My first workshop

On Wednesday and Thursday I ran my first training workshops for all sixty five schools in the district that I work in. I have been working with another VSO volunteer named Jeremy who has been working here since January to try and help teachers and Headteachers to improve teaching and learning in their schools. This is to make sure that the children of Rwanda enjoy their lessons and learn lots, like you do in England! Many of the teachers in Rwanda have not had the chance to learn how to be a teacher and so I am hoping to be able to help them see what a fun job teaching can be and show them how they can make sure the children in their classes learn.

Schools here do not have computers, interactive whiteboards or even displays on their walls at the moment, so when I did my training, I tried to use things that the teachers can use in schools themselves. Lots of the pictures and writing I used when talking to the teachers and Headteachers were on rice sacks! I had to learn how to draw and write on rice sacks myself and how to burn the edges of each sack with a candle to stop the sides fraying. It’s quite tricky to do!

Making rice sacks in the District Education Office.

Teachers and Headteachers from thirty one schools came to the training on Wednesday and thirty three schools came on Thursday, which was great. I was quite nervous as because I am used to speaking to large groups of children, but not large groups of adults. Luckily I needn’t have worried! It was a fantastic experience for me and the teachers and Headteachers joined in really enthusiastically in all the activities we had planned for them. I am now looking forward to going into schools in the new term to help teachers in their classrooms.

Teaching teachers a name game, to help them learn the names of all of the pupils in their class.
(Many classes have about 50 children).

Working with a group of teachers to discuss how important it is to include every child in their lesson.

Five seconds of football fame!

I spent the weekend just passed meeting up with other volunteers in the Kigali, the capital of Rwanda. It was good to share stories of how we are all getting on, now that we have all been in Rwanda for over a month! On Saturday I went to ‘Amahoro Stadium’ to watch an ‘African League of Nations’ football match between Rwanda and Benin. It only cost me about £3 to buy a ticket and I had a fantastic seat with a great view of the pitch. There were groups of Rwandan supporters who were dressed in the Rwandan flag and blowing green, yellow and blue horns to show their loyalty. What was quite strange is that lots of people did not even arrive until nearly half time! (African time is much slower than English time!)



The Rwandan team warming up for the game

The stadium was very grand and there was a big screen that showed that the President of Rwanda was in the crowd, quite close to where I was sitting! This big screen also showed a red-haired teacher that you might have recognised! I did not even realise that I had been shown cheering for Rwanda on the screen, because my seats were so good, I had no need to look at it! The only reason I know I appeared is because during the second half, my mobile phone rang and a Rwandan named Musafari (who is helping me to organise a trip to a nearby safari park) told me he had seen me on the TV! He also wanted to know if it was true that Rwanda was losing, which sadly it was!

The final score was unfortunately 3 nil to Benin, but Rwanda played well and were the better team in the first half. The winning team was given a round of applause and everyone left the stadium sensibly and calmly. The Rwandan team were cheered for their efforts as they left in their own bus. I feel that some English football fans could have learnt a lot about the best way to behave at a match!

After stocking up on chocolate (yes – I can even buy Dairy milk!) and cheese (which comes in a can!) at the supermarket in Kigali, I am now happily back in Kibungo. I still love the bus journey because of the amazing views, even though I do frequently get my hair pulled in amazement and had a baby on my lap for most of the 2 hour trip!

Miss Lamborn on a moto

On my way to Zaza with my driver Theogeme

I love visiting schools on the back of a motorbike! It is the most fantastic way to see the beautiful Rwandan countryside (especially now we are starting to get a short but heavy rain shower most days). You can be speeding down the road, then suddenly twist onto a bright red dust dirt track, wind through a ‘plantain jungle’ and then have a bumpy ride down to the green rice paddies. Wherever you are, you always hear cries of ‘Muzungu!’ (which means a person with white skin) which become louder and louder as people come running out of their houses to see you. If I am closer to home, I sometimes receive happy cries of ‘Louise’, which makes me feel even more special! When I wave to greet them, people give me the most lovely smiles, wave back happily and often groups children chase behind you until they are too tired to run anymore.

When you arrive at a school, you are quickly surrounded by curious faces that turn into smiling faces when you say “good morning”. This, in fact, is not only true of moto-rides, but of going anywhere. The other day, I was walking home from the office, when a group of about seven children, aged between about 6 and 10, began running to catch up with me, tell me their names, shake my hand and walk all the way to my front door with me. On market days, the women walking with bananas, pineapples and tomatoes piled high on their heads laugh happily when I try to greet them in Kinyarwanda and walk with me, asking questions I usually don’t understand! (I am having Kinyarwanda lessons twice a week, which is helping). I feel very lucky to receive such attention and feel very welcome here.

I have now visited 9 primary schools and today I went to Zaza ‘Teacher Training College’, which is where older children and young adults study to become teachers. I helped teach an English lesson in a class where some of the students were nearly as old as me! It was a new experience for me, but I really enjoyed it. The students were wonderful, so enthusiastic and eager to welcome me to their school and keen to make the most of having someone from England, who might be able to help them improve their English. They all live at the school and I enjoyed looking round, seeing the classrooms, kitchens and where the students sleep.

The students at Zaza using my camera

Next week I am going to be doing two days of training for the 65 headteachers who work in the same area as me. I think it will be quite scary to have to talk to that many people, but I am looking forward to it because it will help me work out how I can best help the children here to learn.