Recycle, recycle, recycle...

Apart from the fact that there is absolutely no way to dispose of rubbish here in Rwanda (apart from carrying it on a moto for over an hour to Kigali where you can deposit in a bin…where it will probably later be burnt, throwing it in your garden amongst the banana trees, or posting it down the loo… none of which really appeal) it makes you very mindful of your waste and how things can be creatively recycled. This is also a consideration when water and electricity can be expensive and often in short supply!

So here are a few of the ways that I reuse and recycle (and you wouldn't believe the rubbish I hang onto here!):

After I have cooked using my electric hotplate, I turn it off and use it to heat a pan of water for washing up as it cools down.

When I boil the kettle for tea, I always decant the remaining water either into my jug to cool for cold drinking water, or into my flask to make tea later. Filtered AND boilled water is a luxury!

After I’ve rinsed my clothes in my hand-washing bowl, I use the water to wash either my shoes or the floor – no use wasting good water or detergent!!

As plastic bags are banned here, groceries often get packaged into big brown paper bags, or envelopes as they are called here. (They come free in Kigali, but you have to pay here in the village!!). Apart from trying to remember to head to the market with a bagful of brown paper bags for fruit and veg purchases, they also make excellent rubbish bags, especially when you try to limit your waste to compost only.

Old milk powder jars and plastic water bottles make excellent pen/pencil/ruler pots in the TTC – water bottles can also be cut down to make funnels – no idea what I’d need a funnel for though – still trying to work that out!

Tomato puree comes in tiny cans – perfect to rinse out and use as tea light holders for the frequent power cuts we have here in the evenings - atmospheric recycling - my favourite!

 

Old towels get recycled as door mats, rainwater gets collected for handwashing, old tyres get recycled as sandals, used exercise books and information leaflets from medicine boxes (my neighbour works at the health centre) are used as toilet paper... interesting reading on the loo - fascinating to work out the most commonly prescribed medicines in my village each week...

Getting down with the locals...

How I know I am becoming Rwandese…

I go out with my phone in my hand not in my bag (sometimes)!

I phone friends just to greet them even if I don’t have anything to actually say, apart from I am phoning to greet you! I have even ‘beeped’ friends too just to say hi! We don’t need to chat – they just need to know I thought of them. I kind of like that!

I can wear a fleece in 30 degree sunshine… as long as I am walking slowly enough – then I don’t get hot. Next: wooly hats and scarves - seriously!

And I'm getting better at slow walking.

One tablespoon of sugar in my tea just isn’t enough.

When I don’t understand I just look blankly and say ‘mmmmm’ in a 'yes' kind of way.

I have been known to go back to bed when there is a thunderstorm.

I have started washing my shoes – people check you know!

I can eat 7 different kinds of carbs in one meal – rice, pasta, potato, sweet potato, cooked banana, cassava, chips… and still have room for more!

I’m not quite so early these days – ‘on time’ is the new late (for me)!

I think auto-tune sounds normal now (on Rwandan radio!!)

I go to shake hands with my VSO friends when I greet them… and ask how they slept, how their morning was, how was the day etc… awkward!

I put my bag on a chair of its own rather than on the floor.

I can send texts while riding a moto.

And use salt as the main seasoning for a meal

But…

I’m never actually late,

I don’t take phone calls during conversations, in class, in meetings… or under the table where I think no-one will notice… or hear!!

Or call my friends from somebody else's phone so they don't recognise the number, but fail to mention that its me for the entire conversation! Keep them guessing!

Or pass my friends' phone numbers to other friends that they don't know so they can make mysterious greeting calls to people they have never met! (Who are you? Have we  met? Did I give you my number? Oh, thank you - have a wonderful day too...speak soon (I'm sure). So who was that?)

I don’t burp in the company of friends or colleagues, or partake in other 'nose related habits' in public...

Or laugh when people say Good Morning to me,

Tell my friends how fat they have become, even if they are looking gooooood...

Declare my love to someone I have just met, whether in person, in a staff meeting, over the phone, at the market...

Beat chairs, desks, bus seats until every trace of dust has been removed,

Use Not when what I really mean is No, as in:

Do you understand?
Not
Did you have enough melange?
Not
Did I give you my number?
Not
Is that enough sugar for you?
Not
Is your seat clean?
Not
Are my shoes ok?
Not
So, are we starting on time this morning?
Not
Did we ever chat about using the word 'no'?...

And until I'm into the swing of conversation, I  generally tend not to start conversations with ‘Did you go to church?’ or ‘Have you got a bible in your house?’ especially at 5.30 in the morning, or on the bus, or to a complete stranger!

 

For now, I haven't developed these habits YET…but there’s still time, ha ha! Perhaps I will pick one to try out for fun!

December - Home sweet home.

Mwaramuste! Amakuro? Amashyo… (My latest favourite greeting – a Swahili one that means ‘I wish you many cows’! This goes down very well in my village!)Then… three hugs, a forehead touch, and a complicated combination of handshakes, shoulder barges, then how did you sleep? How was the morning? How is your family? Where are you going? Where have you come from this morning?  Looking good! Thanks, you too! Have a good day, see you later, have a good journey… (Sneaky glances at my shoes!).

Phew, greeting completed!

I have definitely found that having a sense of humour is key to surviving here and there are so many surreal, challenging, unusual or hilarious moments that I find that I spend a lot of time laughing!

In some ways I have everything I need here, and more if I’m honest, especially in comparison to other people in my village, but in other ways my home and routines are very simple and it can feel like I am camping in a muddy field! Walking to collect water every day, dealing with the mud (especially muddy shoes and muddy toes), waiting till it stops raining to dash to my loo which is at the end of my garden, keeping everything dry and clean, dealing with the wildlife! But none of these things I mind really and they have all become part life. I’m definitely glad I’m not squeamish about creepy crawlies (giant ‘armoured’ jumping spiders that leap sideways, scuttling lizards, crickets, giant buzzing, whirring hornets…or the many snakes that I have heard live here but that I have yet to meet) or afraid of the dark and all the bright amber eyes that peer at me at night from behind the banana trees when I’m sitting out on my step gazing at the moon.

I have discovered a gentle pace of life here, yet I am always busy and everyday tasks fill my time. Through simple, repetitive, manual tasks I have found the time to be mindful and reflective and I really value this. It is a pleasure every day to hear water gushing from the tap into my turquoise bucket, and it feels good to carry a heavy, full bucket back to my house because I know I do not have to worry about having clean water to drink and wash with, for that day at least (unless the water comes out the colour of gravy – which it has done a few times). I filter and sometimes boil water too and it is all good! 

Hand washing all my clothes is something I don’t mind doing and having clean fresh, clothes feels like an achievement every time! The sun is so strong that they usually dry quickly and if they don’t, my lovely neighbours bring them in for me if I am at work and it starts to rain. Washing sheets, however, is a nightmare and I’ll admit I am useless at it! Last time, I had to have a bowl on hand for all the spare bubbles and in the end, my neighbours couldn’t bear to watch me anymore and they insisted on finishing the job properly, which I was secretly relieved about. They also whisked my shoes away to wash too and gave the floor a quick scrub too! I’m very house proud and keep everything immaculate (bleached, disinfected, rinsed) but I think because I have different ways of doing things my neighbours don’t consider that they have been properly unless it has been done their way… but that’s ok and we live together very happily. Maybe there’s something in wiping the floor with a muddy towel…but I’m not so sure!

 

My tiny mud house has a tin roof and is cosy and homely. I have made it comfortable and it feels very much like ‘home’. However, I have noticed that because it is made from mud, the outside seems to be slowly crumbling and there is always dust to sweep up inside - I really think it is slowly disintegrating every day! About a month ago I decided I needed to do a few home improvements, including putting up my own curtains from some fabric I’d bought in a market, and getting some hooks and nails in the walls so I could hang up bags and scarves and tea towels. I’d managed to find some giant nails, but didn’t have a hammer, so I used my frying pan…which really made me laugh. I could barely bang the nails as I was laughing so much – using a frying pan seemed so wrong! It was really loud and I was worried that the noise would wake my neighbours…and it also occurred to me that I might end up actually knocking the wall down if I banged the nail in too hard – not sure how I’d explain that to my neighbours! So then I used my shoe instead, the rubber sole was much quieter…but it still amused me to be banging in a nail with my shoe. But the wall is still standing and it’s good to have places to hang everything.

I think there are advantages to living in a house made of mud and having an outdoor toilet built of mud too as you can’t see the dirt…but sometimes I think the walls of the toilet are a bit like a magic eye picture and the more I look at them, the more spiders and beetles and cobwebs and lizards I notice! Using a pit latrine, which is just a hole in the ground, is no problem, but I do worry that I might fall down it one day… well… I don’t think all of me would fit, but losing one leg down it, after a few beers, is a worry! At night I wear a lovely head torch but I have to be quick because all the flying bugs are attracted to the light.

But it’s funny thinking about how quickly you can adapt to a different way of being and how different everyday life is back in the UK – although perhaps its more about the details of daily life and how much you get used to taking things for granted when you don’t have to give them a second thought - running water, HOT running water (!!), a clean bathroom… in fact an indoor bathroom, electricity, appliances… and although everything here takes longer to do, it also gives you time and space to think and appreciate what you do have here… and what you have back home.

 

November - Finding a rhythm.

Having been here for 2 months now I have found a rhythm and routine at home and in my work. Today I was speaking at a huge conference for Senior 6 Students who have just finished college, including some from my TTC (so they are aged between 18 and 25, although some students are older) and I had to give a presentation about volunteering as they all have to do National Service - I was asked at very short notice - as in I had a call 30 minutes before it started!! And was literally handed a microphone as I got off my moto taxi and walked in through the doors! But it went well and there was a fantastic atmosphere and at the end the students (there were around 600) did an amazing song with drumming and clapping and we were led through the middle of them as we left. It was really powerful.

After several months of intensive work on writing a training manual for the new English Language Curriculum and Language Methods and Practice Curriculum (as well as finishing writing the English Language Curriculum), the draft copy has been published and I feel very proud to have been a part of the process (and my name is in print...at the top of the list!!!!!). The next stage is to deliver the training to every TTC tutor in Rwanda who teaches Languages (English, French, Kinyarwanda, and Swahili), Teaching Methods and Practice or Foundations of Education. The training was postponed from December, but will now take place over 6 days in January at a TTC in the south of Rwanda. I am very excited to deliver this training, but also pretty nervous too, although I know we have planned it very thoroughly and many of the workshops have been planned as model lessons from the curriculum. So hopefully it will have a positive impact as the tutors will return to their TTCs confidently, really understanding the new curriculum and with lots of practical ideas about methodology and resources. We have also included sessions on planning and assessment, teaching and learning styles, parental and community involvement, and much more! We have linked it to local literature and resources to make it completely relevant to the tutors and students, and we had some excellent planning sessions liaising with Rwandan and Ugandan TTC tutors - all very different to the old curriculum which was grammar heavy and HUGE!

Another element of my work, since the TTC closed for the Christmas holidays, has been to plan and deliver story-telling workshops to local nursery and primary teachers, as well as run story telling sessions with children in my village. This has been a really lovely part of my job, and very different to the curriculum based work I was doing at KIE (Kigali Institute of Education). I love the variety here - from working at a national level to working right in the heart of my village with tiny children and their parents... sitting under a tree! Everything I plan and do needs to be discussed with my Sector Education Officer and he authorises what I do, although he is positive and supportive of everything so far! But to run storytelling activities with children in the village, he first announces it at church - the hub of the community!

Back in October I ran a reading and writing workshop in Kigali for writers and publishers and part of that was story telling.  Many of them had never had a story read to them and it was amazing and fascinating how reading a children's story to them (all smart professionals in suits) evoked the same reactions you get with children, they were fascinated by the illustrations, joined in with the repetition, finished the sentences, were desperate to know what happened next or how the story ended... and many came back the next day saying they had read a story to their children that night and it was the first time they had ever done it!

I have also spent time during the college holidays really getting to know the college tutors who live in the village. From the beginning they have been very lovely with me on a personal level, but it has taken time for them to feel confident to work with me, and it has been good that I have remained here in my village over the holidays as I feel they are  much more relaxed to chat with me...and just for us to get to know each other outside work. Last term in my TTC I quickly got an idea of where I was starting from...simply building relationships before we even started talking about teaching and learning! So now in the village, it has been really valuable simply to sit with them for an hour or so every day, watching the world go by and chat about the day or their family or their shop (as they all have second businesses!) and I really hope that this will pay off in college next term.

Life here in Rwanda is good and I am really happy - although this week has had a few ups and downs, but working through a few things has really been good for me in terms of finding confidence and strength when it counted and (in hindsight, now) knowing that I could. When I first arrived and had a few challenges to work through, one of my friends  here was offering some advice and she said 'Whatever happens you'll make it work...and sometimes you've just got to 'suck it up'...and it’s something I've kept in my mind ever since! I tell myself 'Hazel, just suck it up!' I really love being here, but it’s funny having only yourself to count on when things are difficult and you actually have to work through things.

Yesterday I ran an SEN focus group with teachers and head teachers but it was very far from my village - literally across the other side of Rwanda, and it was strange as I returned to my village (having travelled by jeep, mutata and moto) - it had been such a long journey back and I was shattered, but I had such a sense of 'coming home' as I arrived at the outskirts of my village. It really struck me as strange how I'd travelled for about 3 hours, the final part a long journey up my hill on dirt tracks, through jungles of banana trees, past tiny villages - it had been a real trek as the road was in a terrible condition after torrential rains...and yet I felt so happy to be coming home. And I really wondered what it was about my village that felt so much like home! It has definitely captured my heart here and I really feel part of the family with my lovely neighbours. It just struck me as funny that somewhere so remote and far away could feel so much like home! But it really does!! :)

People here in my village is wonderful and so kind and friendly and helpful and welcoming. Of course people are just people anywhere in the world (and I feel I have really good friends here and that I have really got to know people in my village) but also the longer I am here the more I notice the massive differences in culture - you know they are there, but you become more aware of the 'hidden' differences beneath the surface.  And there are big challenges here, especially in  my village which is very rural and remote, in terms of poverty and unemployment, education,  infrastructure, history... one friend here has nobody left in his family and couldn't complete his school, so he is entirely alone and has no education or possessions... yet he is also so caring and compassionate towards others and shares anything he has - he'd share his food every time...and he's  typical of how people are here - at times I feel really helpless because I don't really know how I could ever really make a difference...but I'm determined to come up with a plan and I'm looking into the work other branches of VSO (and other NGOs) do for young people here and vocational training schemes... lots of young people here who really, really want to make something of their lives and just need an opportunity.

But as well as being very aware of cultural values and expectations and trying to get things right, I am constantly surrounded by people who are wonderful and want to be with me and spend time together so in many ways I am extremely well integrated... and other volunteers joke about how I have so quickly become a part of my village, spending many weekends here and speaking Kinyarwanda with my neighbours and friends, spending time cooking and relaxing together, being invited to their homes... I am the only volunteer here in my village, as well as for at least an hour in any direction! Most other volunteers are either with other volunteers from VSO or other NGOs. So being here alone seems to be unusual, but in many ways it has also given me the chance to throw myself into life here and get to know the real day to day life in my village.

Also, being pretty far from a town also means that there are not really any western style treats, so day to day I simply buy what I can find in shops and at the market and my friends who live in larger villages and towns find it funny when I visit and get over excited about things like peanut butter or apples (and shampoo!!)...and even avocados and pineapples which we haven't had in our village for over a month now!! The market in my village is very small and seasonal and we really seem to only have tomatoes, cabbages, carrots, green beans and onions at the moment, as well as the usual rice, beans and 'ibitoki' - green cooked bananas. I don’t really mind though and have basic supplies to cook pasta and rice dishes, and it’s nice to have fresh local produce...if a little repetitive! In fact, going to the market is as much fun as cooking and I get on really well with all the lovely ladies that have stalls. They all know my name and we always have a good catch up and a giggle!

Anyway, being here really is the dream I had before I came and I know I am incredibly lucky that things have worked out well... I know it probably sounds daft but being here really blows my mind every day and it’s a very emotional and powerful experience.

October - Starry skies and volcanoes

http://vimeo.com/57465392

This week one of my friends asked me what a typical day is like for me…and I found it impossible to even begin to answer! October flew by in a whirlwind of work challenges, social invitations, end of term celebrations, travel, and my continued wonder and amazement at everyday experiences that leave me completely blown away.

 

  
I have been incredibly busy at work with writing training workshops, planning and delivering Writing Workshops to TTC students and Primary School teachers, travelling to Kigali for meetings at the University, work-shadowing at other TTCs and supporting the students at my TTC to prepare for end of year exams. My students always make me laugh and come out with classics lines, like 'There are some talkatives', 'Is your hair real?' and 'Some students are suffering from fatness'! I feel very lucky to have the opportunity to be involved in such a variety of work, some at a national level, as well as to be based in such a lovely TTC, yet still get to do outreach work with local Primary Schools. It’s also been a pretty good way to get to know lots of people from my village and local area.

We had Teacher’s Day where Rwanda celebrates teachers…though we had to work for the morning! But the afternoon was spent at the local stadium with a football match between the Primary School and the Secondary School/TTC.  It seemed the whole village turned out to watch – lucky for us, they mostly watched from our goal area…a bit of an unfair advantage! We won! I was very impressed by the female players who played in their everyday shoes and got properly stuck into the game. The second half lasted three times as long as the first half, the ref joined in and the ball exploded! We then spent the afternoon in the church listening to speeches celebrating teachers (in Kinyarwanda), drinking Primus – the local beer, and finally dancing! I think I danced with everyone in the village and was home before 7!

 

I started Kinyarwanda lessons which I was very excited about having spent several weeks searching for a teacher, asking around everyone for recommendations and trying to decide who to ask. I finally settled on someone but the lesson didn’t go quite as planned… after spending the first 25 minutes with my teacher getting over the shock that I hadn’t blessed the tea I made her, we said Grace for a significant amount of time, and then finally got onto the lesson.  We decided to create a  dialogue to discuss the different times of the day that I do different things to help with  learn times and daily activities… but again, another 25 minutes was spent with my teacher trying to decide what to call the people in the dialogue and my suggestion of 1 and 2 didn’t go down well! Finally we got onto what happened and when, but again my teacher was too caught up in whether the logistics of the day worked and insisted on telling me that I couldn’t possibly undertake tasks in a particular order because it wasn’t possible – but I just wanted to learn the vocabulary! I also wanted to say that I enjoyed my journey to work each day because I love walking, but again she didn’t understand – no-one here walks if they can help it, and in the end I had to settle for ‘I like my walk to work because it is short’! Needless to say, I didn’t have a second lesson and have since picked up plenty of language lessons from keen students who also love to chat and practice their English.

I have since had a couple of Kinyarwanda lessons with  an ex-student after she finished her final year in my TTC…and we mainly learnt the lyrics of Rwandan RnB tunes… so I’m not so bad at asking ‘Where have you been all my life?’ and ‘I’m walking in your footsteps’ which go down pretty well here!

My travels have also continued to make my journey to work every day a wonderful experience. From blue misty hills to sudden rainstorms where I have had to shelter under a nearby porch with my moto driver, to roads so muddy that are impassable apart from by foot (in sandals). As I arrived back in my village one day, there was the brightest rainbow arching across the valley over Nzige, from one hill to another, like a magical welcoming gateway!

 

I also had a trip up north to Gisenyi where the scenery was stunning and the hills looked like they had been crocheted together from green and brown wool, mist hung between the mountains, and the sky glowed red at night above the volcano.

There have been plenty of opportunities for socialising in my village too. We have 16 KIE interns at our TTC and they are very lovely indeed. Some of them invited me for dinner which was such a special evening and we also had a huge birthday party celebration in our village where we put up scarves and banners and silk sheets to make an outdoor marquee, I entertained guests by introducing my favourite ‘School Christmas Party’ games (the Newspaper game and the Balloon game) – hilarious! We ate and drank and danced through the night, surrounded by banana trees, under the stars. I walked home under the most incredibly bright moonlit sky, remembering to look down occasionally so I didn’t fall down holes or tread on toads and arrived home to a garden full of fireflies.