2/24/2018 0 Comments February 24th, 2018After the baseline data collection finished I was in Muhanga in the Splendid Hotel. By a very lucky coincidence the following day a good friend of mine and ex teacher colleague from Welsh Water, Helga, was coming to Rwanda to visit a link school. She was coming to Muhanga and was staying for the week in the Splendid Hotel! So instead of going back to Kigali with the rest of the team I stayed in Muhanga. Glyn joined me and we went to stay for the weekend with Jan and Ronin fellow volunteers who live in Muhanga. It was a pleasant weekend we went for a walk, Glyn borrowed a bike from a local (he was missing his bike!) It was great to meet up with Sharon and Helga and find out how their visit to their link school (Mushabati Primary) was going On Monday we were due to leave Muhanga. Our house was ready in Nyamasheke and the furniture and our luggage (yes I was still using that small bag of smelly clothes!) was being brought from Kigali. We were going to be picked up around 10am which would mean we would be in our new house late afternoon. It was all looking good. Then I had a text message from Christian who was organising everything for me "you are going to kill me.." We had to delay by a day as the vehicle that was supposed to be transporting us and our luggage was full of other volunteers! So we delayed a day. On Tuesday we were picked up the delightful Bernard and reached Nyamasheke mid afternoon. We had our luggage but there was an issue with the furniture. Some had made it to Nyamasheke, but not all. Christian asked - "do you need a hot plate tonight?" (in other words - do you plan on eating today?) He then added that it was a rhetorical question! No hot plate = no food = raid the emergency chocolate supply (thank goodness we did have our luggage). The bed was also a challenge as the base they brought was narrower than the bed! The house is in a stunning location with amazing views over the lake. It is also huge with four massive bedrooms, a large living room, a dining room, big kitchen and various other rooms - for washing clothes etc. There are five bathrooms with four hot water boilers next to the showers. So in theory we should have hot water for showers. But none of them are plumbed in. Some have inlets and no outlets, some are not connected to the power. With one when you turn on the shower the water comes out of a hole in the opposite wall. The kitchen has electric sockets but they don't work! Our landlady - the delightful Ernestina, is trying to help get some of these issues fixed and has turned up with various electricians and plumber to get things sorted. Not quite happened yet but we are getting there! For some time we didn't have any chairs. But we do have Glyn's motorbike! And I have made some curtains - so "slow by slow' we will make our house a home!
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2/23/2018 0 Comments Defining ruralThe past two weeks have been very busy. I had a second week of visiting schools in the Western Province in the sectors of Ngororero and Karongi. Stunning scenery and very steep hills! Every day involved a long car journey and sometimes a hike by foot to reach the schools. The most challenging by far was one school where we spent an hour and a half by car followed by two and half hours on foot. I had been told in the morning by Sam, our team leader, that the Headteacher had contacted him and said it had been raining cats and dogs - and the 'way' was very bad. We were met by the Headteacher at the start of the walk. He said it usually took an hour. The rest of the team said you could always double the time at least as the Headteacher would usually walk much faster than us. It was very slippery and very steep. Going up wasn't so bad but the steep downhill sections were like ice and I regretted the sandals and wished I had decent walking boots. After two hours we reached a swollen river - the bridge had been washed away. A group of locals built us a stepping stones bridge out of large boulders which wobbled when you stood on them! We all made it across although I did have a near fall into the water and was saved by one of the locals who then tried to pick me up and carry me the rest of the way! One of the team refused to cross going over the stones and with the help of a local waded through a shallower part of the river. After another very steep slippery climb we finally reached the school. The two weeks of working with the data collecting team came to an end and we said our goodbyes.
We had been a great team and had shared many experiences together. We visited nine schools over the two weeks and observed around 60 Maths and English lessons as well as testing hundreds of children for Maths and English. Hopefully the data we collected and those from the other 16 teams will help to build a national picture of the levels and Maths and English in lower primary across Rwanda and will be a useful baseline for us before we start training teachers. It was sad to say goodbye to Team A although we are still in regular communication via What's App. It's yet another experience I won't forget. 2/5/2018 0 Comments Still waiting.......Can we have the house? Yes When can we have it? Well that is proving to be a more difficult one to answer. We have now been in Rwanda for almost five weeks and are still waiting for a house to move into. I'm currently in Karongi (half way up Lake Kivu), Glyn is in Rusizi (about three hours away) at the bottom of Lake Kivu and our luggage is all stored in a hotel in Kigali on the other side of Rwanda. I am currently managing with very few clothes (in their second week of wearing) so if I am not reunited with my luggage and clean clothes pretty soon I am going to lose the new friends I have made! The house has been promised for next week - we will see. I left Kigali a week and a half ago having packed all the luggage for the umpteenth time and stored it in a spare room at the Hosanna guesthouse. Then I travelled with my data collecting team across Rwanda by car to Nyamasheke to stay once again in the Ishara Beach Motel. It is a beautiful location right on the edge of Lake Kivu and is best described as a hotel with potential. There is even a helicopter landing pad alongside the extensive grounds. It has WiFi - but it doesn't work! We had a VIP room with a separate living room - three remote controls but no TV. The mosquito net was sparkly and had beads on it and a fancy opening all down one side which meant the mozzies found their way in causing a nightly game of mozzie tennis - usually around 4am. Every morning we would open the curtains to be greeted by an eagle sat in the tree right outside. As the hotel is only an hour's drive from where Glyn is working he joined me for the week. He borrowed a car and was driving into Rusizi for work at the Rwanda Aid offices. I spent a week in Nyamasheke at the hotel with a team of fab Rwandans. I was the token muzungu causing chaos in all the schools we visited as they were pretty remote and many of the children had not seen a white person before. In one school we were told by some of the children it was only the second time they had known a car to come to the school. My role in the team is to observe teachers teaching maths in lower primary classes. As the children in these classes are taught in Kinyarwanda I have a translator - the delightful Gratien who is so patient with me. We are collecting baseline data on the standard of maths teaching and as there are 17 teams all over Rwanda the idea is to build up a national picture of teaching standards. Other members of the team are testing children's levels of English and Maths, interviewing teachers and the Headteacher and there is also another team member who is observing the teaching of English. We spend the whole day at the schools. As most of the schools are pretty remote we set off early and sometimes have to walk part of the way as the roads become inaccessible even in a 4X4 with very experienced Rwandan drivers. We have had a few interesting drives and got stuck a few times. One log bridge had collapsed but the locals soon appeared to help repair it enough for us to get across. See the school on the hill behind me? That is where we were going! Made it to the top - the views alone were worth the climb. My colleague and translator, Gratien It rains a lot in Nyamasheke - we are right on the edge of the Nyungwe Rainsforest so I guess it's not really surprising. Dark clouds rolled in most days and we were watching the weather carefully as the roads were only just accessible in dry weather. In one school that we visited we were told that occasionally in bad weather the teachers are stuck and sleep in the classrooms. As soon as it started to rain we hotfooted it back down the hill to the safety of the car taking only a fraction of the thirty minutes we had needed on the ascent. For four days the team worked hard, leaving early in the morning to reach schools and we sometimes needed to walk the final leg as roads were narrow and steep or the little bridges were not wide enough to accommodate a car. Moto drivers still managed to make their way up the steep slopes. This one was carrying a mattress! On Thursday February 1st there was a bank holiday - Heroes' Day which is equivalent to our Remembrance day back home. As there was no work and the schools were shut it was an opportunity to head into Rusizi and visit the beautiful Hotel Emeraude. We received a very warm welcome from Eugene the manager and the other staff. We also met up with Emmanuel the Headteacher at ECPS Primary to help him with his application for British Council funding so that the school they are linked with can send some teachers out to visit. It is a very lengthy process and the deadline is looming but fingers crossed. We worked for several hours but Emmanuel still had a lot of further work to do over the next few days. It was lovely to be back in Rusizi. We stayed all day and left just as the sun was starting to go down. I never tire of the beautiful views of the lake. We had a final weekend in the Ishara Beach hotel and managed to watch Wales beat Scotland very convincingly in the first game of the Six Nations. With no Wifi we used a fair bit of data (about £2) but it was worth it - and it was Glyn's data! On Sunday it was time to leave Nyamasheke. I was going north with the team to Karongi ready to visit another round of schools. Glyn headed south back to Rusizi. Shortly before we parted company we received the very sad news that a very good friend of ours had passed away the night before. We had the news on World Cancer day. He had been bravely battling cancer by living his life to the full. As well as being a lovely lovely man who will be sorely missed by all who knew him, the way he lived in that final year is a lesson to us all - make the most of it, whatever you choose to do. I am looking forward to being with Glyn again so we can reflect and share a beer or two in true Mike style. But in the meantime a happy memory photo from just over a year ago - the famous Bodega Band reunion gig. The hotel I am currently staying in is fantastic. Beautiful views (of course), the rooms and the food are excellent too. Not sure that Glyn is quite so lucky! There is WiFi. And it works. And three very important features - a bath, hot water and most vital of all - a plug! Perhaps I will keep my new friends after all. Right signing off now - our team leader has requested that we leave at 6:28 tomorrow morning.
Hopefully next time I write we will be in our new home.............. Thanks for reading! |
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December 2018
Preparing to go back to our second home
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