A quiet Sunday afternoon...

After a long day at Akagera on Saturday, I was looking forward to a quieter Sunday. The sun was shining and so I decided to go for a walk. For a while, I had wanted to venture down into the beautiful valley below my house and I had been told of a path that was not too tricky to walk down.

I went with my housemate Cathy and, as usual, we were greeted by many people as soon as we stepped outside the front gate. In Rwanda, people always greet you in the same way – by saying good morning/afternoon, asking how you are, asking where you have come from and asking where you are going. Trying to explain that you are just ‘going for a walk’ is very difficult because people in Rwanda are usually far too busy fetching water, planting crops, looking after children etc. to have time to just ‘go for a walk’!

As we turned off the main road and began to walk down into the valley below, it was suddenly peaceful. We left behind the trucks, motos, bikes and people and concentrated on making our way down the steep muddy path, stopping to look at the wonderful views. Since the rainy season has begun, it is incredible how lush and green the landscape has become. This moment of peace was not to last... as we turned a corner, we came across eight children who were happily playing in a foresty area. They were shoeless, covered in mud, all wearing their school uniforms (although it was Sunday, so this was probably because they don’t have another set of clothes) and were incredibly happy to see us! For the rest of our walk, we were joined by these eight children, two goats and a piglet. Unsurprisingly, we did not get very far. On the climb back up the hill, the children wanted to play and I ended up chasing many of them, who squealed in delight as they were able to run much faster than me!

Can we come for a walk too?

Catch me if you can!

When we finally reached the top of the valley, we said goodbye to our new friends and headed home. Looking at the sky, Cathy and I thought we had timed things just about perfectly as we could see that a storm was coming. Mist and dark clouds were descending as we quickened our pace and soon you could no longer see down into the valley because it was just a mass of swirling fog. We made it home just as some large drops began to fall. I jumped straight in the shower to have a much needed wash (I was hot and muddy from chasing the children) and listened to the rain pummelling on the roof and against the windows, safe in the knowledge that I was in my dry house... or so I thought! Just as I was dressing, (while thunder rumbled, lightning flashed and raindrops turned into huge hailstones outside) I heard Cathy shout from the living room, “WATER!” I ran in to see muddy water gushing under our front door, which leads straight into our living room! The drain outside had overflowed!

We grabbed the shoes we’d left by the door, pushed the sofas and tables as far back as possible and then looked at each other in shock as the water continued to rush in! I then shouted, “Rice sacks!” (which we have a store of for making posters for the classrooms in our schools) and we ran to grab them and tried to stuff them under the door. It helped a little, but not for long and soon the sacks were floating around the living room and the water was ankle deep! Suddenly, Dorney Rowing Club sprang into my mind! I remembered that when the boats get full of water at rowing club, the children use plastic milk bottles with the tops cut off as scoops for bailing out. So Cathy ran to get the large basins that we wash clothes in and I ran into the kitchen with my pen knife and sliced off the tops of litre bottles of water. I then pulled on my wellies (their first use in Rwanda was in my living room!) and we began to bail out. For much of the time, we were just keeping the water at ankle level, because the flood continued to pour under the door, but eight huge basins later, we started to win! After 6 or 7 basins, when most of the water had gone, we even had the humour left to take a photo of our flooded living room!

Bailing out muddy water, once the worst of the flood was over.
Thank goodness I packed my wellies!

Akagera

There aren’t many things that will make me leave my bed in the early hours of the morning, but on Saturday 23^rd October, I crawled out from under my mosquito net at 5.30am, pulled on many layers of clothing and grunted a good morning to the four other volunteers, ready and waiting in my living room. After a honey and banana sandwich for breakfast, I was soon as excited as them, because this morning, we were going on safari in Akagera National Park!

I am lucky to be living in Kibungo, which is only an hour away from the southern entrance to Rwanda’s National Park, which is named after the Akagera River. Rwanda is known as ‘The land of a thousand hills’ and so it was very different going on safari here to when I went to Lake Nakuru and the Maasai Mara in Kenya. My experiences had been of wide open plains, but in Akagera it sometimes seemed very similar to the Chiltern Hills back home! I was left with a sense that the zebras I saw grazing could easily have been horses in the English countryside! However, being stared at (in not the friendliest of manners) by a large male buffalo and seeing several hippos emerge from a lake soon reminded me that I ‘was not in Hazlemere anymore’!

Zebra grazing in Akagera National Park.

An impala in the bush.

Look! A giraffe!

I saw a wide variety of wildlife throughout the day as I stood up looking through the roof of the pop up safari truck I had hired with my volunteer friends. This included seeing the buffalos, hippos and zebras that I have already mentioned, as well as impala, waterbuck, eland, monkeys, baboons, eagles and many exotic birds (that I cannot remember the names of!). As expected, we were not lucky enough to see the elephants or the two remaining lions that day. I was very keen to see giraffes and was delighted that, when I spotted them in the distance, we drove through the bush to where they were, got out of the vehicle and walked towards them (keeping a safe distance) to take photos. Another exciting moment was when our guide shouted for the driver to stop and a HUGE black mamba (the most dangerous animal in the world) slithered right across the path in front of our vehicle. Apparently it is rare to see this snake and I was quite shocked by its size!

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.

My Rwandan House

As promised, please find below some pictures of my house in Kibungo!

My house in Kibungo (front view)

Luxury living room complete with sofas! A great surprise!

My bedroom

A weekend treat - eating pancakes for breakfast in my kitchen!

New country, new home

I can’t believe I landed in Rwanda only two weeks ago and so much has happened! I hope you are all settling back into your new classes at school, I’m sure you have all been very busy too. Thank you to everyone who has left comments on my blog. My school email account has been closed now that I don’t work at Dorney School anymore, so this will be the best way to get in touch with me.

When I finally arrived in the capital of Rwanda, Kigali (after my plane took a detour and stopped in Uganda for an hour!), I was greeted by people from VSO Rwanda who gave me a flower and the warmest welcome. I was very pleased that all of my luggage and my motorbike helmet (which I had filled with chocolate!) had arrived safely too. I was taken, with 18 other new volunteers, to a guesthouse for some training about my new job. I spent ten days learning about the country of Rwanda, learning more of the local language and learning practical things like how to set up a water filter and light a kerosene stove! This is because all the water here has to be boiled and filtered before you can drink it and there is often no electricity to turn on a stove or oven to cook your tea. I was also taught lots of other important things about the way people act in Rwanda and how important it is to respect these differences. For example, you must NEVER eat or drink in public here, yawning means you’re hungry and you greet people by touching heads three times!

Towards the end of my training, I was treated to a ‘family meal’, where all the old and new VSO volunteers get together (there are about 50 in Rwanda at the moment) and have dinner together. There was also traditional Rwandan dancing, which I later had to try for myself!

Traditional Rwandan dancing

On Tuesday evening, I arrived in my new home in a town called Kibungo, which is two hours away from the capital city. I was very happy when I opened the door because the house is much bigger and much cosier than I expected. I will take some photos soon and post them on here so you can see for yourselves! The house has three bedrooms and at the moment I am sharing with another lovely volunteer called Cathy. In my bedroom I have a huge mosquito net hanging over my bed to protect me from any nasty biting bugs at night! There has not been much electricity or water since I have arrived, so we have been cooking on the kerosene stove and washing using buckets of water that we have stored up from the outside tap when the water has come on. The best thing about my new home is the view! If I peep over the fence at the back of my house, I can see for miles down into the valley below. You can also see loads of banana and plantain (green bananas) trees everywhere you go.



The view from my house



I start my job of working with teachers in the different schools in my area tomorrow, but I did visit a school on Friday to begin to see what schools here are like. I took my first motorbike ride to get to the school, which was great fun! The children were very excited when I arrived. Many of them have never met somebody from England before and have also not seen somebody with my colour skin and hair! Lots of handshaking went on and there were huge smiles all round! The classes are much bigger than at home – about 50 children in a class, but they are very well behaved and really keen to learn. The visit has made me really look forward to starting my job and working with the people here.

Kindergarten at Gahurire School