Rory the Rabbit in Rwanda

Rory the rabbit in Rwanda!
Hi all,
I hope all is well there. I’m sure at this stage you are all looking forward to the mid-term break. Time is passing so quickly! I’ll be here 7 weeks on Saturday.
Yesterday, I was given a rabbit!! I was visiting a lovely school in Ngororero. The children, teachers and principal were all lovely. I had to stand on a chair in the yard to introduce myself. It reminded me of scenes in the film Michael Collins! So I was having a lovely day and then when the moto driver arrived to bring me home, the principal presents me with a box. Then the box starts to move and I immediately realised they’d given me one of the rabbits that I’ve seen earlier in the hutch. It was so funny! Thankfully they gave the box to the moto driver to hold because I don’t think I’d have managed to get him home in one piece. When I finally opened the box, the poor rabbit was shaking. I don’t suppose he’d ever been on a motorbike before.
I decided to name him Rory (not after my friend and VSO volunteer Ruairí) because me and my brother would always say “What’s the story, Rory?” and I figured it’s as good a name as any. Plus it works as a girl’s name too if it turns out that Rory is a girl! Plus you’ve got to have alliteration! So the Rwandans think I’m mad because I don’t want to eat him. I’m not sure what I’ll do with him but for now he’s living in my garden and at night he sleeps with the night guard in one of the outhouses.
Today, I went to visit another school. I will help them with their PTA. It reminded me of all my friends on the Aston Village PTA. The principal was a really lovely man. He was very interested to learn about Ireland. He thought Ireland was a province of the UK searching for independence. I brought a history book of Ireland with me that I’m going to lend him as he is very interested in Ireland now.
We’ve been without electricity for the past two days. Here you buy credits and add them to the meter. However, the computer connection at the shop has been down so we had to wait. I think that next time we’ll make sure to buy extra before run out. However, it wasn’t too bad as we have kerosene lamps and stoves so we were well equipped for the dark.
Last week, I bought some material to have some clothes made. Material is quite cheap here. On Saturday I will go to the tailor and have a skirt and dress made. I’m really excited! It’ll be nice to have some new clothes to wear.
That’s all for now! I’m sitting under my mosquito net at the moment. There seems to be more mosquitoes lately, I think it’s because of the rainy season!
Best wishes,
Pauline

Hello from Rwanda

Hi all,
I hope you are all keeping well! I’m really excited that I’ll be back in Ireland for two weeks at Christmas and hope to see as many of you as possible.
Last weekend, I went to visit Ruhengheri (famous for the gorillas!). There is another Irish volunteer based there so I stayed with her. She is very lucky, she has electricity and running water! It was a nice break from the outhouse for the weekend. We didn’t visit the gorillas (I’m waiting for the dry season) but we did see the volcanoes and lakes. It’s very beautiful there. It was quite overcast and it reminded me a lot of home. While we were there we were only 25 km from the Ugandan border. I plan to visit there soon with a couple of other volunteers.
At school, the exams have started for all of the children. They must pass the exam at the end of one year in order to pass into the next class. A lot of children have to repeat years. I am looking forward to visiting a school tomorrow. The principal is a really nice lady who doesn’t speak much English so it will give me an opportunity to use my French. The children must sit all of the exams except Kinyarwanda in English.
It is the short rainy season here at the moment. In Rwanda, the seasons are different. There is the short rainy season, the short dry season, the long rainy season and the long dry season. Here, there is usually a storm in the evenings. The rain makes a lot of noise on the roof. It is really difficult to hear anything. One afternoon, we had a visitor during the rain and all we could do was sit looking at each other while we drank our Rwandan tea, it was impossible to talk. There hasn’t been rain yet today so I’m waiting for it!
I’ve posted some more letters even thought I don’t think the ones I posted a month ago have arrived yet! Its funny posting letters here because you have to put so many stamps on the envelope it’s like a jig-saw! The post office is an hour away on a taxi-bus so I usually post a few at a time and check my post box to see if anything has arrived for me. It’s funny having a post-box. The postman doesn’t deliver to houses here so anyone that wants to receive post must rent a post-box!
Take care,
Pauline

Teachers' day and cow ceremonies!

Hi all,
Sorry for the delay in updating. Unfortunately, I can’t blame the power cut because we had power back the next morning. It has been a busy week. Saturday night, I went to the nearest “city” for a birthday party. I stayed with some friends. I was looking forward to being in a house with running water (since I don’t have any) but their water had been off for a couple of days so I was out of luck.
The party was great though. It was an “Italian feast”. The food was amazing! Since I don’t have an oven, I’m limited in what I can cook so it was a real treat to have things like lasagne and brownies. It is possible to buy most ingredients in Kigali (the capital city) but things that are imported are very expensive. For example a tin of tuna is about €4.00. It is much cheaper to buy fresh local produce.
Tuesday of this week was “Teachers’ Day”. I went to visit Gatumba (one of the sectors in the district of Ngororero) to join in the celebrations. First there was a football match between the primary school teachers and the secondary teachers. Then we were brought to the local secondary school for some speeches. I was lucky because I had someone translate for me. Then after we had lunch (chicken and chips!), there was a cow giving ceremony. The cow is very important in Rwandan culture. To give someone a cow is a sign of friendship. The school I was visiting were giving another school a cow. The cow will then provide milk for the pupils to drink. The ceremony was really good. The principal sang a song and did a dance with a stick. I videoed it so I can show it to you when I get home. Then the teachers did some Intore dancing. It is the traditional dancing of Rwanda. It’s great fun.
Today, I took a moto taxi (motorbike taxi) to a school and did some training with the teachers. After, I had the chance to watch some of the classes. I love the days I get to visit schools. The children are always very friendly. They love saying good morning (even if it’s the afternoon). Some of the children were fascinated by the colour of my skin. Some of the girls kept touching my arm. They haven’t seen many white people there!
Now, I’m back at my house. There is a big storm going on outside. At the moment it is the short rainy season. It usually rains for about an hour a day. While it rains, most people just stop and shelter until the storm stops. I think it’s a nice way to live. People have the time to just stop until the rain stops!
This weekend, I plan to go to Gitarama to collect my post (I have a postcard and letter waiting to be collected so I’m very happy!) and then I’ll go to Kigali. There is a festival this weekend. There will be live music and all you can eat and drink! A lot of my new volunteer friends are going so it’ll be nice to see how everyone is getting on.
Best wishes to all my friends and family all over the world. I’ve had visits to my blog from 7 countries on 3 continents!
I’ll update again soon,
Pauline

Some practicalities!

I have just arrived home from a day visiting schools to no electricity. I'm really glad now that I practised lighting the lamp during the week  Here is a picture of the kerosene light we use when there are power cuts. Electricity came about 2 months ago to Ngororero so before that this is what my housemate used every evening. It gets dark here at about 6 o'clock so people tend to go to bed early and then rise early. I usually get up at about 6 and go to bed at about 9.

I had a great day visiting schools in very rural areas.  I think some of the people I met today had never seen a muzungu (foreigner) before.  It was market day so there were a lot of people and they all gathered around to have a look at me.  It was very funny! I'll try to write more over the weekend but for now I better conserve the battery since I don't know when the electricity will be back.

Update from the West Province

Hi all,
Thanks to all of you for your words of encouragement for my blog. It'll keep me motivated to update it! there have been 213 hits to date from 7 different countries! I just spent the past hour uploading photos and then somehow deleted them by accident so you'll have to wait another few days for more pics!

Things are really good here. Today I visited some secondary schools which gave me a chance to see some of the beautiful views.  I love all of the hills and valleys. I think it's the most beautiful country that I have ever visited.  Those of you who can should come to visit! I can even offer you a spare mosquito net.

The food is good here. Last night we went to a local bar to have some goat brochettes and igitoke (which I'm pretty sure is plantain).  The last time we were there it was very chewy but this time they were really nice. Apparently the key is to ask them not to give you the insides or the spine! Although a good friend and mentor of mine actually prefers it! Horses for courses ...

Ok! My housemate is calling me for dinner so I'll say ijoro ngiza (sp?) for now!

The school barbershop!

One of the schools I visited during the week requires the children to keep their hair very short for hygiene purposes.  This school had set up a barberhop on the school grounds to raise some money for the school!

Update from Gitarama.

Hi all,

At the moment I am staying in a city called Gitarama with another Irish volunteer. Each day I visit different schools with another Education Management Advisor called Michael.  We travel on a bus, a motorbike or on the back of a bicycle.  It has been really nice to visit some schools and to talk to some of the pupils, teachers and principals.

In Rwanda, the children study 5 subjects for their exams: English, Kinyarwanda, Maths, Science and Social Studies.  The children asked me many questions about Ireland. I wonder if the pupils in Aston Village ETNS would ask the same questions if a Rwandan teacher came to visit. Here are some of the questions and the answers a Rwandan teacher would give.

What is the capital city of your country? Kigali

How big is your country? Rwanda is approximately 26,000 kilometres squared (roughly the size of Munster)

Who is the president of your country? Paul Kagame

How many children in your class? Between 25 and 78 pupils in a class

Do children in Rwanda wear a school uniform? Yes (most of them wear uniforms)

How many years of primary school? Six years

What games do the children play? Basketball, football, skipping (these are only the games I’ve seen so far but I’m sure I’ll learn more!)

How do teachers get to school? Most of the teachers I have met walk or cycle to school.

The children was very surprised to learn that all children in Ireland go to school from Junior Infants to Leaving Cert.  On boy wondered if even the poor children go to school for that long.  Here most children have to pay for the second 3 years of secondary school, which is one of the reasons that not all of them have the opportunity to complete secondary school.  Also, in Rwanda children must pass an exam at the end of one class in order to move on to the next class. This means that there are a wide range of ages in one class.  One boy I met today who was 15 years old was in the final year of primary school

In all of the schools I was asked whether I was married or not. People are very curious about my marital status here!  

I have some great pictures of a wonderful mural I saw at one of the schools but unfortunately I am not able to load them at the moment. I will try again soon.  It is called the wall of dreams and all of the children have painted their handprints and written their dreams on the wall.  I think their dreams are very similar to what the children in Ireland would pick!

I’ll try to add the photos soon.

Best wishes to you all,

Pauline