Relishing Rubavu

This past week I was with 30 other PCVs from my class at an "in-service training" (IST) conference. These events can feel a little tedious, but -- perhaps as consolation -- they're typically held at very desirable locations. Our IST was in Rubavu, also known as Gisenyi. In Rwanda's burgeoning tourism industry, this spot is one of the highlights. It's on the shores of Lake Kivu, touching Goma in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Our hotel was gorgeous, tucked up on a hillside overlooking the lake:

It came with many amenities. As wonderful as it all was, though, there are constant little reminders that it's still the developing world. Let me illustrate this for you:

- The hotel was quite sizable...
but the layout was incredibly confusing. We commented that it resembled an M.C. Escher print -- stairs, stairs, everywhere.
- There was a large, professional billboard down by the road, thanking you for visiting Rubavu...
or, as the case may be, "Rubava." Close.
- All around the hotel, the walls and railings shone with bright, crisp paint...
which rubbed off on your clothing if you happened to lean against anything.
- There was high-speed wireless internet...
which stopped working after the first day, supposedly because after a bit of lightning the staff didn't know how to reset the router.
- We had a color TV in our room...
which only got four channels. (Some rooms got fewer or none, though.) And the batteries in the remote were all corroded, so I had to replace them with my own.
- We also had a phone...
but not all the rooms did, so you could only call certain people.
- The beds were large, with many pillows...
but they were more foam than a "real" mattress, so that your body digs a nice a little valley each night.
- There was a net hanging up for protection against the ubiquitous mosquitoes...
but only a single net, in between the two beds. And no screens on the windows, so skipping the net was hardly an option.
- There were private showers with great water pressure...
but the drain would always stop up, so usually you were standing in water up to your ankles while you bathed.
- The hotel provided flip-flop shower shoes...
but the left and right didn't match -- in pattern, color, or even size.
- Over the sink was a fancy-looking glass ledge...
but you didn't dare place anything on it because it quite easily slipped out of the wall.
- The bathroom boasted deliciously hot water...
but no shower curtains, or drains in the floor, so you had to constantly navigate through a huge pool on the tile floor every time you wanted to use the toilet or wash your hands.
- There was maid service each day, and they mopped up those floors...
but there was only one key to each room, so you had to track down the head maid every morning and give her your key, or else your room wouldn't get cleaned. And the pool would grow.

I'm not saying I didn't enjoy my stay, though! In particular, the food was amazing. I'm used to cooking for myself on a single burner, so it's usually a one-pot affair. But here we had a fabulous all-you-can-eat buffet for each meal! And on the first day, we arrived early so we ordered food from the hotel restaurant. I had a Nile perch (capitaine) filet, fresh from the lake, in a pepper cream sauce. I'm pretty sure it was the best food I've ever had in Rwanda.

We also got one afternoon free to have a little picnic down on the beach. The beach is very clean with nice sand, but it's pretty narrow. Abruptly, lush grass and thick trees disrupt the landscape. I tried to capture a pic of this as I lounged in the driver's seat of a PC car (don't worry, Washington, I wasn't driving!). Also, a shot of fellow Mauritania PCVs Ashley and Michele with PC staff Kassim, Assinath, Claudine, and Alphonsine:




A few of us went out on a little "speedboat" (I use the term loosely), and although we got splashed a fair amount, it was a good time. We scooted right up to the Congo border, and I was amazed at how posh it looked on the other side! Goma is said to have really cheap markets with lots available, since nothing is regulated there -- the upshot of having a government in shambles, I guess.

Here's me in the back seat of the boat with PC staff Alphonsine again and PCV Chris, and in the second pic the hills behind me are Congo:



All in all, a fun week spent with friends, and now I'm equipped with concrete new ideas to tackle the second term of school.

The future of Rwanda

Trimester 2 is underway, and it's found me rather busy again! But so happy to be back with these kids again. In teaching some weather vocab recently, I shared some photos of snow. My sister had sent me one shot of my nephew flopped down in a blanket of white after the big blizzards this winter. I walked around my classroom with this pic and asked: what is he doing? The kids were, suffice it to say, SO confused. "He is washing? He is swimming?" Nope. Tried another tack: where is he? "In the water?" No... "In the -- sky??" So awesome.

Taking a cue from a Voice of America daily feature, I introduced a new long-term project this term that I'm calling "On This Day in History." For each class period, two students sign up to speak. I write up some short texts (~75 words) about an event that happened on that particular date, and the kids present the text by memory. When I first announced the idea, I was met with rather blank stares and just a couple brave souls venturing to go first. Now each week when I ask for volunteers, a sea of hopeful hands shoots up before me. It's been really great! Some kids choose to recite the text verbatim, but I'm encouraging them to paraphrase as long as they hit all the relevant information. I love to see them really own it, with cute introductions like "Good morning, class. Firstly I want to thank our English teacher..." Their pronunciation is frequently creative (I enjoyed hearing about "Deekay Erringtone" and his contributions to American jazz), but above all the goal is just for them to make themselves comprehensible in oral English.

Inspired by Earth Day, I did a discussion-based lesson that I titled "Rwanda of Yesterday and Tomorrow." First I had the kids brainstorm in pairs what Rwanda was like 100 years ago, in 1910. We shared the results together, and I listed their contributions on the board.

Then, above a second column I wrote the heading: "Rwanda in 2060." In EVERY one of my six classes, before I even said a word, there were audible responses of amazement. It's like they've never been granted the freedom to think creatively, openly, with no limitations. I think they really enjoyed it.

Most of them had grand ambitions for their country. I got a couple "It will be like heaven/paradise" responses, and Zainabu's which I just loved: "It will be like WOW." But then there were also some pessimists. One kid was convinced there won't be any people because they'll all have died from AIDS. Yikes! Another girl said it "will be like Sodom and Gomorrah"! Some predicted the traditional culture will be "destroyed." A few very bright kids hit on the fact that I wanted to drive home: there will likely be a ton of people, and the same small land area. There are 10 million people in Rwanda today; I had the kids guess predicted population numbers for the years 2025 and 2050. When I shared the actual figures (15 and 25 million, respectively), an exasperated Jean-Baptiste cried out in disbelief, "Teacher! HOW THEY WILL LIVE?!" My question exactly, buddy.

There were some creative solutions to the population issue. More than one class said we'll all be able to go live on Mars by then (one kid was even pulling for Jupiter and Saturn). Some said they'll just move to other countries, so I tried to illustrate the concept of a brain drain. One kid said we can just invade Congo or even Uganda and take some of their land by force (I replied that personally I would not want to mess with Congolese soldiers). One of my real smarties raised maybe the most plausible answer, that everyone can live in high-rises, thus artificially creating more land.

For homework after this lesson, I gave the kids some critical thinking questions (another foreign concept) related to the environment in Rwanda. I was a bit dubious about the kinds of responses I would get. I really wanted them to express some cogent opinions, regardless of minor errors with wording. The somewhat odd thing about many students in this all-anglophone school system here is that they end up knowing words like infrastructure (or "inflacitricture" as I've seen it rendered), but can hardly form a grammatical sentence. My feeling is, at the end of the day, teaching grammar ain't no thang. But can these kids think for themselves? That, I'm not sure I can teach.

The good news is: these kids are on their way.

Enjoy a few sample responses:

Why are plastic bags not allowed in Rwanda?

"plastic bags not allowed in Rwanda because the plastic bags are not distroyed when it is in the soil and these plastic bags against water to travel or to enter in the soil or land"

"the plastic bags are not allowed in Rwanda Because they wasn't to use for fertilizing the soil, so when the people finished to use them, they put the plastic bags every where for example on the farm. because the plastic bags are increases the developement are reduces because the crops are scarce."

What can YOU do to help Rwanda to be beautiful in the future?

"There is many events which I can do. I must continue to study when I finish university in USA I will became a pilot. and when I get for money I will put in different activities like agriculture or mineral exploitation is will create the industry of crops which I will cultivate and I used many people in these industry; so our country it can develop."

"To help Rwanda to be beautful in future, I can do the following:
- I must study.
- I can go in the others countries to coperate the modern activities.
- I make a good election for the leaders.
- I can remove those children who live in the roads without job, to the school.
- I can fight against Genocide Ideology.
- I can advice the Rwandese to do their own business and avoid to beg.
- I will tell the people to have a self confidence of being well."