Teaching in Rwanda

Teaching in Rwanda comes with many challenges. Teachers are given a curriculum for their subject, which is an outline of what must be taught throughout the year. These curricula are usually unintelligible, contain outdated or non-existent terms and phrases, or ask the teacher to teach about things that are not at all pertinent to the subject being taught. Teachers have few resources to draw information from and they often resort to copying sections of text from a book and giving that as notes to the students. The time in the classroom is split between copying notes and giving explanation of the notes to the students. The students are then given quizzes to test how well they have memorized the information given to them. No creative thought. Just minds being treated as photo copiers.

As much as I am frustrated by the Rwandan education system, I sympathize with the teachers. No, even more than that, I empathize with them. These teachers usually teach several subjects with little or no resources to use for creating lesson plans. The information in the curricula is sometimes so unintelligible that they often have to study the topic they are teaching just before teaching it. I'm certain that they really want to do more learner-centered teaching, but they are expected to get through so much information throughout the term that it is difficult to do anything besides hand over a bunch of notes and then give an explanation. I find myself often taking on the same teaching strategy and only throwing in a fun activity when I think of a good idea to try or I deem that I have enough time to have the students put their notebooks away and actually do something besides copy off of the blackboard.

Even though the education system in Rwanda needs a lot of help, I see no shortage of intelligent young people in this country. I am so proud of my students for the work that they put out when I push them to think their own original thoughts. Take my Senior 5 class as an example. Yesterday they had a debate during class. Rwandan students love doing debates. One of the students told me after class that we should hold a debate in class every week. I was happy to see that the students tried to involve everyone in the debate and they gave very reasoned arguments for their ideas.

After the debate I asked the students to hand in their homework. I had asked them to write five questions that they would ask their president, Paul Kagame, in an interview. I was surprised to see that very few of the questions were about personal things, such as hobbies and favorite things. Most of the questions were about current issues like: the conflict in DRC involving a group that the Rwandan government was accused of supporting; the recent creation of the Agaciro Development Fund, and how the government plans to spend that money - and why some people were told that contributions are mandatory when the government described it as voluntary; and how the president plans to utilize his final five years in office and who he thinks will run during the next election.

I get the feeling that I had an impact on the questions that were written. This term I gave this Senior 5 class very few notes. I assigned them one large project to work on throughout the term, which was to write and to give a speech. The speech is to be about what their dream is for Rwanda (after watching clips of MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech). Throughout the term I helped them shape their ideas by asking them questions like "What problems does your country face right now and how can you fix them?" or "What is important to you? What issue do you care about most?" It was very rewarding to see these minds open up, beginning with only giving a history of what they know about Rwanda, progressing to what their own creative ideas are for solutions to the issues the world currently faces. I am very excited as the end of the term draws near and I get to hear all of the wonderful speeches that these students worked so hard to put together.

At the beginning of the term, when I assigned the speech project, some of my students told me that it is so difficult. I explained to them that challenges are important for personal progress. After seeing some of the excellent work that these students have put together, I can't wait to ask those students after they give their speeches if it was worth it that I challenged them. Sometimes I feel somewhat useless here in Rwanda because I don't have several secondary projects under my belt like some volunteers. But then I realize the impact that I am having on these young minds by helping them to think critically. The next step is to share some of these teaching strategies to the other teachers so that the impact is sustainable. It is going to be challenging, but I know it will be worth it.

Long Time Coming

It's been a while, so I guess I should update. I've been putting it off for so long because so much has been going on. But the longer I put it off, the more information I'm likely to leave out or forget. I gotta keep my readers happy! (I have 3,000 views on this blog even though I haven't updated it in three months, although 2,900 of those might be from my own mother)

During the school break two big things happened: GLOW Camp and Zanzibar.

GLOW Camp is a camp for girls where we teach them things like confidence, decision-making, career development, and how to prevent HIV/AIDS. We even taught them how to play baseball thanks to the resources of a fellow volunteer! Helping at GLOW Camp was the most rewarding thing I have done so far as a Peace Corps Volunteer. It was amazing (and exhausting) to see over 100 girls transformed from being meek and quiet to being loud and confident. The girls developed such a strong bond in just one week that they were all crying on the last day when they had to leave. And this is a culture where people don't show emotion outwardly. Now, the four girls from my school who attended the camp are starting a GLOW Club at school so that they can teach other girls the things that they learned. I'm excited to see how they put the things that they learned at GLOW Camp into practice.

The second big thing during break was my trip to Zanzibar. I went with a group of four other volunteers by bus to Dar Es Salaam, where we then took a ferry to Stone Town on the Zanzibar island. The 30 hour trip on the bus was not fun, but we forgot all about that by the time we reached Dar. We got to eat Western food! And Zanzibar was just heavenly. I could swim in the clear waters of the Indian Ocean all day!

The rest of the time during the break I spent visiting friends in different places in Rwanda. I also got to see King James, winner of the Primus Guma Guma Superstar competition in Rwanda, perform and I got to dance with him while he was singing.

Following the second week of school, my host family that I stayed with during training came to visit me. I feel very blessed to have them as a host family. They truly adopted me as a son. They came bringing gifts with more food than I could eat through the week. I took them to get brochettes and sodas (beer for me and Papa) but they refused to let me pay, even when I tried giving the money to the bar owner.

Over this past weekend I attended a basketball tournament that my school's boys team was playing in. They ended up winning the championship. It was a lot of fun, but I was burned and tired from being out in the sun all day without eating.

Well, that about does it for updates. I wish I could include more information about each event, but that's more work than I want to do at this point. Those who Facebook stalk me will have already seen lots of photos anyway. Hopefully I'll be able to give another update before three more months go by. Cheers!

Speak and Draw

Club SPEAK consists of students at my school who want to practice their English speaking skills. The club has been struggling to keep students attending regularly. In one of the meetings, I had the students who run the club brainstorm some of the reasons why students were not coming consistently. We decided to cut the club meetings down to one day a week instead of two and then we came up with some fun activities that would draw students in and make them want to return. One of those activities was the Speak and Draw competition.


Speak and Draw works by getting students to practice speaking and listening. Plus, they get to draw, so they love it! Students are split into pairs, one speaker and one illustrator. The speaker is given a picture (I tore some out of magazines; the more details in the picture, the better) which they cannot show to their partner. The speaker must describe the picture to the illustrator, who must then draw the picture to the best of their ability. At the end, the students vote for the best drawing, accounting for accuracy to the original picture. The students had so much fun and were challenged to use whatever vocabulary they knew to describe the pictures.

The winners of Speak and Draw! Unfortunately the flash on my camera washed out his drawing.

This boy's partner left before I could get his photo.

The accuracy of some drawings amazed me.

The students who helped judge.

The Michelin Man!

Rwandans have great smiles. The trick is getting them to do it.

I'm surprised this one didn't win.

This drawing got stepped on during the judging.

Club SPEAK

Religion in Rwanda

Religion in Rwanda is fairly diverse. Granted, most of that diversity consists of the many veins of Christianity, including Adventists, Presbyterians, Jehovah’s Witnesses [I refuse their tracts here too], and Roman Catholics, among others (although I’m wondering where the Mormons are?). Islam also has a place in Rwanda, and even though Muslims make up a minority in this country, I have seen more of them here than I have in America with all of its diversity. It seems inevitable to run into many of them while staying in a country the size of the state of Maryland which is home to about 11 million people. Strangely, there are no Jews or atheists—besides Peace Corps Volunteers.

Church is always interesting in Rwanda. It differs in every church. My first experience with church was during training. It was fun at first, but I didn’t realize it would continue for four hours. I can only handle being squeezed onto a bench (half my rear hanging off) and being touched by dirty children for so long.

My second church experience was during Christmas. There was no special Christmas service. In a way it was refreshing to get away from the three-month commercial build up to what consumer America has turned Christmas into. But at the same time it leaves me with that feeling you get when you’re pulling away from your house and you’re wondering if you locked the door or not. When I have my music library on shuffle I don’t skip over the Christmas songs. It’s as if Christmas never came last year.

I tried going to the Catholic church in my village because I heard that they have really short services. Too short, I guess. I made it just in time for the announcements. Mass ended five minutes later. It’s the thought that counts, right?

One of my friends in the village invited me to his church, so I went. I found out that he is also a pastor there. I had so much fun dancing to the music and I even gave a short introduction to myself in Kinyarwanda. Four hours didn’t seem so long after that day. I arrived at 9:00 in the morning and left at 5:00 in the evening, with a short break in between for lunch. Even after the service I played the radio on my phone outside and danced with the village children until the sun went down. That day was truly a Peace Corps experience.

My favorite place to attend church so far has been with my students at school. Late each evening, several groups gather in different classrooms “to pray.” [In Rwanda, they do not say that they are “going to church.” They say that they are “going to pray”, which always sounds like “play” of course]. Occasionally I will pop in for a bit when I am invited. Tonight was one of those nights.

I walked from my dorm room to the classrooms. I moved cautiously through the moonless night. I arrived to a small classroom that was absolutely crammed with students and a choir of about a dozen swaying back and forth in front. They had already begun singing and dancing. This school church is Pentecostal, headed by a student pastor who looks like a teenaged Obama. The singing and dancing gets very intense.

Pentecostalism seems a natural fit for Africa. The tribal beats of the music and traditional dancing mesh perfectly with the enthusiasm of the charismatic movement. The students sang songs about Imana, the Kinyarwanda name for God. Rwanda’s people are historically monotheistic, and Imana is the name of their traditional God. This made conversion to Christianity very simple when missionaries came to share their good news. Today the majority of Rwandans are Christian, believing that their traditional god Imana and the God of the bible are one and the same.

The songs are very repetitive, but I somehow don’t get bored with them. As they continue singing, the students’ voices rise as if they are trying to be heard from heaven itself. The cramped room pulses with energy as the students sway back and forth and jump up and down. You can’t help but be pulled into the excitement. This is my favorite part. And that’s why I leave when the music stops.

You've got brains, kid

The power went out in the village so I went to go buy some candles at the boutique nearby. On my way returning home, I passed by the teachers’ house. I saw a flashlight bouncing through the darkness, so I called out a greeting. It was one of the teachers. He shined his flashlight in my face as I approached, then said, “We need your torch.”

He grabbed my flashlight from me and brought it to where a couple of other teachers were cooking. One of them was hacking away at a goat head with a broken machete. I thought for sure the old man was going to take one of his thumbs off. The power soon returned, but I stuck around to see how they planned to prepare this goat head.

While we stood around the boiling pot that smelled like a distinct mixture of beef and wet dog, an interesting conversation ensued. This particular group of teachers is all Congolese. I discovered that they segregate themselves from the others because they are not Rwandan. The distaste that they have for Rwandan culture became more and more apparent as the conversation progressed. The two groups get along on the surface, but they don't like to spend extended amounts of time together.

I learned all about Congolese cuisine. It seems they will indiscriminately eat any kind of meat in the DRC, including small birds, tortoises, monkeys and rats. One of my Congolese friends explained to me that there is a certain organ in crocodiles that is extremely poisonous and must be removed under the supervision of the local authorities. When they remove this particular organ, they must throw it into a 30 meter-deep pit, dump gas into it, light the gas, and then bury the hole again.

When I finally tried to leave, my friends asked me to stay and eat with them. I obliged. Goat brain is now the strangest food I have eaten. It made the cassava paste seem normal. One of them described it as smooth. I would say goop describes its texture best.

Coach

The students in one of my classes asked me to support them monetarily so that they could compete in an inter-class football tournament. I accepted with the condition that they would let me be their team manager and coach. I love it when they call me coach.

Here are some of the things I had to avoid on the field the last time I played football:

• patches of tall grass
• holes
• lumps
• cow pies
• goats crossing the field
• a cow
• a motorcycle
• the ball - it was waterlogged from the rain and weighed about five pounds

Kinyarwanda

Every Peace Corps Volunteer must learn the local language of their host country. In Rwanda, that language is Kinyarwanda. In some ways, it is a simple language; yet it is also in some ways very complicated.

During our three month training period here in Rwanda, we sometimes faced up to six hours a day of language lessons. One of my language teachers described Kinyarwanda as a “poor” language. What she meant by this is that Kinyarwanda has few words. This makes it difficult, for example, to find parallel words from English that have the same meaning in Kinyarwanda. While this may be true of all languages (look at the trouble modern scholars go through to give a proper translation of ancient texts), it is compounded by the lack of choices for words in Kinyarwanda. So whenever we would ask her to translate a word from English to Kinyarwanda, this teacher would pause and look at us while thinking, and then give us some word that we were already familiar with as a translation of some other word. This is why she called Kinyarwanda a “poor” language.

Here are some examples. Examine how many words are in the English language, especially the number of adjectives. When we derive pleasure from something, we could describe it as good, nice, sweet, superior, excellent, and so on. By contrast, there is one root word in Kinyarwanda that expresses the sentiment of goodness, -za (the beginning of the adjective changes depending on the class of the noun that it is describing, e.g. neza, cyiza, beza). There is no differentiation. What's good is good.

Another example is our expression of the five senses as verbs in English: to hear, to see, to feel (by touch), to smell, to taste. There is much less distinction in Kinyarwanda. The verb kumva can be translated as to hear, to smell, to taste, to feel, and to understand. Often Rwandans who are learning English will come up to me and tell me that they are understanding some music, pointing to the headphones over their ears. A common phrase that I hear Rwandans say to each other is “Urumva?” This could mean “Are you listening?”, “Can you hear me?” or “Do you understand?”

Interestingly, Kinyarwanda does have a word for delicious, -aryoshye, from the verb to taste good, kuryoha. This word seems to be related to another verb, kuroha, which means to be easy or to be soft. The spelling and pronunciation of these words is very similar, and I believe they could even be substituted for each other. I recall one night during training when my host mother told me in English to eat some meat because “it is easy.” I’m not sure which word she mistranslated. She may have been trying to tell me that the meat was delicious, or that it was soft (which it was, and it was the first time I had tender meat in Rwanda), or both.

I think this is very telling of the diet in Rwanda. When discussing food, I am often told by my colleagues that many Rwandans prefer quantity over quality. They would rather eat a large amount of beans and cassava root and have a full stomach than eat a lighter amount of a full range of vegetables and rice. For many Rwandans, this is not by choice as they live in poverty. But as Rwanda develops, I see a continuation of the old dietary habits, even among those who can afford to eat better and eat less. Compare this to our own disproportion of meat to vegetable ratio and even portion sizes in America, even though we are less physically active than previous generations. Dietary habits are difficult to change.

But back to my point, in Rwanda it seems that food preferences can best be described as foods that are “easy” to eat rather than foods that are “delicious” to eat. I watch in awe whenever I see a Rwandan eat; especially when they eat meat. Rwandans make no differentiation between muscle, ligament, fat, veins, and intestines. If it’s not bone, then down the hatch it goes. I try my best to match these eating habits, especially if I’ve paid for an expensive round of brochettes (goat kabobs) at the bar. But I just can’t seem to always get it down with the same ease as my Rwandan friends. If it’s a large piece of “meat” that I can’t chew down, I don’t even try to swallow it for fear that I will choke and die. I suspect that Rwandans prefer “easy” food because it fits their liking of eating a lot of food quickly.

There are many other examples I could give to show that Kinyarwanda has very few words compared to English, but I think I’ve made my point. While some might say this makes Kinyarwanda a “poor” language, I like to look at it from a more philosophical standpoint. There’s beauty in simplicity.

We might say that adjectives in English can be placed on a scale. After all, we have comparatives and superlatives (e.g. good, better, best), a concept that appears to be absent in Kinyarwanda. We could, for example, place the word good at the bottom of a scale, then move up that scale to words like great, superb, excellent, and so on. Each word, as we move up the scale, intensifies the concept that we wish to communicate, yet we are still communicating the same basic concept of goodness. Kinyarwanda seems to exist in a world of black and white, throwing out the scale completely. If something is good, then it is good, no matter how good it is. The same goes for something that is bad.

Sometimes I think that we over-complicate our messages in English. We use grandiose vocabulary to express concepts that could often be simplified to “good” or “bad.” Yet, at the same time, one can find satisfaction in the richness and depth of the choice that we have in vocabulary in the English language. Imagine how drab poetry and literature would be if we didn’t have such a wide range of words to choose from. This may be a large factor in the lack of literature, besides the bible, which is written in Kinyarwanda.

Nevertheless it is nice at times to stop for a moment while reading in English and imagine how the text could be translated into simpler words, such as those used in Kinyarwanda. It can make the complicated problems of our world seem so silly. After all, the simplest answers are often the correct solution.