring. I never finished it but this week when I was in the program office, I picked it up. Partly because it was nominated for a Man Booker Prize but mostly because it was short and I’m still slogging my way through Anna Karenina. This book was oddly fabulous. Okay – I’ll admit, a little creepy (42 year old teacher has a relationship with a 15 year old student) – okay A LOT creepy – but that isn’t the creepiest part. The creepiness factor was high because of the narrator, herself. So, I finished this book mid-afternoon and the creepiness, was in part because the writing was so good that I’d felt that I’d spent all day with Barbara, the narrator.

 

Sunday: I began The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne on Saturday (when I realized that my light was no going on and so I couldn’t even watch one episode of Gossip Girl). This is a kids’ book (would make a great novel study in Grade 7! – and ever the teacher I’ve already begun to think of lesson plans…..) and so I finished it after a few hours. It’s a cute story about a German boy who’s father works at Auschwitz (which he calls “Out-With”) and a Jewish boy who is a prisoner there. It’s apparently now a ‘major motion picture’ which I think could be good – and much better than a minor motion picture, or worse a major still life picture.

 

Now…sigh, I think I must continue with Anna Karenina. But I have a shelf full of a few others that could contribute to my procrastination. Oh…what to do? … Oh, I think I must go. There are kids banging on my gate saying “Anna!” They’ve been doing this all afternoon and running away when I approach. (Okay, I know that since I’ve been here my complexion is like the Face of a Thousand Hills but I’m not that bad. Am I?)

 

….

 

The kids didn’t run away. We chatted and I explained that they didn’t have to run away but it was okay to say “hello.” They were friendly and now they know I’m not a big scary monster.

That's so Rwanda

Here is what I know about Rwanda that makes me laugh:

 

1.     I went to the market on Saturday, as you do. And went first to the sweet potatoes. This way, they don’t squish my bananas (okay that totally sounded inappropriate). I arrived and the price was what it always is. One pile = 200 Francs. I only wanted half a pile and so, because Rwanda is transparent and the corruption free gem of Africa, the seller carefully began to split the pile into two. One here, one there. Two here, two there. The problem was, there had been nine in total. She looked at me with a sly grin and I laughed and told her I wanted the pile with five potatoes. She laughed and reached over and added two – just for good measure!

 

2.     The other day, riding home, I thought I would help out my moto driver. There is a code among drivers and it usually is to avoid the police. So…it looks like this: No police is a subtle wave, palm down, as if to say “Okay. Keep driving.” Police check point ahead is – also subtle – a circular movement of the wrist with index figure out, followed by the index figure indicating down. So, after clearing a police check point, and upon seeing a driver coming toward us, I indicated – ever so subtly – that there were police ahead. The driver of said moto, was so shocked to see a muzungu giving him the signal that he continued looking at me and even has he passed, his head kept turning toward me. I think he was so shock that he forgot to slow down!

 

3.     And there was today….after Patrick coming to get me 35 minutes late! because he ran out of fuel ….we were nearly home and just at the town centre there was a police check point. (See above and realize that he would have been lucky to have a muzungu to give him the heads up). He saw the police and stopped 4 metres in front of them. Hesitated for a moment, and then flipped a u-turn. 4 METRES INFRONT OF THE POLICE. As if that doesn’t spell guilty from a mile away. So he turned around and found a driver WITH a license to drive me home. But, he was going to charge me 300 (which would have been included with Patrick). So Patrick kindly gave the driver 300 on my behalf. I never did pay him for today but I’ll see him tomorrow. Come to think of it…I owe Patrick money for driving me to a school on Tuesday (which he never picked me up from) and now for today. Maybe I should just write I O Us.

Don't even get me started on the t-shirts I've seen people wearing here. I was honestly going to start a feature on this blog. "T-shirt of the Moment" Like the one recently that said 'Peace, Love and Crabs.' Awesome. Where can I get one? You've got to love it though!

Muzingira: Girls vs. Boys

The sun shone all day today as I went out to visit Muzingira. I observed lessons and the afternoon resource building workshop turned into a battle of the sexes!

I observed a math lesson on equal and not equal sets using sweet potatoes and tomatoes.

Now the student gets to try.

A sample of two equal sets. 

This baby goat found it's way on the yard. This one is for you, Tina!

P2 class. 

Chantal is so enthusiastic and full of energy. I even caught her singing "Who Stole the Cookie From the Cookie Jar?" with her class! 

The girls hard at work....

....and the finished product.

The boys give it a shot (and with an audience!)

One of their own left so I stood in for him. Who was the winner? (I could be cheesy and say "the students" one but CLEARLY...it was the ladies!)

Like a snow day - but without central heating

Tuesday, February 16

I packed my bag today – markers, candles, camera, water bottle, and lunch. There were so many rice sacks that I decided to leave my first aid kit home (it was a short drive to Rubona) and my rain pants (it looked nice out). Getting the bikes today was easy. I phone and phoned Patrick – to no avail – only to walk out my gate and voila! There he was, like he’s appeared out of nowhere.  He was looking a little tired and preoccupied but he has a toddler at home, so I imagined it was this. I was still wondering if he has telepathy as I donned Pink and got on the back. Before we left, though he told me that there had been an accident between a moto and a bus at the round about. We headed that way to meet Jeremy and his driver, Mutoni. We continued toward Rubona school and passed the accident scene. It was pretty bad. The moto driver had already been taken to hospital but his bike was still under the bus and its imprint in the front. The driver was a friend of Patrick’s which explained his look this morning. He went to the hostipal with a broken leg but the bike – “Big problem, Anna.”

We arrived at Rubona to a welcome and a full agenda. Of course we paused at about 11:30, just as the morning was wrapping up. Jeremy was to leave at noon but the rain started and so Mutoni called to say he would wait. And wait he did! The rain continued and continued (and as I write this it is still continuing). We took advantage and managed to do some resource building with the help of the kids. Of the 500 or so that should have been there, there were about 20 from the morning – who never left – and 20 from the afternoon group. Like a snow day in Canada…. Finally at 4:30, Mutoni called and said he’s come and get us. There was no sign of Patrick so I took the driver Mutoni brought with him another driver so I jumped on and heading home in the cold, cold rain. The drive wouldn’t have been so bad except for the cold water pooling at my crotch. I will NEVER forget my rain pants again.

The classroom leaked in the entire centre.

Kids out of the rain and in the classroom

Watchya got there?

We played Alphabet Toss under cover from the rain. Even the teachers got into it. 

Jeremy had an impromptu English lesson on the desk with some chalk.

Even the staff room leaks and water + dirt = mud.

Again, this is teacher inspired ideas. Well done!