Saturday, February 20, 2010

"Oh, I don't mind that it's in my tea. I just feel bad for the bug." -P

One of the many things I learned at KIPP was the value of including specific time allotments in a lesson plan and sticking as closely to the numbers as possible during the actual lesson. This not only keeps the teacher on track and organized, but it also allows students to stay focused and pace themselves because they know exactly how much time they have for any given activity. I knew this was a practice I wanted to continue in Rwanda, so I brought a timer. In KIPP classrooms, timers are very commonplace and students know exactly what they are for and how to respond when one goes off. Here in Mukamira, however, teachers and students alike thought my timer was hilarious! My students laugh every time it rings, and when I’m in the teacher room my colleagues love to joke about it and ask me to show it to anyone who hasn’t seen it yet. They do understand and appreciate its use, though, and with classes of 40 and 50 I’m happy to be able to help students while they’re working instead of constantly looking at my phone for the time.

Many of my students still don’t understand me a lot of the time, but we are all getting better at communicating with each other. One thing I didn’t think about before coming here, although it seems painfully obvious now, was how difficult it is to teach English in a country other than my own. When teaching English in the States, it’s actually valuable for students to learn to pronounce words the way I do. American idioms, which are really fun to teach, are also useful if you actually live there. Here, though, it’s completely different. There is really no reason for my students to try to pronounce words the way I do because I’m the only one that will understand them if they do. Nonetheless, they are forced to learn to understand a pronunciation style that only one person in Mukamira uses (me, of course).

One advantage they do have, though, is that most of them have been using or learning to use more than one language since they were very young. It’s very common in many places outside of the United States, and especially in Africa, for people to be multilingual. In fact, most people here are astonished to learn that I don’t speak French. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been asked, “You speak English only?” Sometimes I offer a little Spanish, but unfortunately that is absolutely useless here and certainly doesn’t impress anyone.

Two weeks ago, Christine, a colleague of Penny’s and a friend of both of ours, took us to visit some caves in Musanze. It was rainy and slippery and slightly reminiscent of Bisoke, but the sights were beautiful nonetheless. Christine told us that you can actually begin in one of the caves and make your way through to exit from another across the road, but since we forgot flashlights we chose to save that adventure for another time. Christine also has an adorable 3-year-old nephew named Richie and a baby niece named Bella. Penny gave Richie a harmonica when we arrived, which provided an endless amount of entertainment for all of us. Bella’s mom also taught me how to carry a baby on my back! This is how most women in Africa carry their babies, and I’ve wanted to do it since we arrived. A couple of women here in Mukamira have asked me how we carry babies in the States, but unfortunately with my limited Kinyarwanda I think my description of strollers has led them to believe we just push babies around in chairs. Yikes!

Love and miss you all.

The view from inside one of the caves in Musanze.

Me and baby Bella! In Kinyarwanda, tying a baby onto your back is called guheka.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

"I think in America there are many girls like you of the face. But in the heart, I'm not sure." -M

First week of school is down! Classes didn't actually start until the 2nd because the 1st is Heroes' Day, which is the Rwandan equivalent of Veterans' Day in the US.

The first few days of school here (at least where I work) are kind of like the last few days of school in the States. A lot of the students don’t actually come, and teachers are basically just expected to fill time for the students that do. I didn’t want to teach lessons that I would have to repeat verbatim once things got rolling, so I spent the evenings planning 2-hour ‘filler’ lessons. It was actually a lot harder than it may seem, but it was a good opportunity to see how the students would respond to me and what kinds of classroom expectations they have and can handle. For example, I discovered that they really like tongue twisters and word searches (which they had never seen before), but that getting them to have mock conversations in English with the person next to them is like pulling teeth!

It’s pretty commonly known in Rwanda that most secondary students who have had English classes can read and write really well, but they struggle when it comes to conversational skills. Unfortunately right now the majority of my students don’t understand what I’m saying the majority of the time. This is not because they don’t know English, though. It’s because they’re taught British English by people with Rwandan accents; therefore, my American pronunciation is like a whole new language to them! Many of them also struggle with pronouncing ‘l’s and 'r's differently; to them, they sound basically the same. (Think ‘pray’ and ‘play’.) We did some listening exercises where I would say a sentence and they had to write what they heard, and I got a little teary-eyed for a second when one student got the entire sentence ‘Birds that fly can build their nests with grass’ correct!

It was a good learning week for me, but I’m happy to get some solid routines going from this point on.

I’ve told some of you that almost my entire neighborhood (and a significant portion of Mukamira at large) are Seventh-Day Adventists. I’ve gone to church with a colleague a few times because it makes my neighbors happy, and I went again this morning. The services are four hours long, though, so I decided today to tell my colleague that since I’m not actually Adventist I only want to go to church once a month from now on.

When we got to church, though, one of the leaders told my colleague (through the microphone, during the actual service) that since Rwanda is transitioning to teaching in English in schools and since I'm coming to church now, the church should try to start having the morning classes in English! I'm sure you can imagine how I felt. Then, after we had separated into our Sabbath school classes, that same leader came to my class and asked the speaker to stop the lesson so he could present me with some gifts from the church. I came to the front of the class, and he gave me an English Bible, an English storybook of Jesus’ parables, and the church’s songbook so I could sing with them during the services! It was so completely sweet and thoughtful of them to do that and just reminded me of why I already love some of these people here so much. Needless to say, I’ll probably continue to try to go more than once a month.

Love and miss you all.

Happy 1st Birthday Braley Kayd (Feb 13th)!!

My gifts from the church. That psychedelic background is the sweet duvet I had made in Nyanza so I could have a bright bed-cover.