Blog Entry 4

Monday 6th October
Start of 2 days training for Rwandan primary teachers
Soraya and I got up at 5.30 and were on the road on the back of a motorbike taxi by 7 a.m. The workshop we were running was at least half an hour away by moto, some of which is on the main road which has tarmac, but some of which was off road motorcycling for quite a distance.
As soon as we arrived at the school we were surrounded by a crowd of very excited children shouting muzungu and trying to hold our hands – a bit like playtime at Windmill Hill but a lot more interest in us. We met Agnes a cheerful, sunny woman who was the headteacher of the school. Though how she remains smiling in the face of such adversity is amazing. She has 1600 children in the school, all of whom have their heads shaved to prevent them catching head lice. Their clothes are generally dirty and raggy and many of them are barefoot. The day started with the whole school singing the national anthem and the sound was actually so beautiful it made me cry.

Then with the tears in my eyes I had to address the whole school in French. They were so polite and it was lovely. They then go off to their lessons where there will be at least 60 children in a classroom half the size of any in England. They only have wooden benches to sit on with twice as many children crammed to a bench as there should be and the only thing in the classroom is the blackboard which the teacher writes on in chalk. Thats it! Nothing on the walls and a concrete floor.
And the school toilets were something else again. They do have doors but they are simply holes in the ground and the smell was so bad it made me wretch. The teachers toilet is in the same block but has a lock on the door. I did attempt to go but couldn’t face even going in when I got near because the stench was so bad. I would rather have gone in the bushes and let all the children stare at my white bum!!!!!

Anyway I am sure I shall meet worse and have no choice sometime during my stay here. 16 teachers eventually turned up for the workshop but certainly not at the start time. Nothing starts on time in Rwanda and I think the more important you think you are the later you arrive. Its almost a question of status and honour that if you are important people will wait for you. No one seems to bat an eyelid about it here.
The workshop went well. We introduced all kinds of games and songs that the teachers could use in their methodology instead of just writing on the board and getting the children to repeat. It is tiring though and it is hard to get the teachers involved. When you ask a question they stand up to speak just as the children would.
But by the end of the second day they were talking much more and they had lots of ideas for things they would do in their classrooms as a result of the training so it felt that we had been successful. I was only the stand in for another volunteer but I was glad to be there working at last and also it was helpful for Soraya as it was very tiring even for two of us.

The headteacher very proudly showed us the plantations which the school had set up. They had coffee beans and macademia nuts growing which is a way of supplementing the income for the school. The children have two hours of “practical studies” at least each week so that is when they pick the coffee beans or do other household sort of tasks around school.

I then went and waited for the bus back to Butare to meet up with Ruairi so we could talk about our meeting with Mike the director of VSO Rwanda which is scheduled for tomorrow. Waiting at the bus stop a young Rwandan man who is training in IT starts up a conversation with me. Every time you sit down someone starts to talk to you. They usually ask you if you are married and if you have children. Also often they ask you if you go to church! The young women out here have been asked all sorts of personal questions like do they have a Rwandan boyfriend and all sorts of things. But its not intimidating – its just how it is and its friendly. There is no point getting out your book because as soon as you sit still you can guarantee some Rwandan is going to start talking to you and interrogating you on your personal life!!!!