Package Note

As per Linny's request....the package I have received from Bev and Ron was sent in a USPS Flat Rate box.  It cost roughly $60 to send, left the US on Feb 8th and came to Gitarama, Rwanda on Feb 22nd.  Everything inside the box was declared on the customs list.  Even if you do this, I would also recommend including a note with a list of what you put in the box...you never know when something might go missing.  Again, fellow PCVs have told me this is the quickest a package will arrive.  They are all sent by airmail now, but it never hurts to write "Par Avion/Air Mail" on the box.  My mom is the expert on sending mailing envelopes...but I'm pretty sure the deal is exactly the same, just different price wise.  Hope that helps...I'm going to stop wasting my battery but I'm planning on checking the box again in a couple weekends...we'll see what goodies await!

Thank you ahead of time to everyone who has been awesome and sent me something!

2 Months In

So here I am, two months at site.  Things are feeling pretty good, teaching is, teaching.  Getting around (out of site) is easier but still a pain in the butt, so doesn’t happen that often.  I think the highlight of the past week was springing a Pop Quiz on my students.  Here’s some of the lovely reactions to me saying “Put your notebooks away, take out a clean piece of paper, we are having a quiz”:

-Students: No!
Me: Yes!
Students: NOO!
Me: This quiz is happening whether you want it to or not, put your notes away.”
Students: Teacher…this is not okay

-Students: Teacher, we are not ready!
Me: I know, that is why you are getting a quiz.  To see if you study when I don’t tell you to.
Students: But we do not! You will give us a quiz Monday, we will do well!
Me: No, I will give you a quiz now and we will see how you do.

-One of my students just looks at me and goes…
Student: I will take a zero.
Me: Claude, I know you will have at least one correct answer because you know one answer very well.
Student: No…I will take a zero.

And sometimes my students leave me notes at the end of their homework, tests, quizzes, etc.  Here’s a few from that quiz

“Teacher, I love you so so much, you teaching us very very good.”
”Good Luck Teacher.”
”God loves you to be with me Teacher.” (Not really sure what it means…)

And my personal favorite, written at the bottom of one of the quizzes:
”Sinzi, God help me.” [English Translation: I don’t know, God Help me]

Hahaha, nuggets like that make the grading a little less painful.  Because they still bombed, but ahhh such is life.

The end of the term is coming up…and that means I get to write a final. Or rather, 2 finals.  My S2 final should be fine, we’ve covered plenty but my S1 final…having a hard time figuring out what’s going to be on it.  Mainly because since I’ve gotten my S1 class…we’ve learned one, maybe 2 things.  They really, really know what a characteristic is, and they know the characteristics of living things.  That’s about all the material we’ve covered.  How do I write a final worth 50% of the trimester grade on just those 2 things?!  I have no idea, but like everything else here, I’ll figure it out.

Okay, so good news.  I checked the mail…and there was a package for me!  So, thank you very much to Ron and Bev Jackowitz for their wonderful care package.  And for all of you out there wondering, this round took about 2.5 weeks to get to Rwanda.  After talking to other PCVs who have been here longer, that’s about the quickest it will ever take.  So still plan on it taking a while to get to me.  But, the first package made it to Rwanda safe, sound and I look at it and am like a little kid in a candy shop.

Also have decided that’s it’s coming up on that time to subject my town (and myself) to the debacle of me running.  The whole Rwandan starch based diet, no matter how hard I combat it, having everyone trying to fatten me up, etc. is just not being kind to my body.  And it’s not like I’m horribly lazy, I walk everywhere it’s just I don’t think that’s enough.  So, once the trimester is done and I don’t have to be at school at 7:30 each morning, going out and finding a good running route to make sure that I come back to the States looking relatively the same.

We’ve got out IST training at the end of April, it’ll be in the lakeside town of Kibuye.  This will be the first time our entire Education group has been together since training.  It’ll be really nice to see everyone, swap stories and see how site has been going.  Plus, we get to be on Lake Kivu and explore around there!  So that’s a little vacation to look forward to during my upcoming break.

I think that’s about it for now, I probably won’t update for about a month since I’m not planning on leaving site until IST.  So, don’t get antsy, just be patient.  Think of it this way, the less often I update…the more stories I have when I do!

And here’s Africa…

Many people have been complaining that I haven’t updated my blog in a while…apologies but remember, 1) I’m in Africa and 2) I don’t have electricity at my site.  So, I will only update my blog when I leave my site.  And I haven’t left my site in 3 weeks because, well, I like my site and I like to spend time in my village and hang out with them on the weekends.  And honestly, that’s what I’m here for.  To become part of my village, not just be a visitor for two years, but to be a resident.  And my neighbors, they are convinced that after one year I will automatically be Rwandan and can then vote in the elections (it’s to difficult to explain that’s not quite how it works…).

But what has been going on since my last blog…so I gave my students their midterm.  And when I told them about their midterm, a couple of my classes cheered.  I’m still not sure why they cheered, but they were very excited to be taking a test.  Then they took the test.  And I got to grade it.  Now, I wrote it knowing what parts should really give them difficulty and would challenge their little minds.  But, I did not anticipate the train-wreck that actually happened.  When I was grading and saw a grade of 5/6 out of 15…I was happy.  Yes, it was a disaster.  But, it was a learning experience, for them and me.  They realized that I’m really going to work them hard and they need to know the material better than just memorizing a table.  me, I learned that I really need to write tests earlier, reread them, edit them, fix the English and make sure that my students understand what to do.  The problem came in that they didn’t understand what I wanted them to do, and then they didn’t ask a questions!  Ahh, buhoro buhoro, bazimenya (slowly by slowly, they will learn it).

Another fun, and by fun not really, but not surprising even was the switching of my classes…halfway through the trimester.  Now, instead of 5 S2 Biology classes, we’ve condensed them into 4 classes so that they could make another S1 level class because there were too many students.  So I have 4, S2 level classes with about 40-45 students each and now my S1 level class…with over 50 students.  That’s a LOT of kids, a lot of names, and a lot of patience.  It wouldn’t be so bad, but it’s just a tad frustrating to do this in the middle of the trimester, switch teachers/classes and then I have to pick up where another teacher left off (and by pick up, I unfortunately mean start over).  So, fun times in the Rwandan School System.  But such is life, I just bit my tongue and smiled at my headmaster as he told me that ‘No, it’s really easy to make a new class and here’s how…” [mind you, that wasn’t my question]. So yeah.

This weekend, I went to Nyanza to visit my resource family, which was very nice.  It was nice to get back and visit Mugandamore and stop by Nyanza to pick up some things that I needed.  Then Saturday, another quick trip up to Gitarama because my headmaster was getting married!  So, I made my appearance at the wedding.  But, now back to reality and to umudugudu wanjye (my village) for another fun filled week of teaching.  It’s crazy to believe that the 1st trimester ends at the end of March, then I have language training March 31/April 1 and then all of us Education Group 2 volunteers have another training for a week during the break before 2nd trimester.  Time flies but stands still, it’s very strange.

That’s all for now, hope everyone back in the US is welcoming spring and that things are finally starting to thaw out!