Please note that VSO is in no way connected with or responsible for the content, comments and observations in this blog: these are solely my own in a personal capacity.
Alfred: Matar is going to have to wait a bit (if you remember his foolish promise last blog) – the topic is such a huge one he needs more time to gird up the loins of his inspiration!)
MONDAY
Screamingly hot day. Seosamh sent me a great hat for Christmas which – naturally – I have left in Gisagara. Anyway, got off to a slow start, eventually got packed (after cutting my hair) and decided to do some food shopping before heading home. Once I eventually got a moto (Deo doesn’t have his bike today) clouds were beginning to gather and a stiff wind had blown up. Ah well – the driver figured he could beat the rain to Gisagara but no such luck. As the rain began to pelt down he swerved off the road and took shelter under the awning of what was some kind of brick-making kiln. The rain was really heavy so others had gathered as well. An interesting group we were too:
- Two young children, one boy (about 12) and one girl (about 10) with a goat on a short rope
- One goat on a short rope, thankfully not bleating
- One very old woman carrying a hoe who has obviously come from the neighbouring field; she spends the entire time staring at me in disbelief (at least, I hope it is disbelief)
- Two brick makers or brick minders or brick-somethingorothers who seem to find my rucksack really funny; one wears a t-shirt saying ‘Melbourne Jazz Festival 2002’
- A young man of about 16 or so in the most incredibly tattered clothes I have seen – mustard-yellow shorts frayed at the bottom, red t-shirt and a huge old Pavarotti-size anorak whose colour I actually cannot make out: he smiles continuously and has the most amazingly perfect white teeth. Even in the open air, in a rainstorm with a stiff breeze and standing beside a goat, his body odour is sufficient to make my eyes water.
- A sunburned very short-haired middle-aged muzungu in a Shamrock Rovers shirt, black jeans and a huge backpack, carefully trying to look as if this is the kind of thing he does every day of his life. He has also just remembered he has a poncho in his pack but figures he would look even stupider if he took it out now and put it on over his wet clothes.
- One young, short moto driver with a red-purple helmet and an anorak with the legend ‘Boston Celtics’ in white
- An older man sitting on a pile of bricks, reading a bible.
Eventually the rain ended and we headed home. By the time I got changed and got to work it was almost two o’clock; no sign of either Alexis or Francois so I made work for myself and then headed home at 4.30. But not before – damn, I forget her name, she is one of only two single women in the office and has obviously found out that I am single and was determined to give me the third degree about it. Are you married, were you married, what happened, would you marry again, ..... not subtle. I can see this is going to be interesting. Luckily she lives in Butare, not Gisagara, so the logistics in themselves should take care of the situation!
I was going to cook and then I remembered I still had one of my German cheeses left – and it probably needed eating! It was gorgeous – it had ripened way beyond what we probably would ever have allowed back home, a big lump of hard Comté-like cheese that had developed tiny sugary cheese-crystals from the heat. Two-day old rolls and water and fabulous cheese – that’s as good as it gets!!!
Finished A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini – wonderful book though, on the whole, I did prefer The Kite Runner. Am beginning to run out of books to read but I will be in Kigali soon and I can stock up. I have just started The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo by Peter Orner, picked it up at random in the VSO library about an American volunteer teaching somewhere in central Namibia. I’ll keep you posted. Found mouse droppings in my bedroom when I got back – haven’t heard or noticed them before, they may keep to themselves when I am around. However, the chocolate bar I had left wrapped on my bed had not been interfered with so maybe I’m wrong.
TUESDAY
Up at crack of dawn: first meeting is at 0800 and I need to talk to Francois before that. Got to work at 0700 sharp. Francois was in a meeting already with all the executive officers of the district to discuss the education changes and their implications for the district. Anyway, the 0800 meeting started at 0930. This was with the secondary principals: topics were the changes to subject allocations (mentioned last blog) and the implications for all secondary schools of the first three years of secondary now becoming part of the primary cycle – in other words, are they losing half their pupils over the next three years and are there going to be any first years at all this year? And, oh yes, what IS the story with English as the medium of instruction? The answers were: changes to subject allocations are as stated, sort it out; the changes re primary/secondary level will kick in from next year but students will stay in their primary schools for nine years, not six, so those schools that are specifically for years 1-3 of secondary will either be phased out or amalgamated into the primary schools they have been built beside. And yes, as of January 2009, English is the medium of instruction for ALL second-level subjects. Everyone laughed when he said this, which was refreshing in a funny way.
By now a huge crowd of what I presumed were primary principals had gathered outside so we wrapped up. Then it transpired that the Finance director had also scheduled a meeting for the hall and Finance beats Education every time. This meant everyone had to trek about 2 km in the boiling sun to a nearby primary school to get a briefing from the MINEDUC representative on the new timetables for Primary schools. Now, Alexis had been emphasising to me that timetabling was the main subject for this meeting. I couldn’t understand this as surely the addition of an extra year to every school at short notice (and the consequent double-shifting of classes to free up additional staff and rooms) would be the more urgent (Alfred: double shifting or double vocation as they say in French is when there are so many students in a class they are split into two – one half in the morning and the other half in the afternoon. Usually this stops at 2nd or 3rd class but it is now being extended throughout – it means you only need one teacher and one room for two groups, so you free up a teacher and a room for something else. You also cut the children’s education in half).
Once the meeting started, I realised the problem. All schools are moving over to having specialist teachers for every subject in every class, in all classes in all primary schools. Primary schools have never had to set timetables before: each teacher taught all subjects to their class group (as would usually be the case at home) and a timetable was simply posted out from Kigali. Now every school has to set a timetable with a different teacher for each subject and the added complication of devising a system that can be switched around from week to week (each week the students who were on afternoons switch to mornings and vice versa – they rotate all year).
Anyway, the MINEDUC woman drew up a sample timetable for fourteen class groups, morning and afternoon, in chalk on a giant blackboard. It took a long time – three hours and we were sitting on these tiny little wooden benches in the primary school. Alexis, bless him, translated everything for me and explained everything in EXCRUCIATING detail as if I was not really very clever (he actually explained the difference between morning and afternoon – twice). By the time we finished at 1530 my rear end was the stiffest and sorest it has ever been since I gave up long-distance cycling.
I headed home just as it started raining. This time I did remember I had a poncho but it was only a light shower and I actually felt self-conscious about taking it out and putting it on when a) no-one else had anything and b) it was the kind of shower no-one else was paying any attention to. Got home, put on dry clothes and shouted to Alexandré to knock on the power. I hadn’t eaten since 0600 and I was actually weak with hunger. Stir-fry on the menu: rice, carrots, onions, peppers, cashew nuts, garlic chilli sauce and soy. Generator on, but no power in the house. AHHHHH!! Rang Antoine and asked if he could come over. He said he could make it by five.
Meanwhile I opened and devoured a tin of tuna as I really needed to eat something! This leaves me only one small roll for breakfast. Antoine came and fixed the generator: I offered to pay him – he said it wasn’t necessary but that at the same time he wouldn’t refuse. Of course, I then found I had nothing smaller than a RWF5000 note on me so I had to give him that!! That is what he charges an hour and he was only here ten minutes but he did have to cycle 10km to get to me, so it was probably fair enough.
So I cooked: and it was really nice and I made an absolute pig of myself. Mind you, that soy sauce is REALLY salty (c.f. Xmas blog) so I need to be careful (Alfred: salty taste could be the blood in it! Idiot tried cutting up all his vegetables with a tiny Stanley knife and almost lopped off his left thumb!). Tomorrow morning I’ll finish the German cheese for breakfast and then I’m off to Butare for New Year’s Eve anyway.
GO RAIBH MÍLE MAITH AGAIBH GO LÉIR!
I never really got around to properly thanking (excuse the split infinitive) all those people who sent me food, Santa hats, spices, chocolate and cards for Christmas. One reason is that I know a lot of stuff is still on the way, as people have told me they sent stuff and it hasn’t arrived yet. Basically, nothing has arrived from Ireland or England; loads of stuff from Belgium and Germany but not from anywhere else. I know there is a giant chocolate consignment on its way by sea from Australia (thanks Jane) and various things from Ireland, and I will let people know when they arrive!!
RWANDAN EDUCATION SYSTEM AND GAMBIAN MISSIONARIES
The following story appeared in today’s Guardian – see full story at http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/dec/30/british-gambia-missionaries-sentenced
Two British missionaries have been sentenced to one year in prison with hard labour after pleading guilty to sedition charges in a Gambian court.
David Fulton, 60, a former Army major, and his wife Fiona, 46, were arrested last month in the west African country after allegedly sending a letter to individuals and groups criticising Gambia's government.
The couple, who have spent 12 years in Gambia, pleaded guilty on Christmas Eve to making seditious comments "with intent to bring hatred or contempt against the president or the government" through a series of round-robin emails believed to relate to their missionary work.
Hmmm ... The Gambia is where I was originally supposed to go! I know people give out about freedom of speech here but I can’t see the government here doing anything like that. It seems relevant because that is what I am about to do - to a certain extent anyway. On one level you have to admire the sheer no-holds-barred let’s do everything RIGHT NOW attitude but when you look at the number of different things they have changed in just the last few weeks in the education system, you really have to wonder. They are:
- Introducing English as the medium of instruction IMMEDIATELY in all second-level schools and teacher training colleges for ALL subjects
- Introducing English as the medium of instruction for Maths and Science in all primary schools
- Phasing in English as the medium of instruction for all primary school subjects over the next 2-3 years
- Making a nine-year primary cycle compulsory for all (a bare 20% complete six years at the moment, though it is climbing)
- Moving over to using specialist teachers for all subjects in all primary school classes
This is all in the last six weeks (though the nine-year cycle has been talked about for ages). It’s not that there is necessarily anything wrong with the ideas, but they want to do everything in such a HURRY!! Maybe they figure a few years of chaos is worth it to get things going but I really wonder.
A very Happy New Year to all my family and friends. I do miss you all amid the strangeness and the wierdness here and your emails, blog comments and Facebook messages are very much appreciated. Have a great 2009.
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