The week in review

This past week we had a nice 5 day visit from Carson Schoelkopf a friend from Harwood Union High School.
Carson has been traveling around Africa for the past two months with his Dad, Step-Mom and two step-brothers. He arrived in Kigali from Tanzania where he was living at a 'baby home'. He has just finished building a play place outside for the 40 babies living in the baby home with his Dad. Currently, he is in South Africa, where he will spend the rest of his trip.
You can check out his blog at: http://web.mac.com/j_schoellkopf

It was great to have another friend around who had also been living in Africa. Carson came to teach with us at both Kabuga High School as well as our Conversational English course at the Girimpuhwe Association facility. He enjoyed both thoroughly and didn't want to leave when the time came. Today, Bert Senning arrives for a two week stay. We love having visitors!

Our schedule this past week and coming week will be a bit different because of Kabuga High School's exams. They hold exams for two weeks, on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday for the first week and Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday for the second week. Each day the students have two, two hour exams. The Senior 2 English exam is not until this coming Wednesday, it's the students last exam before they head home for their two week vacation (first two weeks of April - genocide remembrance time for the entire country, everyone takes time off). Neither of us had been aware of this exam schedule for some reason and were shocked, as we had created a two week plan for our students. We wanted to create two plays with the students and work on them over the next two weeks, and have them memorize their lines over vacation. The Harwood Union HS annual trip is arriving in April and we thought it would be a fun way to welcome that group. So we were faced with a dilemma. We told our students what our plan had been, and they agreed that they still wanted to do the play, and agreed to meet with us this past Friday (yesterday) even though it was their day off. So even though we really only have two classes over the next four weeks, the students took the time to come in and write plays with us, which was really great.

Yesterday after we finished the scripts, we asked the girls to show us their dormitories. Ignorance had led both of us to believe that they would be acutal dormitories, rooms with 4-5 students to each room. But we were wrong. Each of the girls was really excited to show us her specific bed, so we saw many rooms, but they were all the same. Like barracks almost, there were about 7 big, long rooms, stuffed to the brim with bunk beds, clothing hanging from the ceiling rafters, and suitcases stuffed in any available space. Almost every student shares their bed as well, making it four to a standard, twin size, bunk bed. They told us that there is so many of them, and they don't mind sharing their beds. Although they seemed happy about the situation, we still couldn't help but feel shocked. The students also are not allowed to leave on weekends, or ever for that matter, unless they have special permission.
On Wednesday, Friday and Sunday they get rice and beans for lunch and dinner.
Every other day they get posho, which is like cornmeal, and beans for lunch and dinner.
Every morning they have porridge for breakfast, no coffee, tea, or juice.
There is a cantina where they can buy bananas and avocados.
Although the students are told to bring their own silverware from home, many of them have had their forks/spoons stolen by other students (only two students in our class have silverware). So they eat with their hands during meals.

The students say that they are happy, and Lillian, one of our students, who is a day student, says she wants to become a boarder, because all of the students and her friends stay here.
When we asked them if there was one thing they could change about their school, they said the food. Rightfully so. We have both tried it and agreed there is a strong taste of dirt present and extreme lack of variety and nutrition.


So not to be a downer of a post or anything. Our students are wonderful and happy and we enjoy teaching them very much. We were bummed when we found out that we didn't have our regular teaching schedule and wouldn't be seeing them as much!


Our Girimpuhwe class is wrapping up. We will be heading into our last week this coming week. Ward Brook Center, who is sponsoring the program would like it to be as professional as possible and had made a plan in the beginning for the class to run for 10 weeks. So unfortunately we will be finishing next Friday, but we have had a GREAT time with that class, and it's definetly something we will never forget, along with many of our students.


So today Bert Senning arrives and we will be spending the next week with him here in Kigali, teaching and doing some small day activities and visits. Then we will have school vacation and we are currently trying to plan a trip out of the country with Bert. Perhaps to the white beaches of Zanzibar, or the plains of the Serengeti. We are not sure yet though, as money is definetly an issue for the two of us, we are on a budget!
Cheap hotels, and good food is what we're looking for!


Thanks everyone for reading, we'll keep posting as much as we can.
-Anna & Sophia