Random stuff: Work update, Herman and pictures

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.

Work update
A few people have been asking me: ‘What exactly are you up to that has you so busy?’ so I thought it might be time to answer that one! Starting on Tuesday 12th May I started an inspection tour of all the schools in Ndora sector, one per day. That’s 7 primary schools (Dahwe, Gisanze, Gisagara A, Gisagara B, Nyaruninya, Ndora and Cyamukuza), lower secondary (Ndora and Cyamukuza) and one secondary school (St Philippe Neri). The routine was to get there around 0730 to allow things to be up and running, talk to the director for about an hour/an hour and a half and do what is called the administrative inspection (do they have the right documents, strategic plan, budget etc, does the director inspect classes regularly, textbooks, curricula and so on), a physical inspection of the school (classrooms, latrines, security fencing, offices, play/sports areas, school garden and whatever else is there) and finally observe as many classes as possible before heading back to the District office to teach my English classes.

Now this week, I have started to actually write up the reports on my visits. As I will be going back a second time, they are only preliminary and just as well too – doing so many schools close together may have seemed a good idea logistically but it is damned hard to keep all the memories attached to each particular school. Just as well I took lots of photos!

The problems the schools face are so varied – the only thing they have in common are that they all have problems and they are all struggling with the introduction of English as the medium of instruction. There are some really good directors and some absolutely terrible ones, schools with at least some brand-new buildings and others with mud-brick buildings constructed in 1944; one school has one latrine for every 140 pupils, none of them have electricity (though one has a generator which they occasionally have petrol for if it is a special occasion); two have running water (as in a tap in the yard), most have tanks to store water but two have nothing and the kids bring little jerrycans of water with them to school every morning (Alfred: and if you have to walk for an hour over Rwandan hills even a small jerrycan of water is going to be heavy, especially if you are aged five or six! As we say in Ireland ‘Is trom cearc i bhfad’).

Surprisingly, most schools do have textbooks and most of them are even in English but the teachers are reluctant to use them – partly (I think) because they may run into words they don’t know in English so it is safer to control the vocabulary of instruction themselves but also because I don’t think they have any idea on how to use a textbook, having neither been trained to do so nor (in most cases) having used them themselves as pupils.

One of the directors, Marie-Louise, is one of the most impressive principals I have ever come across anywhere. Her strategic plan is a work of art, both practical and ambitious at the same time. When I visited her school, she had not yet revived the last instalment of money for the running the school for 2008, let alone anything for 2009. Of her seven teachers, two had just quit, one was about to (she felt) and two others, who are university students, said they would be away for two weeks doing exams. Oh yes, and she had just been told to return to all parents any money they had donated to the school because it ran counter to the policy of free nine years basic education. But the school was operating, she was flying around looking after classes and their results in exams are pretty good considering (Alfred: also considering one very important point – her school is what is called an ESI, Ecole Secondaire Inferieur. It’s for kids who failed to achieve a high enough mark in the national primary examination to qualify for secondary school but want to continue with their education anyway, so she isn’t exactly getting the cream of the crop).

And then there are others (Alfred: best leave them nameless). For example, the one who last inspected a class in her school two months ago due to ‘pressure of work’ and (when I turned the page while her back was turned) it turned out that was the first one she had visited in four years! The school with no budget, no annual (let alone strategic) plan, no staff timetables, no documentation – couldn’t find a box to tick in that one! The school whose buildings were damaged in the 1994 genocide and have remained unrepaired ever since. And the school whose main English teacher refused to speak to me in English and taught his class the Present Simple as ‘I help, you help, he help, she help’ (Alfred: it’s a bit harsh criticising Rwandan teachers for their lack of English skills but in this case the guy has just been hired and applied for the job specifically as an English teacher rather than having the role thrust on him so I think it’s fair enough).

He also set them four sentences as exercises every single one of which was completely wrong (Alfred: actually, the scary part of this one is that, having revised the Past Simple endings with them, he then launched into – of all things - Active and Passive Voice which he explained by saying ‘Mary helps John’ is Active Voice and ‘John is helped by Mary’ is Passive Voice. Do you understand?’ to which the children all roar ‘Yes’ because they have been taught that that is what you say in answer to the question ‘Do you understand?’ If the children are half-hearted in their response or, in one case that briefly gladdened Ruairí’s heart, fall completely silent, the teacher, rather than explaining the point again simply roars even louder: ‘Do you understand?’ at which point they cop on and respond ‘yes’. Anyway, having ‘explained’ Active and Passive Voice to the P4 class, he then wrote some sentences on the board for them to turn into Passive Voice. These were:

Lion kill a boy
Freed clean the school
Sebera call Sibomana
Peter study English

Freed turned out to be Fred and, of course, adding a simple comma would turn all these into excellent examples of the Imperative but goodness knows what the kids made of trying to put them into the Passive Voice. And Ruairí never found out because the teacher – probably terrified of having to correct the examples on the board in front of him, suddenly grabbed his books, announced (in French) that he was late for the next class and fled the room!)

OK, maybe I am being a bit hard on the guy. He had only been hired two weeks previously and had replaced probably the best English teacher in the entire sector who was promoted to Director of a different school – plus the director of this school had not warned any of the teachers that I was coming, so maybe I should cut him a little slack. I didn’t do a post-class interview with him – what was I going to say? ‘Learn English fast’?

MINEDUC, or, The Jaws of Death Cheated Again

You may remember me giving out in previous posts about this MINEDUC project (Alfred: going around secondary schools in the Southern Province to assess teachers’ level of English to set a baseline against which to assess training needs) that kept getting postponed and screwing up my work. Anyway it started last week so I said I wasn’t doing it because I would have had to cancel some schools for the THIRD time. Training was on Thursday and Friday and the survey was going to start next Monday (Alfred: Emmm, that’s today actually). All through Thursday and Friday I was getting posts and Facebook messages from those lucky enough to attend. Apparently MINEDUC have pulled out all the stops on this one and appointed a really top-notch guy with loads of experience to head up the team. The fact that his name is ‘Herman’ is no surprise at he brings a certain kind of ruthless German efficiency to the entire proceedings that makes everyone certain this will be carried off with the speed, smoothness and attention to detail we have come to expect. I must try and track down Sonya soon as apparently she was particularly effusive in her comments about his abilities – glad she got the opportunity to see it all at first hand. But the really lucky one is Soraya who has actually been paired up with Herman to go and do the visits! How jealous is everyone else??? (Alfred: there’s going to be more on this, I can feel it!)

Pictures
And, finally, some pictures as the Internet connection for once seems to be reasonably fast (Alfred: that means averaging over 3kps). Had some requests for photos of where I live (and if Sarah is reading she can see where she is coming to – don’t let it change your mind!!!) plus a few more school ones from Nyaruninya.

Views on the way back from Nyaruninya Primary School

Visual aid from Science class - the Use and Purpose of Drinks. It worked really well actually. He had drawn bottles and containers of different shapes and sizes and put sticky labels over the names. The kids had to figure out what they were and, in Rwanda, everything does come in a distinctively-shaped bottle so the six answers were Primus, Mutzig, banana beer, Fanta, milk and water. Then they had to sort them into alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks and then got a lecture on the evils of alcohol (Alfred: marvellously acted out by the teacher, wish we'd had a movie camera!). To the right is a shot of Nyaruninya school, eight rooms all in a long row on top of a steep hill.

Nyaruninya school garden. The directrice, Ignacienne, is extending this bigtime and is using money from the capitation grant to hire local workers to clear additional ground which the children will then plant. The soil is best suited to growing manioc which here they always plant alongside potato plants (as in the picture on the right - manioc has the long thin leaves). (Alfred: how do you dig up one and not the other? Or are they harvestable at EXACTLY the same time? Answers on a postcard please .....)

More jardin scolaire - this time carrots. And luxury of luxuries - running water in the yard!!

One half of the eight latrines for a school of 802 students. With one reserved for staff, that leaves one latrine per 115 students. On the right is another of Ignacienne's projects. As well as extending the manioc and potato area, here they are building a rabbit hutch to start breeding and selling rabbits.

HOUSE PHOTOS

The view from the verandah; the view if you move to the side and look around the outhouses!




Me about to cook dinner (Alfred: And you are where, exactly? Use Passive Voice: 'Dinner about to be cooked by me') and a little friend who lives somewhere inside the window frame in my sitting room and does his best to eat all the mosquitos.

Sitting-room with designer furniture in a beautiful shade of burgundy. OK, it's not the prettiest (Alfred: You think?) and there is rather too much of it but most volunteers live with the barest minimum of furniture so I'm not complaining! Much... Oh, and the dining-room table. That's actually the first meal I had here.

House from the front

Some shots of Gisagara village on RUSWA OYA (No Corruption!) Day. Serious building works going on throughout as the District authorities order everyone to smarten up their housefronts or face eviction!