It has been far too long since I have written - but I find that I am in such a routine these days that I being to forget that the small things I experience throughout the day may in fact be interesting to others :-)
Last Monday, before I wrote my previous blog entry, was a national holiday due to the inauguration of President Paul Kagame. It was an interesting ceremony to watch on TV. Most of it was in Kinyarwanda, but there were some parts translated into English. The event took place in their national stadium and I had heard that people were lining up at 6am as it was first come, first entry - no tickets. The stadium was PACKED and the crowd was all dressed in Rwanda colors (blue green and yellow) spelling Kagame's name in the crowd - it was crazy! There were MANY other heads of state here which was so interesting because the night before and for two nights following, we heard so many helicopters flying overhead near the airport, probably added security for these folks. At any rate, after the introduction of each person, they had a blessing from a Muslim imam and a Catholic priest and then had the infamous Rick Warren speak on behalf of the US....that was interesting, to say the least.....there was much talk from all parties speaking about how Rwanda people have taken to the polls and have spoken their minds freely about what they want for their future. I won't get into the details too much of his speech, nor my impressions of them as you can surely find the news online, but it was quite interesting to see how the country thinks they are viewed from the international perspective and how they have come together under some sort of national unity against outside influences for the better of their country....The rest of the ceremony included a very beautiful group doing an intore dance, with men dressed as warriors with a spear and shield (symbols of Rwanda's security) and women dressed in their traditional toga-like dress, with the most graceful, swaying movements I have witnessed in dance - this part was worth it! There was a signing of sorts, a presentation of their flag and national symbols and national emblem and then an inspection of their troops - and much laying of their anthem. All in all, it was a unique experience to have witnessed....
The last week and a half I have been feeling exhausted with the children in the kindergarten! You would think with time they lose energy, but these children just continue to find it somewhere! LOL I have continued to work on teaching the days of the week and months of the year. It is hilarious, actually, because I was asked to teach them as "day 1 is...day 2 is..." and the same with the months. So, I hold up fingers and ask now, "What is day 1?" and they should back Monday! But after Monday, every day seems to be Friday! And I taught them a little rhyme, "No school Saturday, no school Sunday!" So those are a cinch...but, the as I ask for day 4, they are shouting, "April!!" with such vigor and enthusiasm, I hate to tell them they are wrong... LOL They are just so freaken adorable! I love these kids!
Another thing I was just asked to do was to teach Professions....so...we opted for Teacher, Carpenter, Bus Driver, Doctor, Policeman, and Pilot (much at the teacher's direction...) Last night I went home and used my VERY little artistic skills to draw these for class. I presented them today to the class and the kids really loved them! The teacher did, too, and asked me to do them again on white paper (instead of on the colored paper like I did) so that they can make photocopies and distribute to the students :-) This made me so happy to hear! Although, my Carpenter is going to do a better job at making a bureau that isn't lopsided and my doctor will hopefully look a bit more professional this time around :-)
So yes...I was in school today helping the teacher write the homework assignment for the kids (since there was no power to use the photocopy machine...) and I started thinking that I really do enjoy the teaching part of my day more than I had thought I would. I was just so terrified of not having enough direction or thinking my ideas wouldn't be good enough, but I think that is more due to the culture of teaching here, and how there isn't really a set curriculum that the teacher follows, at least not for that young age....but maybe, perhaps, just maybe, teaching kids will be something I may find myself doing more of at some point in my future....I really enjoy teaching these small concepts and helping the students...and it is so incredibly fulfilling when I see them really get something right! So yeah....just another idea to throw in the mix in my mind's potpourri of thoughts.......
I have been making more progress with Kharim, too....bahoro bahoro...he was doing so well last week at sounding out words, so just yesterday I started working on speaking words and having him write them down. I was also provided a great little activity book by another volunteer who just left and it went along perfectly with the way I was trying to teach vowel sounds. So yes, I feel I have a new resource and even more motivation, day by day, to keep working with him. I told him yesterday that he will be able to read a short book before I leave. He laughed and shook his head........I told him how proud I was already of his progress and insisted it WILL happen - so I have my work cut out for me!
Back at the house, yesterday was the departure of John - the older volunteer who was here for three months and whose words of advice really helped me cope with adjusting to life here for the long haul (as compared to the others...) And then today, my dear friend Charlotte, who has become such a close friend during her month here, left to get back to Germany....I am now in the house with just three new people who just arrived yesterday. It makes for an exciting six more weeks as the dynamics in the house are sure to be very different from my first six weeks. There is an 18 year old girl (staying for one month) who will likely join me at Gisimba starting Friday. The other two are 22 (staying for 6 weeks) and 25 (staying for 1 month) and are both in the literacy program.
Well - that seems to be all the pertinent news from here...I hope everyone is enjoying the coming of autumn...my favorite season!!
And here I will give a warm shout-out to Alan and Emily, getting married on Saturday, September 18 - I miss you two and will be sending you warm wishes across the oceans on your special day.... :-)
Hugs to all,
Tracie
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Saturday, September 4, 2010
"When you realize the value of all life, you dwell less on what is past and concentrate more on the preservation of the future." ~Dian Fossey
Musanze - what a beautiful escape from the harshness and clouded Kigali! We took Friday off from work to begin a three-day adventure to the north, in search of relaxation, solitude, some village scenes and gorillas! You have no idea how happy I was from the early morning hours when the breakfast table was set with the delicious fruit salad which I have been blessed to have only three times so far! What a welcomed change from the daily bread - the bread varieties always remind me of Bubba in Forrest Gump and all his shrimp varieties! LOL I mean how many ways can you have bread served before it sadly becomes a bit dull....the little joys we find here in fruit, flat land and hot water ;-)
Charlotte and I arrived in Musanze in the early afternoon and knew immediately how lovely this town already was. As a base community from which many people begin their gorilla treks, they are seemingly used to tourists around, so the infamous "muzungu" wasn't shouted at us nearly as often. After meeting with the tour company through which we were planning a community visit, we decided the walk would be best for Saturday. So for the afternoon we planned a short excursion on our own to Mukamiira - a less-frequented village 30 minutes away in which a small but tranquil lake would be our destination for some reading and journaling. But first, LUNCH! I must say it is so great to travel with someone who enjoys eating the local food as much as I do! We found the Green Garden buffet just off the main road and had such peace enjoying our lunch in their small garden area behind the building. From here, taking in the scenes around us, we spotted an oddly shaped figure in the hills off in the distance. As we starred at it, we soon realized it was a person...but this man towered over the few buildings surrounding him. Thus, we aptly named him, the Musanze Giant :-) Our story of this man involves some injustice he faced due to his towering figure and thus he was ostracized to this mountain to overlook the community for eternity....and somehow, the moral of the story will involve the community embracing him when he saves the town from a landslide, likely to be caused by some earthquake...So that is about as creative as we could get.... :-) But I am telling you, this "giant" continued to interest me and if I had had the time, I surely would have tried to find a path up this hill to speak to him myself!
After lunch we checked into this lovely guesthouse where a woman has opened the front part of her property as a guesthouse and rents out the rooms separately. It boasted a peaceful porch from which we could view the "Musanze giant" and take in the serenity of this town. After settling in, we caught our afternoon bus to Mukamiira. The bus ride was really so beautiful The mountains from the Volcano Park were so prominent all around the town. The clouds softly hiding the peaks allowed for breathtaking views. It was a bit hazy in the distance, but I was unsure if it was due to pollution or the natural clouds for this time of year. At any rate, as we stepped off the bus we soon realized that the town certainly is not as accustomed to tourists as the "muzungu" shouting and the following soon began. We thoroughly enjoyed the walk as we watched the locals at a couple different watering stations and could see more closely the plots of land being cultivated with cassava, maize and bananas, to name a few. It was so picturesque as a handful of children followed behind, laughing and smiling while a man biked by packing a load of bananas and woman passed balancing insanely heavy bags of what I could only guess were potatoes of sorts on her head. We reached the turn off to head towards the lake and it was soon apparent that we were now the the main attraction. As we made our way down the narrow dirt trail, we were leading a train of one older woman and three girls which soon became quite a group of people. The views of this small lake in the late afternoon sun were really calming, but the masses of people following us was a bit unnerving. We decided to stop and sit on a small grass hill near the shore of the lake and watched a teenage boy put out a fishing net along the shore, carefully untangling and dropping it just-right along the bank. But around us, teenage boys were everywhere! At one point, I counted 21 people who were watching us. And it wasn't as though they were watching from a distance - no, there were many sitting all around, with four right in front of us, laying on the ground with the chins propped on their hands, starring at us as though we were an exhibit in the zoo.....it was really quite annoying. I put on my bug repellent and one boy tried to lean over and smell me while another I found leaning over my shoulder as I tried to write in my journal. Trying not to be rude, I asked the crowd to back away and they did, but the lake soon lost its appeal since we could not be left alone, so we headed back to the path and on to Musanze. Even with the disturbance, overall we had a really nice time just being out and about, taking in the fresh air all around us. Back in Musanze we hit up the outdoor market to buy our fruit for dinner - pineapple, bananas, avocado, maracuja, and passion fruit.
Saturday we woke around 6:30 for another peaceful morning sitting on the front porch, drinking some Rwanda black tea, listening to man singing off in the distance, the birds whistling their tunes and soon watching a new rain cloud move through. The rain started just as we were enjoying our breakfast of banana, maracuja and bread with butter & peanut butter and banana and peanut butter, which I must say have made me a bit nostalgic. With the rain falling, the temperature quickly dropped as it seems to do here, fluctuating 10 degrees or more between every time a short rain comes through and the sun chooses to shine.
We met our guide, John, and he led us through the streets to these roads heading down to a village at the base of these mountains. To walk down, past women and children living in their real homes, going about daily life was a fresh pace for both of us. It seems getting out of the main roads allows my soul to connect with something almost bigger than myself. We were told how they will be already making the trek to town at 5am with baskets full of things to sell, so those walking back that we saw, with empty baskets, were complete with round one. Many times we were joined by trails of children again - always walking on your heels making navigating down a narrow rocky dirt path a bit challenging for my clumsy self. They really are okay in spurts, but I find the constant following and touching a bit much at times. We find ourselves constantly balancing personal space with natural curiosity - something I doubt I will master before I leave here....I really do wonder if there will be a time where "muzungu" is no longer hollered and the children may not follow strangers to the edges of their villages...so we walked through so many banana fields and made it to the base of the hills where women were cultivating the land. There was his hazy fog just gently embracing the hills around us. And every so often clouds of smoke rising from the hills were they were burning fields or grasses. The silence and calm was so welcoming...we saw along the way evidence of the stages of banana beer making. The sorghum soaking in canvas bags in the river to turn them dark, the heaps of banana leaves under which the banana were fermenting, and the drying of the sorghum before they add it to the fermenting bananas. We also were able to see how they made containers woven out of banana leaves and cow dung to place in the trees for bees to capture their honey. The final destination was a basket weaving co-op. They were not really weaving that day but they did come to show us how they do it, wrapping one kind of grass around stands of another thinner type of grass. After the hour and a half walk there and the 30 minutes in the hot sun, we back up a main road - up, up, up back to Musanze. Another trip to the fruit market and lunch before we caught another bus up to Kinigi- our base before the gorilla trek on Sunday!
As we got off the bus in Kinigi, I was overwhelmed with the beauty all around. The mountains were sooo close, even with their distance. I felt so much excitement being there! We had to walk up a long hill, just about 1k, but it was up and up and for me, it was amazing. The mountains really surrounding us and the late afternoon sun behind the clouds was so beautiful. I snapped a couple photos of the sun hiding behind the clouds as the mountains prepared to welcome the setting sun. We walked with more children following behind us and Charlotte discovered the simply asking them to stop and go home actually works! We simply must remember this for next time! :-)
Once we finally found the guesthouse, relief set in so we could finally stop working so hard! The people working there seemed very sweet but the rooms were not as nice as we expected - I get the sense that most places can get by up there with the minimum since the gorillas are such a popular destination - they will get business anyway. As we were settling in, I heard very loud thunder all around, rolling through the mountains and the sky began to flash with lightning. The storm as it moved in was gorgeous - just as the sun was setting, there was nearly a straight line in the clouds separating the clear blue from the dark grey. The rain was falling so hard for most of the evening that the ceiling in our bathroom was actually leaking through the night. Back in our room, we used my swiss army knife to cut up our pineapple, which I must admit I did a fab job at, leaving only the base and the center core still standing :-) We shared a nice salad and some African Tea (like Chai tea) back in the restaurant, sitting around a hot fire, listening to the rain, and chatting with an interesting family from New Zealand. They had seen the gorillas that morning, so just listening to them talk about the experience really put me in the mood for the next day!
Sunday morning was a sign of great things to come when the rain was holding off but the skies were just overcast enough to keep the air nice and cool. After a quick early breakfast, we met our hired driver who took us to the ORTPN office to meet the guides and to be assigned to a group. It was crazy to see how many people were all around; some of whom had done treks in the past, others just as excited to have their first experience like me. My excitement was accompanies with some nerves, curious to which group I would be assigned and what family of gorillas we would be tracking. They say some came be found in as little as 20 minutes while others can take two hours or so. If you know me at all, I am sure you can guess I was really looking forward to one of the longer hikes - to really be able to experience the forest in which these amazing animals live! Well, I had 5 Australians in my group and two from Texas. We were going to be tracking the Hirwa family with 12 members, the youngest a baby of only six months! The silverback made his way to this family from two other mountains, surviving as he battled for space in two other groups before he found this one. Their names means Good Luck.....
Since Charlotte was hiking the Dian Fossey tomb trail, she used our driver and I joined a couple in my group and their driver to get to the trail head. The 30 minute drive took us to the base of the mountain where our guide explained all the rules about the hike and passed our our walking sticks. We began making our way through very large bamboo forests with a tracker in front using his machete to cut through the thick bamboo for us to squeeze through. We saw fresh antelope and buffalo prints in addition to elephant dung and prints - I still cannot believe an elephant fit through this dense area of the forest! I soon began to see how helpful the walking sticks really were as we worked our way up very steep mountain sides. I kept envisioning what it would be like when we see them - sitting amongst trees while we would kneel behind surrounding trees and watch them from a comfortable and clear distance - it was nothing of the sorts! We went up and up and up, for about 90 minutes until the trackers told our guide we would find them down the side of this mountain and across the valley below. So our ascent quickly turned to an extreme descent! We were standing at what seemed to be a cliff, but our head tracker began using his machete and cutting branches of trees on the side of the mountain on which we were challenged to find some decent footing, all the while slipping on the wet stalks and trying to hang on to the branches and roots above us. You shouldn't be surprised to know I did slip and fall a couple of times....but the fall was so weird because you're walking almost straight down, as if you were going down a ladder, do "falling" was more like me losing my footing, laughing so much as I held on to a branch above my head as my feet worked to find something to rest upon. We were all slipping around everywhere but the porters were so great at helping us all in our moments where balance left us. Not only was knowing that we would soon be near the gorillas keeping all of our spirits up, but the views were spectacular! It was something I had never seen before in my life! We really felt as though we were in the tops of the trees, looking out at the small hills of the countryside sprawling to one side, with the tall Volcano mountains to the other side, the tops of which were still covered in a soothing and calming grey mist...
About 45 minutes of this, we reached a clearing in the valley where we met up with the rest of the trackers and could see the silverback off in the distance, just resting and eating some grasses. After a short hike up the other hill, suddenly they were just right there in front of us! It was an awesome feeling to be near such impressive creatures and my nose tingled as my eyes watered. We saw the silverback resting mostly, but grooming another. The baby and another younger gorilla were gently playing with each other. Another female was off eating alone, with her body showing signs of being quite pregnant. There are 12 in the family, but I do not know that we even saw all of them. They moved around quite a lot and we had to keep walking at times to follow them to their new resting place. The total experience was one hour but it was well worth it! The one I was closest to just sat in front of me, maybe three yards away, just eating - but I was so thankful she was looking my direction so I could examine the roughness of her nose and the brown on her eyes and the wrinkles in her fingers. She was beautiful! The trackers kept making some noises to try and get the silverback to turn our way, but I don't think he was interested in our presence much at all :-) He kept to himself mostly. In fact, at one point, the mother of the young baby came out of the bushes somewhere and made some noises after which the baby got on her back and she led the way off to a new destination. Even though the majority of the time we were with them their backs were to us or they were slightly hidden behind other grasses, I was still able to capture a handful of videos and over 100 pictures - just snapping away to capture any moment possible :-)
As we began our walk back, the gorillas were moving in the same path we wanted to take, so there were a couple of times we had to wait for them to decide to get a move on before we could keep walking ourselves. During the entire journey back up the mountain, through my slipping and falling backwards, I was in my own world, just hanging on to the memories of the experience. I cannot believe I was actually able to do this one thing that I never really thought would be possible....it was such a surreal experience, but one I will be forever thankful to have had.
Charlotte and I arrived in Musanze in the early afternoon and knew immediately how lovely this town already was. As a base community from which many people begin their gorilla treks, they are seemingly used to tourists around, so the infamous "muzungu" wasn't shouted at us nearly as often. After meeting with the tour company through which we were planning a community visit, we decided the walk would be best for Saturday. So for the afternoon we planned a short excursion on our own to Mukamiira - a less-frequented village 30 minutes away in which a small but tranquil lake would be our destination for some reading and journaling. But first, LUNCH! I must say it is so great to travel with someone who enjoys eating the local food as much as I do! We found the Green Garden buffet just off the main road and had such peace enjoying our lunch in their small garden area behind the building. From here, taking in the scenes around us, we spotted an oddly shaped figure in the hills off in the distance. As we starred at it, we soon realized it was a person...but this man towered over the few buildings surrounding him. Thus, we aptly named him, the Musanze Giant :-) Our story of this man involves some injustice he faced due to his towering figure and thus he was ostracized to this mountain to overlook the community for eternity....and somehow, the moral of the story will involve the community embracing him when he saves the town from a landslide, likely to be caused by some earthquake...So that is about as creative as we could get.... :-) But I am telling you, this "giant" continued to interest me and if I had had the time, I surely would have tried to find a path up this hill to speak to him myself!
After lunch we checked into this lovely guesthouse where a woman has opened the front part of her property as a guesthouse and rents out the rooms separately. It boasted a peaceful porch from which we could view the "Musanze giant" and take in the serenity of this town. After settling in, we caught our afternoon bus to Mukamiira. The bus ride was really so beautiful The mountains from the Volcano Park were so prominent all around the town. The clouds softly hiding the peaks allowed for breathtaking views. It was a bit hazy in the distance, but I was unsure if it was due to pollution or the natural clouds for this time of year. At any rate, as we stepped off the bus we soon realized that the town certainly is not as accustomed to tourists as the "muzungu" shouting and the following soon began. We thoroughly enjoyed the walk as we watched the locals at a couple different watering stations and could see more closely the plots of land being cultivated with cassava, maize and bananas, to name a few. It was so picturesque as a handful of children followed behind, laughing and smiling while a man biked by packing a load of bananas and woman passed balancing insanely heavy bags of what I could only guess were potatoes of sorts on her head. We reached the turn off to head towards the lake and it was soon apparent that we were now the the main attraction. As we made our way down the narrow dirt trail, we were leading a train of one older woman and three girls which soon became quite a group of people. The views of this small lake in the late afternoon sun were really calming, but the masses of people following us was a bit unnerving. We decided to stop and sit on a small grass hill near the shore of the lake and watched a teenage boy put out a fishing net along the shore, carefully untangling and dropping it just-right along the bank. But around us, teenage boys were everywhere! At one point, I counted 21 people who were watching us. And it wasn't as though they were watching from a distance - no, there were many sitting all around, with four right in front of us, laying on the ground with the chins propped on their hands, starring at us as though we were an exhibit in the zoo.....it was really quite annoying. I put on my bug repellent and one boy tried to lean over and smell me while another I found leaning over my shoulder as I tried to write in my journal. Trying not to be rude, I asked the crowd to back away and they did, but the lake soon lost its appeal since we could not be left alone, so we headed back to the path and on to Musanze. Even with the disturbance, overall we had a really nice time just being out and about, taking in the fresh air all around us. Back in Musanze we hit up the outdoor market to buy our fruit for dinner - pineapple, bananas, avocado, maracuja, and passion fruit.
Saturday we woke around 6:30 for another peaceful morning sitting on the front porch, drinking some Rwanda black tea, listening to man singing off in the distance, the birds whistling their tunes and soon watching a new rain cloud move through. The rain started just as we were enjoying our breakfast of banana, maracuja and bread with butter & peanut butter and banana and peanut butter, which I must say have made me a bit nostalgic. With the rain falling, the temperature quickly dropped as it seems to do here, fluctuating 10 degrees or more between every time a short rain comes through and the sun chooses to shine.
We met our guide, John, and he led us through the streets to these roads heading down to a village at the base of these mountains. To walk down, past women and children living in their real homes, going about daily life was a fresh pace for both of us. It seems getting out of the main roads allows my soul to connect with something almost bigger than myself. We were told how they will be already making the trek to town at 5am with baskets full of things to sell, so those walking back that we saw, with empty baskets, were complete with round one. Many times we were joined by trails of children again - always walking on your heels making navigating down a narrow rocky dirt path a bit challenging for my clumsy self. They really are okay in spurts, but I find the constant following and touching a bit much at times. We find ourselves constantly balancing personal space with natural curiosity - something I doubt I will master before I leave here....I really do wonder if there will be a time where "muzungu" is no longer hollered and the children may not follow strangers to the edges of their villages...so we walked through so many banana fields and made it to the base of the hills where women were cultivating the land. There was his hazy fog just gently embracing the hills around us. And every so often clouds of smoke rising from the hills were they were burning fields or grasses. The silence and calm was so welcoming...we saw along the way evidence of the stages of banana beer making. The sorghum soaking in canvas bags in the river to turn them dark, the heaps of banana leaves under which the banana were fermenting, and the drying of the sorghum before they add it to the fermenting bananas. We also were able to see how they made containers woven out of banana leaves and cow dung to place in the trees for bees to capture their honey. The final destination was a basket weaving co-op. They were not really weaving that day but they did come to show us how they do it, wrapping one kind of grass around stands of another thinner type of grass. After the hour and a half walk there and the 30 minutes in the hot sun, we back up a main road - up, up, up back to Musanze. Another trip to the fruit market and lunch before we caught another bus up to Kinigi- our base before the gorilla trek on Sunday!
As we got off the bus in Kinigi, I was overwhelmed with the beauty all around. The mountains were sooo close, even with their distance. I felt so much excitement being there! We had to walk up a long hill, just about 1k, but it was up and up and for me, it was amazing. The mountains really surrounding us and the late afternoon sun behind the clouds was so beautiful. I snapped a couple photos of the sun hiding behind the clouds as the mountains prepared to welcome the setting sun. We walked with more children following behind us and Charlotte discovered the simply asking them to stop and go home actually works! We simply must remember this for next time! :-)
Once we finally found the guesthouse, relief set in so we could finally stop working so hard! The people working there seemed very sweet but the rooms were not as nice as we expected - I get the sense that most places can get by up there with the minimum since the gorillas are such a popular destination - they will get business anyway. As we were settling in, I heard very loud thunder all around, rolling through the mountains and the sky began to flash with lightning. The storm as it moved in was gorgeous - just as the sun was setting, there was nearly a straight line in the clouds separating the clear blue from the dark grey. The rain was falling so hard for most of the evening that the ceiling in our bathroom was actually leaking through the night. Back in our room, we used my swiss army knife to cut up our pineapple, which I must admit I did a fab job at, leaving only the base and the center core still standing :-) We shared a nice salad and some African Tea (like Chai tea) back in the restaurant, sitting around a hot fire, listening to the rain, and chatting with an interesting family from New Zealand. They had seen the gorillas that morning, so just listening to them talk about the experience really put me in the mood for the next day!
Sunday morning was a sign of great things to come when the rain was holding off but the skies were just overcast enough to keep the air nice and cool. After a quick early breakfast, we met our hired driver who took us to the ORTPN office to meet the guides and to be assigned to a group. It was crazy to see how many people were all around; some of whom had done treks in the past, others just as excited to have their first experience like me. My excitement was accompanies with some nerves, curious to which group I would be assigned and what family of gorillas we would be tracking. They say some came be found in as little as 20 minutes while others can take two hours or so. If you know me at all, I am sure you can guess I was really looking forward to one of the longer hikes - to really be able to experience the forest in which these amazing animals live! Well, I had 5 Australians in my group and two from Texas. We were going to be tracking the Hirwa family with 12 members, the youngest a baby of only six months! The silverback made his way to this family from two other mountains, surviving as he battled for space in two other groups before he found this one. Their names means Good Luck.....
Since Charlotte was hiking the Dian Fossey tomb trail, she used our driver and I joined a couple in my group and their driver to get to the trail head. The 30 minute drive took us to the base of the mountain where our guide explained all the rules about the hike and passed our our walking sticks. We began making our way through very large bamboo forests with a tracker in front using his machete to cut through the thick bamboo for us to squeeze through. We saw fresh antelope and buffalo prints in addition to elephant dung and prints - I still cannot believe an elephant fit through this dense area of the forest! I soon began to see how helpful the walking sticks really were as we worked our way up very steep mountain sides. I kept envisioning what it would be like when we see them - sitting amongst trees while we would kneel behind surrounding trees and watch them from a comfortable and clear distance - it was nothing of the sorts! We went up and up and up, for about 90 minutes until the trackers told our guide we would find them down the side of this mountain and across the valley below. So our ascent quickly turned to an extreme descent! We were standing at what seemed to be a cliff, but our head tracker began using his machete and cutting branches of trees on the side of the mountain on which we were challenged to find some decent footing, all the while slipping on the wet stalks and trying to hang on to the branches and roots above us. You shouldn't be surprised to know I did slip and fall a couple of times....but the fall was so weird because you're walking almost straight down, as if you were going down a ladder, do "falling" was more like me losing my footing, laughing so much as I held on to a branch above my head as my feet worked to find something to rest upon. We were all slipping around everywhere but the porters were so great at helping us all in our moments where balance left us. Not only was knowing that we would soon be near the gorillas keeping all of our spirits up, but the views were spectacular! It was something I had never seen before in my life! We really felt as though we were in the tops of the trees, looking out at the small hills of the countryside sprawling to one side, with the tall Volcano mountains to the other side, the tops of which were still covered in a soothing and calming grey mist...
About 45 minutes of this, we reached a clearing in the valley where we met up with the rest of the trackers and could see the silverback off in the distance, just resting and eating some grasses. After a short hike up the other hill, suddenly they were just right there in front of us! It was an awesome feeling to be near such impressive creatures and my nose tingled as my eyes watered. We saw the silverback resting mostly, but grooming another. The baby and another younger gorilla were gently playing with each other. Another female was off eating alone, with her body showing signs of being quite pregnant. There are 12 in the family, but I do not know that we even saw all of them. They moved around quite a lot and we had to keep walking at times to follow them to their new resting place. The total experience was one hour but it was well worth it! The one I was closest to just sat in front of me, maybe three yards away, just eating - but I was so thankful she was looking my direction so I could examine the roughness of her nose and the brown on her eyes and the wrinkles in her fingers. She was beautiful! The trackers kept making some noises to try and get the silverback to turn our way, but I don't think he was interested in our presence much at all :-) He kept to himself mostly. In fact, at one point, the mother of the young baby came out of the bushes somewhere and made some noises after which the baby got on her back and she led the way off to a new destination. Even though the majority of the time we were with them their backs were to us or they were slightly hidden behind other grasses, I was still able to capture a handful of videos and over 100 pictures - just snapping away to capture any moment possible :-)
As we began our walk back, the gorillas were moving in the same path we wanted to take, so there were a couple of times we had to wait for them to decide to get a move on before we could keep walking ourselves. During the entire journey back up the mountain, through my slipping and falling backwards, I was in my own world, just hanging on to the memories of the experience. I cannot believe I was actually able to do this one thing that I never really thought would be possible....it was such a surreal experience, but one I will be forever thankful to have had.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Happy September!! I cannot believe one month has passed since my arrival here.....
Soon after my last post on Sunday, we were blessed with the first rain of the season!! I have never been so happy to smell the freshness of rain. I had great hopes that it would clear the air of all the exhaust and pollution, but to no avail. Sunday evening was quite lovely as it fell pretty hard and allowed for a fresh perspective, but by morning the thick polluted air was still covering the city. For some reason, I have actually found it harder to breathe this week than in prior ones - perhaps it is due to the building layer of scum on my lungs, but I am hopeful this feeling will not last. And since I will be traveling to the mountains this weekend, relief will soon be upon me! :-)
Kharim has been making great progress this week at Gisimba! As of this afternoon, he could identify every letter of the alphabet, without hesitation, except for the letter "I". That was huge today!!! I was sooo proud of him! We began this week working on sounds of letters. I separated the vowels to really have him focus on getting those sounds "perfected." I have started with three-letter words, keeping the last the same and just changing the first. Then I showed him how just changing the vowel in the middle makes a completely different word - and he has started to see why the vowel sounds are so important and I see him trying very hard to do them correctly. Today I started taking some flash cards and having him sound out the words that did not have any "exceptions" to the sounds....he was doing sooooo well!!! My nose tingled as I watched him focus and think really hard about how to sound them out. Granted, he has a long way to go, but I really think he has been coming along well. One of the ladies from the Belgium organization that has been around Gisimba for a while, told me yesterday that she thinks he has a learning disorder and that he just cannot remember anything....I was soooo upset with that comment...I see him try so hard, I just don´t think he has had anyone to really give him the attention that he needed to get this done....I am really looking forward to the progress he may be able to make in the next two months!
For once I will let this entry stay short. I am working on posting some additional pictures of kids at Gisimba with a better one of Khraim, too :-)
Hugs to all!!!!
Soon after my last post on Sunday, we were blessed with the first rain of the season!! I have never been so happy to smell the freshness of rain. I had great hopes that it would clear the air of all the exhaust and pollution, but to no avail. Sunday evening was quite lovely as it fell pretty hard and allowed for a fresh perspective, but by morning the thick polluted air was still covering the city. For some reason, I have actually found it harder to breathe this week than in prior ones - perhaps it is due to the building layer of scum on my lungs, but I am hopeful this feeling will not last. And since I will be traveling to the mountains this weekend, relief will soon be upon me! :-)
Kharim has been making great progress this week at Gisimba! As of this afternoon, he could identify every letter of the alphabet, without hesitation, except for the letter "I". That was huge today!!! I was sooo proud of him! We began this week working on sounds of letters. I separated the vowels to really have him focus on getting those sounds "perfected." I have started with three-letter words, keeping the last the same and just changing the first. Then I showed him how just changing the vowel in the middle makes a completely different word - and he has started to see why the vowel sounds are so important and I see him trying very hard to do them correctly. Today I started taking some flash cards and having him sound out the words that did not have any "exceptions" to the sounds....he was doing sooooo well!!! My nose tingled as I watched him focus and think really hard about how to sound them out. Granted, he has a long way to go, but I really think he has been coming along well. One of the ladies from the Belgium organization that has been around Gisimba for a while, told me yesterday that she thinks he has a learning disorder and that he just cannot remember anything....I was soooo upset with that comment...I see him try so hard, I just don´t think he has had anyone to really give him the attention that he needed to get this done....I am really looking forward to the progress he may be able to make in the next two months!
For once I will let this entry stay short. I am working on posting some additional pictures of kids at Gisimba with a better one of Khraim, too :-)
Hugs to all!!!!
Friday, August 27, 2010
You may laugh or you may cry...but don't say I didn't warn you...
Written on Friday, but connection dropped before it could be posted....
I had another moment with an older woman at Gisimba on Tuesday. She was apparently another house mother, helping to pound cassava leaves. With some translation assistance, I asked her if I could take a try - she was so excited to show me how to position the body just right to achieve the most power with each movement! After my weak attempt, I was able to take a picture with her. She looked so deep in my eyes, grabbed at my shoulders and demanded with a firm smile that she get a copy of that photo :-) We hugged and hugged...what a beautiful moment for me to really connect with another...the incredible power of the older women here to communicate so intensely without a single word we understand together....it is so incredible...
KINDERGARDEN
So - here it is, Sunday, a full week has gone since my last post. And what a fun week it has been! During the recess break this week, two of the other teachers at the school have been trying to help me learn some of the fun playground songs in Kinyarwanda. :-) I try to mimic the teachers as they try and sing with the kids. I'm picking up some words, bahoro bahoro, but it will be a while before I will even think I would be able to sing one without their guidance. Hopefully with a couple months ahead of me, I can get at least one memorized!
Through the week, I have continued to work on songs from last week, including I'm a Little Teapot. The children have been making soooo much progress!! On Friday we were all standing and singing, doing all the body movements with the song, and although they are still struggling with some words, they were really quite entertaining! I even had to pull my camera out and take a video of them...Just watching them bounce their hips and tip over to pour out makes me smile with so much joy!! I am so proud of them and continue to feed off their enthusiasm....
Another project this week, which I believe will continue through my time here, is the memorizing of "A Story About a Frog." It consists of 6 pages, appearing to be pulled from a coloring book. Each page has a picture of Kermit the Frog talking about "some of the things I like to do." The way they teach here is so much more focused on memorizing things. The teacher will just repeat the first page over and over again and move to the second page when they can recite the correct sounds....Well this week I was asked to help color the pages of the book for each of the 39 students in the class!! So, while they are working on learning the Rwanda anthem or taking their breakfast break, I have been assigned to coloring - 6 pages for each of the 39 students!! There is another teacher assistant who is helping, and thank goodness I like to color, but I found this so interesting. They just photocopy the blank page and color in. I was trying to understand why they don't make this a coloring assignment, but those seem to be saved for things like vegetables and transportation, etc. I suppose this is like their "textbook" so the teachers want to give them a complete copy to "read" rather than color....can you imagine our teachers coloring our storybooks for us?? Such an interesting thought...
Ah yes...so speaking of books and repetition, one of my highlights this week was when I was able to bring calm to the class all on my own :-) After recess one day, the kids were out of control! You would think they would lose energy, but no...they just become more hyper! So, I grabbed one of my books, "Go, Dog, Go." I began to read the simple words from each page - Big dog, little dog, white dog, black dog... etc etc. The kids suddenly started paying attention to me! They would repeat each line I would say, of course, because that is what they think they are supposed to do, but it worked out great because there are so many parts in there concerning prepositions I had recently reviewed with them - such as up, down, above, below - so they were simultaneously getting a review of those words as I had them do different hand or body motions. For the first time, the teacher had to tell them to get their bags when the guardians were showing up before we had finished a lesson! Normally they are bouncing off the walls when it is time to go. It was such a joy for me! :-)
One more thought on the kindergarten kids....So, over time, in an effort for the kids to understand what I mean when I say, "Listen to me," I have adopted a habit of pulling at my ear lobes...I thought this would help them to realize that you must use your ears to listen....so, on Friday, after recess, I wanted to try and do more songs with them. I stood in front with my finger in front of my lips to attempt to silence their afternoon energy. Suddenly, one of the dramatic boys in the back opened his eyes really big, stood up, pulled at his ears and shouted, "Listen, listen, listen to me!!" LOL This was HILARIOUS!!! All the kids began doing the same thing! The teacher started laughing along with me as she tried to explain to them in Kinyarwanda that in order to "Listen to me," they had to stop saying so! LOL I laugh so much just remembering it. Soooooo adorable these kids are!!!
AT GISIMBA
So, many of the students who have been waiting to get materials to go to boarding school at Sunrise were finally able to depart on Tuesday afternoon. It made for very quiet afternoons the rest of this week because not only are some away at boarding school, but many those who remain are out and about during the day at local school. In any case, I have been able to bond more with some of the younger girls, doing all sorts of things: bouncing balls, singing songs, dancing, playing their version of hopscotch, even just sitting with each other, laughing at my attempts as they try to make me speak kinyarwanda. Such a joie de vivre these children have...it can be a bit therapeutic :-)
I have been able to make some progress with Kharim, as well - the 15 year old who cannot speak English. I found out he is in Primary 5 - the equivalent of fifth grade. He was showing me what he does in school, but it is so sad because he just copies things from his teacher but has no idea what he has even written in his notebook....On Thursday after kindergarten, there were two muzungus standing around at Gisimba - an older woman and a younger guy. They are volunteers from the Belgium organization that provides most of the international funding for Gisimba. It became evident that the woman had been here many times. She saw me and said, "You must be the one teaching Kharim English. He is so happy to have someone working with him." I learned that they all know his English but no one has thus far been able to really help him progress so she wished me well in that regard and said he seemed very excited to be working with me. Just hearing that really touched me....I pray I won't let him down.....I found out that there is someone who wants to sponsor him to go to a really good school in Uganda, but because of his English, he cannot go, so now he and I have even more motivation and push to keep trying! After getting some advice from my sister, I have been finding new ways to help him learn the alphabet, not just by memorizing the order, but actually comprehending the letters and recognizing them and writing them.....and on Friday we began working on their sounds....this will take a lot of time and effort, but I am really looking forward to the day he will be able to read a short simple book to me....what an accomplishment that will be for him!!
NYAMATA - an emotional experience...and may be graphic at times...
This weekend we all decided to stay in town which has been a nice change. However, yesterday was quite an emotionally exhausting and draining day. Three of us visited Nyamata - the site of a genocide memorial. I don't know that I can even go in to much detail right now, but I will share a few things about the site. When we arrived, the church was actually locked. But we were able to view through the doors and windows the rows of wooden benches covered with layer upon layer of the clothes worn by the 41,000 people from that area that were killed during the genocide....A deaf guard led us behind the church to a crypt area where we were led underground. Descending, we were faced with rows upon rows of caskets covered in purple and white cloth...this was such a hard place to be as I really felt like we were disturbing their peace...as we entered a second crypt, I was very unexpectedly faced with rows and rows of bones and skulls with their empty eye sockets staring back at me, each telling its own story with long cuts or small holes, each inflicted with the weapons of the war....I was so distraught seeing this and had such mixed emotions as I wanted to pay my respects but felt so strange seeing this raw, naked snapshot of the real individuals who lost their lives so prematurely...and something about the way they were lined up seemed so disrespectful for me to be there, seeing them lined up so orderly as if it was some storage room in a museum...As we were reflecting on the church from the outside, Charles Mugabe showed up. He ended up being our "guide" as he opened the church and began telling us the history of this site where 10,000 people stood shoulder to shoulder for three days until April 10 when masses of the perpetrators arrived and began the terror...There were marks on the doors of the church where men tried to shoot at the locks, but to no avail, so tried to get through with grenades instead, where the large crater on the cement floor and shrapnel in the ceiling tell the beginning of the story...what took a moment for us to realize was that Charles Mugabe was there on April 10, 1994 - an 8-year old boy, one of 13 people who walked out of that church, who was saved by his older brother who made him hide near the baptismal bowl and covered him with blood to make him appear dead. Charles witnessed the decapitation of his mother as she tried to prevent the hammering-to-death of his father...and faced reality the following morning that his 5 other siblings were murdered through the night....He told of a Hutu woman who, after refusing to kill her Tutsi husband, was forced upon the alter of the church where men proceeded to cut out the child she was carrying in her womb and had her bleed to death on the alter. Women who came to hunt with their husbands were charged with the mass killing of children, many by being picked up from their legs and swung like a bat against the brick walls until their heads were beaten in - blood stains on the wall still tell of these beatings...Ideology has somehow become more powerful than our natural instincts to protect, especially protection of innocent children...Humans seem to be the only species that will seek out to commit such mass atrocities against its own kind....can these acts come to an end before we bring about our own extinction?!
I am sorry my thoughts above may sound so dry, but my emotions have been so incredibly raw since seeing these sites...hearing the first hand accounts of a survivor and his struggles with forgiveness and yet to hear of his success with his studies and his promising future and interest in conflict resolution....what power for survival the human spirit can carry within...these unfathomable stories have left me so confused about the incredible power of propaganda and the ability for people to hang on to life when all seems lost....
OTHER NEWS
Friday was the last day for one of the volunteers that I had started working with at Gisimba, although she moved 10 days ago to another orphanage. We have another volunteer leaving on this Wednesday, so it will soon just be me and two others. Apparently there are no others coming at this placement next week, so in mid September when these two leave, I am hoping some more will be placed here in Kigali with me....thankfully I have really gotten along well with the others here and it adds a special dynamic to the entire experience. Actually, the girl still here from Germany will be joining me this coming weekend when I got on my Gorilla Trek. She isn't doing the trek, but will be hiking to Diane Fosey's tomb. It will be nice to travel with someone for this mini-adventure. We are currently planning a full extended weekend as we will be taking Friday off to begin the trip.
I have been touched today, by a beautiful, fragile-looking but incredibly strong older woman...she approached me today at the bus stop while I was waiting with Kharim, my English student at Gisimba....she began speaking in words I could not understand and Kharim said, "You're beautiful...she is saying you are beautiful." The woman is a house-mother at Gisimba. I reached for her hand, expressing much thanks and sincere gratitude for her kind words....she continued to speak in words I could not understand....as I stared into her eyes, I asked Kharim what she was saying..."I watch you with the children, you are beautiful with them, i love you very much...." It was all I could do not to shed the tears that were swelling up inside my eyes....All I could do was wrap my arms around her and hug her and rub her back, telling her how beautiful and sweet she was....how incredible it is that love can be shared so easily between complete strangers....a simple smile, a laugh, a hug....she has touched my soul....
I had another moment with an older woman at Gisimba on Tuesday. She was apparently another house mother, helping to pound cassava leaves. With some translation assistance, I asked her if I could take a try - she was so excited to show me how to position the body just right to achieve the most power with each movement! After my weak attempt, I was able to take a picture with her. She looked so deep in my eyes, grabbed at my shoulders and demanded with a firm smile that she get a copy of that photo :-) We hugged and hugged...what a beautiful moment for me to really connect with another...the incredible power of the older women here to communicate so intensely without a single word we understand together....it is so incredible...
KINDERGARDEN
So - here it is, Sunday, a full week has gone since my last post. And what a fun week it has been! During the recess break this week, two of the other teachers at the school have been trying to help me learn some of the fun playground songs in Kinyarwanda. :-) I try to mimic the teachers as they try and sing with the kids. I'm picking up some words, bahoro bahoro, but it will be a while before I will even think I would be able to sing one without their guidance. Hopefully with a couple months ahead of me, I can get at least one memorized!
Through the week, I have continued to work on songs from last week, including I'm a Little Teapot. The children have been making soooo much progress!! On Friday we were all standing and singing, doing all the body movements with the song, and although they are still struggling with some words, they were really quite entertaining! I even had to pull my camera out and take a video of them...Just watching them bounce their hips and tip over to pour out makes me smile with so much joy!! I am so proud of them and continue to feed off their enthusiasm....
Another project this week, which I believe will continue through my time here, is the memorizing of "A Story About a Frog." It consists of 6 pages, appearing to be pulled from a coloring book. Each page has a picture of Kermit the Frog talking about "some of the things I like to do." The way they teach here is so much more focused on memorizing things. The teacher will just repeat the first page over and over again and move to the second page when they can recite the correct sounds....Well this week I was asked to help color the pages of the book for each of the 39 students in the class!! So, while they are working on learning the Rwanda anthem or taking their breakfast break, I have been assigned to coloring - 6 pages for each of the 39 students!! There is another teacher assistant who is helping, and thank goodness I like to color, but I found this so interesting. They just photocopy the blank page and color in. I was trying to understand why they don't make this a coloring assignment, but those seem to be saved for things like vegetables and transportation, etc. I suppose this is like their "textbook" so the teachers want to give them a complete copy to "read" rather than color....can you imagine our teachers coloring our storybooks for us?? Such an interesting thought...
Ah yes...so speaking of books and repetition, one of my highlights this week was when I was able to bring calm to the class all on my own :-) After recess one day, the kids were out of control! You would think they would lose energy, but no...they just become more hyper! So, I grabbed one of my books, "Go, Dog, Go." I began to read the simple words from each page - Big dog, little dog, white dog, black dog... etc etc. The kids suddenly started paying attention to me! They would repeat each line I would say, of course, because that is what they think they are supposed to do, but it worked out great because there are so many parts in there concerning prepositions I had recently reviewed with them - such as up, down, above, below - so they were simultaneously getting a review of those words as I had them do different hand or body motions. For the first time, the teacher had to tell them to get their bags when the guardians were showing up before we had finished a lesson! Normally they are bouncing off the walls when it is time to go. It was such a joy for me! :-)
One more thought on the kindergarten kids....So, over time, in an effort for the kids to understand what I mean when I say, "Listen to me," I have adopted a habit of pulling at my ear lobes...I thought this would help them to realize that you must use your ears to listen....so, on Friday, after recess, I wanted to try and do more songs with them. I stood in front with my finger in front of my lips to attempt to silence their afternoon energy. Suddenly, one of the dramatic boys in the back opened his eyes really big, stood up, pulled at his ears and shouted, "Listen, listen, listen to me!!" LOL This was HILARIOUS!!! All the kids began doing the same thing! The teacher started laughing along with me as she tried to explain to them in Kinyarwanda that in order to "Listen to me," they had to stop saying so! LOL I laugh so much just remembering it. Soooooo adorable these kids are!!!
AT GISIMBA
So, many of the students who have been waiting to get materials to go to boarding school at Sunrise were finally able to depart on Tuesday afternoon. It made for very quiet afternoons the rest of this week because not only are some away at boarding school, but many those who remain are out and about during the day at local school. In any case, I have been able to bond more with some of the younger girls, doing all sorts of things: bouncing balls, singing songs, dancing, playing their version of hopscotch, even just sitting with each other, laughing at my attempts as they try to make me speak kinyarwanda. Such a joie de vivre these children have...it can be a bit therapeutic :-)
I have been able to make some progress with Kharim, as well - the 15 year old who cannot speak English. I found out he is in Primary 5 - the equivalent of fifth grade. He was showing me what he does in school, but it is so sad because he just copies things from his teacher but has no idea what he has even written in his notebook....On Thursday after kindergarten, there were two muzungus standing around at Gisimba - an older woman and a younger guy. They are volunteers from the Belgium organization that provides most of the international funding for Gisimba. It became evident that the woman had been here many times. She saw me and said, "You must be the one teaching Kharim English. He is so happy to have someone working with him." I learned that they all know his English but no one has thus far been able to really help him progress so she wished me well in that regard and said he seemed very excited to be working with me. Just hearing that really touched me....I pray I won't let him down.....I found out that there is someone who wants to sponsor him to go to a really good school in Uganda, but because of his English, he cannot go, so now he and I have even more motivation and push to keep trying! After getting some advice from my sister, I have been finding new ways to help him learn the alphabet, not just by memorizing the order, but actually comprehending the letters and recognizing them and writing them.....and on Friday we began working on their sounds....this will take a lot of time and effort, but I am really looking forward to the day he will be able to read a short simple book to me....what an accomplishment that will be for him!!
NYAMATA - an emotional experience...and may be graphic at times...
This weekend we all decided to stay in town which has been a nice change. However, yesterday was quite an emotionally exhausting and draining day. Three of us visited Nyamata - the site of a genocide memorial. I don't know that I can even go in to much detail right now, but I will share a few things about the site. When we arrived, the church was actually locked. But we were able to view through the doors and windows the rows of wooden benches covered with layer upon layer of the clothes worn by the 41,000 people from that area that were killed during the genocide....A deaf guard led us behind the church to a crypt area where we were led underground. Descending, we were faced with rows upon rows of caskets covered in purple and white cloth...this was such a hard place to be as I really felt like we were disturbing their peace...as we entered a second crypt, I was very unexpectedly faced with rows and rows of bones and skulls with their empty eye sockets staring back at me, each telling its own story with long cuts or small holes, each inflicted with the weapons of the war....I was so distraught seeing this and had such mixed emotions as I wanted to pay my respects but felt so strange seeing this raw, naked snapshot of the real individuals who lost their lives so prematurely...and something about the way they were lined up seemed so disrespectful for me to be there, seeing them lined up so orderly as if it was some storage room in a museum...As we were reflecting on the church from the outside, Charles Mugabe showed up. He ended up being our "guide" as he opened the church and began telling us the history of this site where 10,000 people stood shoulder to shoulder for three days until April 10 when masses of the perpetrators arrived and began the terror...There were marks on the doors of the church where men tried to shoot at the locks, but to no avail, so tried to get through with grenades instead, where the large crater on the cement floor and shrapnel in the ceiling tell the beginning of the story...what took a moment for us to realize was that Charles Mugabe was there on April 10, 1994 - an 8-year old boy, one of 13 people who walked out of that church, who was saved by his older brother who made him hide near the baptismal bowl and covered him with blood to make him appear dead. Charles witnessed the decapitation of his mother as she tried to prevent the hammering-to-death of his father...and faced reality the following morning that his 5 other siblings were murdered through the night....He told of a Hutu woman who, after refusing to kill her Tutsi husband, was forced upon the alter of the church where men proceeded to cut out the child she was carrying in her womb and had her bleed to death on the alter. Women who came to hunt with their husbands were charged with the mass killing of children, many by being picked up from their legs and swung like a bat against the brick walls until their heads were beaten in - blood stains on the wall still tell of these beatings...Ideology has somehow become more powerful than our natural instincts to protect, especially protection of innocent children...Humans seem to be the only species that will seek out to commit such mass atrocities against its own kind....can these acts come to an end before we bring about our own extinction?!
I am sorry my thoughts above may sound so dry, but my emotions have been so incredibly raw since seeing these sites...hearing the first hand accounts of a survivor and his struggles with forgiveness and yet to hear of his success with his studies and his promising future and interest in conflict resolution....what power for survival the human spirit can carry within...these unfathomable stories have left me so confused about the incredible power of propaganda and the ability for people to hang on to life when all seems lost....
OTHER NEWS
Friday was the last day for one of the volunteers that I had started working with at Gisimba, although she moved 10 days ago to another orphanage. We have another volunteer leaving on this Wednesday, so it will soon just be me and two others. Apparently there are no others coming at this placement next week, so in mid September when these two leave, I am hoping some more will be placed here in Kigali with me....thankfully I have really gotten along well with the others here and it adds a special dynamic to the entire experience. Actually, the girl still here from Germany will be joining me this coming weekend when I got on my Gorilla Trek. She isn't doing the trek, but will be hiking to Diane Fosey's tomb. It will be nice to travel with someone for this mini-adventure. We are currently planning a full extended weekend as we will be taking Friday off to begin the trip.
Monday, August 23, 2010
I returned yesterday from a weekend in Kiboye with the three other girls from the volunteer house. We decided to take a break and head this town on the coast of Lake Kivu. Kiboye is a quiet place, not well known by tourists, so it offered a fantastic opportunity to slow our pace for a couple of days and kick back to relax with a book and to enjoy some sun on the shore of the lake. It was really beautiful, as every place is when I travel out of Kigali. We had dinner at a local buffet, as all the locals seemed to be thrilled we enjoyed their traditional dishes. :-) Sunday morning we did the hour walk on the main road that circles the town, and the views were incredible. The lake just has a way of soothing the soul. Hazy but exciting-looking islands off in the distance; the sound of a fisherman singing his own tune, with the echo reverberating through the hills around us. Approaching the "marina," we saw the wooden fishing boats, narrow and long with sharp pieces of wood extending from both the front and back of each boat, interlocking them together on the shore. Taking in the scenes of the men and women, walking to church in their Sunday-best - the colors so brilliant! We walked by one of the more famous genocide memorials near a church where over 11,000 people were killed in less than three hours during the war. In front of the church, the memorial was established by members of the families of people who lost their lives there. Standing at the memorial, reflecting on the past, my soul was calmed by the incredible singing coming from within the very church these people died. It is magical how the community came together and rebuilt the church, placing breathtaking stain-glass windows in the places where grenades were thrown....and now to hear the beauty of their voices - it is really inspiring and quite moving.............
Completing last week was a nice milestone for me...the first week as a "teacher" and I still have found energy to wake up in the mornings! ;-) I have discovered that in kindergarten, repetition seems to be the key. I went over transportation every day since last Thursday, including today, and some of them the children still cannot seem to recall from the pictures. But hey, I will just blame that on my lack of artistic ability and less on the children's learning :-) But really, I do find that this will likely be a pattern over the next couple of months, which is actually a relief in some ways as I know that it is okay if not every child is getting it the first, or even the second day. Since I work on bringing kids up to point to the board and tell me the drawings, it helps me to know which ones are not getting it and then I can really have them watch my mouth as I speak so they can learn to say the words correctly - so really, it is a win-win.
Last week we introduced writing the little letter "a". I walked through the class while they practiced their writing and I have to admit, even that was more challenging than I thought it would be. You would be shocked at how young children interpret the little "tail" on the letter a LOL It is so adorable, but I end up with some kids drawing a circle with a tail coming from the top, out right, and looping down and around - so creative they are!! ;-) So for many of them, I would stand behind and hold their hand for one or two tries and then watch as they do a couple on their own. I found this to really help quite a bit, providing they could focus....for instance, there was a girl I was working with and as I stood behind her to help her right, I had a boy behind me continually tapping the back of my leg, a boy to my right calling "teacher! teacher!" grabbing the same arm I am using to help the girl write, and then a boy to my left who bent his head forward and proceeded to bite my stomach!! I pointed and looked at all three, "Oya, oya, oya!" and what do you know, they all erupted in laughter!! LOL At the moment, I was losing patience a little bit, but just bent down to each, said oya with a look of "I mean it," tapped their heads to show I still love them and then proceeded with the girl :-) It worked...for that moment anyway...it is fascinating how the children all look to me as "teacher" but they still try hard to get away with so many things. I think too, though, that some of it is cultural...they don't really have a sense of being quite while the teacher is talking - there is always a handful of kids having their own conversation. Also, whenever you see a raised had, it is 95% of the time accompanied by, "ME TEACHER! ME TEACHER!!!" It is soooo cute but a bit challenging to gain control of the class...
Last Friday was so exciting as they made more progress on "Farmer in the Dell!" I really must try to get a video of them singing before I leave here. But really, what has made me smile the most has been while teaching them, "I'm a little tea pot" and the "I love you" song from Barney. So, for the teapot song, I drew first on the board a tea cup and tea pot and pointed out the handle and the spout. I taught them the first two lines with clapping, "I'm a little tea pot, short and stout." For the handle and the spout, I have them do really full movements to get their arms in the correct places, one hand on one hip for the handle, and one hand pointing out by their shoulder for the spout. "When I get all steamed up, here me shout," is accompanied by shaking their hips...and they LOVE it!!! Their smiles are so bright that I cannot help but smile this very moment as I remember it....and then for "Tip me over and pour me out!" I won't be surprised if one of the kids lands on their head!! LOL They really enjoy that!! Even as of today, they need more practice with the words, but they sure make some fabulous dancers! :-)
The excitement with the Barney song was a bit less, but it was easier for them to catch on to the words. "I love you, you love me, we're a happy family! With a great big hug and a kiss from me to you, won't you say you love me too?" So for the "hug," I have them wrap their arms tightly around their shoulders and for the "kiss from me to you," they blow a kiss to each other :-) Soooo adorable too! I don't know if the idea of blowing a kiss is something they know or not, but they really had fun with that.
Today I had the chance to try and learn some Kinyarwanda songs...though I know I still have a lot to learn!! :-) My goal though, before I leave, is to learn at least one, though I will try for two, songs in Kinyarwanda. The teachers were helping me today at recess too. How fun it will be the day I sing along with these kids with their own songs....I am very much looking forward to it!
I tell you, each day as I drag myself across the city for an hour and a half, fighting through crowds, breathing in exhaust and dust, sweating under the sun...I just think of the laughter of these kids and it makes the day come together just right! :-) I cannot thank you all enough for helping me to get here....I really believe they are teaching me as much, if not more, than I am teaching them!
Completing last week was a nice milestone for me...the first week as a "teacher" and I still have found energy to wake up in the mornings! ;-) I have discovered that in kindergarten, repetition seems to be the key. I went over transportation every day since last Thursday, including today, and some of them the children still cannot seem to recall from the pictures. But hey, I will just blame that on my lack of artistic ability and less on the children's learning :-) But really, I do find that this will likely be a pattern over the next couple of months, which is actually a relief in some ways as I know that it is okay if not every child is getting it the first, or even the second day. Since I work on bringing kids up to point to the board and tell me the drawings, it helps me to know which ones are not getting it and then I can really have them watch my mouth as I speak so they can learn to say the words correctly - so really, it is a win-win.
Last week we introduced writing the little letter "a". I walked through the class while they practiced their writing and I have to admit, even that was more challenging than I thought it would be. You would be shocked at how young children interpret the little "tail" on the letter a LOL It is so adorable, but I end up with some kids drawing a circle with a tail coming from the top, out right, and looping down and around - so creative they are!! ;-) So for many of them, I would stand behind and hold their hand for one or two tries and then watch as they do a couple on their own. I found this to really help quite a bit, providing they could focus....for instance, there was a girl I was working with and as I stood behind her to help her right, I had a boy behind me continually tapping the back of my leg, a boy to my right calling "teacher! teacher!" grabbing the same arm I am using to help the girl write, and then a boy to my left who bent his head forward and proceeded to bite my stomach!! I pointed and looked at all three, "Oya, oya, oya!" and what do you know, they all erupted in laughter!! LOL At the moment, I was losing patience a little bit, but just bent down to each, said oya with a look of "I mean it," tapped their heads to show I still love them and then proceeded with the girl :-) It worked...for that moment anyway...it is fascinating how the children all look to me as "teacher" but they still try hard to get away with so many things. I think too, though, that some of it is cultural...they don't really have a sense of being quite while the teacher is talking - there is always a handful of kids having their own conversation. Also, whenever you see a raised had, it is 95% of the time accompanied by, "ME TEACHER! ME TEACHER!!!" It is soooo cute but a bit challenging to gain control of the class...
Last Friday was so exciting as they made more progress on "Farmer in the Dell!" I really must try to get a video of them singing before I leave here. But really, what has made me smile the most has been while teaching them, "I'm a little tea pot" and the "I love you" song from Barney. So, for the teapot song, I drew first on the board a tea cup and tea pot and pointed out the handle and the spout. I taught them the first two lines with clapping, "I'm a little tea pot, short and stout." For the handle and the spout, I have them do really full movements to get their arms in the correct places, one hand on one hip for the handle, and one hand pointing out by their shoulder for the spout. "When I get all steamed up, here me shout," is accompanied by shaking their hips...and they LOVE it!!! Their smiles are so bright that I cannot help but smile this very moment as I remember it....and then for "Tip me over and pour me out!" I won't be surprised if one of the kids lands on their head!! LOL They really enjoy that!! Even as of today, they need more practice with the words, but they sure make some fabulous dancers! :-)
The excitement with the Barney song was a bit less, but it was easier for them to catch on to the words. "I love you, you love me, we're a happy family! With a great big hug and a kiss from me to you, won't you say you love me too?" So for the "hug," I have them wrap their arms tightly around their shoulders and for the "kiss from me to you," they blow a kiss to each other :-) Soooo adorable too! I don't know if the idea of blowing a kiss is something they know or not, but they really had fun with that.
Today I had the chance to try and learn some Kinyarwanda songs...though I know I still have a lot to learn!! :-) My goal though, before I leave, is to learn at least one, though I will try for two, songs in Kinyarwanda. The teachers were helping me today at recess too. How fun it will be the day I sing along with these kids with their own songs....I am very much looking forward to it!
I tell you, each day as I drag myself across the city for an hour and a half, fighting through crowds, breathing in exhaust and dust, sweating under the sun...I just think of the laughter of these kids and it makes the day come together just right! :-) I cannot thank you all enough for helping me to get here....I really believe they are teaching me as much, if not more, than I am teaching them!
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Hi-ho the dairy-o....
So, two days of Kindergarten has so far been a success! :-) I must say that the first day chaos was mostly due to it being just that - the first day back. I arrived yesterday and the teacher had left a "lesson plan" for me and the assistant. I worked on teaching about fruit and transportation, among other things. The students didn't have paper or anything in front of them, so I would draw things on the chalk board and after a lot of repetition, would bring students up to tell me what the drawings were, and to tell me the colors of the fruits. With transportation, I drew pictures of a bus, a car, a plane, a boat and two stick people walking :-) Under the bus I drew "many" stick people; under the car I drew "a few" stick people, and under the plane "a lot" of stick people. The boat only had fish :-) I explained about the sizes of each and did different hand motions with them repeating after me. So, when I would do a hand motion without speaking or point to the board, they would tell me what it was....Today we focused a lot on prepositions such as behind, in front of, between, beside, up, down, in and out. The teacher left these for me to do so I don't really have a choice but to try and follow. I decided to bring a few kids at a time up in front of the class to help illustrate each of the concepts. They really seemed to have fun while doing it. :-) The students here don't really participate until the teacher is telling them in Kinyarwanda to be loud, and my goodness, are they loud! I have to make myself not plug my ears! :-) They are sooo adorable!
Oh yes, and the alphabet. Today they all tried to sing their ABC's, but they only know the letters up to about G, and then it is a lot of garbled sounds :-) Apparently, it is not until next year that the teachers will make them know the entire thing. However, I still wrote every letter on the board and went over it forwards and backwards and then picked out individual letters and had them repeat after me. No reason why they can't start recognizing letters now :-)
Around 10am they take their snack/breakfast, so I walk around and help them open their bags of biscuits, open their thermos' and just supervise a bit while turning down the food they are all offering to me :-) After snack time is recess. The kids really do go quite crazy! I end up having three kids pulling on each arm, a couple attached to my legs - it seems in the beginning all they want t do is to play with me. :-) So I follow their lead on certain games or rhymes, many of which I have NO idea what they are singing about, but I try to pick out sounds and sing along with them; it is really quite fun! I also try to introduce a few games with them. As fun as it is, I must admit, it is really quite exhausting, too! Their enthusiasm is contagious, as is their laughter, but they drain a lot of my energy....LOL
After their recess, we come back and sing songs or play simple games. They already kind of know "Little baby spider" and "Twinkle little star." So the last two days I worked on teaching them, "The farmer in the dell..." It is taking a while for them to get the third line when it switches up, but all in all, they actually have picked up some of the words! :-) It is soooo exciting! And I have to say, too, when they sing "Little baby spider," about the only word they really do know is "WAHSED the spider out!" they sing that one word soooo loud! LOL It is hilarious! I am also trying to introduce reading after recess, but that seems to be a challenge...the teacher wanted to translate everything I was reading into Kinyarwanda so that the kids would understand. I guess I have a different perspective. I was thinking that even if they don't understand all of the words, listening to my English while I point to the pictures of what i am reading about, would be just as beneficial. I could be crazy, but younger kids here in the states are read books that they may not always know....I'll still try to get that worked in - we shall see. :-)
So, my post on Monday I mentioned that no volunteers stayed here in Kigali; that they all went to Gisenyi. However, when I got home that evening, there was a girl from Germany that stayed here for the Literacy program, teaching in a local school. She is really well traveled, having studied in Isreal and will be going to Oxford this school year, too. She will be around for one month, so we are happy to have a new face; someone to bring new perspectives. :-) That is one thing we can always relay on - our "home" is never boring :-)
Well, this is about all I have for now. I'm looking forward to seeing how the rest of this week goes. I will be meeting with the Director on Monday, so by then, my days will be adjusting slightly, yet again :-)
Hugs to all!
Oh yes, and the alphabet. Today they all tried to sing their ABC's, but they only know the letters up to about G, and then it is a lot of garbled sounds :-) Apparently, it is not until next year that the teachers will make them know the entire thing. However, I still wrote every letter on the board and went over it forwards and backwards and then picked out individual letters and had them repeat after me. No reason why they can't start recognizing letters now :-)
Around 10am they take their snack/breakfast, so I walk around and help them open their bags of biscuits, open their thermos' and just supervise a bit while turning down the food they are all offering to me :-) After snack time is recess. The kids really do go quite crazy! I end up having three kids pulling on each arm, a couple attached to my legs - it seems in the beginning all they want t do is to play with me. :-) So I follow their lead on certain games or rhymes, many of which I have NO idea what they are singing about, but I try to pick out sounds and sing along with them; it is really quite fun! I also try to introduce a few games with them. As fun as it is, I must admit, it is really quite exhausting, too! Their enthusiasm is contagious, as is their laughter, but they drain a lot of my energy....LOL
After their recess, we come back and sing songs or play simple games. They already kind of know "Little baby spider" and "Twinkle little star." So the last two days I worked on teaching them, "The farmer in the dell..." It is taking a while for them to get the third line when it switches up, but all in all, they actually have picked up some of the words! :-) It is soooo exciting! And I have to say, too, when they sing "Little baby spider," about the only word they really do know is "WAHSED the spider out!" they sing that one word soooo loud! LOL It is hilarious! I am also trying to introduce reading after recess, but that seems to be a challenge...the teacher wanted to translate everything I was reading into Kinyarwanda so that the kids would understand. I guess I have a different perspective. I was thinking that even if they don't understand all of the words, listening to my English while I point to the pictures of what i am reading about, would be just as beneficial. I could be crazy, but younger kids here in the states are read books that they may not always know....I'll still try to get that worked in - we shall see. :-)
So, my post on Monday I mentioned that no volunteers stayed here in Kigali; that they all went to Gisenyi. However, when I got home that evening, there was a girl from Germany that stayed here for the Literacy program, teaching in a local school. She is really well traveled, having studied in Isreal and will be going to Oxford this school year, too. She will be around for one month, so we are happy to have a new face; someone to bring new perspectives. :-) That is one thing we can always relay on - our "home" is never boring :-)
Well, this is about all I have for now. I'm looking forward to seeing how the rest of this week goes. I will be meeting with the Director on Monday, so by then, my days will be adjusting slightly, yet again :-)
Hugs to all!
Monday, August 16, 2010
TO-MAY-TO :-) & Kindergarten anyone?
Thursday night was quite enjoyable as we all settled down in a pizza joint in the city to enjoy some "American" food while we bid farewell to three volunteers. It was really a fun place to be, out on a patio with a sliver of an orange moon hanging in the distance, listening to their live entertainment, hearing music from Rwandan songs to country and even some song people refer to as the Cuba anthem...though it wasn't but apparently appears in a lot of movies or something... LOL That was something I was unaware of... Overall, it was a great time!
It is going to be interesting to see how people come and go. There were volunteers that arrived this last weekend, but the three of them were all placed in Gisenyi where FVA has just recently started some programs there. So our guesthouse is down to 4 and two of them leave at the end of this month! The other leaves in the middle of September, so I an curious to see who will join me here at the end of the month :-)
On Friday, we got word that Gisimba was preparing for some visitors that were coming that evening before the start of school today, so the kids were all going to be busy. Instead of going to Gisimba, the other volunteer and I went to watch a play put on by a departing volunteer's theater group. This was something they had decided to do during their 2-3 week break. They had worked so hard preparing so we thought it would be great to give them a little audience to perform in front of. The 9:30am "start" time that was expected to actually start at 11 did not end of beginning until shortly after 1pm!!!! When someone comments about "African" time or Rwandan time, they are not joking! :-) And people here already know that and expect it, too. There was a bit of a reason for the delay; waiting for the sound guy. Apparently, their play required the use of microphones and music during "scene" changes - which mostly consisted of 1-2 minutes while the teenagers gathered themselves in the back room :-) So yes, at any rate, around 1pm the play began! And what an intense topic it was. The students performed a story that one of the actors actually wrote about a young girl going from her rural life to school, meeting some girls who were with the "wrong" group, being introduced to a "player" and, after he guilted her to being with him using things like money, she contracted AIDS...Although the play certainly wouldn't have been worked out well enough to have been performed on a stage at any American school, it was actually a really interesting look into the lives of these teenagers, in more ways than one, learning about how they perceive "bad guys" versus "good guys" and getting to see what they do know about AIDS and battling some of the stigmas about it. There were only maybe 20 of their friends in the audience, but what I was REALLY impressed with, was through their nervous laughter, they were all paying very close attention to the story. And at the end, the "director" came out and talked about what everyone saw on stage and asked certain people from the audience to come up and talk about what went wrong with the girl, things she could have done differently, types of behaviors to avoid, etc....it opened up a dialogue. For that, I think, the play was a success - for them, it was both entertainment and educational.....just what they were looking to do....And I must admit, the teenagers playing the main girl who got sick and her mother, they were quite the actresses. When they were at the doctor and found out about being both pregnant and having AIDS, their shrills actually sent chills up my spine - I was moved....
By Saturday morning, three of us headed out to Nyungwe Forest National Park. Through all of my reading, we had decided that arriving in the morning would take about 3 - 3 1/2 hours. We decided we would stay two nights (although when we tried to call for reservations, we could not get through, so we decided to just, show up). And we knew we would be paying a substantial amount for 2-3 days in the park - a package fee. Nothing really went according to plan. Our bus was to depart Kigali at 8am, so with the three of us sleeping a little longer than we had planned, we found ourselves running to catch our first taxi-bus to get to Kigali....the 20-25 minute walk was a 15 jog, with heavy bags, loaded for a weekend away. By the time we made it to the bus station for our ride out of town, it was 10 til 8, and they hadn't even started loading yet! Luck was on our side :-) or so we thought... As we loaded the bus, the ticket-taker directed all three of us to different places on the bus - we decided he just wanted to have control because he was haphazardly placing people in different places all through the bus. Alright, no worries....
The bus takes off and a younger girl sitting the front became car sick. She must have been around 8-10. A rasta guy sitting next to her practically "adopted" her. Without any family on the bus, he was left to help nurture her while she continued to empty her stomach about every 20 minutes. The poor thing was dry heaving so badly! I could see her reflection in the front window and she looked just miserable! The roads here are very bumpy, going up and down and around and around - no wonder car sickness is so common here. At any rate, what I found so remarkable was how he took care of her. This is one thing we all have noticed - everyone looks after the children here, just as if they were their own - no questions asked. I guess all the billboards along the side of the major roads, declaring "Treat every child as if they were your own," really is serving its purpose!!
Throughout the bus ride, I tried so hard to sketch images in my brain of all the sights around me:
-- passing a wedding party walking to their reception along a dusty red-dirt road, the bride and groom smiling in front of a huge crowd, dancing and singing along the road;
-- the older woman working so hard in the rice fields in every valley we passed, bent over, with heads wrapped to keep the sun at bay and their bright colors reflecting off the mix of greens and browns in the fields;
-- the young boys and girls carrying massive heaps of sticks on their heads, more full and round than their own little bodies;
-- a man walking with 3, I said 3 bright red crates of Fanta/Coca Cola bottles on his head;
-- the young bicycle drivers, peddling hard uphill with young girls riding on the back, shuttling them from place to place;
-- the sharp edges of pick hammers, being heaved up and down as the men worked along the sides of the roads, digging into rock and dirt to place down fibre-optic cables; -- the way the hills glide up and down, rolling almost into each other...sort of like when you interlock your fingers and the shape your knuckles take - as soon as one hill is turning into a valley, another hills rolls in to take its place...
So...the drive to the front of the park took 3 1/2 hours.....then we had another hour to get through the park to the only place where non-camping accommodations were. As we arrived to Gisakura Tea Estate, I had told the driver to drop off the three muzungus. Exiting the bus, we found ourselves pretty much in the middle of nowhere - tea fields all around with the massive forest close behind. Following the only map we had in my guidebook, we were lucky to find the guesthouse, nestled behind a little driveway going to a Conservation Desk, which we were only hoping would take us there! We found out at the reception counter that they only had rooms for that night - no rooms for Sunday. We decided we would take the room and just figure out the rest as it came to us. By this time, it was nearly 2pm - so much for spending Saturday on hiking trails! We went to the reception counter of the conservation office to find out about the trails and were told that the two trails that we could get to without a car were no longer accessible that day - all trails require guides. However, there were trails near the Uwinka Lodge, 30 minutes back into the forest, but we would need a car to get there....after must debate and confusion over the fees owed for "2 days" which were to be less than 24 hours in the park, we ended up paying for the permit for both days and had to pay for a driver to take us into the park so we could at least do something that day! The drive and the forest really were incredible! It is one place where the rolling green hills of crops turns into rich, dark greens of forest trees! I loved it!! And the air was sooo fresh!
The hike we took that afternoon was about 2 hours and led us to a canopy walkway where the views were spectacular! We were able to see two different groups of Blue Monkeys, as well, so all in all, the afternoon was really quite enjoyable :-) The evening was so nice with the three of us bonding a bit and enjoying a nice "simple dinner" as the waiter called it, since none of us wanted any meat :-)
By Sunday morning, we were trying to make come phone calls to reserve seats on a bus coming from an hour away (there are no buses leaving this area). However, what we discovered when we tried to place the calls was that since school was starting on Monday, and many people send their kids to boarding schools, ALL of the buses were booked! This is not normal....usually if you check in the morning you can get something in the afternoon....so, we put this aside and headed out with an amazing guide to embark on the 4.5 hour, 10K, "Waterfall Trail." And my goodness, it was spectacular! The first hour we spent walking through the tea fields where our guide taught us about how the tea fields being near the park actually helps deter people from poaching and other illegal activities because tea provides such great economic benefits. He told us how they pick tea and all about the process of harvesting. It was really very interesting! After that first hour, we found ourselves in the forest learning all about the various trees in the forest and their ancient uses. We must have crossed over small streams a handful of times, each time noticing with relief how the temperature shifts so dramatically with elevation change as we neared water. Approaching the waterfall, we took a really narrow switchback trail down to the waters edge. As we walked up to face the waterfall, it took my breath away...I almost teared up! :-) Ridiculous, I know, but I just feel soooo at peace in a place like that, and it was really so beautiful!
The entire walk back to the conservation reception counter, our guide kept giving us phone numbers we could call to try and find a small bus to at least get us to the next major city - Butare. No such luck. By 1 pm, we were back at the main gate with filled water bottles and a sign in hand - "Going to Butare or Kigali??" (With the "or" in all three languages!!) We started what we thought was going to be a VERY long walk....From the moment we started, cars would pass and slow down to show us how full they were. One group stopped and said they could only take 1, which we knew wasn't going to work for us! However, within 10 minutes a truck delivering tomatoes stopped. There were three people sitting in the front and they asked us to go to the back. When they unlocked we back, our bags were gently set inside with the stacks of tomatoes due for delivery. We thought we were going to sit in the storage spot behind the driver's seat, but surprise surprise, there were two ladies back there already!! Myself and one other squeezed in the back with our knees to our chest, practically sitting on our heels while the third volunteer sat in the front, sharing a seat with three others, nearly sitting on the shifter! About two hours into the drive, we had our first "tomato drop." We actually helped them unload the bags of tomatoes, during which EVERYONE got a good laugh at us. :-) At that stop we lost one guy up front, making a little more room in back as we rotated seats. During two other stops, we lost the two ladies. The 4.75 bus trip there turned into a 6 hour adventure back to Kigali! During the journey, besides stopping to drop off tomatoes, there were numerous other "police checks" where we had to duck down in the back so as to not be seen by the police - it was really a bit nerve-racking....but we count our lucky stars that we made it back safe and sound....and the driver at the end wasn't even expecting any payment!! That was just plain crazy. We gave him most of what we would have paid for our tickets home and thanked him profusely!! Rwanda isn't exactly an inexpensive place to travel...so being able to make it home was really quite the blessing!
So today school started back up again all around Rwanda. Back at Gisimba, in the morning there are kindergarten classes. I was asked to help one of the teachers in a class of 5 year olds. It seems every time I start to get comfortable working with certain kids, then things just change! :-) I am definitely learning how to just go with the flow around here - my plans just go straight out the window! So I will see how this week goes. When I told the director I wasn't sure how to teach kindergarten, he just said to me, "Don't worry - just think back and remember what you did in kindergarten and do the same thing! Easy!" LOL Easy for who? The kids today did make me smile a lot, playing so many games and trying to see what they could get away with with me. Thank goodness another teacher was there - but I have no idea what to expect in the morning. We shall see soon enough! So yeah, if you remember what you did in kindergarten, feel free to share :-)
Hugs to all!!
It is going to be interesting to see how people come and go. There were volunteers that arrived this last weekend, but the three of them were all placed in Gisenyi where FVA has just recently started some programs there. So our guesthouse is down to 4 and two of them leave at the end of this month! The other leaves in the middle of September, so I an curious to see who will join me here at the end of the month :-)
On Friday, we got word that Gisimba was preparing for some visitors that were coming that evening before the start of school today, so the kids were all going to be busy. Instead of going to Gisimba, the other volunteer and I went to watch a play put on by a departing volunteer's theater group. This was something they had decided to do during their 2-3 week break. They had worked so hard preparing so we thought it would be great to give them a little audience to perform in front of. The 9:30am "start" time that was expected to actually start at 11 did not end of beginning until shortly after 1pm!!!! When someone comments about "African" time or Rwandan time, they are not joking! :-) And people here already know that and expect it, too. There was a bit of a reason for the delay; waiting for the sound guy. Apparently, their play required the use of microphones and music during "scene" changes - which mostly consisted of 1-2 minutes while the teenagers gathered themselves in the back room :-) So yes, at any rate, around 1pm the play began! And what an intense topic it was. The students performed a story that one of the actors actually wrote about a young girl going from her rural life to school, meeting some girls who were with the "wrong" group, being introduced to a "player" and, after he guilted her to being with him using things like money, she contracted AIDS...Although the play certainly wouldn't have been worked out well enough to have been performed on a stage at any American school, it was actually a really interesting look into the lives of these teenagers, in more ways than one, learning about how they perceive "bad guys" versus "good guys" and getting to see what they do know about AIDS and battling some of the stigmas about it. There were only maybe 20 of their friends in the audience, but what I was REALLY impressed with, was through their nervous laughter, they were all paying very close attention to the story. And at the end, the "director" came out and talked about what everyone saw on stage and asked certain people from the audience to come up and talk about what went wrong with the girl, things she could have done differently, types of behaviors to avoid, etc....it opened up a dialogue. For that, I think, the play was a success - for them, it was both entertainment and educational.....just what they were looking to do....And I must admit, the teenagers playing the main girl who got sick and her mother, they were quite the actresses. When they were at the doctor and found out about being both pregnant and having AIDS, their shrills actually sent chills up my spine - I was moved....
By Saturday morning, three of us headed out to Nyungwe Forest National Park. Through all of my reading, we had decided that arriving in the morning would take about 3 - 3 1/2 hours. We decided we would stay two nights (although when we tried to call for reservations, we could not get through, so we decided to just, show up). And we knew we would be paying a substantial amount for 2-3 days in the park - a package fee. Nothing really went according to plan. Our bus was to depart Kigali at 8am, so with the three of us sleeping a little longer than we had planned, we found ourselves running to catch our first taxi-bus to get to Kigali....the 20-25 minute walk was a 15 jog, with heavy bags, loaded for a weekend away. By the time we made it to the bus station for our ride out of town, it was 10 til 8, and they hadn't even started loading yet! Luck was on our side :-) or so we thought... As we loaded the bus, the ticket-taker directed all three of us to different places on the bus - we decided he just wanted to have control because he was haphazardly placing people in different places all through the bus. Alright, no worries....
The bus takes off and a younger girl sitting the front became car sick. She must have been around 8-10. A rasta guy sitting next to her practically "adopted" her. Without any family on the bus, he was left to help nurture her while she continued to empty her stomach about every 20 minutes. The poor thing was dry heaving so badly! I could see her reflection in the front window and she looked just miserable! The roads here are very bumpy, going up and down and around and around - no wonder car sickness is so common here. At any rate, what I found so remarkable was how he took care of her. This is one thing we all have noticed - everyone looks after the children here, just as if they were their own - no questions asked. I guess all the billboards along the side of the major roads, declaring "Treat every child as if they were your own," really is serving its purpose!!
Throughout the bus ride, I tried so hard to sketch images in my brain of all the sights around me:
-- passing a wedding party walking to their reception along a dusty red-dirt road, the bride and groom smiling in front of a huge crowd, dancing and singing along the road;
-- the older woman working so hard in the rice fields in every valley we passed, bent over, with heads wrapped to keep the sun at bay and their bright colors reflecting off the mix of greens and browns in the fields;
-- the young boys and girls carrying massive heaps of sticks on their heads, more full and round than their own little bodies;
-- a man walking with 3, I said 3 bright red crates of Fanta/Coca Cola bottles on his head;
-- the young bicycle drivers, peddling hard uphill with young girls riding on the back, shuttling them from place to place;
-- the sharp edges of pick hammers, being heaved up and down as the men worked along the sides of the roads, digging into rock and dirt to place down fibre-optic cables; -- the way the hills glide up and down, rolling almost into each other...sort of like when you interlock your fingers and the shape your knuckles take - as soon as one hill is turning into a valley, another hills rolls in to take its place...
So...the drive to the front of the park took 3 1/2 hours.....then we had another hour to get through the park to the only place where non-camping accommodations were. As we arrived to Gisakura Tea Estate, I had told the driver to drop off the three muzungus. Exiting the bus, we found ourselves pretty much in the middle of nowhere - tea fields all around with the massive forest close behind. Following the only map we had in my guidebook, we were lucky to find the guesthouse, nestled behind a little driveway going to a Conservation Desk, which we were only hoping would take us there! We found out at the reception counter that they only had rooms for that night - no rooms for Sunday. We decided we would take the room and just figure out the rest as it came to us. By this time, it was nearly 2pm - so much for spending Saturday on hiking trails! We went to the reception counter of the conservation office to find out about the trails and were told that the two trails that we could get to without a car were no longer accessible that day - all trails require guides. However, there were trails near the Uwinka Lodge, 30 minutes back into the forest, but we would need a car to get there....after must debate and confusion over the fees owed for "2 days" which were to be less than 24 hours in the park, we ended up paying for the permit for both days and had to pay for a driver to take us into the park so we could at least do something that day! The drive and the forest really were incredible! It is one place where the rolling green hills of crops turns into rich, dark greens of forest trees! I loved it!! And the air was sooo fresh!
The hike we took that afternoon was about 2 hours and led us to a canopy walkway where the views were spectacular! We were able to see two different groups of Blue Monkeys, as well, so all in all, the afternoon was really quite enjoyable :-) The evening was so nice with the three of us bonding a bit and enjoying a nice "simple dinner" as the waiter called it, since none of us wanted any meat :-)
By Sunday morning, we were trying to make come phone calls to reserve seats on a bus coming from an hour away (there are no buses leaving this area). However, what we discovered when we tried to place the calls was that since school was starting on Monday, and many people send their kids to boarding schools, ALL of the buses were booked! This is not normal....usually if you check in the morning you can get something in the afternoon....so, we put this aside and headed out with an amazing guide to embark on the 4.5 hour, 10K, "Waterfall Trail." And my goodness, it was spectacular! The first hour we spent walking through the tea fields where our guide taught us about how the tea fields being near the park actually helps deter people from poaching and other illegal activities because tea provides such great economic benefits. He told us how they pick tea and all about the process of harvesting. It was really very interesting! After that first hour, we found ourselves in the forest learning all about the various trees in the forest and their ancient uses. We must have crossed over small streams a handful of times, each time noticing with relief how the temperature shifts so dramatically with elevation change as we neared water. Approaching the waterfall, we took a really narrow switchback trail down to the waters edge. As we walked up to face the waterfall, it took my breath away...I almost teared up! :-) Ridiculous, I know, but I just feel soooo at peace in a place like that, and it was really so beautiful!
The entire walk back to the conservation reception counter, our guide kept giving us phone numbers we could call to try and find a small bus to at least get us to the next major city - Butare. No such luck. By 1 pm, we were back at the main gate with filled water bottles and a sign in hand - "Going to Butare or Kigali??" (With the "or" in all three languages!!) We started what we thought was going to be a VERY long walk....From the moment we started, cars would pass and slow down to show us how full they were. One group stopped and said they could only take 1, which we knew wasn't going to work for us! However, within 10 minutes a truck delivering tomatoes stopped. There were three people sitting in the front and they asked us to go to the back. When they unlocked we back, our bags were gently set inside with the stacks of tomatoes due for delivery. We thought we were going to sit in the storage spot behind the driver's seat, but surprise surprise, there were two ladies back there already!! Myself and one other squeezed in the back with our knees to our chest, practically sitting on our heels while the third volunteer sat in the front, sharing a seat with three others, nearly sitting on the shifter! About two hours into the drive, we had our first "tomato drop." We actually helped them unload the bags of tomatoes, during which EVERYONE got a good laugh at us. :-) At that stop we lost one guy up front, making a little more room in back as we rotated seats. During two other stops, we lost the two ladies. The 4.75 bus trip there turned into a 6 hour adventure back to Kigali! During the journey, besides stopping to drop off tomatoes, there were numerous other "police checks" where we had to duck down in the back so as to not be seen by the police - it was really a bit nerve-racking....but we count our lucky stars that we made it back safe and sound....and the driver at the end wasn't even expecting any payment!! That was just plain crazy. We gave him most of what we would have paid for our tickets home and thanked him profusely!! Rwanda isn't exactly an inexpensive place to travel...so being able to make it home was really quite the blessing!
So today school started back up again all around Rwanda. Back at Gisimba, in the morning there are kindergarten classes. I was asked to help one of the teachers in a class of 5 year olds. It seems every time I start to get comfortable working with certain kids, then things just change! :-) I am definitely learning how to just go with the flow around here - my plans just go straight out the window! So I will see how this week goes. When I told the director I wasn't sure how to teach kindergarten, he just said to me, "Don't worry - just think back and remember what you did in kindergarten and do the same thing! Easy!" LOL Easy for who? The kids today did make me smile a lot, playing so many games and trying to see what they could get away with with me. Thank goodness another teacher was there - but I have no idea what to expect in the morning. We shall see soon enough! So yeah, if you remember what you did in kindergarten, feel free to share :-)
Hugs to all!!
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