Hi everyone,
Just a quick post to let you know we made it home, after 30 hours of travel, to beautiful Vermont.
Although we are missing Rwanda already, simply, it smells better here. No diesel.
So we are home, exhausted, and a bit confused..
Please also, don't forget:
JUNE 10, 6:30, at CBMS Cafeteria.
Amahoro (peace)
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Visiting
Wow,
So this post was supposed to be up days ago, but, hey, its Rwanda.
So this past weekend we got to visit Mama Maria's (Erika's mother, who we know very well) out in Kabuga. It is the same town/area where we taught, but her house is very much off the beaten path in real Rwandan countryside.
She cooked meals for us and showed us around her plot of land where she grows pineapples, passion fruits, plantains, mushrooms and other things. Mama Maria is also a seamstress but is not able to work from her home in Kabuga because there is no electricity for her sewing machine. Very often she sets up shop at our house and we get to watch her sew and spend time with her.
Without teaching, we have had some time on our hands and were able to spend it doing traditional Rwandan things like, buying t-shirts in our driveway and learning how to make a headress.
These past two weeks we have been sorting and organizing all of the school supplies and books we brought over from America. We made piles and gave out different things to different people we have met. Teacher Dinah, who also taught at the Girmpuhwe association, and works with Dinah (our nanny) and Agness (our cook) to teach them English. We were able to give her some teaching books we brought over as well as some other supplies and books for her children.
On Sunday we took a long bus ride to the East, to Kibungo, to visit Dinah's (nanny) family. We got off the bus in a very small town with one real road, but not many people. It was a girls trip; Dinah, Gaudance, Linda, and the two of us. Finding 5 motorbikes in the town was quite an accomplishment, but after about 30 minutes we were able to hit the dusty trail.
We took another long ride out to, well, basicially the middle of nowhere (compared to Kigali) to a rural village, home to Dinah's family. We were greeted with tons of hugs and kisses, as well as a ton of food! We were served two enormous meals, and expected to eat at both. But the food was delicious and everyone was in good spirits.
Dinah's family consists of, Mama Dinah, two older sisters, two younger sisters, and a younger brother. She lost her father and a brother in the genocide. Currently only one daughter is living with Mama Dinah, because the rest of her children are either married, working (dinah), or at school. Dinah sends her monthly income, although minimal, to her mother to help with school fees or just the cost of living. Sometimes the money also goes to medical bills as Mama Dinah has been diagnosed with Tuberculosis.
Ward Brook Center sponsors one of Dinah's sisters, Alphonsine, to go to school, which is a great help to Dinah and her family.
During our day there we got to see Dinah's land, which is quite a lot for Rwandan standards. We picked some pumpkin squash and tried to carry it on our heads. Although we didn't succeed to walk more than a few steps, we did succeed in looking like fools. They tell us that we can't do it because our hair is too smooth. Perhaps?
We also were able to hang out with all of the children of the village, Dinah's goats (given to her family by the church), and just enjoy her family and beautiful countryside around us.
When we return to Vermont, we will be making various presentations (inclduing June 10 at CBMS!!!). After these presentations we will have Anti-Aids pins for sale, as well as some bracelets woven by one of our Rwandan friends. All profits will be going to a non-profit fund we have set up, "Dinah's School Fund". We will be raising some money through these presentations, but we have also pledged to sponsor Dinah to go to school in the following year. She will be able to continue to work and go to school at night. Eventually Dinah hopes to become a teacher.
So, this is our last post in Rwanda.
We fly out tomorrow afternoon.
It's hard to talk about, write about, think about. It's very unreal for both of us.
We have had such an amazing time here in Rwanda, and aren't really ready to leave. We aren't really ready to return to America and all that goes along with it's advanced society.
We have made such amazing friends here, and fallen into the easy-going lifestyle.
But we know that we will be back and we will never forget our times here.
So this is our last thank you for reading our blog, for supporting us throughout this entire journey and for sharing what you've learned with everyone you know, as we have.
Thank you, Amahoro (peace)
So this post was supposed to be up days ago, but, hey, its Rwanda.
So this past weekend we got to visit Mama Maria's (Erika's mother, who we know very well) out in Kabuga. It is the same town/area where we taught, but her house is very much off the beaten path in real Rwandan countryside.
She cooked meals for us and showed us around her plot of land where she grows pineapples, passion fruits, plantains, mushrooms and other things. Mama Maria is also a seamstress but is not able to work from her home in Kabuga because there is no electricity for her sewing machine. Very often she sets up shop at our house and we get to watch her sew and spend time with her.
Without teaching, we have had some time on our hands and were able to spend it doing traditional Rwandan things like, buying t-shirts in our driveway and learning how to make a headress.
These past two weeks we have been sorting and organizing all of the school supplies and books we brought over from America. We made piles and gave out different things to different people we have met. Teacher Dinah, who also taught at the Girmpuhwe association, and works with Dinah (our nanny) and Agness (our cook) to teach them English. We were able to give her some teaching books we brought over as well as some other supplies and books for her children.
On Sunday we took a long bus ride to the East, to Kibungo, to visit Dinah's (nanny) family. We got off the bus in a very small town with one real road, but not many people. It was a girls trip; Dinah, Gaudance, Linda, and the two of us. Finding 5 motorbikes in the town was quite an accomplishment, but after about 30 minutes we were able to hit the dusty trail.
We took another long ride out to, well, basicially the middle of nowhere (compared to Kigali) to a rural village, home to Dinah's family. We were greeted with tons of hugs and kisses, as well as a ton of food! We were served two enormous meals, and expected to eat at both. But the food was delicious and everyone was in good spirits.
Dinah's family consists of, Mama Dinah, two older sisters, two younger sisters, and a younger brother. She lost her father and a brother in the genocide. Currently only one daughter is living with Mama Dinah, because the rest of her children are either married, working (dinah), or at school. Dinah sends her monthly income, although minimal, to her mother to help with school fees or just the cost of living. Sometimes the money also goes to medical bills as Mama Dinah has been diagnosed with Tuberculosis.
Ward Brook Center sponsors one of Dinah's sisters, Alphonsine, to go to school, which is a great help to Dinah and her family.
During our day there we got to see Dinah's land, which is quite a lot for Rwandan standards. We picked some pumpkin squash and tried to carry it on our heads. Although we didn't succeed to walk more than a few steps, we did succeed in looking like fools. They tell us that we can't do it because our hair is too smooth. Perhaps?
We also were able to hang out with all of the children of the village, Dinah's goats (given to her family by the church), and just enjoy her family and beautiful countryside around us.
When we return to Vermont, we will be making various presentations (inclduing June 10 at CBMS!!!). After these presentations we will have Anti-Aids pins for sale, as well as some bracelets woven by one of our Rwandan friends. All profits will be going to a non-profit fund we have set up, "Dinah's School Fund". We will be raising some money through these presentations, but we have also pledged to sponsor Dinah to go to school in the following year. She will be able to continue to work and go to school at night. Eventually Dinah hopes to become a teacher.
So, this is our last post in Rwanda.
We fly out tomorrow afternoon.
It's hard to talk about, write about, think about. It's very unreal for both of us.
We have had such an amazing time here in Rwanda, and aren't really ready to leave. We aren't really ready to return to America and all that goes along with it's advanced society.
We have made such amazing friends here, and fallen into the easy-going lifestyle.
But we know that we will be back and we will never forget our times here.
So this is our last thank you for reading our blog, for supporting us throughout this entire journey and for sharing what you've learned with everyone you know, as we have.
Thank you, Amahoro (peace)
Monday, May 12, 2008
Update
The Internet is being very slow currently.
We were planning on doing another post with pictures about our weekend. So we will try again later or tomorrow!
But, we do have a good announcement!
We are planning a COMMUNITY NIGHT CELEBRATION AND PRESENTATION.
We are asking all who have being reading the blog, all who know us, and all who haven't been reading the blog, or who don't know us, but are interested to come and see/hear our presentation, talk with us and ask questions. So please spread the word!
The celebration will happen on Tuesday, June 10, 2008 at Crossett Brook Middle School in Duxbury, VT, in the Cafeteria.
We will be arriving at 6:30 to mingle and chat with anyone, and the presentation will start at 7:00pm with time for questions at the end.
We are hoping Green Mtn. Coffee will be donating Green Mtn. Coffee that they harvest in Rwanda and Rwandan tea will also be served. *We are asking all who attend to bring a light dessert to share.*
So mark your calendars now, we look forward to celebrating our amazing experience with you.
We were planning on doing another post with pictures about our weekend. So we will try again later or tomorrow!
But, we do have a good announcement!
We are planning a COMMUNITY NIGHT CELEBRATION AND PRESENTATION.
We are asking all who have being reading the blog, all who know us, and all who haven't been reading the blog, or who don't know us, but are interested to come and see/hear our presentation, talk with us and ask questions. So please spread the word!
The celebration will happen on Tuesday, June 10, 2008 at Crossett Brook Middle School in Duxbury, VT, in the Cafeteria.
We will be arriving at 6:30 to mingle and chat with anyone, and the presentation will start at 7:00pm with time for questions at the end.
We are hoping Green Mtn. Coffee will be donating Green Mtn. Coffee that they harvest in Rwanda and Rwandan tea will also be served. *We are asking all who attend to bring a light dessert to share.*
So mark your calendars now, we look forward to celebrating our amazing experience with you.
Finishing up
This past week was our final week of teaching.
We decided together that we wanted to have our final week in Rwanda be commitment free so we could choose to do whatever we wanted, or felt we needed to. So unfortunately we had to say goodbye to our wonderful Senior 2 family.
(Kabuga is making changes for the better! They are building a library, buying text books, and have made a new sign)
Our class was momentarily interuppted by Vincent Karake and a few of his student helpers. He was stopping in to distribute some of the supplies that HUHS brought over, as well as some things that we donated.
Each student recieved two pens, a pencil, and a fork.
They were all really excited about it, and we were happy to see that supplies were being distributed in an organized and fair way. Kabuga High School is definetly on the rise.
For the rest our last class, our students finished up their "after" tests. We gave them the same test back in February and will now be able to gauge their improvement. Afterwards, they had written and prepared plays to present to the Harwood students when they visited. However, because of the circumstances, they were not able to meet the students or perform their plays. But they wanted to perform them for eachother anyways.
One of the plays was about two of the students getting married and a traditional wedding ceremony. It coincided nicely with the last day, as we brought in a "wedding" cake that also celebrated out final day.
There was also dancing, and a lot of laughing.
Although we were sad to leave our students, it was a wonderful last day. They all wrote letters in their notebooks for us, thanking us and telling us to return as soon as possible. We truly hope that other students from Harwood/VT WILL return and continue to build the relationship we have started at KHS. Although we had our ups and downs, the students were always there, smiling, laughing and eager to learn. They made our experience very special and we know we will never forget them. As they say, not only did we teach them, but they taught us.
Last week we also recieved a phone call from one of our former students at Girimpuhwe Association. He said that they wanted us to come back to Girimpuhwe one final time.
When we arrived (although not all of them) our students were present with Fantas and and gifts for both of us. They gave little speechs about us, thanking us, and telling us we must come back. As we know, and they know even more, they all have very little money. They said it was hard for them to buy even these small gifts but that they hoped we could be happy anyways, because it came from their hearts. Of course we couldn't have been more touched or happy or proud of our students.
So we had a week of goodbyes, but not forever. The connections we made are strong enough that we know it's not possible for us NOT to return. Our students have made that clear, and so have our hearts.
We decided together that we wanted to have our final week in Rwanda be commitment free so we could choose to do whatever we wanted, or felt we needed to. So unfortunately we had to say goodbye to our wonderful Senior 2 family.
(Kabuga is making changes for the better! They are building a library, buying text books, and have made a new sign)
Our class was momentarily interuppted by Vincent Karake and a few of his student helpers. He was stopping in to distribute some of the supplies that HUHS brought over, as well as some things that we donated.
Each student recieved two pens, a pencil, and a fork.
They were all really excited about it, and we were happy to see that supplies were being distributed in an organized and fair way. Kabuga High School is definetly on the rise.
For the rest our last class, our students finished up their "after" tests. We gave them the same test back in February and will now be able to gauge their improvement. Afterwards, they had written and prepared plays to present to the Harwood students when they visited. However, because of the circumstances, they were not able to meet the students or perform their plays. But they wanted to perform them for eachother anyways.
One of the plays was about two of the students getting married and a traditional wedding ceremony. It coincided nicely with the last day, as we brought in a "wedding" cake that also celebrated out final day.
There was also dancing, and a lot of laughing.
Although we were sad to leave our students, it was a wonderful last day. They all wrote letters in their notebooks for us, thanking us and telling us to return as soon as possible. We truly hope that other students from Harwood/VT WILL return and continue to build the relationship we have started at KHS. Although we had our ups and downs, the students were always there, smiling, laughing and eager to learn. They made our experience very special and we know we will never forget them. As they say, not only did we teach them, but they taught us.
Last week we also recieved a phone call from one of our former students at Girimpuhwe Association. He said that they wanted us to come back to Girimpuhwe one final time.
When we arrived (although not all of them) our students were present with Fantas and and gifts for both of us. They gave little speechs about us, thanking us, and telling us we must come back. As we know, and they know even more, they all have very little money. They said it was hard for them to buy even these small gifts but that they hoped we could be happy anyways, because it came from their hearts. Of course we couldn't have been more touched or happy or proud of our students.
So we had a week of goodbyes, but not forever. The connections we made are strong enough that we know it's not possible for us NOT to return. Our students have made that clear, and so have our hearts.
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Good Samaritan School and Harwood's Visit.
The Harwood 2008 Group has come and gone. We hope that a few of them were inspired enough to think about coming back and continuing the first annual trip that Sophia and I have implemented over the past couple months. They were all happy to be here, did a lot of traveling around and got to meet a lot of great people.
Unfortunately all schools have been on holiday for an extra two weeks. There was a teacher's convention held during the school holiday, and they extended the holiday an extra week for the convention. Then when the convention was over, the teacher's demanded a holiday, and so the vacation was extended yet another week. So classes were supposed to resume on April 28th. However, nothing is how it seems in Rwanda. Boarding schools tell students to START arriving on April 28th, so when we showed up for class on Monday, there were no students there. We tried again on Tuesday, but we only had 3 students. We were planning on going in on Thursday, but May 1 is Rwandan Labor Day, so all schools had a one day holiday. So we have been out of the classroom for quite a long time now.
It has been very unfortunate. The HUHS group was not able to come to one of our classes and didn't get to meet many of our students. However, they did do a wonderful job working on the Kabuga High School garden. They brought over about 200 seed packets, and 13 sets of gardening tools and gloves and spent two days working on the garden, planting vegetables for the students to eat!
They met with some teachers who were just as excited and hopefully a KHS Garden Club will be starting up, where both students and teachers take the responsibility of keeping the garden going. The Harwood group also brought over hundreds of reading books, a set of math text books, 800 forks (!) and many other school supplies donated by Staples, that was givent o KHS. So we as teachers, and all of the students and staff were very grateful for that.
With our extra time, we were able to spend more time with the Harwood Group. We brought them to our friend, Teddy, who has started her own Nursery School, Good Samaritan School, running it off love and very little money. She has about 360 students, and 6 classrooms. The students range from ages of about 3-6 years old. You can imagine they were overjoyed at the visit from all of the white Americans, and everyone had a lot of fun singing songs and playing games with them. Harwood also gave some small gift donations (including candy which the kids went wild over). Below are some pictures of the students at Good Samaritan School.
2 weeks from today we will be boarding a plane to return to America. We are both not looking forward to that day. Although we miss home, we have become very comfortable here, with the lifestyle, the people, the country in general. It is going to be an interesting transition back. We will be making many differnet presentations, which will hopefully make it easier for us, being able to share our experiences.
Keep checking, we know we haven't been updating as much. With Harwood here we have been busy. But thank you for all your on going support!
Unfortunately all schools have been on holiday for an extra two weeks. There was a teacher's convention held during the school holiday, and they extended the holiday an extra week for the convention. Then when the convention was over, the teacher's demanded a holiday, and so the vacation was extended yet another week. So classes were supposed to resume on April 28th. However, nothing is how it seems in Rwanda. Boarding schools tell students to START arriving on April 28th, so when we showed up for class on Monday, there were no students there. We tried again on Tuesday, but we only had 3 students. We were planning on going in on Thursday, but May 1 is Rwandan Labor Day, so all schools had a one day holiday. So we have been out of the classroom for quite a long time now.
It has been very unfortunate. The HUHS group was not able to come to one of our classes and didn't get to meet many of our students. However, they did do a wonderful job working on the Kabuga High School garden. They brought over about 200 seed packets, and 13 sets of gardening tools and gloves and spent two days working on the garden, planting vegetables for the students to eat!
They met with some teachers who were just as excited and hopefully a KHS Garden Club will be starting up, where both students and teachers take the responsibility of keeping the garden going. The Harwood group also brought over hundreds of reading books, a set of math text books, 800 forks (!) and many other school supplies donated by Staples, that was givent o KHS. So we as teachers, and all of the students and staff were very grateful for that.
With our extra time, we were able to spend more time with the Harwood Group. We brought them to our friend, Teddy, who has started her own Nursery School, Good Samaritan School, running it off love and very little money. She has about 360 students, and 6 classrooms. The students range from ages of about 3-6 years old. You can imagine they were overjoyed at the visit from all of the white Americans, and everyone had a lot of fun singing songs and playing games with them. Harwood also gave some small gift donations (including candy which the kids went wild over). Below are some pictures of the students at Good Samaritan School.
2 weeks from today we will be boarding a plane to return to America. We are both not looking forward to that day. Although we miss home, we have become very comfortable here, with the lifestyle, the people, the country in general. It is going to be an interesting transition back. We will be making many differnet presentations, which will hopefully make it easier for us, being able to share our experiences.
Keep checking, we know we haven't been updating as much. With Harwood here we have been busy. But thank you for all your on going support!
Girimpuhwe Final Celebration
On Saturday, April 19 (I know, a long time ago), we had our final gathering at Girimpuhwe. It was a big celebration with dancing, Fantas, food, talking and thanking and reminiscing of all of the Girimpuhwe students who participated in the ESL Course. The Harwood Students arrived on Wednesday, and were able to attend and meet some of our students. The students were so excited to be able to talk to other English speaking people, and be able to actually converse with them! It made us so proud to see how well they did. They all exchanged emails, of course, as all Rwandans want an American correspondant.
It was hard to leave them, but over half of them said they would accompany us to the airport, so we'll probably see many of them again.
It was a great celebration, put on by Ward Brook Center, as well as Sophia and I made donations to make the event happen. Everyone had fun and it made everyone feel good.
It was hard to leave them, but over half of them said they would accompany us to the airport, so we'll probably see many of them again.
It was a great celebration, put on by Ward Brook Center, as well as Sophia and I made donations to make the event happen. Everyone had fun and it made everyone feel good.
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