One Little CHEG In A Big Big World

What Have I Become

2011-08-19T06:29:00.000-07:00

I started out as a freshly graduated university student. I had never had a ‘real’ job before. Note: I don’t count being GS camp counselor, class grader, or lab researcher a ‘real’ job—they were way too cushy.
Although I had been lucky enough to have done some traveling before, I really was unprepared for coming to my first African country. In my mind I thought I packed myself up before to do my senior year of high school in Italy, I can do a year in Rwanda. I spent a summer working in London; I can do a year in Rwanda. HA. As much as I might have lived alone and far from my family, nothing had really prepared me for what I was going to go through—and I’m not sure that anything could have prepared me for it.
I was (am) a type A personality that likes to be in control. I like logic. I like set rules, schedules and plans (maybe that is why I was good at ChemE). As much as I thought I was flexible, I had never truly been tested.
All I knew about Rwanda was what I had read about in the various books before I came-and lets be honest not much of it was ‘good’.
I dreamed of meeting some nice ex-pat people, becoming great friends.
And most importantly I really thought I would only do it for a year (hence why I hadn’t really considered the Peace Corps because their commitment is longer).

Now look at me-
I’ve become hardened from dealing with different types of people in various situations (though I have yet to get full control over my crying). I totally feel comfortable getting on a bus for over 24 hours to get to my destination. I still like rules and logic, but I’m learning how to cope with all that logic and planning being flushed down the drain on a daily basis. I’ve learned so much not only about Rwanda, Africa, and the world by really following various news outlets [I admit I have become an even bigger news junkie than I was before I came, I realized before I was only a JV news junkie]. Based on my volunteer time I realized that my life style as a volunteer didn’t really mesh well with a lot of the big NGO ex-pat employees here and our experiences were much different, I actually got a long better with Africans and other volunteer types.
And probably the most important thing that I have become is married. In my first year I met a Ugandan guy and we stayed together and are now married and come October we will have been married for a year.

It’s strange to think back to senior year at UD and the following months at home, because surely when I thought about my time in Rwanda and what I hoped to accomplish I had not thought that this would be the path I would be on…but here I am.

Stay tuned in the next few months to read about my reflections about living here for 3 years and my thoughts about moving back to the US..

Resurrection of the Blog

2011-08-19T06:27:00.000-07:00

I started this blog before I came to Rwanda in December 2008. In my first year of volunteering I had tried to update frequently, in my second year it gradually tailed off, and in my 3rd year I’ve done barely enough to qualify as blogging.
Many people say that in the beginning it is easier because you are doing something different and experiencing ‘new’ things that can always be blogged about, but as one stays in a place longer it can be difficult to blog about ‘every day’ events that aren’t unusual anymore.

Many times I have thought to revamp this and I write an entry but then I don’t have internet and I never upload the post. Not to mention I just got lazy. That is going to stop now.

After being a volunteer from Dec 2008 to May 2010 and then a paid-worker from June 2010 to now, my stay in Rwanda is finally coming to an end, or at least the end is in sight.
Just recently we actually purchased my return ticket (when I returned to Rwanda in December 2009 I came on a one-way ticket).

In the time I have been in Rwanda I have experienced a lot and grown. I want to take my remaining time to really reflect on what I have become and the ups and down of living here.

I won’t begin on the ups and downs of life here because that is going to have to take many posts and I’ll need to be more in the mood to dig into that can of worms. But for sure I can start on the “what have I become.”

Find Us The Man U Game

2011-05-06T01:37:00.001-07:00

This April marked the third genocide commemoration period that I have been in Rwanda. Every year they commemorate the Genocide. There is an official week of mourning and remembering, but for 3 months commemoration ceremonies are still held all over the country.
My first year I was here I attended a service with my Headmistress. It was interesting. I learned and experienced a lot being there, but it was not something that I really wanted to repeat again. I know how emotional I get and I didn’t care to put myself into that situation because I don’t want to take away from the Rwandans by being a spectacle (aka hysterically crying). The second year I went to Zanzibar (where I got engaged). This year we stayed in Rwanda the whole time. School is closed during this time (it is the break between first and second term).
During the first week Kigali takes on a very somber mode and most people don’t do much other than attend services and memorials. Also all TVs and Radios are tuned in to Rwanda TV, the national station. No entertainment is allowed. And I mean none. On the 6th day, which was a Saturday, Manchester United was playing. Maxon had told me that we wouldn’t be able to find a place to watch, but I really didn’t believe it. Well he was right. We went to bars, restaurants, and even fancy hotels, but none of them could play the game for us.
I realize the need to remember and commemorate, but at that time all we could think of was that we wanted to watch that game and we couldn’t.

So in case you hadn’t figured it out by now, but we are pretty big Manchester United fans. Every week we gotta watch. We got to the same place and sit with the same people. People even ‘know’ us there. For instance when I come in and Maxon is already seated sometimes I have difficulty finding him. Lucky for us workers of the sports bar will point him out to me. And last night just some random guy pointed to where he was..haha.. (This is good for me because a group of black men with shaved heads sure makes it difficult to pick out the head you want)

BALD

2011-05-06T01:35:00.001-07:00

Maxon doesn’t have all his hair. It is very common here with a group of the men, even as teenagers. It ‘starts’ with just having big foreheads (that they are soo proud of)..
Well recently my nephew, who is a 12 yr-old, made this comment: He wondered how Maxon could be going bald, because being bald is for old people, and having children is what makes you old, and since we don’t have children he can’t be old.

Gotta love kids. They do have the best logic.

SAT Prep Class

2011-05-06T01:20:00.000-07:00

Although the past six weeks did not have me teaching my normal night classes, I did take part in teaching a SAT Prep Class for some high school students of one of the private schools here.
Mostly I did prep work for the English section, but I did do one session for the math section. This was a lot of fun for me because it gave me the chance to interact with bright young students, compared to the adults that I normally teach. It was also neat to talk American universities with them and talk about where to go, what to major in, ect. It was also great because I overheard 3 girls talking about the show Vampire Diaries and then I mentioned that my husband and I watch it, well this made the girls crazy because they could not imagine that married couples would watch it..haha, what do they know.
Overall I think the prep course went well, but who knows until they take it, but it was interesting to see how over the weeks they did become more familiar with the types of questions (it was the first time they ever will have to take a multiple choice test).
And by this I mean that we had to teach 'basic' strategies for discarding some of the choice quickly, when to guess, when not to guess, ect.

It really took me back to high school..haha

Telenovela

2011-05-06T00:23:00.000-07:00

Since I originally came to Rwanda I noticed that many Spanish (often Mexican) soap operas are very commonly played on various television stations.
My first year in Rwanda I was introduced to a show that is called Storms Over Paradise. After that came Hidden Passions, Shades of Sin, Don’t Mess with an Angle, just to name a few. I also realized that it wasn’t just me that was watching them. Many of the Rwandans and Ugandans watched, and not only did the women watch, the men enjoyed them very much too.
Recently one of the only channels in English (STVE2) started playing them too. For the last six weeks I was not working and therefore became glued to the TV. Not only did I decide at times to not leave my house in order to watch the next episode, but I even organized my cooking lunch and dinner times around my favorite ones. At the moment Sorteligio, Catalina y Sebastian, I am Your Master (Soy tu duena) and another one that I can’t remember the name of, are getting all my attention.
Strangely enough they are just too good to be true. I know they are so over the top, but somehow that is what makes them that much more appealing.
I think that the US needs to get on the bandwagon and start airing them dubbed..because I think a lot of Americans would enjoy them..haha

6 months

2011-04-02T01:37:00.000-07:00

As of April 1st Maxon and I have been married 6 months!

yea for us:)

I had wanted to post this on FB yesterday but then I thought that many of my friends would think it was a joke, but its serious.

Who knew when I came to Rwanda that I would be here now?

Who knew when I graduated UD that I would be here now?

I for one sure didn't know, but with that said there is no other place I would rather be, and no other person I would rather share this with:)

Things I made-Pictures

2011-03-29T01:11:00.001-07:00

Keepin' Busy- arts n crafts

2011-03-29T00:35:00.001-07:00

Since leaving FAWE and only working a few hours a day I have tried to stay busy. Although there are some nice places to go to in Kigali, most of these places require spending money, not to mention it gets old going there all the time, so I try to find things to do at home.
So far I have hand-sewn a quilt and pillow cases. Crocheted a throw-blanket, ponchos for my nieces and now I’m working on making a dress for my niece and a sweater-vest for myself.
I got the fabric from the market. ‘African’ fabric is great and I have had some things made from tailors here, but that doesn’t solve my problem of boredom. So I went to some tailors in the market and asked for the scraps, from these I pieced together a quilt. In hind sight I think I should have tried to make some pattern with the squares instead of keeping it random, but live and learn, right?

Now ponchos are ‘in’ here at the moment and I see women wearing them so I figured I would make them since they seemed easy. They were pretty easy but after I learned from my mom there was an easier way. Live and learn.(also note that once my sister-in-laws saw them they said they wanted them, and I’m sure if they could have fit in the ones I made they would have taken them from the girls..haha)

The throw blanket was just for fun and I really love it, can’t wait to have it back at home during winter. I can curl up on the couch and watch TV with it..
As I finish my other projects I will add more pictures to show what I’ve been up to.

Is she pregnant yet??

2011-03-29T00:28:00.000-07:00

Recently my father-in-law was speaking to my husband. Every so often he calls to say they need more sugar, which after enough calls results in him sending money to buy sugar or getting someone else to do it.

Well this past call was just too good not to share.

His father had called to say they still needed sugar. After discussing that for a bit the father than asked if she(as in me) was a little bit pregnant yet*. Of course Maxon said no. The father then asked if there was any problem, which Maxon responded with, “no, there is no problem.”(the dad referring to one of us not ‘working’)

Then Maxon said actually there is a problem, if I don’t have money for sugar how can I have money for a baby.
Now this next part is good-the father then said oh well if that’s it, then we don’t need the sugar, don’t worry about the sugar.

HAHAHAHAHA

This is the conversation that Maxon told me about when he woke up from a nap.
For some people who don’t understand a culture where producing children is what matters, and yes that’s how they see it as, producing. Here many people, certainly the older generations believe that the reason for marriage is to have children. Only. It’s just that one is doing a community service by having children. Children bring you status, not to mention little servants and/or workers. Many people only become married when one is already on the way. So you can imagine how strange they think it is to get married and not get pregnant right away.

This isn’t the first time we’ve been asked, and I’m sure it won’t be the last. See this is how conversations go here. Nice to meet you. How are you? Are you married? Do you have children? Why not? (is there something wrong with one of you? Is what they are really thinking, and some even say it)

*I don’t know how one can be a little bit pregnant. Either you are or you aren’t, right?

also note this is just one conversation I am sharing, there have been too many to count regarding this subject...

Grasshopper/locusts, who knows what

2011-03-22T10:47:00.002-07:00

There is a time of year here when these green things go crazy. I remember one night as my colleague and I were leaving the parliament there were SWARMS of these insects flying all over the place. The next morning when I returned to work the ground/walls/everywhere was covered. You couldn’t help but step on them. They even managed to get into the elevators.
Now what you might enjoy, like I did, was seeing all the workers catching them and putting them into used plastic bottles and just any old bag around. Even little children were climbing around the outside of the walls of the parliament to pick-them. (note I’m not sure why the parliament is the go-to spot for them, but I think it’s because of whatever bulbs they use in the lamp posts around the grounds)
After they are collected they sell them. If you go to the market you find huge sacks of them available, and they are quite expensive.
Well one day in class some of my lady students made a comment that as a good wife I need to bring some home and prepare them for my husband. I smiled of course and said ok yah. Well the next day these ladies were serious. At the end of class I had 3 members of parliament running around the room and catching them for me to put into 2 plastic water bottles. When the bottles were filled I thanked them and went on my way. Since I knew that I would never prepare them myself I decided to take them to my 4 nieces and nephews who had recently moved from Uganda to Kigali.
When I brought those water bottles out in front of the kids I have never seen such excitement. I said I didn’t know how to do it, but the 12 year old quickly said don’t worry he knew. I then watched these 4 little kids de-wing, de-leg them. We were left with maybe a half an inch to inch long body. Then they cut up some onions for extra flavor. They then told me you put them in the fry pan, but no oil is necessary because the bodies give off good oil. Then we cooked the little suckers up.
I didn’t give in and eat one, but I did love watching the kids eat some. We had used one water bottle and I wanted to make sure they left some for their mom, but they couldn’t contain themselves. In the end they ate them all. When their mom finally did come home she saw what they had and even she got super excited, so the kids prepared some more for her.
For sure this is something I won’t forget.
Oh and I should mention that the next day in class my students asked me about how it went and I told them and they were so excited.
This was just the beginning of the amazing relationship that I have been enjoying with my nieces and nephews.. more adventures with them to come, not to mention pictures.

Teaching English to Adults

2011-03-22T10:47:00.001-07:00

My first year and a half I was teaching chemistry to 14-20-something year olds. Most of these students knew very little English, though I do have to admit that many of my students were much better than most other students in the country. With that said I battled teaching a subject to them in a language that they didn’t fully know. Not to mention dealing with normal teenage issues.
Teaching adults has been like a breath of fresh air. For one the class size is smaller, normally smaller than 20, average around 12-15 students. Although attendance tends to be an issue, I find teaching them much better than teaching the teenagers. Most of the adults actually want to be in the class and want to learn and understand why they need to learn. The only major problem is that outside of class most students don’t practice or have any chance to use the English that they are learning. Clearly that then creates a challenge for them to really get a handle on English, but I know they try their best and so do I.
I’ve taught a few classes and even been lucky enough to teach members of parliament including the speaker of parliament. What I liked most was how intelligent many of the adults are and once some level of English was grasped the discussions could really get good. It has also given me a chance to learn a lot more about Rwanda since I try to get the students to talk about what they know.
I did greatly enjoy my time teaching in secondary school, but for the time being I’m happy doing this adult education. The only thing I wish was different was the hours. For some time it was 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours at night, but now only at night, so during the day I’m free while at night I work. Not the most ideal situation, but its paying the bills and more, so I’ll continue for now.

Oh another great perk is that my first classes were students of Bank of Kigali, where I have my bank account, so whenever I go withdraw money I get great treatment..hehe:)

Getting Married in Kampala

2011-03-22T10:29:00.000-07:00

In case you ever thought that getting married in a foreign country is difficult, well let me tell you, it is.
Well this is not entirely true. Although the process is laid out in front of you it is surprising how many things can come up along the way.
For us the biggest obstacle was obtaining a document that stated I have never been married and/or not currently married at this time, which many of you may or may not know, but this document doesn’t really exist in the United States. So like any good foreigner living abroad I went to my US embassy to find out what to do. They had this pre-fab document that I filled out and signed and the consular notarized it. This document is saying that I am swearing that I am not married (the US government cannot guarantee that this is true).
Along with all the other requested documents, we sent it on up to Kampala. A few days or weeks later when we had thought things were going well we found out from their state’s attorney that this document from the US embassy will not be accepted. They do not accept from any foreign US embassy, only from the United States. Now I tried to explain that since I had been residing in Rwanda, I can’t really get this document from the US, let alone that this doesn’t exist.
Well, where this is a will, there is a way.
With my mom’s help(BIG help) and frequent calls and trips to the local county registrar’s office we were able to get some letter saying that I have not been married in Bucks County. Now the hardest part was that earlier I had been mugged and lost my State ID, so proving that I was ‘from’ PA was not so easy. But somehow we found a photocopy of my ID that they were willing to accept. It should be noted that I even called from Rwanda to stress how I’m not in the country, hence my mom doing it for me. After the county issued this letter, my mom then drove to Harrisburg to get a certificate of something from the state’s attorney saying the county is allowed to issue the document, essentially it was a letter with a really nice stamp and seal, and we all know in Africa they love their stamps and seals.
In the end these letters were DHLed to me and then forwarded on to Kampala. After our photos had been posted and therefore formally announcing our intentions to get married(yes they do a downgraded form of reading the bans to see if anyone objects) we were allowed to get married.
Since both of us work we had to do it on a weekend, but wait they don’t work on weekends, so a Friday it was. We decided to go for October 1st. I kindof like it 10.1.10 pretty cool date if I might say so myself. We took a bus up to Kampala on Thursday. Friday mid-morning we went and waited and found out we were the only ones getting married at that time (sometimes they do multiple weddings at once). The lady who officiated even was like I’m sorry I forgot I have another meeting so we have to make this quick. Literally under 5 minutes. HA. gotta love it. Maxon’s best friend and one of his sisters were our witnesses.
On Saturday we went out to his village to see his parents and other sisters and nieces and nephews who were around to celebrate with them.
Then we rushed back on Saturday night on Kampala Coach to return to Rwanda.
Well Kampala Coach-great buses. Real good for sleeping, unless there is a preacher man who wants to stand in the isle and preach starting at like 11 pm(we boarded at 10pm). After much arguments, and I mean arguments that both of us were personally involved in, the man FINALLY ceased and sleep could happen.
Overall a quick little trip up to Uganda, but an important one.

My New World

2011-03-22T10:25:00.000-07:00

I started this blog to follow my year volunteering for WorldTeach Rwanda in 2009. As many of you know after my first year I renewed my contract for a second year at the same secondary school.
What some of you might not know is how that second year went. Due to a series of events I had to resign because I could no longer work properly with the administration. So instead of working for a second year I only did 5 months. Now what stopped me from immediately returning to America was the fact that on my holiday in April when I went to Zanzibar my boyfriend proposed to me, to which I said yes. Luckily my school did not have anyone who would be moving into the house I where I was staying so they let me continue on until I found a new place and a new job.
Many people might think it’s easy to find a Rwanda and/or Africa being a white person, but this is not true. It is true that there are some big time jobs that make bank, but most of those jobs need specifically qualified people and normally recruit from abroad. Fortunately for me before I had come to Rwanda the first year I did a teaching English as a foreign language course, so I was able to get a job teaching English to adults. So far I have taught bank employees, members of parliament, lawyers, and many more.
In the meantime my fiancé and I had planned to get married. Something that we had hoped would not take long to organize stretched into many months. After a lot of paperwork and shuffling we were able to get married in Kampala on October 1, 2010.
Unlike 2 years ago when I went home for Christmas, this past Christmas and New Years we went to Uganda. We spent 11 days on a great vacation that really rested us up for the new school year that was about to start.
As of now I’m living in my husband’s school who provides their teachers rooms. Although this might not be ideal, it is free, and let me tell you free goes a LONG way. I normally work 4 days a week for 2 hours year day and this goes on 6 week cycles(if there is need for me, that is).
AND--2 weeks ago we submitted the VISA paperwork to the US embassy here in Kigali for him to come to America.
I have decided to start up this blog again to chronicle not only what we’re doing now, but also highlight some of the big events that happened in the recent past that I never wrote about.
Stay tuned for our adventures of getting married, moving-in together, and of course the trials and tribulations of doing paperwork for the US government..haha:)

Teacher Football-Take 1

2010-05-25T06:20:00.001-07:00

I have been told that in previous years the teachers at my school were very active in sports, as in playing other schools or organizations in different sports. This year the men wanted to start that up again.
We decided that our first opponents should be the teachers of a nearby school. We wrote a letter to the school and the matches were approved and set.
On game day Friday we didn’t have classes after lunch because we teachers needed to prepare ourselves. For the last few days we had been practicing, you see this was not some friendly match, this was serious business.
Although I had been practicing with the teachers and I really wanted to play I decided on the day of that it was better if I didn’t play. To be honest I wasn’t sure how hard-core of a match this was going to be, so I figured it was better if I just went as a spectator.
After we had organized all the uniforms (note I lent 3 pairs of shoes to my fellow teachers, cause I have big feet and they can wear mine..haha) and such we loaded into our school bus and headed over to the other school.
Once we got there we met the other teachers, and in typical fashion we then waited around for a while since we didn’t know what and when things would start.
It ended up that we played a teacher match of volleyball first. I’m sad to say my teachers got creamed by this other school.
After the volleyball match it was time for the main purpose of the visit—the football match.
By this time the school day was over so most of the students of the other school were there to watch. They even had a PA system with students being announcers. Even these students took it seriously, they commented on the game in at least 4 languages, constantly switching, so everyone could have an idea of what was going on, not to mention it was just funny for them to keep switching languages.
Watching the game was a lot of fun because not only did I know all the teachers from my school, but I knew many of the teachers from the other school. It was a fierce competition because most of the men were friends so they wanted to show their friends up..
In the end my school won, which made us super excited. After the match we took pictures and then went for some food and drinks together.
Overall it was a great time and we agreed that in the next term we would have to do it again.

Term One 2010

2010-05-25T06:17:00.000-07:00

Well it really has been too long since I last updated this blog. I am sorry for that. Things have been busy.

The last time I wrote anything it was just February and school was about to start. This school year in Rwanda was pushed back about 3 weeks because there had been teacher training sessions going on throughout the country. That meant that instead of a 12 or 13 week term, it would become a 9 week term, and although 9 weeks may seem like a long time, in this case it was not. By the time all the students arrived, classes and schedules were sorted, it was time for midterms, and before one knew it, it was also time for end of term exams.
Normally report cards for the exams are given the last day before the students are sent home for the break, but this term the teachers and administration of my school(like many schools in Rwanda) decided to give reports back in term two because we wanted to maximize the amount of teaching days that we could.
This year it was decided that I would be teaching only organic chemistry. I was given 3 senior 4 classes. One of the classes was a new combination for our school, PCB(physics, chemistry, biology).
I must say that after a year of teaching the same students I had not really realized how much my students had gotten used to my speaking, because my new students wow, what a reality check. I really had to grade my English much more than I had been doing by the end of last year.
I also decided that I was going to rework my notes from last year to try and improve on how and what I taught. I did decide that I would give my students my notebook at night so they could copy everything on their own, therefore leaving me to discuss the notes in class and not having to write them on the board, which saved me a lot of time.
Before I knew it the term was over. It felt as though we had just started to really find ourselves, me getting used to them, them to me, and then bam-term is over.

Overall I think the term went well, though it was a little strange for me to not have to do as much prep work as I did last year since I was teaching material I taught/prepared last year. This left me a lot of free time. I tried to use the time as much as possible, though most of the time I found myself with not much to do. Well, what I found myself doing was planning my vacation for the term break..haha..

Reflections:Last Year and This Year

2010-02-01T01:20:00.000-08:00

As many of you know last year was my first year as a teacher. And if you can remeber,I did not study to be a teacher, but rather a chemical engineer. A little more than a year ago I decided that after 4 years of chemE school I needed a break,I was burnt out. For those of you who know my family, you know how volunteer work is valued,hence how I found myself teaching chemistry in Rwanda.
I wanted to take this time before a new year starts to reflect back on last year-both the ups and the downs.
I think I would like to get the downs over with first..(this is going to semi be a list/mash up of it all)..
~not having any books,dittos,worksheets,materials.language barrier. cultural barrier.my closeness in age to students(some were older than I). my temper.having a curriculm to big to cover in one year. an at times disorganised school. my house being inside the boarding school~

Now onto to the ups
~my students. my students.my fellow teachers(most of the time).my headmistress.all the school activities I did with students,from watching dance and modeling competitions to playing football and running with my girls.Living inside my boarding school~

Although this is just skimming the surface, somehow these points are really all that I say about last year without going into crazy amounts of detail..

Now here I find myself about to embark upon another year of teaching. Hopefully this year I will have found that in some teaching aspects I have improved or at the very least learned to deal with the status quo of the situation.
I find myself partially scared of the year to come, yet in the very next instant I am oddly excited. All I know is that I will do my best for my students and my school,and at the end of the day thats all I can do.

Earthquake

2010-01-29T05:26:00.000-08:00

Thats right friends, you read the title correct;Last night I was in my first earthquake. I believe it happened around 2 am. When it occured I was like thats strange as I woke in bed not really sure of what it was,but come morning I had confirmation it was indeed an earthquake.
I have never studied signs or omens, but I am about to create my own. I am going to take it that as an anniversary of me being back in Rwanda for one month, the great ones decided to give me an earthquake for goodluck. So thank you. I much appreciate it. But now lets not let it happen again :)

Akagere National Park

2010-01-29T05:11:00.000-08:00

There are a few national parks in Rwanda. Last year I was lucky enough to travel to the most popular one, volcano nat park in the north of Rwanda. This is were the mountain gorillas are. If you remember I went on two gorilla treks and got to see two different gorilla families, for by far the coolest thing I have done in my life.
This year I figured I needed to get out and see some more parts of Rwanda. An oppurtunity came up that I was able to go with some friends to Akagere.
In order to do this we had to hire a car/driver for the day to drive us from Kigali to the park, and then of course through the park.
Getting to the park took about 2.5 hrs. Part of the road I had been on before, but the other I had not seen, so it was great to see some more Rwandan countryside.
Upon entering into the park we had a park ranger/guide join us in our car.
Akagere is a park that is mostly savannah which in some areas is dotted with lakes(remember it is the great lakes region).
In just about 2 hours we were able to see baboons, giraffe, zebra, buffalo, impala, storks, and hippos. I would say a pretty good viewing, and in such a short amount of time.One interesting fact that our guide told us was that originally there were no giraffe and 6 were brought from kenya to populate the park(I believe he said they now number in the 50s).

Now last year I went on a week long safari with my parents in Tanzania. As much as it was nice to go to Akagere, it was kindof a step down from Tanzania, because I had seen so much..but even with that said I was very happy that I went and enjoyed myself.(though it was pretty hot in the car and I didn't enjoy that too much)

One neat thing that was greatly different from the safari I went on in Tanzania, was that as we came upon the animals we could off-road(trail)-it in order to be right next to them, that sure made taking pictures easier.. It was a litle nerve racking as we drove through/alongside a group of buffalo though..haha but surely our guide did not seem concerned, so I tried to not be also.

Now I have 2 parks down, we will see if I am able to visit more as the year goes on..it would be cool to see some chimps...

A New Year Car Wash

2010-01-28T03:32:00.000-08:00

For the second time I found myself celebrating New Years here in Kigali,Rwanda. I rung-in the 2009 year I went to an East African Concert. This year I went to Car Wash.
Now you might be asking yourself, what is this carwash, well let me tell you. It is a sports-bar/restuarant/alimentation, and a 24hr executive car wash, no joke. Over the past year it has become one of the most frequent places I go to. One of these reasons is because they play football matches on TV(premier league) and many non-rwandese go there, so English is commonly used, even amongst the other Africans. I also like it because its not white person central.
Speaking of white person central, on New Years that is what is was. Just like last year this year there is another group of volunteers(I am the only returnee). It was decided that this is where we would go for new years.no problem. A reservation was made and when we showed up at 9pm they had a huge table for us(we were about 25 white people+ others). They were smart enough to put us in the back, which is more secluded, this was some privacy was awarded, and we weren't a big muzungu freak show for everyone to watch, yet everyone watched us anyway..haha..
Overall it was a great night. Nothing fancy, just sitting around with friends and talking till it was new years. Before I knew it time had flown by and it was 2010.
A new year, and new decade, and new chapter of my life. I think that carwash was the perfect place to start these off.

The only not so great part of the evening was the bill. We had known with that many people things would get out of hand, but even with that foresight, it still did get out of hand. And we all know that when drinking in large groups is what we are talking about a bill is never going to be easy to sort out.. but we lived and we learned and we got out of the place without have to wash any dishes..haha..don't worry it wasn't really gonna come to that, but it was close..haha..

Hopefully wherever you and yours were you were able to have a great new years! Its hard to imagine that its 2010 already, it seems like something out of a sci-fi movie, but it is not..
With that said I did make my new years resolution to get me a flying car, just lke george jettison(daughter judy)..haha..sorry loved that show..
But seriously Happy New Years!!

Updates On My Life

2010-01-28T03:09:00.000-08:00

Well Well Well
A lot has happened since the last time I posted anything. Since my last post, the 2009 school year ended, all my students left the school. I then went on a quick visit to Uganda..way to go for super-long bus rides.. Then I spent about 2 more weeks in Kigali. I finally had the time to do my gift shopping. After going to all the different places imaginable I made my purchases. I bought many a basket, Rwanda, like some other African countries is known for its woven baskets. I decided to go for the more natural colors, though these days they dye the baskets any color imaginable. I also got a huge amount of long paper-bead necklaces. Also a rwandese doll, and assorted other goodies. Other than that I just spent time trying to rest up before returning to the states.
Before I new it I found myself back in the US. (It should be noted before that could happen I had to take one VERY long plane ride. Please note also the talent that many Africans have at just throwing a blanket over their entire body and falling asleep. No such luck for me, so I found myself watching ALL the movies the plane had to offer.. the GIJoe movie, come on, not that good, Julia and Julia, actually pretty good..haha, so name just 2. Also I would like to take this time to give a shout-out to the elderly Ethiopian lady who I had the pleasure of sitting next to for the entire journey.. I greatly enjoyed you spitting on the floor, next to my feet, just like I really enjoyed you resting your hand on my thigh, who needs a blanke to keep warm when your seat campanion is there for you..haha)
I got to be home in the states for both Thanksgiving and Christmass. I also was able to visit my sisters, one in Boston, the other in Miami. I also got to see my sister officially recieve her PhD--way to go! we got a doctor in the family!! I got quality time infront of a TV, in a soft/real bed, and of course access to the public library, and not to mention but wireless internet all over the house, and last but certainly not least, hot water showers. Oh and then I got to eat all the food I had missed for an entire year, Franco's sausage pizza, bagel bites, lasagna, orange buns(thanks pillsbury for selling them again), and CHEESE, all different kinds of cheese, not just Guada(which is the only type found here in Rwanda).
Before I knew it I was packing up to return. Shopping for everything from new work clothing, to parmesian cheese and tuna to bring back. I had thought that this time around packing would be easier because I had done it once before, but somehow I believe that this year was harder. The first time around there were things that I could say I actually NEEDED. This year, most things were stuff I just WANTED to make my stay more enjoyable, so therefore discarding things became very hard. Just to give you a taste of the things I packed, I had a table-top Foosball set, 6 pairs of shoes, and roughly 50 lbs of clothings, and of course things like popcorn kernals, purses, and suntan lotion also made it in.

Being home was amazing. At times I had missed it so much, but I did start to realize that in my mind I know call another place home, and thats my house here.It might not be much, but its somehow become my own.
At times adjusting to being back in the states was not easy.After a year away I realized that I had starting doing things a little differently and since I knew I would be shortly returning I didn't always make the effort always needed to 'get back into the swing of things.'

I would like to thank all my family memebers and friends that I was able to see and talk to. Thank you for letting me ramble on and on about Rwanda,my friends and life here. Being able to finally talk to you guys face to face about stuff was really great. I'm sure you weren't always interested in what I was saying as I dived into intense detail, but thanks for putting up a good face for me.

To the friends that read my blog, but that I was unable to see, I'm sorry. I was only home for a month and a half, and with my schedule doing family stuff, your schedule for work, and of course distance I did not get to see everyone I would have liked to. Just because I didn't see you doesn't mean that you aren't important to me, or that I don't value the fact that you take some of your time to read my blog and stay updated on my life, so thanks:)

Now I find myself back in Rwanda for a second year of teaching. Just as last year was full of stories, I hope that this year will also be, so stay tuned. Hopefully at some point during the year I will be able to make you laugh, chuckle, or at least crack a smile about my shenanagins here:)

Kigali Public Library

2009-10-22T09:31:00.000-07:00

There is no public library in Rwanda. Most schools have something they call a library, but to be honest what they have do not do the word justice. Therefore one of the projects of the Rotary club here is to build a public library. This had been going on for a while, but I believe things are finally on their way, the building is actually being constructed and books are starting to be donated.
My school has a chapter of the interact club(the school version of rotary). Therefore when a shipment of books was donated a group of students volunteered to help sort the books. Being more familiar with books and how a library is set up my roomate and I volunteered to accompany the girls not only to supervise, but to also work. And let me tell you, work is what we did.
We worked from approximately 9 am till 3 pm(with a lunch break).
The first thing we had to do was sort the boxes of books into subjects. On the floor using chalk we wrote labels, therefore creating piles of books all over the floor as we sorted. Before we started we had told the girls to come to us if they weren't sure about what category a book should go into. Well, this resulted in my roommate and I being consulted for I would say 80% of the sorting. At times this was frustrating because I felt some of the girls were not even trying to read the titles or the back of the book/book jacket, they were purely picking up books and coming to us for the answer. Of course me being me was all over the place with doing my own sorting and helping the girls. Another hard part was that we only made so many categories and sometimes we would be unsure where to put a book because we knew where it would belong in an American library, we just hadn't made all those distinctions in the genres(but you have to start small). One of the worst categories was Novels. In here we put everything from biographies, memoirs, classic literature, to actual novels. At times it was very frustrating but there was just no way to separate them out more without my roommate and I doing it, because the girls just don't know enough about books and how to distinguish them apart.
As the day wore on we were joined by some university students who are also in interact clubs. I had hoped they would really be a help. I think that it was about 50-50. At times they would be great workers,and at other times all they would do is stand around and browse the books,not to mention that they too had to ask us what categories books belong in.
After we had sorted a massive amount of books we then had some of the girls start to record them and box them up. The girls did this very well, but at times finding the author of the book was not easy for them(I would like to thank Edgewood Elementary School for taking us to the library and having to learn all about books and how a library functions).
Overall though I was very proud of the students for working as hard as they did even when they weren't familiar with the system.

They only thing I have to complain about is what happened at the end of the day. I was very dissapointed in my students. As much as I understand what they did, and why they did it, I just cannot agree with it, no matter how much they, or someone attempts to convince me.
So here's the deal.
The man in charge of the public library committee for Rotary is the nicest person ever. He actually cares about everyone, and especially the students at my school. But, that doesn't mean that students should take advantage that he will do whatever they want. Some of the girls wanted to take novels for themselves. I told them no, these were books donated to the library, and they are going to have to wait untill the library opens. Well what did they do, they went and asked, and of course the VERY nice man said yes and he knew that I did not agree, so he came to talk to me. He said we would make a comprise and that instead of giving the books to the girls, he would donate the ones the girls took to the our school's library. I said fine, because at this point the students already had the books. I told the girls this, yet as we were on the bus back to school I saw students writing their names in the books and I asked them why, and they tell me teacher its my book, and I was like you are selfish, those books are supposed to be for the school library.
That is why I was dissapointed. I know they are young and that they are students who always just care about themselves, but they are 17 years old, and its time for them to act responsibly. Those books were donated to a public libary to be used by many, not to my students for their private usage.

Candidate Party

2009-10-21T07:57:00.000-07:00

Candidate Party, aka a graduation ceremony and party
The secondary school system in Rwanda is divided into ordinary level and advanced level, otherwise known as O and A level respectively. There are 3 years to each level. In the first three levels the students take a variety of classes. They then sit for the O-level exam, which tests them on about 8 subjects. Based on their scores they are then able to apply/go to A-level either at the school they attended O-level, or they can transfer schools. In A-level the students study in a tract or combination. The combinations have 3 principle classes(subjects) and then a few other electives, some of which are nation mandated, and others are given by certain schools. Then at the end of their 3 years in A-level, they take another national exam. It is this exam that will decide their future, what they can study in univeristy(if they go) and even where they will study.
Clearly the O and A- level National Exams are very important in the lives of students here, so it should make sense that we want to celebrate it. In the past at my school these celebrations were always done through religious groups, but this year it was decided that we would have a school wide celebration. Not only would the non-candidate students be invited, but each candidate would be able to invite 2 people to attend.
All the teachers were invited and the invitation said the event started at 9 am. I don't know why after all this time I still believe things will start on-time, I should learn, but I continue to show up on time. Sunday morning was a rainy morning, but I still got there at 9 am. On the walk from my house up to school I passed the dormitories and some of my students ran out to tell me I looked smart,etc. Then as I passed by the wash house I saw candidates still in towels greeting me a good morning. I was like, hey ladies aren't you supposed to be somewhere right now, they reacted with yes teacher we are coming we are coming.. yet none of them were dressed yet.
As I walking up to school I realized I had no idea where exactly I was going;I asked one of the girls and she offered to show me there. The party was set up on the basketball court, there were 3 big tents. When I arrived only my headmistress was there and everything was still being setup, even though it was after 9 at this point. Somehow I wasn't surprised.
I'm not sure when exactly everything started, but I want to say between 10 and 10.30 was when most of the family and students arrived. I must say that the girls looked fabulous. They were dressed in traditional dresses that are somewhat reminiscent of an indian sari(sp?). All the girls had different patterns and accessories, you could tell they really took the time to get ready(some of them were 2 hours late).. The girls even tried to work with their short little fros to make them look good, I was surprised with what they were able to do.
The official part of the day consisted of giving out certificates and having a few speeches. The girls sang and danced for us, and presented our headmistress with a gift. Then there was a chance for family members to give gifts. Then it was lunch time. I was shocked at how well lunch worked out considering the amount of people that were in attendence.
Then the waiting started.
In the afternoon I'm not even sure what was exactly planned but we sat around for a while(at least there was a DJ playing music).
Then the unofficial party started. All the families and friends were taking pictures and just having fun. We had a singer called LilG perform, he's most likely 16 plus or minus. He's Rwandese and the students went crazy for him.
Most of the rest of the day consisted of me sitting around with my students, talking and taking pictures with them. I was told we were waiting for more musical guests to come. I asked what time were they expected, they told me 8 pm, and that point I looked at my watch saw that it was 6.30 and I was like OK, I'm going home I'll be back later..
Later in the night I went back with some of my fellow teachers and we hung out some more with the students. Finally these other singers did come, and the girls went crazy, I couldn't believe it. We teachers left around 10.30, but the girls continued till around midnight.
Overall it was a great day and I know I won't forget it and I'm pretty sure the students won't forget it either. I also loved the fact that on Monday morning at 8 am the senior 6s were already studying,they really are serious girls.

Menus

2009-10-16T00:52:00.000-07:00

As we all know, going to different countries can cause many cultural difference to be observed. Some of them can be easy to accept or adapt to, and others can be very difficult to grasp, and even after time they still might seem strange.
Having been in Rwanda now for 10 months I feel that I have noticed and taken in many new and/or different things. I want to take the time to talk about something that greatly amuses me and that has caused a few entertaining meals while I have been here. What I'm talking about may not be revolutionary or even all that important, but believe me when I say, it is very different here then it is in the states or most european countries. What I'm talking about is menus.
While I was growing up I was fortunate enough to not only live in areas that supported multicultural food, but I was also lucky enough to have parents that would spend good money to give us wide varieties in the food that we ate. At the time I hadn't even realized how I valued all the food I ate..coming here sure changed that.

Let's first talk Rwandese restaurants. A 'normal' place will serve brochettes and fries. There might be an option about what kind of meat you get. Some places even make 'omelettes.' Oh, wait, I forgot to mention, thats for dinner. Almost all places here only do buffets for lunch; those include all the different types of potatoes, bananas, rice, sauces, maybe some greens, and meat. What this means is that when you go into most places they don't have menus. What they might have is under their sign saying that they are a restaurant there could be pictures of the food available. This means that you just have to talk to your server to figure out what you are going to get. And remember, always ask for a cold drink, if not they will bring it warm, and I'm serious.

Now onto 'our' restuarants. We will go with typical suburbia fare. Every place we could go to is going to have a menu, and most likely the menu will be multiple pages. When we are young we might not know what to order because we don't know what the different foods are, but by the time we are older we can't decide on what we want because there are too many options, not because we aren't familiar with the choices. And let us not forget that we don't ever ask for a cold soda or beer, and most sodas are free refills, and water is almost always free(unless you are going for the fancy stuff).
That is just how it is for us, and I'm not specifically talking about the high-end places, just the normal run of the mill joints.

So now imagine being here. Places with menus are great. It means that there will be some options. I want to make it clear though that I love brochettes and fries, some days I down-right crave them, but other days, you just want some good old food.
As I mentioned when I wrote Kigali for Tourists, there are some good food places here, and honestly most cravings can be satisfied as long as you are willing to pay.. which if you are with a group of other westerners, you usually are willing. That is to say, the average Rwandese person does not go to these places, and even if you suggested food like indian, chinese, or italian, they wouldn't even know what exactly that meant.
This leads me to my amusement.
I have been out a few times with some of my non-American friends and watching them pour over the menus is always fun. Now, I don't mean to make fun of my friends, because they mean a great deal to me, but its just I never thought somone wouldn't know what carbonera, or bolognese, or arrabiata meant(in reference to sauces on pasta). Things like that have just become second nature to me, not just because I speak Italian, but because if you eat the food enough you just know what is in the different sauces. Normally in cases like this, my friends ask me to order for them, which is just fine because I can guess what they would like. The part that makes me laugh is just when they ask me questions and I'm at a loss to explain what something is, like capers or anchovies or chili. Somehow my explanations are always lacking, even though in my own head I know perfectly well what something is. It is also always great when your friends keep the menus for a little light reading over the meal.
With all of that said, every once in a while my friends and I stumble upon a Rwandese restuarant with a menu, and we suddenly get super excited, we just can't help ourselves. Somehow a restuarant feels more real to us because of it having a menu..strange right?

Tusker Fame Season 3

2009-10-16T00:47:00.000-07:00

Since American Idol type shows are huge in the Western world, it shouldn't be surprising that some variation would also be popular here(or even exist).
In the case of East Africa, the show is called Tusker Project Fame, this year was season 3. The show consisted of try-outs and a selection process, with the chosen few moving into a house together. Every week they performed and some of them were put on prohbation. Then the public gets to vote to save someone. Then the remaining house members can also save someone, resulting in the eviction of one of the contestants. Each show also has a theme for song picking, African music to 'western' music. They even did group numbers. Of course there were also judges;and just like American Idol who has Simon, Tusker has Ian. A twist is that the house has faculty who helps them each week with the different aspects of performance. The winner of the show is given a year-long record deal and of course money. The show is centered in Kenya, but most of the East African countries had contestants particapating, and at times it seems very much a patriotic competition, not just a talent competition.
Like many of my friends here, it was easy to become addicted to the show. In my own defense, I wasn't watching it because I thought the people were all that talented, it was more that it was amusing to watch.(Some of my friends thought, and still think that they were actually talented)
The last few weeks things had really heated up because the show was getting down to the wire and there was still a Rwandese guy left, and his chances were looking good. After much speculation and debate, the show finally got down to its final 5 contestants: 2 Kenyans( Boy + Girl), 2 Ugandans(Girlx2), 1 Rwandese(Boy). This past weekend was the culmination. On Saturday night one contestant was voted off, and then on Sunday night they announced the winner.
Based on population alone, I really thought that one of the Kenyans was going to win. The votes were for who you wanted to save, and to vote you had to send a text message. The show is filmed in Kenyan, sponsored by a huge kenyan beer company. But then many of my friends said that the show wouldn't let a Kenyan win again, that they thought it was going to be the Rwandese since Tusker is trying to to emerge into the market here, and what better way than this.
Honestly I didn't care who really won, and I didn't think that one was more talented than the others, they were all pretty normal if you ask me. But none-the-less I did have someone I did not want to win.HAHA. This one Kenyan guy just annoyed me and didn't settle right with me. Well what do you know, on Sunday night it came down to the final two being the Rwandese and the Kenyan, and you know what, the Rwandese won.
This country went crazy. My school went crazy.
My headmistress and I ran out of her house to go join the students in the celebration. The girls were jumping and screaming. This wasn't just that a guy named Alpha won the competition, it was about a Rwandese named Alpha winning the competition.
On Monday evening Alpha returned to Kigali. The airport was packed. Too many people had come out to see him. Then he went to the national stadium where they had a welcome celebration/concert. It was all over the news. It was crazy.
I know that there are some Americans who have gone crazy over the american idol favorites, but this just felt different. I can't describe it, but as all my students were hugging and jumping all over me, one felt not just the happiness they had for this guy, but also the national pride that they felt because HE won.
Now we will just have to wait and see if he comes out with a CD and how good it is actually going to be..

AERG/Turikumwe Party

2009-10-07T01:33:00.000-07:00

A few Saturdays ago I attended a 'party' of one of the student organizations at my school. I had been coming home on Friday night and I saw the girls cleaning up the library, and I asked what they were doing. They told me that on Saturday morning they would be having a party for the candidate students in their club. Candidate students are students in the S3 and S6 year who will take the national exams for O and A level when the school year is finished. In this case the party was more for the S6 girls since they would be graduating/leaving school at the end of this year. Some of my students invited me to attend, so of course I said yes.
This party went from 9 am to 12 pm. In my head I thought that I could go to part of it and then leave just because Saturday morning is normally a very productive time for me. Come Saturday morning I found out that what they might call a party is not exactly what I(we) would call a party.
This event had a program. Some alumnae were there, and a few family members were there. Not to mention some other students in the same club, but at different schools, then a whole bunch of important people were there too.

Before I go on, I think that I should explain what AERG and Turikumwe are.

AERG (Association des Etudiants et Elèves des Rescapés du Génocide) is an association that was created in the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide on October 20, 1996 at the National University of Rwanda. Its principal mission is to assure the total representation of student survivors of the 1994 genocide and to solve the problems hindering their performance in schools.

Now at my school the students took it one step farther and made their own organization called Turikumwe. Now a few years ago(5 to be exact) some of these girls realized that they wanted a network for themselves when they leave school, hence Turikumwe being born. So this party was not just celebrating the girls leaving school, but also them now becoming apart of the alumnae organization.

The program was extensive. There were speeches, modeling, singing, dancing. All around a good time. Everything was in Kinyarwanda, but I was luckily enough to have a kind student next to me translating so I knew at least what was going on.
In the program they thanked and gifted many people who helped them, including a "mother","father', and "uncle", and "brother". You could tell just from how the girls acted that although there might not have been biological connections, these people really were their family.
As always, I greatly enjoyed the modeling, singing, and dancing. I have to say, these students really did a great job. There were 3 modeling times. They did both Rwandese traditional styles and separate African styles. They also did some traditional dances. I tried to take as many pictures and videos as I could.
As the morning wore on I wanted to leave, but each time it looked like I might leave my students would tell me, no no teacher there is something else coming up that you will want to see, so of course I stayed. Like most things here, time is not always follwed, so although they had originally told me that it would go till noon, I wasn't surprised that it lasted till 1pm. Well, at least come 1 pm was the first oppurtunity I had to leave.
Overall I was so thankful that my students invited me to attend, and that I could to partake in such a fun time.

Kakawete

2009-10-07T01:01:00.000-07:00

In case you were not aware, last week was Teacher's week, and October 5th as international teacher's day. Which for us meant no school. It should be noted that I did not find out about this till Sunday night, but what can you do?

Regardless, on Monday we had a party for us teachers. Kindof like a end of year celebration. During it we has a kakwete, which roughly translated to secret santa or gift exchange partner..haha. On Friday we picked our person. It was funny because they kepy trying to describe to me what we were doing and they couldn't believe that I was familiar with such a thing. The next thing that was funny was that some people were telling who they had, don't they understand the whole secret part..haha.
But, I was a good person and didn't tell anyone who I had, I wanted it to be a surprise. I got the computer teacher at my school. I wasn't sure what to buy since there was no price limit, it was up to the person doingthe buying depending on how much they like the person(straight up). I decided to go with simple and easy. I bought him 2 ties and a book.

The actual event. If there is one thing that I am trying to learn while in Rwanda, I must say that I think that it is patience. We has been told to meet at 1.30 and then we would arrive at the place at 2. Of course knowing this I was prepared to most likely not actually leave till 2 or later. Well what do you know, not only were people running late, but at the last minute the location of our party was even changed, which caused people to later than usual.

Eventually things did kick-off, but because of the change in venue, things weren't ready when we would have liked, so we had to stall. Call it what you want, but that is what it was. Our MC of the evening essentially was stalling till food was ready. Luckily they provided drinks up front, if not I dont think I could have handled waiting for food(I had not had lunch and was mad hungry). Finally the food came around 4.30 give or take. After we ate we did our gift exchange. It was a lot of fun to see who got who and the little speeches they would make were very amusing.

I was very happy with what I got. I think my kakawete really thought about me and got me some neat stuff. I got they wooden giraffes, and two little drums. Not to mention a nice necklace and earrings. Overall it was a good night.. It might have been a little longer than we had originally planned, but it was totally a good laugh, and produced some good pictures.
Can't wait for next year

The Expo

2009-10-03T00:11:00.000-07:00

Each year there is an exposition in Kigali. I'm not sure for how long this has been going on, but I know in the recent past its been here. I had first heard about the Expo from one of my students since I had complimented her on a top and she told me she bought it at the expo. The expo was the first week of August, and luckily since school was moved back students were able to attend, and my student invited me to go with her. I accepted.
I met my student and her older sister(which I had already met before) in town and we took a bus out to the expo. It was located on what we might call a fair grounds, or something of the like. We had gone in the early afternoon which I was informed was not a busy time to be there, but there was still a good number of people around.
There were huge tents and stalls set up. All the major companies in Rwanda had a booth. Then there were all the random merchants from leather goods to jewelry to irrigation equipment to the super chopper(something you would seeon infomericals). Some of the stalls were even separated by what African country they were from. It was a good time to just browse and walk around and look at everything. Then there were all the food and drink stands attached to the concert area, where they had DJs playing music. At this point in time it really was a family atmoshere. There were children dancing and winning prizes, and children dressed out in their finest. Overall a pretty fun time. As I was walking around with my student we ran into another student of mine who was working there and I got a free hat from the booth she was working at. score for me.haha.I love free stuff, who doesn't.
In terms of shopping I wasn't doing much, only browsing. But still it wasa great time, and I was really happy that I had gone.
The expo went on for about 2 weeks. The first time I went it was the beginning of the expo in the afternoon. The next time I went was the second to last night of the expo, the night before students had to go back to school, and it was night time.
Wow. The expo was crazy packed. I loved it. I loved the crush of people, the way you have to walk with the crowd, you go where they go..It felt like I was in a city..haha.I'm serious. And oh, the people watching. It was so good. Even at like 9pm the mix of people was so diverse. From families with newborns to friends and couples. If you can imagine it, most likely those people could be found. My friends I was with were not too keen on it, they just wanted to sit around, but I enjoyed walking in the crowd. I will admit that like any fair, what happens in the evening, heavy drinking, which leads to what, drunk people. Now me being white sure draws some attention, so I did have a few runins with some dunk men wanting a kiss but no harm, no foul.Plus my friends protect me..haha.
After we had walked around for a while we found a nice place to sit and watch people[one of my favorite activities]. Not only had we found a comfy place to sit, but we also were at a perfect place for watching. The booth that we were sitting next to had a camera set up to a big screen TV, so if the people were paying attention and looking at the TV they would see themselves walking past the booth. This obviously yielded great results. The faces and actions they did once they noticed they were 'on camera' were priceless. And to make it even better, from our vantage point the people didn't always notice me so I was able to do some of my own staring without always being stared back at, aka perfection.haha.
Overall the Expo was a good time and I was happy that I was able to go twice. Next year I will totally go back. I'm not sure if I will buy anything, but purely for the sense of crowdedness and people watching, it would totally be worth going.

Kibuye Trip

2009-10-02T23:57:00.000-07:00

Originally between term 2 and term 3 there was supposed to be 3 weeks. But as time for the new term to start we found out that they were going to extend the holiday. Since that meant staying another week just in my house in Kigali, with not much to do I decided to go out with some of my friends. We decided to to go to Kibuye for 3 days. I went with one of my married couple friends. We figured we could have a good time and do it pretty cheaply.
Once we arrived we went to a great brochette shack. Then we made our way to one of the hotels. We had wanted to stay at a certain place, but when we arrived we found out that all the rooms available were the too expensive ones, so we smartly decided to go elsewhere. We went back to the place we stayed at during midservice. We were able to get a great room with 2 beds and our own bathroom. Score for us. I think the man was a little puzzled that the three of us would like to stay in one room, but this was about having fun on the cheap, so of course we were okay with doing it. To try and make it seem like it wasn't a big deal my friend and I said that we were sisters..haha.. Guess here in Rwanda married couples don't stay with in the same room with single people..
Originally we had wanted to stay at the other place because it was closer to where we wanted to go swimming.My friend had founda good place were we could jump in the water and it was rocky so we wouldn't have to worry about being on the sand. But, where we ended up staying just meant we would have a little walk to go swimming.The good thing about where we were staying is that their restaurant had a pretty decent meat pizza that was hardy, yet really cheap,the perfect combo for us.
Part of being away that was so nice was the fact that it felt as though we could really relax since we weren't home. In the morning we could just sit around, read books, chat, play scrabble, or cards. These might seem like simple things, but they are emensly satisfying.
We did go swimming. And man was it nice. I don't care that I could have caught something in Lake Kivu, it was just too nice to be in that water. We didn't even swim that much, it was more just hanging in the water and enjoying the feeling of being cool on a really hot day. The only semi-strange thing was that there were some Rwandese hanging about and when we got out of the water it felt a little like they were watching us. But then again, they were watching us..haha. Think about it, 3 white folks, in bathing suits..haha.. how could you not look??
Overall it was a good 3 days in Kibuye, and I was happy that I had gone with my friends. It was just the kind of relaxing break I needed before the new term started.

One note about the trip:When we had been walking back from swimming there were some girls looking at us rather strangely, and to be honest this is a normal accurance, but then when I thought about it seemed they looked a little familar. Being the polite people that we are, we said hello, and what do you know, we got a reply of hello teacher. That is when I realized the reason they look familar isn't just that they are student age girls with shaved heads, but because they were two of my students. We stopped and greated them. It was a nice little extra on the trip.

TZ

2009-10-02T23:54:00.000-07:00

Note:This happened during break two between Term 2 and Term 3, aka during August..
Lets start at the very beginning.
Leaving Kigali International Airport to fly to Kilamnjaro,TZ. First, the airport had free wireless, and it was decent internet, I was impressed. Then the airplane. It was one of those with propellars on the wings.crazy right. The flight was short and sweet, but they did give us food. I had me a sweet tuna and cheese sandwich.score. The view from the airplane was great. I took a few pictures, but to be honest my camera could not do it justice,so I stopped.
In Kilamanjaro we got picked up by our tourguide for our safari. We were told that we were lucky because we got to see the mountain uncovered by clouds. We even stopped on the side of the road to take pictures.
Here starts our week safari. I am going to break the week down into 2 categories.Lodging and Animals.
Although I could argue that the animals were the best and most important part of the trip,I am going to have to talk about what really matters--the lodging.Lets be real, I have been living in my little house for about 8 months and a little luxury sure ain't bad.

Each of the places that we stayed in were "lodges," and most of them were even inside or very near a national park, yet most of the finer amenities were not lacking...The only semi-true complaint I can make is that not all the places had TVs in their rooms. Although I might understand the reasons why, I still must admit, if there had been TVs in all the places, I'm not sure I could even complain.
The food was great. Some of the buffets were legit. The hot water wasn't bad either..haha. Even our boxed lunches were stellar. One of the lodges even had an infiniti pool overlooking the national park.. I would highly recommend any of the Serena Lodges.
I do have one story to go along with the lodging. When we were in Serengeti national park, we were told that we had to be walked to our rooms because animals move about the grounds..which is true, yet just another way for them to ask for money.(note at times it was ackward because they would stand around waiting expectantly)
We had arrived in the evening and some of the workers were there to show us to our rooms and carry our bags. Since I was in a room by myself I went off with this bellboy(lack of a better word). As we are unlocking the door the man asks if I am alone and I say yes. He then says oh you aren't married, I reply no. His response was then why not, what is wrong with you.And then he had the nerve to wait around for a tip. Luckily his phone rang and I told him he could take it outside, and I shut the door in his face. To be honest his actiona did not surprise me at all. After living here for the short amount of time that I have,nothing like that can surprise me,its almost a normal question for a woman to get. But what was surprising is that this was a lodge were essentially westerns excusively go, so shouldn't this man know what we do and what we do not say...just saying..especially if he wants us to give him money..

Now, the Animals.
Where to begin. I don't even know where to start. I can hardly put into words everything that we saw. It was unbelievable, truely a life changing experience to see all of these animals. There were zebras, giraffes, elephants, wildebeasts, various type of antelope creatures that have varying sizes and butt colors(I kid you not, white, black, black striped, etc). Not to mention the lions, leapards, cheetas, hippos, warthogs, hyenas. And the birds. We really saw some great birds, and I am not in the least bit ashamed to say that.
We saw animals grazing, animals eating, animals on the prawl, and even saw a few dead animals. We heard bones cracking as animals munched on their lunch. We saw and heard baby elephants squell as they ran to their mothers. We saw giraffes run and elephants knockin' down trees. We saw zebras go to their watering hole. We saw lions on the hunt. We saw some baby cheetas botch a hunt job with their mom. I could go on and on.
We also saw tons of tourists. At times it would feel like we were the only jeep driving around, and then suddenly it would be a jeep convention and there would be at least 20 all around looking at some good animal. Near the end, and I can't even believe I am saying this, we were a little "over" the giraffes and zebras. When our guide would ask if we wanted to stop, we would just say no no, its just another______. Which reminds me, the jeep. It was a fun vehicle. It had two rows of captain chairs and a back bench. The top could pop up letting us stand and take photos, but still remaining up so that the sun could be blocked.
And oh one cannot speak of the jeep without speaking of the DUST. DAMN. At times it was bad. Thankfully we had all our quick dry safari clothes so they could be washed out at night and worn the next day if need be.(yes I am a dork)
But back to the animals. I never really thought it could have been like that. Seeing all different animals in different parks,crazyness. Even with my dinky little camera I was able to get some quality photos that whenever I look back at them I will be able to remember an awesome week.
There is no way I can describe everything, but I can say I thank my family and friends for going on this trip and taking me with them. It was something that I can not and will not ever forget.
One last thing to tell you: This safari was NOT like the movies. It was better than the movies.

Kigali as Tourists

2009-09-05T08:54:00.000-07:00

Having my family and friends come to Kigali was an interesting experience. In one way I got to see the city in a different light, and in another way it just confirmed everything that I had already thought about it.
Their first experience in Kigali was the Gisozi Genocide Memorial. Which as I have described before I will not go into again.
Then we went on our trips around the country, ending back in Kigali for 2 nights.
We drove down from Gisenyi semi-early in the morning, so we ended up back in Kigali around lunch time. We checked into our hotel, we stayed at the Mille Colline. Then we headed out to lunch, did Chinese food in order to switch some things up. Not to mention its a good way to get flavorful meat and vegetables here. At the end of lunch I started talking about dinner. They didn't understand that the reason I was talking about dinner is because thats the only next thing to do.
After we ate I did take them around Town a bit. It takes all of about 10 minutes to walk around. I did take them to an art coop, so that should count for something. Other than that, there really isn't much to see, so what else could I do but take them into Nakumatt, essentially a low-grade wallmart(but to us who live here, it is heaven at times)..
And thats about it. For me it was all about being in the hotel, watching TV, and taking a shower. Then the next day came. I brought them to my friends house to see where another person from my group lives, and because they were dog-sitting, and who doesn't like to see dogs..aka I had NOTHING else to do with them. For lunch I took them to a good pizza place. Then at lunch we were already planning what to do for dinner, Indian.

Do you see a trend. I am sad and sorry to tell you this in case you didn't already know. There honestly is not much to do in Kigali. I love it here, but lets be real, as a tourist attraction it doesn't have a lot to offer. There are many restaurants, but other than that, not so much.

Now my parents fully understood why whenever my friends come to the city on the weekends all we do is go out for food, there is nothing else to do.
I'm not saying don't come here, come here. But be prepared.

Gisenyi

2009-09-04T09:30:00.000-07:00

This is next leg of my journey during my break after my second term of eaching..

After gorrila trekking we then continued our journey in Rwanda to Gisenyi, which is on Lake Kivu.
Compared to the drive from Kigali to Musanze, this drive was all knew to me. I got to see another part of Rwanda. To be honest it is on drives like this that one realizes how much love they can have for a country. It really is just that beautiful. The winding roads, the little villages, and the tea plantations are just breath taking.
I was lucky enough to stay at the Serena Lake Kivu. This is essentially like any good resort hotel. It was a vacation, and boy oh boy did I need one.

Lets just sum of the greatness of this place: TV with multiple movie channels, comfy bed, hot water, electricity, wireless internet, and the big one: AC. To be honest my first night there I didn't even know their was AC. Then the next day my mom was in my room and she was like wow you are keeping it really hot in here, and I said what do you mean, how could I make it cooler, and she was then like well you could then turn on the AC. Lets just say I then layed on my bed for who knows how long just feeling the cool air blow over me.HAHA.

Now for my ChemE dorks. I know I have neglected who I am for too long, so lets talk about what really matter, Methane extraction from a lake. Yes that is right folks, in Lake Kivu there is a methane extraction project.

And there is also a huge bottling factory. yes I know this is not strictly ChemE, but I had been deprived for too long, so the littlest thing could make me happy..

Lets just say this helped give me a fix of what I had been missing.. as you all know I am a ChemE crazy girl..haha..

Gorillas

2009-09-04T09:27:00.000-07:00

I know that it has been a long time, but I'm finally back, and now I have so much to say. This particular story comes from back in July... hope you enjoy

After lunch on Friday we drove up to Ruhengeri(Musanze). We stayed at the Hotel Gorillas. Oh My. So Nice. I had TV and a hot shower. I had forgot how white my skin could be.
Saturday morning. We left at 6.15 to drive up to the national park. Once we arrived at the station we then waited around a bit for everyone to arrive. They then divided us up into groups and brought us to our guides. Our group was the 5 of us and 2 Belgian women. We met our guide, Patience, and he then briefed us on what we were about to experience. Then we all piled back into our cars and drove off. Of the 14 families of gorillas, only 7 are visited by tourists, the others are for research.. Each group goes to a different family. In order to know where they are, there are gorilla trackers that start early in the morning so then they can walkie-talkie our guides so that we can find the gorillas as easily as possible. Before we even started hiking we first had about a 45 minute drive along the bumpiest, rockiest road ever. The scenery was great, the "African massage," not so great. While we were driving we were going through little 'communities.' As our cars drove through all the little children would turn out. Most of the children had little pieces of paper with some sort of gorilla drawing on them. They were trying to sell them to us. Obviously at some point someone must have stopped and bought one, because all the little children would come running when they saw our cars a-coming.
Once we came to the end of the road, we then had about a 15 minute walk to the edge of the park.The entire park is surrounded by a stone wall. Once we climb the wall we are in. Along with us and our guides were two army men sent in case of wild animals, eg buffalo, come at us, since they have guns.
We had about a 45 minute 'walk' to wear the trackers had spied the family of gorillas we were going to see. It was pretty steep. Not a horribly long walk, but the walk was hard-core steep. My first spying of a gorilla came when the young Belgain woman in front of mepointed one out in a tree. Of course we did exactly what we were not supposed to do,point. We continued a little bit, and it ends up that at the base of the tree where we saw our first gorilla was the family of them. We had two juvinile boys wrestling for us. They were pretty good. I would think a few high school boys in the US could learn a thing or two from them on the mats.
In the background was the Silverback, but we couldn't really see him that well because he was just chilling on the ground. To be honest I was a little relieved.. this meant that our group of camera clicking humans was not distrubing him enough.
On second thought this does not really surprise me when you think about how the park works. Every day for an hour they are exposed to crazed tourists, so it must become normal, somehow.
Right before our time was up with the gorillas they switched our postion so we could see from another angle. Thats when we saw a mother. Our guide pointed out the mother and the baby, and honestly my first thought was that I must be an idiot because I really am not seeing anything, but then I realized, that tiny thing laying on the mother, the thing that is about the size of a mini-football is a baby gorilla. Holy cow. It was crazy. Honestly I knew that a baby would be small, but in comparision to the mother it really was shocking.
On the way back down, it took about 20 minutes. We did see how much of climb we had done on the way in though.

SO, the afternoon. After we did gorilla trekking on Saturday we went back to our hotel, took showers, and then had lunch. We then decided to walk around Ruhengeri(Musanze) a little bit. Since I had already been there before I felt comfortable going with my family. I even took them through the market and off the beaten road. Overall I think it was a good time. They really got to experience what being a Muzungu is like, cause 5 of us walking around sure brought out the stares alright.

Now. My HEAVENLY experience. And no I am not mincing words when I use that description. I am pretty sure that I used all the hot water that the hotel had to offer. Gosh, one cannot believe all the dirt that comes off with hot water in comparision with cold water..haha.

Then, Sunday morning we were off to trek gorillas yet again. This time we went to the family with the english translation of a name 'Lucky.' I would try to describe to you how we got to the family, but I honestly do not think that you would believe me if I told you.But here it goes anyway: After walking through a forrest of bambo, we then realized that we were on the edge of a ravine type thing. The gorillas were at the bottom of the ravine. Essentially it required some classy bottom sliding down bushes..haha.. I'm serious.
This hour that we spent with the gorillas was unbelievable. At times we were totally less than the seven meters away. I got some awesome video.

Overall the gorilla trekking was something one could never imagine. I had asked my dad if he ever thought that we would be doing something like this in our lives, but he told me that honestly when he was a boy and he learned about gorillas he never even dreamed that one day he could see them in real life, and not in a zoo. To him it wasn't even something that was dreamable, it just seemed that impossible.

If you ever find yourself in this part of the world, take it from me, it is worth every cent. You will never be able to go to a zoo ever again.

VOA-Where is Egypt?

2009-07-08T23:19:00.000-07:00

Let me start by saying I have never claimed to be good in geography. But, with that said, I do have a world map from doctor's without borders hanging on my wall(thanks mom!).
So here's the deal. I am addicted to VOA. I listen to it daily. Both in the morning, at night, and sometimes during the afternoon. Not only is it my major source of news, but it also provides many great music programs. Normally I would start talking the station up because I love it so much, but sorry folks, not today.
First--I'm not sure if what I'm saying is correct, but at least it is what I think, and since this is my blog, I'm gonna go with what I think.haha.

This morning I was listening to VOA world news as I was eating my oatmeal and drinking my hot chocolate(with my doxy). They came to the story of Pres. Obama going/coming to Ghana. At first they were discussing the reasons why the White House picked Ghana and not some other country. Then they go into how this is very important as the President's first trip to Africa.

Let me stop there. I was like WHAT? I thought he was in Egypt just a few weeks ago giving a huge speech, I even listened to it on VOA, and the end got cut off(so I remember that day well).

Continue with VOA. They go on to talk about how him going to Ghana is just as important as him going to speak in Cairo and how for that speech it was to the Muslim world, but in Ghana it will be all the Africans listening.

Now I am not going to try and argue that the Muslim world is Africa. BUT, correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure Egypt is in Africa. I know that maybe when the Pres. was there he was not directing his speech to "All Africans," but still, he was in Africa. This dissapointed me. VOA is my source of news. Now, if I'm right that means I was able to catch this on my own, but what if VOA is/has been wrong other times, and I never caught it?? Can you imagine how this is going to affect me??
Therefore, PLEASE, correct me if I'm wrong. I hope I'm wrong, cause if I'm right, that means VOA is wrong, and surely that would crush me.

So I'm putting it out there, someone, please comment and enlighten me.

July 4th

2009-07-04T22:26:00.000-07:00

100 days over
Yesterday was Liberation day. It marks the end of the genocide, the end of the 100 days. In the morning there was a 'celebration' at the national stadium. H.E. Kagame spoke at it. There was tradiontal songs and dances performed. I had already learned from my students that they aren't just any traditional songs, they are specific for liberation day. There was also a military demonstration (its more like a parade, but everyone here uses the word demostration). This was in the morning, and was over at 1 pm.

Now--my day. As you all know, 4th of July is not only a holiday here in Rwanda, but also a HUGE holiday in America.Independence Day. Fireworks. BBQs. Family Fun. Ect. Thats normally what happens, right?--here.no.
Friday night I met up with some of my friends and we went out to dinner. We went to this amazing Ethiopian resturant. It was my first time ever eating Ethiopian. Tons of fun. Highly suggest it if you have never. After dinner we went out for a coke at this bar/resturant that we had seen before but it doesn't have a sign/name that we could see, but we decided it might be fun. Well its called Rodeo. They had a band. It was like country-western-rwandese music..Man did we have fun. and our cokes were good too(I'm serious about the cokes). I stayed the night with my friend at her room she had got for the night. Although I live in Kigali and could have 'easily' gone home, sometimes it is just easier to do this. Not to mention of course the fact that I wanted to stay cause I could take a hot shower on Saturday morning..haha.
Saturday morning-CLEAN HAIR. YES. CLEAN HAIR. oh man, it was so nice, so nice. anyway sorry, I'm getting off track. We had a lazy morning and then headed out around 10.30ish. Well well,although we had held out hope that things would be open, once again, no. Luckily our trusty Blues Cafe was open and we went there for tea. Most of the people who were there were whites. Not very surprising. What was interesting was that they had their rain flaps down. We figured that as the day went out, hopefully more things would open. This was correct. At almost exactly 1 pm things started opening up so we could then go food shopping. It was also interesting because around this time the cafe lifted the flaps.. I can't help but wonder if they were trying to be on the DL about being open??who knows.
Food Shopping-- My friend and I did it up right. We decided to go all out. She and I bought ground beef, hot dogs, cheese, spices for the meat, popcorn kernals, chips, rolls, and ketchup. Then we went back to my place. We stashed the hot dogs for later in my heasmistress' fridge,but then we went to town on the meat. We made AMAZING burgers. We spiced them up, put onions indside. Oh it was good. Then we toasted the rolls on the burner. Oh man, you can't imagine how good it was for us. Then we had our cheese and ketchup on it. For once we did not have to worry about there being mayo or some other random sauce on the burger. and we knew the flavors would be good. We brought two of my chairs and my coffee table outside and we ate outside. It was such a pretty day with a good breeze. We sat outside for about 4 hours. It was just so relaxing. For a second I could have imagined myself doing this back home in America.HA.
Later in the day we made killer popcorn. I know its easy to do, but we were so proud of ourselves. All around we had a very relaxing Fourth of July. Although there we no fireworks,we did manage to have some fun.
And the best part is, we saved the hotdogs and one bag of chips to eat today..haha.. the fun just continues.
I hope everyone at home was able to have the same fun that I did.(even if you did get fireworks)

Yes I'm actually writing this

2009-06-28T00:58:00.000-07:00

Okay-- I can't actually believe I am going to blog about this, but I am. As the whole world knows, Michael Jackson has died. I know that many people are fans, how can one not be, but still, I never never thought that some people would take it so hard. Especially here.No lie.
Numerous people that I know here are devastated. At first I thought they were joking, but then I soon came to realize that they were being serious. And honestly this shocked me.
I understand and believe that he was a great singer and truly changed music history with many of his songs and albums, and lets not forget the dancing. But still. He has not released anything recently, remember he was going to tour again because he was out of money. And yes I'm going to say it, let us not forget about the whole mess involving him and the possible child molesting. I refuse to bring that into it, because everyone has an opinion, so I will just put it out there.
In my book he deserves to be mourned, of course. But does it mean that the average person needs to stop their life for a day, I think not. Maybe this is insensitive, everyone deals with sorrow differently, but still. It just boggles the mind.
When I was on facebook yesterday(Friday) I read an interesting thing. One of my friends had said that the whole world news was dominated with the death of one man, yet the fact there was a explosion on a bus in Iraq that killed how many people, people are even talking about. His comment really summed up how I felt.

Well so as not to go on and on about MJ, I want to just make one more observation. First I want to say that of course what I am about to say is not how everyone thinks here, but I have had this conversation with more than one person here.
I have talked with some people that think Michael Jackson is African.(note its not just him, but he is a good case example, and the discussion was brought back up since he died)
Now for us, he is African-American. He was born and raised in America. So were his parents. So are most African-Americans. Many families have even been in American much longer than us "white folks" who might have came later, eg through ellis island. But people here still say they are African and don't see a difference. From what I can tell, nationality, heritage, and ethinicity is sometimes very hard to explain to some people here. I have also had similiar discussions with other people from my group, so I know they have encountered this too. Not really sure what it means, but it does make my mind tumble.

Proverbs

2009-06-28T00:49:00.000-07:00

Normally when I am at school I do internet in 2 places. Either I'm in one of the staff rooms or I am in one of the senior 1 classrooms. I like this because the students always leave me alone and I feel I can do my browsing in relative peace.
In the back of the classroom I am currently sitting in I always see a poster that says Proverbs on it. Now up till now I have never actually gone all the way back to read them, but today I did. And after reading them I decided that I had to share them. It should be noted that I have copied the poster exactly how the students have it.

Proverbs
1. A word to the wise is enough.
2.A rolling stone gathers no mass.
3. Traveling thousands of miles is better than reading thousands of books.
4. A friend in need is a friend indeed.
5. One man's meat is another man's poison.
6. Where there is a way there is a will.
7. A great talker is a great liar.
8. You leap what you sow.
9. Actions act more than words
10. A good liar should have a good memory
11. Time lost is never gained.
12. Try and fail but never fail to try.
13. Laugh laugh makes silly.
14. Think twice before you act.
15. Practise makes perfect
16. Knowledge is power.
17. Prevention is better than cure.
18. Nevercross a bridge before you come to it.
19. Cut your cloth according to your coat.
20. Charity begins at home.

Now that you have read them, I think you can agree that it is a little bit amusing. I will admit that some of them are good, but I also have to say that some of them I do not like. Now if you know me, you can most likely guess which one that is(cough number 3 cough cough).
But what can you do?
The only real question I have is who gave them this list of proverbs?

Hillywood

2009-06-25T01:19:00.000-07:00

Rwanda Film Festival
For the fifth year running Rwanda has had a film festival also called Hillywood. It is a traveling festival that goes in the cities but also the villages. They travel with a blow up screen and show the movies to the people. The movies are about a variety of things, from documentaries about different African countries to comedies and dramas directed by Africans, and even some random foreign films.
So far I have gone and seen 4 movies.
The first was Children of Congo. It was a documentary focused on the street children in Kinshasha and Goma. One of the most interesting aspects of the movie was the relation of children to being on the street and them being accused of sorcery. To be honest I had never thought of this. From what the film showed, it seems that when bad times fall on families they can blame it on a child, accuse them of sorcery or witchcraft, and then kick them out of the house. Of course the children are not witches.
Aside from looking at the causes of street children, the film also looked into the different programs that are trying to help the children and make whatever dent into the problem they can.
Overall I thought it was an okay documentary.
The next film I saw was Iron Ladies of Liberia. This is a go see. For sure. It is a documentary following the President of Liberia's first year in office. It also follows the new police commissioner of the country. Both of these positions belonged to women for the first time. The documentary takes place right after Liberia went through major conflicts. Not only is it informational to those of us who are not so well informed, but it also is enlightening to see women in such positions of power and how they deal with it.
I highly suggest if you can find this film, that you get it, and watch it.
The third documentary I watched with my friends was called War Child. It is a documentary about Emmanuel Jah, a child soldier from the Sudan who has become singer/rapper. He tells his story and then we get to see him go back to Southern Sudan for the first time since he was smuggled out as a child. One of the most amazing parts of the film was the achival footage they had of him as a boy in a UN refugee camp in Ethiopia.
Although at times it seemed a little to long and that it wouldn't ever rap up, I can still say that I enjoyed it and learned a lot.
If you cannot find this documentary I would suggest you look up some of his music, because he sings about his past experiences.
The last movie that I have seen as of now was called Iesta. It was the shortest documentary at only 55 minutes. But by far those 55 minutes are the most well used. As we all know 15 years ago there was a rwandan genocide. Too many people were killed, yet there is only one documented killing while it happened. Those murdered were recorded by cameraman Nick Hughes. If you hav ever watched anything about the genocide I am sure you have seen the clip, because it is the only clip of killings actually happening, everything else is just of the bodies afterwards.
This documentary is about Nick Hughes going back to Rwanda to find out who were the people he captured on tape being killed, and who were the people did it. This movie was obviously emotional on all fronts, but I have to say that it was also very interesting. I can't rightly explain. Or rather I can't find the write words to explain. But please look into this documentary.

Sample Tests

2009-06-03T02:18:00.001-07:00

I have not wrote about school in a while, and since we are a little over half-way throught term 2 I decided it might be nice for me to show some samples of the work that I give my students. I am going to show you two different classes, aka different levels.
Now these samples are a little different then what I normally give, because I used them as a gauge to see how much of what I am saying the students actually understand. You will see that there are no equations or reactions that need to be solved, no math to be done. They are purely short answer questions. Everything that I asked I have taught, or it is something they should have already known, but I have noticed that they have problems with the topic.

Sample 1:
S5BCM2
Subject: Chemistry
Teacher:GPal
1. Draw 4 structures that are the following:
(1) Ammonia
(2) Primary Amine
(3) Seconday Amine
(4) Tertiary Amine
*Make sure you name the three amines*
2. Why don't carboxylic acids dimerise in the presence of water?
3. Are carboxylic acids soluble in water?
intermolecular forces?
4. If we have two solutions of the same concentration, which will have a lower(more acidic) pH, methanoic acid or ethanoic acid?
5. a) What two compounds can be used in the reduction of aldehydes and ketones?
b) What compound can be used in the reduction of carboxylic acids?
c) Why can't the same two compounds work for aldehydes, ketones, AND carboxylic acids?
6. When a reaction is said to be violent, what does that description mean?
7. a)When a reaction is conducted under reflux, what does this mean?
b) Why would someone want to conduct an experiment under reflux?
8. What is the structural difference between a carboxylic acid and an acid chloride?
9. Name 3 compounds that could be used to create an acid chloride from a carboxylic acid.
10. What does decarboxylation mean?
11. a) What are acid derivatives?
b)Give an example of a compound that is an acid derivative.
12. Why do acid chlorides have a strong smell?
13. a) Are acid chlorides solube in water?
b) If so, are all possible acid chlorides solube?
c) If not, why aren't they soluble?
14. What do water, alcohols, and phenols have in common?
15. a)Asprin is a product of reacting what with an acid chloride?
b)What is Asprin?
16. a)What does the term "N-substututed amine" mean?
b) Draw an example.
17. What does the word anhydride mean?
18. What is the structural difference between carboxylic acids and acid anhydrides?(Draw if you need help explaining your words)
19. Why is there no such thing as an aqueous solutionof an acid anhydride?
20. If we want to compare the stength of intermolecular forces between 2 compounds, what must be true so that we can correctly conduct the comparison?
21. What type of compounds have a permanent dipole?
22. a)What possible intermolecular forces could a non-polar molecule have?
b)What possible intermolecular forces could a polar molecule have?

Sample 2:
S4BCM
Subject:Chemistry
Teacher:GPal
1.Draw a wave
a)Identify the wavelength on the drawing.
b) Identify the amplitude on the drawing.
2.Give the equation that shows the relationship between lamda,nu, and c. Identify what each variable symbolizes and what the units of the variable are.
3.What is the difference between a continous spectrum and a line spectrum?
4.a)What is the general meaning of a spectrum?
b)Give an example of a specific spectrum.
5.What is the ground state of an atom?
6.When something is quantized, what does it mean?
7.An electron can move up and down between different energy states.
a)Which direction is it traveling when energy is absorbed?
b)Which direction is it traveling when energy is emitted?
8.An electron starts at one energy level and moves to another.
Give an example of where the electron will start and end if it is part of the:
a)Lyman Series
b) Balmar Series
9.An electron can be described as having properties of what two things?
10. What does the uncertainty principle state?
11.What does Paul's Exclusion Principle state?
12. What are quantum numbers used for?
13.Name each quantum number and give its symbol.
14.What values can the quantum number ml have?
15.How many nodal surfaces does a 3p orbital have?
16.What is the number of orbitals in a subshell?
17.How many total different orbitals are there in the n=3 energy level?
18.If n=3 and ml=-2 , what must be the value of l?
19.How many d orbitals are there?
20.What is an electron density plot?
21. What orbital has 3 nodal surfaces and 8 regions of electron density?
22.What does the orientation of a orbital refer to?
23. What are the 2 possible orientations for the electron spin magnetic quantum number?
24.a)What does diamagnetic mean?
b)What does paramagnetic mean?
25. If n=1, what are the values of the other 3 quantum numbers?

I will let post later about the results of my students..aka how they did on these tests..

Rwandan Women's Network--Village of Hope

2009-06-03T02:15:00.000-07:00

Some of you might not know, but at the start of term 2 I got a housemate. She is American, and is working for the Peace Corps. Part of her job at my school is so start and run an outreach/community service club for the students(e.g. key club in highschool).
She had gotten a suggestion from our headmistress to work with the Rwandan Women's Network. This sounded like a good idea, so she decided to go for it. Since she had never been there or knew anyting about it, I offered to go with her, since I too had never gone, but two people are always better than one, right?HAHA..
I don't know all the facts, but if you are interested, I would say google the group. But I will give you what background I do know. It is an organization that started in 1996 for women and their children who survived the genocide. The do a variety of programs. From teaching basic heatlh, their human rights, to entreprenuership skills, the organization trys to give these women not only an education, but a way to make a life for themselves. They also have a place called the village of hope, which is a set of homes where the women can live. They are all over Rwanda,but one of their sites is about a 40 minute walk from my school.
This past Saturday was Umuganda.(for those of you who do not remember, this is the monthly community service that the entire country MUST participate in). My roomie worked out that we would take 30 students over and they would work in the compound. Since I was interested and since it was the first time they were going I offered to my roomie to go with her. She of course accepted. So Saturday morning at 7 am we met with the 30 students and headed out. We brought slashers(curved machetes used to cut grass), hoes, and brooms. Once we made it over there we met with a bunch of the women and we divided the girls up into working groups. It was really neat to see the students working alongside the women. I too did work.. I didn't just sit around and watch... don't worry, my momma taught my better.
I worked with the hoeing group. All my students were soooo surprised that I knew how to use a hoe and that I was giving them lessons. They were like "teacher, did you grow up on a farm?" I laughed and said of course not, but I am an adult so of course I know how to do work..haha.. sometimes the girls just make me laugh soo much; I just want to know what do they think my life was like.
I also showed some of the girls how to properly sweep. One needs to put some force into it. Especially with the dusty floors here. I did not try cutting the grass, but at some point I do, its just that the slasher actually looks hard to use. After the work was done the women brought out drums, and they and the students started singing and dancing around. It was really neat.
Before we knew it it was time to go.
At the moment my roomie is working on a proposal for what other projects we can do on a weekly basis. I'm not sure how involved I can get, just because I am very busy with teaching, but this is definitely something that when I have time, I want to go to also.

Football For Real This Time

2009-06-03T02:11:00.000-07:00

Now for those of you who did not read my last post, I will quickly update you. I am the football coach at my school. We were supposed to have a game; it didn't happen because the students did not have proper identification.
This is now the story of the game that eventually did happen.
The following Friday we had the gam rescheduled for. The students had a week for the school to make them identity cards. Somehow, they actually came through, and every player had a card.(oh side note--the most frustrated part of the previous Sunday had been that the basketball team had also not has identity cards, and they let them play)
We had to leave school early to go to the game because it was being played at some other school's field. It was about 40 minutes away. That means bus ride with students. HAHA.. man did I feel old watching them do all their singing and chanting and clapping as we were driving. We finally arrived at the school, we got off the bus, and then had to walk to the field. Now this seconday school was right next to a primary school. All the children were just playing in the yard. What happens when I come by. They go CRAZY. I had over 100 children crowded around me because they all wanted to say hello and touch me. I actually had to tell my students to continue on without me because there was no way that I could move. Eventually I was able to start moving, but I had about 30 follow me to the field. As much as I might complain about the whole muzungu thing, I will admit that when children like these do it, I honestly can't get angry at them. They aren't asking me for money, and they aren't trying to be rude. They just don't know any better because they have never seen a white person before.

Okay-back to football. Our girls won 3-0. Not to brag, but we walked all over them.HAHA... The funny thing being that there were soo many mistakes my girls were making. At times it was soo frustrating because I wanted to scream out at them to do things, but their comprenhension of English is not that good, then add in the fact that they are spread out over a field and are concentrating on playing, they couldn't follow what I was saying.
After the game we had our bus ride back. The girls were soo excited. I had thought they were energetic on the way, it was nothing compared to the way back. It was actually a lot of fun. They made me smile the whole way back.

In the end I was very pleased that not only did we get to play, but also that we won. I will admit I had been worried about how they would take it if we lost..haha.. but luckily we didn't. :)

Finally Football

2009-06-03T02:09:00.000-07:00

For the last few months of I have been the soccer, or as we will call it from here on out,the football coach of my school's team. Now all this really entails is taking the girls to football practice every day. Since our school does not have a field of its own we need to go to fields that are near by. The closest field is behind a lumber yard, about a 10-15 minute walk, depending on how lazy the students are being.
But because this field is used by others, the only days that we have found it not occupied are Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. On Tuesday and Thusday we just run. And in all honesty the running is good because many of the girls are very out of shape.
The few students that are very good play multiple sports, so they can't always come to football. Not to mention the fact that volleyball and basketball have regular games, so of course the girls need to practice for those more.
This means that most of the time I end up with a rag tag group of students. Well that is not exactly true. I normally end up with a bunch of the younger students who just want to get off the school grounds, so doing sports with me provides them with a way to get out.

The reason for this post now is because in the last week I had two funny football stories.

Story Number 1:
It had rained for about 3 days. Many hours each day(normally this does not happen). Then the sun came out. I took a group of students to go play football. We found the field already occupied. There was the other field that we could see, but that we had never been too. I suggested that we go. I told the captain to start leading the girls and I would follow up in the rear.
Bad Idea Number One that I had. To go from the field that we were at to the other field we had to cross a boggy marsh. The trail we were following started out well. But then we started encountering all of the trenches of muddy water that we needed to jump. Of course this was Bad Idea Number 2. In case you have never seen me jump, lets just say I was not gifted with that athleticism. For lets say the first 8 jumps I did very well. I was even helping the students across. Then--the final jump--now it didn't look that bad, but because I wanted to be careful I always give myself a running start.
I cleared the trench. But what happens when you get a running start and then jump, you continue for a few steps after the jump. Well, I had seen grass on the other side and it hadn't worried me. Bad Thought Number One. it was not grass. It was water grass. That means that when I cleared the muddy trench water I then 'landed' in water grass. The water went up to my knees. I am serious. All the students just stood there in shock and started saying sorry sorry teacher. I of course climbed out and said its okay,lets keep going. We then played football for two hours--me in soaking wet shoes and socks, not to mention wet and dirty legs. We shall say it was 'pleasant.'

On the way home I told the girls that we need to find another way back, and luckily the captain is a good girl, and she came through. It was a little longer of a trip, but totally worth it.

Story Number 2:
The next day I took the girls to play football again since we had a game on Sunday(it was friday now). For extra help two of my fellow teachers came with me. Which was really nice. We decided to just go directly back to the field we had used the previous day. Once again I had the captain lead the girls, and she was kind enough to take us on the slightly longer path, but the dry one. We had a decent practice.
At the end of practice I told the girls we had to go back to school and I asked the captain to lead the girls again(I always follow up in the rear to make sure I don't lose any students). Well my two fellow teachers come to me before we set off and say, why are we going to go that way, its faster to go the other way. All the students start laughing. I then inform them that the students were being kind to me so I don't wet again because I'm not a very good jumper. Both men laughed for about 5 minutes, and then they said too bad because we are going that way.HA. so then I had to do the jumping again. BUT-this time-I was succesful. aka I did not get wet.

Story Number 3:
We are going to skip ahead in time to Sunday. On Saturday we did have practice, from 7 am to 11.30 am. It was hard core. though nothing really special happened.
Sunday morning-7 am. We meet the students. There was both a basketball and football, so it was a good number of students coming to play. Not to mention about the 20 students we were taking as spectators. This being where it is, we didn't actually leave till around 8.30 after all is said and done. We traveled about 15 minutes away to a school that did have their own field/court. It was a coed school, and being a sunday there were many students around to watch. Basketball started playing first. About 20 minutes into their game, the other football coach started to get in a huff that we needed to start football. Now for purposes like this, I am not the coach, one of the guys is, just because it makes interactions easier.
These two men argued for about 10 minutes about how why can't we wait till the basketball is over because three of our players for football are on the basketball team. While the other man's point was that students can only be on one team.
Well conclusion of the arguement: we have to start football. I get the girls and tell them to head over to the field so can start warming up. Meanwhile I spoke with the basketball coach and he said after another 15 minutes he can give me the girls(our team was winning by a lot).
Here comes the Drama.
The people in charge of district sports come to check the girls out. We had to have a list of the students playing(roster), and identification to prove they were who we said they were(so we can't bring in ringers). For proof we have a team photo. This did not go over well. They wanted individual identity cards for each students. But our students did not have them. This then started a 90 minute arguement. And I am really not lieing. It was intense. Students were involved. I was involved. Everybody was saying something to somebody.
Now I understand the issue they have, but I could not understand why we couldn't just play the game under protest, so at least that way the girls get to play. But NO NO NO, the other team's coach was having none of them. At one point I had to drag away the two men from my school because they were getting so angry I knew that nothing good could come of it.
In the end we didn't get to play. We went back and watched the boys basketball game that came after the girl's. Although it was a good day, I know all the students were really dissapointed about it. Because I was feeling bad for them, and because we had been gone from school soo long, and they missed lunch, I bought enough gum to give each girl a piece. It was amazing how happy that made them. Essentially they were all just tuckered out. We didn't get back to school till 4 pm. Now we had asked the kitchen to save them food, but they didnt save enough, so the oldest girls/captains didn't eat at all, whilst the rest of the girls were just sharing food.
Since I felt bad for them I invited the 5 students back to my house and made them pasta and green beans. It was nice. I think they enjoyed it. At least it was something different for them(the girls eat the same food everyday)(well then again so do I, but I do it because I like to, they do it because they don't have another choice).

Well thats the end of my three football stories in one week. As you can tell, it sure was a long week.

Dos de Mayos

2009-06-03T02:04:00.000-07:00

Now many of you may be thinking, is this girl crazy? doesn't she know her dates? yes yes yes, you can assure yourself that I am not crazy. We just celebrated dos de mayos, and here's why: it was one of my friend's birthday's. She and her husband are from Houston, and had originally met working in a Mexican restaurant, hence the themed party.(not to mention any reason to drink is a good reason)
Almost everyone from my program showed up. It was essentially an open house starting at noon and going till whenever at night. It was essentually BYOB, and then everyone chipped in on bringing different snacks. For instance I had been asked to bring 2 pineapples.
Let me tell you it was a great party. Just very relaxing. It gave us all a chance to chat and talk about how our second term had started, and also let us be free since we were inside a house and not everyone was looking at us because of our skin color.
We had samosas with gaucamole and salsa that my friend made, and then in the evening we had 'quesadillas' on chapati. Not to mention all the fruit and little snacks. We also 'roasted' peanuts..haha..
It was also great because we used the even as a giant book exchange because we were all in the same place at the same time for once..

I took a book that I had heard about for ages,but never had a chance to read--The Alchemist. For those of you who have not read it, I highly recommend it. It is not a long book, and it truely is a great read for so many reasons.

Since it was my friend's b-day, I wanted to get her something, but then the question becomes, what does one need here? We don't lead very exciting lives. really. So I decided to do what I could, give money to buy food, because that is really all we spend money on. I gave her a 1000 rwf, and told her to not spend it all in one place.haha..this is funny because 1000 rwf is less than 2 usd.

So for all of you who celebrated cinque de mayo, I hope you had fun, but I don't think you could have had as much fun as I did. :)

The Jurassi Park Back-Up Island

2009-04-21T01:58:00.000-07:00

Many of you might be familiar with Jurassic Park. If you remember correctly, you will remember that at the end of the movie we are reminded that there is another island that has the dinasours.. well I have found that island. It is called Bat Island, and it is in the middle of Lake Kivu.
This past weekend I was in Kibuye, one of the towns around the lake. On Saturday afternoon my group boarded a boat to take us out onto the lake.

When we left it was sunny with clouds on the distant horizon. Perfect boating weather. The boat ride took a little bit over an hour+. But we did have a bunch of the boys jump off the boat and go swimming. Once we got to bat island, we all got off the boat and watched as the boatmen tried to secure the boat...remember this I will touch on this later.
We are now on the island. We start following the boatman along a semi-marked path. Along the path we have our first encounter that makes us think Jurassic Park--big piles of poop. After we had walked only about 5 minutes the guide started to clap which caused many of the bats to come out of the trees and fly around. CRAZY. I had never seen so many bats. It was CRAZY. Sooo neat. I took lots of pictures. Granted in many of the pictures they just look like black things in the sky, but I know what they are..haha..

Now lets get to the Jurassic Park Back-Up Island part. As we all know, where bats live, obviously dinasours live too. Also, what other animal could leave such odd droppings. HAHA.
My one friend and I proceeded to create our own Jurassic Park Back-Up Island video. Not gonna lie, its pretty good. Essentially it gave everyone a good laugh.
After we had seen the bats, which really how long can you watch them fly around, 10, 15 minutes?? ..we headed back to the boat. We, as in those of my group, would like to thank a tree that our boat got caught in, if not it would have floated off..haha.. But luckily that tree was present and we were able to get back on our boat and head back. Most of the ride back was in the dark, yet it was still oddly beautiful even though one couldn't really see anything.

Note: The poop that we saw belonged to cows that live on the island, or so they say.. How do cows get to the island?? Just saying.. it could be dinasours..haha :)
Note 2: On the other side of Lake Kivu is the DRC, so I got pictures of mountains that are in the DRC, but the lake is HUGE, so the mountains are truely, and utterly in the distance.

Bus Ride to Musanze

2009-04-21T01:53:00.000-07:00

Over Easter weekend my friend and I went to Musanze, formerly known as Ruhengari. Previous to the program that we are both on, my friend had lived in Musanze off and on for 2 years, so she knows the city real well. She told me before we got on the bus in Kigali that I have to stay awake because the view will be amazing. Well she was right.
The ride there took a little over 2 hours. I was lucky enough to get a window seat for the ride, and did I ever enjoy it. To get from Kigali to Musanze you have to travel Northwest up into 'mountain' country. Essentially you weave your way amongst hills the entire time. It was amazing to see the country side. Most of these hills were either fully tiered or just planted directly on the slope. We saw many people both out and about, aka walking on the road, and then we saw many people working in the fields. As we passed through small towns and villages we saw people doing anything and everything that they could possibly do. I felt like it was the Rwanda that I was missing because I live in Kigali. Now don't get me wrong, I love Kigali, but something can be said for the countryside.

As we got farther North the weather did get colder, which is GREAT. I was sitting next to the window so I got the amazing breeze in my face, I had not felt so wonderful for about 15 weeks. But then what do you know happens, the Rwandese get cold so they asked me to close the window so I did.. yet for that short time with the window open it made the bus ride even better.
I would also like to note that I happened to see two waterfalls on the bus ride. Also once you get to Musanze it is really neat because whenever you look up at the skyline you see the volcanos looming in the distance.

The bus ride back was almost as good, the only down side was that it rained so the views weren't as good as the ride up. That just means I will have to go back to see what I missed.

Let Them Entertain Me

2009-04-01T23:50:00.000-07:00

The ending of the first term brings the girls a lot of free time. Normally during the day they just sit around or watch movies, or even debate. Then the entertainment chief organized two special entertainment events.
On Saturday afternoon/night was the first event. It started at 4.30, then we had a break for dinner at 6, and then it started back up at 7.30ish. So what was the event you ask, well it was a combination of a lot of things. They had a few groups do some dancing and then they had another top model competition. Once again it was fierce. In this competition there were girls of all ages involved. Then inbetween rounds, when the girls were changing, they played jeapardy. I have used this game in my class as a fun review activity. I alter the rules a bit so it can work with 30+ people. Before they played they had me come up and introduce the game. I should mention that the entertainment chief is one of the students that I teach. I think that jeapardy went okay. Since they only had 4 girls playing and then about 500 watching I believe it got a little boring for the crowd, but it made me happy that they tried it. They even did double jeapardy and final jeapardy..haha.. love it.
The second big entertainment event was Wednesday night. It started at 8 and went to 11. This was the closing event of the term. Different clubs and organizations at the school performed. They sang songs, did traditional dancing, hip-hop, and skits. The event ended with a boom--for those of you who don't know, evidentally boom is the english word for a dance..ah. wonder how I missed that one when I learned english..
Honestly it was really fun, and I am SO happy that I was invited and that I went. I would like to note that I was the only teacher invited. Just to give you an idea of how it was for me I will tell you about two of the skits that were performed. One was done by the club Fight Against Aids. Actually I am going to talk about the demostration that they did first. They had about 10 girls from the club stand in a straight line with hands behind their backs. The president of the club gave one girl a stone and the girls passed it amongst themselves. After a certain amount of time they called girls out of the audience to guess which girl had the stone. This was done about 4 times, obviously each time the girl could not guess correctly. Well you might ask what was the point of this, it was to remind the girls that one cannot always see who has HIV/AIDS..(at least this is my guess, it was all in kinyarwanda). The club then did a skit about a group of friends and how a girl borrrowed a sweater from another girl and then a third girl freaks out at her friend for wearing a sweater that someone with HIV was wearing since of course one can get HIV that way.. After the skit the president of the club then outlined the ways it IS transmitted, and ways that it is NOT transmitted (I was told this happened, of course I did not understand what they said). The other skit was about women equality and how cultural/society treats or views women here. Overall they were nice breaks amongst the dancing and singing.
Now the boom. Ha. First of all the girls all wanted to make sure that I was staying to dance, and I did. But for the first 15 minutes the girls would barely dance 'with' me, rather if I started dancing they would all stop dancing and make a circle around me so they could all watch. Lets be real, I'm not THAT good of a dancer for that..haha.. Luckily the entertainment cheif solved the problem and turned the lights off in the dining hall. This helped a bit.. eventually the girls just separated to dance with themselves, which was fine with me. I stayed with a group of about 15 girls and danced. It was fun, essentialy I made a fool of myself, but hey that is what dancing is all about, right?
Some of the girls tried to teach me to dance like the do, but since half of them could be amateur belly dancers, I, of course could not follow along. I tried to explain to them that I don't know how to make my stomach/hips move like that and all they could say was why not? haha.. how cute.
I had wanted to hook my ipod up to their radio so they could listen to some other music than the 3 CDs they have, but I failed to hook it up, over break I am going to try an buy the cassette that you plug your ipod in to then play it in a radio, because I know come term two the girls would love to listen to my music..haha..
And to finish this off I would like to say I think I have a 'new' favorite song. Many of you might know about my obsession with Toto Africa, or rather my brother singing the song and being the musical instruments, well the girls have a remix version of the song with African drum beats in the background. It is amazing, I love it. I must find a way to bring it home. :)

oh wait one more thing, I introduced the running man and the cabbage patch to the girls; they could not stop laughing.

Open House at KHI

2009-04-01T00:35:00.000-07:00

On Thursday afternoon I was told that I would be taking 2 students on Friday to an open house at KHI for what would essentially be a career fair. KHI is the Kigali Health Institute.
Friday morning I left school with 2 senior 6 students and we headed out. Once we arrived we got a small tour of some of the classrooms and library before we got to the career fair part. In one of the school's courtyards they had a bunch of tents set up for the different departments. The school has a total of 10 departments, all somehow linked to health, whether it be nursing, or environmental health, or medical imaging. Slowly we worked our way from booth to booth and gathered information. What was great is that each department had a little pamphlet so I was able to get one for the school and all the other girls who could not attend. I will admit there were a few times when the people at the booths were explaining something to me as though I was 10 years old, but I did not want to be like excuse me I have a degree in Engineering you do not have to explain to me why clean water is good for one's health.
But, it was a really cool event to go to. It was also nice because we ran into some former girls who graduated from my school.
Now the event went from 9-4.30 in the afternoon. We had arrived around 10 am. To be honest I had gone to every booth by noon. But my students had not since they ran into other highschools in attendance and of course started chatting it up. Which I have no problem with, I understand it, but still, it was boring. Really boring. Luckily the girls finally got hungry and we left around 2 to go and get some food in town.
On the way back home I asked the two girls if they would consider going to KHI for university, and they both said no, it did not have what they wanted to study. Which in one hand I think its great that the girls want to study very hard things but at the same time I don't know the plausibility of every girl at my school going to study medicine, because that is what they all want to study.. I guess only time will tell.
And just one thing as a final note, the event had a DJ, and at one point the song 'Boom,Boom, Boom, I want you in my room...' came on, and I burst out laughing. :)

Term 1 Exams

2009-04-01T00:09:00.000-07:00

Exam Week
This past week of school were term one exams. Since I have 4 classes, I had to write 4 3 hr exams. Which in case you don't know is a lot, and in reality all I could do was hope that it was doable in 3 hours and/or that it wasn't too easy.
During exam week, which for some classes only consisted of 3 days, we as teachers had to supervise exams. But, we are not supervising our own exams, so in case students have questions or there are typos, sorry, noone to help them. Which as I will explain later, can present a problem.
Now this was my first time ever proctoring an exam, and let me tell you, it is boring. Essentially for 3 hours I was singing songs in my head to try and keep myself awake.

Now lets talk cheating. It was amazing how many students would just start talking to their deskmate or would 'casually' look at the paper next to them. What is funny to me is that this is the easiest way to get caught, I wanted to be like, 'hello students, aren't you smart enough to cheat without getting caught.' Though I did not say this, instead I would remind them that this was the class' first warning and the next time I see it happen I would take the exam away and the student would get a zero.' Which honestly I don't even know if I had the power to do that, but whatever..haha.

Now lets talk paper usage. Wow. These students use a lot of paper. Even at the begining of the exam when I would explain to them how much paper they got, they would then raise their hand an hour later an say teacher I need the paper. Sometimes I caved and I would give them more, but sometimes I would say no. It is not because I am mean, but if the teacher who wrote the test says they only need so much paper, then thats all they are going to get, and here is why: students here write as much as they can for every problem, even if they have already answered the question, even if the question did not eask for examples. It is absurd,they just want to regurgitate their notes back, and thats pure memorization. Students here do not know how to be brief or how to summarize, or how to answer why questions, or how to explain something other than with a straight definition.

Now lets talk answers. While I was supervising exams I will admit that as students finished their test I would read their answers, because lets be real, what else do I have to do. As I was proctoring a geography exam, I saw by far the best answer ever, and it was on numerous people's paper. The question was explain the causes of population growth in Africa. Some of the students answered, 'African women are the most fertile women in the world.' First I want to say, that I honestly do not have any statistics to back this or not, but I am pretty sure that this in general is not true. Now the other reason I found it funny was because I was reading other exams I figured out what they meant to say, which is, 'African women are married young, so during their most fertile years they are having children constantly because most African families do not use family planning.' Note that these are two different reasons. I would even like to submit that there are American women who get married at 18, it just happens to be that a lot of Americans use family planning to decide when and if they have children.. But that is enough on that, I had just wanted to share what had given me a chuckle.

The Mixup
Every class is called by their year(grade) and their tract. For example, S5BCM, means senior 5 Biology Chemistry Mathmatics. Well the week before exams the exam board of Rwanda changed how classes were called. This made S4PCM into S4MPC, and S4MPC into S4PCM. Can you already envision what the mixup was. Long story short, my exam for S4PCM was given to the new PCM, aka a class that I do not teach. That then meant that my class did not have an exam, or rather I could not give them the same exam because they had already seen the exam the other class took. This meant that on wednesday afternoon I had to write a whole new exam, which was hard work, so I could then have the students take it on Thursday. gr. It should also be noted that I felt bad for the other teacher who had his students take my test and not his, and he had to keep it that way, he was not allowed to give them a new test, yet his class has chemistry 7 hours a week, and this one of mine only has it 2 hours a week, so the exams are obviously covering different information.

Grading, or as they say, Marking
I worked my ass off over the weekend because I had been told grades needed to be turned in on Monday. Grading 4 classes of approx. 40 students each is long, and hard. It is even harder when I have to constantly think about what english sentence they are trying to say. But in the end I got my 4 classes done. Well it ends up that one of the chemistry teachers is sick or left, or who knows, but I was asked to grade a chem exam for S1. I said of course because I understand it has to get done, and I'm TOO nice. It ends up it wasn't just one exam, but 3 classes' exam, which totalled roughly 150 extra exams for me to mark. I would also like to say I was not given the answers or the grading scheme, so I got to make that up all on my own. Great right. Wait, it gets better. Evidentally another teacher needed help, and I was given another exam to grade. So all of monday and tuesday I was marking exams that did't even belong to me. Now this just pissed my off because I ws tired of looking at exams, and I was tired of teachers asking me oh gina you aren't done marking yet, you need to hurry. Near the end of the day of tuesday I was 'barking' at them that these exams are not mine, I finished mine already. What also pissed me off was that other teachers were actually still marking their exams when I had finished marking 8 exams. WTF. Also I got very annoyed on Tuesday when the Senior 1 exams that I had marked, this teacher was in school and didn't say a word to me about the fact that I marked his exams. gr. But we will leave it that I am done marking, and nothing could convince me to mark anything or do anything for the rest of the week.

Debate Tournament

2009-03-23T03:12:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday was the first ever debate tournament that I attended. Yes, I know that in highschool most of my friends did debate, even my sisters did, but I did not.
So this is how I ended up at a debate tournament of all places.
When I was returning home on Friday night from a Persian New Year's celebration/ Birthday celebration I came upon one of the senior 6 students at my school. After the normal pleasantries I asked what she was doing on Saturday (since I had thought something was going on at my school). She told me that nothing was happening at the school tomorrow, but she would be going to debate in the morning and that I should come to watch. She said they would be leaving at 7 am. I figured what else am I doing at 7 am, so I said sure I would like to go. Come Saturday morning I was ready at 7 am, but we of course did not leave till 7.30. 20 students from my school went. The debate 'coach' would be meeting us there I was told. So we all piled on the bus that had come for us. As soon as the bus pulled out of the school the girls asked the driver to put on music and put it on loud. The driver put in a tape, and I'm not kidding when I say the song that came on was "red, red wine." And yes all the 20 girls knew the words; it gave me a good chuckle.
Now on the bus with us, other than the driver that is, was a police man. Since I didn't know why I asked one of the students, and she informed me that it was because the police were sponsoring the debate. It should be noted that at the time I had no idea what that statement really meant, but I would soon find out.
We shortly arrived at our destination, we only traveled far enough for us to listen to 2 songs, to the dismay of the girls. Now this is where for me it got good. We pulled into the National Police Headquarters; which for those of you who do not know is a huge compound/base in Kigali. Well when I was told the police were sponsoring it, it also meant they were hosting it.
I'm not going to lie, I was really excited, I mean its not every day one gets to be inside of a national police headquarters. As we were unloading from the bus another police officer came and told us that we could walk around for a bit while we waited for the other schools to come. I didn't have to be told twice, I got moving, I wanted to see as much of the place as I could. Although I wanted to, I figured it would be best if I didn't take pictures while I was wondering. I believe I amused my students with my curiousity.
After the second school arrived we were ushered into this other compound within the compound. Within the next half an hour 3 other schools arrived, so that there was a total of 5 schools. Essentially it was the 5 best schools of Kigali(private and public). The students proceeded to greet eachother and just be students. This was all very interesting to see how they mingled amongst the private and public school students. Also some of the students from the private school were foreigners.
After a bunch of waiting we were directed into a conference room. There we waited for more time. I finally found out that the reason we were waiting was because the commision general of the police force was running late and we were waiting for her(yes it is a women in charge).
When she had finally arrived, we could finally start, it was now approx. 10.30 am. She began with some brief words and then quickly passed it off to an officer from the CID who then did a short presentation on the current crime rates in Rwanda. Then the actual debate tournament could be started.
From each school there were 5 students(+or-)who would be debating. These students were called out of the conference room and divided into 8 teams of 3 students (I have no idea which school did not have 5 students participating). We then had 4 teams stay in the conference room, and the other 4 teams went to another room. Then half the audience was divided to go watch in the other room.
The format of the debate went like this. First affirmative or negative positions in regards to the motion were assigned to the first two teams. They then had 5 minutes to make their game plan. Then the first speaker of the affirmitive team had 6 minutes to speak. Then the third speaker of the negative team had 3 minutes to ask questions or cross interegate the first speaker. The first speaker of the negative team then had 6 minutes to speak, followed by a 3 minute cross interigation by the 3rd speaker of the affirmitive team. This same scheme repeated itself for the 2nd and 3rd speakers for both sides; the only difference was that they only had 5 minutes to speak instead of the first speaker's 6 minutes.

Immediately after the first pairing of teams finished, the other two teams went up and the process started all over again. I will admit I was a little confused that the teams not participating got to watch what the other teams said.

So what was the motion they were debating over? The fact that Rwanda wants to involve its youth in crime prevention and reduction.

After the first two pairing finished, it was time for lunch. When lunch was finished the judges announced the winner of both pairings. Then those two winners debated against each other. Meanwhile this same format was happening in the other room with the 4 other teams. In the end each room had 1 team that was the winner, the rooms came back together again and these 2 teams debated in the finals to have a final winner.
This was all very interesting, but I will admit at times also a little boring, since it was the same topic debated each time, and almost every group made the same points.
The only thing I did not think was fair, though I know it was fair. The team that ended up being the final winners, for each of their rounds they had the affirmitive position, which I think was the easier position to defend.
My main observations was that the teams which had the negative side had a hard time coming up with substantial points/arguments and the confidence that they were believe what they said. Now I know that they didnt believe it, and I was talking to my students in the audience about this, that the point of debate is not whether you believe it or not, but you try to make yourself the stronger team by having the best arguements and by being able to pick apart what the other team said in cross examinations.
This in my opinion is where many of the students lacked. Now I think the main reason is that they are not fully comfortable with the English langauge so they don't know how to use ceratin words to give themselves an advantage or how to word a question so that you stick the other teams with saying something they did not want to say, but I guess that comes with time and experience. No surprise the 'best' debater went to a white boy. And I am not saying that he was not good, but in my opinion half the time his opposition was just so overwhelmed with the speed in which he spoke and flumixed by how he worded his questions they could never gain proper footing when he spoke to them in cross examinations or when they were cross examinning him.
Also in my opinion there were many openings that the negaitve teams had to try and win some points, but most of the time the students did not use them. The biggest chances they lost out on was the affirmative teams' usage of such definitive words, such as always, proven, or perfectly. These are powerful words to be used when arguing and I believe it could have given them a chance to score some points.
Though at the same time I believe that all the affirmitive teams failed to point out one of the most obvious points. So each negative teams argued that by using the youth in crime prevention and reduction they would be exposing the youth to bad things. They then went on to say the only role of the youth in the country was that they must go to school and be educated. What confused me is that not one group pointed out that by having the youth go to school and recieve an education that in itself is a from of crime reduction and prevention.
I also found it interesting that not one negative group asked the affirmitive teams how they would ensure that if the youth were used there would be some oversight so that the youth were just not being programmed to do something, aka ensurance that someone in power could not abuse it and make himself an army of youth(which we have seen happen in parts all over the world).

But hey, what can I say really, they are only students, and who knows how much experience they have in debating. While even though I have never formally debated, I am an expert arguer who has different life experiences so I can look at a topic differently from them.

Oh side note-- At one point of the debate I had to really restrain myself from not making too big of an outburst, I managed to control myself to only making a snort/laugh sound. You see in one of the cross examinations a students asked for an example of a stable African country, and the other student said Madagascar. Clearly the student had not been following the news this past week, cause if they had, they would have known that that example might not have been the best to use.

Well in the end the debate tournament was a lot of fun for the students, and I was definietely happy that I had come to watch it. On the way home the students had asked the bus driver to take the long way home so they could listen to music longer. On the radio an Akon song came on, and of course ALL the girls LOVE Akon, so the bus was filled with 20 girls screaming the words as loud as possible, all I could do was smile.

The only other thing to note about this day was that when I had agreed to go, I did not know it was a tournment or that it would take all day. We left school at 7.30 am, and did not return till roughly 6 pm. HA. and here I had wanted to run errands and see people from my program. But on the other side I did get a free lunch out of it, not to mention I was inside the National Police Headquarters.

Oh I forgot one more thing. The names of the two teams in the finals. When the man in charge introduced them as "the eagles", the team replied we fly high. The second teams was introduced as "the creme cakes," and what did they respond but we taste good..HAHA...

Sorry one more thing. Today in school I had a few teachers tell me they saw me on TV on Sunday. I had known that the debate tournament was being taped, and a few times they panned the audience, well guess what I got filmed, and I was on Rwandan tv..hahahaha. :)

March Madness-- I can't get enough of it

2009-03-19T06:17:00.000-07:00

Right now in the US it is one of my favorite times. It is the lead up to march madness aka the NCAA bball mens tournament. Obviously one of my favorite times is the actual tournament.
Well yesterday I got my own bball experience. I will admit I have not attended many basketball games in person, but I am an avid tv watcher..haha
So here is the run down. Yesterday afternoon my school had a basketball and volleyball game against another school. The basketball court and the volleyball court are right next to each other. I would say over half of the school turned out to watch. The school we were playing was co-ed, so some of the fans that came to watch for them were boys, which only added to the madness. And let me tell you it was madness. Students screaming, singing, and gesturing, and the same goes for the coaches and the players.
The boys who were watching would try to get loud, but the girls from my school would have none of that.
One incident was brutal. The court the girls play on is blacktop, yet that did not stop either team from sliding and diving for that ball. Lets just say a lot of blood and skin was left on the court yesteday (luckily it rained at the end of the game so it was all cleaned off..haha). Well this one girl from the other team took one nasty fall and was a little slow to get up, and her one leg was clearly scraped up, and the same went for her 2 hands, and the side of her face. Now she stayed on the ground but the ref didn't call anything, and the opposing coach yelled what I would assume was not the nicest statement. The girl tried to get up, but she was in pain so it looked ackward as heck as she hobbled off the courst. Well what do you know, all the girls from my school totally start making fun of her and calling her out on her injury. I was like damn, these girls are harsh.haha.
But honestly overall it was a lot of fun to watch. Maybe not needless to say, but my school won. We destroyed them.
I know I didn't get to touch much on the volleyball, but my school won that too, but it was a little more evenly matched. An interesting thing I noted was how they keep score. So normally everyone that I know if they are going to make tallies they draw 4 vertical lines and then 1 line through those and that means a count of 5.. Well here they draw a cube and then a diaganol through the cube to signify 5, so for 25 points you get 5 cubes.interesting right. (well maybe not, but at the time it was interesting to me).
I also had fun talking with the girls about the words for different actions in the game because they only knew the french equivalents, like set, spike, dig, free throw, ect.
Overall a good day and I can't wait to watch the next game(lets just hope my school keeps winning).

On a side note-- I am the 'coach' for the soccer team. We were supposed to have our first game on wednesday but the other school ended up not having a team..which I must admit I was okay with, because although we have a team, we don't really. As in I have no idea who is on my team. On tuesday I had asked the sports cheif(a student who is in charge of all sports for the school) to make me a roster..haha.. desperate right. Wll either way once I know whats going on with my soccer team I am sure I will write about it. :)

Bollywood Time

2009-03-17T05:34:00.000-07:00

This past saturday night I was invited by some of the girls to come to the dining hall and join them in watching a movie. I have known that almost every weekend they watch something. Popular choices are bollywood films, nollywood films(from nigeria), and american TV shows like prison break and one tree hill. Most of the times when I have been invited to come it has been during the afternoon when I am not at school, but this past saturday night I was home and excited to go.
The girls had first told me that it would be a Nigerian movie in English, but obviously when I arrived I knew this was not true. There were about 50+ girls crowded together in one corner of the big hall because that is where the TV is. And it should be noted that the size of this TV is 'small' in comparision to what most U.S. families have. I have no idea what the title of the movie was, but man was it good. In typical bollywood fashion there were elaborate dance numbers that just seemed to burst out of nowhere during the film. Since the film was subtitled in English I was paying close attention because I had to read to konw what was going on. This little fact did at first puzzle me, as in how many of the girls could really follow along with the subtitles? I guess I will never know.
Around the first song/dance number I realized that the girls had seen this movie before. The reason I could figure that out is because they all sung along..haha.. it was actually pretty cute.
Now the movie itself. I won't get into too much detail, lets just say a daughter has to save her family from financial disaster be becoming a high-end escort in Bombay, but her family does not know about it(the mother suspects). Her younger sister comes to Bombay and makes a go at in the buisness world where she meets her husband to be..(her education had been financed by her sister's profession).. Of course the escort sister falls in love and feels it cant work because she would have to tell the truth. After a heartfelt conversation with her mother she decides to tell the man what she does, and he accepts her anyway(he had already known).. and guess what??.. they get married. The end of the movie is that both sisters are happily married and are singing and dancing..
I'm not sure a movie could get much better than that, just saying. Hopefully next weekend they will watch another Bollywood film, because you know I am hooked now..haha...
PS-if someone could find the title of the movie and let me know, that would be great!thanks.

Lookin Smart

2009-03-14T03:46:00.000-07:00

Normally in the United States if one wants to pay another a compliment about their looks they might say, "you look good", or "nice outfit", or even "you are pretty/handsome in that." And then if one really looks good they might be told they "are hot." Here in Rwanda they go with the "you look smart" when they like the outfit that you are wearing; this goes for both men and women.
Now in the past 2+ months I have had my students tell me I look smart. It usually happens on the weekend when I am wearing my 'hang around' clothes [remember my students must ALWAYS wear their uniforms].
Well on Friday I decided to wear one of my dresses. It was the first time that I had a chance to wear the dress because I finally bought black shoes that I could wear with the dress (I had only brought brown shoes).
As I was walking to my first class I literally stopped girls while they were walking. Other students ran out of their classrooms or crowded to the window to see me; All of them saying, "teacher you look smart."
I will admit that this made me smile, I mean who doesn't like to get a compliment, but still I found it a little amusing to have all these girls telling me I look smart. Even during break time when I was in the staff room I had fellow teachers telling me that I looked smart. After break when I was walking to my next class I once again bombarded with students telling me how smart I looked. At the time I did not know but another teacher was walking behind me, and as I had students making comments to me he would then come behind me and ask the students, what do I not look smart..haha. Oh how it made me smile. Just think if I had worn the dress a month ago I would have been a sensation... and to think when I wear my other dress I can be a sensation again..haha :)

Who Would Have Known

2009-03-03T01:55:00.000-08:00

This past Saturday was the last Saturday of the month. On every last Saturday of the month herein Rwanda they have what is called Umuganda. This is essentially a national community service day, and it is serious, everyone does it.
In Kigali the city is divided into sections or divisions and then each of those is divided into smaller cells. This makes it easy to know what you have to do. Each 'cell' has community leaders and they decide what people should do, so it is normally not everyman for themselves. Now since I live at a boarding school I have missed out on the action. Well I am lucky enough to have great friends who are willing to let me stay at their house and so I can then do community service the next morning..haha..
On Friday night we went to bed semi-early because we had been told to be ready at 7 am and we weren't sure what kind of work we would have to do. Last month I was told they picked up garbage around the neighborhood.
Well 7 am came 'round and no knock on the door...around 9.30 that knock happened. The neighbor asked us if we had a machete like tool(I had never seen such a tool in the U.S., it is like a machete, but it is longer and at the bottom it is slightly bent...and it is not a sickel).. Of course my friends said that no they did not, and the neighbor said thats okay we will find one for you to borrow. Hearing this I immediately decided a camera was needed.. Oh I forgot to mention that the tool is used to cut grass.
Then we set off. Walked about 20 minutes and ended up real close to Lyce di Kigali(where my friends teach). It ends up we missed the work, but we had made it in time for the monthly meeting(the work for that month was to cut grass around the roads and areas not in use). Being the three white people at this meeting made it easy for fellow teachers of my friends to find us and they offered to translate so we would know what the meeting was about.
At first the meeting was discussing how at the end of the meeting they would be holding local elections(well over 100 people were in attendence). Then they went on to discuss local community issues. High ranking people in the community got to go to the 'front' and talk. One of those people was the headmaster of Lyce di Kigali(note that Lyce di Kigali is the number one public school in the country and has just over 1000 students total[which is alot]). This man is highly respected and when he spoke, people listened. He discussed the drug use at the school, and how the one poorer area of their community(the slums) was selling drugs to the children and how we as a community can not tolerate that. He also said that students try to 'escape' from school and they are hidden in the slums, which also cannot be tolerated. He then shared a story about how one of their most promising students, he had scored the highest on the O-level exam(after 3 yrs of secondary school), but then he fell into drugs and now has fallen in rank.
After the headmaster spoke a few other people got up and spoke.[note we were all just standing in a horseshoe with the speaker in the middle/front]

This is when the story becomes hard.
A woman steps to the front. She speaks shortly and then a murmur goes through the crowd. A man is then called to the front. My friends and I are then told in almost a whisper that the woman is accusing the man of sexually violating her. My friends and I just looked at each other.
The woman begind to speak. Even though I could not understand a word she said, I could hear the emotion in her voice. The woman even began to cry. but she did not stop speaking, she kept on going.
We were told that she was saying that after it had happened she had reported the act to her local leader and nothing was done about it, hence why she was now here infront of all this prominent community members to tell her story. Throughout her story the crowd reacted to what she was saying, but I have no idea which 'side' they were on. I also want to mention that the entire time she was speaking, the man was standing maybe 3 feet away from her.
After she was done, the man had a chance to speak. He denied that it happened.
Then came the local leader that had been told initially. He said that it had been investigated but their was no physical evidence, so it was decided that it did not happen.
After he finished speaking, another man started to speak.

At this point my friend got a little light-headed because of the heat and the fact that we were packed together and didn't really get fresh air. Her husband suggested we leave, and I was okay with that. We walked a little bit away so my friend could sit and catch her breathe. That is when we started to discuss what had just happened.
It was like we could not believe that had just happened. They told me at last month's meeting they had just discussed what future projects they would work on for the community service days...
This was obviously a special case, but still.
My friend pointed out that he had been in awe that all these people had been holding the machete-like tools during this 'discussion.'

A few questions came to my mind, and I will ask them of you.
I have always heard that in the United States it is hard to get women to speak about their assualts, let alone accuse the person who is standing near by, so how much courage did that woman have??
I have also heard that many women feel shame about what happened to them,so they do no want their neighbors/friends to know, well this woman stood up and told the most prominent members of her community what had happened to her, so how much courage did that woman have to overcome the shame?? (because surely by nightfall everyone not at the meetings would know about it)
Also knowing that she had already reported it and nothing had happened, she spoke out again, how much courage did that take??

I know there is a chance that the woman was lieing, but either way I will never forget the emotion that poured from her voice as she spoke; she was either a great actress or a woman deeply wounded.

And to think we had started the day out expecting to do some work, and instead we end up hearing a woman accusing a man of sexually violating her, who would have known.

Spoke Too Soon

2009-02-27T03:42:00.000-08:00

Two blogs ago I said I was confident in my schedule, I should have known better than to say such a thing.

Before I tell you what happened I am reminded of a scene from a movie. So the original Willy Wanka and the Chocolate Factory, the one with Gene Wilder(no offense Johnny Depp). In the movie there is one scene that keeps replaying in my mind when I think of what I said.
The scene goes something like this: Wonka says "so little to do, so much time we have," then he goes stop, strike that, reverse it. I'm not postive of the exact lines yet I can't help but think that I should be doing the same thing.
Whatever I have told you before, stop,strike it, and reverse it.

On Tuesday morning I was asked to help with the timetable because there were more changes to be made. Now I had been aware that some of the Senior 1 students had complained about not being able to understand my English accent, but I really felt that should not have stopped me from teaching these two classes. The students would learn to understand, not to mention that in the long run it would have been helpful to them to have a native English speaker speaking to them, but whatever, its not my choice, and I am not going to make it a big deal.

This means that I found myself spending another 4 hours remaking the timetable againg for that what?teenth time??(I stopped counting after 5 times). Well while I was working on it I found out that the classes that I teach had been changed. I am no longer teaching my two S1 classes. Instead I was given another S5 and a S4 class. My schedule at the moment is now, S5BCM1, S5BCM2, S4BCM, and S4PCM, for a total of 23 hrs/week. In theory I have no problem with this, but it is a little odd taking a class that has been taught by another teacher for the past 6 weeks, not to mention that I most likely would not have given them the same notes..which makes it a little hard to just pick up where they left off since I would have never left off there..haha
But on the bright side it does give me a good lesson in teaching, having to be prepared to teach anything at anytime, even if I don't agree.

Hopefully in the next month, aka the last part of my frist term my schedule will not change..so here's hoping. :)

No Man is an Island

2009-02-23T22:29:00.000-08:00

I have touched a little on the language barrier and how teaching my students sometimes requires me to explain non-chemistry vocab. Well over the past few weeks I have become very good at guessing what words will prove difficult, yet sometimes I still get surprised when a student asks "Teacher what does that word mean?"
Here are some of the words I have been asked to explain:
room temperature, explosively, pattern, rigid, trivia, x-rays, hypothesis
(for whatever reason these are the words that I remember the most)

Now I want to give by far the best example I have encountered yet.
The set up:
I had my students coming up to the board and writing the answers to the homework. One of the students wrote the wrong answer and the class laughed. I then told them that that was not nice and everyone makes mistakes so we should help her, who wants to come up and help her fix her mistake. I further went on to say even I make mistakes(students say teacher you did not write what you said on the board..aka sometimes I leave words out by accident)

The comment that had me "whoa":
A student raises their hand and I call on them. She says, "no man is an island." I say where did you hear that. She replies by starting to explain to me what the phrase means. I inform her that yes I know what no man is an island means, I want to know where she heard it..she does not remember

The comment that sealed the deal:
About 5 minutes later I then had a student ask me what the word 'want' means.

The Deal, aka why this is the best example:
This example shows the disparity of knowledge. At times the students have an extensive vocabulary, yet the next minute they do not know what I would consider to be 'basic' english.
Meaning, I would consider the verb to want to be pretty basic, while the phrase no man is an island a little advanced. What this means is that one has to constantly ask the students if they know a word, which garners me, a yes we know that(as though how could I think they didn't)..yet one is still constantly surprised when a student then asks for a meaning and I ask if anyone in the class knows the word, and they don't..it boggles the mind.
But hey I guess it keeps me on my toes, right? :)

My Classes

2009-02-23T22:17:00.000-08:00

So I know that more than a few weeks have gone by since I arrived at my school(can you believe I've been at my school over a month!), but only now do I feel confident enough to say what my classes are.
I first want to explain up till now why I have not been confident. To start, only after 4 weeks of school did all the students arrive. For the first 4 weeks we only had 4 out of the 6 grades, meaning we were missing 7 classes, which is around 300 girls.
From the get-go I knew that I was teaching Senior 5 chemistry. The class was also one of the anglophone tracks previously, so they have been taught in english for the past 4 years. For those not in the know, this year all the schools in Rwanda have switched to being taught in English. Previously schools were either all in French, or had both anglophone and francophone tracts/sections.
I had also thought that I would be teaching all three Senior 1 classes, and one Senior 4 class.[senior 1 and 4 were the two grades that came late]
During all this the timetable of the school was also constantly being changed. Teachers would complain and then change the timetable themselves, so things would be messed up, and then it would have to be redone. About 2 and a half weeks ago I got put on doing the timetable. Let me tell you, not fun. Not fun at all. Really not fun. I think I must have redid the timetable 4 or 5 times because each time we realized that something had to be changed or a teacher complained enough so I was told to change it. Basically not cool.
One of these changes stemmed from my own schedule's change. Originally I was teaching 9 hrs/week for Senior 5, 9 hrs/week for Senior 4, and 3 hrs/week x3 for Senior 1, making 28 hours a week. Although a little duanting I was excited because it would give me something to do, not to mention I really do like chemistry. Well, the power at be decided that this was too much, so they took my Senior 1 classes away, giving me only 18 hrs/week.
Then the ministry of education changed the school program for hours per subject. They reduced the main coures of 9 hrs/week to 7 hrs/week, further reducing my own load to only 14 hrs/week.[Note how I am not commenting on the fact that 5 weeks into a school year the program of study was changed nation wide] This of course altered all the math and science teacher's schedules, therefore a new revision to the timetable was needed.

I will admit I was a little sad I was only teaching 14 hrs/week because that would give me a lot of free periods. But never fear, in the endless changes of the timetable, I was returned two of my Senior 1 classes, bringing my load up to 20 hrs/week.
And I happy to report that it has been just about a week and a half that my school has used one timetable and I feel not only do I know where I should be, but that when I have to be there(the first weeks were touch and go on that).

Now that the timetable seems stable(knock on wood) and I have taught a few lessons I want to describe my classes.
Starting with the class that I have spent the most time with: Senior 5 BCM2
It is a class of 29 girls. They have a pretty good grasp on English. I'm teaching them organic chemistry. Yes that is right, organic chemistry. And it is not watered down orgo, its essentially what I learned at UD, crazy right. So far so go. This week we will have our second test, so I should have a good idea about if they are really understanding what I am teaching..

Then there is my Senior 4 BCM class. They were all francophone students. Their english is not the same as my senior 5 class. This makes the class slower. Sometimes I have to be inventive to get a point across. And sometimes I have to tell them that it is just a chemistry vocabulary word. I tried to break the words up and talk about each meaning and how putting them together you can then find out the full word's meaning-->did not work. Made them more confused..lets just say I won't be trying that one again. At the moment I am teaching them nuclear reactions and radioactivity.

That leaves my two Senior 1 classes. English is obviously a big problem in the class. I have to speak slowly, write on the board everything I say outloud, and use very very simple words. And even then half the time they still do not always get what I am saying. But they are also the cutest girls ever. When you call on them to give an answer they stand up to answer. When I ask them questions they all want to answer, so the room is filled with this clicking sound(in rwanda they do not snap for attention, they 'shake' their hand so the knuckles crack on each other--I have not yet been able to copy this sound/motion). At the moment we are going over basic chemistry. We did the scientific method and now we are covering what are chemical/physical properties and physical/chemical changes. Soon I will do an entire unit on water and then air. Followed up with pollution. Although this is not necessarily the chemistry I really enjoy it is interesting planning to teach things I have not specifically studied in years(water cycle, water table say what..).

In an earlier blog I wrote down the schedule of the school day. Now that I have my schedule I can say that I teach 5 hours on Monday, 4 hours on Wednesday, 5 hours on Thursday, and 6 hours on Friday. Tuesday is my day off. All my classes are in the earlier periods, so I never have to deal with the last period tiredness that I'm sure exists.
**haha. so I wrote this last night at home, and am about to post it at school in the morning. Well what do you know, on my way to the staff room the dean of studies asked if I would be free later to work on the timetable.. is another timetable shuffle going to happen??.... stay tuned...**

Grab that Goat

2009-02-18T01:07:00.000-08:00

So for those of you who do not know, farm animals are very important here in Rwanda. And unlike in America, it is not just farms that have them. If someone has the land/space they get them. Why? Well they provide food or money, both very important things here.
For instance, cows are still used as bride prices. Not to mention the milk they provide or the eventual meat they provide is very much needed. Same goes for goats and chickens. Many times when walking along a road one can see chickens roaming or goats tethered down.
Now when I had first thought about animals and such, many people might automatically think where are the horses? I know I thought this, and honestly only recently did I find out why they don't have horses here. And by not having horses I mean there are people here who do not even know what a horse is. Some of you can probably guess the reason why they don't have horses, but for those of you who can't I will let you in one the reason.
Can a horse produce something you can sell or eat?eggs, milk? No.
Can a horse be killed for good meat? Technically yes, but we will say no.
So add in that the terrain here is rough and you would have to feed them, it just is not worth it. In America we might use a horse to plow a field, sorry people do that here. And why would they go out riding when there is work to be done, so sorry no horses in Rwanda.(note I am aware there are some horses, but I am talking in general)

Now that I have done that little intro, lets get down to the real story.
Last Saturday I was walking home from town(about an hour walk). As I am coming down this hill I see this goat chilling on the side walk, and I think huh, interesting, never seen that one before. Next minute I know there are two little children trying to grab the goat and they are holding a rope, so they obviously want to take it back home somewhere. If you have never seen someone try to grab a farm animal, let me tell you, it is not easy. The kids tried to corner it, it did not work. The goat went running. Suddenly random people on the street are trying to help. One man in a full suit even came close, at first look I thought he got it, but he didn't. In the end the goat kept running up the hill, and I had to keep going down.. All I can assume is that they eventually got it, but man was it funny to watch. Yet at the same time, totally normal. As we all started to walk again(a group of us had stopped to watch) we sortof chuckled together... so I guess even for them its not every day that one has to chase a goat up the sidewalk.
To finish this up I would just like to give props to the man in the suit who tried to grab the goat.. how many american men in suits would have done the same?

Mr. Frog

2009-02-10T00:09:00.000-08:00

So tonight(Monday), mister frog was back in the house. No I have not named him, nor will I, so don't ask me what his name is or what I will name him. Mister frog and I are not friends. He seems to think that my house is his house. I've driven him out three times, but evidentally he still is not getting the memo, cause he comes back.
Now many of you might say why worry about the frog. Well I will tell you why. Yes I know that he can't 'hurt' me, but really he can. First of all, the lizards that chill in the house also eat bugs, and they scadatol when I come near. Not so with mister frog. Second of, he is a lurker. He hides in the shadows so when I open the door to my hallway and before I make it to the lightswitch in my bedroom he is there. And sometimes if the shadow is just right I miss him till I am right on top of him. And he doesn't move. He stays in my way. I make noise. He stays. Sometimes he even comes towards me. Obviously this can't work out between us and he has to go. So once again I chase him out with the broom(which is not as easy as it would seem). But somehow he managed to get in before, so I'm sure in a few days I will see him again. Finally, the third reason why he has to go, I don't like the fact that he reminds that he can slip into the house somehow, cause if he can, what else can.. I'm just saying.

Goodbye Bull, Hello Food

2009-02-10T00:03:00.000-08:00

A few blogs ago when I was describing where I lived I mentioned that there are cows at my school. Well last week I was talking with my headmistress and one of the teachers who is in charge of the cows and the farm part of the school. I found out that they were debating whether the calf was ready to be castrated and whether or not the one bull was big enough to feed the entire school if they killed him. I was like what.
Now I am a full meat eater. I love meat. You can even ask my mom how when I was young there was a period of time I would only eat ground beef, so I have no delusions that animals have to die to feed me, BUT I do not need to be part of the discussion as to when the guy gets killed.
When the weekend came along I had a feeling it was going to happen, and since I had been explained how they would do it, I wanted to make sure I was not near my window when it happened.
Normally the cows are pretty chill. They don't make too much noise, just the occasional moo. Well on Sunday morning the first thing that made me think something was up was all the cows were screaming. I did not know cows can scream, well they can. But since I was not going to go to the window to see what was distrubing them I was left in the dark. Then around 10 am one of the cow hands(I dont know his name, nor his official job title) came a knocking at my door. He was holding a HUGE metal bowl. Bigger that most metal bowls we keep as mixing bowls. He gestured that it was for me(he does not speak English). He lifts the other bowl that was being used as a lid and I see it is FULL of meat. FULL of meat. RAW meat. Now remember, I don't have a fridge, and since I live by myself I had to decline the meat. But man did I want it. It looked good, real good. Though being realistic I knew I couldnt eat it all in one day, and even if I could cook all of it, I couldn't even properly keep the cooked meat safely.. so goodbye red meat.

Strike a Pose

2009-02-09T23:03:00.000-08:00

Tyra has got to watch out, because aside from making science/math educated girls, my school is also producing wannabe models.
For Real.
On Saturday night there was an 'event' at my school. I had thought that it was a dance to welcome Senior 1 and Senior 4 girls to the school since they had arrived the previous week.Well I was wrong.
I showed up at 8, since thats when they told me to. Mistake. Nothing happened till 9.30. For the entire time all the girls(around 700) were seated on benches on either side of the dining hall facing in, and there was about a 15 yard gap between the two sides. Being a teacher I got a front row seat.. there were a few other teachers who stopped by.
So it was time to start. A group of senior 6 girls were in charge of the music. The first song they played was a remix version of Toto's Africa(not kidding). I thought I was in heaven. And then it started. A handful of girls from S1 and S4 had been picked to be models. They were wearing traditional outfits. They had to walk up and down between the rows of girls(who were now all standing).
Essentially CRAZYNESS.
The walks were so fierce. This was taken very seriously.very seriously. Now let me tell you, if the crowd did not like the outift or the walk, they let the girl know. At times it was brutal.
Inbetween the outfit changes the 2 MCs of the event would call people out of the crowd and make them dance by themselves in front of everyone. More crazyness. I eventually got called up, and of course I went(we all know I love a good dance party).
The place went wild. The more I got into the music, the more they screamed and laughed. There were times I could not even hear the music. And of course I must mention the song I had to dance to: single ladies(put a ring on it) by Beyonce.. HAHAHA... to funny,let me tell you. I even had two students come up and dance with me... which made the place go more wild. I wasn't even sure which part they 'liked' more, the fact that a teacher was dancing, or that the white teacher was dancing....either way it was a good time.
I left before they announced the model winner..but they raged on till midnight..haha.. me being the 'old' person that I am had trouble staying up till 11.

Mr. Creeper

2009-02-04T04:02:00.000-08:00

Dear Mr. Creeper,

Although I am happy to be in your country that does not mean that I am happy to be with you.
Just because I am polite to you please do not take that as a sign of anything. Since I am new to your country I am trying to be as courteous as possible, so at times I know our cultural subtleties get masked. Therefore I am writing to you to let you know how I really feel.

No, I do not want to marry you.
No, it does not matter how many cows you could give me, I still do not want to marry you.
No, it does not matter that you can make me a citizen of Rwanda, I still do not want to marry you.
No, it does not matter that you offer me your more attractive friend, I still do not want to marry him.
and finally, No, I do not want to marry you.

Now I know this might have been hard for you to understand so don't worry, I will just keep rejecting all your offers.

from,
this white girl

My First 2 Weeks of School

2009-02-02T02:07:00.000-08:00

I am going to try and give only the highlights of the weeks.
To start off on Monday morning(Jan 19) I left my house at around 7.50(school starts at 8am) and I ran into a fellow teacher(or so I thought). As we walked to the main building and went to the head office I soon realize that she is my headmistress. Note at this time I had no idea that she lived right next door,I just assumed she had come from another one of the houses.
She welcomed me to the school and apoligized for not being able to pick me up on Saturday, she had sent the Dean of Studies to do that. She then asked if aside from my teaching responsibilities if I would also be able to become point person for this internet forum between my school and a school in England. I said sure, not really knowing what it was or what I would be doing..haha..
Then I spoke with the Dean of Studies and she introduced me to the Head of the Biology/Chemistry department. I proceeded to sit in on one of his lessons, for over 2 hours. Not going to lie although it was nice to see "how a Rwandan teacher teaches," it was a little boring. For the rest of the day I either sat in the staff room or went to different classrooms to have the girls ask me questions.
Although it was nice to speak to the girls, they sure do ask a lot of questions. The most common question asked is are you married, single, or searching, and I kid you not they used the word searching. Just to give examples of the types of questions I get asked I will share with you the 'best' ones: -Are you born again? (aka what religion are you)
-Can you manage to run when you are fat?(at first I could not believe that she asked that so I didn't have a response, so the girls thought I did not understand, they then mymed it for me)
-Does it hurt to have multiple holes in your ears?
Now I had been prepped on the fact that the students would ask many questions and that it is up to me if I would answer them. I answered a great many, but I did say a few times that I would not answer. The reason for this was that since I did not know what students I would be teaching I did not want to get too friendly with them too quickly.
Another 'interesting' thing that happened on Monday was lunch. So we had been told on the previous Friday that unlike what we originally thought, lunch would not be provided for us. Thinking this I packed a PB&J for my myself. Well what do you know, my school has lunch for teachers, but I was not going to let my food go to waste, so I ate it. This puzzled many teachers, and many told me that from now I shouldn't bring my own lunch.
Tuesday consisted of me sitting in the staff room waiting to be told what I would be teaching. I did find out one of my class: S5 chemistry. S5 would be our equivalent to 11th grade.
On Wednesday I had my first lesson. It was supposed to go from 8-10.30, I only made it till 9.45 with what I had prepared.
Luckily on Thursday it went a little better since I only had to teach for 50 minutes. I also found out on Thursday that I will be teaching chemistry for S1 and S4 once those students arrive, which they aren't sure when that will be.
As far as I can tell Friday went a little better too. It was a 2 hour class and I planned to play Jeapardy. Believe it or not it went over pretty well. Instead of having individual contestants I had the entire class play against me. Basically it went like this, after the category had been picked I would read the question and then wait for one of the students to shout out the answer. If none of them knew the answer then I got to answer it and get the points. As designed the girls won. I had picked categories that could be a review, but also fun. By far the favorite category was Famous Scientists, which was a little funny because this is the category that I got the most of my points in.

After the first week I was feeling pretty good that it had not gone horrible so that gave me some encouragement that maybe I really can do this. All I had to do then was worry about week two.

So week two was comprised of 2 things. Me sitting around the staff room on my computer and me teaching my one class(which only amounts to 9 hrs a week).
Overall my classes went well. I had my first encounters with some discipline issues and I think I firmly showed them that I would not tolerate anything like that. I know that I might have been a little more stern then the situation warranted, but I wanted to make sure that the girls understood my position on how I would run class.
Another interesting aspect of class was the inquires about my notebook. So like most teachers do I have a lesson plan for each class, and maybe more importantly the notes that I am going to give. It should be noted that the students do not have text books, so any and all information has to be given from me in note form. Well after class the students ask for my notebook; evidentally that is sometimes how it is down here. I am not okay with that. If I am taking the time to write it on the board and making sure I give enough time for them to copy it, there should be no reason why they don't copy what I write and then expect me to give them my notebook. I informed them that never in my secondary or univeristy history did I ever see or hear of a student asking for the teachers notes because the student had decided to not take notes during class.
My second week of school also had me assigning my first homework, or as they call it dormwork(I'm at a boarding school). Now I had expected them to do the work together, but I assumed they would get the correct answers then. Wrong. Out of five questions I believe that they got 2 of them correct and another almost correct. This was a little of a let down because I had thought I had made the homework easy..
Now I must explain why I sit for such long hours in the staff room. The first reason is that I know once S1 and S4 come to school I will be teaching more hours and I want to get used to be at school during the day. Also since school does give lunch(for free), there just is no reason for me to be elsewhere at lunch time.
The other reason, and most likely the main reason is because the staff room has wireless internet. And lets be real, like most young Americans I am addicted to the internet. In my case I am mainly addicted to cnn.com and then I switch between bbc and nytimes. For those of you who know my routine of reading through cnn every morning you can imagine how my 2 and 1/2 weeks of orientation made me feel out of touch with the world. Also since internet connections here are not as fast as in the US the other times I did go to internet cafes and pay I did not want to waste my money on waiting for news pages to load. So the last week has made me feel a little more at home since I feel more "in-touch" with the outside world.

Well thats about it for my first 2 weeks of school. I can say that I am very lucky to really like(dare I say love)chemistry, so I oddly enough really do get a joy out of reading my text book in preperation for classes. I will also admit that I give major props to teachers after I have experienced those blank stares of students or those long pauses when noone answers your question..haha.
I also want to admit my 2 strongest fears regarding the upcoming year. The first is that I think I can cover the material in way less then a year or that there is no way I will be able to cover it all in a year. My second fear is that I have been entrusted with covering a set of material and what if when I looked at the curriculm and then planned my lessons I did not include some information that the students will later see on the national exams they must take.

Speaking of fears, I found out that this week(starting Feb 2) S1 and S4 will be in attendence. That means I will now have my full schedule(though I have yet to find out what that will be(said on Sunday night). So this means that I essentially have another entire first week to go through... I can only hope that it will be as good as my first first week.

On a great side note about my school, the national O-level exam that the students take after S3, the grades/rankings came back and my school moved from 9th place in the country to 3rd place. wohoo for them!

Also for the sake of putting it up, here is the daily schedule:
8-8.50: 1st Hour
8.50-9.40: 2nd Hour
9.40-10.30: 3rd Hour
10.30-10.50:Break
10.50-11.40: 4th Hour
11.40-12.30: 5th Hour
12.30-2:Lunch
2-2.50: 6th Hour
2.50-3.40: 7th Hour
3.40-4.30: 8th Hour

Give it up for the Gideons

2009-01-27T04:06:00.000-08:00

Thats right folks the Gideons came to my school today.
I had known that the Gideons were in all the Holiday Inns to the Motel 6s.. but you have to give them props. Today they came to my school and distributed over 500 New Testament/Psalms/Proverb books. And you know what, I got myself a copy. Here I was worried because I had read all the books I had brought with me, but never fear, the Gideons saved the day. I will now be able to read the New Testament.
I wonder how long it will take me to read it? I will keep you posted. :)

My School and Home for the Next Year

2009-01-26T01:59:00.000-08:00

So my school, I don't even know where to start.
I guess the logical place to start would be the location of the school. My school is in the north west section of Kigali, called Gisozi. If you are ever looking on a map of Kigali and you find the Kigali Genocide Memorial in Gisozi, well my school is up, up, and away on the hill that the memorial is at the bottom of. By foot it is about 80 minutes away from Town, aka the area we did our orientation training at.
So the layout of my school is actually very large. There is just over 700 girls boarding and attending the school, so you can imagine the amount of dormitories are needed. Then there are all the classrooms. The classrooms are generally built 2 or 3 together(the same building). The design of the school truly takes into account the land the school is on, meaning that the buildings are tiered-like on the hill. Now the main entrance to the school grounds is at the 'top' of the hill, while a good portion of the grounds is then on the north-sloping side. This means that from my front door I face out of Kigali, so its a nice change of view [the hills I can see are not city-hills].
That then takes me to my house for the year. So in the rear of the school grounds, the farthest part down the hill,there are a set of teacher homes. The best way I can think to describe them are like one floor duplexes. I'm in the second duplex. I have 2 doors into my house, one from the side that enters into the kitchen and one from the front that enters into the living room area. When you walk in the front door there is a living room that has a couch, 2 chairs, and coffee table. Then the room next to it, it is open, not closed off by doors, is the dining room. I have a long table with 6 chairs. Off the dining room is a kitchen area, which does have a door. The kitchen has shelves and then a sink. And off the kitchen is a closet/cleaning room/I don't know what to call it. Now if you go back into the dining room there is another door that leads you into a hallway. Off this hallway are the 2 bedrooms on either end of the hallway, and in the middle is the bathroom. I do have running water, a flushing toilet, and electricity.
In my room I have a full bed, with a horrible mattress, aka foam, bureau/shelving unit, and then a desk. It took me forever but I did end up riggin my mosquito netting, so I'm 'safe' from them mosquitos at night. :)
Literally as I am writing this is my living room I found out that my neighbor, the other half of my duplex, is the Headmistress of my school. Guess that means I can't have any raging parties on a school night.haha.
And to end the entry about my school and home I must mention the fact that my school has cows, yes that is right, cows. And as many as you can guess that thrills me. And as if it could not get better, every evening the cows are brought right infront of my house so I can look out my window at them :) .

All Eyes on One Man

2009-01-23T02:52:00.000-08:00

As everyone in the entire world knows, last Tuesday, Obama became president of the United States. I have to tell you it was very interesting being in Africa, and specifically Rwanda during this week. Most of my students made some sort of comment to me about Obama, all my fellow teachers asked if I would be watching on TV, and on the actual day many strangers on the street made comments to me.
For the inauguration I went to the US Embassy in Kigali to watch it on CNN. This was a very well attended event. Evidentally you had to be on a list to get in, and of course we were not aware of this, but we somehow managed to get in anyway. On the lawn of the embassy they had tents set up that had TV monitors on CNN, and in one conference room they had a huge screen up with CNN on.
Now first I was excited to see the inaugration, but of course I was also excited to get the free food, and let me tell you, your tax payer dollars are going to good use feeding us over here :).
Aside from the food it was also very nice that they provided drinks, not only soda and beer, but also wine, which my fellow volunteer and I were very excited to have.
So for the inauguration literally we were all crowded around the TVs watching in practically absolute silence; it really was amazing.
The whole event was almost ruined beause after the swearing-in portion the power went out to the entire embassy. You can only imagine how we all felt because we all wanted to hear his speech. But in times like that the only thing one can do is wait and get another drink.
Luckily in a fairly short amount of time the power was restored and we were able to watch the middle/end of President Obama's speech.

The crowd stayed pretty silent for most of the other addresses, but there was an increase in noise when the poet was reading her poem.... anyone else realize that poems delivered in that cadence is the reason why poetry does not have a more important role in American society at the moment??

Overall I am very happy that I was able to get together with a group of Americans and experience it.
A few fun things to note about the night.
1) there was a delay of the feed between the conference room screen and the TVs outside, so it was amusing to hear the reactions of the people inside a few seconds before our reactions.
2) Had a great convo at the buffet line. A guy said is it bad that I am almost more excited about the food then watching the inauguration?.. we informed him that since we are volunteers any free food is always exciting... it should be noted that because of that exchange the 5 of us got invited to a party..haha
3) Almost exactly after Pres. Obama's speech has concluded the embassy had printouts of the new government, aka the key players. And they had it in English, French, an Kinyarwanda.. we were all like wow right off the press..
4) At promptly 8.30 we were all thanked for coming..aka time for us all to leave.haha

So as much as I might have missed being in the US for such an occasion, it was very neat to be in a foreign country.
As my final note I want to say it is truly amazing how the entire world was watching and how at least here in Rwanda many people feel a kinship to him because he is part African, so I can only imagine what it was like in other African countries.

My Thoughts On Kigali-part 1

2009-01-21T22:52:00.000-08:00

I have now been in Kigali for a little over 3 weeks, and even still it is hard to describe the city. Since I will be living here for a year I figure I have time to get a really good description down, but I know that till then some of you are wondering what Kigali is like, so here are my first impressions.
The city just seems massive. Now I know that sounds funny condsidering I have spent time in cities like NYC, Chicago, DC, London, and Rome, but none-the-less it seems massive. The city is spread out over several hills so when you lookout all you see is city all around you. Kigali is also packed with people. At most times of the day it is surprising how many people are out and about(on foot).
Transporation: So there are tons of vehicles on the road. Many of them are fancy cars and SUVS, while many are also good old junkers that are running on their last lives. Then there are the taxi drivers that are always asking if we need rides. There are also moto taxis, which as you most likely can guess are motorcycles that you hop on and use like a taxi. The drivers are clearly marked because they have to wear specific vests and have not only a helmet for themselves but also one for their passenger. The next step down are the minibuses. They pack 18 people into a very small place. Generally they hot and sweaty. I am thankful I am not a very tall nor broad person, because I see some of the guys on the trip in them, and they truly look uncomfortable. Believe it or not there are also a good number of bikes around. And finally there is also a boat load of foot traffic.
For those of you who have not had a chance to look at a map of Kigali: Kigali is divided into districits, so when you want to go from one area to another you go to the minibus stop and you have to wait for a bus that goes to that district. When first explained I had thought it would be crazy, but the system actually works very well. I have learned already that it is really all about what minibus you get on. Unlike in the US when a bus stops at a stop and it takes on whomever is there and then moves on, the minibuses here do not go till the minibus is full. So if you get on at the beginning when the bus is empty you might sit around from anywhere between 5 and 15 minutes waiting for the bus to fill; the key is to hop on the bus as one of the last people. Also all minibus rides are 150 rwf, which I like,while the car taxis and the motos you have to negotiate before you get in/on. Obviously I am planning either on going with the minibus option or just hoofing it. Though I have already gone in a taxi and on a moto once. The taxi because the minibuses do stop running late at night,so taxi/moto are the only options, and there is no way I would go on a moto in the dark(streets are not all lit). I also went on a moto once just to have experienced it. I will admit that it was faster than taking a minibus, but it is more expensive...aka don't think I will be doing that too often. haha.
On the topic of money, I want to describe where I have been living the past 2 weeks. We were staying at St. Paul's Mission. It is a church that on its grounds they run a guest house(motel). Each room has two beds and a sink. Then there are shared bathrooms that include showers (think dorm bathrooms). To be honest this place is really nice and we are all hoping that this is not going to spoil us. St. Paul's is located right below the heart of 'Town' (called ville), which is one way the locals refer to the district. Although the area is very nice and has a lot of good places nearby, the big banks, 24 hr store, american-like internet cafes, it also then means everything is very expensive in comparision to some of the other districts. Also the neighborhood directly across the street is where President Kagame lives, so yah as you prolly can guess its an area where a bunch of wealthy people live. BUT, if there is one thing that I have learned here, there is a huge disparity between very close places(distance wise). Literally there will be huge Malibuesqe homes and then less that 50 yards away there will be more shanty like homes. At times it is very strang to see.
The next thing that I think surprised me greatly was the air quality here. It is not that I assumed the air would be great,but I don't think I would have expected it to be so smog like. I have never really experienced true smog(I will have to inquire with my mom), but I am pretty sure that on certain days the hills are blanketed in a smog, not a fog or a mist. It is also very noticeable when you are walking up a street because a majority of the cars and motos and minibuses have literally BLACK exhaust coming out of them.Yuck. As one girl I met said,"I will never complain about having to have my car checked out." Because of this I find myself waving my hand infront of my face a lot of the time when I am walking and I always try to put myself farthest away from the road.
Now on to roads--> they are great. Everything they say in travel books about the conditions of the roads are true. At least they are in Kigai and from Kigali to Butare. I will of course report back later on the year when I go elsewhere in Rwanda.
My last impression that I want to leave you with is how I believe the Rwandans view us. First of all don't come here if you are not okay with being stared at. We get stared at all the time, by almost everyone, not only children but adults too. Now if you want to make these people have a huge grin just saying hello in Kinyarwandana works. Unfortunetly many of the people here also think that we whites are all rich so everyday at some point whilst we are walking around we get begged and followed around for money. As much as I would/do want to give them money I know that it won't stop them for asking me for more, if anything it will cause others to mob me (not to mention the fact that I am not made of money). But other than that I have found no problems with the people here. They are so humble and gracious and polite that they put most Americans to shame. Even when they are staring they are only doing it out of curiousity, hence why they get happy when we talk to them.

I think for now this will do as my first impressions. As the year goes on I plan to add more and possibly amend whatever I have said here if I discover it is different.

Never Again--don't ever let yourself forget those words

2009-01-13T11:46:00.000-08:00

On Monday we went to the Rwandan Genocide Memorial in Kigali in the morning and then in the afternoon we went to the Genocide site Nyamata, about a half an hour outside of Kigali.

The Genocide Memorial is comprised of a museum section, a rose garden section, and then the burial sections. The museum's first floor is about the Rwandan genocide while the second floor features an exhibit on other historic genocides that have taken place around the world. The numerous rose gardens are maticulously taken care of and look great.There are also several fountain sitting areas that really reflect a serenity that is much needed. The museum itself is very well done.
I had known going in that it would be hard to make my way through the museum, but I am happy that I did. Knowing how emotional I get I had tried to prepare myself as much as possbile, but as expected it was hard to get through. I greatly appreciated the gardens and fountains so that after I had gone through the museum I was able to go and sit and just be by myself.
I will admit that the burial sites were hard to walk by just because in knowing how many people were buried right in front of me was just very difficult to handle.

As I said earlier, in the afternoon we went to Nyamata, which is a town outside of Kigali. The site that we specifically went to is one of their churches. Behind the church there is another burial site. For those of you who do not know, the church in Nyamata is where 10,000 people were killed. They had been in the church for roughly a week before they were killed. Only 5 survived. Currently inside the church is piles of all the clothing of the people killed there. Literally there is clothing piled all over the floor. It was very hard to walk in and see that right away and just know what it signified. No placecards or history was needed, one only needs to look at the clothing and know.
When we had walked from the bus station in Nyamata to the church it was erie because a group of children walked with us and were hugging us and holding our hands[they were just soo happy] and they walked us straight to the church gates and then let us all pass through as they just stood there..

I think many of you can guess what kind of emotions I had on Monday and what emotions I have just rethinking about it and writing about it. Hopefully you can understand why I am not even going to attempt to put them into words; but know that they are there and that they are very strong.

I want to leave you with 3 quotes that I found had touched me when I was going through the museum:

"Igiti Kigororwa Kikiri gito"-Imigani ijy anyen'umuco
and in English
"A tree can only be straightened when it is young"- Traditional

"There will be no humanity without forgivenes.
There will be no forgiveness without justice.
But justice will be impossible without humanity."
-Yolande Mukagasana

"If you must remember, remember this..
The Nazis did not kill 6 million Jews..
nor the Interahamwe kill a million Tutsis,
they killed one and then another, then another...
Genocide is not a signle act of murder, it is millions of acts of murder."
-Stephen D. Smith, Executive Director, Aegis Trust, 2004.

Weekend In Huye[aka Butare]

2009-01-11T12:04:00.000-08:00

So this past weekend our group headed down to Huye for the weekend. we left on Friday from Kigali. We took Volcano buses. We weren't able to buy tickets for everyone on the same bus so we left at 4 and then 4.30. It 127 km away and that took us almost exactly 2 and half hours. This was our first time out of the city, and man was it great.
Honestly I don't even know how to describe the trip and really do it justice. Lets just say I was like a kid in a candy store. My head kept swiveling back and forth so I could try and take in as much scenery as possible. I was rockin out to my ipod and for those of you who knows that means I was having a wicked dance party in my head while I was looking around. First of all the difference between the road and Kigali was night and day. The air felt and looked cleaner and there was just green everywhere. Tons of people were out and about on the road either on foot or on bicycle. I was surpised that for the entire journey there was a legit sidewalk along the road. The hills literally just keep going on and on, it was crazy beautiful. I hope that a fraction of the beauty was able to be captured in my photos, but I'm afraid it wasn't. I will say I was impressed by all the agriculture that was going on everywhere and how the tiering on the hills truly looked neat and I couldn't help but wonder how it was done and maintained... which leads me to another thing that I am always wondering about. Power lines. They amaze me. It felt like suddenly out of the blue they would just be there and I wanted to be like where did you come from and how did you get there..
But that is getting away from the weekend. So Huye is where the National Musuem of Rwanda is located and it is also where a huge university is at. Now I will admit that when I heard univeristy I just assumed what that mean what the city woul look like, and let me tell you one really shouldn't do that..haha.. Huye is essentially a one road city. For the two nights our group was split up.Six of us(myself) included stayed at the volunteer house of VCP[village concept project] and the rest stayed at a guest house (aka hotel or motel). We were finally able to cook our own food at the volunteer house, and let me tell you it was so nice. We had fresh vegetables, eggplant, greenbeans, tomatoes,peppers, ect.. essentially friday and saturday were two of our best dinners yet.
As a side note I had my first chance to use my sleeping bag and I have fallen in total love with it. Not only for its compactability and its downyness, but really cause it is just AMAZING to lay in. I'm actually very excited to get to my placement site and use it every day.
Back to Huye.
So on Saturday morning we went to an orphanage. This was an orphanage that had its focus on children who were either HIV/AIDS postive or whose parents had been. The children only come on Saturdays, during the week they either live with relatives or with host families. When we first got there we first went through a general presentation/introduction and then we went outside to play. At first we sang some Kinyarwandan songs but then we were asked to teach/lead some songs. We did such songs as Head Shoulders Knees and Toes, The Hookey Pokey, Singing in the Rain,and the Birdy Song.. Lets just say the group was very happy that I had been a camp counselor before.. shout out to the Girl Scouts and always being prepared..haha.. After doing that as a whole group we then broke into small groups to do other games. The group I was with first did Miss Mary Mac and then I did the Beaver song. Then we played a Rwandan version of duck duck goose which was tons of fun because all of us whites really tried to sing their words which of course really entertained them. Then we joined the other groups in this massive tug of war/red rover type game. Essentially there are two sides and the one side sings and names someone from the other team, then the other team responds and picks someone from the first team. Then the two people come to the center and they clasp their own hands together while making an interlocking between the two of them. Then they tug and pull as hard as they can in order drag the other person back to their side in order to win. and WOA, this is a hard core event and the kids could just keep going. They actually did keep going till it was time for lunch. Once they had all sat down, my group then acted as a conveyer belt and pased lunch out (approx 100+ kids). After they had been served we too then get a delicious and filling plate of food. We then had a super tasty tea to finish up lunch. After lunch school uniforms and school supplies were passed out the children. School is starting tomorrow(monday) so it was pretty important to get that out to all the children. The girls all wear blue uniforms and the boys wear olive-beige ones. And then it was time to go, so we all headed back 'home.' For most of the hour+ walk we had kids walking with us. And I have to say when my two friends and I stopped for Cokes, I don't think I had ever drank such a nice thing in my life, it was just so refreshing, you wouldn't even be able to believe it.
One more note about the children at the orphanage. They loved our digital cameras. They loved having their photo taken and then being able to see it and they loved taking pictures of their friends. And I'm not sure if it is surprisingly or not but almost all of them loved to do karate moves in their photos, so I decided that their theme song should be Kung Fu Fighting.
Just to sum up the visit to the orphange: other than stating the activities that we did I feel I could not do my emotions or senses justice by trying to describe how I felt while I was there, but I can say I will never forget those few hours that we spent there and I hope sometime in the next year I will be able to go back.
The ride home was almost as great as the ride there, except for the fact that all 20 of us got on the same bus, so it was 20 whites and then 5 Rwandans, and man you should have seen their faces when they climbed on the bus. The most have thought 'man what did I just get myself onto.'
The only notable moment of the bus ride home was the man sitting next to me who used me as a chaise lounge for a portion of the ride..Oh and there was the fact that the radio station the bus was playing for us played Beyonce at least 3 times within an hour's span. Needless to say I am predicting that I will be a HUGE Beyonce fan by the time I get home..

Now we are back in Kigali for another week and then we are all off to our placement sites. I am hoping to get my first impressions of Kigali down soon, so stay tuned..

Better Late Then Never

2009-01-04T12:15:00.000-08:00

So I can't beleive that I have only been in Rwanda for 5 days. Time really does fly. Before I jump to what I have been doing for the past 5 days I have to first talk about the flight over here.

The fight: It was long. I had thought I was standing up and moving around enough, but really I wasn't. When we landed in Kigali and we got to walk on that tarmac I don't think my legs had ever felt so nice. Aside from the length of the flight there were only a few other notable events that happened.
1) when going through the security of dulles airport my toothpaste got taken away from me because it was 3.4 oz and not the allowed 3.0. Obviously I did not argue but man oh man I wanted to.
2)seating on the airplane. Now I know that many of you prolly don't think this could be an issue since everyone has a ticket, BUT it most def can be an issue. So when I got on the plane I walked back to my seat and someone was sitting there; I asked them about it but they said that they were in the correct seat, so I just was like oh I guess I misread the rows and I sat in the row behind. Now another girl from my group came and was like this is my row and I'm 29,so you can't be here if you are in 28. but we just sat together. Then about 15 minutes later a woman came with the other 29 seat ticket, so I let her sit down in her rightful seat. Then I went to find a flight attendent in order to help sort the seating issue out. Essentially 10 rows of people were all one back from where they were supposed to be. So the flight attendent started moving people to their correct spots when the lady next to my friend(row 29) then said oh you want to sit with your friend, ok, I will just move to the open seat. Therefore letting me sit in row 29 with my friend. I was then informed that this is very common and generally causes huge discussions amongst who is going to sit where, and all I can think is that if everyone just sat in there correct seat there would be no issues.
3) my duck tape. So we took the first leg of our leg from DC to Addis Ababa. So in Addis we had to deplane and although we did not go through a passport checkpoint, we did have to rego through security. Since my bag had been overweight in DC I had to take something out to make it under 50 lbs; that item was my roll of duck tape. Now since we all know that duct tape is amazing I did not want to throw it away,so I put it in my jacket pocket. Everything was fine in DC security but not in Addis. They wouldn't let me take it, and I will be honest I was a little hostile and I know that one shouldn't be, but come on they obviously just wanted my tape. And as many of you can guess it ended with me giving up the tape so I could get on my plane:(.

Other than these 3 things the flight was fine. Flying over part of Africa was amazing. The sunrise was stupendeous and flying over the Nile was just unreal. Landing in Kigali was great, and of course getting all my luggage was also pretty sweet:).

T minus 15 days

2008-12-14T16:53:00.001-08:00

15 days and I'm going to Rwanda! CRAZYNESS!!

So this past week as just flown by.

Good News: On Friday I found out my teaching placement for the next year! I'm going to be teaching at an all girl's boarding school, and I have been requested to teach chemistry (of course that could change once in country..). Wohoo! Now when I first looked into this year program in Rwanda I was excited that it was for teaching math and science, but I was still unsure what exact subject I would be teaching; so finding out that I will get to teach chemistry is really exciting. As dorky as this is going to sound, the first thing I did once I found out about the chemistry was to go into my basement to go through my boxes of all my school papers from the past 4 years. I immediately grabbed my course notes from my chem 111 and 112 class, their respsective quizzes and exams, my ACS study guide book, and my chem 108 course notes that I had when I tutored. At first glance I was like sweet I want to take all this with me, but I know that I can't...grr. how am I going to decide what to take? The only thing I can come up with at this time is that I'm going to try and fit in as much as I can. Obviously I will also be bringing my Chemistry text book. Although I have been told the students would have text books and there is a set curriculm for me to teach any type of supplemental stuff I could bring myself would be helpful, so I really do want to bring what I can. I am also considering bringing my atom/molecule set because that could be a fun thing to use with the students, or even just to make something and have that sitting on my desk..not to mention it would give me a reason to play with it myself..haha, side note: I still have my 'pet' from orgo, do you?

Since I only have 15 days left this week is my last chance at shopping for anything/everything else that I could possibly still need. Oh and not too mention its also Christmas shopping time...

Aside from getting myself ready to leave for a year I am also getting ready for Christmas, which in my family means A LOT. Today we went tree shopping. We picked out a tree pretty quickly, I think it only took us about 45 minutes. And believe it or not this year our tree is one of our smallest in years. I would hazard a guess the tree is around 7 ft, compared to our normal 12 footer. So we got our tree set up and its chillin to let the branches lay down so we can put up the lights and all the ornaments tomorrow. The rest of the day was spent putting up outside lights. Now that was some fun.
This coming week will be filled with packing and cleaning and baking and hopefully some quality christmas music! I can't wait for all of it.. especially the baking, or maybe I'm just excited for the eating that comes after the baking. Either way it should be an exciting week, which hopefully will be culminating with one sweet going away party I am throwing for myself. :)

T minus 20 days

2008-12-09T18:40:00.001-08:00

I can't believe that I am finally saying this, but in 20 days I will be leaving for Rwanda.. CRAZY. right. yes. I am a total mix of emotions. I am so excited to go and finally get out of my house and start something new, but of course I am also a little nervous since I don't fully know what is in store for me.

In the last few months I have been trying to do as much as I can to prepare myself so that the next 2 weeks will be as easy as possible for me..

Obviously before going to any country one would like to be informed about that country, so I have tried to read as much about Rwanda as I can handle... Everything from tour guide books to personal blogs, essentially anything that could give me some insight to not only what the culture is like, but also about the history and present. I think like many Americans there is one major thing that comes to mind when one hears Rwanda, so of course I read about the Rwandan genocide. I figured that if I am going to be there I have to read about it and try to gleam even the smallest understanding for myself. Now as much as I 'liked' these books I must say most were at times 'difficult' to read, as in I found myself choked up or crying as I read, but that shouldn't and wasn't a reason not to read them.

Now on the other side of being prepared to go somewhere comes the packing..

What will I really need to bring with me for the next year? This is the question that I have asked myself many times over the past few months, and this is the question that has made me write many a list to try and answer it. Being who I am, I have tried to buy and organize everything I could, as much as I could over the past few months so hopefully this coming week will make packing 'easy' (somehow I don't think it will end up easy). Now since I have been gathering up what I think I will need I will admit I have made some 'fun' purchases.(please note how the fun is in quotes because that fun is my fun, not your fun most likely)... Being the dork that I am I could only but find myself excited to buy and get my handcrank LED flashlights that are seriously the coolest thing I have seen in a while, not to be outdone by my handcrank/plug in/ solar cell speaker I got. So essentially I couldn't wait to use them, so I use them around my house now, cause come on they are the coolest... unfortunately I am pretty sure that is all the fun I am going to get out of packing for the next week because I am of course trying to stay not only as compact as possible(as in # of bags) but also as light as possible(as in I'm gonna be the one carrying the bags)...so here goes me wishing myself luck in packing.

The only other thing that I would like to prepare before I go is the material I could use while teaching. As of right now I don't know what subject I will be teaching, but hopefully in the next week or so I will find out my exact placement so I can then go through all of my lovely text books and figure out a way to bring one or two of them with me.. cause come on if this isn't a reason to use my trig,geometry,calc,physics, or a chem book I don't know what is :)

but seriously I do hope to bring one of my own books not only as a supplemental resource to use in the classroom but also because I am already familiar with it..(guess all that reading the book when the prof said to could actually come in handy..)

Other than that I am just trying to think of some fun stuff to bring that could amuse me and possibly high school kids... I was thinking like twister or travel scrabble or even a domino set.. who knows.. I'm guessing that stuff like that will come down to how much room I have in my bags...

lets just hope I pack like a jackson and not a palladino...

Another Year Gone By

2008-10-09T16:14:00.000-07:00

Buon Compleanno A Me!

Having my birthday provided the perfect opportunity for me to think back upon the last year. So many things changed and happened over the last year , so that at times its weird to even try and think about just one thing. I know that it is trivial to say, but the last year really changed my life. Up till now I would have said that the only other year of my life that has such an impact on my life was my senior year of high school when I lived in Italy through AFS. Which I guess in hindsight shouldn't really surprise me all that much that me senior of college would also have a profound impact on my life. And I guess it won't surprise me a year from now when I look back and say that this year has been another life-changing experience.

For the longest time I really only had one goal: to graduate from ud and to go to grad school. Now don't get me wrong, the past four years at ud were awesome. I loved my major and my friends, and my life.. and I was so sure I knew exactly what I wanted, but as it normally goes, it wasn't meant to be. At this point most of my friends have started new jobs and are off to their new lives. Part of me is envious of them because they have the next step of their lives planned out. In a blink of an eye they went from engineering student to working for some company or in some lab... and then there is me.

Although I have not given up the idea of going to graduate school and pursuing my ultimate goal of being a prof, I realized that it was not the right rime for it. So now I find myself two months away from moving to Rwanda for a year. Considering 'recent' history many people have asked my why, but what I really want to say to all of them is why not?

I know that the next year of my life will be full of surprises and that most likely anything that I could predict might happen won't, so I'm not even going to try. But I can say that I haven't had anything this exciting before me in a while, and I haven't felt this kindof anticipation in a while.

Either way all I know is that since I have graduated I have become just one little CHEG in a big big world :)